Chapter 112 - Sacred Flame

"Martial artists also use runes?"

Shi Chen started to explain upon hearing Layton's question, "Although the 3 big civilizations have different practice systems they are also intertwined and connected take me for example, my practice is special and involves the use of runes but I am still a martial artist, there are countless other practice systems like mine which involve the knowledge or resources of the practice system of other civilizations."

As he said so he let go of himself, his exuberant vitality made the temperature of the room rapidly rise, Layton could perceive the monstrous vitality hidden under his skin, and with his perception, Layton found that Shi Chen's blood bones and skin were filled with minuscule runes that seemed to temper and nourish his body at all times, although these runes were not complete they were mostly a patch up of different incomplete runes that Shi Chen had somehow inscribed on his body and using the body's natural adaptive nature to evolve those incomplete random runes, remove the ones harmful to him and duplicate the advantageous ones smelting them making them part of his being and using them to temper his origin.

No, it wasn't that his body was filled with runes, only his blood was littered with different basic runes, runes like the one which was inscribed in a wizard soul was made of a combination of basic universal runes, that is runes that were universal and applicable with the same meaning in all planes that supported their existence, for example, Layton's haki rune was composed of basic runes of will, soul and some other basic runes.

Shi Chen's body was filled with these basic runes that covered almost all aspects beneficial to the body, looking closer Layton understood that it was only his blood that really had these basic runes inscribed the rest of his body however were filled with projections of these runes, illusory manifestation occurring because of the change of his blood and the ascension of his origin, a byproduct of the body's natural attempt at evolution due to the changes brought about by his blood.

The phenomenon of the illusory existence of the runes gave Layton an idea and he finally understood why his intuition told him he could gain some unexpected benefits.

Looking at Shi Chen, Layton knew he was already on the edge of promotion but was probably still looking for a way to perfectly promote himself to legend and it just happened that Layton remembered some knowledge which he gained from his other self that would apply to Shi Chen.

The way to judge if an individual was already on the edge of promotion to a legendary stage was a little bit blurry, the practitioner itself could understand when he had reached the limit of the stage but it was hard for an outsider to accurately perceive this, the reason Layton was so sure Shi Chen was on the edge of promotion having reached the limit of the first stage lied in the name of the first stage of practice "Extraordinary"

The first stage of practice although seemingly simple was not, the extraordinary stage is the stage where a creature departs from being ordinary to extraordinary different ways of practice produced different ways of expression of this phenomenon, for example, Layton although he looked like a normal human the strength and quality of his soul was vastly different from mortals and this had already affected his body and physical fitness coupled with the close connection of his soul and body all aspects of his being were already strengthened to the limit.

When one reached the extreme of the stage 1 practice could the individual be worthy of the name extraordinary, Shi Chen's body was already changed to the limit and the occurrence of the special phenomenon of his whole body filled with runes as a result of his practice regardless of whether the runes were illusory or not was a testament to the fact that he had indeed truly arrived at the limit of the extraordinary stage.

The knowledge Layton remembered was the knowledge about igniting the flame, the knowledge concerning how the other-self was able to ignite his rune turning it into a flame in his mind sea, Layton had been in school city for a while and understood how rare this phenomenon was, although deity level practitioner can easily ignite their soul creating the so called sacred flame but it was very rare for this to be done at a lower stage especially without any auxiliary resources required.

"Since you use runes aren't you basically a wizard?" Layton asked as soon as Shi Chen stopped displaying his body.

"The use of runes doesn't make me a wizard even the science federation at times makes use of runes. I use to temper my flesh and blood fading my mortal fetus as long I don't inscribe a rune in my soul and use it as the core of my cultivation I am not considered a wizard." Layton who heard Shi Chen's reply was lost in thought, Shi Chen's words made Layton give birth to a vague idea about the choice of his second rune.

"it's very rare to have a wizard champion understand such an intent, especially one such as yours which can serve as a tempering and honing effect increasing the chance of the birth of an intent.

From what I can see it's also possible that once someone understands Your type of intent it should be possible to further sublimate it enabling someone to follow a special path especially for those who focus on weapons, once they understand something similar to your intent and sublimate it breaking through to legend they can create what is known an absolute field, a field which suppresses all extraordinary power in the environment, making the extraordinary power in the environment of the field lazy and hard to move." Shi Chen stated breaking Layton's train of thought.

"The possibility is very small isn't it." Layton had heard rumours of such an intent and field one which was able to suppress the activity of supernatural activity in its area but that type of field was very rarely achieved and sometimes not very effective.

"Yes, but there is no shortage of people in the world who aren't afraid to gamble after all there are basically no side effects except spending some money."

Upon hearing Shi Chen's words Layton felt this was the best time to try and sell to the martial artist the knowledge about igniting the flame "Speaking of, I have something I think you will be interested in." Layton said as he sent a beam of information to Shi Chen.        Gazing at the information sent to his mind Shi Chen could view the picture of a sacred flame upon seeing the picture he lost most of his interest but as he looked closer he finally noticed a difference.

Shi Chen had already vaguely noticed what he needed in order to prepare for his breakthrough to legend and a sacred flame was on top of his list, he had been looking for a suitable type that would fit his needs but all the ones he found were not too his liking they either required rare resources, possessed properties that would cause some changes to his mind or required the help of some higher-level practitioner's in order for the flame to be created.

When Shi Chen looked closer at the information displayed he felt truly shocked, there seemed to be a difference in the ignition material, it was not any foreign material but it seemed that the ignition material was a rune.