Chapter 3142: Vanity

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Azorheim, Temporal Cave Valley, Temporal Cave No. ES3030

Those young Card Apprentices had plenty of time ahead of them, but they also had a very long road to walk. So, if they wanted to use shortcuts wherever they could, I couldn’t exactly blame them. I would probably do the same in their position.

However, forging their Ego Gems wasn’t one of those shortcuts.

And I intended to make that clear, not just to them, but to the younger generation throughout the New Empire. If I wanted Soul Gems to become the foundation of the Empire’s future cultivation system, simply providing the technique and arrays wasn’t enough. As their Ruler, I had a responsibility to guide them and make sure they understood why I was pushing them toward this path.

With that in mind, I began creating the respective smart Array Formations.

One would assist Card Apprentices in cultivating the Soul Core Condensation Technique, while the other would help them reforge their completed Soul Cores into Soul Gems. The two arrays would work together, but they served entirely different purposes.

I even had Hive Spirit prepare detailed manuals for both techniques.

The manuals didn’t merely explain how to cultivate them. Hive Spirit documented their benefits, the changes they would bring to a Card Apprentice’s body and soul, their long-term advantages, and, most importantly, the difference between simply cultivating a Soul Core and using that Soul Core as an Origin Card.

I wanted them to understand the trade-offs before making their choice.

The manuals also explained how the smart Array Formations would assist them throughout the process. The arrays weren’t meant to replace cultivation. They would guide, monitor, optimize, and correct it, allowing Card Apprentices to make far better use of their time and resources while reducing the risks associated with condensing Soul Cores and reforging them into Soul gems.

Hive Spirit and I had already finalized the designs for both smart Array Formations.

I had even tried to simplify the entire process by combining them into a single step.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

The Soul Core and Soul Gem weren’t two different names for the same thing. They represented two different stages of transformation, and each served a distinct purpose.

The Soul Core had to first synchronize with the Card Apprentice’s body and soul. It needed to become something that belonged to them completely, something that could help grow their physical body alongside their spiritual cultivation rather than merely acting as an external source of power.

Only after that foundation was established could the Soul Core be reforged into a Soul Gem.

The Soul Gem served a different purpose.

It would connect the Card Apprentice’s unified body and soul with the Card World’s Womb on the spiritual plane, establishing a deeper connection with the very source that governed their cultivation system. That connection was what allowed the Soul Gem to serve as the bridge between their personal cultivation and the Card World’s spiritual plane.

Trying to skip either stage would be like trying to build the roof before laying the foundation.

It simply wouldn’t work.

The Soul Core needed to become one with the Card Apprentice first. Only then could it be transformed into a Soul Gem capable of connecting that unified body and soul to the Card World’s Womb.

There was no shortcut around those steps.

And strangely enough, that wasn’t really a problem.

Once both transformations were completed, the Card Apprentice didn’t need to learn some complicated new cultivation system or juggle a dozen different techniques. They could simply continue practicing their Active Soul Control Percentage.

As their control over their soul energy increased, both their spiritual and physical cultivation would advance together.

That was the real beauty of the system.

One technique, one path of cultivation, and both body and soul progressing simultaneously.

The more they cultivated, the stronger their foundation became. The stronger their foundation became, the more efficiently they could control their active soul energy. And as their synchronization with the Soul Gem and the Card World continued to improve through repeated baptism, the ceiling above them would gradually rise as well.

It wasn’t a shortcut.

It was a road designed to let them walk farther.

And I intended to make sure every young Card Apprentice in the New Empire knew exactly where that road could lead.

With that groundwork finished, my preparations for the third batch of Card Apprentices were finally complete. By then, my clones had also finished dealing with the second batch and had already instructed Henricks to drop them off before bringing the third batch into the temporal cave.

The second batch had been practically giddy when they learned that I wasn’t only rebating most of the merits they had spent, but was also giving them a Soul Core Origin Card and helped reforge it into Soul gem origin card. I made sure to explain that they shouldn’t think of it as losing one of their precious Origin Card slots. Instead, they should think of it as gaining a form of lifelong insurance.

For every major realm they successfully broke through after obtaining the Soul Gem, ten times the original reward waiting for them in the form of increased potential and synchronization.

Even that comparison was inadequate.

How could anyone put a price on a synchronization rate that could continue increasing throughout their lifetime?

With a Soul Core and eventually a Soul Gem, an entirely new world of cultivation would open before them. Rules they previously had no talent or affinity for could become accessible to them. Their physical abilities would also no longer be inferior to those of their Dark Race counterparts simply because they were Card Apprentices. Unless someone possessed an exceptionally powerful bloodline, their physical foundation could eventually stand on equal footing with the corresponding Dark Races.

They had come to me because they wanted to increase their synchronization rate.

They were leaving with a path that could allow that synchronization rate to keep increasing for the rest of their lives.

From that perspective, the merits they had spent were almost laughably cheap.

Once the second batch was out of the way, I turned my attention to the fourth project. Based on everything I had handled so far, the logical choice would have been to focus on the Card Apprentices who were preparing to establish their divinity. They were facing an important bottleneck, and helping them at that stage would have the greatest immediate impact on their cultivation.

But I decided against it.

Instead, I chose something far more superficial.

Vanity.

I had noticed that a surprisingly large number of Card Apprentices had spent their hard-earned merits on beautification requests. Some wanted to restore their youthful appearance, others wanted to improve their physical features, and quite a few simply wanted to become more handsome or beautiful.

What surprised me most was the gender distribution.

Most of the requests weren’t from female Card Apprentices.

They were from men.

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