Theron looked toward the sphere of Dark Mana with a controlled heat in his eyes.

He knew that there were several problems with this—namely the fact this was a Dark Mana sphere, so he would only be able to progress one of his Cores so perfectly. That would lead to a huge imbalance in his body.

But with his control over Water Mana, he was confident to the point of arrogance in himself.

If he had the foundation of the Peak of the Dome of Heaven in his body, he bet that he would be able to allow his Water Mana to swiftly catch up.

Even if both didn't reach the pinnacle in the same instant, he bet that cultivating the other to catch up would take a fraction of the time. He would be easily hundreds, thousands of times faster.

It was a common understanding that the higher your cultivation was, the more time it took to break through. But Theron bet he would spend less time in the Dome of Heaven Realm than even Silver Mancy so long as he could take advantage of this sphere of Mana.

Theron suddenly let go of the ledge of ice he was holding onto.

"What are you doing?! It could kill you now!"

Theron didn't need the Nightingale Ancestor Bird to tell him this. He had already known it would rip him apart right now. If he touched that orb before he reached the Quasi Dome of Heaven Realm, he would be effectively forfeiting his own life.

But that wasn't what Theron was looking for.

Now that he knew this sphere of Mana was stable beyond reason, he didn't need to worry about getting close to it, or even looking at what was under it.

It was precisely what was under it that had him intrigued.

The Nightingale Ancestor Bird calmed when it saw that Theron wasn't going to do anything foolish. But it was still confused.

Theron couldn't possibly be expecting to find out anything from the vein system, right? That wasn't something a human was capable of. A beast like it might barely be capable of it if it had been a Primal Beast in its prime. But since its death, it had lost connection to that body long ago.

'A volcano system. This should be it…'

Beneath the sphere of floating Dark Mana there was the open maw of an inactive volcano that had completely frozen over.

Theron hopped into it, the ice making way in his path.

With all of the Dome of Heaven Mana that should have been on the planet concentrated here, the ice here wasn't too far beyond Theron's ability to manipulate.

Theron was no Ice Mancer, but he hadn't been a Wood Mancer either when he countered and moved it out of his way. All he needed to do was focus on the Water Mana he could sense and commune with [Entangling Blood Vein Pupils] to push it all out of his way.

It was an easy, nice, and simple task.

Soon, Theron found himself falling another great distance, but this time he didn't stop himself, even as he felt the temperature steadily beginning to rise.

BANG.

He landed heavily on the ground, his eyes shimmering with light.

'Now, let's begin.'

…

Theron ran down one tunnel after another, mapping it all out in his head. He measured distance, thickness, and width, feeling the flow of Mana through the channels without the slightest hint of a break.

But this time, the effort his mind was undergoing was fractions of what it had been before. All he was doing was memorizing routes, something that came as easy as breathing to him.

It took him a full day, but the moment he felt he reached corners of the pathway where the flow of Mana was no longer as magical, he knew he had come to the end of it.

He returned to the location of the sphere of Dark Mana, his eyes flickering with thoughts.

By this point, the Nightingale Ancestor Bird had long fallen into silence. It had no idea what Theron was doing, but it also wasn't interested. It felt like he was wasting his time.

Haven Planets were definitely special because the secret of their vein patterns was the equivalent of studying the Meridians of ancient creatures yet birthed to the world or long since passed.

But if studying this was enough to lead to some shocking breakthrough, then more people would just dissect cultivators in hopes of learning something from their Meridians.

Theron, though, didn't seem so easily convinced.

Taking a seat at the center of the cooled volcano depths, the sphere of Dark Mana was right above Theron's head.

At the moment, he could feel the unique flow of Mana more clearly than ever before, and as his Third Eye spread out, he could map out the tunnels in his mind, mapping out the path they took to leave him and return to him.

It was like he was seeing the vein patterns of lotuses painted out for him, an inky brush stretching across time and space.

Theron spent a full day there, but as though he was on the verge of a sneeze that refused to come, he was forced to open his eyes again, his eyes looking out into the distance.

He had hoped this would be enough to gain a Dark Resonance, but was he overthinking it? Was it so difficult? How had he even managed to get his Water Resonance again?

He was running out of time. It had been two weeks to the departure date for the gathering when he left, and now he was approaching just a single week left. At this pace, there was no way he would have a sudden breakthrough in the time remaining.

Theron sat there blankly for a long while.

The Resonance here might just be too high level for him to grasp. After all, it was wielding and controlling Dome of Heaven Mana. But…

He didn't want to just give up.

'… What am I missing…?'

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