Soren settled deeper in the lotus position, his spine straightening, his breathing slowing to a deliberate rhythm.
He then closed his eyes and turned his awareness inward.
Deep within the vast ocean of knowledge that the Ice Emperor's Legacy had dumped into his consciousness, one section burned brighter than the rest.
'Glacial Emperor Scripture.'
As the foundational framework upon which every other aspect of the legacy was built, this primary cultivation technique demanded his focus, and the moment he locked his concentration onto it, the vast repository of knowledge began to unfold within his mind.
'Glacial Emperor Scripture... Foundation Stage.'
Slowly, complex diagrams appeared in his consciousness. These pathways of light traced through a human silhouette, showing exactly where mana should flow, which meridians to open first, and which nodes require structural strengthening. Soren studied them intently, focusing his mind to fully comprehend and internalize every intricate detail of the technique.
The technique consisted of three stages, with the first being the Foundation Stage.
It had a single, clear purpose: establish a pure ice-aspected Core through a process called Frozen Refinement.
The underlying concept was elegant in its inherent brutality.
The practitioner had to absorb raw mana from the surrounding environment, draw it into the physical vessel, and guide it through specific pathways where it would be converted into usable energy. Then, rather than simply storing the gathered power, the practitioner had to freeze it directly within the core.
This freezing mechanism served a dual purpose, compressing the mana to maximize capacity while simultaneously shattering the chaotic fragments, impurities, and foreign essences that typically contaminated normal cultivation. Once those flawed elements dissolved and exited the body, only the purest essence remained to crystallize into a flawless foundation.
'Alright.' Soren exhaled slowly. 'First step: sense the Mana.'
He focused on the air around him.
At first, his perception encountered nothing but darkness and the sound of his own heartbeat. Soon, a faint shimmer appeared at the very edge of his awareness, resembling heat waves rising from a distant road, yet radiating an unmistakable sub-zero chill. Invisible threads of energy drifted lazily through the room, passing effortlessly through the walls and everything in their path.
'So... This is Mana.'
Soren thought in awe.
It was the raw energy of the world itself, after all.
'I... I can actually sense it now...'
Before awakening, this would have been impossible. But now, with his newly formed Core acting as a kind of spiritual organ, he could finally perceive what had always been there.
Soren reached out with his awareness, trying to grasp one of those threads.
It slipped away.
He tried again, and again, and again.
Still nothing.
The Mana drifted past him like smoke, untouchable, refusing to respond.
'...This is harder than I thought.'
The knowledge in his mind showed him how it should work, but knowing and doing were entirely different things.
It was like reading a manual on how to swim and then being thrown into the ocean.
Soren gritted his teeth and tried a different approach.
Instead of grabbing, he visualized his Core as a well. A deep, empty well that naturally pulled things toward it. He imagined the Mana drifting down, drawn by gravity, by inevitability.
Time passed.
Slowly, one thread shifted slightly, but just enough to move toward him instead of past him.
'There!'
Soren focused harder, maintaining the visualization. The thread drifted closer. Closer and closer. Until it touched the surface of his awareness-
And dissolved.
"..."
Soren's eye twitched.
He'd lost it at the last moment. His concentration had wavered for just a split second, and the Mana had scattered like mist.
'...Again!'
He didn't give up and repeated the process.
Again and again.
Finally, the mana entered his body.
For a brief moment, Soren felt it, a cool sensation spreading through his chest, formless and wild. Then it dissipated, scattering into nothing.
'Damn it.' Soren cursed inwardly in frustration.
But at least he was improving.
He recalled the info from the Scripture again.
'...Alright, one more time.'
He focused on his crown and visualized a gate opening there, allowing Mana to flow inward.
A thread drifted near.
He guided it gently and carefully. It entered.
This time, instead of scattering, he followed the pathway diagram in his mind. Down through his head, along his spine, branching through smaller channels.
The Mana began to change as it moved, losing its formlessness, gaining structure, and becoming denser.
By the time it reached his Core, it wasn't raw and wild anymore.
It was pure Mana.
His Mana.
'Hehe...'
The sensation was intoxicating, like drinking ice-cold water after days in the desert. His Core, which had felt empty and dormant, suddenly pulsated with life.
'It worked!'
But the moment of triumph was brief.
The tiny wisp of Mana he'd just created and absorbed was impure. So he quickly activated the next and final step of the Frozen Refinement.
He willed the temperature within the Core to drop.
The Mana responded, crystallizing, hardening. The cold intensified, compressing the energy tighter and tighter until-
Crack.
The impurities shattered like brittle glass and dissolved into nothing.
What remained was a single, flawless thread of pure mana.
Soren's eyes snapped open briefly, then closed again.
'That's it. That's how it works!'
The process was clear now.
He settled back into focus, this time with newfound confidence.
The room around him faded. Time lost its meaning. There was only the rhythm: absorb, guide, convert, freeze, refine.
One thread became two. Two became five. Five became ten.
Each cycle became slightly easier. His control improved. The pathways began to widen, accommodating the flow more smoothly. His Core, which had been barely a flicker, started to glow with steady, cold light.
And after an hour or so, something shifted.
Eventually, the initial clumsiness vanished as his intuition kicked in, seamlessly filling the interpretative gaps left by his inherited knowledge. He stopped following the scriptural diagrams step by step, choosing instead to adapt the mechanics to suit his own anatomical rhythm and flow.
By drawing the environmental energy in at an accelerated pace and refining the raw energy with optimal efficiency, he caused his core to fill layer by layer, mirroring the steady formation of thick ice across a winter lake. Just like that, Soren lost himself entirely within the meditative process, completely detached from the passage of time.
As hours passed and the night deepened, his physical vessel remained perfectly still while a profound cellular transformation reshaped his entire existence.
When the first rays of the morning sun finally pierced the window frame, Soren returned to full consciousness, his eyes snapping open and shining with a brilliant light.
"I... I've broken through!"