Ray's eyebrows furrowed, 'Profanity? What is that?' Somehow he felt like he had made a huge mistake by reading just the beginning yet he didn't stop. He couldn't.
It read:
[Many rise through the Tiers to ascend… It's easier climbing down stairs than up.]
He read the line over and over again, "What? None of this makes sense. What the hell do stairs have to do with cultivation?"
[We cultivate our cores by absorbing energy similar to it from our environment. The path of Profanity is unique. Draw your energy from the darkness surrounding your cores… the energy is waiting, reaching out. All you have to do is absorb it.]
Ray stared at the page. Perhaps he was just as crazy attempting such a thing.
He closed his eyes and steadied his breathing. The twin cores came into view, a little brighter than when he had poisoned them but still far from being ideal.
Pushing aside the thought, he looked behind the cores, to the darkness around and between them.
'When I started learning to cultivate, we were told the breathing method but nothing was mentioned about the darkness. It was just something everyone saw. Yet S.L. claims that this could be a source of fuel?'
Logically, it made no sense. Why would something so convenient and non-element dependent be undiscovered for so long?
'Except it wasn't!' Ray's mind drifted to the article on S.L. 'He has figured this out and has been silenced. How many more people have also fallen to secrets?'
He shook the thought aside and placed his focus on the stagnant darkness. Except it wasn't as stagnant as he had thought.
Behind the bright glow of his cores, it truly appeared to be still but now that Ray paid attention, he noticed the faint ripples that traveled through it.
It was almost as though it were alive. Ray shuddered slightly, 'This is what he said I should absorb?'
Ray inhaled deeply—then stopped.
'Wait. Wait wait wait.' He opened his eyes. The journal sat in his lap. S.L.'s words stared back at him.
'This killed him. This got him murdered. And I'm just going to—' But the alternative was already waiting in his memory. Fluid boy's smirk. The water sphere. The laughter.
Ray closed his eyes again, defiance etched into his face, 'If I don't try, I'm dead anyway.'
He let out his breath in three short bursts.
His cores tried to react but he kept his focus on the darkness.
Its nearly flat surface grew tendrils as he continued his breathing technique. The tendrils grew out and towards his cores as if sensing his desire for it.
This had never happened before while cultivating so it seemed pretty clear that the darkness required will and attention.
The tendrils extended to both cores but before they could make contact, Ray's blue core pulsed slightly — much against his will — and the tendrils all surged to the blue core, wrapping around it.
'Wait, what?'
The tendrils stabbed into the core and Ray fell to the floor in pain.
White-hot pain burned through his core and his focus broke. He opened his eyes and stared at the bright ceiling lights in pain and was unable to move.
A loud whistling crack resounded within him and his already pale face became paler. He had only learnt of the sound from research. His core had shattered.
The pain doubled and he lost himself in the throes of pain and twitching.
Soon, the burn calmed and Ray immediately checked his solar plexus. Everything was almost the same. Almost.
Where his blue core had been was a spherical mass of tendrils smoothing themselves over. Faint blue shards floated through the emptiness and the tendrils grabbed them, absorbing them upon contact.
Ray's eyes flew open, "What? WHAT?! WHAT?!!!"
He reached for the journal, rushing through the pages for anything that would tell him what had just happened.
Pages upon pages talked about nothing except data on beasts and different cultivation techniques.
The only useful information was on how to cultivate his core after the initial technique:
[This is the epitome of beauty and nature. Let it feed.]
Ray felt himself lose all strength. What had he gotten himself into?
He closed his eyes and his cores appeared.
The dark tendrils had successfully formed a smooth, eerie core while his red core burned with a car brighter glow.
Tendrils surged out of the dark core, reaching for his red one but at the moment of contact, the tendrils burned.
The dark core let out a bone-chilling screech and retracted its tentacles.
"That hurt, you know?" A deep voice asked Ray and the latter's eyes flew open.
Sitting on his couch staring at him was… him?
The person opposite him was exactly like him except for his eyes which were pure onyx.
"What the hell is going on? Did I die? Did I lose my mind after my core?" So distraught, he didn't realize he was speaking aloud.
Onyx leaned forward, a small smile on his face, "As far as I know, you aren't mad. Though if I were the projection of a mental breakdown, I wouldn't tell you. So consider that."
Ray didn't pay him any mind, "I knew that I'd lose my shit but not this soon!! I mean seeing myself?"
Onyx scoffed and stood, walking to Ray in quick strides, "I am meant to appear as the person you trust the most. It's not my fault you only trust yourself."
He stopped just short of Ray, "That's just sad, you know? In case no one told you, you're sad."
Onyx's smile fell, "Now, if you don't mind, give me your core."
Then the dark core from within his solar plexus reacted.