The vast power of Permanence could be felt with startling clarity by Sylvia, even through the veil of memory.
Especially when that boundless sea began to actively resonate with Yubie's Cloudhymn Art.
The terrifying, world-overturning force made Sylvia's heart tremble within the immersive recollection.
Was this Yubie at this moment, unleashing the full might of a High Elder?
Hard to say.
Still, even this indirect glimpse allowed Sylvia to sense a fraction of its imposing grandeur.
What mattered more was the exquisite manipulation and application of Permanence itself.
In this aspect, Sylvia fell short.
The question was, once this memory was encapsulated into a Light Cone, how much of that power could she actually wield?
Fortunately, this memory contained numerous imprints of Cloudhymn spells.
The Light Cone provided by Herta, after Sylvia's repairs, did indeed offer a substantial amount of Permanence energy, but it lacked any methods for its practical application.
Sylvia's current approach was basically to gather the power, charge forward, and hack away—done.
Not a shred of finesse.
But now things were different.
Regardless of how powerful this new Light Cone ultimately turned out, the Cloudhymn Art memories contained within it alone would make the effort worthwhile for Sylvia.
Of course, the most suitable for her would probably be the Zhuming High Elder, Ardens Regia.
But where would the Luofu have detailed records of a Zhuming High Elder? And making a special trip to the Xianzhou Zhuming just for that…
Seemed a bit excessive.
She'd make do. Mastering one method often opened the path to many others.
It was just the difference between controlling water and controlling fire. The core lay in the techniques for manipulating Permanence itself.
Sylvia didn't immediately withdraw from the memory bubble.
Instead, she watched the entire process—from High Elder Yubie, guiding the Scalegorge Waters into the delve, to sealing the roots of the Ambrosial Arbor.
The memories from the several photos merged, rendering this segment remarkably detailed and vivid.
Particularly the scenes of Yubie and the hundreds of Vidyadhara performing Cloudhymn Arts.
After all, every photo was taken during the casting.
Emerging from the memory, Sylvia cradled the seemingly ordinary memory bubble in her hands.
She activated her second skill:
[Light Cone Imprint Technology (One-Click Install Version)]
No need for conscious effort. Just selecting 'initiate' triggered the automatic deconstruction, encapsulation, and final creation of the Light Cone.
The memory bubble gradually flattened. Transparent yet dense crystalline material was slowly refined out.
All the memories ultimately coalesced into a highly representative image—Imbibitor Lunae Yubie casting a Cloudhymn Art.
Sylvia watched the Light Cone of the Vidyadhara High Elder drift down into her palm.
She then pulled out the previous Permanence Light Cone.
Holding one in each hand, she focused, sensing them. For some reason, an inexplicable conflict arose when attempting to access the memories within both simultaneously.
In plain terms, the two Light Cones couldn't be used at the same time.
Who knew what kind of firewall the Garden of Recollection's Light Cone technology had built in.
She could ask Black Swan about it if she got the chance.
Sylvia mentally noted the issue for now. Switching the active Light Cone to the High Elder's, she felt the boost of Permanence was clearly less potent than the other.
But this Light Cone's advantage lay in its remarkably detailed Cloudhymn Arts.
Knowledge of these spells flooded Sylvia's mind.
Furthermore, information regarding the Scalegorge Waterscape seal was also presented to her with considerable completeness.
This finally liberated Sylvia from her 'brute force and hope' barbarian style.
Glancing at the water glass on the tea table, Sylvia crooked a finger slightly. The water within transformed into a vivid, lifelike water dragon.
It nimbly flew out of the glass, coiling and dancing through the air.
"So this is spellcraft… The focus is on the 'art,' the technique of wielding power. It's exactly what I lack most right now."
Sylvia nodded in satisfaction.
With a wave of her finger, she guided the water dragon back into the glass. Raising her left hand, she conjured a ball of flame.
She then attempted to apply the principles of Cloudhymn Art to manipulate the flame into similarly forming a fire dragon.
Alas, the flames only barely coalesced into a thin line of fire before completely collapsing, dispersing into sparks that vanished in the air.
"Hmm… A bit of incompatibility. But the underlying principles share common ground. With proper adjustments, it shouldn't be limited to just water and clouds."
Seeing her hypothesis had feasibility, Sylvia's interest was thoroughly piqued.
Plus, considering recent events, it should be about time for the Express crew to have their clash with Kafka.
Then Kafka gets captured and sent to the Divination Commission for a fortune-telling session.
Logically, that shouldn't involve her.
Thus, Sylvia decided to stay in for the time being.
She planned to practice Cloudhymn Arts alone in her room, leveraging the Light Cone's power.
While the true strength of a High Elder in this era—where the Aeon of Permanence themselves was who-knows-where—was hard to evaluate and compare squarely with an Emanator…
As a technique worthy of careful study and contemplation by each generation of High Elders, and employed as their signature method, it naturally possessed its own profundities.
Path energy could be used in all sorts of ways; the stuff was practically universal and abstract.
But wielding it ultimately came down to individual skill and understanding.
Sylvia's swordsmanship was learned from Acheron, then picked up some bits from Firefly, jumbled together into something decent.
But it couldn't be called particularly profound.
And neither of those two used Permanence energy anyway.
Each Path represented a different concept. Sure, you could channel it into a weapon and just start smashing things—it'd work.
But they still differed at their fundamental logic.
For refined application, they naturally manifested in distinct forms.
As for swordsmanship, directly grafting those styles onto Permanence would work, but it would inevitably feel somewhat off.
After all, Acheron's swordsmanship was tailored for Nihility, and Firefly's… leaned more towards Propagation, perhaps?
Sylvia wasn't entirely sure which Path Firefly walked.
But it was definitely worlds apart from Permanence.
The pervasive 'Nihility' flavor in Acheron's swordplay, for instance, was something Sylvia couldn't replicate.
Cloudhymn Art, however, was clearly a technique specialized for the Path of Permanence.
Whether its form was water or fire was secondary; what mattered was 'Permanence' itself.
Just then, her phone buzzed with a new message.
Sylvia took it out and saw it was from Stelle:
[Stelle: Hey hey hey? Can you hear me—]
[Sylvia: ?]
[Sylvia: What's up?]
[Stelle: Oh, nothing much. Just testing the Xianzhou signal.]
[Stelle: Couldn't send a message to Dan Heng just now, but yours went through no problem.]
"Ah, right, that part…"
Sylvia stroked her chin, searching her memory. Yeah, that did happen.
Silver Wolf intercepted the signal, deliberately preventing Dan Heng from meeting up with the rest of the Express crew, right?
[Stelle: Weird. Still can't reach Dan Heng, but yours is totally fine, Sylvia.]
[Sylvia: Maybe he's gone somewhere with no signal.]
[Stelle: I'll go ask Himeko about it.]
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
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If you guys wanna check it out.