1648 Yang
Alex was better prepared for the 2nd sunrise that was to come.
The crowd around him was different now, with people leaving and new people coming to visit the peak. Aside from his people, few were the same ones from yesterday.
Not that he had half a mind to memorize who they were.
As the sunlight glittered behind the edges of the land far in the east, Alex took a deep breath and immediately stopped when he realized what he was doing. He was so used to breathing in and out to calm himself that he ended up doing so here as well.
This time around, he would just have to do it without that.
A flow of his spiritual energy wrapped itself around his spiritual sea. He had already put away his Blood God's Manual to a corner of his Soul Space that was far beyond the point where the Yang could touch it.
His Soul Space would be opened just around the Nine Yang Divine Tree and hopefully, that would help it grow a bit. The World Tree wouldn't do too badly to get some sunlight either.
As for his Dantian, there was no point in blocking it out. He was not sure if he could even do it.
As the first glints of light shined through the horizon, and in the next instance, the intense sunlight brought forth another wave of Yang that only lasted 3 seconds.
But those 3 seconds were once more enough for Alex to be left gasping once more.
The feeling of shock wasn't as great as the last time, but it was still intense, and Alex still hadn't gotten used to it.
He quickly controlled himself, getting into a cross-legged position where he closed his eyes and concentrated on the intense raging Yang that burned within him.
Once again, he felt the potent Yang and sent his mind into it, searching for knowledge hidden within its brilliance. A distant warning from Godslayer made him keep part of his attention active to look for problems, but the majority of his mind was lost in searching for the meaning behind Yang itself.
Finding answers now was so much easier than at any other time.
One after another, understanding of Yang poured into Alex.
Yang was light. Yang was life. Yang was vitality.
Yang was heat and it was radiance.
It was the other side of the coin to Yin which he already understood. Understanding Yin should have made it harder to understand Yang, but it somehow helped Alex instead.
Having Yang and Yin intertwine in his body forever left him with an understanding that many didn't. On top of that, having a body that was most supremely related to Yang of all things helped more than he could ever credit it for.
Time slipped by Alex and he became lost in his own search for knowledge. A part of him focused on blocking Yang from entering his Spiritual Sea, but that was the bare minimum it was doing.
He wasn't even sure what was happening in the Soul space. He didn't have the time or luxury to check. He could only hope whatever was happening inside was good. The only thing to worry about there was his book after all.
Alex was taken out of his concentration for the first time when a hit of intense Yang made him stumble back like a scorching sun burning him awake. He hadn't realized that night had come and gone, and the sun had come up again.
He had unknowingly gotten used to the returning Yin too, so when it disappeared once again, it left him surprised.
In a way, it was good that he had been brought out of his trance. He was so close now and he believed he could do it in one single go.
Alex brought out a pill and quickly ate it before returning to his medication so as to not lose the train of thought he had.
Falling back into a trance was easy when one ate the Dao pill. It was even easier since he truly was on the verge of learning everything he could.
Only 3 hours passed since sunrise, and everyone that still remained atop the peak was suddenly alerted when they sensed the Worldly laws. Everyone looked at Alex, realizing it was him, but what surprised them was something else.
Whenever someone tried to learn a Dao, the World Laws descended from the heavens. But this time around, they didn't descend at all. They simply… appeared around them.
It was almost as if they were already in the heavens.
Thousands of different aura coalesced around the people, each one looking surprised. They tried to peer into the aura, trying to see what they were, but every single one of the aura contained mysteries of the world and an answer they couldn't find so easily.
The Worldly laws threatened them to not dare do it again. Or at least that was the feeling everyone got when they tried to learn from it.
It was similar to interfering with someone else's progress in something the Heavens were strict upon, and thus disturbing the heavens wasn't allowed here.
Everyone stood silent where they were, letting the worldly laws concentrate on Alex. They could feel one aura stronger than any other, the aura that they had felt just this morning when the sun came up.
The aura of Yang.
People gasped in surprise when they realized what was happening. Alex was trying to learn the Dao of Yang.
Would he be successful? Would he suffer a failure? People were curious and the inability to be sure pained them.
Yang wasn't like the other elements. Alongside Yin, the two were greater elements that were harder to find and harder to learn about. As such, seeing how Alex was trying to acquire it made them extremely shocked and curious.
With how great of a chance he had been given, Alex wasted no time. He learned everything he could, understanding Yang to its essence, and understanding its fundamentals.
When he opened his eyes an hour later, he had successfully learned the Dao of Yang.
The Worldly Daos remained around him when he opened his eyes, so they were his to study. Even as they receded, he looked through them and found something that he thought he could learn.
But it was difficult to say what it was. It felt like something he was close to now, but the Dao didn't come. Even bits of understanding didn't come by the the Worldly laws simply dissipated into the atmosphere.
They were always there and never there at the same time.
He opened up his lungs and paused. Once again, there was no air. He had to remember. He wasn't fully attentive to the present yet.
He looked at the sky where the sun was a good way up the sky, although noon was still a good few hours away. He calmed himself and looked at the world in front of him.
The brilliant blue ocean and lands of brown and green gave a serenity to the scene that would be hard to find anywhere.
Alex stopped blocking his spiritual sea and let out his spiritual sense. When he did, he realized that the feeling he had felt while he was coming up the mountain had become clearer.
