A week had passed since Kyle awakened his spiritual root.

He had spent most of each day in the grand library, working to devise a cultivation method tailored to this blessed body and its utterly unique constitution.

Its name was the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method—a method for cultivating his chaotically jumbled talents into a world.

It was no easy task. In his previous life, the Sword Demon had loved swinging a sword and excelled at it, but he had never done much studying. He was confident in his ability to kill things, but far less so when it came to creating something new.

Still, all of this was necessary to wield his sword better.

In truth, he did not need to create a new cultivation method. He could simply learn one excellent method, like the other martial artists of this era. Once he mastered it, he could move on to a more advanced one, then another after mastering that.

Kyle clearly remembered his days as the Sword Demon. Recovering the martial prowess he had possessed at his peak? That would be easy, too. He only needed to accumulate mana like everyone else and swing his sword as he remembered.

But that would be such a waste, and no fun at all. Kyle did not know everything about this world, but he knew reincarnation was uncommon. No, beyond uncommon—it belonged among the things that should have been impossible.

Yet he had undergone that impossible reincarnation with all his memories intact. And he had been born not into an ordinary household, but as a pureblood of the martial house acclaimed as the greatest on the continent. Everywhere he looked, powerful people abounded. If he proved himself worthy, he could receive rare cultivation manuals, sword arts, and even elixirs.

With such absurdly favorable circumstances, was he to practice a single cultivation manual like everyone else and swing his sword just as he had in his previous life? That would be more than a waste. It would be appalling. And it was not merely his circumstances that were excellent—his body's innate talents were exceptional, too.

'Come to think of it...'

Kyle folded his arms, considering the various cultivation manuals spread open on his desk.

'I was never once the strongest swordsman on the continent in my previous life.'

The Sword Demon's name had been renowned, but he had never been hailed as the strongest. Even Ruin Alastor, the man who ended his life, had not been the continent's strongest.

Thirst.

He was thirsty. Kyle sipped the tea on his desk, but the thirst did not fade. He knew exactly what it was.

The same thirst he had felt while watching a blazing campfire at dawn, when he decided to step down as commander of the Crow Mercenaries and throw himself onto the battlefield with nothing but a sword.

'A miracle let me reincarnate, and I was born into this wonderful family with exceptional talent to boot. Doing exactly what I did in my last life would be a waste.'

SLURP.

Though tea could not quench this thirst, Kyle took another sip. This was no ordinary tea. Brewed from spiritual herbs, it cleared his head and sharpened his thinking. It was pleasantly sweet, too.

'Let's make becoming the strongest on the continent my goal for this life.'

Not merely strong, but possessed of such absolute martial might that no one would even dare point a sword at him. A level that surpassed even Ruin Alastor, who had ended the Dark Age five hundred years ago—and the Sword Demon's life.

Various limitations had kept that realm beyond his reach in his previous life, but this life was different. Every necessary condition was perfectly in place. If he still ended up as just another reasonably skilled fighter, it would be a sin.

'The foundation itself has to be different.'

Following a path others had paved would not let him overtake them. He had to walk a path no one else had taken—a path they could not have taken.

A spiritual root in which everything mingled, capable of becoming anything. It was a blessing, but mishandled, it could become a curse. One mistake could leave him unable to master even a single element, with conflicting energies damaging his body, or turn everything into an indistinct mishmash.

'Mix them properly. Harmonize the ingredients instead of ruining them. Make it fit my body perfectly, able to change as needed, without limits.'

Spiritual roots possessed the attributes of nature: wind, earth, fire, lightning, water, ice, and so on. They specialized in the mana dwelling within the natural elements that made up the world.

Kyle returned his attention to the manuals. The natural elements composing the world could nourish or oppose one another. To complete the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method, he needed to extract only the advantages from countless cultivation manuals and blend them well.

It was not even simple to describe, let alone reproduce within a human body. Attempting it was madness. The principles governing this vast world had a structure far beyond human comprehension.

Yet the prospect of attempting the impossible filled Kyle with delight rather than helplessness.

His soul was that of the Sword Demon, who had already reached lofty heights once before. He knew more than enough about controlling mana and circulating it through the body.

'And I have the talent to attempt the impossible.'

He focused not only on his spiritual root, but on his talent with spirits. Spirits were living natural mana itself. If he used spirits as filters for each element, he could take elemental mana into his body without having to refine each type individually.

He had first conceived of the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method when he began the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art. Over this past week of devouring various cultivation manuals, that vague concept had acquired a blueprint.

Though the approach was somewhat crude.

After drinking his sweet tea and putting his brain to work, Kyle rose and entered the grand library's cultivation chamber.

He sat in the center and tapped the thunder crystal pendant around his neck. With a crackle and a tiny spark, Jorm peeked out of it.

["Master? You called me?"]

Kyle rested his chin on his hand and stared at Jorm for a moment before replying to the question with one of his own.

"Do you have to be a lightning spirit?"

["Master. I don't know what you mean. I was born from lightning energy. I'm a lightning spirit."]

"Spirits are mana-based life-forms, aren't they?"

Kyle narrowed his eyes at Jorm.

"Just because you were born from lightning energy, does that mean you have to spend your whole life as a lightning spirit?"

["...?"]

Jorm blinked in utter incomprehension. Having only recently been born, the little creature's intelligence was still limited.

"If people eat a lot, they get fat like pigs."

["Yeah..."]

"If they don't eat enough, they get scrawny."

["You're not going to feed me?"]

"Your master's not done talking. Keep listening. If I feed you mana other than lightning energy—say, wind mana—what happens to you?"

["Tastes bad... Don't want to eat it..."]

"Then what if I feed you plain mana instead of lightning energy?"

["That, I can eat."]

"Then let's have you eat plenty from now on."

Kyle grinned.

He would take mana into his body through his spiritual root. Rather than convert it into lightning mana, he would refine it into mana bearing the properties of his spiritual root of chaos, then feed it to Jorm.

That way, he would raise Jorm into something other than a mere lightning spirit. If Kyle's spiritual root was chaos, capable of becoming anything, perhaps Jorm, raised on that mana, could also transcend the boundaries of a lightning spirit.

"And you. You're going to live somewhere else from now on. Not in here."

["Where?"]

Jorm tilted his head.

Having learned about spirit arts from Arian, Kyle knew where spirits lived.

Low-ranking spirits, such as infant and lesser spirits, dwelled in ordinary natural surroundings. Higher-ranking spirits—those whose very existence could be considered a natural disaster—usually lived in their own world, the spirit realm, or in exceptional environments such as volcanic regions or the southern Valley of Myriad Thunders, where lightning struck every day.

Jorm could curl up inside the thunder crystal now because he was an infant spirit, but once he grew larger, he would have to remain in the spirit realm whenever he was not summoned.

"Here."

THUMP.

Kyle tapped his chest with his fist.

["Here?"]

Jorm stared at Kyle's chest with wide eyes.

"Yeah. Inside my body."

Kyle spoke calmly.

"Use my middle energy center as your home."

Jorm went blank for a moment, then began wagging his tail furiously. A spirit entering its contractor's body? In spirit arts, that was practically taboo. A spirit's energy could destroy a human body, while a human's energy could contaminate a spirit. Even an unintelligent infant spirit like Jorm knew that instinctively.

But Jorm could sense something, however vaguely. His master was special. Inside his master's body would be incomparably more comfortable than a mere thunder crystal, and the mana flowing there would never contaminate him. Instead, it would nourish him, making him bigger and stronger.

["B-but, Master, will you be okay?"]

Despite wanting to enter Kyle's body immediately, Jorm stammered out the question.

"I'll be fine."

In truth, Kyle was not entirely certain, either. He had never done this, even in his previous life, and there was no precedent for it in the world.

But something being untried and unprecedented did not necessarily make it impossible.

'My lower energy center has a wide entrance, but the interior hasn't expanded enough yet.'

His middle energy center was different. It was already open, with a core formed inside, however small. His past-life experience also made Kyle adept at controlling it.

'The problem is the imbalance between the lower and middle energy centers... I don't know how my body will react to Jorm.'

When he had tried to force the development of his middle energy center while the field of his lower energy center still lay barren, he had suffered pain that felt as though his soul were twisting apart.

'But this is different from last time. I'm not trying to grow my core with mana. I'm letting a living spirit dwell in my body.'

The fundamental imbalance remained, but he should be able to force a balance by constantly circulating mana through his circuits. And as he gradually developed his lower energy center, the strain on his body would lessen.

Right.

Ultimately, he would have to try it to find out. Kyle steadied his breathing and tapped his chest once more.

"If you sense danger, you can jump right out. And one more thing. Don't go anywhere except my chest. Understood?"

["Yeah, yeah, understood, Master."]

With Kyle's permission, Jorm emerged completely from the thunder crystal. The palm-sized snake of purple electricity swam through the air, then burrowed into Kyle's chest.

CRACKLE!

Kyle clenched his teeth. This was on an entirely different level from absorbing mana. It felt as though crystallized lightning energy were forcing its way up through his blood vessels, like thousands of needles scraping their inner walls.

'Endure it.'

He concentrated. Thump, thump, thump. His heart pounded madly. The core formed in his middle energy center was reacting violently to the intrusion of a foreign presence.

Cold sweat poured off him as the energies clashed and his body rejected the intruder. At this rate, his heart might burst, or his mana circuits might tangle and leave him crippled.

But Kyle did not stop. Drawing on every scrap of experience and instinct from his previous life, he guided Jorm while soothing his trembling core.

'Blend together.'

He focused intensely on his spiritual root. The nature of chaos, in which everything mingled and which could become anything. If that was truly its nature, it should be able to accept Jorm within his body, too.

The mana in his lower energy center moved. He had increased its quantity considerably over the past week. He wondered whether this was a backlash from the imbalance, but he felt none of the pain from last time.

Mana flowed smoothly through the intricately intertwined circuits inside his body. When it finally reached his middle energy center, instead of forcibly suppressing or rejecting his core and Jorm, it wrapped them both snugly in a warm blanket.

The circulation was complete. With the lower and middle energy centers serving as its two poles, mana flowed without end. At the same time, the cultivation chamber's mana began to stream into Kyle with each breath.

["It's warm..."]

Jorm's whisper came from deep inside him. Cradled in Kyle's mana, the little spirit coiled up deep within his middle energy center.

RUMBLE...!

A heavy vibration resounded inside his body. The two energies were merging into one. Kyle steadied his breathing before it could turn into gasps.

"You really do have to try it to find out."

Dripping cold sweat, Kyle forced a smile. Now Jorm would gradually be influenced by his spiritual root. If everything went according to plan and Jorm transcended the boundaries of a lightning spirit, Kyle could make full use of him as a filter for the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method.

'If I raise him into a spirit of chaos like me, I won't even need to contract with other spirits.'

Grow big and strong. Dizzy, Kyle closed his eyes. He was just about to let consciousness slip away when—

He sprang to his feet. If Arian found him passed out in the middle of the cultivation chamber, drenched in cold sweat, her eyes would roll back and she would faint beside him.

Fortunately, only his mind was exhausted. His body was full of vigor. It had always felt light, but now it felt lighter still. With each heartbeat, strength seemed to spread throughout him.

And strength really was spreading through him. Unlike most martial artists and mages, who circulated mana only when they needed it, Kyle now had mana flowing continuously through his circuits. This absurd feat was possible thanks to the circulation between his lower and middle energy centers, his extensive circuits, and his experience from his previous life.

'This is fucking killing me.'

Doing all of that consciously made his head throb. Kyle set his first goal: to make the process as natural and unconscious as breathing, so that he could circulate mana even in his sleep.

'And I still need to examine all those other cultivation manuals and take whatever I can use...'

Busy, busy. With a deep sigh, Kyle staggered out of the cultivation chamber.

"I must be the busiest ten-year-old in the world."

And the strongest ten-year-old in the world, too. Certain of that, Kyle left the grand library. A glance out the window revealed that night had already fallen.

He had not felt as though shoving Jorm into his body had taken particularly long, but he had spent half a day sweating in the cultivation chamber.

'I've missed dinner, too.'

Kyle heaved another deep sigh.

Being a good son was no easy task.

* * *

The next day.

Waking early, Kyle went through the routine he had established over the past week.

He got out of bed, loosened up with some light stretches, changed, and left his room.

He slipped quietly into Arian's room and lightly kissed her sleeping cheek. Arian had insisted on adding this part to his routine. If her eyes happened to snap open, he would be caught in her arms and subjected to a prolonged shower of kisses.

Afterward, he washed his face, brushed his teeth, and entered the cultivation chamber built behind the manor.

There, he practiced the Violet Lightning Heaven-Striking Art—no, his incomplete Primordial Chaos Circulation Method. He drew mana into his body with each breath and circulated it through his circuits. As he did so, he fed Jorm, gradually expanded his lower energy center, and identified aspects of the Primordial Chaos Circulation Method that needed improvement.

After spending several hours concentrating on the method, he chose one of the many wooden swords he had prepared and practiced his swordsmanship.

His swordsmanship combined the grade-five sword manuals he had thoroughly studied in the grand library before turning ten. Once he had practiced to his satisfaction and noon arrived, he washed, changed, and ate.

That was his fixed routine. Next came a trip to the grand library.

He had decided not to visit the Hall of Sword Pinnacles too often. Julius might feel disappointed in private, but—to put it plainly—Kyle was playing hard to get with him.

He had shown Julius his adorable, admirable grandson far too frequently until now. If he began putting a little distance between them at this point, Julius would be the first to pull him close again.

'And I can surprise him later.'

If the grandson he had not seen in some time had improved far beyond his expectations, Julius would surely be astonished. In the same spirit of playing hard to get, Kyle had also decided to stay away from the Sword Garden for a while.

Kyle left Rose Manor, crunching on some of his remaining thunderbolt fruit as a snack. Wanting a walk in the breeze, he did not head straight for the elevator.

As he made his way there, however...

He spotted a pig running.