?


    Watching as the vast darkness before him was gradually upied by both mana and Mystic Energy, the young man briefly had a look of excitement on his face as he was eager to trybining the two.


    However, just as the thought of how he''d go about doing so crossed his mind, Valyr stopped himself from acting upon it as he asked himself, "Surely, someone must''ve tried this before, right?"


    "Combining mana with Mystic Energy, that is."


    Allowing his thoughts to wander about as his mind focused on the question, the young man felt that it was more or less a given for someone to have already tried thebination before him.


    After all, even though he hadn''t expected to be taught tobine mana and Shadow Energy together by the one that first seeded in doing so, the young man had already heard a lot aboutbining mana with other elements in his past life.


    Although it seemed like it was a no-brainer for one to do if they wanted to increase their power,bining mana with another element was something people rarely did, considering that having them stay as is was actually more than enough for a lot of people.


    However,bining mana with another element was also something a lot of people do, especially those who aimed to grasp control over higher tiers of energy.


    After all, mana was considered by most, if not all people to be an all-epassing type of energy, able to ept and adapt to any property that was thrown at it with ease.


    With that, it only made sense to add another element to mana to turn it into something more than what it already was, which was pretty much the approach Azure Energy took on, as well as his own Prime Azure Energy.


    Naturally, there existed many other methods throughout the universe that didn''t involvebining mana, with some of them even upying a spot in Valyr''s mind for being incredibly tedious to create.


    ''Then again, the power the resulting energy has more than makes up for the effort,'' thought the young man to himself, briefly making him wonder once more why Prime Azure Energy had that much strength with how much effort he''d put into it.


    In the end, Valyr pushed all of his thoughts aside for the meantime, taking in a deep breath as he refocused his attention to what was in front of him.


    Though he was still curious as to whether someone had triedbining mana with Mystic Energy, the young man merely allowed the thought to linger as he went through the method Sellifer took tobine mana and Shadow Energy together.


    "If I remember correctly, I first need to bnce the purity of both mana and Mystic Energy before forming a braid with the two." Muttering these words to himself, a slight frown began to appear on Valyr''s face.


    Although he didn''t really findpleting this step an issue, Valyr did face a problem in the form of having limited time.


    Unlike in the inheritance, where had more than two years to work on purifying his mana and Shadow Energy beforebining them to form Azure Energy, he only had the better part of a day at most before he needed to attend a meeting.


    With that, the frown on the young man''s face gradually deepened as the gears in his mind continued to turn.


    "Hmm..." Looking at his current issue from a different perspective, Valyr eventually came up with a possible solution... though he wasn''t sure if it''ll work out.


    "If it does, then I could at least proceed to the braiding step." As these words left his mouth, Valyr focused all of his attention on the mana covering half of the vast space in front of him.


    Then, imposing his will on the mana, the young man urged the mana to reduce in quality, aiming to have mana to conform to his Mystic Energy''s level of purity instead.


    After all, he''d already gone through the stage of 1st Cleansing with his mana a long time ago. Surely, it would heed his wishes, right?


    Surprisingly, it did, with the mana slowly bing more and more contaminated before Valyr''s eyes.


    Watching this happen, the young man clenched his fists in excitement, only to focus all of his senses on it as curiosity made him wonder what was going on.


    "Huh." Though he felt the mana within the vast space gradually turn darker with every passing moment, Valyr also felt that his mana still remained at the stage of 3rd Cleansing.


    Slightly confused as to why that was the case, it did not take long for him to figure out what was going on, the thoughts in his mind clicking in ce to make him realize that his mana was merely adjusting its energy to the other type of energy that was in the same space.


    "I suppose I could try this out with Shadow or Void Energyter down the line," muttered the young man to himself, slightly curious as to what would happen if he were to mix two energies with opposing properties together.


    Returning his attention to the matter at hand, Valyr eventually found himself staring at both his mana and Mystic Energy, faintly smiling as he took note that both energies now gave off the feeling that they were at the stage of 1st Cleansing.


    Taking in yet another deep breath topose his thoughts, Valyr was briefly reminded of his time in the inheritance as he proceeded to bring mana and Mystic Energy closer to one


    another.


    Whoosh!


    Imposing his will on the two energies, he then began to weave the two into a braid of sorts, recalling what he''d done in the past with mana and Shadow Energy.


    Watching the blue mana intertwine itself with the bright white Mystic Energy, the smile Valyr had on his face gradually turned wider as he watched the braid be more and more


    complete.


    Knowing that he was merely taking the first step to what would eventually be a true fusion of mana and Mystic Energy, Valyr continued to braid the two energies together...


    Only for things between the two energies to change.


    Swoosh!


    Just as what Valyr considered to be the first braid was nearingpletion, the Mystic Energy portion of the braid began to warp and distort all of a sudden, causing a hint of worry to appear on his face as a thought popped up in his mind.


    Hoping that the thought that popped up in his mind wouldn''t be reality, his worst fears were eventually realized as the white Mystic Energy took on a shade of blue, transforming what was initially a braid of two differing energies into a braid of two mana strands.


    "..." Staring at the oue of his first attempt atbining the two energies together, the young man took in a deep breath before letting out an incredibly low sigh.


    "...I really should''ve expected this to happen," said Valyr to himself.


    Due to the excitement of seeing his idea actually work out, Valyr held a faint wish that his mana and his Mystic Energy wouldbine into something greater.


    However, as Mystic Energy took almost any intent that was given to it as long as it wasn''t rted to attacking, the energy interpreted it in a way that somewhat stayed true to the wish, melding with the mana to turn into something greater.


    Which was more mana.


    Giving himself some time to sort out his thoughts, it was only a few minutester did Valyr attempt braiding the two energies together once again.


    Dispelling the first braid that turned out to be an utter failure, the young manposed his thoughts as he willed his mana and Mystic Energy to intertwine one another once again.


    However, unlike his first attempt, he reined all of the errant thoughts that lingered in his mind, instead focusing all of his attention on what was happening before him. Because of that, the result that he initially intended to happen eventually became a reality, with the blue and white energy appearing before him intertwined in a way that reminded him of those ice pops he had as a kid.


    "...Haah." Continuing to have his thoughts remain as still as water, Valyr then proceeded to manipte the blue and white braid in various ways, initially controlling the braid as if it


    were a strand of mana.


    Whoosh! Whoosh!


    To no surprise, the braid epted his input, moving through the vastness of space as if it


    were in its natural habitat.


    Though, as Valyr focused his senses on the braid more closely, he noticed that it took his


    inputs far better than before, simr to how his braids of mana and Shadow Energy back then allowed his skills to exert more power.


    "I guess it''s due to the Mystic Energy''s property of being able to ept almost any input," Valyr surmised, eventually having the strand of blue-white energy stop a fair distance away


    from him.


    Now that he had confirmed that the properties of mana had been elevated to a slightly higher degree thanks to the inclusion of Mystic Energy, Valyr felt that it was now time for him to find


    out if the opposite were true.


    What would happen if he were to infuse a specific intent into the braid? Would the mana ept the intent he''d infused as well? Or would the mana remain as is?


    As these questions lingered in his mind, the young man went ahead and sent out a thought towards the braid, wanting it to take on the form of a simple forging hammer.


    Whoosh!


    Surprisingly, it delivered... and more.