“Invoke… Manifestation…”
An Fei repeated in her mind, the words transmitted into the sea of perception for a dense study.
The young girl gently backpedaled until she naturally sank into the soft confines of a nearby chair, her mind abuzz with an uncontrollable spiral of thoughts.
Invoke.
Manifestation.
Upon initial analysis, the two words were rather insignificant compared to their unusual presence. Regardless of how she analyzed them, the words did not produce any profound meaning on their own.
One was the act of causing a manifestation, and the other described the physical presence of an existence.
One was the act of mirroring the other – but why did those two words appear side by side, in a single phrase?
…and in a mysterious tome teetering on the last vestiges of decay?
“Invoke… Manifestation.”
The young girl abruptly rolled the words at the tip of her tongue, her eyes narrowing into thin slits. In the sea of perception, the two words flickered with an incessant frequency, refusing to depart with every means.
“Invoke Manifestation. Invoke…”
To invoke a manifestation of something – to forcibly cause an existence to come into effect.
The word of ‘invoke’ was to describe an act of speech, as if to conjure a physical phenomenon.
Additionally, the word of ‘manifestation’ represented that the existence’s origins were nonexistence – that the manifestation itself was a temporary creation.
To invoke a manifestation… when placed into the rule-breaking context that was spiritual essence, was it to…
“…to invoke…”
An Fei muttered, her lips parting to mouth an ‘oh’ of surprise. The young girl extended forth her right hand, the palm facing the ceiling as it lay on her lap.
“[Fire]!”
The casual word departing from her lips reverberated in silence throughout the Sanctum.
With a gentle tremble, a surge of warmth rushed throughout her nerves as a tinge of exhilaration rubbed at the base of her consciousness, and a small flame danced upon the center of her palm.
The fire was of a light orange, appearing feeble and cowardly before the overwhelming storm of golden light…
“The fire appears when I call for it within the Sanctum,” An Fei’s eyes gleamed with a flash of insight.
“This, in a sense, could be an example of ‘invoking a manifestation’… but why do I feel that something is missing?”
The young girl gently covered her palm with her other hand, extinguishing the flame. Folding her legs over one another, An Fei sank into a moment of contemplation as she rubbed her chin with her fingers.
Clearly, she was able to manifest a flame with her words whilst in the Sanctum – such were the origins of her cooking flame. However…
If invoking a manifestation was as simple as that, why would the <Heavenly Talisman> receive such a title?
“The rest of the martial arts techniques were named differently, if I recall correctly…”
The whisper was abrupt and unexpected to even An Fei’s mind, prompting her to freeze in place for a significant period of time.
The young girl stared into space with a blank gaze, her mind allowing itself to enjoy a peculiar moment of realization.
If the techniques of the Sanctum’s seventeenth Archive of Time were to be ranked depending on their titles, there was indeed a consistent pattern.
Ignoring the fact that each and every single one of the manuals reeked of an uncomfortable pretentiousness and flatulent mystery, the peculiarity of the matter was obvious once the mind was oriented towards its direction.
None of them assumed any famous name.
Granted, there were some flamboyant techniques that named themselves with the adjectives of “undying”, “eternal”, “fierce”, and other eye-watering words that stung at the fortress of reason and shame, but the pattern was never truly breached.
Excepting that of the two foreign books, the <Golden Lotus of Establishment> and the <Heavenly Secrets>, the tens of thousands of exceptional martial arts techniques avoided a total of three exact words.
First, was any word related to “Heaven.”
Second, “Immortal.”
Third… “God.”
These three words seemed to be the bane of the Realm’s martial arts techniques and their extensive and diverse nomenclature, as though they were a forbidden taboo.
Since her numerous tours, the young girl had not spotted a single book dare to display any of these three words or their similar counterparts.
Not even the <Eternal Sanctum> that was originally hidden in the throne of the mysterious realm of sky-blue crystal dared to skirt this rule – the withered <Heavenly Talisman> that had broken before her was the only exception.
…and the contents of the manual that dared to break an unnamed convention that seemed to be faithfully obeyed by the rest of the Realm displayed a mere phrase.
Invoke Manifestation.
“By uttering the word in the divine language, I can conjure its manifestation whilst in the Sanctum…” An Fei mused to herself as her palm inadvertently conjured the flame to toy with the flickering tongue of light.
“However, for that phrase to appear in such a book…”
…its implications did not seem to end at a mere conjuring of a phenomenon utilizing the Realm’s divine language…
However, how was she to proceed?
Her act of invoking the creation of the fire via the divine language completed the only criteria of the phrase written in the <Heavenly Talisman>.
An Fei was certain that regardless of the angle of which she analyzed the process in which the flame dancing on her palm was formed, she would arrive at the same result.
She uttered the words to invoke manifestation – causing the flame to appear in the world.
Invoke the word of ‘flame’, and the divine language enacted upon such – by creating a flame before her.
But, if that wasn’t sufficient to satisfy the criteria of the <Heavenly Talisman> and successfully ease the sense of uneasiness in her heart, then…
“…perhaps it wants the practitioner to be able to invoke a manifestation without any external influence?”
An Fei raised an eyebrow at the thought, her mind unwilling to believe the words that had just departed from her lips.
The young girl wished she could avoid the subject upon her whims, but discovered that she was unable to extricate herself from the pursuit of seeking a conclusion.
To invoke the manifestation of a phenomenon without relying on any external influence; this utterly fulfilled the requirements of the phrase written in the <Heavenly Talisman> without fault, perhaps even exceeding it.
Unfortunately, just how was a practitioner supposed to invoke a manifestation without external assistance?
The divine language of the Realm could indeed be considered external – for its origins did not lie within her identity, but that of the Realm and the Sanctum.
From that perspective, An Fei was a consumer of the divine language’s awe-inspiring influence over the world, and was not that primary entity responsible for invoking a phenomenon.
And yet, in that case, wasn’t it the same for any phenomenon invoked by spiritual essence?
Spiritual essence was produced by the successful refinement of atmospheric spiritual qi, allowing a practitioner to perform nearly miraculous deeds and phenomena with ease.
With sufficient control and practice, a practitioner could wield the spiritual essence in their body with ease, as though it were a primary component of their own body.
Nonetheless, the process of attaining spiritual essence itself decreed that it could only remain external for it was essentially refined atmospheric spiritual qi – that itself not originating from the practitioner.
But following that logic, anything was an external influence when it involved manifesting a phenomenon.
If partaking in the example of generating a fire, An Fei could produce the flame in three simple forms.
The first method was to do as she had done before – to invoke the divine language to spontaneously generate the flame. The flame would manifest as fire serving as the primary definition of its existence.
The second method was to transfer a sufficient quantity of Yang-attributed spiritual essence to be expelled from her body, heating the air until the sparks of a flame stabilized their existence.
In this circumstance, the flame would remain as a coalesced manifestation of sparks – merely heat.
The third was to rely on mortal tools; namely, a flint and steel, or rubbing sticks to generate heat through kinetic or mechanical energy converted into thermodynamic properties.
Alas, all three methods relied on external influences – be it the divine language of the Realm, spiritual essence of a practitioner, or the first caveman’s pair of wooden sticks.
“If one is capable of manifesting a flame simply by a verbal invocation of its existence, then he would be none other than God itself…”
An Fei snorted in frustration, only for her pupils to constrict in fright.
The young girl stared at the location of which the <Heavenly Talisman once lay in solitude and peace, a single sentence departing from her lips, radiating with an unusual solemnness.
“That’s impossible.”
An Fei did not know why her voice was suffused with such conviction as though there could be no other possibility, or why she dared to reject the thought that had graced her mind.
The young girl released a heavy sigh as she stared towards the ceiling of sky-blue crystal, a dejected thread brushing against the tips of her ears.
“I ruined a manual only for my hopes to be dashed to the ground, ah.”
