Titan's Throne

Yin Flames

Kenshin suddenly felt a link between him and Bastian, one that didn't exist before. It was a psychic link to be exact. Kenshin said nothing but he could not help but show shock on his usually stoic face.

This was incredibly similar to the technique Kenshin used to share F-Vision with Bastian. Through this link, Kenshin started to receive a steady flow of information. He could have resisted but he allowed it to enter his consciousness because Bastian was no fool, he would not send useless information.

"I'm sending you a modified Medici Matrix. You said earlier that you use negative energy flames. In other words, flames that freeze. That means they have a very rare yin attribute. So I had to make a few tweaks for you. Of course, the tweaks would be better if you perhaps told me about your elemental attributes and bloodline but let's save that for the future."

At Bastian's request, Kenshin finally revealed to Bastian one of the abilities he had that was unique to him. A yin-type flame. On the Sovereign Continent, yin was referred to as negative energy by most inhabitants. Hence Kenshin's yin-type flame would be called a negative flame. Negative flames were extremely rare and powerful because they carried unique properties that were hard to defend against. For example, Kenshin's flame created ice that could only be broken down by two things. Overwhelmingly powerful energy, or a concentrated positive energy flame.

Ordinary flames only had a small amount of positive energy, so they were useless. This had nothing to do with heat energy or temperature but the yang property itself. Increasing yang energy in a fire does not make it necessarily make it hotter or bigger. It could change other attributes.

Bastian had put this at the back of his mind, but while the Medici matrix was active he had an inspiration.

His first flash of inspiration was to create something Medici never thought of creating even though he had a computer.

'A network.'

A network consists of two or more computers that are linked in order to share resources, exchange files, or allow for communication. On Earth, computers on a network may be linked through cables, telephone lines, waves, satellites, or infrared light beams. But here the links were potentially limitless because of the applications of qi mana and yuan. Bastian had access to all three, hence he had a lot of room to experiment with. So far however he had learned a few things, such as how mana was far more suited for telepathy than qi, which greatly assisted him because he was more of a mage.

The only martial techniques he knew were ones he received from his bloodlines like Vector Steps and The Empyrean Equilibrium Void Shattering Fist, or those he had attempted to copy through his comprehension of Kenshin's swordsmanship. Unfortunately, in both cases, these were overbearing skills that drained Bastian of his yuan so he could only use them properly once he entered the fusion realm.

The Medici Connection, one of the four great Medici Spells, was close to the idea of a network but to Bastian, it was just a glorified form of telepathy. The fact that most modern telepathy spells for mass communication used the Medici connection as a reference further reinforced this.

Bastian also realized that the Medici Matrix not only lacked proper mathematics and a programming language, but it also had a fundamental issue.

The circle represented positive energy, while the square represented negative energy. The triangle, which is the most stable simple shape in nature, represented neutral energy. Alas, these three were not properly represented.

Bastian was reminded of how he achieved harmonization for the first time, through the usage of the taijitu. The symbol of yin and yang.

Bastian reverse-engineered the spell and modified it, perfecting it but adjusting it for a fusion of energies of opposing nature, such as yin and yang.

Bastian had already adjusted his matrix to be based on a yang flame in preparation for fusing it with Kenshin's yin flame. The diametric connection of opposing energies resulted in a resonance effect that Bastian had calculated to be able to increase the computation power.

In other words, networking with Kenshin would cause the Matrix to strengthen itself. Bastian was sure that a yin-yang network would bring more unexpected boons. Bastian also sent Kenshin information on the Medici vault so Kenshin could create his own.

The Medici Vault was a metaphysical space that allowed one to simulate spells in a dream-like realm and modify matrices. In other words, you could practice spells too dangerous to attempt in reality in the vault. But this required an extremely powerful soul and a vast amount of knowledge in one's reserve. The more knowledge one had about how the universe functioned, the better the results one would get from simulation.

The Medici vault could take up any form. Its content was only limited by one's imagination and knowledge. Only the size of the space was limited by your cultivation level while the quality of objects you could bring depends on one's soul force.

Bastian's idea was simple. First, create a taiji network with Kenshin. Then fuse the two Medici vaults with the soul site that Bastian and Kenshin shared thanks to their soul-brethren contract. Bastian had already understood the soul brethren contract quite well.

Not only had he received plenty of knowledge about souls from his bloodline and Minister Li, but he had also learned a lot from the books the Coles and Falsified daughters had gathered for him. Combining these pieces of knowledge and processing them arguably used up most of his energy. But it was worth it. Because the result would neither be a Medici Vault nor would it be a simple soul site. It would be something else entirely.

Kenshin marvelled at Bastian's out-of-the-box thinking. He was confident that he would not have thought in such a direction because his logic was still closely tied to the logic of this world. Bastian was a fusion of two personalities. Although the fusion was not seamless, it allowed him to have a unique outlook on life and an open mind.