"Now, cousin, go easy for a couple of months. You're getting married soon, and we can't have your body half gone by then," Shi Qiang warned over dinner.

Ebony's Aunt Tao wasn't around today with most of the married Shi ladies away. Shi Qiang and her husband Shui Feng were the most senior couple around so they were the only ones talking at the table.

The Shi ladies weren't exactly talkative, but they thankfully had a topic to discuss. That was the older lady doing her best to nag about the people around the table. She wasn't very good at nagging so the table's conversation had to be guided by Shui Feng and Shi Ling.

Being a new face to the Clan, Shui Feng and Shi Ling probed him to talk about some of his experiences.

It was said that he had met and lost to one of them when he was on Earth. He didn't even know he met his cousin back then. His mother never introduced them to each other.

It felt like she barely acknowledged the other Xeng child who sparred with Ebony once. As if she didn't know that that young girl who was hard to differentiate from a boy was also a Shi and her niece.

Weird but not unexpected, perhaps young Ebony just never noticed his mother's interaction with the young girl, supposedly his cousin, Shi Jian. Shi Tao's first daughter and Shi Qiang's older sister.

Seemingly thousands of years older than him now, while they were at similar ages back on earth. She was unquestionably the most powerful of the lot and her sisters held a lot of pride and respect for her. Shui Feng mentioned how Shi Jian was busy training in a different region and couldn't be contacted to return to meet or pick him up.

His short life was summarized briefly and the thing that got their interest the most was his Domain. The nieces, grandnieces and Shi Ling were especially interested in sparring with Dusk within his range. The support it could give him would make him a different fighter altogether.

Dusk had enough accumulation of Will that Ebony didn't have to worry about the limited Will for stronger spatial control over mana, and lengthier periods of compressed Domain spells.

Most mages dreamed of owning a Mage Tower for a few reasons including larger mana capacity for large or more numerous spell casting, and assistance in increasing their spell power and control.

Dusk could do that for him but he currently didn't have a mana issue, he could use all his spells at the same time and not run out of mana. So he was freely creating more mana-intensive spells to make use of this advantage.

On the other hand, as a Grandmaster and a youth, his Will had a flimsy manifestation of physical effect.

The fact that other mages could still conjure their mana outside their bodies in his Domain was already proof of this weakness. The pure combatants around the table had more to say now that they were speaking their language.

After demonstrating his Domain over them, they were able to point out the general functions of his Domain and what they thought were weaknesses they could make use of.

According to their standards, his Will was slow to react to changes because his definition of danger or hostile movements was not sharp enough.

If they raise their fist towards him without hostile intent, and this changes in a moment, his Will doesn't act till they've already hit him or whatever they wanted to target within his Domain.

This was related to his base Intelligence and Wisdom stats but it could still be honed through training and proper refining of the rules he placed with his Will.

His Domain's heavy focus on self-augmentation weakens the ability to influence other creatures' Will or mana control. This wasn't necessarily bad but with a limited strength of Will, he had to prioritize. Domains were generally used to inhibit opponents from doing their worst, regardless of the elements or types of mana they used while favouring the caster's elements and strengths.

Ebony's Will was spreading out itself to support all of his moves. When he kicks, his Domain automatically helps him with a stronger Torrent's Path. It also strengthens the explosive mana vibrations for shock and impact. He delegated too much of his Will to self-empowerment when Budding Domains were typically used to seal and weaken opponents.

'A matter of making my opponent at less than 100% or pushing my battle efficacy above 100%. But targets are more often at a loss when they lose part of their abilities. I can see how that is more effective than empowering myself more.' Ebony considered the possibilities and had to admit that there would be more benefit in inhibiting his targets further.

"What about warriors or fighters heavily dependent on advanced weapons?" He posed the question. If his Will was edited to target inhibition of foreign mana intervention including conjuration and manipulation, it would mean less productivity to go about people who wouldn't be affected by this inhibition which he could deal with better if he got more individual support.

It was one of the bigger reasons why he preferred self-support over target inhibition, for Will was limited in the ways it acted at the moment. There were plenty of ways people with various skill sets could work around specific inhibitions, ones that his Will didn't take into account.

He could use a generalized instruction to his Will to work on almost every creature but generalizing typically doesn't have a strong effect in comparison.

"There's nothing much to teach, being a Domain mage you're already ahead of all of us. The Shi are typically Intent users. Growing your Will is something that can't be rushed and the strength and function of one's Domain is highly dependent on the strength of Will and the control of instructions you can manifest through your Will." Shui Feng was also a Domain mage but he was reluctant to tell Ebony any sort of tips.

In the same way Ebony was worried about affecting the people he taught in a built direction and path, Shui Feng also didn't want his comments and advice to limit Ebony's growth.

Ebony didn't say anything about his Will capacity and regeneration increasing at a relatively fast rate with his Clones sending him all sorts of experiences. If he started with 100% when he first started using Will over a decade ago by his estimation, he was currently at 203% capacity and 126% Will regeneration.

'If only I have a value for it…right, I can assign them one.' Ebony decided that his original baby Will had a value of 100 while having a regeneration of 7. So his current Will capacity would be at 203 with a regeneration of 8.82.

As ashamed as he was about his calculations, the unit value of 8.82 was not reliable. Will regeneration typically varied over time, it was not consistent like mana. He merely took an average using the data he already had. On average, it will take him a little over 23 hours to fully regenerate 203 units of Will.

The thing was, he couldn't dip into the single digits for Will. Even trying to exhaust his Will under 10% of his maximum capacity was a herculean task. He couldn't do it even with the strongest application of his Domain.

The lower his current Will, the slower Will regenerated.

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If he was at 90% capacity, he could recover back to 100% in under an hour. If he was at 20%, it may take more than a day, sometimes two to return to full capacity.

Hence, Ebony was very reluctant to overly spend on Will's upkeep on his Will Relay Buffers and Clones. All of the Buffers currently took 2.11 units of Will per hour while his Clones on Elva fluctuated around 30 units. As long as he kept his Will above 90%, his regeneration could keep them all going.

But he didn't need to worry about that, their upkeep was stabilised by Dusk. Something of a Will capacitor. So Ebony's battles didn't affect them as long as Dusk was charged up and Ebony returned to charging it after his battles and training.

It was hard to recover Will faster and he currently had no clue what actions or experiences he goes through that increased his capacity and what increased his regeneration. It may improve at a consistent ratio that he couldn't change but he didn't have enough data to confirm.

The past year had seen more than 50% of all of his Will growth since so it was accelerating at a satisfying pace.

Spreading his Will Relay Buffer far out certainly helped. It may help him further if he consistently activated mana scanning as wide an area as he could but he didn't have the spare Will or even mana to do that. Elva wasn't exactly tiny.

Ebony's chopsticks didn't slow down but he received another piece of good news.

Aegis managed to send him an update but it was short and fragmented. To summarise, all of his Clones were still properly sealed and their memory loss was less than 8%. While Aegis had already been reduced to remnant Will that could survive the test of time.

'Pity they were in full hibernation so no update on Cinderash…if I can get close enough perhaps I can send them Will and new instructions.' Ebony pondered on the decision to send a massive amount of Will to recharge a minuscule amount for Aegis.

The distance made it wasteful, especially when they weren't in danger of disappearing yet.

"Shui Feng," Ebony was persuaded not to call the man cousin-in-law for how stiff that was. "Can you teach me advanced dispel? I find myself at a loss facing some more special mana or elements."

The gentle-looking man blinked twice before he shared glances with the people at the table.

"What are you referring to when you say advanced dispel?"

"I learned from example that Elcrians dispel magic by using mana to override, interrupt and break down foreign mana. From using a blast of timed mana to a more controlled manner of attacking a mage's point of focus in their mana." Ebony explained but their faces and masks that didn't have to retract their lip cover just blankly stared at him.

"Ning Xun's lightning strikes could disrupt even gravity mana, something I hadn't seen or experienced happening. I've watched the Frost Elves, and although they don't vary in elements much they also dispel their opponent's spell more efficiently. Am I wrong to say it's more of a mana control technique than an element effect?"

"You're certainly not wrong there but you misunderstood the levels of magic mastery."

"Uncle! It is generally recognised that there are nine levels of magic mastery. We usually break them down into 3.

Basic, intermediate and advanced.

Basic is to learn the rules of mana and the environment. Sensing mana, manipulating mana, shaping mana into a working spell and finally conjuration of elements.

Intermediate would be all of the basics to a stronger degree, environmental influence, disruption and destruction of existing influence.

Advanced is to impose your Will through mana or otherwise to shape more than your environment and perhaps even reality itself." Shi Ling exclaimed across the table She was already onto dessert, digging into her sixth tub of pudding.

"You were confusing us since you're already applying magic in its most advanced form. Weirdly weak but when it comes to complexity and mastery, you're already better than any of us just by being able to influence the world with your Will alone. You can hone your ability to break down opponent manipulation and shaping but if you're using your Will, do you have to go through the trouble?" Shi Ling continued.

She was pampered by her elders around the table watching her scuff down pudding.

"...I do, with better technical ability to break those down my Will will be far more efficient. It is no different from any physical technique." Ebony took in the information but it changed nothing.

"I don't know what to say, Ebony, none of us, even or especially the Nings think or trained specifically for dispelling foreign spell formation. We just…do? We watched your proposal, I can see that you take things methodically and everything is calculated. But us Xengs…simply don't do that. Take your future partner as an example, we follow our instincts. Do that often enough and you can do it better." The educated-looking man explained as clearly as he could.

"I see." He expected it and wasn't disappointed. The advice he received was to get better with training.

What they were saying was that as a Domain mage, he should already be able to do whatever he wanted to do. But he skipped steps due to his natural advantage.

Ebony's attention was forced to go back to his meal. Every bite of food had more calories than a whole meal.

He couldn't discern the type or quality of meat after they've already been turned into a half-eaten dish. He didn't have the relevant knowledge or skill to do so. However, the meal didn't give him any special effects. He received no notifications. It was, however, extremely nourishing.

'This meat…is it even Ancient quality or higher?' Ebony quickly looked up Ancient rarity meat for sale using Hex.

No merchant firm was selling meat of this quality wholesale, so individual sales and small-scale merchant transactions were the only options. The prices were rather impressive.

'If she eats 400 kg of meat a day…I might need more money.' Ebony was brought to a realisation of his future situation.

He did not doubt that Xin was eating well if she was staying here these days. As a provider, there was no way he could give her anything less than this. He was already marrying young, as a Grandmaster instead of an Emperor preparing for their evolution. He couldn't give the Nings any more reason to look down on Xin and her decision to pick him.

Obviously, she didn't need 400 kg of meat a day to survive. The meat of this quality was typically extremely dense both in flesh, muscle and fat and in caloric count. Ebony's flesh itself contained enough energy to melt through a chicken's stomach with ease.

Due to the nature of her Physique and blood magic, her storage of energy was immense. The strength she could exert was also heavily dependent on her energy storage due to her Art. Her family's opinions aside, he liked to watch her eat since she always looked so full of joy eating. He wouldn't settle for less for either of them.

After dinner, he excused himself for the back mountains. There was no need to waste energy on the complicated machinery; Quasar could train him without a wielder.

A wave of gravity was planted onto his forehead, "on behalf of my master, you're now grounded."

"Grounded?" Ebony blinked at the unfamiliar declaration.

"Young as may be, you will be a proper adult with a family. It's simply unacceptable for my master's offspring not to have the basic capability to provide a safe shelter for their family."

"I agree," Ebony felt bad for standing Apa up, so he asked the Numbers to include Hoarfrost Glades as part of their itinerary for the foreseeable future.

"Stop looking in your lover's direction, she's not even on the island now." Quasar whacked down on his head. The mighty spear made sure to magnetise itself so that Ebony's reflexive dodge failed.

"Where is she?"

"Busy learning how to protect you."

"…"

"Don't play around, get the Kongs to bring your Domain core up."

"I'm growing it."

"We'll have to rebuild you from the ground up. I will take responsibility for your lacking childhood education in my master's place." Quasar's every word was imprinted into his chest with gravity.

"I share that responsibility." Shi Tao's voice carried over the mountains only to be heard by him. She wasn't even supposed to be home.

Ebony nodded. There were a variety of opponents here, he shouldn't have to look further for training opportunities.

He looked at Hector soundly asleep on the bench he placed him on. 'He shouldn't complain about not inviting him this time.'

Kong Jing was not picking up calls so he could only write a letter to the Kong Clan compounds. Mark was also uncontactable after he had been taken away. The Kong Clan compounds made communication difficult with the abundant and almost chaotic space they were living in.

It shouldn't take long before someone helped him move the immovable core of his Domain.

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