Tales of The Mighty Dragonair

He looked around while slowly adding:

"Those who had their mage path opened can't overexert themselves in cultivation. Their inner demon problem will just keep increasing until it reaches a scale no one can control. So if anyone has already become a mage, he or she can't cultivate past the first major breakthrough."

Everyone kept nodding while he continued to write and draw on the paper in front of him.

"As for those who didn't yet embark on either path, then it's easier to cultivate them first then they can train to become mage. This way they can avoid the problem of the inner demon affecting themselves."

He finally wrote the last letter before folding the paper and throwing it towards Deem and Gor.

"This is the general drawing of anyone's path. Copy it as fast as possible, then distribute these over the entirety of the sect and even inside the cities. Anyone in the empire shall know his future path from now on."

At last one had the courage to speak, and it was none other than Amera who opened her mouth and asked:

"What about the current people? Those with inner demons already festering inside their souls?"

Arthur turned to her as he gave her an encouraging look. With asking questions could everyone here understand his intentions clearer.

Even if he had lost hope on changing their nature and beliefs, he didn't want to lose hope on them. He just hoped they could simply adapt and stop causing problems when he wasn't paying his full attention to them.

"They can simply focus on training as mages, paying full attention and all their effort into killing their inner demons," Arthur slowly said, "by the killing of their inner demons, one can simply have a chance to train as a cultivator."

Yet his words didn't leave behind anything but worry and confusion. It was logical. After all the inner demon problem was an eternal one, even those standing in front of him as the peak of the powers of the mage world were still suffering from it.

"This seemed unreal," the crow got the courage from Amera's words and dared to speak up. Yet he tried his best not to be overbearing, not to cross the line and get the wrath of Arthur. "The inner demon problem will continue to exist as long as mages are advancing their powers."

Unlike what he expected, Arthur simply nodded and even faintly smiled. "This is good, after all the gap between killing the inner demons and acquiring new demons will be the golden chance for anyone to cultivate."

Arthur knew his words wouldn't be fully understood by his people so he elaborated further.

"The period between killing the inner demons and acquiring one after the one's power has increased will be an optimum period to cultivate. Even after gaining the inner demon, the first few months will be smooth and they can continue to cultivate without problems. Only when the inner demons start to affect their peace of mind they shall stop and focus on killing their demons then they can return to cultivate again, and so on."

This time the light of enlightenment he saw in the eyes of everyone made his smile turn wider. He knew they got his meaning, even if that meaning didn't really affect their inner beliefs.

"From this day onwards, these will be the sacred rules of our empire. Spread it now, and make sure to help everyone to dispose properly of their inner demons."

Per his words, everyone couldn't help but show a gloomy face. After all, killing the inner demons was much easier said than done.

In that process, a single mistake or error was enough to reap the life of the mage. And he didn't just ask to do this for only once, but for as many times as it would take for someone to train to the pinnacle.

Even for those mages coming from the higher realm clans, they couldn't help but feel pessimistic towards this. Facing the inner demon was a taboo even at the higher realms.

"I have an array here," as he noticed their reaction and gloomy faces, Arthur couldn't help but smile. He took out an old piece of paper which he once drew in his free time. 

With a flick of his hands, he threw it towards Deem and Gor while adding:

"This array helps a lot in affecting the inner demons. I won't dare to say the process will be one hundred percent perfect, but with this array any mage attacking the inner demon will have his demon weakened by at least seventy percent."

Seventy percent? Everyone sucked in a cold air of breath. Forget about seventy percent, if the array only weakened the inner demon by twenty percent then anyone would have a greater chance at attacking the inner demon hurdle.

And Arthur dared to speak about seventy percent weakness, so how couldn't they become enthralled with what he just declared?

"There is just a single catch here," Arthur knew the mood of his people so he had to explain things fairly to them, "this array must be done by each individual to have the desired effect. I have one that can be done by array masters and used by others, but the weakening effect will only diminish to be lower than thirty percent."

With another flick of his hands, another scroll of old and tattered yellow paper flew over to Deem and Gor. 

"Thirty percent? That's more than enough!" Jude was so shocked when he heard Arthur's words. He couldn't believe the weakened version, the imperfect array that Arthur took simply like this, could affect the inner demon by thirty percent.

"Don't underestimate inner demon strengths," Arthur warned in a sincere tone, "I faced my inner demons before and I can say even with such arrays it was hard to conquer them. Just aim for a higher percentage for a safer process. Train everyone in the array field and let them be able to make their arrays. This array isn't that complicated after all."

His words were meant to make them not underestimate the inner demon's strengths. However he underestimates the minds and wills of those mages here.

Even if the weakening effect was limited to twenty percent or even lower, no one here wouldn't accept this big help in such life and death confrontation with the inner demons.