Molting the Mortal Coil

Chapter 889: Black Smoke

Sage found himself staring at a battlefield.

With the close up view of the thermal vent, he felt like he was standing at the edge of a war, a war without end. Heat spewed out endlessly from the vent, smashing up against the collective coolness of the entirety of the ocean. What was most stunning was the difference of expectation to reality. His understanding of heat at its most basic level was from Earth, and in his memory it had to do with the motion of atoms. When something was hotter the atoms within it were moving more energetically than something cooler. These atoms were constantly bumping into all the atoms around them and transferring their heat energy to them like pool balls bumping into each other. As they collided into more and more atoms they transferred their energy and started to slow down. In this way the heat slowly distributed outwards, transferring to those things that were nearby.

Something that was really hot would warm up everything around it and cool down in the process.

It was only after staring at this crack in the seabed for a while that he remembered a few details hed forgotten for so long. The heat didnt just expand outwards like an aura, it was drawn rapidly upwards. The smoke that was shooting upwards from the vent wasnt just caused by the mixing of a certain chemical with the water. That might have given its color, but the reason it was shooting upwards in thin streamers and moving towards the giant cloud above was caused by the heat. A few concepts that hed long forgotten suddenly clicked. There was a very simple saying: heat rises. The heated water expanded, becoming less dense and causing it to rise. Air bubbles always rose up to the surface and air was of extremely low density. The constantly rising warm water created a current, pulling all the heated water upward far more rapidly than just the slow spread of heat would do without the fluid medium.

This phenomenon is what unlocked old memories and he remembered there were three types of thermal transfer. Conduction, Convection, and Radiation. What hed thought of as the only way for heat to move was essentially conduction, the direct collision and transfer of kinetic energy. With the currents of heat moving so rapidly he remembered the existence of convection, where fluid mediums could act as a sort of heat pipe to move thermal energy rapidly. This flood of memory also helped him remember radiation, the transfer of energy through electromagnetic waves.

Electromagnetic waves covered a massive spectrum of energy, ranging from visible light, infrared, ultraviolet, radio, microwave, gamma, and xrays. The eyes of the Sea Locust were remarkable in that they made a large spectrum of those ways visible to him in a way no human eye ever could.

He could easily see the effects of conduction in the walls of the thermal vent spreading heat into the water and convection pulling that heated water rapidly away into a special hot water current. Radiation was much harder to see, but it was also present in this thermal vent. Deeper down the sources of heat were more varied and different waves of energy were being emitted. It was also much more subtle and difficult for him to notice at first. Only after remembering the distinction between the different types of heat transfer did he remember that this was the form of heat transfer that his infrared vision was actually seeing. He was mainly looking at the after effects of the other two forms of heat transfer using the third as a guide. Realizing this point he resonated with the energy of the world, using his Thermal Law to get a better hold on what was going on.

It had been calling out from within him this whole time and it was eager to finally be let loose. Yet, that wasnt entirely accurate. His understanding of Law didnt have its own personality or desires. That was merely how he felt when his connection and mastery over the Law started to react. In order to make use of Laws he had to resonate with the energy of the heavens and earth that were always present around him. He had to learn how to make his own energies interact with a specific type of energy present in the world. His power stirred up the matching power in the world and then this Law energy enhanced his abilities or weakened that of others. Coming to this place was less like the Laws coming to life on their own and more like his own understanding forming a sort of harmony with the natural world here. It was more like a singer finding a place with excellent acoustics and feeling compelled to try out a song.

The subtleties of radiation were ever present and with careful study he identified it and started to study it far more carefully. The key was to understand that they were waves with a wavelength and frequency. It wasnt just a constant emission of heat energy but a wave pattern of energy transfer.

None of these distinctions mattered to anyone else, but they were vital to his understanding of the Thermal Law that he comprehended. There was also the fact that he had only scratched the surface of this deep field. Adapting the knowledge he had from another world was helpful but it was not the whole picture. Sage wasnt sure if that was because the Laws were different here or if it was simply because the learning of Earth was still only a small part of the real whole.

Whatever the reason, the sudden distinction between different types of thermal transfer seemed to open a door for him. Combining his detailed study of the thermal vent with his own grasp over Laws led to discover new subtleties and nuances. Laws went beyond merely logical ideas or rational thought. His understanding of such concepts were merely used as a guide for him to feel the correct way forward with the Thermodynamic Law. To resonate and control a law was more of a feeling, which was why it was very difficult to pass down to others. To make it worse it wasnt related to emotions, nor the sense of touch. You had to find that feeling with your Qi, something that was much harder than it sounded. Qi was more akin to a power source, like blood flowing through the veins, not a sensory organ. This is why Spirit Power was so commonly used for Professions to provide the delicate touch and feedback needed. Even with such a wondrous natural event in front of him to use as a reference it wasnt a simple task.

Nascent Souls were rare for a reason.

Things were different for Sage. He already discovered this Thermal Law in Icefire Valley and the return of old memories were enough to get a foot in the door. With these factors working in his favor he rapidly progressed his understanding. Sage carefully felt out minute and subtle variations with his Qi, slowly gaining a stronger connection with the Primal Law he had comprehended. On the Inner World he was constantly experimenting with the changes hed discovered, testing and retesting. There was a strange quirk of the Inner World in that he couldnt use it to discover new Laws or even to improve his existing ones. Other residents of the Inner World could, but as the creator of this world he was restricted. Sage had no idea why this was the case, but there wasnt much he could do about it. It was a shame he couldnt use the Inner World to try to advance his cultivation directly, but he could still use it to train what hed already earned.