楼上的上瘾女士

Warning!: This chapter is a bit of an info dump but an essential one and I advise you to brave through it and read it.

Also, I tried my best to tread it into the o storyline and keep things interesting... I hope you like it.

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Hours later...

Melinda was now awake after a brief moment of unconsciousness and her head was resting on Hal\'s chest while he stroked her hair. She sighed contentedly and drew circles on his chest while also giving it occasional kisses.

"Do you think this place is really safe? From my grandmother I mean" she said.

Hal chuckled, 

"That you break the silence with talks of another woman is quite intriguing" he said.

Melinda slapped his chest lightly, 

"You know what I mean" she said and Hal indeed did.

The Harem space was a kind of manipulation of space and void which could also be seen as opening another dimension and while she had no idea how Hal could have it and seemingly possess absolute control over it while also not knowing how it can be created, she worried her Grandmother\'s ability with space could get her in.

"Yes, it is. And even if it isn\'t, I like to believe Isabella has more important things to do than to go snooping around our private business" Hal told her and Melinda nodded against his chest.

"I guess so. Simple paranoia I guess. I quite like this place. It\'s homey and it\'s just us" she said.

"Except that it\'s hidden" Hal pointed out. Well aware of how much Melinda would prefer the mansion to be right on the outside and a loud proclamation of what happened within.

She was ostentatious that way.

"Except for that" she agreed.

Hal let a moment of silence pass between them before speaking up again, 

"Speaking of Isabella, any idea how she does what she does?" Hal asked and it was not out of genuine curiosity as he could find out everything from Grimoire, he simply wished to find out how much Melinda knew of the matter.

He had a feeling Isabella would have made mention of it to her granddaughter already.

Melinda shrugged as best she could, 

"It\'s just the manipulation of Ordinance. It\'s a powerful ability and a true mark of a genius. My... father and uncle have Ordinances too. They are just not as showy with it as she is." She said.

Hal said nothing which was his prompt for her to continue which she eventually did by going into complete detail, 

"Ordinances, from what I have been told, are laws, principles, and statutes that govern the way of the world. There are various ordinances and apparently, anything can be an ordinance. Fire, Earth, strength, darkness, Blood, space, Time... Anything.

However, powerful as they are, the areas to sense them are very scarce and it is usually more of a stroke of luck. Many devote their lives to meditation and cultivation but never actually manage to sense or harness it.

They wither away in the process.

It\'s that difficult" she ended with a sigh.

Hal frowned, 

"So, how did your father, uncle, and grandmother succeed then? Sorry to be brash but three in a family cannot all be lucky."

Actually, Hal knew such luck was possible but simply refused to believe that with how difficult Melinda made it sound, all three succeeded.

Melinda cleared her throat, 

"Actually, while it is difficult and scarce to sense it, there is one particular location that guarantees a certainty of sensing and gaining insight to an ordinance. After that, any further progress is left completely with the cultivator.

\'The Monument of Ordinances\'

From the history books, we know it has existed for as long as there are living beings in this world and stands right at the border of the two continents. It has two openings which are both pointed to each continent. It ensures that the two races have equal opportunities to make use of it. 

It is a common belief that whoever built and left the Monument knew of the differences that would arise between the two races so they were dubbed \'The clairvoyant\'.

Anyway, the monument is the best place to go when one wants to gain insight into an ordinance and it is where a majority of those in the older generation which includes the Dane family elders gained insight into an Ordinance."

When Melinda took a break in her storytelling, Hal suspected that there was a catch to this wonderful opportunity and he made to ask but she was already explaining,

"However, the Monument is not always opened. It follows a strict schedule and no one has ever been able to interfere or tweak that schedule" she said.

"What\'s the schedule?" Hal asked and raised her head to look into his eyes, 

"It only opens every five thousand years" she said and Hal\'s eyes widened.

All that he was learning from Melinda was new information that he had known nothing of as he was yet to peruse Grimoire and the time gap was genuinely shocking to him.

"What?!" He exclaimed, 

Melinda nodded, 

"Yes, five thousand years. Just enough time for a child born that year to become a cosmic saint." she said and was able to understand Hal\'s outburst even though at the time she had found out, her reaction had been significantly lesser.

But that was to be expected since Hal was actually the one in urgent need of getting stronger at a faster rate.

"When last was it opened?" Hal asked.

"Five hundred years ago, give or take a few." Melinda replied and laid her head back on his chest.

"In other words..." Hal began, 

"... We still have four thousand and five hundred years left. That\'s right." Melinda interrupted with a nod.

Hal sighed at this before withdrawing a little into his mind space to consult Grimoire which confirmed Melinda\'s words as the monument was information available in the Grimoire.

Also, he got even more knowledge of the Ordinances while he was in there;

The Ordinances were divided into two tiers, Elemental Ordinances and Abstract Ordinances with Abstract being the more powerful of the two tiers.

Gaining insight into one ordinance, regardless of whether it was Elemental it Abstract was one of the important elements to godhood.

Abstract Ordinances only consist of six powerful ordinances that are referred to as the true dictators of world order; Life, Time, Space, Destiny, Reality, and Death. 

Powerful as this six are, only one can be mastered by any cultivator and none could ever actually be said to be more powerful than the other.

However, the peculiar thing about the Abstract Ordinances was a strange attraction between the six. Almost as though they were sums of a whole but yet individually comprehensive, hence the name; Abstract.

Elemental ordinances contain many more ordinances, in fact, any Ordinance not part of six abstract ordinances is an Elemental Ordinance and can be many things, some of it being, Fire, Lightning, strength, darkness, light e.t.c.

It is possible to be proficient in numerous Elemental Ordinances. In theory, it was possible to gain insight into all of them as many as they are. However, it becomes harder to sense another once insight has been gained into one.

Even gods with eternity stretched out before them have only been able to gain insight to six at once and struggle with the seventh which though possible to comprehend seems out of reach.

"Is it possible to learn the ordinances without the monument?" Hal asked mostly to himself as he began to peruse Grimoire for answers.

However, the artifact\'s answer was a bit vague being that it said an ordinance could be learned through any number of locations. It just has to be a location dense with that particular ordinance.

Although to be fair, that was the written down explanation which could be said to be a tad bit incomplete and open to interpretation. Luckily, Grimoire itself had the ability to reason and proffer direct answers once asked.

It took Hal\'s words as a question and answered, 

"It is possible but the chances are slim. Nowhere is actually dense with an Ordinance mostly because there is a constant mixture which makes it difficult to sense and focus on a particular one. Especially in the case of many cultivating experts who do not know which to sense for in the first place." It said.

Hal looked a little confused, 

"Why not ignore all others and simply pick one to focus on?" He asked as that did not seem particularly difficult to him.

Grimoire grinned in a sly manner, 

"Then why not try it?" It said.

"In here?" Hal asked incredulously as this was mostly a projection of himself inside his mind space.

"Of course not. I meant outside, in the harem space. It has a lot of qualities similar to the outside world and should work quite well for a test run" it said in the same sly tone of voice.

Hal narrowed his eyes at it but said nothing as he decided there was no harm in trying...