Chapter 90: Prithvi and Vasuki

Azalon sat cross legged within the cave silently. He held the Spirit Core of the Demon Mountain Ape in his palm and his gaze was fixed on the swirling vortex of Spirit Essence contained within the Spirit Core. A heavy feeling like he was holding a concentrated mass of earth was transmitted from the Spirit Core.

Time slowly ticked by as Azalon silently stared at the Spirit Core. At first he just silently stared at it with a pondering expression on his face, but as time went by, he started fiddling with the fist sized Spirit Core. He hefted it high in his arm, he held it in his right hand for a while and transferred it to hold in his left hand and transferred it back to his right hand after sometime.

He started poking it with his fingers, he brought it close it to his face almost sticking it to his nose. He sniffed at it and even licked the smooth surface of the Spirit Core for a few times! He even banged the Spirit Core with a sharp rock he found in the cave, as if he was trying to break open the Spirit Core!

Half an hour went by as Azalon played around with the Spirit Core. LILY stayed silent for the first few minutes seeing Azalon play around with the Spirit Core thinking that her master was just observing it, but as Azalon’s actions became more and more weird, her expression changed from interest to astonishment and even some parts embarrassment and disgust! She didn’t know what Azalon was doing or why he was doing it!

Even Merup who lost interest after zipping all around the cave and explored the new surroundings, hovered around Azalon as he watched the antics of Azalon with an interesting look on his face. He even tried imitating Azalon’s expression and behaviour as he gave a Chi… Chi… Chi~~~ laugh. Raka, who was sleeping in the corner also cracked open one golden eye and stared at Azalon with a blank look on his face.

Finally after half an hour, LILY could hear Azalon muttering something to himself. When she shuffled closer to his mouth, she heard Azalon’s voice which was repeating the same thing over and over.

“What to do? What to do? What to do?”

“Umm… Master, what are you doing? What do you mean by what to do?” LILY couldn’t stay silent anymore when she heard Azalon’s words as she asked with a puzzled tone. She couldn’t understand what Azalon was doing and why he was muttering those words over and over to himself.

“Huh? Oh… hehehehe…” Azalon was startled when he heard LILY’s voice right next to his ear and he gave a weird laugh while scratching his head.

“Its this, you see… I came across a small problem and I don’t know what to do. So, I am thinking on how to solve it!” Azalon said.

“Problem? But my scans tell me that there is no problem with your mental state or your physical condition, Master. If not, why don’t you tell me what the problem is and we will solve it together. Wouldn’t it be better like that?” LILY said after scanning Azalon’s body and confirming that there was no problem with Azalon’s condition.

“No no no… its not that kind of problem. You see this Spirit Core right?” Azalon held the Spirit Core and LILY nodded, not understanding where Azalon was going with the conversation. But she still concentrated on the Spirit Core and tried to analyse it with her sensors.

“Demon Mountain Ape Spirit Core. Classified as a Class 5 Earth Affinity Spirit Beast, said to be equivalent of a Soul Level Spirit Core Realm human cultivator. Sensors indicate the Core is slightly damaged and the energy levels contained within are not at the optimum levels of its capacity. Unknown energy particles detected in the Core. Unable to identify the properties, but data observations validated as condensed soul form of the Demon Mountain Ape. No other anomalies detected, Master.” LILY diligently reported the findings from the scans to Azalon.

“Well, I know that already but you see, the problem is… the problem is that… you see… “ Azalon stammered for a while as he opened and closed his mouth. His face immediately became serious and he gulped two to three times before he opened his mouth again.

“I have to swallow this thing for the Devour ability to work, right? But look at the size of this thing! Its almost as large as my entire palm! How do you think I can swallow this thing? But if I don’t swallow it, how can the Spirit Essence and the Soul contained in the Spirit Core can be used to Awaken the Soul Spirit?” Azalon said it all in one breath with a defeated expression on his face.

LILY: “… … …”

Merup: “… … …”

Raka: “… … …”

All three of his Soul Spirits stared at him with blank expressions like they were looking at something very rare. It went on for a long time that even Azalon was starting to feel embarrassed because of the three stares focused on him.

“Hahahahahahahahaha…” Finally it was LILY who broke the silence as she erupted into peals of laughter. She laughed so hard that she fell down from Azalon’s shoulder and starting rolling on the ground while holding her stomach.

“Chi Chi Chi Chi Chiii~~~” Merup chittered from behind along with LILY as he tried to imitate her and started rolling on the ground too while laughing.

Raka was the only one who now stood where he was sleeping previously while staring at Azalon with wide eyes and open mouth. The blank and astonished expression on his face was wondrous to behold as his entire body trembled slightly. He slowly walked towards Azalon and stood before Azalon while his golden eyes bore holes into Azalon.

“What do you think of the ability you inherited from this prince, huh? Do you think such a wonderful ability like Devour would be limited to such conditions that it would only work if the Core has to be completely swallowed by you? What are you, an idiot?” Raka voice, full of disdain and even contained traces of disgust, came roaring down in Azalon’s mind while his body outside was trembling with rage.

“I don’t want to be called an idiot by you, you stupid cat! What do you mean I don’t need to completely swallow it? Isn’t it how I have been doing it till now? I thought it would be the same now as well!” Azalon’s temper was stroked when he heard the disgust in Raka’s voice as he roared back at his Soul Spirit.

“Who are you calling stupid, you weird idiot!? Let alone you not groveling and prostrating before this prince for giving you this heaven – defying chance of being your Soul Spirit, but you dare to call me stupid? If you don’t even know that my Devour ability can be concentrated just inside your mouth, then what are you if not an idiot huh? Once you get strong enough, you can even Devour the energy within anything without even touching it!” Raka roared back even loudly but because of his childish voice, it came as a piercing shriek instead of a roar.

“How can you expect me to know that, you stupid cat? You didn’t even bother me to tell this and you are telling me this now! And what about that heaven – defying or heaven – shitting chance, huh? And whats with that narcissistic way of calling yourself a prince, huh? You are just a stupid cat and my Soul Spirit!” Azalon’s voice became louder and louder but just like Raka, his childish voice came as a whining shriek almost similar in tone with Raka.

LILY and Merup who stopped laughing somewhere in between the argument between Raka and Azalon watched the two of them bickering with each other.

“They both are idiots, right?” LILY said softly and Merup nodded his head with a wizened expression on his face.” Yes, a cat idiot and a weird idiot”, he said as he pointed at the small tiger cub and child fighting with each other like kids.

Azalon and Raka fought with each other with words and trading insults with each other for another 15 minutes before they became silent. Both of them were panting slightly as they glared at each other.

“Hmph! Who cares about you anyway, you muddle headed freak? Just refine the Spirit Core already and Awaken another one of your Soul Spirits. This time, I will show you why I am called the Prince!” Raka snorted disdainfully and walked back to the spot he was lying previously and curled back into sleep without even bothering to give Azalon another glance.

Azalon snorted too and closed his eyes as he held the Spirit Core near his mouth. He concentrated on the Devour ability and activated it. He tried to make the Devour ability manifest within his mouth and not just within his body. It was the first time he tried something like this with the Devour ability and he failed in his first attempt. He tried again and again and it was only after few dozens of times that he finally succeeded.

A small black hole like vortex slowly formed at the base of his mouth just at the entrance of his throat. The black vortex rotated slowly and Azalon had to concentrate with all his mind just to maintain the vortex at its position. Gradually, his control over the vortex increased and after a few moments, the vortex stabilised. A terrifying attractive force exploded out from within the vortex as it stabilised and the attractive force kept increasing as the vortex started rotating with more speed.

Crack!

The Spirit Core which he held near his open mouth slightly shook under that attractive force and a small crack appeared on its smooth surface. The Spirit Essence leaked out from the crack and was instantly absorbed by the vortex as it flowed into Azalon’s body. The crack became wider and wider as more and more Spirit Essence was attracted out from the Spirit Core. Finally, the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape flew out from the Spirit Core and was instantly absorbed into the vortex. Once the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape was absorbed, the remaining Spirit Essence forcefully broke out from the Spirit Core and followed the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape into the vortex. The Spirit Core in Azalon’s hand crumbled into dust and trickled down his fingers as the last wisp of the Spirit Essence was extracted from it.

But Azalon was not in the situation to mind that as his eyes became blank and his body didn’t move an inch the moment he swallowed the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape. He was just sitting there like a statue.

Within his Soul Root, Azalon was looking at the towering figure of the Demon Mountain Ape that was staring down at him with bright red but blank and confused eyes. Demonic energy and the Spirit Essence from the Spirit Core swirled around the gigantic figure of the Demon Mountain Ape like a small tempest. Azalon’s mental projection was almost looking pathetic and weak before that gigantic projection of the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape.

It was not the first time Azalon had experienced this situation. The same had happened when he had swallowed the soul of the Thunder Horned Stag when he awakened Merup. But he was also not the same defenseless Spirit Sense Realm cultivator back then. His Spiritual Sense exploded out as he flung open the third eye completely and formed a tight mental barrier around his soul.

The Demon Mountain Ape roared loudly that shook Azalon’s mind but he simply smiled. His mental projection clenched its fist and shot it out like a cannon accompanied by the same drilling sound that would sound when he executed the Infinite Pulse Fists. The beast soul and Azalon’s mental projection started their fight with Azalon’s Soul Root as the battle field, with the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape attacking and Azalon striving to defend his consciousness. He was waiting, waiting for the dormant Soul Embryo to sense the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape.

The brown colored Soul Embryo of the six dormant Soul Embryos floating around his main soul flashed brightly! The same situation he had seen when he had absorbed the Thunder Horned Stag played before him once again as the brown colored Soul Embryo flew over from its orbit and appeared above the Demon Mountain Ape, and it was directly and almost instantly sucked into the Soul Embryo.

Azalon slowly opened his eyes and his eyes glittered brightly and his lips curled into a very pleased laugh.

“Master, have you succeeded?” LILY’s voice sounded in his mind but Azalon didn’t respond as he once again closed his eyes. He appeared within that familiar bubble again. He could see the three spheres that represented Raka, LILY and Merup that were almost stuck halfway through the bubble membrane as well as the soul bridges he had formed that connected his soul with those of his Soul Spirits. He also looked at the six dormant Soul Spirits floating around him, one of which was pulsing with a muddy brown color. The pulsing increased with each passing second.

Azalon calmed himself and immediately remembered the steps he had to follow that were recorded in the Soul Embryo Cultivation Method. He concentrated on the pulsing brown Soul Embryo and a narrow tube like tunnel extended out from the bubble membrane and connected to the Soul Embryo. The Spirit Energy trickled from outside the bubble through the tunnel and flowed into the Soul Embryo. The last time when he awakened Merup, it took his a week for the Soul Embryo to hatch into his Soul Spirit. But this time it would take a short time as the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape was far more powerful compared to the soul of the Thunder Horned Stag!

Azalon opened his eyes once again after he formed a rudimentary Soul Bridge with the brown colored Soul Spirit. His eyes revealed a pondering look and hardened into determination as he flipped his hand and a pale blue Spirit Core appeared in his palm.

“This is a gamble I am taking. If it succeeds, it will be the best outcome but if it fails… well, atleast I can use the Spirit Essence to break through to the next level or even two levels.” He manipulated the Devour ability to form the black vortex in his mouth and in a few moments, the pale blue Spirit Core disintegrated into dust as the entire Spirit Essence contained within as well as the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk was absorbed into his body.

Azalon once again appeared within his Soul Root and the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk towered over him, albeit its form was smaller than the Demon Mountain Ape. As his Spiritual Sense covered his mental projection, he looked over at the blue colored Soul Embryo to see if it reacted to the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk. Azalon and the Netherlake Basilisk exchanged tens of attacks but Azalon didn’t find any reaction from the Soul Embryo.

Just as he was about to give up, the Soul Embryo trembled and slowly approached the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk, like it was still deciding if the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk was enough for it or not. The blue colored Soul Embryo hovered above the Netherlake Basilisk for a few moments and it finally flashed with a brilliant blue light and as the light faded away, the soul of the Netherlake Basilisk was gone. Azalon was completely excited as he watched the blue Soul Embryo return to its position around his main soul.

He concentrated and appeared within the bubble again. He repeated the process of forming the rudimentary Soul Bridge with the blue Soul Embryo!

Seconds ticked by into minutes, minutes accumulated into hours…

Azalon didn’t know how much time had passed by when he regained his mental clarity. His body felt completely numb because of him sitting there without moving for a long time, and he had a splitting headache, the result of mental exhaustion. The battle with the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape may have been short but it was the soul of a Class 5 Spirit Beast, an existence Azalon couldn’t match up to, not at his current level of cultivation base. Even though it was just a soul form, its might was countless times more powerful that his own Spiritual Sense. Just the few attacks he took almost destroyed his consciousness. Not to mention that his fight with the Netherlake Basilisk was longer. His Spiritual Sense was almost completely depleted because of the two successive fights.

But he didn’t mind about this at all as he felt the connection between himself and the two newly activated Soul Embryos getting stronger and stronger. He knew that it would be not long before the Soul Embryos to hatch. He activated his Devour ability and let it absorb the remaining Spirit Essence from the two Spirit Cores he had swallowed.

When the remaining of the Spirit Essence was refined by Azalon and was integrated into his Spirit Lakes, the two pulsing Soul Embryos suddenly exploded with bright lights, lighting the Soul Root with a muddy brown color and a icy pale blue color. Azalon knew that this was the sign that the Soul Spirits were about to hatch from their Soul Embryos.

Crack! Crack! Crack! Crack!

As loud cracking sounds resounded through his Soul Root, Azalon appeared once again within that bubble where he could see the two Soul Embryos floating around him pulsing with Spirit Energy they absorbed. Within those spheres, he could make out faint outlines of the Spirits inside. He smiled and with a thought, two small tunnels extended from his abdomen where his Soul Root resided and connected with the two Soul Embryos, forming two complete Soul Bridges. Muddy brown Spirit Energy and pale blue Spirit Energy trickled down through the connected tunnels and flowed into his body. Time passed and the trickle changed into a roaring flood that filled his body.

Azalon opened his eyes after he completed the formation of the two Soul Bridges. Four pairs of eyes observed as two clusters of brown light and blue light converged and condensed before them.

These two were the Soul Spirits formed from two of the Primal Rings and he was really excited to see what they would be like. Not to mention that these two Soul Spirits would give him two different attributes!

Under his excited eyes, the two clusters of light broke up with a bang and two figures appeared before him along with two names that rang deep within his soul.

“Water Snake, Vasuki!”

“Earth Golem, Prithvi!”