Chapter 92: Prince of the Spirit World

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The soul embryo slowed down and stopped moving when the Spiritual Sense of Azalon enveloped it. It trembled when the Spiritual Sense tried to move it from its position but under the increasing force from the Spiritual Sense, it slowly broke from its orbit and started moving towards Azalon.

When the soul embryo broke off from its orbit, Azalon could feel the Soul Bridge as well as the connection between his own soul and the soul embryo becoming unstable, especially the Soul Bridge since it was a newly formed one and hadn’t yet stabilised completely. But there was also a reason why Azalon had considered Vasuki as his first specimen for the Spirit Immersion.

Generally, Water Spirit Energy was considered to the mildest and also the most versatile of all the Spirit Energies. Not to mention that the soul embryo was formed from the soul energy of the Netherlake Basilisk, a Class 3 Spirit Beast that was considered a Class 4! Hence Azalon was confident that this soul embryo possessed the endurance and capacity to bear through any mistakes he would make during the process.

But he was still careful and concentrated with all his mind to carefully manipulate the Spiritual Sense to move the soul embryo. He didn’t rush the process and watched patiently as the soul embryo was brought down inch by inch.

After a long time, the soul embryo reached him and he immediately changed its trajectory to the Spirit Lake. Once the soul embryo touched the surface of the blue Spirit Lake, he retracted the Spiritual Sense enveloping it and the soul embryo plopped into the Spirit Lake like a pebble. He watched his wide eyes as the soul embryo settled down at the bottom of the Spirit Lake. But to his astonishment, other than the ripples that were made as the soul embryo touched its surface, nothing happened! The soul embryo just sat at the bottom of the Spirit Lake like an oversized pebble!

“Did I do anything wrong? Did I miss anything?” Azalon watched the Spirit Lake that had absolutely no reaction from it with bewilderment. He once again went through all the material he had gathered regarding the Spirit Immersion and he confirmed to himself that there was really no special step that needs to be done. All of the material explained that the Spirit Immersion was really a very dangerous step but the procedure was very easy and exactly as he had followed.

“Hmmm…” Azalon looked up towards the remaining three soul embryos orbiting his own soul. A thoughtful look surfaced in his eyes as he once again mobilised his Spiritual Sense to envelop the brown soul embryo of Prithvi!

He repeated the same process again and he watched as the soul embryo sank to the bottom of the brown Spirit Lake. The thoughtful look in his eyes grew more pronounced as he watched the brown Spirit Lake that had no reaction just like the Blue Spirit Lake.

His Spiritual Sense moved and this time, the soul embryo of Merup sank into the bottom of the purple Spirit Lake with absolutely no reaction from the Spirit Lake. His brows furrowed as he sunk deep into thought.

“There seems to be something wrong! Why is nothing happening? Is it because of the Soul Embryo Cultivation Method? Or because the soul embryos are not real Soul Spirits but formed from the Primal Rings?” Azalon muttered to himself as his left hand fondled his chin, but rejected these doubts almost immediately. The Spirit Lakes were formed from the Spirit Energy he had cultivated because of the existence of these Soul Spirits. Then how could be there be a rejection between the two?

Even then he couldn’t explain the lack of reaction from the Spirit Lakes. Now there were only the soul embryos of LILY and Raka remaining as well as the corresponding grey Spirit Lake. Azalon hesitated as he hadn’t heard of the Spirit Immersion performed with two Soul Spirits in one single Spirit Lake.

In the end, he mobilised his Spiritual Sense and enveloped the soul embryos of Raka and LILY simultaneously. When the soul embryo of Raka was broke from its orbit, Azalon felt his entire Soul Root tremble slightly. Azalon expected this as Raka was his main Soul Spirit and also the naturally Awakened one at that in contrast with the other 8.

The two soul embryos floated down under the control of his Spiritual Sense and gradually were lowered into the grey Spirit Lake. Azalon expected something to happen as he had a thought that since Raka was his main Soul Spirit, the other Soul Spirits would succeed in the Spirit Immersion only if Raka’s was successful. But his hopes were crumbled as he watched the two soul embryos sink to the bottom of the Spirit Lake and there was no reaction from it, not even a slight ripple!

In the outside world, just as Azalon submerged Raka’s soul embryo into the Spirit Lake, Raka’s eyes who was now standing before Azalon shined brightly like two golden pools of light. Shockingly, behind him, the newly Awakened Vasuki and Prithvi were tightly bound in rings of light that were blue and brown in colour, the same as the elements they represented, sealing their movements. Even Merup and LILY were tightly bound in purple and silver rings of light! Their Spirit Energies and even their presences were completely suppressed by those rings of lights. Only LILY’s body twitched ever so slightly but she couldn’t do anything other than that.

On Raka’s forehead, the three different gemstones, as well as the silver design that covered his eyes, were shining with a bright light. It was clear that the rings of lights suppressing the other Soul Spirits were because of these gemstones as well as the silver pattern on Raka! It was also because of this that the Spirit Immersion performed by Azalon didn’t garner any response from the Spirit Lakes!

Raka’s golden eyes that were usually filled with a lethargic look were now wide open and the swirling coloured threads deep within formed a beautiful contrast with the golden colour of the eyes.

“You damn kid dare question this prince’s status? Now let me show what the Prince of the Spirit World really means!” Raka’s golden eyes blazed as he let out a loud roar, which sounded more like an actual roar of a tiger and completely different from the usual purring sounds. Following his roar, a swirling grey vortex suddenly appeared above Azalon’s head and swiftly descended and disappeared into Azalon’s body! Raka’s body sagged visibly and he was panting heavily when the grey vortex sank into Azalon’s body. Not only Raka, even the other 4 Soul Spirits became dull and listless as almost all of their Spirit Essence was drained by Raka. But his eyes were still blazing and a very human-like smug look appeared on Raka’s face.

Within Azalon’s Soul Root…

Azalon was completely left helpless when he looked around at the four peaceful Spirit Lakes. He just couldn’t find any reasoning as to why this has happened, no matter how much he wracked his brains. Just then, a terrifying huge grey vortex suddenly appeared within his Soul Root out of nowhere. He had no time to react other than to instinctively cover his manifestation of consciousness with Spiritual Sense before he was sucked into the swirling vortex!

The Soul Root sank into silence but it was only for a moment before the four Spirit Lakes started bubbling. Now that Raka was not suppressing the soul embryos, they started their reaction to the Spirit Immersion. The Spirit Lakes bubbled up violently and erupted like four geysers. For a moment, the entire Soul Root was covered with droplets of the four Spirit Energies within the dark interior. The geysers subsided to form a vortex with the immersed soul embryo as the eye as the Spirit Energy was being absorbed at an insane rate by the soul embryos! Within a few moments, the entire Spirit Energy contained in the Spirit Lake was completely absorbed by the respective soul embryos!

It was just then, the Devour ability kicked in automatically and started operating at a frantic pace to replenish the Spirit Energy. The Spirit Energy from the surroundings was unceasingly absorbed into the body, before being poured into the Soul Root. The Soul Root was completely engulfed by the rush of the Spirit Energies and within a few moments, it was drowned by the rain of Spirit Energy falling down after being compressed into liquid drops.

No matter how much Spirit Energy was poured into the Spirit Lakes, the soul embryos were like bottomless chasms that completely absorbed every last drop of the Spirit Energy! But the membrane forming the embryo slowly but definitely progressed with the absorption of the Spirit Energies. The soul embryos usually required the soul energy to form the embryo membrane and evolve to the next level but it also works with the Spirit Energy and Spirit Essences as well, just that it will take a huge amount and time to form the embryo membrane.

In addition to this, the Spirit Immersion was a crucial step to be performed by a Condensation Realm cultivator. After immersing the soul into the Spirit Lake, it would absorb the Spirit Energy and nourish itself. The higher the level of cultivation, the more Spirit Energy the Spirit Lake could hold and the more nourishing it would be for the Soul Spirit.

In Azalon’s case, this effect completely complements the Soul Embryo Cultivation Method which doesn’t just nourish the soul but instead evolves the Soul Spirit by absorbing the Spirit Energy!

As Raka’s soul embryo absorbed more and more Spirit Energy, the Devour ability was also strengthened gradually and the influx of the Spirit Energy through the Devour ability increased with it until it reached a balance with the absorption rate of the Spirit Energies by the soul embryos and even gradually surpassed it! Now the excess Spirit Energy was pooling in the Spirit Lakes and if it continues the same way, the Spirit Energy will keep on accumulating until Azalon had a breakthrough to the Third Level Condensation Realm.

With all the ruckus going on in the Soul Root, there was no one to bother about a pin head sized blackish drop of blood that was floating in a corner of the Soul Root! This was the Demon Essence contained in the soul and the Spirit Essence of the Demon Mountain Ape!

Azalon had been concentrating on manipulating the soul embryos with all his might and after that, he was more concerned about the lack of reaction from the Spirit Lakes before his consciousness was sucked into the grey portal that suddenly appeared. Hence even he didn’t pay enough attention to find this small drop of blood. But even if he would have tried to sense this Demon Essense, Azalon couldn’t have done so because this Demon Essence was from the soul of the Demon Mountain Ape, a Class 5 Spirit Beast that was equivalent of a Soul Core level cultivator!

Suddenly, a red beam of light shined on this blackish red drop of blood and it whizzed through the beam of light and was absorbed into the drop of blood hovering above Azalon’s soul! The drop of blood trembled for a moment and an almost indistinct roar that was filled with madness and happiness echoed from within the drop of blood.

Meanwhile…

Azalon’s consciousness which was swallowed by the grey vortex was now shuttling through a tunnel that was made of a rainbow of energies. But he was travelling so fast within that all he could see was a blur of colours that made his head swim and he almost blanked out, if not for the pathetic amount of Spiritual Sense that he had enveloped himself within putting up a feeble resistance.

He had panicked initially but he gradually calmed down and was curious to see where this tunnel would lead to. He didn’t know what was happening but if someone or something was powerful enough to intrude into his Soul Root and pull his consciousness away from his body this easily, it was not something he could go against as he was now. So, he patiently waited for the trip to be over so that he can have his answers.

His consciousness travelled through the rainbow tunnel for a long time until he was suddenly ejected out of it almost abruptly, catching Azalon unprepared. He was thrown into an open space and he looked around after he stabilised himself. What he saw made him deeply gasp and his eyes flung open wide open in surprise and astonishment.

He was floating in a pitch black void that stretched endlessly. No heavenly bodies like planets or stars were present in the void, not even stars in the skies above. In fact, there were not even traces of energy in the void, like it was a barren place within the universe! Being a scientist that researched the Primal Energies as well as becoming a cultivator that relied on the Spirit Energy, he could be said to be somewhat attuned to the presence of the Spirit Energy but his mental probe couldn’t even find a single trace of any energy in this space. He slowly rotated in his place and took in the surroundings.

“Look above, you damn kid! You have your eyes right?” A booming voice resounded in the void, making Azalon jump in surprise. That voice sounded absolutely loud in this silent surroundings and Azalon felt slight pain from his consciousness because of the loud voice. He looked up to meet two huge golden eyes staring down at him. The golden eyes were accentuated by the sinuous silver patterns that curled beneath those eyes covering the bottom half of the eyes.

“Raka!” Azalon shouted but his heart was pounding within his chest. Raka he knew was only the size of a tiger cub but whatever it was before him was massive! It was 30 meters in length and 15 meters in height! He looked like a tiny fly before that massive figure standing behind him!

“Hmph! You managed to recognise me even in my real form and that too without the connection you can’t sense now that we are in the Spirit World!” Raka’s voice came booming down again making Azalon feel a slight pain from the rumblings of his consciousness because of the vibrations passing through from the voice.

“Pipe down, you dumb cat! Do you have to speak that louder?” Azalon snapped because of the pain and shouted back. Raka’s eyes flared in anger and disappointment when he saw Azalon reacting like usual even after seeing him this way. He was about to speak when Azalon beat him to it.

“Wait… Did you say Spirit World? What do you mean by Spirit World? Do you mean that Spirit World where the Soul Spirits reside? Isn’t that just a myth of the Spirit Cultivation world?” Azalon asked in shock. He had heard of the Spirit World from his grandfather and he had researched about the Spirit World during his stay in the Hall of Archives. Even though there were some enthusiastic and zealous researchers that tried to prove the secrets behind the Awakening of Soul Spirits with numerous theories, no one was able to find any concrete proof of the existence of a parallel world coined as Spirit World from where the cultivators undergoing Awakening would find their Soul Spirits.

Even Azalon entertained this fact about the existence of a parallel world as he himself was a proof that travel between two spaces was possible. He just didn’t know if this was the same universe where his Earth resided or something completely different plane of existence. So, the theory of a place where the Soul Spirits resided struck him as the most probable explanation when compared to some theories that proposed that the Soul Spirits were just physical manifestations of the souls of the cultivators. Azalon rejected this theory the moment he heard it. In his opinion, how could something tangible as a Soul Spirit be created out of nothing?

But hearing it from the mega – Raka standing behind his back telling him that this was the Spirit World that many cultivators dreamed of finding, how could he not be surprised?

“Yes, this place is the entrance to the Spirit World and I am the Prince as well as the guardian spirit of the Spirit World.” Raka was satisfied and was feeling smug inside when he saw Azalon’s astonishment and it was reflected in his voice.