Chapter 115: 115

The jungle was filled with the sounds of birds chirping as the trio of Michelle, Ivona, and Anastasia ventured deeper and deeper into the wilderness, heading towards the barrier of the Heavenly Law. They weren’t planning to cross it, as they were still waiting for Kieran to reach the threshold of Spirit Rank, but they wanted to check if Anastasia’s soul energy, combined with the belt artifact from David Elether, was enough for the barrier to let her exit the Land of Exile and go with them to the lower realm.

Michelle had already gone to the barrier once, and she still remembered the wound she got when she crashed against it because of her rashness, so she was able to lead the girls safely to the place where they felt something blocking their steps.

“Anastasia, do you have the belt?” Michelle asked as she looked at Anastasia.

Anastasia quickly nodded and took it out of her sleeve, fastening it around her waist. In an instant, she felt something warm rush through her, indicating that the belt got activated and was reacting to her soul energy. “I’ll try to cross it now…” she said as she stretched out her hand and pressed it against the invisible force.

Something rippled beneath her palm, and though she still felt some resistance, she was able to push her hand through the force blocking her and slowly walk to the other side, a wave of thrill running through her. Then, she took a deep breath and marveled at the amount of spirit energy she felt in the surrounding air.

Though she wasn’t a Spirit Master, she could still sense that the amount of spirit energy behind the barrier was denser by folds compared to the Land of Exile. In the Land of Exile, she could barely even feel the presence of spirit energy in the air, so she couldn’t discern it, but behind the barrier, she could feel it with each breath she took. It was a pity that she couldn’t harness the energy.

Still, she liked her soul energy. It was something she didn’t need to get from the outside world but cultivated from within her soul, so she was happy. And it carried nearly the same power as spirit energy. Also, most people, at least in the lower realm, couldn’t use or defend against it, so she would have an advantage if she fought with her soul energy compared to Spirit Masters.

Taking a while longer to observe the world outside the barrier, Anastasia stretched her hand towards the barrier again after a while and came back.

“How was it?” Ivona asked, clearly excited about passing through the barrier. She wanted to do it, too, but since there was no need to check if she could do it, there was no reason to do it.

“I felt some resistance when passing through, but behind the barrier, it was a completely new world. It looked the same, but even I, a Soul Master, could feel how abundant the spirit energy was there. You should try it for a moment, too.” Anastasia spoke, her eyes dancing with agitation and thrill.

At first, Ivona was a bit hesitant, but after Anastasia spoke about how rich the spirit energy there was, she couldn’t resist the thought of getting a taste and put her hand on the invisible barrier.

Unlike Anastasia, who possessed soul energy, so it took the barrier a bit longer to process if she could pass through, Ivona didn’t feel any resistance from the barrier and quickly passed through.

On the other side, she took a deep breath, feeling spirit energy cling to her body, as if asking to be absorbed. But she didn’t do it. As far as she knew, even Michelle didn’t absorb any spirit energy when she went to the lower realm for a while. It was so that all three Spirit Masters, Kierna, Ivona, and Michelle, could start off from the same ground level once they went through the barrier together. They didn’t have any deep thoughts behind it. They just all wanted to have a fresh start together.

Anastasia was the same. Though her ranks and levels were a bit different since she wasn’t a Spirit Master, but a Soul Master, to pass through the barrier, she needed around the same power as the rest. Just. Cultivation of soul energy was completely different from cultivation of spirit energy. It could be clearly seen from the fact that Anastasia reached the same power as Michelle and Ivona after a few days (if her long sleep wasn’t included), when Ivona needed years for that, and Michelle a few months.

But the times of the two weren’t really relevant either, because Ivona had to hide her cultivation from the Beltrez family, so she couldn’t cultivate constantly, and Michelle had a special cultivation method; also, she had Spirit Soul Blood, which changed her cultivation even further.

So, basically, the only way to see who was able to cultivate the fastest was after they entered the lower realm and all started cultivating under the same external conditions from the same level.

It could be that everyone would end up cultivating at the same speed, or someone could overtake everyone else and overpower them easily. Or everyone could cultivate at a similar speed, with just one person falling behind.

And then there was the anomaly, Anastasia. From the information Michelle got from the Archduke, for Soul Masters, it was quite easy to reach the power needed to pass through the barrier, and the cultivation went smoothly for a while longer, but then it slowed down rapidly, because soul energy’s power depended on the capabilities of one’s soul, but also on their body. So if a soul master wanted to reach great heights, they needed to shift between cultivating soul energy, drilling their body, and training their willpower. All that could greatly decrease their cultivation speed.

In the end, there was a reason why only people without spirit energy became Soul Masters, even though all Spirit Masters could become Soul Masters, too. Being a Spirit Master gave them better chances of having great power and achievements at a younger age. Cultivation of spirit energy was faster than cultivation of soul energy. Most of the time. There existed legendary Soul Masters who used to stand at the pinnacle of the world. But that was deep in history; people had already forgotten about it and whoever could cultivated spirit energy, not even bothering to find out their potential in cultivating soul energy.

In history, it was common for children to be tested to check what shade of gray their soul energy was, but in present times, artifacts which could check it were left in storages as useless trinkets to collect dust, and anyone who cultivated soul energy instead of spirit energy was labeled trash without even waiting for them to show their potential.

But it was natural. In the last few thousands of years, no great Soul Master raised up, and even the oldest cultivators hadn’t met someone like that in their whole lives, even though they were basically old monsters who had all lived around a thousand years.

Even when everyone knew the history of Soul Masters, no one thought Anastasia’s history was bleak. Her soul power was a dark shade of gray, showing she had great potential and that her soul must have been dense. And since that was the case, even if she ended up being slower at cultivation compared to Michelle, Ivona, and Kieran, her future would still be bright.

Also, there was always the possibility that she would surpass them. In the end, soul energy was quite unpredictable since most people didn’t even remember its existence. Only the leading members of powerhouses in the upper and heavenly realm cultivated soul energy alongside spirit energy to have more power to keep their positions steady and to give them more possibilities if something happened.

Michelle’s father, Archduke Philip Grace, was a perfect example of such a person. He was the leader of one of the best information guilds and also a friend of the headmaster of the best academy in the upper realm, and he was not only an Emperor ranked Paragon cultivator of wood element, he was also a formidable Soul Master, mostly known for using his soul swords for killing traitors in his guild.

When Ivona returned from behind the barrier, the trio went a bit further from it since monsters stayed clear of it, and soon found a lake in the jungle. The air was humid and hot, buzzing with the sound of mosquitos and similar things which Michelle hated. Anastasia and Ivona weren’t really happy about it, either.

Deciding to get as far from the lake as possible, the girls changed the direction of their venture and proceeded into the jungle to search for monsters to fight. They knew that Kieran needed approximately half a year to reach the threshold of Spirit rank, so they planned to spend the time fighting monsters.

Well, fighting. The monsters in the Land of Exile were already considered too weak for them, but they didn’t want to go to the lower realm to fight just yet, as without breaking through into the Spirit rank, that would be not only life-threatening but also foolish. So they decided to hone their skills by fighting groups of monsters or sparring with each other, not caring if they got hurt in the sparring. Michelle could easily heal their wounds with her pills and medical knowledge, and when she got hurt, her wounds swiftly closed up. Though the smell of blood always attracted a small horde of monsters. But that was easily taken care of by Michelle’s beasts, who were also bored and wanted to fight.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep