“SOL! DAMN IT, WAKE UP!!”

Sol’s eyes snapped open, and he saw that he was back inside the cave.

However, he was floating in mid-air while a baleful aura of slaughter radiated from his body. Even though all his bracelets were on, his crescent moon Enigma had appeared on his forehead and was shining with a dark glow that was releasing a tyrannical aura.

However, the golden runes on the bracelets were flickering intensely as if they were trying to keep this berserk power in check.

Little Abdu, who was far away from Sol, had his eyes lit up when he saw Sol’s eyes open. He then sighed in relief when the power radiating from Sol disappeared with a poofing sound.

Sol landed on the ground, but his body felt so weak his legs gave out and he dropped to his knees.

Sol glanced around the slightly destroyed cave in a slight daze before setting his gaze on Little Abdu who was walking closer to him.

“Sol, what happened to you?”

Little Abdu tried to ask, but rather than answering, Little Abdu saw Sol bite his lip so hard blood trickled down. Tears appeared in his eyes as he croaked out.

“Little Abdu…”

But he didn’t get to finish his sentence as he squeezed his eyes shut and released a cry of anguish that resounded in the cave.

After releasing this cry, Sol seemed to lose all the strength in his body as he collapsed onto his side.

Little Abdu slowly walked over to Sol and sat in front of him. He glanced down and saw that Sol had his face buried in the ground while sobbing.

Little Abdu said nothing and only remained silent. However, Sol’s hand reached out and pulled him closer.

Little Abdu didn’t resist and soon he and Sol were lying on the floor of the cave, with Sol clutching onto him like he was about to disappear forever.

Little Abdu still didn’t say anything and only lay there in silence. Eventually, he closed his eyes to the sound of Sol’s muffled sobs that echoed in his ears and resounded slightly in the silent cave.

….

…

..

After what felt like several days, Sol’s sobs soon came to a stop, and he seemed to be recovering somewhat.

He sat up and still holding onto Little Abdu, he placed him in his lap and gently stroked his fur.

Little Abdu opened his eyes and looked up at Sol, who was being awfully silent.

After a pause, Little Abdu asked.

“Do you want to talk about what you saw?”

Even though Little Abdu didn’t understand what fully went on, it was obvious from Sol’s reaction that he had experienced some sort of vision. The reaction was too strong to just be some nightmare.

But worse, after this vision Sol had become extremely clingy towards him.

It wasn’t hard to realize he perhaps saw someone’s death in those visions.

After a moment, Sol decided to tell Little Abdu what he saw in those memories.

After Little Abdu listened to Sol’s retelling of his memories, he was shocked to the core.

He knew Sol’s origins weren’t simple, but the power being described in his story was beyond his imagination. But it really put into perspective what kind of existences were in the expansive cosmos.

Only after a while was Little Abdu able to calm himself down and say.

“Now you partially know what happened to you. Are you able to actively seek out those memories? Perhaps you’ll be able to figure out more.”

Sol shook his head.

“The pattern I discovered to unlock these memories is that I have to awaken more of my bloodline. Or maybe awaken isn’t the right word but perhaps restore. However, what use is there even if I know the full story of my origins?”

Sol’s eyes flashed with determination.

“I won’t achieve anything without strength. But when I do achieve the strength to reach that place, I’ll be going there to ask questions.”

When Little Abdu heard that, his heart couldn’t help but be moved slightly.

Sol suddenly looked down at Little Abdu and asked with a smile.

“You’ll be coming with me too, Little Abdu.”

Little Abdu looked completely shocked upon hearing such a claim.

“I’ll be coming too? Brat, aren’t you thinking too highly of me?”

Sol lifted Little Abdu and buried his face on his back as he said.

“But don’t you have ancestor Mar-Tu’s Heavenly Palace? I sensed that you’ve healed some of your injuries and recovered a bit of your damaged cultivation base. At this rate, you’ll be able to steadily grow stronger along with me, and you might even surpass the strength you had in the past with the help of ancestor Mar-Tu’s Heavenly Palace. I’m right, right?”

An indignant expression appeared in Little Abdu’s eyes as he retorted.

“That doesn’t mean I have the potential to reach a level of strength to be of any help to you where you intend to go.”

“Not with that attitude you won’t!”

Sol said with a laugh as he left Little Abdu above his head and swung him side to side.

Little Abdu seemed to have an annoyed look on his face as he was being swung.

Sol then said something that caused his eyes to reflexively narrow.

“That woman, could she really be the Keres that gave Su Jin that Holy Crest? Or am I overthinking things?”

After he ‘died,’ Sol’s consciousness had lingered in his past self’s soul just enough to hear a portion of his mother’s conversation with that mysterious woman.

“I’m not sure.”

Little Abdu said with a grim look in his eyes, but soon they gained a confused look as he said.

“However, something’s bothering me about how she acted. She’s worshipped as the Goddess of Death and Destruction, but rather than being the cause of it, she merely seems like a bystander to it all.”

Sol nodded.

“If that’s the case, the question was why is the Church slaughtering people in her name? And why did people she made into God’s Chosen like Su Jin go out of control and feel the need to slaughter people.”

The confusion in Little Abdu’s eyes grew.

“I don’t know the answer to that either, but wouldn’t we know when we interact with the Church more?”

Sol’s eyes narrowed as well.

“They’ve likely already entered the Academy, so I’ll meet them after I exit seclusion.”

Little Abdu paused when he sensed the faint Killing Intent radiating from Sol.

“I wouldn’t mind helping, but would it be wise to charge into the Academy and start a mass slaughter?”

Sol forcefully buried his Killing Intent and said.

“No, it wouldn’t be good. Even if I break into the Spiritual Realm, it wouldn’t be wise to confront the Church, especially when they have a cultivator as strong as the Sect Leader of the Shaolin Sect. However…”

A spiteful grin appeared on Sol’s lips as he said coldly.

“As someone from the Eastern Region, it would be natural for my hatred towards the Church to reach the point of wanting to kill them. And if me accidentally killing their disciples starts a conflict with them and the Six Holy Sects and Five Greats Clans, then I wouldn’t mind watching from the sidelines.”

For some reason, when Little Abdu heard that, he realized Sol was capable of truly malevolent things, it made him question himself who Sol was. If not for certain people, then he might have truly done what he said.

True to his speculation, Sol sighed and said.

“But I wouldn’t do such a thing. A war between the two Continents is the worst-case scenario that should be avoided. If I were to try and scheme to avenge my Father and the village as I am now, the fitting way was to turn everyone against the Church, even the Royals. At that point, I would have them annihilated without lifting a single finger. But rather than using a borrowed knife I want to do it myself, though without harming innocent people in the process.”

Little Abdu remained silent, perhaps this was because it was his first-time hearing Sol voice his thoughts aloud, but Sol’s thoughts to him sounded extremely… unhinged?

Sol soon laid Little Abdu down and said excitedly.

“First thing’s first is increasing my personal strength! It’s time to break through into the Spiritual Realm!”

However, after saying his Sol paused.

“But perhaps I should do some studying before I attempt a breakthrough. Some of my ideas about breaking into the Spiritual Realm were answered after watching Mar-Dule, but his cultivation is slightly different from mine.”

After saying this, Sol flipped over his hands and took out a stack of books he had gotten from the Martial Arts Library in the Academy.

Since these were borrowed books, he was going to receive a punishment like a reduction in his allowance from the Academy for having these past their due date, but Sol couldn’t help it.

Slowly, Sol flipped through the dozen or so books that went into detailed explanations about the Spiritual Realm.

The requirements for the breakthrough, the process of breaking through, and the subsequent minor realms within the Spiritual Realm.

After about an hour of meticulous reading, Sol placed the last book down before he went to wave his hand and collect all of them. However, Little Abdu suddenly stopped him and asked him to read them.

Sol gave him the books and he sauntered off to the other side of the cave with them.

Sol immediately went into his thoughts about the contents he just read.

“I’ve already reached the requirement of breaking through by opening all of my acupoints. I also understand the process of breaking through in detail. As for the minor realms in the Spiritual Realm, I’ll focus on those after my breakthrough. However, the information about forming a Soul Core is quite new.”

Soul Cores were similar to Aether Energy Cores one formed upon entering the Spiritual Realm. It was located in the soul and was where a Spiritual Realm cultivator’s Soul Energy is stored.

“I’m prepared, it’s time to start my breakthrough! Though, I wonder how different my cultivation will be since I’ve opened so many of my acupoints.”

With eyes glowing with excitement and anticipation, Sol started his breakthrough!

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep