Listen While Reading: Azmoth Canyon Boundary

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As we made our way to the Heavenly Empress island, we flew across the skies of Bestia. The colorful sky, whose colors shifted from an orange to blue and pink, seemed completely otherworldly, but the seas below, of a bright blue color, made me feel at home too.

“Wow, s-so this is the outside world… So big! What is this sea?! I’ve never seen such a large ocean before!”

Naturally, the one most surprised was Ying Shen, who was being carried over Violet’s back.

Violet and all my Familiars had managed to learn the {Cloud Step} Martial Arts naturally after seeing me use it a lot and constantly trying to imitate me.

This allowed Violet and Snow to move freely across the skies without the need to use Mana for floatation, which was very handy.

Shiro could already fly with his little wings, so he wasn’t a concern. Fang Shuan naturally could also replicate that technique without problems or grow wings himself using his shapeshifting body.

“It’s really huge, isn’t it?” I laughed. “Even the Inner Realm of the Heavenly Demon can’t compare; the “seas” there could be considered enormous lakes, but not a complete ocean like this!”

“Yeah!” Ying Shen nodded, looking around. “I can feel the saltiness of the seas below, the billions of living beings in the ocean, the fish, and everything as I expand my Senses! And the vast skies, so colorful and beautiful! The clouds, the freshness… I have now realized I’ve lived my whole life inside a cage, and now I am finally free.” A small tear fell from one of his eyes.

“Haha, calm down; it’s alright, Ying Shen!” I giggled. “You’ll get to see the whole wide world from now on; remember that you’re not chained by anybody.”

“I will!” he nodded. “Even now, I am willing to follow you, young lady Anna.”

“Well, I guess you can do that…” I shrugged. “Fang Shuan, can you tell me more about your trip though? I want to learn how you did that whole soul-tempering trial.”

“Oh, of course, if you wish to know,” he nodded. “It was an arduous trial; there are three gates you must complete, and each gate leads to a terribly arduous and agonizing test. At the beginning, however, you must sacrifice a large piece of your soul to even gain access.”

“Huh…” I nodded.

I kept listening to how he did everything, and it overall felt horrendously hard and painful, just as he said. The Heavenly Demon never ever mentioned this temple to me, perhaps fully knowing my soul wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

The first gate was one where he had to throw himself into some sort of cauldron, boiling his soul, while fighting and eating a hundred soul-beast creatures. After that was finally done, his soul would have been tempered completely.

Then, at the second gate, he had to walk through an incredibly long path in the middle of an abyss, with giant weapons attacking him constantly coming from the ceiling. These weapons also had purple-colored demon soul flames, which made the soul wounds even more painful.

At the end of the second gate there’s a white orb, which absorbs all the chopped pieces of a soul and refines them into a liquid-like ethereal elixir that your soul drinks and turns into new mass, recovering fully.

And lastly, the third trial was the hardest of them all; he had to fight ten statues containing the souls of ancient people that challenged the temple; their attacks always targeted the soul, so he ended up getting greatly wounded.

Ultimately, once he defeated them all, he absorbed their souls and finished the entire cultivation and tempering process.

All of this, albeit agonizing, made his soul incredibly strong, giving him the power to obtain a Tier 3 Psyche when he had none before.

He even gained the power to create his own Holy Nether Essence too, something he did on his own and wasn’t part of the temple’s trial though.

Now that he refined a Martial Core using his Ki, Soul, and the Holy Nether Essence, he can continue growing stronger and finally resume his cultivation.

“Even if I cannot strengthen my physical body like before, as long as I have my soul and my martial core, I shall continue cultivating and becoming stronger, young master Anna,” he said pridefully.

“Well done! I guess I might take that trial once I return to see that Crow face later. My soul needs to be much bigger though; I’ll have to eat as many souls as I can. Good thing I got that Urn,” I nodded. “But even then, it feels weird too.”

“What is it?” Fang Shuan wondered.

“You see, I’ve tried to “enlarge” my soul for a while now; absorbing souls usually works, but I’ve reached a point where my soul won’t get bigger and will simply look “inflated,” if you can imagine that.” I said. “It seems to be unable to assimilate the souls, and it simply adds them into its mass without undergoing a refining process.”

Sadly, despite all the novel knowledge I possessed, there was nothing I could do about refining a soul or doing any of such techniques. I knew events and such, but how techniques were made and used in the novel were always explained very… abstractly.

I can’t just copy how my brother refined and evolved his soul in the novel just because I read a few paragraphs about it; it’s not the same as learning knowledge about a certain item in a certain place.

“I see what the problem is,” Fang Shuan nodded. “I have figured out my own way to cultivate my soul, and I’ve developed several self-taught Soul Cultivation Techniques. Perhaps the Heavenly Empress or the Heavenly Demon might know of some too, but if you don’t mind, I would happily teach you how to do it, or even partially do it for you.”

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“Oh wow, really? You can do that?” I wondered.

“But of course, as long as you allow me to touch your soul with my own, it could be possible for me to directly refine it using my powers,” he nodded. “It might be… quite painful, however. But once you get used to the “feeling” of it, you will be able to imitate the soul cultivation technique on your own.”

“Interesting…” I nodded. “Alright, let’s do that later then. Thank you, Fang Shuan; you’ve been of really good help lately!”

“Haha, it is all to serve my master,” he nodded. “My purpose is to protect you and also help you become stronger if possible.”

“You’re too nice for an arrogant young master; act more cocky once in a while.” I gave him a side-eye.

“Hahaha! I have to admit that I once fell on such a shameful stereotype, but through my long life, I have overgrown such a persona and matured to become a strong and responsible emperor,” he sighed. “Alas, even then… I was still a failure of a ruler, and I was unable to protect my world…”

“…Sorry,” I said. “I doubt we could ever recover that world of yours, but I’ll make sure to make your father pay for it. It might sound stupid coming from a girl like me; I am not even a Constellation or something, but… I’ve slain one already.”

“Do not shoulder the responsibility alone; that is a task I must also do myself, master,” Fang Shuan smiled calmly. “I never imagined back then, when I was alive, that I would one day visit different worlds and experience so many new things; I owe you more than you imagine.”

He sure loves praising me; it is making me feel a bit awkward.

“Anyways, I think—huh?”

FLASH!

Suddenly, as we flew through the skies, I noticed something. My senses quickly warned me of approaching danger. I set my eyes into the skies as dozens—no, hundreds—of tiny silver-colored dots and blue dots surged from far away and rapidly moved towards us.

“What are those things?” Ying Shen asked, incapable of understanding their shapes and forms, so alien to people of this world.

“Those are the invaders that almost destroyed your entire world, Ying Shen.” I sighed, quickly unsheathing Gram and summoning the Nameless Axe-Sword.

They resembled jet planes with huge, mechanical arms and sharp claws; they also came with two cannons in each wing and glowing red eyes.

“They’re the Mechanical Lifeforms, beings that come from another world,” I continued to explain as my Aura surged, a combination of my Demonic, Celestial, and Ki energies into one. “They’re hostile, emotionless, and cold. They only desire to take over land and steal its resources. Those mechanical trees you’ve seen are all their creations. And they’re the ones that sank the only continent of your world, Pangea. Trillions of lives were lost in that cataclysmic incident.”

“So that’s… the enemy the Heavenly Demon fought with every other Immortal, even including the Heavenly Empress.” Ying Shen muttered, looking at the entity’s approach rapidly. “Then please, let me fight as well; it is my duty to at least protect my own world!”

The young fox-beast man quickly unsheathed his pair of Cursed Knives, his Aura of Abyssal Shadows surging around his body, as he quickly stepped into the air using Cloud Step.

His powers somehow felt much stronger than before. He had indeed grown stronger after all!

“Alright! Get ready then!” I said. “Everyone too, Violet, Snow, Shiro!”

“KRIEH!” Violet unleashed his Ki Aura, overflowing with venomous and demonic Ki energies.

“WOOF!” Snow roared, his Ki Aura erupting from his body, unleashing the coldness of frost Ki.

“Kyuuh!” and Shiro stood behind us, unleashing their golden celestial light, Ki Aura, specialized on healing, buffing, and defense.

I’ve trained them well; they had already become so accustomed to Ki that they were now able to control it as easily as Mana.

I noticed Fang Shuan moving in front of us; he was the strongest of all my Familiars, so he naturally decided to stay in the front.

“Young master Anna, those mechanical beings are coming from the direction we’re going…” he said. “I am not trying to imply anything, but…”

“You think they might be attacking the island?” I wondered. “Probably, they are a relentless bunch… We’ll have to take care of these very quickly and get back with the Heavenly Empress!”

[A large group of almost a hundred [Mechanical Flying Drones (S Rank)] have detected your presence.]

“HOSTILE ALIEN LIFEFORMS DETECTED. STARTING EXTERMINATION PROTOCOL.”

The mechanical voices of the machines all aligned together into a single voice echoing within the skies above. Their forms, optimized for super-fast flight, rushed down as soon as they spotted us.

“Hostile? You’re the only hostile bastards here!”

As I responded to their stupid “warning,” three of them quickly reached us within seconds; their pointy heads were clearly made to impale foes from the skies.

However…

“Not on my watch.”

Fang Shuan rushed forward, his Soul flaring with tremendous power, as he combined both his metallic body with the power of his soul, materializing his Divine Martial Soul Weapon, a beautiful, gigantic golden dragon spear.

CRASH!

The impact of his spear against the nearest drone was instantaneous; an explosion of golden flames erupted as the entire drone was pierced by his mighty spear and then quickly blew up from the inside out.

BOOOM!

The other two drones attacked him right away, from left and right.

Yet Fang Shuan faced them head-on.

“{Golden Dragon Spear Techniques}: {Dragon’s Uprising}!”

He swung his spear upwards as he made it spin like a drill; his Aura transformed into a fiery golden dragon, roaring into the skies.

CLAAASH!

An eruption of golden lightning engulfed the two incoming mechanical drones, their entire bodies exploding into countless pieces.

Amazing, he was really strong to one-shot S-Rank Monsters like this so easily!

More machines kept attacking him, and he was handling them all just fine.

However, he couldn’t extend his protection towards us from afar, and naturally, the rest of the army of flying mechanical lifeforms rapidly decided to drop over our heads and attempt to kill us with a single piercing attack.

“{Thousand Blades}: {Eclipsing Cleave}”

I combined the power of Thousand Blades, my primary Celestial and Demonic Elements, Gram’s powers, and also the Nameless Axe-Sword powerful {Cleave} into a single attack.

SLAAASH!

A wave of pure red, gold, and dark purple energy was unleashed from both of my blades at once, the impact so strong it distorted the skies and created a huge explosion.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Over five machines perished in a single attack, and more kept dying, exploding into pieces right behind them.

“That was so easy, I don’t even feel tired…” I felt surprised by my own growth.

The drones continued pursuing us as we moved across the skies, evading deadly and fatal attacks and quickly crushing them, slashing them apart, piercing them, or hacking them into pieces.

Countless explosions reverberated across the skies as we slowly made our way back to the island amidst an endless wave of flying machines.

And then we saw it—something standing between us and the island.

A humanoid figure, its appearance completely… different than anything we’ve seen before.

It didn’t look like a beast person either.

It was… a human?

No, in that presence, it possessed the same Electromagnetic Energies all machines used to work.

But their appearance… I couldn’t discern if it was male or female, but it seemed to be both and none at the same time.

Slender body, white skin, long silver hair, and wearing a single white dress.

Their blue eyes shone with neon light.

Their appearance was honestly both terrifying and ethereal at the same time.

Were these machines capable of creating such a human-like form before?

“We meet at long last, visitors from another world,” it spoke. “My name is 0-1, or Zero One. Mother has sent me… to negotiate a peaceful agreement.”

What?!

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Author’s Note: It’s not a simple thing of black and white anymore, things are much more complex than Anna imagined.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep