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Please read 191 again…I confused it with 193….I’m soo sorry!!…
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Zilan had stayed in bed for a few days slowly recovering from the side-effects of the spirit wraith summoning. His disciples had come to visit him a little while ago causing quite the commotion. They barraged him with so many questions that he could barely answer them. And the funny part was that less than ten percent of the questions had to with his health and recovery. They were far more interested in the bridge and the Chairman. It was only after Zilan distributed some mystic grains to them that they finally gave him some peace and quiet, leaving.
“Clink”
Taking out the purple vial of liquid, two stars appeared in Zilan’s eyes. “Just like I thought, this is a soul nourishment elixir. A powerful one at that.” He exclaimed.
There were traces of extremely rare ingredients within the liquid and some of them couldn’t even be found on this plane leading Zilan to the conclusion that the elixir was something he brought with him when he came to this world.
He opened the vial only to be struck by the captivating smell of life. If he were to be describe it, the sensation was similar to standing in the middle of a flourishing, colourful rose garden.
Having basked in the intoxicating scent enough, Zilan finally brought the vial to his lips and without hesitating gulped down every last drop of the purple liquid till there was nothing left. He licked his lips in delight as a soothing energy coursed through his body, invading his sea of consciousness and nourishing his mind and soul. The world around Zilan started to slow down and things became much clearer to him, his senses had seemingly all simultaneously enhanced. He thus shut his eyes, fully immersing himself in the otherworldly feeling of having his soul nourished.
A day passed by just like that. Zilan opened his eyes, feeling extremely refreshed. The bodily pain he had been experiencing was now a thing of the past. He stood up and did some light exercises before returning to his bed again. “Good stuff.” He remarked.
“I’m happy you think so.” The Chairman’s voice resounded within the room, surprising Zilan.
A white ball of light appeared in the room out of nowhere and transformed into the Chairman’s glassy body filled with blue energy. A smile could be seen on his face, a testament to the good mood he was currently in. “You seem to have a comfortable life here. There’s no need to move then.” He said.
“Move? Wait, before that, how is it that you can just appear like that? Have you been here the whole time?” asked Zilan.
The Chairman smiled, “Why don’t you use your eyes? Tell me what you see?”
Zilan did what he was told and looked at the Chairman as well as his surroundings with his eyes. Needless to say, he was shocked by what he was seeing. The inscriptions, the array and even the formations of the Association were all intensely glowing with a blue energy that trailed back to the Chairman. “This energy?”
“I am the last person in existence that controls this energy. Using certain tricks, this energy has become completely mine, anywhere it exists, I exist. Naturally, it has its limitations but you can think of it as a part of me. As long as I wish it, I can be anywhere in the Association at any time. In fact, I can be at multiple places at once if I desired. Hahaha, the soul is a magnificent thing. Anyway, it’s still too soon for you to understand it all.”
“What about the moving?” Zilan inquired.
“Ah, I thought you would need a suitable environment for your training but this place seems fine. Training your soul requires you to be at peace.” Said the Chairman.
“When do we start?”
“Not now but soon. You seem to be in a rush, it will be impossible for you to progress if you lack patience.”
“I have a month….there’s something I need to do.” Replied Zilan.
The Chairman didn’t inquire into his matters he instead asked him a question, “Tell me, what do you know about the soul? What do you think of it? How do you think of it?”
“I have read about the soul but in all honesty, I personally know nothing about it I understand that it plays a significant role in the Universe but as for the specifics, I know very little.”
“Good!” The Chairman seemed happy. “For you to acknowledge that you know very little is the first step. Now I’ll tell you what you need to understand as a beginner. This information cannot be told to anyone else but your next of kin, if you try to divulge this information the consequences will be beyond grave.” The Chairman warned.
“The truly powerful in the Universe can claim that they understand the soul but in actual truth, they are still far behind Roho. Their understanding is limited to Attack, Defence and rudimentary manipulation. They know not how the systems of the soul actually work. Allow me to demonstrate.”
The Chairman then snapped his fingers and Zilan instantly felt something clutching his soul. It wasn’t painful but the fear and trepidation he was experiencing was overwhelming. He didn’t know what was going on but he wanted it to stop.
“This is a simple soul attack, the simplest in fact. Only practitioners who have yet to break through to the soul-compression stage or the black core stage would use this technique. You have had no prior training on soul defence which is why you are helpless to it.” The Chairman smiled.
Zilan was flabbergasted. He could not believe that something the Chairman referred to as the ‘simplest soul attack’ would cause him this much fear. It was only now that he realised his Path of Blood cultivation system had a fatal flaw and that was that it did not account for the soul.
“Of course, those who have access to this simplest soul technique will probably have decent backgrounds in the Universe so don’t get too discouraged.” The Chairman teased.
“And then there’s soul defence. Attacks like the one I just used on you would be rendered useless if you had adequate training but since you don’t have any training, you can have this in the meantime.” A sparkling silver bracelet floated towards Zilan and immediately attached itself onto his arm.
A powerful blue energy flowed out of the bracelet and into Zilan’s sea of consciousness. There, it transformed into a gigantic tiled shield that covered most of Zilan’s soul.
“Now let’s try the attack again.”
Without waiting for him to react the Chairman snapped his fingers once again. This time though, instead of the clutching feeling only a soft collision occurred in his sea of consciousness before everything returned to normal. Zilan had felt no discomfort whatsoever throughout the whole ordeal.
“Some people just aren’t talented or dedicated enough to learn how to strengthen their souls and use their own power to defend against soul attacks so they use items like the one I gave you. Needless to say, yours is a bit special as I used my energy to make it. You’ll learn more about it later.”
“And then there’s soul manipulation…..”
