Spirit Soul

Kyle couldn't believe that the other Souls of the old universe had reincarnated more than 50,000 years ago. But, if the tome had been correct, this was the case.

He was not sure if Karnias was one of the first souls to be reincarnated either, but that was most likely not the case.

According to Karnias himself, he was lazy and didn't like cultivating that much.

Nevertheless, upon receiving the chance to reincarnate as another race, he simply took it and started a new life. Kyle could relate to him as he had done the same.

There was nothing written about how Karnias' life ended, or if he was still alive.

But what Kyle had figured out was that the tome's latest update had been added several hundred years ago.

Whether Karnias had lived inside the castle was also unknown.

But something had made him pay a visit to the castle once in a while.

Kyle could deduce this based on the entries in the tome that were added every few hundred years.

Karnias seemed to have added a few paragraphs to the tome, even after it was complete.

Because of that, there were a few unique things written inside the tome, including the fact that he was still inside the Shalivra valley.

This was something Kyle was extremely happy about.

However, at the same time, the Shalivra valley was extremely vast.

But, there was no further explanation about the castle's location.

However, that was acceptable, and not something Kyle should be bothered about right now.

He couldn't change it, either. Thus, he let it be, knowing that his motivation would plummet the moment he found out something bad.

Getting to know how old and strong the 'younger' Souls of the old universe were was definitely not good to know.

When he recalled the mysterious woman's voice, he felt a little relieved.

Her conscience had been imprinted inside the black scale, which he believed was guiding him.

Thus, he was not alone and there were at least a few individuals that should be on his side.

Or at least, they weren't on any side that might hurt him.

Thinking about that, Kyle realized that this was not necessarily true either.

"I don't know anything about a single reincarnated Old Soul. How should I understand whether they want to help me or just use me for their own scheming?" He blurted out while continuing his way through the maze.

Three more days had already passed since he had closed the tome.

After reading it once, he had rushed through the maze, and Kyle could already feel a cold breeze brushing past his face.

This told him that he had almost reached the second trial. It was something completely different than he had initially expected.

Fortunately, he already knew what it was, which made him feel prepared.

To his misfortune, Kyle didn't even think about the possibility of Karnias heritage being wrong.

Most of the information was outdated and had been written into it 50,000 years ago.

And, because of that, many things had changed that even the owner of the castle was oblivious to!

In the end, he still required some time to enter the second trial. It was just as he reached the end of the maze that Kyle perceived a faint light as the pathway came to an end.

However, instead of leaving quietly, he noticed something that made his eyes widen in surprise.

"Ghosts?! Weren't they supposed to be opponents for the Vitae stage trials??"

At the sight of the semi-translucent Undead beings, Kyle was more than just a little bit astonished.

Ghosts couldn't be defeated by any physical means.

As such, beings that followed the path of Pryr would usually struggle to fight them.

However, the same didn't apply to both the Maest and Spiral Cultivators, let alone someone like Kyle, a Spirit Soul Cultivator.

As such, he was not exactly worried, even less with him and Arashi being able to create wind blades.

Wind blades and wind currents were the only two things the two of them were proficient at using properly.

​ It was not a lot but better than having no means to attack. And when the two used it in combination, the resultant attack was even stronger than one expected.

Following that, Arashi and Kyle used their wind affinity to attack the masses of Ghosts that were unable to block elemental attacks.

In the end, Ghosts were considered to be remnants of materialized souls that couldn't accept their death for one reason or the other.

Though that was not something Kyle could be sure about.

Whether it was wrath, sadness, frustration, or the thought of revenge, something tied them to the mortal world, a place that they weren't supposed to inhabit.

Nevertheless, they were unable to achieve their unfulfilled desires perfectly. Thus they were always leaking some of their soul, becoming gradually weaker with time.

Owing to this, the peak Vitae stage Ghosts had now been weakened to the cultivation rank of beings at the Mid Fortification stage.

Kyle was thankful for that as it reduced the efforts he had to put in. He could tear the huge crowd of several hundred Ghosts apart without too many difficulties.

They were fast, but unable to evade dozens of wind blades that flew towards them in batches of more than 20.

Not being able to imagine that it would be this easy, Kyle remained vigilant

In comparison to his earlier fight against the Undead Giant, nothing seemed to be as challenging.

Whether this was because he had improved his subtle movements, Kyle couldn't tell for sure.

But what he knew was that his strength was constantly increasing.

He didn't even have to actively cultivate for that.

There were so many paths he was still lacking in that every single piece of information, or the subtlest change in his combat experience, resulted in a considerable improvement.

That was important to realize early on and not grow overconfident.

Despite his body's young age of merely 18 years, he knew less than what any child belonging to any kind of kingdom might know.

At least that was what Kyle told himself while trying to reprimand himself.

He kept telling himself that he was nothing special, that he had to become stronger, and that it was the most important to never stop trying to advance.

With that in mind, he began to smile as he conjured a total of 50 wind needles.

While controlling them at once, Kyle's head began to ache heavily.

Nonetheless, he was able to control them.

Earlier, Kyle had only focused on training his physique and affinity. But, was that really everything he could train, as a Spirit Soul cultivator at that?

The answer was a definite 'No!'

As a Spirit Soul cultivator, he trained not only in the Cultivation paths of Maest and Pryr, but also Spiral!

Rather than following them individually, his Spirit Soul had created a new path. It was that of the Spirit Soul cultivator, training all three main paths at the same time, only to overlap with each other.

Under normal circumstances, cultivating with mana would not only strengthen one's mana core, or respective vessel, but also the mind and entire body to a certain extent.

The same applied to the other two paths.

However, cultivating in all three paths would was a different matter altogether.

Under normal circumstances, it would only train the body to the cultivated degree, even if the other paths would normally influence each other.

Yet, this was something Kyle and even Arashi could do easily. Their cultivation overlapped with the respective vessels, strengthening each and every single possible trait to the limit.

With that in mind, Kyle just began to realize that he, as a former scholar, had neglected the usage of his brain a lot.

Since he had reincarnated, he didn't feel any discomfort in his brain anymore.

This only meant that it was either not brimming with overflowing information he had yet to digest, or that his brain was still not fully occupied with enough tasks.

Taking the path of Spiral into consideration, both he and Arashi had yet to make optimum use of it. They had to learn training their brain to the fullest, including using their affinity in a complex manner, and exceeding the limits they had given themselves!

As such, Kyle forced himself to control the 50 wind needles as he shot them out, before creating another batch of even more wind needles.

Following that, Kyle continued to do the same process over and over again, reaching the limit of his brain's capabilities.

Unfortunately, this happened earlier than he could have hoped for.

By the time he had conjured the 6th batch with 75 wind needles, blood trickled down his nose.

Yet, instead of giving up, Kyle simply shot them out, followed by an attempt to create another batch.

However, before he could do that, Kyle realized that his entire soul force had been drained.

'Was I so focused on my wind affinity that I was not even able to figure out how much soul force I had left?… I'm getting more foolish the longer I stay on Shima.'

Sadly, his assumption was spot-on, but that was not something he could influence right now.

His soul was still adjusting to his body, and the hormones within it. Thus some changes were bound to occur.

Nevertheless, he could have kept an eye on the available amount of soul force.

After all, it was one of the most important aspects in a fight against existences such as Ghosts!

Just at that moment, he noticed that Arashi brushed past him with blood running down its snot.

He was followed by more than a hundred wind needles that shot towards the last few Ghosts.

These needles punctured their translucent bodies that were already pricked with dozens of holes.

They had obliterated the batch of several hundred Ghosts as if they had been nothing.

What was left behind were only their remnants that permeated the air.

Kyle hadn't noticed this before, but now as he looked all around him, he realized that the Ghosts were truly the remains of soul.

Yet, before they had been defeated, Kyle was unable to see this clearly.

This was because the souls he normally saw had a faint golden glow.

This exact glow permeated the air all around them, filling it in its entirety.

Instinctively, Kyle tried to grasp the fractions of souls like always.

But to his surprise, the soul particles were already being suctioned into his body.

Every cell of his body was filled with soul particles almost instantaneously which Kyle used to empower his Nurture ability.

Through this, his eyes began to gleam vibrantly as he saw all kinds of hues around Arashi.

Yet, only the growth hue was nurtured to a certain extent, while the others had been neglected until now.

However, just as he looked at Arashi, who was in front of him, he spotted something else he had missed on seeing before. S

Several beings with hues, whose simple looks were already enough to make Kyle freeze in place, were visible through his ability.

They were behind a cover, somewhere in the dark parts at the end of the pathway. The sight was eerie that made Kyle hesitate. He didn't even dare to take a single step ahead, as he began to ask himself what was going on.

If he was only under the watchful gaze of the being with the glowing crimson eyes, it would already be burdensome. But the other beings were definitely too strong to be part of the Inheritance's trials, for a being at the Fortification stage.

As such, there were only a few possibilities that made sense in his opinion, with one of them being quite simple, yet cruel.

'Am I...possibly, the first living being to enter the Inheritance trials?...Noo..that cannot be the case...right?'