Spirit Soul

After leaving the Lahin kingdom's soldiers, their small group of five had to be more careful.

The responsibility of protecting their group fell on Gaby.

Out of all the members, only she was a good combatant and strong enough to fight beasts at the late Vitae stage.

Despite this, they were able to increase their pace to a large extent.

This was because they weren't held back by the large crowd of Lohars anymore.

This was advantageous and allowed them to evade many unnecessary fights too.

Kyle didn't even remember how many beasts had attacked them during the last few weeks.

But, if he were to take a guess it had to be in the hundreds, if not thousands.

Because of that, they had to slow down in order to stay vigilant and fully prepared for another attack.

Being in an unfamiliar territory posed a risk of an ambush that could happen at any moment.

Now that this wasn't required anymore several days passed in which they had only encountered a few small groups of beasts.

Gaby hunted them even if some of them had wanted to flee.

Only after nearing the group did they realize that they were attacked by a being at the Vitae stage.

But, Gaby did that mainly to provide Kyle with more souls to devour.

She mercilessly slaughtered the beasts that attacked their group.

After he had healed her, she wanted to return the favor.

Thus, Gaby simply focused on nurturing Kyle to the best of her capabilities.

The former captain's enthusiasm to kill beasts and help Kyle didn't go unnoticed by the Jars.

They eyed her weirdly.

Meanwhile, Selene tried to intervene at any possible chance she could.

She could hardly hide her jealousy.

Kyle found Selene's behavior rather cute, but also groundless.

He knew that Gaby was just hunting more souls for him in order to show her gratitude for tending her wounds.

Even after she was fully healed, she hadn't truly realized how strong Kyle's ability was.

But she got a glimpse of it when he had devoured the soul of a being at the Krysal stage.

When doing so, it almost tore him apart.

This made him realize just how valuable his ability was.

After seeing him struggle a bit, she understood that hunting a few beasts wouldn't be enough.

She would need to work hard to repay the favor Kyle had given her by tending to her eyes!

Thus, Gaby used her utmost efforts to protect Kyle and Selene.

Simultaneously, she was also hunting a few strong beasts every now and then.

In the end, Kyle could only focus on the white shroud enveloping Arashi.

He decided to nurture it until it was saturated for a certain duration.

This allowed him to nurture Selene's cultivation veins a little bit every single day.

Even if he could nurture the Jars or even Gaby, Kyle focused on Arashi and Selene.

The others didn't know every single property of his ability but they were not the only ones in dark. Even he was not sure what the Nurture ability was capable of.

Initially, he didn't expect too much from it. But, the ability that ought to be simple had exceeded his expectations over and over again.

Now, only a handful of days were left before they would reach Niro town. Kyle was increasingly curious to witness Arashi's completed evolution. He was eager to find out what he would turn into, how strong he would be physically, and the extent to which the new cultivation capabilities would reach.

His comprehension of the wind affinity was progressing slowly and steadily. Hence, there weren't too many obstacles Kyle had encountered until now.

As such, he was quite satisfied with the last few weeks, and hopefully would be in the following weeks.

There was only one thing that bothered him a little bit since they had parted ways with the Lohars and the soldiers of the Lahin kingdom!

What caused Kyle's discomfort was in fact, how the sky at the end of the horizon looked!

The others believed that he was exaggerating.

But every single time he was able to see through the thicket of the treetop, his gut twisted.

He had a nagging feeling that something was wrong.

At the same time, his complexion was changing, a deep frown covering his face.

His premonition was worsening with every passing second making him feel nervous.

He was familiar with the sight at the end of the horizon.

There he saw something that was several kilometers away from their current position.

Nevertheless, it was enough for him to clearly recall the events of his past life!

However, after giving it another thought, he realized that he was definitely not supposed to see whatever he was seeing.

It was not even supposed to exist in this place, or rather anywhere near the Sadorla forest.

At least Kyle thought so.

'Don't tell me this is really an energy storm?' Kyle wondered. His eyes widened when he felt a faint gust of wind brushing through his hair.

The sheer energy that swept through them after seeping in through the wind caused the others to freeze in their place.

They were utterly shocked about what they just felt.

All of them averted their attention to Kyle.

He shared his observation with them that the sky looked odd since the last day.

Hearing him made them nervously gulp down their saliva.

Gaby regained her senses first and climbed up the tree without hesitation.

She then emerged through the treetop, only to see exactly what she hoped not to see!

"Fuck!" She swore loudly before climbing down.

Her face was laced with worry and nervousness.

"It is the Tenux storm!!"

This simple sentence caused the Jars expression to turn grave and mirror Gaby's expression.

Selene had no idea what was going on.

So she only threw confused glances at them.

Meanwhile, Kyle tried to retain his calm, knowing that something extremely dangerous was in front of them.

It might be far away, but energy, or Tenux storms, the name Gaby used for them, were completely unpredictable.

This meant that they found themselves in a life-threatening situation.

In his past life, he had heard plenty of news of Tenux storms every now and then.

This allowed him to witness its dangers, even if it was recorded and he didn't experience it in-person.

As such, Kyle also knew a little about these storms.

For example, he was aware that they were manifested out of the merged product of the three cultivation energies.

The storms were in their purest form, and the repulsive energies were trying to dominate each other. Each of the energies was trying to gain the upper hand and control over the other two energies. This created a whirlpool of energy.

This whirlpool of energy would slowly accumulate more energy from the surroundings. And it would slowly turn into a devastating storm that destroyed everything in its wake. The radius of such a storm spanned in a radius of hundreds if not thousands of kilometers.

Coming in contact with the three merged energy in large amounts was already dangerous for most living beings.

But the closer one was to the storm, the more life-threatening the torment energy would become.

In the end, almost everything in the imminent surrounding would be disintegrated by a Tenux storm.

Even if that was shocking, Kyle could tell that it wasn't that scary.

The Tenux storm whose birth they seemed to be witnessing was only a small one.

It only spanned several dozen kilometers.

Thankfully, it didn't look as bad as the ones he had seen on the news.

Those had been far bigger and sometimes covered the entire planet.

They were known to wreak havoc and devastate everything they touched.

However, those terrifying storms dispersed the moment the merged energy calmed down.

The huge tornado would vanish into thin air as if nothing had happened.

Based on his knowledge, Tenux storms were created from overflowing cultivation energies.

Due to this, the different energies would clash with each other, and merge together.

However, Kyle was not sure if his information was really true.

And, it was exactly the few things he knew that confused him the most.

'The Sadorla forest doesn't have enough energy to be considered a danger zone for ener-...Tenux storms...so how is it created?' He asked himself, confused about what he had comprehended.

As such, he wanted to climb up the tree too.

He was trying to figure out if he was misunderstanding something he had seen before.

Unfortunately, he was held back as he heard Mell's worried voice.

"Doesn't the Tenux storm occur every few hundred years? The last one was three hundred years ago… Was the news of the Guild wrong? That can't be!"

After listening to Mell, he slowed down his steps as he turned around.

"These storms often occur in the Sadorla forest?.. Why? How?"

Confusion spread through Kyle's mind, but the information he had received hadn't been helpful.

Meanwhile, Gaby replied with an answer.

"A total of four Tenux storms are mentioned in the records of the Guild.

All of them have occurred in the Sadorla forest, in a period of....around three thousand years, I believe.

This one is the fifth, but it shouldn't have manifested now. Based on previous records, there was always a period of at least 600 years between each subsequent Tenux storm…"

Hearing this, Kyle couldn't help but look at Gaby with a flabbergasted expression.

Unable to hold himself back, he blurted out.

"And the Guild doesn't think that it is weird for such a devastating storm to appear in an area like the Sadorla forest….and why are they not evacuating the entire population if these storms occur more often?!?"

Kyle's voice sounded enraged.

His sudden outburst caused the others to look at him in confusion.

In response to him, Gaby added,

"The Guild has no control over where one is supposed to live in the Sadorla forest. But they still take precautions and set up necessary safety measures after five hundred years… it might be a devastating storm, but it's still only that- a storm!

Why are you so agitated?

We should search for a shelter and wait until the storm is over. Even though the Tenux storm is far away, the Guild records said that we shouldn't be exposed to its winds for too long!"

As she answered him nonchalantly, Kyle could only look at her in disbelief.

He couldn't fathom how she could have calmed down so quickly.

Hence, he added,

"Do you even know that the smallest Tenux storm can reach up to several hundred kilometers in its peak? That means the majority of the Sadorla forest will be affected by it! Where do you want to find a shelter that protects us from such an all disintegrating storm?!"

When the Jars and Selene heard this, they were utterly shocked. Fear crawled up their spine, only for Gaby to wave her hand as if it was no big deal.

"That's not the case…. Calm down, Kyle, you are scaring everyone! The Tenux storm's size reaches only up to a hundred kilometers. It never crossed the border of the forbidden zone which was constructed by the Guild and three kingdoms two thousand years ago!

We are safe here, okay? Finding a shelter is the only thing we have to do now!"

If he had been confused before, Gaby's information only added more to the confusion.

However, if everything she said was true then the issue was something completely different!

Her words carried some weight as she spoke after having seen the past records of the Guild.

'If a Tenux storm is really an energy storm, this cannot be true….except for the fact that someone….or something is restricting the storm. This thing is preventing it from unleashing its entire prowess!!'

With that thought, Kyle couldn't help but ignore Gaby.

He exerted his entire physical strength to climb up the same tree Gaby.

Reaching up, he took a look at the sky as far as his eyes would go, checking the horizon.

Thus, the moment he looked through the treetop, a fearsome sight greeted him.

His eyes saw the magnificent and equally unnerving sight of compressed, pure energy.

It spanned through the entire horizon spreading through it like a huge cloud.

His gut feeling screamed at him to retreat.

Kyle's mind and body requested him to run away as far as possible, however, something held him back.

Through this, he took a second glance at the Tenux storm.

It looked just like the energy storms in his memories.

The sole difference was something Kyle could barely perceive even after he gazed intently at the storm for several minutes.

'Is...that a barrier?!'

This was utterly dumbfounding, to say the least. He was unable to grasp what kind of place there was to create a barrier, preventing the Tenux storm from expanding further.

Whether the barrier was naturally generated or artificially created, Kyle couldn't believe that such a thing existed.

Whatever lay in the forbidden zone had to be unfathomable to him.

It was most likely equally intriguing to everyone else living in the three kingdoms!

'Is that why the three kingdoms are trying to claim the Sadorla forest for themselves?! Just what kind of madness is this?!'

Despite the shock spreading through Kyle's body, the barrier that prevented the Tenux storm from enlarging was reassuring.

He had assumed to greet death the moment the storm reached its peak!

Fortunately, Gaby knew better owing to the Guild's records, easing everyone's mind.

Unfortunately, what nobody could have expected was that both Gaby and Kyle's knowledge about the Tenux storms was entirely useless in face of what was about to happen at any moment!