Spirit Soul

Days seemed to pass in a blur.

Meanwhile, Kyle's entire being was slowly crumbling in face of the ever-increasing difficulty of the second parkour.

The further he progressed, the more difficult it became.

And, it was because of this fact that Kyle had to rest for a few hours after his mind and body had exceeded their limit a long time ago.

He had yet to use his soul force, but he realized that it was probably impossible to pass the full second parkour without using it.

If he were to become too adamant about ignoring that it was not feasible if he were to ignore his soul force, affinity, or movement technique, he was only creating more problems for himself.

As such, after having rested for some time and eaten his fill, Kyle decided that it was time to step up the game.

While circulating some soul force through his body, he noticed a difference.

The soul force enhanced his strength and, he immediately sensed that everything was much easier than before.

Thus, it took him just a minute to cross the distance by using his physique and mind. And this fact frustrated Kyle a lot.

His current physique was extremely strong owing to the fact that it was refined to be on par with a being at the Late Fortification stage.

Despite that, circulating soul force through his body allowed him to use the cumulative advantage of both spirit force and mana!

As such, with a strengthened body, and refreshed mind, Kyle quickly passed through the second trial.

Afterward, he was thrown back to the starting room where a third door emerged. Seeing this, he wondered how many more parkours would he have to run around through, to begin with.

But instead of acting frustrated, Kyle simply entered the third parkour.

Meanwhile, he continued to circulate soul force through his body.

Now, without using his affinity and movement technique, he decided to adjust himself to the constant circulation of soul force.

Simultaneously, he used his physical strength and mind to the best of his capabilities.

In the end, Kyle had simply decided to slowly adapt himself to the changes.

Through this, he wished to create a perfect control of every single characteristic amongst which he could choose from.

There was a wide variety of uses he had with his soul force.

And, to learn how to control it properly was something Kyle hadn't been able to do either.

Not only was he completely unfamiliar with his body after the reincarnation, but cultivated, let alone any cultivation energy was something entirely new for him.

The same could be said for his affinity for any kind of martial art technique that required a cultivation energy.

As such, Kyle had to slowly become perfect by using every single one of the three cultivation energies' strongest characteristics to their fullest extent.

Building up a perfect foundation was difficult and he knew that very well.

But the sooner Kyle was able to stop making mistakes, or if feasible do something close to perfection, the better it would be.

Knirg and Lahan had been able to fight and defeat him thousands of times.

This was even though Kyle's cultivation base had been higher than theirs after they had restricted their cultivation.

However, that was not all because they were following the path of mana, but hadn't used a trace of mana during their fights.

On the contrary, Kyle had given his all, using soul force, his cultivation that increased his physical strength, and his soul force's strength.

While doing so he didn't neglect his brain function, as well as his movement technique, martial art technique, and wind affinity.

Yet, in the end, he could only win against them after using the Nurture ability.

He could now conceal it with the battle intent he had barely comprehended.

Because of that, Kyle realized that his body and mind were still lacking profound training.

His body and mind needed to build a high level of coordination for him to be agile and nimble.

Kyle's body could not move instantly the moment an idea struck him.

Simultaneously, his mind was supposed to think of multiple paths to help him out of tricky situations.

Meanwhile, the same could be said about his soul force utilization, the wind affinity he had yet to even comprehend properly, or his martial art techniques which he could have mastered to a higher degree already.

Knowing his flaws was already something extremely good, as it enabled him to improve every single characteristic one after another.

He could either use them one at the same time or simultaneously, without any restrictions.

As such, spending a few weeks inside the parkour was nothing for Kyle.

He had already accepted that the undeads would not let him leave the Undead Castle so easily.

Fortunately, this was not a gruesome thought anymore.

In fact, after participating in the trials, he knew that he wouldn't be able to reach the Lahin Kingdom with his current combat prowess, cultivation base, and fighting experience.

It was simply not something feasible, and Kyle knew this beforehand.

However, somehow, he had never wanted to admit to it. He believed that everything would be much easier if he just decided to not think about it, and ignore the truth staring at him. Somehow he had hoped that it would be different to his past life.

To his misfortune, it was never that easy.

But on the bright side, Kyle noticed this before anything bad could happen.

This was his big fortune, which was also the reason he got a grip on himself.

It wasn't too late yet, to prevent stupid mistakes, and being naive.

Both of the things would lead to his death in the worst-case scenario.

Because realization had struck Kyle, he spend the next three weeks slowly improving himself on every single aspect he had never bothered about before.

At the same time, Arashi had been growing and working relentlessly.

Shockingly enough, the little fox had reached the Vitae stage after his soul core had been fully created!

That was something Kyle hadn't even realized because he hadn't really seen or sensed his Spirit Soul during the last few weeks.

Thus, he hadn't even noticed that Arashi had confined himself to Kyle's Soul core to cultivate.

This allowed his Spirit Soul to enter the Initial phase of the Vitae stage.

At the Vitae stage, Cultivators had to gather their respective energy and liquefy it.

However that was not all because the liquefied energy drops had to be compressed, turning into beads!

In the end, one required only nine beads in order to reach the Mid rank of the Vitae stage.

But, it was only at that moment when the real issues would crop up.

After nine beads had been compressed, they would have to be connected to each other.

The bead in the center of the string would serve as the gathering point and absorb large amounts of Soul force.

After a sufficient quantity is reached, the beads would blossom, creating a Sacadra flower within the Cultivator's vessel.

Once the beads blossomed, one would officially reach the Late Vitae stage.

Meanwhile, the creation of the Sacadra flower indicated that one attained the Peak of the Vitae stage.

What the Sacadra flower could do, was to create a crystalized soul force. In Arashi and Kyle's case, it was the respective crystalized energy alongwith the other cultivation techniques.

The moment the first traces of crystalized soul force were released, Kyle and Arashi would enter the Krysal stage.

But until that happened, a long time would pass as a terrifying high control over soul force was required to even progress further in the Vitae stage.

After all, it was deemed as the most complex of the first few cultivation stages!!

With that in mind, Arashi was just about to start liquefying the soul force within his soul core.

That was the first step before he could even start turning it into a bead.

Kyle was not sure how long his Spirit Soul would require to form his first bead made out of soul force drops. But it would probably take quite a while.

Forming the beads was the task that required the least focus but the most time.

It was a relatively easy step and only the following processes were extremely complicated.

The total time the beads would take to be formed, and the subsequent steps that were rather complex made it difficult for beings to advance further.

This was also the reason why many more beasts at the Low Vitae stage existed than any other rank or stage!

Because of that, Kyle hoped that Arashi wouldn't take too long for each bead.

It was then that he realized with a jolt that his own cultivation base was still too far from the Vitae stage.

During the last few weeks, he had slacked off in his cultivation progress and had instead focused on everything else.

This had not necessarily been a waste of time.

But it was neither efficient nor something Kyle had wanted to do, in the beginning.

However, it had happened, and he had simply forgotten it.

As such, he had to accept it, either way.

In the end, everything but his cultivation progressed exponentially.

And when he finished the 10th parkour after spending a total of more than a month within the parkour trial, something finally started to change.

Right in the center of the first room, a portal manifested.

Seeing that, Kyle began to hope that something good was about to happen.

However, it was not long after the portal manifested that he perceived the familiar mana fluctuations.

His bright smile vanished as realization caused him to feel bitter in his heart.

'Is that really necessary?' Kyle wondered. He was displeased to see the skeletal body of the Lich, Li, emerge from the portal.

His shoulders drooped and he gave an inaudible sigh but otherwise remained silent.

Instead of doing anything stupid, he simply tried to figure out if something about the Lich had changed.

Unfortunately, that was not the case.

To his dismay, not even a single bone of the Lich was broken which was somewhat sad.

"Come with me..." The Lich ordered without bothering to throw even a single glance towards Kyle.

His voice seemed to have trailed off before he reluctantly added something that caused Kyle's entire body to be covered in chills. "...please"

To say Kyle was shocked was an understatement.

For a moment, he simply stared at Li, not knowing what to do.

His mind had suddenly gone blank and while his body knew that he had to follow Li, his brain just couldn't get his legs to move.

Feeling visibly uncomfortable, the Lich released his death-aura, only to feel a tingling sensation around his Undead core.

Letting out a growl, the Lich vent out its annoyance.

He was frustrated due to Kyle's behavior, but he seemed to be unable to do anything.

Kyle realized this, which made him feel more at ease.

Nevertheless, there was still a deep sensation of discomfort in the depth of his conscience.

Now was not the time to let his guard down.

Shaking his head, he tried to overcome the unease before following the restless Lich.

The trial seemed to have been finished. Kyle recalled that the Lich had told him that he would show him how to properly use his soul force.

This made him feel a little excited.

In the last few weeks, he had already learned a lot about soul force.

That even included how to accurately distribute his soul force in order to activate his wind affinity.

Additionally, he had also learned to simultaneously exert the Swift steps movement technique by circulating soul force through his entire body.

Yet, Kyle also knew that he had to improve a lot.

And even if he had forgotten it, the Lich made it a point to state it quite bluntly.

"We saw how you tried to improve your proficiency with every single unique property you possess. You seemed to have improved a little bit.

But if you wouldn't have wasted the last three weeks, I could have taught you everything about your cultivation energy, your affinity, and how to properly execute martial art techniques...such a waste of time!"

Though Li couldn't harm Kyle physically, it didn't mean he couldn't harm him at all.

Words were a powerful weapon and he made good use of them to belittle Kyle.

This was annoying, but Kyle knew that the Lich, Li, was not wrong.

As such, he simply accepted his comment without a retort. It hurt him but it was the truth.

Kyle reluctantly entered the portal and expected to once again be taken inside the Lich's abode.

But, they had entered a completely different place which confused him thoroughly.

"Is...that an archery range?"