Spirit Soul

Perceiving the hues of powerful beasts before they entered his view was extremely helpful.

It allowed Kyle to conceal his soul force, while Beatrice did the same, the moment she sensed that he had tensed up.

She figured out that something was about to happen, and looked around cautiously.

It was just a moment later that she sensed the presence of several powerful beasts that had certain beings amongst them that were even stronger than she had been in her prime.

This caused Beatrice's eyes to widen in astonishment because her strength had been extremely high.

After all,  she had attained it in a span of 50,000 years.

Thus, the beasts that ran past them, ignoring their entire existence, were either more talented than her or simply older!

Swallowing nervously, Beatrice's entire body stiffened after sensing the danger.

She only moved when Kyle dragged her ahead, the moment the last monster brushed past them.

Loud booming noises of the beasts growling while advancing forward were slowly creeping up from behind their backs.

Now, the entire area of influence of the Energy Devouring Tree was slowly turning into a battlefield of several hundred beasts that all wanted to claim the territory.

Kyle was not sure why even weaker beasts were trying to claim the territory because their death was inevitable if they were to continue to fight.

But after thinking about it for only a short time, he understood that there had to be something special about the place in which the ginormous tree had been situated.

With that in mind, he nodded his head as if he was understanding the beasts' instincts and intentions before he pulled Beatrice along.

However, he let go of her shortly when he noticed that she had regained her senses.

Oddly enough, despite witnessing the presence of powerful beasts, Kyle was oddly unruffled by the fact as if it hadn't been anything special.

Meanwhile, Beatrice's reaction was more natural as if she was unable to hide her emotions and expressions.

Yet, Kyle's reaction was, in fact, also natural and he didn't hide his feelings. Rather, it was that he didn't feel threatened by the beasts that had run past them.

He couldn't explain it, but ever since he had sensed the terrifying hues of the beasts in the air, most beasts paled in comparison to the true powerhouses.

Despite that, Kyle forgot the fact that every being that was as strong as him was a powerhouse to him.

Otherwise, he might start underestimating his opponents.

This would be the worst possible that could happen to him.

More often than not, most Cultivators died because they underestimated the strength of their opponent or the dangers they had to face.

In the end, they might have survived, but they ended up dead due to overestimating their abilities and needlessly wanting to boost their pride.

Kyle didn't want to die, but he knew that dangers were, in fact, opportunities that allowed him to grow and to become stronger.

That didn't mean he would actively search for challenges that were impossible to overcome.

He knew the difference between being brave and being foolish.

But, he still understood the mindset of certain Cultivators that were mostly impatient and hastily trying to advance as fast as possible.

With that in mind, Kyle couldn't help but smile foolishly, thinking that he had already overcome more than enough challenges during the last few months.

Thinking about it, he realized that roughly one year had passed since his reincarnation.

As such, and it was already a great feat to be alive given the challenges he had tackled.

Yet, he was not yet done and was hungry for more.

He had amassed a wealth of experience and knowledge in this one year.

And, his experiences, struggles, and hardships were were already more than enough to fill pages of a book with over a million words.

Shaking his head, while walking in one direction, Kyle's smile didn't cease.

Instead, it became brighter the more he recalled the events during the last year.

Beatrice saw his smile, and she wondered what exactly made him happy, considering that their current situation was not exactly the best.

Their current food ratio would last only for a few months.

Additionally, while diving to the ground, they hadn't been able to see a single clue that pointed out that a settlement was anywhere near.

Neither had they been able to gauge the presence of any person anywhere in the gigantic forest they were currently in.

However, it didn't mean that they could lower their guard because there were more than enough races that preferred living with nature.

They wouldn't get in nature's way, and allow everything to occur as nature prophesied.

This included the fact that beasts would fight against each other and destroy the surrounding.

At the same time, it meant that they would use the remains of dead trees in order to build their houses.

Simultaneously, they would use other trees as shelters.

Securing an abode for themselves, they would then hunt for meat if necessary and pluck all kinds of ripe fruits.

The more he thought about it, the more likely it was for such races to live inside the gigantic forest.

Unfortunately, that was just an assumption and hope of his. It was not something he could say for sure, let alone prove.

Because of that, he and Beatrice were walking in one direction, quelling their hunger by plucking fruits along the way.

As long as his Nurture ability didn't show him specific hues that pointed out that something harmful for the body could be nurtured, they consumed the fruits.

This was something Kyle and Beatrice had been able to figure out the hard way.

Kyle had to test around with his Nurture ability, and nurture specific hues before these fruits were fed to weak beasts.

Like this, he was able to figure out more about specific hues, their similarities, and their differences.

It might be cruel, but Kyle couldn't care about cruelty if his one life was on the line.

Rather than dying, he would kill others to ensure his survival.

This was the bitter truth of being alive in a universe that was filled with the three cultivating energies!

The stronger would survive and kill whenever they wanted or had to, while the weak would be killed.

Kyle never let that thought slip from his thoughts, and it was imprinted in his mind since he reincarnated.

But, it was almost as if he had forgotten it before.

Only when Lin had clearly shown him how weak he was and how much he relied on the graciousness of stronger beasts that simply didn't bother about killing him, did it feel like realization struck him, once again.

As such, Kyle's current mindset that was still affected by the last remnants of the death aura was still trying to find the middle ground.

It was trying to draw a line between knowing when it was fine to kill, and when it wasn't.

This was not something he could decide easily.

Thus, the only factor that made everything much easier for Kyle was the comment of the Reaper of the Living, Nitran.

It kept echoing through his mind, every now and then.

It had been a simple comment about the fact that the souls he devoured were not the entire soul, but only the energy that had been amassed by cultivating.

As such, the core of the souls he devoured wouldn't be used by him.

This meant that the beings he killed were able to enter the afterlife, and possibly reincarnate.

In the end, Kyle was not sure what usually happened when one died because his situation and that of countless beings of the old Universe could be considered extraordinary.

Thus, he was quite intrigued about the afterlife, which, however, didn't mean that he wanted to die.

On the contrary, he was one of the beings that wanted to stay alive by all means.

Though he did not like the possibility of ending up like the Undeads if he were to die right now.

However, becoming an Undead was not something Kyle planned to do. And, even if he wanted to, he didn't have the means to attain this feat…not anymore!

Because Kyle was still not an expert with the Nurture ability, both he and Beatrice had experimented with many more things.

This included not just fruits, but also herbs, and the seedling inside the crystal necklace.

In fact, they had also tried to figure out more about the unique hues of other beasts, and most importantly, about the hues Arashi had.

Owing to the fact that he had to use the Nurture ability for all kinds of things during the last few months, Arashi's growth had been restricted.

Other than that, the Spirit Soul's nourishment was slowed down in comparison to the time Kyle had just entered the Razkadan castle.

Because of that, Kyle had to start nurturing Arashi once again because the Spirit Soul was his key to infinite potential!

He was not sure if Arashi would ever reach a level in the future at which the required nourishment would increase to the extent at which it would take thousands of years to improve further and break into the next stage.

However, even then the Spirit Soul would be able to improve.

The only catch would be that it would just take longer.

With that in mind, Kyle knew that he didn't have to be worried about his 'low' talent as Beatrice called it.

She had already entered the Late rank of the Fortification stage only a few weeks later, and that too while they were traveling through the forest!

This was great for her, but Kyle also noticed that Beatrice was struggling to improve much more than it was the case with him.

In the end, this was the fault of her unique constitution that required tremendous amounts of mana and spirit force.

Using both energies, she could increase her physique to a similar standard as someone who cultivated in the path of strength, Pryr.

Kyle had tried to nurture the hue representing Beatrice's constitution, but it required a tremendous amount of energy.

Even if he were to start now, he would require several dozen years to nurture it!

That was shocking but at the same time something he had expected. Beatrice had the talent to reach the cultivation stage above the Ascerta rank, even without his help.

As such, she had a much higher starting line than he and Selene had, to begin with.

Through this, nurturing her was much more energy-consuming and toiling for him.

And despite that, the effects his little nourishment had on her were not even noticeable.

Thus, Kyle would rather focus on his experiments and nurturing Arashi, than trying to figure out what Beatrice's unique constitution truly was.

In the end, three weeks had passed since they had left the flying island and descended on the solid ground of Shima, which had been the start of their journey.

During these few weeks, they had encountered many new and unfamiliar beasts he had never come across before.

But oddly enough, there were also hordes of beasts that seemed familiar to him.

Through this Kyle could roughly gauge where he was currently located, or to be precise what kind of location he had reached, owing to the beasts of the Lahin kingdom's beastarium!

Because there were a few beasts that appeared similar or exactly the same to the images of some beasts in the beastarium, Kyle believed that he was close to the Lahin kingdom.

Unfortunately, this was just his misconception and hope which he clung to, not a proven fact.

The only fact Kyle could prove was that he and Beatrice didn't encounter a single intelligent race on their journey through the forest.

This was frustrating, but he kept his calm because what he perceived were the first signs of the surroundings having been terraformed.

As such, hope ignited within the two of them, only for Beatrice to stiffen.

Soon, Kyle followed suit as they sensed something that caused them to feel as if they were suffocating.

"What… the hell is this?"