Spirit Soul

Kyle was utterly dumbfounded when he saw where Li had brought him.

Not only was the Lich holding back in doing whatever he wanted, but being dragged to an archery place was also something out of the ordinary.

Looking around, Kyle didn't even notice that Lich was already standing on a white line.

As he looked ahead multiple targets appeared out of nowhere, right in front of him.

"Brat, pay attention to what I am doing!"

The Lich's voice was low, but Kyle sensed the note of frustration in it.

Not wanting to annoy him anymore, Kyle turned around immediately.

There, he saw that Li was simply standing on a white line before lifting his hand.

A moment later, his mana had gathered in his five bony fingers before they bent slightly.

This made it look like Li was holding something.

It was only a moment later that the mana he had gathered inside his bony fingers was released in his palm.

Slowly, a ball of compressed mana was constructed.

It was extremely small and looked like a grain.

But just a fraction of a second later, its seemingly inconspicuous appearance transformed completely.

Meanwhile, small droplets of mana were shot out of the compressed mana ball.

The same process repeated itself several times over and over again.

It only ended the moment the ball of compressed mana was completely used up.

Not a single drop of mana was left in it to shoot out at a velocity that would instantly tear Kyle apart.

Had it been the case, he wouldn't have even been able to defend himself against it. And, upon seeing this, Kyle was barely able to gulp down his saliva before he got control over his erratic breathing.

Kyle had been so enraptured in the process that he didn't even realize that his eyes had been transfixed on Li.

Without meaning to, he had watched the entire process of Li gathering mana inside his hand up to shooting them out.

"Look at the targets!" The Lich almost barked an order at Kyle who nodded his head.

He quickly averted his attention to do as asked.

'All targets hit...the bullseye…' Kyle only stared at the targets in shock.

He couldn't believe his eyes and even rubbed them to see if he was imagining things.

Meanwhile, Li, who was proud of himself, stepped away from the white line, only to tap it once.

Through this, the almost broken targets were repaired. Or at least it looked like that because something moved so fast that it looked like the targets had been exchanged.

"I know that you won't be able to manifest an entire ball of mana within your hand, even less this mysterious cultivation energies of yours.

But in order to pass this trial, I want you to compress a total of two energy drops. And, you will have to hit the target with at least one!"

The Lich seemed to understand that Soul force was much more profound than mana.

Though he had been doubtful earlier, after taking a proper look at the tests Kyle had undergone in his abode, his doubts were cleared.

Because of that Li understood Kyle's capabilities very well.

Only, his age and abilities were still a mystery to him.

However, after he had been lectured for several days, Li realized his mistake.

The young Lady whom he had, in fact, raised to a certain extent, made him understand that he had been too greedy.

Each of them was desperate to achieve their own goal. Thus, he had just become too restless after his last experiment had failed.

But then, Kyle had arrived just after that making Li desperate.

The frustration had probably influenced Li.

Now, he told this to himself and wanted to make everything much better than before.

With that in mind, he ignored his own impatience followed by his frustration.

He then looked at Kyle, who was already staring at Li in doubt.

"That's not all, brat! I want you to use your wind affinity to manifest attacks that should hit all targets in the center, and at the exact same time. Otherwise, I won't let you pass either!"

Kyle had listened intently, but he couldn't help but feel that his ears had tricked him.

He couldn't believe what kind of task he had been given.

And his eyes went wide when he saw that the closest target was 30 meters away.

Additionally, there were a total of around 30 targets all together.

'He is toying around with me, right?!'

While Li explained the tasks Kyle had to fulfill in order to pass the trial, the other Undeads stared at the reflection on the table in front of them, utterly confused.

"Is he serious with that demand? I understand that Kyle should improve his control over his cultivation energy and affinity. But does he want this young lad to take years until he finally reached the Krysal stage to actually do what Li demands?!"

Under normal circumstances, one awoke an affinity at the Vitae stage at the earliest.

And, it was rather common for this to happen even later.

If not the Vitae stage, then some cultivators would awaken it at the Krysal stage.

And, in some rare cases, if one was a late-bloomer even later than that.

However, asking someone who did not even have enough cultivation energy to liquefy a ball of compressed energy using a total of two energy drops was too much.

But, Li didn't stop at that. He further asked Kyle to shoot them towards a target that was more than 30 meters away.

The second step increased the difficulty of the already tough task to another level

In order to nail the task, Kyle was also supposed to be controlling a total of more than a dozen wind blades.

He had to control and direct them with precision so as to make them hit their respective target at the same time.

This was simply insanity, yet, the young Lady was extremely calm.

Though she had disappeared for a few days with Li when Kyle had been conquering the Parkour, she had been keeping an eye on him.

But right now, while seeing Li throw a complicated hurdle at Kyle, she remarked as she said with a deep sigh that showed her reluctance.

"You may have not known him for long enough, but it's his sheer desperation that made him act up before. Earlier, I thought he was in better condition.

I think his expectations from the young man are probably even higher than mine...even if I don't like to acknowledge that…"

Hearing this, caused the others to look at the young Lady in doubt. They knew how long she had waited to meet Kyle. And, most of the others had arrived only after her.

Yet, what they often forgot was that Li was by far the strongest.

Also, he was also the only Undead, who was the least willing to accept a deterioration in his strength.

It was also because of this reason that Li had been working on a way to avoid becoming weaker.

But so far, all of his plans had failed miserably.

As such, he was increasingly becoming more depressed and desperate to find a way out of the miserable situation he, and the others were in.

They had their own grudges or regrets that held them back from leaving the mortal world.

These unfulfilled desires did not allow their soul to leave their body that had long since died.

Some of them were stronger, and some had long since given up on finding a way to pay for their sins or fulfill what was still incomplete.

Upon seeing the kind of difficulty Li had set up for Kyle, a single thought echoed through the minds of all the other undeads.

They were simply appalled to see the way Li was calmly explaining to the young man what exactly he had to do.

'It looks like all of us have something left to achieve before we can move on, and move to the afterlife…'

They still didn't like the way Li had ignored their unanimous decision when Kyle had been inside the Lich's abode, and it was bothering them.

Nonetheless, they could faintly comprehend how the Lich must be feeling.

That was because all of them had similar emotions, that even while being Undeads, their time was slowly running out.

If not for Kyle, it would have been impossible for them to leave the castle which was the sole reason for them to retain their sentience.

Other than that, the Castle was the sole means that allowed the Undeads to stay alive.

But on the downside, it was the only thing that was holding them back from leaving the Razkadan castle!

Kyle didn't know anything that was happening behind his back. He was simply baffled by the task he had been given by the Lich.

He thought that Li might hold some grudge against him.

But after the Lich explained everything about the compression process of cultivation energy, Kyle fell silent.

After learning about the details from Li, Kyle discarded his earlier thought immediately.

Once he entered the Vitae stage, he had to learn how to compress soul force within his body.

This was much easier than doing it outside his body.

But once he was able to liquefy and compress soul force in his palm, doing the same inside his Soul core should be a child's play!

As such, Kyle listened to the Lich intently, ignoring the fact that most beings at the Vitae stage were unable to do what the Lich demanded from him, a being at the Late Fortification stage.

Being able to achieve what Li requested from him would be great.

And, even if it were to take some time, once he could manifest liquefied soul force drops inside his palm, advancing through the entire Vitae stage should only be a matter of time.

The complexity of the Vitae stage was not even a problem anymore.

This made Kyle listen even more intently to every single word the Lich uttered.

In the end, Kyle understood less than half of what Li said.

And, he had to ask several dozen questions to resolve his queries. And, each answer made him come up with even more questions.

Yet, in only a few days, it was almost like he had filled his head to the brim.

It was overflowing with so much information that he was not even able to differentiate left from right.

His entire mind seemed to be rattling.

And oddly enough, Kyle had not even started experimenting with the compression process of Soul force.

Rather, he first had to train his mind and learn how to do several things at the same time.

In the end, he had to control a total of six streams of his energy.

One of them was in each finger, in addition to a stream, or also thread of soul force that was in the center of his palm.

By channelizing it through his palm, he was supposed to release everything outside his body.

The energy would be shaped into projectiles which would then be shot out of his body.

However, this task was testing his caliber in a harsh way. Creating six streams of energy, and controlling them with each stream having roughly the same amount of soul force was way too difficult for an amateurish Cultivator like Kyle.

A few weeks ago, he would have been even worse.

His performance would have been more like a rookie than an amateur because the parkour trial had allowed him to learn a little bit more about Soul force.

It was only obvious that this was helpful as it provided him support in multiple fields that he had yet to improve in.

Because of that, his control over the wind affinity had also been greatly enhanced.

But even then, Kyle was fully aware of the fact that he had a lot of things to become more proficient in.

There were too many things he didn't know yet.

And, even amongst the things he thought he knew, most of them were either half-cooked theories or barely scratched the surface of the truth.

Because of that, Kyle was glad that he had someone extremely knowledgeable by his side.

Though the Lich was not even close to sympathetic, he was well versed with things Kyle knew nothing about.

Nonetheless, getting to know as much knowledge as possible was important. And Li was the source of it.

Thus, Kyle forgot the fact that Li had been the reason for his traumatic past to resurface.

All of his moments of being bullied, his desperation to finally start cultivating, the sting of betrayal and much more.

All of this was a thing of the past, and Kyle felt that he was slowly able to overcome the trauma.

The only thing he would have to ensure was to give his utmost efforts to become as strong as possible in the shortest possible period!

WIth that in mind, he directed his entire focus on Li.

The lich noticed the gleam of determination in Kyle's eyes, which made him faintly nod his head.

'Maybe....'