Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 380: Compensation.

Ozul kept his gaze towards the ceiling, hoping to understand what he had done.

Perhaps if he had been in his right mind, he would not have taken such decisions. Perhaps the initial strike he had repelled had shaken him too much to make a rational decision.

Shaking his head with another sigh, he knew that all of those were just excuses.

He had really just overestimated himself. He was overconfident.

He thought that even if he couldn’t win, he could at least escape unscathed since he didn’t have any Spiritual Essence.

Hasn’t it always been like this?

‘It seems like I had become too comfortable,’ having realized his shortcoming this time, Ozul knew better than over evaluating his abilities now.

.....

Although his surprise attacks had definitely worked against Chen and even killed the peak Nascent Soul guy. Yet, if he was on the receiving end of the attacks, he wouldn’t have lasted long against the guy who he killed so easily.

‘I was lucky...’

The urgency of getting stronger again started clouding his mind as he remembered the reason he went through all this trouble.

Sharply turning his head towards the old lady who, for some reason, was reading a torn-out book.

“I was promised rewards.”

Taking her eyes off the pages, Ember stared into his eyes, “Don’t you want to rest first? I won’t go back on my words. You successfully completed the task even at the risk of your own life, so you will be compensated heartily.”

Although she assured him that he would be rewarded, his gaze kept lingering on her face.

It almost hurt her ego since it felt as if he was thinking that she would run away with his deserved Spiritual Cores or something. When had she, the Ember of Destruction, ever gone back on her words!?

Snorting in displeasure, Ember put the book down on the table beside Ozul’s bed.

“Alright, speak your demand.”

“It’s the same. I want Spiritual Cores.”

“Are you sure? There isn’t much you can do with Spiritual Cores. I will be honest, I think you deserve more than that.”

Many people masked other intentions behind such an honest facade, but Ozul knew Ember was being honest.

“If you feel like I deserve more, then just give me more Spiritual Cores.”

Facing such a situation, Ember didn’t know what to do. Spiritual Cores were used in many diverse inventions, and most of those things didn’t require high-quality ones. However, high-quality cores were still lacking.

There was a lack of supply, but the demand was also low, so their value wasn’t high.

“Alright. In any case, I am not lacking. However, you must remember that the greater the quality of a Spiritual Core, which essentially means the cultivation realm of the creature from whom it was taken, the rarer it is.”

Ozul looked at him as if she had mentioned something too basic.

Shaking her head, Ember explained, “It’s not just because killing stronger creatures is harder. The underlying problem is that the higher a person’s cultivation realm is, the more difficult it becomes to harvest their Spiritual Core.”

“You would know if you were to kill a Nascent Soul being. Their Spiritual Core would almost always shatter the moment they die. Similarly, the difficulty in preserving the Core exponentially increases when the being is at the Origin Realm.”

Hearing that such was a thing, Ozul didn’t know what to think about it. Eating low-quality Cores barely made him feel a thing, so he planned to get his hands on some from someone at the Nascent Soul Realm at the very least.

‘She should at least give me a few Cores of Nascent Soul Realm,’ Ozul sighed in his mind as he begin to think of alternative methods.

“That being said, I think you deserve 5 Spiritual Cores of the Origin Realm.”

Those words swayed with the wind that gently pressed on Ozul’s face.

His eyes slowly widened in realization; he thought maybe he had heard wrong.

“of...Origin Realm?”

“Originally, If you had completed the task and returned, I would have given you three. But since you almost died, I have thrown in two more.”

Seeing his taken-aback expressions, Ember smirked and with a wave of her hand, five small crystal-like stones appeared on the bed within Ozul’s reach.

Ozul picked himself up and rested his back against the wall with a hiss before picking up one of the Spiritual Cores.

He had no way to confirm it, but sensing Ember’s emotions, he could be sure that she wasn’t deceiving him. Anyway, if he would know it once he ate them all.

By his estimations, Spiritual Core from even a peak Nascent Soul Realm expert would have contributed significantly to his strength.

From the way Ember had started her lecture about the Spiritual of higher quality being rare, he assumed that he might only get a pitiful amount at the first stage of the Nascent Soul Realm.

Seeing the twinkling look in his eyes, Ember knew that he was more than satisfied.

‘What can he even do with these... did he find some Spiritual Artifact that uses these Cores?’ Ember tried to come up with some explanation but her guesses were just that, empty guesses.

Finally, not being able to control her curiosity, Ember blurted out, “Can I ask what are you going to use them for?”

Raising his brows in surprise, Ozul looked right into her eyes without saying anything.

Ember reflected wryly on her own question as she didn’t think of him as the person who entertained personal questions.

But contrary to her expectations, Ozul didn’t hesitate to reply, “They will help me become stronger.”

He didn’t divulge any further. This much would be known to her even without him telling, so it wasn’t much.

Picking up all the Spiritual Cores, Ozul started making his way towards the door under the bulging eyes of Ember.

“Where are you going?”

Her concerns were justified since he had just survived a near-death event that would have rendered most people bedridden for months, much alone a few unfortunates who would have been disabled for life. And here he was, striding out of the room as if nothing had occurred, barely two hours after almost kissing lady death and still covered in bandages covering his entire chest.

“I can’t waste my time here.”

Ozul left these words hanging in the air before waltzing out of the room.

As he walked forward, he couldn’t deny the stinging pain in his back and his abdomen.

Although the deep wounds on his back were almost closed, they weren’t completely healed.

His clothes were completely battered, so he set out to find Raven after leaving the Beastkin’s estate. She still had all of his clothing.

He made it to where they were staying without drawing too much attention to himself. It was fortunate that the teleportation gates were placed in discrete locations. Otherwise, his half-naked body wrapped in broad white strips of cloth to conceal his back wounds would have drawn a lot of attention.

He didn’t know it at the time, but the challenging thing wasn’t getting to the hotel, but rather getting out of it.

. . .

As he entered the room, all three people looked at him with varied emotions.

Horror was plastered on Raven’s face, shock on Blaze’s, and some emotion he couldn’t describe on Zier’s face.

However, there were many times in the past when he had gone through similar situations.

Treating this the same as he did in the past, he walked forward to ask Raven for his clothes when he came to the sight of a teary-eyed Raven with one of her hands to her mouth, barely controlling herself from crying out loud.

Ozul didn’t realize that his appearance wasn’t just haggard or that of a tired man.

His whole torso was covered in white stripes and though there was no blood, Raven knew better than anyone that he didn’t have blood. Which worried her more since she didn’t know how horrifying wounds were hidden under those bandages.

The person in question, Ozul, didn’t know what to do anymore. Before he would have just asked for whatever he wanted and despite their worries, someone like Raven wouldn’t just start bawling her eyes out.

But now he felt as if he asked for clothes right now, she would surely start crying buckets.

“I... am almost healed? It’s nothing...”

His words, however, didn’t bring any comfort to Raven or the other two. Covered in wraps of bandages, he wasn’t convincing anyone that he was almost healed.

Raven’s head dropped as she looked at the ground with clenched fists. Her figure was trembling slightly and Ozul couldn’t see her face anymore.

But when he felt her emotions, he instantly knew that she was both angry and sad.

Not knowing how to ask for his clothes now, Ozul looked a little lost.

Behind him, though Blaze was also seething in anger that someone had done this to his master, he quickly snapped out of it as he recognized the familiar sight of an angry Raven. He promptly grabbed Zier and walked out of the room. This was Ozul’s mess to deal with.

Ozul was left alone in the room with Raven.

Before he could think of anything, Raven finally raised her head. Teary-eyed, she glared at him, “Did that withering bitch(Ember) do this?”

Ozul peered at Raven oddly, taken aback; was she really Raven?

Before long, he was answering her question, “She... didn’t. It was a task... and that man is already dead.”

Seemingly satisfied that the man was already dead, Raven still cursed under her breath.

“Sit down,” she suddenly commanded with such a tone that Ozul had never heard from her before. It was as if she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. A tone he used very often in the past.

Seeing him not complying, Raven’s fists further clenched as she shouted at him with reddened eyes, “I am not asking you to love me! Just sit down for once, will you!?”

*sigh...* Ozul realized there was no way out of it.

.....

Since she had never asked anything from him, he could at least do this much...