Armipotent

Chapter 2166: Soul Cultivation

Heavenly Core Refinement was more tedious and time-consuming than he thought. It was even more tedious than opening his meridian. The process was filling his dantian to the brim, until his dantian cracked, a subtle crack. Then he would use his Heavenly Energy to nurse his Dantian, which required meticulous attention as he needed to make sure the crack was mended before filling his Dantian again.

He repeated the process again and again, which was why it was boring even compared to the Meridian Opening Art. It required patience, or else he might damage his dantian. As long as he was being careful, everything should be safe. He just needed to do a triple check to ensure the crack was mended before continuing.

During the Heavenly Core Refinement, Tang Shaoyang paid more attention to the sleeping dragon inside his dantian. He noticed the sleeping dragon stirred, twitching when his dantian cracked. He wondered if the dragon would wake up during the Heavenly Core Refinement. That was why he paid extra attention to it.

Thanks to the sleeping dragon, the process was bearable. He had something to distract him from the tedious process. It took him thirty hours to achieve great success in Heavenly Core Refinement. He was being extra careful to avoid permanent damage to his dantian.

By the time he finished, his dantian was the size of his head. Not just his dantian increased in size, but the Heavenly Energy inside was even more condensed and stronger. It was still nothing compared to his original whirlpool, but a great progress for someone who just entered cultivation.

He released a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was the only one inside the training ground. There was no update from his shadow spirit, and Zara didn’t tell him anything either, meaning there was no progress with the Heaven Founder.

After fifteen minutes reflecting on his progress, checking his window status once more to see if his Heavenly Energy was registered in his window status. It was not added to his Chaos Energy, and the Heavenly Energy was not shown either.

Despite the significant increase in his Heavenly Energy, it still didn’t appear in his window status. That confirmed his guess of Heavenly Energy as a hidden stat.

Tang Shaoyang continued with his Heavenly Soul Sutra. He didn’t know what to expect when he delved into the technique, but the moment he started, he woke up in a strange place. So strange that it left him speechless.

He was standing on the grass field; there was nothing but grass. Then he sensed something familiar; it was a familiar feeling when he activated the domain, where he could sense everything within it. It was the same here; he could sense everything in this place.

He was currently standing on a grass field, a vast grass field. His bird’s-eye vision could not cover the whole area. He could extend his vision up to five kilometers, but he didn’t need to. This place was like a domain; he could feel everything in this place.

He was currently in the center of this place, his Soul Palace. Up to the north was a cold and snowy area, to the west was the volcanic area, to the east was a sea, and down to the south was a place that looked like hell.

The ground was pitch black and cracked. Void Energy and Dark Poison were emitted through those cracks. The black lightning frequently struck down the ground, and what was worse was that some of the ground was a void itself. Then there was a certain area with unstable space as well. So hell was the right to describe the area in the south.

There was one more area, the floating island. The floating island was flying around in this place, and that floating island was currently on top of the snowy area.

Based on the Heavenly Soul Sutra, the Soul Palace was formed naturally when they entered cultivation. The Soul Palace grew together with the cultivator, and it was formed based on the cultivator’s nature.

That explained what happened in the south of his Soul Palace. It was related to all the abilities he had mastered, such as Space, Shadow, Void, Poison, Black Lightning, and so on. A bunch of dangerous powers were put into one area.

The north might be related to his Primal Elemental Power, Ethereal Frost. The volcanic area in the west was related to his Chaos Flame. But he didn’t have the right explanation about the sea in the east, and also the floating island.

This made him curious about what was in the sea. He tried to sense what was in the sea, but there was nothing in the sea. Just water, there was no living thing or anything out of the ordinary.

Tang Shaoyang then checked the floating island, and there was something on it. In the blink of an eye, he appeared on the floating island.

He was standing in front of a lake that was surrounded by beds of colorful flowers. The air and scent were much more refreshing than the grass field. The breeze was calming and comforting.

The interesting thing he sensed was at the center of the lake, a floating crystal that was four times his size, floating above the lake. It was interesting because the crystal released an energy fluctuation. Its color kept changing between gold and black, and the same sleeping dragon in his dantian was sleeping inside that crystal.

”So what do you think of my Soul Palace?” The question was meant for Han Taiyang, an ancient cultivator.

He wanted to know the experienced cultivator’s opinion about his Soul Palace before starting the Heavenly Soul Sutra. He was waiting for an answer, but there was no answer. He thought Han Taiyang was playing a game again, but that was when he realized his connection with his spirits was cut when he was in his Soul Palace.

He tried to check his Spirit World, but he could not. He tried to connect with the spirit, but he also could not.

”Let’s start then...”

He sat cross-legged on the ground, closing his eyes, recalling the Heavenly Soul Sutra in his mind. Soul Cultivation was different from the usual cultivation. There was no such small success or great success in Soul Cultivation.

He needed to fill his Soul Palace, such as creating a new landscape, such as a mountain, a lake, or even more flower beds. The impressive thing was that it was not limited to just landscape or objects; he could even create a living being. He could create them as long as he had enough internal energy.

However, there was a note that warned him about creating a living being. He could not carelessly form a living being in his Soul Palace. He needed to create an ideal living environment.

Take his current Soul Palace. If he tried to create an animal here, they would die in a few minutes because there was no air in this place. He must create an ideal living environment before thinking of creating a living thing in his Soul Palace.

The Heavenly Scripture warned him to be careful about it, but they also encouraged him to create the living being. The reason was that the living being could help him to develop the Soul Palace naturally. He didn’t need to do anything as his Soul Palace would grow stronger naturally.

Again, it was followed by a warning as well with the creation of living beings. He needed to be extra careful because the living being was the source of the inner demons. There was a chance that those living beings could get corrupted, which would create an inner demon that might bring destruction to his Soul Palace.

What would happen if his Soul Palace were destroyed? He would die, but dying was not the worst outcome. The worst outcome was that he would become an idiot or a madman who would destroy everything at sight, a monster with no mind.

”Hmmm... I have to postpone creating a living being, even an animal...”

Tang Shaoyang realized that developing his Soul Palace would be much harder than he thought. Especially if he wanted to create a living being. Even if he wanted to create animals with low intelligence, which reduced the risk of creating inner demons, he needed to understand all their needs.

If he wanted to fill the lake with fish, he needed to think thoroughly about what the fish needed. He needed to decide what kind of fish he wanted to create, then he needed to think of their source of food, and then he needed to think of a way to control their numbers to avoid overpopulation.

This was when he realized that he needed a deeper understanding to create the living being if he didn’t want to risk his Soul Palace collapsing.

”Maybe a biology lesson will help...”

The thought of taking a biology lesson for Soul Cultivation was quite absurd. He just never expected that he needed to study something like biology for Soul Cultivation.