The Glorious Evolution

Hearing this, Levi sat cross-legged and placed the pearl on his palms. Then, he emptied his mind and attempted to connect with the pearl spiritually, using the same technique for the ancestral crimson tree.

After a few attempts, Levi found himself inside a small, gloomy consciousness space. It was spherical and filled with a moving fog.

Levi glanced below him and noticed that he wasn’t standing on any water surface, which was the norm for consciousness spaces. Instead, his feet were floating on a chilling foggy cloud.

’Is this really the wisp’s spiritual Leywell?’ Levi wondered.

’What did you expect?’ Ash’Kral appeared on top of his shoulder and shared, ’Most wisps found in artifacts were either too small to form a will or weak enough that they remain dormant for eternity.’

’Which one is this?’

’The latter.’

’How can you tell?’

’If the wisp were too small to form a will, it wouldn’t have a consciousness space for us to enter in the first place.’ Ash’Kral explained, ’The fog you see around you is the artifact’s consciousness. If you want to awaken it, it needs to settle down into a lake.’

’How interesting...’ Levi murmured.

Although he knew some information about artifacts, they were at a surface level at best. This was the first time he had heard about dormant wisps and such inside artifacts, as no one seemed to talk about them in public forums.

’How rare is this phenomenon?’ Levi asked.

’It depends on the grade of the artifact. The higher it is, the higher the chance of finding a wisp inside of it.’ Ash’Kral shared, ’As for your artifact? I believe it should be a one in a million to find a regular wisp.’

Knowing that they had a dormant one in their possession made Levi feel an electrifying sensation, akin to finding a priceless treasure.

Alas, before he could embrace happiness, Ash’Kral had to shatter his dreams.

’Though, if you aren’t going to use it to concoct an evolutionary formula, the wisp is quite useless unless you awaken it.’

’Then, how can I do that?’ Levi wanted to give it a go, believing that such a rare occurrence must be worth the trouble.

’It usually depends on the identity of the perished entity.’ Ash’Kral said, ’For a dormant wisp to awaken, it needs to be reminded of its past and its identity. To achieve this, you must present something with a powerful sentimental value to the wisp. So powerful, just being near it should cause the wisp to squirm in memory.’

’That sounds like a lot of work.’ Levi held his chin thoughtfully.

He understood that he had to figure out its origins first before attempting to find something with sentimental value.

Realizing that he was with one of the most knowledgeable entities in the universe, Levi didn’t hesitate to ask him about it.

’Brat, you think I have time to waste on researching every piece of artifact? There are an unknown number of them spread out everywhere, and even if I invested all my time, I still wouldn’t be able to learn about each artifact’s true origin.’ Ash’Kral chided, ’They are dimensional fossils and I ain’t no paleontologist.’

’A simple no would have sufficed.’ Levi’s brow twitched.

Though his answer had made Levi reconsider attempting to awaken the dormant wisp. In fact, he even started to consider selling it to Sir Alaric.

Of course, he would rip him off, but it was now an option.

’If Sir Alaric needs it for his evolutionary formula, which he has been so desperate to concoct for the past five years, I am certain he ain’t going to stop coming at me for it.’ Levi thought, ’If I were to sell it at three times or five times the market value, he would cough up to buy it, while at the same time, I will stay away from trouble.’

Before taking every action, Levi always weighed the pros and the cons. In this scenario, he realized that it might not be the best move to keep the artifact, as awakening it would take so much effort.

As for its effects? While Levi would benefit from them, he understood that earning twenty thousand coins or more would fetch him a much higher-grade artifact from the market.

’Before you make your decision, it seems you have forgotten to ask about one important information.’ Ash’Kral reminded.

Hearing this, it clicked on Levi that he had yet to ask him about the benefits of awakening the dormant wisp.

He swiftly asked him, and Ash’Kral told him the truth.

’Once a wisp is awakened, the artifact’s grade can be upgraded depending on the entity’s previous Tier.’ Ash’Kral smirked, ’If it belonged to a Tier 8 entity, the artifact’s grade can be upgraded to S grade.’

Upon hearing this, the pros and cons list was burned to crisp in Levi’s mind as the only thought that coursed through him was:

’My precious pearl...It’s all mine!’

’That’s more like it.’ Ash’Kral chuckled.

While Ash’Kral was appreciative of Levi’s cautious and cunning thinking, he also didn’t want him to be a coward who would take advantage of any sort of opportunity to avoid trouble.

Progress thrives in chaos, not peace and comfort.

”I am too weak at the moment to consider awakening it.”

Levi settled his burning heart, putting such thoughts at the back of his mind for now.

”Let’s see if it’s any good at its current grade.”

Then, he left the pearl’s consciousness space and attempted to test it for the first time. He wore it around his neck and walked to the window. Next, he guided some of the solar energy into the artifact, giving it the fuel to show its magic.

The moment the pearl was touched by solar energy, it started spinning around its axis, akin to a spiritual engine turned on.

”Woaah...This is legit.”

Meanwhile, Levi found his spiritual vision more refined and smooth to the point, he was capable of differentiating between the spiritual auras of Daywalkers grouped up.

Previously, his spiritual vision suffered from a problem, where it merged the spiritual auras of Nightcrawlers and Daywalkers if they were too far from him.

The same happened with the Flesh-Eater Spider army.

But now? Each Daywalker had their spiritual aura contained and pinpointed regardless of the distance. Yet, this wasn’t even the best part.

When Levi focused on a small group of Daywalkers sitting in the garden, he was able to spot a small difference between their spiritual auras...Each one had an illumination hue, ranging from dim to bright.

’If the spiritual aura’s color defines one’s specialization and elemental affinity, then this illumination must be the decider of one’s progress.’

Levi realized that dim illumination implied the first stage, and as it grew brighter, it represented the second and third stages.

While this wouldn’t work on high-ranked Daywalkers since their spiritual auras were all bright and overwhelming, at least, he would be able to see the low-ranked Daywalkers’ true progress.

’You are wasting the artifact’s true potential on useless garbage.’ Ash’Kral chided, ’True progress? Who cares? What you need to be doing is refining your spiritual prowess to enter your consciousness space, or what you call, Spiritual Leywell.’

’Wait, isn’t that one of the bonus rewards to reaching a Warden rank?’ Levi raised an eyebrow, ’I don’t need to wait for the seed’s help?’

’The seed helps Daywalkers access their Spiritual Leywell after their spiritual prowess reaches a certain level. Usually, the Warden rank is the standard for most Daywalkers with average spiritual prowess.’ Ash’Kral shared, ’The gifted ones can access it much earlier, maybe at a Pathfinder rank or even Junior rank if their talent was impressive.’

’In your case, your spiritual prowess is already way above the norm. You are just lacking in the control department.’

’However, with the pearl’s refinement capabilities, it can smooth your control and help you access your Spiritual Leywell right now.’

Upon hearing this, Levi’s smile widened to the limit in delight. He had read on the network that accessing one’s Spiritual Leywell was a monumental breakthrough.

That’s because it provided the Daywalkers with a private spiritual space, where they could train and improve while simultaneously feeding their seed!

Though not everyone could pull it off right away since it required keeping one’s eyes open while their consciousness was inside the Spiritual Leywell.

It was like zoning out, but for long periods.

In Levi’s case, he had it more difficult since he could only use manual cultivation.

Manual cultivation needed a great deal of focus to visualize the feeding process, unlike automatic cultivation.

Still, Levi brought the pearl close to his heart and murmured, ”I ain’t never giving you up, my little treasure.”

He would be over the moon if it helped him access the Spiritual Leywell for the sake of his training.

Without further ado, Levi asked Ash’Kral how he could do it. Ash’Kral went on and explained that Spiritual Leywells were protected by the subconscious barrier.

It was always on to protect the soul within the Spiritual Leywell, even if the person had no clue about its existence.

Since low-ranked Daywalkers couldn’t control their subconsciousness, they couldn’t order it to remove the barrier or such. To gain such internal control, one’s spiritual prowess and control had to be in a different realm.

”You may not control it yet, but we don’t need it to enter the Spiritual Leywell...With the pearl’s assistance, I believe you can brute force it once and leave a backdoor.” Ash’Kral said.

”That sounds like I will be attacking my own spirit.” Levi frowned.