The goddess smiled gently "you had your own reasons , there is nothing to forgive." she said sweetly. nick smiled " lets just spend the rest of the day relaxing before i have to get back to pushing my cultivation forward." he said to which the goddess nodded. the two then spent the rest of the day relaxing by swimming in the nearby pond as well as sunbathing lazily in the dim light that entered the clouds around the base. the next day nick took out the peace of mind technique that he got for completing the world changing mission when he was in the trial world. this technique would allow him to refine his soul which while not an unheard of practice was fairly uncommon due to how painful it was said to be. the reason nick hadn't learned this technique yet was because it had the requirement that in order to cultivate it you needed to overcome at least one heart demon on your own. it was not until yesterday that nick had filled the requirement allowing him to finally put the technique to use. pulling the technique out of his inventory nick started to read the book.

As he read a deep frown formed on his face at how difficult the technique was to use . besides the requirement previously stated nick also needed to withstand the agony of having his soul ripped and mended by his heart demons. while the soul was not very understood injuries to the soul were know to be the hardest to endure because it was damage to the most fundamental part of a person. nick prepared himself before he started to circulate his qi as described in the technique and he only felt a slight itch after completing one full cycle making him relax thinking that the technique had exaggerated how painful it would be. if nick could see into his soul he would notice that the itch he felt was only his heart demon waking up but alas nick was not able to and as such he was not prepared for the agony that suddenly struck him as the heart demon lashed out at nicks soul leaving a small tear the quickly mended. as the pain struck nick he spasmed on the ground with his hands on his head and his mouth open in a silent scream.​​

The pain came and went like crashing waves before the heart demon finally ran out of energy and went back to sleep. nick lay on the ground panting with a distant gaze at the end of this refinement like he was brain damaged. thankfully nick snapped out of it after about five minutes before cursing at the technique for how painful that experience actually was.