Lin Feng stood and patted the sand off his robes.

A completely unnecessary gesture as the spatial barrier formed by the Void Force swirling around had kept him clean.

With a wave of his hand, the glass orb sank into the sand, leaving no trace of the former host of Son Goku.

A dribble of blood ran down his nose.

He wiped it away with the back of his hand. It looked like he would have to take it easy on using the powers of the tailed beasts until he had completely digested the new fragment of the world will.

Currently, using them would cause them to conflict within his soul, which was weakened by the recent combat, damaging it further.

Stretching, to work the kinks out of his body from sitting still for so long, he walked into the Void.

And out of it on the rooftop of the abandoned watchtower in Suna.

He immersed in the newfound precision of his teleportation for a moment before vanishing yet again.

This time, he directly reappeared in the office of the Kazekage.

Only to be submerged by a barrage of kunai from his guards and a wave of golden sand.

Partly stepping into the Void, his form grew illusory and the attacks passed through him harmlessly.

When Rasa realized who it was that had intruded into his office, he hastily called off the attack and dismissed his guards, leaving them alone in the room.

Lin Feng’s form solidified and he walked over to his desk and flopped down on a chair opposite him.

“So, how long have I been missing?”

“Just shy of a fortnight.”

“Missed me?”

Rasa’s lips quirked into a humourless smile, “As a matter of fact, yes. It has been quite challenging to convince those who have recently returned to the village of its change in ownerships without the deterrent of your presence. Thankfully, your victory over the Tsuchikage was enough for them to realise that it is much better to have you as an ally than a foe.”

“Oh? Good. Then I won’t have to beat some sense into them.”

“Ahem. They want you to hand over the four-tails.”

“I spoke too soon… Tell them I sealed it within me and if they have a problem with it, they’re welcome to try their luck against me. Just let them know that I won’t be lenient with their lives anymore.”

“What?! Impossible! It’s not possible to seal multiple tailed beasts within a host.”

Lin Feng shrugged and held out both his hands. The left hand got coated in magma while the right had sand circling around it.

He dismissed the powers and turned around and vanished, leaving a shocked Rasa behind.

When he reappeared on top of the watchtower, he coughed out some blood.

Wiping his mouth, he straightened up as he took in the sight of the village spread out below him.

All the materials needed for his plans for the village had been acquired. He just needed to close up for some time in order to perfectly digest his gains and patch his injured soul. He could then begin his work.

Setting up a formation to keep himself hidden, he lay down on the roof under the crimson rays of the setting sun and closed his eyes.

Soul cultivation was one of the most esoteric paths of cultivation.

The soul referred to the amalgam of mind, emotion, memory and will. Strengthening it was mandatory if one wanted to comprehend the more complicated of cultivation techniques and martial arts.

After reaching the peak of the Shattered Void realm, it would be the only path left for progress as the stronger the soul, the easier it was to sense principles.

Cultivating the soul was a basic requirement for mastering the illusion arts and for effective soul combat.

Speaking of illusion arts, in this plane, the art was dependent on using one’s chakra to affect the opposite party’s flow of chakra.

A more physical form of the art rather than the ones he knew that directly affected the soul. Both had their merits.

The soul illusions were stronger but difficult to grasp. The energetic illusions were easier to learn but weaker.

The strength of a person’s soul also determined how resistant to illusions they were.

The soul intensity of someone without any formal training in soul cultivation depended on his life experience.

The older he was, the more memories he had, the more intense the emotions he had experienced, the stronger was his will, in that his philosophy on life was that much more mature. Thus, his soul grew stronger with age.

The higher his social status and the stronger his personal ability, the greater his confidence and the stronger his soul.

The more intelligent he was and the better his memory, the stronger would his soul be.

Many factors affected the strength of a soul and there were many ways of cultivating it, but all had two steps in common.

The formation of a mindscape to protect one’s soul and the condensation of a nascent divinity, also known as the soul form.

Beyond this, depending on the art, various visualization methods were used to generate weapons for the soul to battle with in the mindscape.

His art created the four elements corresponding to the four constituents of the soul.

As he meditated, he fed his emotions into a wisp of reddish-pink flame, achieving a zen state.

The temperature of the flame, named Enthusiasm Fire, was dependent on the peak intensity of the emotions he had felt in his life.

This technique was considered an inheritance technique as all generations of sect masters of the Grand Architectural Sect had fired the souls of their chosen successors with it, making them experience the peak emotions they had felt in their life.

Thus, from generation to generation, the Enthusiasm Fire had gotten stronger as it had been passed down.

Before leaving, Lin Feng too had passed it down to his apprentice.

After reaching the zen state, he visualized his errant thoughts as a capricious wind that blew throughout his mind.

He mentally calmed the wind until his mind was still with only a gentle breeze blowing in a single direction. The longer he maintained this state, the more ordered his thoughts and the stronger his soul would become.

Forging ahead, he condensed the memories of the day into a drop of water which he added to his river of memories.

Finally, he reaffirmed his immediate and future goals and meditated upon his own personality in order to strengthen his Will.

In his mindscape, his nascent divinity shone with a four-coloured glaze when he finally completed his meditation and awoke.

His stomach rumbled, informing him that he hadn’t eaten a thing for nearly twenty days. Which meant that he had been meditating for nearly six days.

Standing up, he inspected the changes in his body.

His formerly golden mane had turned rust red with highlights of gold. It had lengthened hanging down to his ankles.

The blue markings that had so recently overspread his body had condensed into one mark depicting a dark blue crescent cradling a small circle on his right cheek.

His eyes were still pitch black but his iris had taken on an amber tint with a diamond shaped pupil.

Condensing a blade out of wind, he pared his inconveniently long hair close to his skull, further defining the rugged lines of his face.

Now that his soul had assimilated both fragments of the World Will, he could start his work.

Another growl from his stomach had him searching for something to eat.

He could work later.