Out of the 9 Soul Embryos, Azalon could only form Soul Bridges with only two of them. One of them was his Spirit and the other was the Silver Soul Embryo. He watched the Soul Bridge connect with the Spirit Energy outside the bubble. The Bridge was like a long and straight tunnel with a very narrow width, but he was not worried as this Bridge was only temporary. Once the Spirit Awakens, the complete Soul Bridge can be formed and the width of that cannot be compared to the one right now.

After some tries with the other 7 Soul Embryos, he gave up as he could not elicit any kind of response from them. During this time, the last vestiges of Energy he mustered up were used up, and the tired feeling almost overwhelmed him. After making sure that the 7 non responsive Soul Embryos will not collapse, he slightly relaxed and retrieved his awareness from the bubble.

The effects of the Demon Cultivation Pill ran out at the same time, and he could feel his consciousness showing signs of waking up. The severed link between his mind and body was also slowly being restored. Within some short moments, Azalon opened his eyes and the dark roof of the cavern greeted his eyes.

He sighed in relief as he waking up with all his mental capabilities still intact can be considered to be the success of the ordeal of taking the Demon Cultivation Pill. He quickly checked his body for any signs of nourishment defects; finding almost none, he slowly closed his eyes and swiftly fell into deep sleep.

It was only after a long time that Azalon woke up again. The deep sleep was refreshing and even though the headache and tiredness was still present, he could feel the damages dealt to his consciousness were recovered by almost 50%. By this speed, he was sure that he could completely recover within a week. After all, he was the peak warrior of Spirit Novice Realm with his bodily and mental functions activated to their maximum potential possible without the support of the Spirit Energy.

He sat up from his lying position and looked around the dark room like cavern for that irritating pretty face. But to his surprise, the cavern was empty and other than the sounds of breathing, there were no disturbances within the cavern. It seemed that that bastard left many days ago.

His eyebrows lightly knit as he pondered on the reason for the departure of that man. He was puzzled as to why that man was not around to know the results of the ordeal. He came to meet Azalon just for that reason, right? So, what has happened?

Without any answers, he gave up as he was sure that he would definitely meet that pretty boy once again in the future. But the main thing he had to find out was the number of days he was out cold. He stood up and stretched his stiff body. Popping sounds echoed through the dark space as each and every joint in his body moved in what he felt as a long time.

Just then, a glint of light in a corner of his eye caught his attention. His legs wobbled slightly as he tried to walk before returning to their usual vigor. He reached the table that was placed in the cavern, and there were 5 things placed on the table along with a note.

Azalon swept his eyes on the things placed on the table before picking up the note.

“Azalon, if you are reading this note, then I may not be able to return to check on your success of the Re Awakening. My enemies caught my scent and I had no choice to lead them away, so l am leaving these things that were promised to you along with a gift from me. I know that if you can pass this ordeal, you will definitely become the leading figure in your generation in all of Shandra.”

“In front of you there should be 3 scrolls, [Infinite Beats Art] a fist technique; [Ghostly Shadow Flash] a kind of Agility technique; and the final scroll is the complete record of the [Soul Embryo Cultivation Method]. But this cultivation technique is incomplete, as the later stages of the technique were never explored. You will understand once you study it.”

“The 4th item is called [Void Ring]. It’s an interspatial storage ring with an almost unlimited amount of storage space. You just have use a drop of your blood and inject a silver of your Spiritual Energy to brand it. Never reveal the existence of this ring to anyone, Azalon. Not even to your grandfather. If the news of the ring spreads out in this plane, you will not even know how you died. I am sure that will make you understand the gravity of the situation.”

“And finally my personal present. It’s a pair of gloves, and I named them [Mountain Crushers]. Cool name, right? I know, Hahahaha… as for their usage, you will have to bind them using the same method as that of the [Void Ring]. These gloves will be very compatible with the [Infinite Beats Art] that I know you will practice.”

“There are a lot of things that I want to tell you, Azalon. A lot of things and more… but as I told you that the current you does not have any capability to change anything even though you come to know all that I want you to know. So, get stronger, Azalon. Only with strength can you make the world yours, can you make the life you wish yours, and can you make Fate itself bend to you… Get Stronger, Azalon… We three will be waiting for that day…”

The note answered some questions, but gave rise to more questions. He tucked the note carefully into his pouch placing it beside the Rock Egg. He turned to look at the scrolls and the two artifacts on the table.

The scrolls were glowing softly with a golden radiance and these martial arts should be of a higher grade than the martial arts available in his family. But what attracted his attention was the simple copper ring beside the scrolls. This is a pocket dimension artifact and that too with almost infinite space. This was something that he couldn’t comprehend the underlying principles, even with the advanced technology of his time on Earth. And here it is, just within his reach. Excitement started bubbling up in his tired mind, and he couldn’t wait to research this ring.

The last thing was a pair of glove looking things. They were paper thin and transparent and were beautiful to look at. A faint aura was radiating from the pair of gloves, making his heart race with anticipation for the time when he can try them on.

He carefully hid them in his clothes and looked around the simple dark room once more, before turning to leave. He walked through the tunnel he came before and reached the mouth of the cave where he could see the boulder rolled across the mouth. He was surprised to see a faint light on the boulder. He carefully approached the light on the boulder. The light was created by two circles arranged concentrically with some alien looking symbols within the concentric area.

He was not sure what this was, but before he could observe more, the symbols within the circles flashed once before a hand symbol appeared within the inner circle. Azalon stared blankly at the symbol of the hand for some time. He simply lifted his hand and placed on the hand symbol. He felt something click within the formation and the boulder slowly rolled on its own, revealing the outside world.

The bright light made him squint his eyes involuntarily. He blinked several times before his eyes adjusted to the evening light. The fresh and slightly humid air refreshed his mind and he stepped outside the cave after who knew how long. The boulder closed the mouth of the cave on itself, and he turned around looking at the fading circles on the outside of the boulder. He will be lying if he said that he was not surprised when he saw that handprint based security system. What other surprises will this world show him? Who knows?

He stood there enjoying the natural greenery and the cool breeze before walking towards the direction of the waterfall. This area of the forest was not the one he was familiar with and it took a long time without the guiding lights of the time he came here. After some twists and turns, he managed to locate the waterfall, from where he followed the familiar path to his home.

Whatever changes happened and whatever information he gained will have to wait till his rest and recover to a certain extent. But right now, he just wants to reach the Mansion and sleep in his bed. It took him around an hour before he reached the city gates. After waving at the familiar guards, he slowly walked towards his home.

As it was early evening, the streets were somewhat busy with the mercenaries returning from their hunt, and the merchants bargaining for the haul of their hunts. As he made his way through the bustling crowd, a sudden shrill cry behind him made him jump, before he turned just in time to see a small figure smash headfirst into his stomach.

"OOfff..."

“Big Brother” that small figure turned out to be a 6-7 year old girl with round face, big black eyes and an excited grin on her face as she nuzzled her cheeks against Azalon’s chest.

“Hahahaha Nina, you would have got hurt if I didn’t catch you, you know? Anyway what are you doing here? Where’s Uncle Chad?” Azalon laughed as he pat the head of this cute girl.

“Hehehe Uncle Chad is in that shop. I was feeling bored and then I saw you in the crowd. Big brother did not come to see me all these days. Where did you go, big brother? And you smell funny. Don’t tell me big brother found some girl he likes? That’s why you did not come to see me?” Azalon was dumbstruck as he listened to the questions that came out of the mouth of this seemingly 7 year old child. Ah, Kids these days…

“I was training in the forest, Nina. Alright, let’s go meet Uncle Chad. I am pretty tired and I will come meet you later, ok?” Azalon lightly poked her nose before entering the shop pointed out by Nina.

The shop was an armor shop, one of many in the Blue Wind City. The mercenaries always require their armors and weapons to be maintained or upgraded, as the wear and tear of their armors and weapons will be more than normal due to their regular raids and hunts in the Wilderness. Hence shops like these are a pretty common sight in the City. But the armors and weapons made by these blacksmiths are low graded and not like those legendary armors created by the Spirit Blacksmith Masters and Grand Masters. The blacksmiths in this City are those who are usually low aptitude ones that were rejected by their masters who came to this city to make a living.

But even these blacksmiths are respected in this City, as the profession of Spirit Blacksmith is not something that can be leaned by anyone. Even rejects like these people can find their worth in the back water cities like Blue Wind City.

He could see the huge figure of Uncle Chad in the shop, and he seemed to be arguing with the owner of the shop.

“How could it be like that, Bach? You told me that you will deliver the product in 12 days and I even came two days late! I even stressed to you the importance of the armor to be delivered on date.” Uncle Chad’s voice was rising in intensity with each word.

“N-No, Please understand, Senior Chad. It’s not that I am going back on my promise, but after that incident in the Wilderness, the mercenary groups are all flocking into the forests and the work load suddenly increased with all the frequent fights between the mercenaries. Please give me just 3 days. I will personally come and deliver the armor to you.” The owner of the shop was a short man with a ragged appearance but Uncle Chad loomed over that poor man. It was evident that the owner was somewhat fearful of Uncle Chad.

“Hi, Uncle Chad. What’s going on? What happened in the Wilderness?” Azalon questioned as he approached them. He was slightly puzzled as he heard nothing happening in the Wilderness before he met Asma, and he slept till today, so the topic piqued his interest slightly.

“Oh, it’s you, you brat. Where were you all these days? Do you know what I had to go through with this little devil all these days? And you never even bothered to show up!” Uncle Chad spoke with irritated voice and Azalon lightly laughed as he lowered his eyes to look at the puffed up cheeks of Nina.

“I was training, Uncle Chad. And what’s that incident that happened in the Wilderness? What and when did it happen?” Azalon once again probed as some discomfort started filling his heart.

“You don’t know?” Uncle Chad narrowed his eyes as he stared at him for a while. The disturbance in his heart grew more and more when he saw fear flash on the face of the shop owner. “Ah, I forgot. You are a training maniac. It’s only natural that you did not come across the rumors floating in the city. Almost 6 days back, rumors started spreading in the city that some sort of treasure has appeared in the Wilderness. All the mercenary factions are rushing to the Wilderness to search for the treasure. Fights and brawls constantly erupted between the groups as they came across each other in their search. As such, tensions in the city reached pretty high as even the 3 Great Families are also preparing to make a move for the treasure.” Uncle Chad explained in a low tone.

“Treasure? What kind of treasure? How did they know that some treasure has appeared in the Wilderness?” Azalon asked with a puzzled expression while trying to keep his discomfort in check.

“It was around 6 days ago, that a bright light column appeared in the Wilderness. The column rose to the skies for a short moment but the entire city watched it. Generally such incidents will indicate a breakthrough of a strong Cultivator or the emergence of a treasure of some sort. But there are no powerful Cultivators around the City that can produce such phenomenon during breakthrough, it only means as a treasure must have sprung up. And all the factions of the City are preparing for the search for the treasure.”

6 days ago… Azalon made some calculations in his heart. That Asma said that he will spend almost 3 days in coma, before waking up, but since he was a special case, let’s add one more day to the allocated time. That makes 4 days. But he didn’t know how much time it took for his Souls to form the Embryos. But by the words of Uncle Chad, that light column should have something to do with him, and the only thing he could thing was connecting the Soul Bridges.

4 days in coma, and he should have slept for 6 days after he woke up… so he was absent from the city for at least 10 days. He lightly sighed and shook his head throwing his thoughts to the back of the mind.

“Did anyone find any clues about that incident? They should have at least scouted out the areas where the light column rose from, right?” Azalon lightly asked, as he set Nina down from his arms.

“Nothing till date. They couldn’t even find any kinds of clues let alone the place from where the column rose.” Uncle Chad spoke with a light grumble. Azalon then bid good bye promising Nina that he will visit her soon.

It was just becoming dark when he reached his family’s mansion. He went straight to his room and jumped into the bath before his body filled up the soft and warm bed as his mind wandered off into the dreamlands.

The next morning, Azalon met his grandfather and had an earful of scolding from the old man, but he was happy as he felt the concern that old man felt for him. He obediently bore through the scolding with a bowed head and a slight smile on his face.

The next few days were spent as usual and no one bothered about him, the trash of the family. But Azalon’s time was spent in his room with the scrolls and the artifacts left by Asma. He was more interested in the [Void Ring] and the [Mountain Crushers] rather than the 4 scrolls of martial arts. But all his probing and prodding resulted in nothing as these things required Spirit Energy to work and that’s the only thing Azalon did not have. He could not ask anyone for help, not even his grandfather. So, Azalon slowly gave up and waited for the day his Spirit would Awaken.

4 weeks passed without any incident. Even the rumors of the treasure appearing in the Wilderness also died out after weeks of combing by various factions of the city. But some mercenaries were still searching the Wilderness. But Azalon would simply watch his Rock Egg as he found out that the Rock Egg was getting slightly warm around 2 weeks before.

He checked his Soul Root for time to time, and he was sure that today will be the day his Spirit will Awaken. With the previous incident in mind, he was convinced that something will happen surely when his Spirit will Awaken. He planned to move deep into the Wilderness to prevent getting unwanted attention.

He packed some rations and grabbed his warm and almost hot Rock Egg, and went towards the Wilderness. This time, he did not take the usual route, but went towards another direction. The Blue Wind City has 3 Gates, each gate under the control of one of the 3 Great Families. The South West Gate was under his Wheld Family. The North Gate and the South East Gate were under the Reran Family and the Phantom Wolf Guild respectively. The market areas and the mercenary factions in that particular area come under that particular Family.

Azalon walked in the South East Gate, as his family and the Reran Family were at odds with each other, and it would be walking into the enemy territory if he went into that direction. The Phantom Wolf Guild maintains its neutrality between the two Families and so it was relatively safe than the Reran Family.

He passed through the city gates without any major problem and he swiftly travelled towards the Wilderness as the Rock Egg in his pouch was slowly growing hot. He knew that the time was near for the Spirit to Awaken and he increased his speed to the maximum and madly dashed into the Wilderness.

He stopped once in a while to mark a tree or a rock before rushing once again. He did not stop moving for almost 2 hours before he found a small cave. He checked the surroundings of the cave carefully and after finding no footprints or any indications of any beast living in the cave, he slowly moved into the cave.

The cave was fairly deep and the murky smell and the occasional crunches of bones below his feet told him that whatever occupied this cave has moved out fairly recently. He cleared out a small area in the cave and spread his blanket on the floor. The Rock Egg was scalding hot now and he immediately took it out from the pouch and laid it in front of him.

He closed his eyes and regulated his breathing, entering the meditative state. His awareness sunk into his body and he followed one of the meridians to his Soul Root. His Soul surrounded by the 9 Embryos was floating in the center of the Soul Root. The Gray Soul Embryo was currently pulsing brightly and cracks could be seen on the surface of the Soul Embryo.

But what surprised him was that the Silver Soul Embryo was also pulsing brightly too with some cracks on its surface. He watched as the cracks spread slowly on both the Soul Embryos.

*SHATTER* *RRROOAAAAARRRRRRR*

A massive and powerful roar resounded throughout his body as the Gray Soul Embryo shattered with a flash. The flash and the roar shook Azalon out of his meditative state and he abruptly opened his eyes as his mind trembled in fear of that massive roar.

The roar filled his ears once again as cracking sounds filled the cave too. The Rock Egg in front of him was red hot and some parts started melting as cracks started appearing on the Egg. Azalon could feel something stir within him and a connection with whatever was inside the Egg.

Boom…

With a loud sound, the Egg shattered throwing Azalon crashing into the cave wall. He lightly cried out part surprised by the sudden explosion and mostly due to the pain of crashing into the cave wall. He hurriedly stood up as concern filled his mind for whatever was in that Rock Egg. He waved his hand to clear out the dust that blew up due to the explosion and his steps suddenly froze.

At the place where the Rock Egg used to be, now there was a white… Puppy? Kitten? It was a tiny cub that was curled up sleeping at the center of the cracks that spread as a cobweb. The fur of the cub was murky grey and it was rather cute to look at. As if it sensed another presence, it slowly the cub slowly opened its eyes and the eyes that stared at Azalon glittered brightly in the dark cave.

The pupils of the cub were pale golden in color with black vertical slits within and the moment Azalon looked into those eyes, four words sounded within him that felt as if they came from the very depths of his Soul.

“Heavenly Demon Tiger, Raka.” Azalon muttered absentmindedly, but as he spoke these words the golden eyes of the cub glittered brightly. It opened its mouth and let out what meant to be a roar but came out as a low whine. Azalon laughed at that sound and the cub stood there with its mouth open as if it couldn’t believe the sound it let out.

He took a step forward and his body suddenly trembled as shattering sounds filled his mind once again. He sat down and once again cast his consciousness into his Soul Root.

The Gray Soul Embryo of his Spirit now changed into the appearance of the tiger cub looking like a figurine revolving around his Soul. The figurine of the tiger cub was surrounded by a transparent membrane, and Azalon remembered that this stage was named [Infantile Stage] of the Soul Embryo Cultivation Stage, the second stage after the [Embryo Stage.]

He shifted his eyes towards the cracks spreading on the Silver Soul Embryo. Azalon was excited as the number of cracks kept on increasing and with a loud bang the Soul Embryo shattered. Once again, he was forcefully awakened from his meditative state and he opened his eyes to see the tiger cub watching him with curious eyes.

‘[Upgrade Requirements satisfied. Energy Levels reached Optimum State. Metamorphosis of Physical Components Commenced. Remodeling is being influenced by External Factors. Override is not possible. Computing the effects of the External factors on the performance of the system… 10%... 30%... 78%...]

‘[Computation Complete. Effects changed the basic components of the processing system, but the effects deemed to be incremental to the performance of the system. Metamorphosis of the physical components Completed. Influence of the External Factors detected once again. Changed Priority: Scan for Life Energy in the vicinity. Scan Complete. Organic materials with matching Energy Radiation detected in the vicinity of the system.]’

‘[Calculating System Compatibility with the Organic material… Compatibility 94%. Integrating the Physical Components with the Life Energy detected. Integration Complete. Physical Body Metamorphosis for the A.I ready for Activation.]’

‘[Activating the Integral A.I System, LILY. Assimilation between the Upgraded Physical Components with the A.I at 12%... 38%... 69%... 98%... Assimilation Complete. Troubleshoot detected various foreign variables in the A.I system. Changes detected could not be eliminated. Calculating Risk Factors based on the changes… Risk Factor 5%, slightly harmful to the Host A.I. Assimilating the changes into the A.I. Activation of the Integral A.I. System, LILY Complete.]’

A host of announcements rang out in his mind along with three words that branded into his Soul.

“Otherworldly Maiden LILY.” A bright flash filled his eyes and suddenly he felt something stuck to his face and a sweet voice beside his ears. "Master!"