Chapter 52 Another Gift

Wow! This feels great!

Eznho’s earlier predicament was almost forgotten and was now replaced with excitement and pure joy. He felt like a child who had his birthday wish fulfilled.

So, this is the so-called Halo Stage,

Eznho thought to himself and tried to raise his right hand in front of him, it was a little stiff at first but it gradually loosened. He then clenched his fist producing a crackling sound, like a mini-thunder.

I wonder what other changes occurred,

He took a deep breath and assumed a lotus position then cleared his mind of distractions. Using his consciousness, he checked his dantian where he found the three halos floating and slowly rotating. It looked spectacular, an out of this world scene. He could not help but be mesmerized by what he saw. It took him a while to regain his clarity and saw that small amounts of heavenly energy were constantly being absorbed by the three halos automatically.

Meaning, even if he is not cultivating heavenly energy would be constantly absorbed by him albeit, only in small amounts which is a far cry from the amount he could absorb if he is cultivating.

Next thing he did was to check his body, his internal organs and the like was actually strengthened by his breakthrough. Although he had no idea how tough his body was, he was sure he would not be easily wounded by ordinary weapons.

The last stop was his soul, it was still floating inside his sea of memories, the only difference was that it already absorbed all the motes of light which appeared during his early days of cultivation which he has no clue what it was.

He slowly approached and to his surprise, the barrier was now gone which made it possible for him to get close to his soul. He was a little tensed since he did not know if this was good or bad.

The distance between them now was so close he could practically see every detail of his soul which looked exactly like him.

All of a sudden, it opened its eyes which startled Eznho making him retreat. Although the soul opened its eyes, it was still expressionless like before. But it did not stop there, it slowly raised his right hand and pointed at the direction of Eznho with his index finger.

Eznho was confused and did not know what to do, he was deep in thought when a vague outline of a hand formed beside him. He was frightened and wanted to get away from it but before he could, he could feel that this “hand” was a part of him.

This is weird,

What was happening now was out of his expectations which made him more confused. He was observing his “hand” and his soul when an idea struck his mind.

Could it be?

He wanted to test his theory and besides, he was inside his own body so it was unlikely that it would do anything to harm him. He slowly approached his soul and also raised his hand and pointed towards his soul’s right index finger. Both fingers became closer and closer, inches became centimeters, then they finally touched.

Boom!

Eznho felt like his mind exploded which caused an excruciating pain making him howl in agony, this pain was much more intense than the physical pain he experienced previously. After the two fingers met, his consciousness was sucked in by his soul.

His vision became blurry and it took him a while to adjust, he was still above his sea of memories but what took him by surprise was that he was now actually riding his soul. It felt weird for him, he felt light and carefree as if the filth world around him has not tainted him.

He could feel another form of energy coming from his soul but he had no clue what it was, it was different from heavenly energy. He moved around and got used to it but when he tried to move out of the place, an invisible barrier prevented him from doing so.

So how do I go back to my body?

He was at a loss for a moment then tried to release his consciousness outside of his soul which worked. It spread out faster than before, it felt like the power of his consciousness was amplified by merging with his soul. It traveled around his body and finally, he regained control of it. His soul and body were now in sync which means his senses and body movement was now faster and more fluid than before.

Let’s try it out then,

He took a deep breath and concentrated, he let out his consciousness move out of his body, it was hard at first but it slowly spread until he could now sense and “see” everything within one meter around him even if he closed his eyes.

Whoah! This is amazing!

He was astonished and was speechless for a moment, his eyes were shining like a kid who was given a new toy. Suppressing his excitement, he tried to move it out more but when he was in the five-meter range, he felt pain from his soul which made him retract his consciousness.

So that’s what they call soul sense I guess,

He remembered the things he read at the library, taking a deep breath, he performed his breathing technique which made him more comfortable. Giving in to his curiosity, he operated his soul sense until he was able to cast it until a ten-meter range which seems to be his limit at the moment. He could not extend it more outward due to the fog’s resistance.

While deep in thought, he looked down and saw his ‘last will’ and his things which made him smile wryly,

This has been a bumpy ride,

Sighing, he picked up the pouch first which was given to him by Old Man Dan. He thought for a moment and carefully controlled his soul sense towards the knot which instantly loosened during the initial contact.

So that’s why I couldn’t open it, I wonder what’s inside.

His soul sense made it inside and what he saw was an empty space, there was nothing in it except for a jade slip which was floating while creating faint ripples.

Hmmm, is this another gift from that smelly old man?

He had no choice at the moment but to inspect it, when his soul sense touched the jade slip, it dissipated into motes of green light and formed a blurry image of the old man showing a face filled with contempt and arrogance.

“Ha! I thought you died in a ditch somewhere, what kind of a sissy are you? Taking so long to reach the Halo Stage, hmph!”

Eznho’s face twitched upon hearing the old man’s rumblings.

“Anyways, now that you finally achieved a breakthrough, let me tell you some advice before you get yourself killed because of stupidity. First of all, now that you can use soul sense, don’t just go casually spreading it anywhere you go as doing this kind of thing will provoke other people. Not only that, it could also trigger formations or traps. Soul sense can also be used to detect other people in a distance or people who are hiding but the downside is, once they detect your soul sense it means that your location is also compromised.”

“Aside from that, it would be hard for you to detect people who have higher cultivation than you but they may detect you and you won’t even notice it. Lastly, this pouch is called a storage pouch or a spatial pouch, as you can see, there is a small independent space inside which you can use to store things, which of course excludes living beings like animals and the like, there are special storages for those but they are far more valuable and harder to acquire. This pouch is of the low grade so it will only last one hundred years at most, you can try looking for a better one if you have money. As for how to use it, discover it yourself, I am too lazy to explain. Okay, that’s all, don’t die without a grave somewhere sissy kid, you still owe me one!”

Eznho was still digesting what the old man said and before he could respond, the image dissipated into nothing.

“Damn this smelly old man, one day, I am going to make you call me your grandpa, hmph!”

Eznho’s vein was bulging but he could not hide the appreciation in his eyes, despite the old man’s antics, he was actually grateful to him. Their contact with each other may have been only for a short time but he learned and acquired a lot from him, and his life has been actually saved by him. This new information was actually of great importance to him, it made him dodge a lot of potential troubles in the future.

Seeing that nothing else was inside, he retrieved his consciousness and looked at the other things laid on the ground. This made him a bit sentimental,

According to what I read, there are two ways you can control an object and also be able to put it inside a storage pouch. The first thing is imprinting your own soul sense on a particular object, this is mostly used for weapons.

Using what he learned, he controlled his soul sense and let it enter the dagger then left a bit of his soul sense inside to act as an imprint. After that, he could feel his connection with the dagger.

Okay let’s give it a try,

Eznho took a deep breath and controlled the dagger using the imprint with a bit of heavenly energy. The dagger moved a little until it floated slowly and was on Eznho’s eye level. He then tried to make it move left and right, it was wobbly at first but as time passed he got good at it and the dagger could smoothly circulate around him within a ten-meter range which was his limit at the moment.

The further the weapon was away from him, the harder it was to control, he could also feel that using soul sense for a long period of time puts a burden on his soul. According to his calculation, he could maintain control of the dagger for a maximum of six hours. But of course, as long as he gets stronger in the future, his soul sense would also improve.

Now that he could control the dagger properly, he moved on to the next method. He found a rock the size of an infant’s head, he then circulated his heavenly energy and let out some of it and controlled it via his soul sense and wrapped it around the rock which then he tried to lift. To his surprise, although he could do it, it was more exhausting and uses more energy than the first method.

Although the first method was better at controlling things, putting out too many imprints is quite dangerous because if ever your weapon is destroyed or if someone will forcibly wipe your imprint, it will have a backlash on the person who owns the imprint.

After getting himself familiar with the use of soul sense, he put his imprint on the ring, the jade necklace, and the spatial pouch. As for the others, he put it inside the pouch, using his dagger, he carved out his ‘last will’ and also put it inside. He took it as a form of reminder of all his suffering.

Taking a deep breath, he looked at the cliff wall behind him, according to his senses, the pure heavenly energy came from that side. His eyes narrowed and moved closer, he took out his dagger and poured heavenly energy on it and stabbed at the lower part of the wall.

Ding!

The sound of metal colliding with each other rang out and sparks flew, then a small portion of the wall flickered for a moment before returning back to normal.

What was that?

Eznho was taken aback and was speechless for a moment, after composing himself, he attacked again but the same thing happened. He did it two more times but he could not make any progress.

Hmmm, is this a formation? Why did it appear only now? Could it be?

From what he saw, during his crazed moments, he accidentally damaged the formation which leaked the pure heavenly energy.

What kind of luck is that?

He felt complicated for a moment, it was truly a roller coaster ride.

Well, I can’t do anything about it, for now, I’ll come back in the future if I become stronger and unlock its secrets.

Sighing with regret, he left a unique mark in place using his dagger. He suppressed his urge to break the formation and looked up instead. His eyes were now filled with determination and excitement.

How long have I been away? I am sure everyone is worried. Time to go home.

He took a deep breath and spread out his soul sense, then jumped.

…..

In a faraway place from where Eznho was, a golden city stood. The place is named the City of Gold, it was located at the very center of the Crescent Moon Continent. Almost all of the structures in the city had a hint of gold, palaces were floating above the city casting shadows on the people walking underneath.

Flying ships flew in and out nonstop, the place was very busy all the time. In one of the ports, an old man draped in a ragged cloak was murmuring to himself making the people around him look at him in disgust.

“Hmmm, not bad, not bad, sissy kid, keep up the good work. I’ll be reaping what I sow in the future, kekeke,”

If Eznho was here, he would recognize this old man, the old man whom he met in the mines. The only difference was that the old man now was paler and looked weak, he was even skinnier than before.

“Just you wait, you bastards, once I get the last ingredient and regain my cultivation level, I’ll repay what you did to me ten times over.”

The old man’s eyes became sharp for a moment. After calming himself down, he stood up and boarded one of the flying ships, the flying ship’s destination was beyond the horizon, towards the ends of the ocean where the foreign lands were located.

Note: I thank you for all the people who are still reading this, I will try to add more chapters when I can.