Shen was once again on the small island with the volcano. He came by himself this time around.

‘Ah, I want to sleep. So comfortable!’

He was lying with his back on the beach, bathing under the warm sunlight and the gentle sea breeze.

‘Well, I guess I should start. Wouldn’t want to make Xue’er wait too long.’

Without changing his posture, Shen silently started operating his cultivation technique.

A white vortex of spiritual power that could be seen as a dense mist formed around Shen.

It took just over one hour to reach the peak of Nascent Soul stage.

Shen did not stop revolving his cultivation technique but directed the spiritual power into his sea of consciousness.

He recalled the explanation from Xue’er, and attempted to condense another Soul Avatar using Divine Sense and spiritual power.

Shen’s sea of consciousness was not empty like one would find in a normal human cultivator.

There were grey coloured clouds that drifted about randomly in the seemingly infinite space.

The spiritual power that entered the sea of consciousness was devoured by those clouds upon contact.

Shen was rather lost at this point.

‘Ah darn it. Let’s just do it!’

Shen gathered the remaining spiritual power and attempted to form it into the shape of a human. Rather, his current human form.

Using his powerful Divine Sense, it seemed as if it was going very smoothly. The Soul Avatar was condensing at a fast pace and its features increasingly clear as time went on.

The spiritual power mist vortex around his body on the beach became smaller and smaller, as all the surrounding spiritual power rushed into his sea of consciousness.

Shen was now at a critical stage of the breakthrough. A lot of cultivators failed at this point due to having weak Divine Sense or simply insufficient spiritual power.

Shen had none of these problems. After a few minutes that seemed like hours, the Soul Avatar of Shen’s human form had successfully condensed in his sea of consciousness.

“Yes! Success!” Shen got up and pumped his fists into the air.

However, just as he was very happy and was about to go back to meet his companions, something unexpected took place in his sea of consciousness.

The Soul Avatar that had just condensed started to dissolve to form a grey cloud, similar to the surrounding ones.

This cloud was much larger in size. After the Soul Avatar completely dissolved, the large cloud started attracting the surrounding small clouds, which caused its size to inflate little by little.

Shen went still upon the discovery.

“What happened?! Did I fail?”

Shen observed the situation closely. The large cloud contained a very small portion of his Divine Sense. It seemed to be more powerful than when he had limited himself to the level of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.

“Don’t tell me that cloud is my Soul Avatar? I thought it was meant to be identical to your physical body!”

Shen had forgotten that his human body was just something he had constructed on a whim. He could endlessly construct more bodies as he liked.

‘Well, whatever. I’ll ask Xue’er.’

Shen decided to not think too much as it didn’t really matter anyhow. He was only cultivating in spiritual power for his own amusement and it would not matter what cultivation stage he reached.

He could see Xue’er sitting in a cultivation posture on the beach as he came back. Xue’er rarely seemed to be cultivating ever since they started their journey. This was a rare moment to observe the peaceful beauty that seemed to become part of nature as she sat there.

Little White could be seen sprawled out on the sand, on one side of Xue’er, passively absorbing the abundant spiritual power drawn by Xue’er.

Little White lifted her small head to look at Shen. Shen came next to Xue’er noiselessly. He sat down next to the little fox and took out a bottle of wine.

Xue’er opened her eyes once the sun set over the horizon. She blinked a few times as she came out of the meditative state.

“Big Brother Shen. You’re back!”

Shen smiled towards Xue’er. “Xue’er, let’s go back. I’m now a Soul Formation stage cultivator!”

“Congratulations Big Brother Shen! How does it feel?”

“Hmm, not a lot of change but Divine Sense is more powerful like you said. And I can use more spiritual power since I have two Soul Avatars now.”

Shen proceeded to describe the unexpected occurrence within his sea of consciousness.

“Hmm, I don’t know why it happened. May be Father would know.” Xue’er replied as she pondered on the possible cause.

Shen stood up while pulling Xue’er towards the little hut.

Little White wordlessly followed behind.

“I’ll tell Xiao Yan to come back.” Shen spread out his Divine Sense from his grey cloud. It encompassed the entire island and searched for the Fire Qilin within.

Soon, a red shade raced out from the trees and jumped onto Shen’s shoulder.

“Master!” Xiao Yan rubbed his small head on Shen’s cheek.

“Did you have fun? We’re ready to go back. We might not come back here for a long time.”

“I found a few spirit herbs suitable for me to take. Are we going back to the city? I want to eat roast meat!”

“Hahaha! Xue’er let’s go!”

Shen embraced Xue’er and took a step in the eastern direction. The next moment, they appeared on top of a large hill, with endless trees in sight and tall peaks in the backdrop.

Even though Shen could have made a tunnel through the space to reach the destination, he liked the feeling of holding Xue’er and stepping across the vast distance together.

Xue’er was rather shy the first few times, but just like the couple sharing one bed, she has gotten used to being intimate with Shen.

“Blue Cloud city is about half a day away towards south from here. Should we camp out in the forest for the night? It is already night time.”

“Ok, that sounds fun. Just like we did when we took our first mission!”

***

The next day, Shen and Xue’er were walking towards the Guild. The couple had decided to take one more mission before leaving the city.

Soon, they arrived at the large building.

There were a multitude of missions posted on the wide board. Xue’er looked over the available missions while Shen waited behind her.

Shen thought it would be fine to let Xue’er decide upon the mission as he personally did not mind which one they took.

Soon, Xue’er found one to her liking and took it off the board.

“Big Brother Shen, look at this one. It’s a request for a spirit herb. It’s a flower called Dragon’s Bane.” Let’s go ask for the information on this.”

“What a peculiar name. Have you heard of it before, Xue’er?” Shen mused as he followed Xue’er to a que.

“No, I don’t recall a flower with that name. Father will certainly know though…”

Soon, it was the couple’s turn and the receptionist gave more details on the request while registering their party down for the mission. The time period allowed was rather long at six months.

Apparently, the mission has been up for a few years due to the location of the flower. It was rumoured to be seen in a deep part of the mountains called the poison mist valley.

As the name suggested, the valley was covered by a poisonous mist at all times and it became more potent as one treads deeper inside.

Even Sky Immortals would have trouble venturing into the centre of the valley. The reward offered for the flower was only one thousand mid-grade spirit stones, which made it a top mission for Soul Formation stage cultivators. However, no common Soul Formation cultivator would take the mission due to the danger involved. False Immortals were not lacking that amount of spirit stones to take a mission that was dangerous even for them.