Chapter 242. Contacting grandfather

The Path That Must Be Followed

When Jin returned to the sixth floor of the Pagoda of Hope with Aion, he did not immediately continue his cultivation as he had done on previous occasions. There was something he needed to take seriously this time, something that had been troubling him ever since he entered the Void Realm.

His spiritual cultivation had completely stopped progressing.

Although his cultivation in other aspects was moving forward, his spiritual cultivation remained fixed in the Void Realm. No matter how much he tried to understand the path ahead, he could not find a suitable method to continue advancing. On the other hand, his soul cultivation was progressing at a very steady pace. Jin could clearly feel that his soul cultivation was not far from reaching the second stage of the Mortal Realm perfection.

But spiritual cultivation was different.

He had reached a point where he could no longer simply rely on himself.

Jin understood that if he continued like this, he might remain trapped in the Void Realm for a very long time. Because of this, Jin decided to take a major step.

He would contact his grandfather.

If there was someone capable of guiding him regarding his spiritual cultivation, it was the old existence who had already given him guidance before.

Aion looked toward Jin, noticing the seriousness on his face. He remained quiet for a moment before finally speaking.

"Honey, you really want to contact that old man?"

Jin turned his eyes toward Aion and nodded.

"Yeah, it is necessary. Otherwise, I will always be in the Void Realm forever in my spiritual cultivation."

Aion nodded thoughtfully. He understood what Jin meant. There were still many things waiting for Jin in the future, and remaining stuck at the same realm in one aspect of his cultivation would eventually become a problem.

"Yeah, it is great for you, since you have to achieve many things in the future," Aion said. He then looked around the room before continuing casually, "Well, I have nothing else to do. I will be just sitting here, and you just contact that old man."

With that, Aion directly went toward the bed, laid down, and looked at Jin.

Jin did not bother Aion anymore.

He simply sat down in a meditative position and slowly closed his eyes.

His breathing became calm, and his consciousness gradually sank inward.

Deep inside his consciousness, far away from where his main consciousness normally focused, there was a dark spot. It existed at the very far end of his unconsciousness, appearing almost insignificant compared to the vastness surrounding it.

Jin looked toward that dark spot.

He had already become familiar with what would happen after he contacted his grandfather, so there was no impatience in his expression. He simply stared at the distant black dot for a moment before speaking in a serious voice.

"Grandpa, I need your help."

Nothing happened.

The black spot remained silent and motionless.

Jin did not become anxious.

He knew that this was normal, so he simply waited.

Not long afterward, the black dot seemed to expand.

The darkness slowly spread outward, and from within it, a huge black serpent’s head appeared. The enormous serpent phantom emerged from the darkness and looked directly at Jin’s consciousness.

Jin did not bother maintaining any formality of superiority in front of the serpent. There was no reason for him to be afraid. The existence before him was none other than his grandfather.

"Grandfather, I need your help."

The huge serpent did not immediately answer.

For some time, there was only silence between them.

Jin did not interrupt him. After waiting for a moment, he continued speaking.

"Grandpa, I have already broken through the Void Realm, but there is one problem, and I don’t seem to find a path for how I cultivate my spiritual realm. You did guide me for that, but it was as if it was going to devour myself. My spiritual energy wants to devour me. So how come I can cultivate that?"

The huge serpent phantom remained silent.

Its enormous eyes looked at Jin, but there was no immediate answer to his question. Then, after a short silence, the first words that came from the old voice were not what Jin had expected.

"So you really chose that boy."

Jin was stunned.

He was not able to understand what his grandfather was asking.

Before Jin could say anything, his grandfather continued.

"Since this is your choice, I will not be disturbing you any further. But remember one thing. In terms of seniority, he might be my junior by many eons, but he is someone who should be able to... who is even older than your own father. So it is up to you."

Only then did Jin realize what his grandfather was talking about.

Since this was merely a consciousness projection, Jin was unable to show the embarrassed expression that would have appeared on his physical face. His consciousness remained completely neutral, but internally, he could not help feeling helpless about the direction the conversation had taken.

He shook his head.

"Grandpa, I didn’t do anything. Neither did I choose him. I simply let fate guide me, and whatever was in the way, I simply accepted it. If he was in my path, I simply accepted him."

The phantom of the Snake did not speak for a moment.

Then the old voice appeared once again.

"Indeed. Let fate decide what your future will be. But you don’t have to force yourself for that. Though I know that the future still holds many things, and I am not going to interfere for you."

The serpent’s enormous eyes remained fixed on Jin.

"But I will only tell you one thing, which is very interesting. You should participate in this youth tournament that should be appearing now, the Universal Top Youth. I will be protecting you if you win the first place."

Jin remained silent.

The old voice continued.

"And looking at you, you are just eighteen, and it means you are one of the very youngest ones to enter into the Void Realm."

There was no pride on Jin’s consciousness.

He simply listened.

"Because this is not a realm that could be achieved like eating candies," his grandfather continued. "And even from the Origin Land, not many can achieve this. Even those with a very superior bloodline will only be able to achieve it just now, and with the countless resources of their family supporting them, unlike you."

Hearing this, Jin became silent.

He did not know how to respond, and he did not bother to respond to it either. As far as he was concerned, that was not the important question he had come here to ask.

The old voice continued from the black serpent.

"And for your devouring path, you are on the right track, but you are not able to project it very carefully."

Jin’s expression became slightly more focused.

His grandfather continued.

"Let me ask you something. You were working on the skill where you want to divide your soul into parts. You did succeed, but what about the other part? What is the next step of that skill?"

Jin shook his head.

"I have no idea about that, Grandpa, because I am not able to take any guidance about it."

The phantom of the snake shook its enormous head slightly.

"Do you know, the two souls of yourself have already started to develop different personalities, and this will be a huge trouble for you."

Jin listened carefully.

"Remember one thing. You two are not different. You two are one altogether. And if you can’t do the spiritual cultivation, let your other soul guide you, because I can already sense that it is very close to that point."

The moment his grandfather finished speaking, the snake phantom merely blinked.

Another consciousness projection appeared beside Jin’s consciousness.

Jin did not need to ask who it was.

It was none other than his other soul, the soul that he had separated for his cultivation technique.

The technique was crude.

But it succeeded.

Although the result was not perfect, the other soul had already developed into another consciousness that could communicate independently with Jin. Yet both of them were still one existence, something his grandfather had just reminded him of.

The other consciousness looked toward the serpent phantom.

Then it spoke casually.

"Grandfather, I have already told him that just focus on what devour is. Why be so serious? If it is going to devour you, then let it be."

The atmosphere became slightly strange.

The serpent looked toward the second consciousness before a faint laugh came from him.

"Indeed. How can you be devoured by anything when you are the descendants of the Devour itself?"

Both Jin and his other consciousness looked toward the serpent.

The old voice continued.

"What you are thinking is to comprehend a law that does not exist in this universe. If you want to create it in your own ways, you are thinking of finding the Devouring Law from other laws of the universe."

The serpent paused.

"But how could you do that? Something that has not attached to this universe at all."

Both consciousnesses were stunned.

They had never considered the matter from this direction.

Jin had always thought about finding a way to comprehend the Devouring Law through the laws that already existed within the universe. He had been trying to understand how he could develop that path from the laws surrounding him.

But according to his grandfather, that was precisely where the problem existed.

The old man continued speaking.