Chapter 1344: A Dreaded Soul, Dreadful Curse!

His Body Cultivation had therefore grown beside his energy cultivation through an entirely different form of suffering, although properly explaining every stage of that progression would mean journeying all the way back to the elixir and following nearly the entire year again.

Phei glanced toward the Dragon Lady waiting inside their frozen home and decided there was no reason to keep the lady waiting while he mentally narrated his entire cultivation history.

He dismissed the remaining notifications for the moment and pushed himself upright from the pelts. "I’m done."

The Dragon Lady lifted her head slightly while Phei stretched and allowed his gaze to travel around the cavern they had transformed into home over the past several months.

"And thanks for bringing me back here after I passed out," he added while walking toward her. "Probably would’ve been pretty embarrassing if my great victory over a near-God ended with me lying unconscious on the floor of her cave."

A low rumble rolled from the Dragon Lady, and whatever meaning hid inside it sounded suspiciously amused.

"Yeah, yeah."

Phei stopped beside her and rested a hand against one of her crystalline scales, allowing his palm to remain there for several moments before gently rubbing the smooth surface. "I’m stepping outside for a bit. If we’re lucky, my wife should come for us in a few days. Two would be preferable because I’ve officially decided I’ve had enough character development and I’m ready for civilization again."

Phei smiled and gave her side a final pat. "Let me get us something to eat first."

His stomach was not actually hungry, though that had ceased mattering a long time ago. Eating had become one of those ordinary pleasures neither of them required but both had somehow grown attached to during their months together.

A moment later, space folded around him and the warmth of their frozen home disappeared.

Phei emerged into a world of white violence where streams of murderous cold tore through the air, winter storms rolled between colossal walls of primordial ice and immense floods of powdered snow crossed the landscape in pale moving sheets. He rose higher until he floated above the worst of the storm, his clothes and long hair whipping around him beneath winds that would have peeled flesh from weaker bodies.

Usually, True Void Sense would already have been stretching outward for prey.

This time Phei simply looked.

The Primordial Frozen Zone spread beneath the pale heavens in every direction, impossibly vast and strangely familiar after nearly a year of living within it. Ice mountains vanished into storms far beyond the horizon, enormous glaciers reflected distant light and strange blue-white radiance burned beneath portions of frozen land where ancient Essence gathered in quantities large enough to color the ice itself.

A somber expression gradually settled over Phei’s face.

This place carried some of the worst memories he had made since awakening, along with some of the strangest good ones. He had entered considerably weaker, been battered repeatedly, hunted by creatures that should have killed him and spent month after month pushing himself through environments where a single mistake could become a funeral.

Yet the same frozen world had given him his little sister.

It had given him freedom in the sky upon the back of a Dragon, quiet nights beneath impossible auroras, mornings spent hunting because they felt like eating rather than because either of them needed food, and more power than the version of himself who first entered could have imagined gaining within a single year.

The final stretch had become especially extravagant even by Phei’s increasingly unreasonable standards.

He had battled beings stronger than himself in numbers that would once have sounded like suicide, fought World Transcendents long enough to learn exactly how terrifying that Realm really was, killed them anyway and finally walked into the deepest reaches of the Zone only to leave with the very thing that ruled it enslaved inside his Soul Realm.

Phei breathed out slowly while streams of snow flowed around his body.

The Primordial Frozen Zone had been hell, but somewhere during the year it had also become home.

Blue light appeared before his eyes again and reminded him that one notification still deserved his attention before he went hunting.

[Reward:Dreaded Soul (Ability)

[Description: Your Soul can’t be taken over, devoured or controlled!]

Phei’s eyebrows climbed as he reread the opening description.

"What a powerful opening statement."

The rest appeared beneath it—

[Dreaded Soul: Host’s Soul now possesses the dreadful curse of an Astral Wraith, or perhaps a blessing, preventing Host from being possessed, controlled, taken over or devoured even with Host’s own willingness.

Should Host’s Soul fall prey to a sufficiently powerful soul-control ability or an attempted possession, the attacking soul will become infected by a slow soul-corrosive curse. The corruption will continue consuming the invading soul until eventual destruction while leaving the Host’s soul untouched.]

Phei read the description carefully, appreciating just how absurd that protection sounded until one extremely important memory from Anarctica slammed into him.

His expression changed immediately.

"Wait!!"

After everything that happened in Anarctica, Eira had gained a particularly useful privilege connected directly to Phei... there was this little notification after that day:

[Your Elemental Familiar(s) can now possess your body in times of emergencies!]

That had already proven itself during a situation where Phei’s own strength simply was not enough. Allowing Eira to temporarily possess his body was one of the strongest emergency trump cards available to him because it gave someone ancient, experienced and infinitely more knowledgeable about their shared powers direct control when the difference between Phei and an enemy became too enormous to bridge normally.

Dreaded Soul suddenly sounded considerably less impressive if it destroyed the person he actually wanted possessing him.

"System, does this affect Eira too?"

[Positive!]

Phei’s expression darkened immediately. "Then what the fuck is the point if you’re taking away one of my best abilities?"

The System continued before he could properly erupt—

[However, the Astral Wraith can suppress the curse toward a willing possession and prevent Dreaded Soul from attacking the soul you allow.]

Phei relaxed slightly, although the next message immediately complicated that solution.

[Warning:If Dreaded Soul is configured to recognize Host’s willingness as sufficient permission, then an enemy capable of manipulating Host’s mind into genuinely accepting a possession may bypass the curse.]

Phei frowned as the frozen storm continued howling around him.

That was an actual weakness.

Someone with sufficiently powerful mind-control abilities could theoretically alter his thoughts until Phei genuinely believed he wanted the possession, at which point Dreaded Soul could recognize the invading soul as permitted and politely allow the bastard inside.

Except Phei already possessed protection against mind control.

"But I have the Mind Control shield now, don’t I?"

[Correct.]

His frown gradually disappeared.

"And if that ever stops being enough, I’ll just find something stronger. I can strengthen mental defenses. I can’t exactly go shopping for another Eira, now can I."

That settled the issue.

There were plenty of defensive abilities in existence, and if his current Mind Control shield ever became inadequate, Phei could evolve it, stack another ability over it, find some ridiculous artifact or discover another protection through the System. Collecting unreasonable solutions to problems had practically become one of his talents.

Eira’s possession was different.

There was no convenient replacement for having an ancient Elemental Familiar be apart of his body during a catastrophe and immediately wield his own abilities with experience and control far beyond what Phei currently possessed.

Phei nodded with satisfaction as the notification faded.

That was considerably better.

His soul could no longer be devoured, possessed, controlled or taken over by hostile beings without turning the attempt into a slow death sentence for the invading soul, while Eira still retained her emergency access to him.

If an enemy somehow managed to break through Phei’s mental defenses, convince him that allowing their possession was a wonderful idea, avoid every other protection surrounding his Primordial Soul and then successfully enter him, Phei would probably congratulate the bastard personally for the effort.

’Assuming Eira does not murder them first.’

With that problem settled, Phei finally lowered his gaze toward the endless frozen wilderness and allowed True Void Sense to spread through the storms in search of something worth bringing home.

His little sister was waiting for him, his wife might arrive within the next few days and, after almost a year inside the Primordial Frozen Zone, Phei intended to enjoy at least one more proper meal beneath those ridiculous auroras before leaving.