Chapter 102 - Into The Maleficent Realms

The battle finished after another month. It had destroyed half the planet itself. Not that Cale felt any pity for the ones living on it.

The monster retreated into a crack in space, and the phoenix flew into the river of time itself. It flew to the dimension of the Maleficent Realm and gave birth to its child with its own life force as its source of energy for the first few decades. Since it couldn’t feed it after dying, so even staying in the egg, the phoenix would still grow.

The parent phoenix died.

’So that’s why its attacks weren’t that strong and it only had a few attacks. It lived on its own and mostly hunted weaker beings. It doesn’t even know how to fight.’

Cale was kind of grateful that this child of phoenix didn’t know how to fight. Else he would’ve been baked by now.

He was sent back to the inner sanctum in under a second, floating. The phoenix’s body had disappeared but it had likely gone through regeneration. Meaning in under a few months, it would resurrect again with a brand new body. Whatever amount of soul Cale took, it would renew by then.

"Ha...haha...hahah.. I did it! I did it! I fucking did it! I devoured its goddamn soul!"

He was relieved, enjoyed, happy, and most of all... alive, even now!

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Mid Grandmaster stage!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Low Master stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Mid Master stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Peak Master stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Low Grandmaster stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Mid Grandmaster stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Peak Grandmaster stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Low Expert stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Mid Expert stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Peak Expert stage of soul cultivation!]

[Congratulations host for cultivating to Low Apex stage of soul cultivation!]

[host has achieved something unprecedented again!]

[Host has devoured a soul of a Mythical Beast!]

[Calculating Rewards...]

While the system was doing that, he laughed. "At least my body has remade again and not burnt. That alone is good enough. But now, no one can even think of harming my soul, heh. They would die just by trying."

For now, he would not go out till the time in the inner sanctum finished. Given that it leveled up four stages, it would be probably 12 hours, meaning 12 days inside!

"Ah! What a treat."

[Rewards:]

[Genesis has evolved.]

[Host’s creation limits have increased!]

[Both of host’s eyes have upgraded]

[Path of Recreation and Regeneration has been added!]

[Law of Self-Restoration has been formed!]

’Oh, can I get a self-healing skill... pretty please~’

[+5000 blank points]

[Battle Adaptability has evolved to Infinite Adaptation]

[An evolved combat ability that allows host to continuously adapt to opponents, techniques, environments, and battle conditions. The longer he fights, the faster he learns, adjusts, and develops counters to whatever he encounters.]

[New Technique Self-Restoration has been created!]

[Host can recover from any and every type of wound to exist with Origin Essence.]

’Sigh, I still have to pay for it, huh? Well, that’s okay. It’s still too overpowered of a skill.’

[Cultivation Speed Multiplier: 5.5x → 6.3x]

[Origin Essence: Lvl.33 → Lvl.41]

[Congratulations host! New mythical bloodline has been added!]

[True Phoenix bloodline has been added!]

[Congratulations! A Progenitor level bloodline has been found!]

[Phoenix [Mythic]: 31% (Progenitor)]

[Rewarded 5 pages from the ’Book of Endless Refinement’]

[Integrate ’Curse’ with Noxis?]

Cale raised an eyebrow. ’Hmm? So I can give curse when fighting? Well, it’s better than me trying to do it myself. Heh, alright.’

[Curse has been integrated with Noxis!]

[Congratulations! New Physique: Vermillion Bird True Flame Physique has been Rewarded!]

"Ohh! A physique with flame affinity? Is this heaven-sent?! Don’t spoil me too much."

[Increased time limit of Inner Sanctum to 12 hours]

He waited for a second. "I-is it over?" Then exhaled. "Haah! Finally."

It was a difficult—or rather a near impossible task—but he somehow did it. All that was left was to use the time inside the inner sanctum to properly refine and integrate the soul of the True Phoenix acquired, or it might give his body a backlash. But with seven soul bodies cultivating simultaneously, he didn’t have anything to worry about.

And by heaven’s will, his soul bodies could now cultivate for his physical and soul cultivation both, anytime. Be it his main body inside the mindspace or not. Maybe it happened since his mental strength expanded so much. His divine consciousness was literally of the level of low-level Sages!

It was necessary to increase his cultivation so that after the trials, his cultivation wouldn’t go down too much. Although his soul cultivation would remain literally the exact same.

"Though it’s a pity all this cultivation would just puff and vanish."

Now he could use Ashes of Undying as literally one of his own weapons. Creating mostly anything out of them in mere seconds and fight enemies. Still, given that their nature was of ash, he decided to use them mixed with Thorned Lotus to provide it more flexibility and the strength of a true divine artifact.

"With these two, do I even need any other artifact? I should devour them all."

Seven days passed in the inner sanctum. Cale only focused on recovering while his soul bodies cultivated and one of them made pills and elixirs. But now, he had discovered another unique thing! His high soul cultivation helped him to even grow plants in the inner sanctum. Meaning, he could literally grow spiritual herbs and other materials of his own, and the soul bodies would do the harvesting. Isn’t this free labor? Although all it required was for him to put a bit of his Origin Essence regularly, since the plants would use his Origin Essence as their nourishment.

Still, it was way better to use his own grown herbs. He wouldn’t have to go buy them every now and then.

"And I could sell them too, heh." he said with a greedy smile.

He came out of the inner sanctum, and there it was—the portal-like white circle, just a few hundred steps ahead.

Closing his eyes, Cale entered.

’No point worrying now.’

Right as he entered, the system chimed one last time.

[Quest: Sign in at the Maleficent Realm. Completed!]

[Quest rewards: Flame of Greenery granted!]

[Wood spiritual root has been created!]

’Sigh, alright... let’s explore!’

As he entered, his body felt weak. As if it was being sucked out of his entire being. He felt so weak. Like... like a mortal.

He flexed his fingers. "Hmm, so this is how it feels, huh. Sure enough."

In this free 100-year time, he would not straightaway cultivate to Grandmaster Stage. For that, he had a shortcut. He would first enhance his mortal body with no cultivation at all—using laws, paths, dao, and sword intent. He would learn each of them to their essence and integrate them into his daily life itself. Every step, every finger moved would carry dao and intent. Every flick of a finger would have laws attached to it.

This was his main goal. If he started to use each of them separately every time during a battle, it would expend unnecessary mental strength and would require too much focus. Things like when to use sword intent, when to use dao, when to use paths? When to integrate law, which law, which path, what intent, which spiritual root?

This would seriously mess up anyone. Normally people don’t have these many laws and paths, let alone sword intent.

So using them all as a single weapon was the easiest and better way. That was how it was done in demonic cultivation—use anything and everything in your arsenal, even the dust below your feet, from your nails to the very hair and the flowing wind too.

If he did this part properly, Cale’s body—even without using a single bit of Origin Essence—would be as strong as a Peak Master Stage cultivator at their full strength. He could be one of the strongest Grandmasters. Although that wasn’t his true goal, it would definitely help a lot.

He took his first step into the Maleficent Realm.