15 The Sin of Curiosity - Part 1

*shaa*

Stalks of grass bent under the weight pressing onto them from above. A small footprint remained every time the petite leg lifted off and took another step forward.

Asura slowly trod forward, steadily advancing in a linear direction, guided by the shining Spirit Star in the distant sky. Soft breaths came from his left ear. Xia's silky hair spilled over his shoulder, occasionally tickling him while her frail small body pressed against his back. Her hands were coiled around his neck while Asura used his arms to secure her from falling.

Asura thought, 'I've never expected to have the chance to do something like this... It's like karma from previous life passed over in this one.'

Every two steps he took, a light bout of air would graze his left cheek, accompanied by a soft carefree breath. To make things even funnier, there was also a little fox on his head that slept as if it was having the sweetest dream in its life.

Asura: 'Mhmm.. I wonder if this is called happiness? I think this should be it...'

He gave it his all to maintain a steady posture and minimize overall body movements in order to ensure that Xia and little fox didn't wake up.

Asura's mind wandered around as his foot fell on another bunch of grass, bending them under its weight. 'I wonder how long we've been in this forest. There are no signs of life anywhere nearby... I wish I knew how to restrain my aura, that way I could try catching something to eat.'

*growl~...*

Asura glanced at his stomach without moving his head: *sigh* 'Yes, yes... I know.'

His gaze wandered around, scanning his surroundings in search of anything that could help them. Just as he was about to give up, Asura noticed something in the distance.

Asura: 'Are those... it can't be, right?'

Despite seeing something, he didn't hurry to check it out as he would arrive there sooner or later, but if he sped up, he would only wake up the two sleeping on his back and head. And indeed, after a while, he arrived at the place he had spotted from afar. Right in front of him, there were two pairs of footprints, one slightly larger than his own while the other could fit five or six of his. No matter how he looked at it, these should be steps of two bipedal creatures, one big-footed and one small-footed. He wasn't sure if they were humans, since their shape wasn't entirely clear.

Asura seemed like he wanted to cry: 'A-ar-are my eyes playing with me? Is this real? There are living things in this goddamn land!'

He was so happy that he was struggling to suppress his laughter and tears of happiness. He finally saw a ray of hope!

Asura suddenly remembered an important problem: 'Ah! This might spell some trouble. I need to find a way to suppress our auras or else we will scare our precious chance away... how troublesome.'

He found a relatively thick tree nearby and carefully piled up the grass on one place to enhance the softness. After finishing that, he slowly lowered Xia from his back and then picked up the fox from his head and placed her near Xia. He was pleasantly surprised to find that neither of the two woke up despite so many movements.

Asura: 'They must be pretty tired. He he, sweet dreams you two.'

He leaned against the tree and crossed his legs. Closing his eyes, he focused within himself and observed his body with Gaze of Chaos.

Asura: 'If there only was a way to force the three crystal cores inside the space where little fox went, that would be perfect. I wonder if I could do that... If I could, maybe it could hide the aura coming from me. It's worth a try...'

Having a sudden idea, he felt a strong urge to try it out. Why? Because he was curious, and that was enough of a reason for the likes of him.

Like that, he slowly relaxed and let his consciousness submerge in the depths of his soul, where he found an endless space with a small black hole in the center with a single purple seed revolving around it.

Asura: 'Let me try this...'

He focused and stopped the purple seed from rotating, as it gradually slowed down and then stopped in place. Although it took him a while to achieve that, he was still successful.

Asura: 'Great! I can control things within this space, that's good. Now, let's start the first step.'

He slowly sent the purple seed closer to the black hole, wanting to see whether the black hole can swallow the purple seed and merge together with it. The seed slowly approached the small black hole and then suddenly sped up, its speed skyrocketing, and then plunged straight into the black hole. Asura could still feel the existence of the purple seed and felt like he could lift the seal anytime, just like before, even though its existence and aura were gone.

Asura: 'Nice! It worked. Now, it's just a matter of whether or not I can get the three Soul Spirits inside this space as well. Hm...?'

He suddenly noticed a strange event taking place. The pitch-black hole that kept devouring everything around it wasn't fully black anymore. Now, it had an interesting purplish pattern spreading along its surface, resembling veins or cracks of some kind.

Asura: 'Eh!? Even a black hole can emit light? This world really is strange...'

He continued observing this strange mutation for a while and then thought of a possibility: 'Could it be that what I did is a way of cultivation, where that black hole served a similar purpose as the three crystal cores in my body?! Is it also a core of some kind?'

He felt ecstatic because of this thought and hurriedly submerged his consciousness inside the three cores, one by one, and experimented with them. The three dragons slowly absorbed energy that came from the outside but the conversion rate was pitifully slow. To make things worse, his absorption speed was also slow enough to remain insignificant.

Only around ten particles of Spirit Energy would enter the crystal every second, which meant that it took about a minute and a half for one particle of the evolved Spirit Energy to form. No matter how he looked at it, it's obvious that this absorption speed is way too slow! But this was only going by his standards.

What he didn't know is that automatic absorption of energy from surroundings is a trait only higher tier cultivators in this world can achieve. Him just entering a second major realm and having his body absorb energy by it self is simply a miracle! For that to happen, the human cultivators need to be at least the eighth major realm, that is, rank 81 or above.

Asura: 'It seems we will really need to turn this world upside-down in search of treasures if we want to evolve. This speed is way too slow!'

If someone of this world heard Asura's thoughts, they would surely seethe with anger. Not only was this brat dissatisfied with being able to gather Spirit Energy subconsciously while being mere rank 11, he even had a face to complain! Simply audacious.

Truly an ignorant frog at the bottom of the well, or rather, the clueless one from the other side of the void.

Asura tried moving the dragons around but it didn't work, which made him feel disappointed. Not being able to control them meant he couldn't do what he envisioned, which troubled him a lot.

Asura: 'Hm... what if I try summoning them from within my Soul World? Let's try that.'

He submerged his consciousness inside his Soul once again and imagined 'pulling' the three dragons to this space. To his astonishment, he soon witnessed three vertical slits in the space that transformed into three spatial channels and then three dragons emerged from them, coming to a halt near the black hole. Their auras flooded the world as Asura's poor Spiritual Will fought back hard in order to not dissipate. He was far too weak to bear the true power of these Soul Spirits.

Yet once again, he was reaffirming that he truly was the one from the other side of the void. Normal people would long be dead if their Soul Spirits turned out to be either of these three, yet he was still alive with all three of them under his partial control. Even Gods would feel cold sweat on their foreheads if they knew about his and Xia's situation.

Oblivious to all of that, Asura's thoughts became excited, 'It worked!!! It really worked! Let's see what happens if I send them inside the black hole.'

He simultaneously sent the three dragons toward the black hole and fully concentrated on maintaining his Spiritual Will as well as the control over the three Soul Spirits. The three dragons vanished within the black hole and only the silence remained as Asura lost control over his Soul World.

Asura: '...'

*tick*

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*tick*

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As time trickled away, the reaction he was expecting to appear was nowhere to be found. Although he didn't know exactly what would happen, the fusion of three strong Soul Spirits shouldn't be so calm, hence why unease in his heart increased even further.

Asura: 'N-.....nothing?'

Asura: 'How come nothing happe---'

*ROAR!*

A ferocious dragon roar shook the entire Soul World as stars inside the black hole dimmed by a lot, as if that roar took away all their magnificence. Focusing on it further, one could see that the stars were actually a tiny bit away from getting extinguished entirely.

Asura's mind went blank when suddenly;

*CRACK~!*

A crack appeared on the surface of the black hole, radiating sacred white glow from within. The ends of these white beams had a multicolored hue instead of white, as if light gradually diffracted as it traveled further.

That single cracking sound resounded in the depths of Asura's mind, straight inside his soul. The silence he was worried about was only a 'calm before the storm', and storm has yet to come.

The black hole started squirming around like a rubber ball being stretched by something from within. Its shape started expanding as its endless darkness started taking a certain form. The process took a while and it was painless, but as each moment passed by, Asura only felt a surging sense of unease and danger. After everything stabilized, Asura couldn't figure out what happened despite his entire being screaming "Danger!!!".

Even if he wanted to do something, what could he do? Run? Can he run away from his own Soul? His control over everything inside his Soul World was already gone. Now all he could do is pray that nothing dangerous would happen, but his instincts rarely failed so he wasn't that hopeful that his prayers would come to fruition.

The transformation of the black hole completely halted and in front of his eyes hovered a three-eyed dragon. The dragon's right eye had a vibrant green color full of booming vitality and immense energy while left eye emanated a dangerous purple glow, full of destructive intent. However, the third, vertical eye was the one which stood out the most.