17 The Sin of Curiosity - Part 3

From the base 1.000 that all three of Asura's Soul Spirits required before, this dragon-shaped manifestation evolved to a base 1.000.000.000, which made him drop from the 12th rank to 4th. That basically meant for every three ranks he would advance if he still had three crystal cores and three Soul Spirits, now he would only get one rank. However, instead of being a thousand times stronger with every rank, he would be a billion times stronger than before after every breakthrough.

Asura: 'Can this even be called Soul Spirit anymore? I think I should call it Dragon Spirit or something... I'm willing to bet anything that this thingy can't be considered Soul Spirit anymore. Maybe it even became a True Soul - a conscious entity with its own will..... Dragon Soul? This sounds nice, I'll call it Dragon Soul for now!'

He finally left the interior of his new Dragon Soul as his Spiritual Will stepped into the brand-new Soul World that was still 'under construction'. The green and starry black energies were moving around under the direction of the Dragon Soul, each of them attending to their own job.

The starry black Spirit Energy expanded his Soul World like an inflating balloon, just in this case that balloon was filled with the starry black Spirit Energy instead of air. That very energy was used up completely and irreversibly, becoming a foundation for this Soul World.

The green Spirit Energy had an entirely different purpose. It started manically condensing as if wanting to form a solid core. Due to the immense quantity of this energy, Asura was unable to see what formed from it until most of the green energy was used up, also irreversibly. In its place appeared a small planet. It was only a size of an egg, but it had everything a planet should have with only one missing thing - a core to provide energy.

Just as Asura was wondering whether this micro planet could actually host life, a green flame lit up on the dragon scale where its mark was and shot inside the middle of a planet as its mark disappeared from that same scale.

Asura: 'Did it just... did the flame become this planet's core?! What the hell is going on here?'

Many of the things he experienced were strange, but the situation that took place in his Soul World was the strangest and the most dangerous one. Although their meeting with the Purple Serpent was dangerous, at least their Souls would survive and reincarnate. If those that came from the Spirit Star found them, they could also reincarnate if they died, but this time that was not the case.

This time, Asura played around with his own Soul. If it were not for the protection of this fearful Dragon Soul, who knows what would've happened. Maybe there would be no more of him, ever again. When he realized this, Asura didn't know what to think. Although he was a step away from eternal death, the only thing on his mind is what would Xia do without him, and there was also a little fox. He didn't want them to miss him.

As he was thinking about the white fox, a white light shone and it appeared on his head. It lied down and stretched out on his head, taking it the beauty of its new home - its master's Soul World. Needless to say, its tail cheerfully flew around.

Asura: 'You like your new home, huh?'

*nod*

Asura: 'Hehe, I'm gla-- AAH!'

Completely unexpected by him, the fox sunk its claws in Asura's head after nodding, as its intent and feelings reached Asura. It was punishing him for playing with his life by inflicting the pain directly into his Soul. Although it seemed as if that should be painless, any kind of pain the Soul experienced was significantly more intense than the greatest pain a body can experience. After all, the body sends the pain to the brain through the pain receptors and then the brain tones it down a lot before passing it back to the Soul.

That is why any pain that Soul directly experienced was exponentially stronger than anything a brain could pass back.

Asura screamed as his Spiritual Will started wavering and randomly flying around.

Asura: "AAAHHHH! Stop! Stop!! I will do anything you want, just please STOP!!!"

The fox finally relented and jumped in front of him, staring directly into his eyes with a piercing gaze which told Asura everything it thought. Naturally, this was only because of the contract between them. Otherwise, the similar effect could occur only between the two very close people, like siblings, lovers or best friends. Understanding what other party meant merely from their eyes was easy, but deciphering their exact thoughts and feelings was very hard, if not impossible.

It was only because of their peculiar relationship that they were able to communicate this way.

Asura looked at its eyes apologetically, understanding what it wanted from the way it looked at him. He then bent down and crossed his legs, while the fox jumped in the empty space inside them and gestured with its tail for Asura to begin his punishment.

He smiled and started petting it as its silky white fur wrapped around his fingers. The fox showed a content expression and used one of its paws to point at the small planet.

Asura: "You want to check that thing out?"

*nod*

Asura: "Oh, here goes then."

Bringing the planet in front of the fox was no big deal, since his control of his own Soul World returned, although he felt that it was still incomplete. The planet quickly condensed from the green energy, but the starry black energy was still expanding the space without any signs of stopping and he didn't know how long it would take to finish.

In any case, Asura was sure that he couldn't return his will to the outside world until the repairs on his Soul World are complete, so why not spend a little time with this fox.

The fox carefully looked at the planet and instructed Asura what to do, while Asura inquired about the situation outside. He came to know that Xia was already awake and that his body was originally in a sorry state when the three crystal cores exploded and that was exactly when Xia woke up. After that his body recovered by using the green energy and when he was fully recovered, Xia picked him up and started carrying him, unable to wait here anymore. It reassured Xia that he would be fine and wake up, which is why she decided to carry him while trying to find anything that could get them to the civilization of any kind.

After chatting with each other, the fox decided to forgive him and brought his 'punishment' to an end, but not before demanding from Asura to promise not to attempt any similar feats in the future. Only after he promised that and a lot of gifts, as well as three wishes did it agree to forgive him.

The two of them were currently examining this small planet and couldn't figure anything out about it, despite finding that it had a small space hidden inside. Within that space were clothes formed from the green flame when it burned everything down and the space was as big as a single room. That space couldn't hold any living beings, but even though the planet itself was small, living things could enter it and its space was several times bigger than the hidden one in the core. This planet could host living things, as little fox was able to go in and out of this space, but it wasn't that big and the things in that space consumed the energy from the core.

Despite all that, Asura was happy as he had a micro planet in his Soul whose living area was big enough to match a small city, but there was no way it could handle the number of people that could live in the same city for a long period of time. After having nothing to do, Asura took it upon himself to calculate its area and found that the space this small planet covered was an amazing 4 kilometers squared. Although that surface area meant its radius was only slightly larger than 1 kilometer, it was purely his own world, with nobody having any way of entering if he doesn't allow them. He could carry a small city around with himself. How amazing is that?

Nevertheless, that is still quite a big space for two children and a fox.

Asura: 'I wonder whether the items from the outside world can be brought inside?'

The little fox turned to him and nodded, and then decided to sleep on his shoulder. The cuteness of this small fox still charmed Asura's heart.

Asura's thoughts wandered as he had nothing else to do while waiting for his Soul World to finish expanding: 'What's going on outside? Does the time in here and outside pass differently? What is Xia doing?.....'

Having myriad questions but no answers is what he didn't like the most but this situation was mostly his own fault so he couldn't complain to anyone except himself. However, one thing was certain. He decided to never allow Xia to do the same as him, because her Soul Spirits are destruction-oriented. If she ever did the same as him, there's no doubt she'd die. He would have to find another way to suppress her aura, but he would definitely not allow her to fuse her three Soul Spirits.

As he had nothing else to do, his brain decided it's the time to show him the moments that happened in the past day. He thought back to the scene at the lake and the Purple Serpent, then the scenes the little fox showed him, how endless life was burned down to make clothes for him and Xia. He still found it amazing that they were carrying a tiny part of this world with them, and would one day wear it as clothes.

Although he felt sorry for destroying such a beautiful place, there was nothing he could do now beside remember this and repay everything in the future, if he had a way to.

Asura: 'I wonder if there is any way to suppress Xia's aura... I can't think of anything.'

.

.

.

He was just speaking out aloud, not expecting anyone to hear his words, but he at least wanted to say them out loud. However-

"Fufu, of course there is ... do you want to know?"

An ethereal voice resounded inside Asura's Soul World and caused his entire being to tremble. What really caused him to tremble was not the intensity of her voice, but the fact that he remembered it as vivid as day. He recognized this voice.

It took all of his energy to slowly stand up and even then, he stared blankly in front of him for a good minute before turning around to see a girl he thought he'd never see again.

Asura: "You... are alive?"

The girl smiled brightly and said in a teasing tone: "Fufu, did you think I died back then?"

He took a good, long look at the girl in front of him. Familiar white skin, familiar black hair and familiar eyes - left one green and right one purple. She stood in front of him and stared directly into his green eyes, as if wanting to carve his entire being deep into her soul.

Asura: "May I ask for... your name?"

The girl smiled with a familiar charming smile and made a slightly teasing face as her lips parted, leaving Asura dazed and with shock filling his eyes.

What he heard after she opened her lips was only one word, followed by a teasing laugh: "Xia."

Xia.

Her name was Xia.