Soul Cultivation

The day had already turned into night as Damien opened his eyes slowly.

Damien was able to sense his soul plane and also feel faint soul energy inside him.

'So, this is the Origin Soul Stage. Wow, I can even perceive everything within 50 meters.'

He was able to perceive his surroundings, such as his own room, including the various furniture, accessories, tools, every single detail he was able to perceive.

Since his soul perception extended around 50 meters, he could even sense the surroundings just outside his room. But the corridor seemed to be empty, so he wasn't able to sense any other person, and strangely he wasn't able to spread his soul perception into adjacent rooms.

Using his soul perception, Damien can sense another soul or presence within a radius of 50 meters. It can also be used to discern another person's cultivation level or any organism with a soul as long as their ethereal cultivation or soul cultivation is not higher than them.

If one just casually spreads their soul perception, they would only be able to faintly sense the surroundings in their perception range and the cultivation levels of people whose cultivation is significantly lower. 

Only when one focuses would they be able to discern another's cultivation level, which is almost equal to theirs.

But in this world, it can come off as rude when one finds out that someone is trying to probe them using soul perception.

So when a practitioner casually spreads their soul perception and finds out there were some obscure presences in their surroundings, they wouldn't try to probe them since it could either mean that they had a cultivation level that was at least close to theirs or maybe even higher.

But if there were practitioners who had significantly higher cultivation or high soul cultivation than the person spreading their soul perception, they wouldn't even be able to sense their existence at all! Unless they saw them with their own eyes.

A single soul stage can be further divided into four minor stages.

There was first the 'Early Stage', then the 'Middle Stage', then the 'Late Stage' and finally the 'Peak Stage'.

Damien has now breakthrough to the Early Origin Soul Stage.

"You fool, retract your soul perception!" Luna berated when she realized him spreading his soul perception while she was in the Shard Of Essence.

Damien instantly retracted his soul perception upon hearing Luna's angry tone. He was surprised for a bit before he finally realized that he had committed a careless mistake.

If someone sensed him spread his soul perception, they would only think that it was a cultivator spreading his soul perception. But if the princess or the two protectors came to know this fact, Damien could land up in a lot of trouble.

Since when did a cripple with destroyed ethereal core points was able to cultivate? What if they tried to force out from him how he managed to fix his ethereal core?

His soul cultivation was too low, so even if he just casually spread his soul perception, people with higher cultivation would easily be able to detect which person was spreading their soul perception, that too at such a close range.

In his excitement of suddenly gaining a new ability, he involuntarily released his soul perception as it instantly spread out 50 meters.

"You are just asking for trouble, aren't you?" Luna gave an icy stare, which contrasted with her usual playful expression.

Damien knew that he had made a serious blunder by spreading his soul perception. And he also knew that Luna was scolding him for his own benefit.

If something happened to him, everything Luna sacrificed would go down the drain, and both of them would end up in dire situations.

She was incensed when she found out Damien was carelessly spreading his soul perception, that too after she had fixed his ethereal core just recently.

Damien gave a bitter smile as he said, "I know I should have been careful. Sorry for making such a silly mistake. I won't repeat the same mistake twice."

"Hmph, it's good; you can realize your own wrongs. I don't want you going on experimenting with every single new ability you gain without caring about the consequences. After all, my sole existence now depends on you." Luna said as her expression softened a bit.

"But now, did anyone notice that I was spreading my soul perception?" Damien asked

"Fortunately, no. I didn't detect anyone outside within your soul perception range, and also the walls of the rooms adjacent to ours are strong enough to obstruct your soul perception."

Damien heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that no one detected him.

'So, that's why I felt an obstruction when my soul perception tried to pass through the adjacent rooms. Well, this is the imperial palace, and everyone would like to have their own privacy, I guess no matter who.' Damien mused.

"But looking on the bright side, I have to say your soul is indeed special...to be able to spread your perception around 50 meters when you are just at the Early Origin Soul Stage. It is even comparable to an Early Nascent Soul Stage cultivator!" Luna said with a fixed gaze.

Damien knew that people usually would only have a 5-meter radius of soul perception when entering the Early Origin Soul Stage.

But Damien already had ten times the range when he entered the Early Origin Soul Stage!

It only shows how much stronger his soul was compared to others.

Luna was already amazed that Damien again took only a single day to breakthrough to the Early Origin Soul Stage. But she still somewhat expected it considering how strong his soul was.

But seeing how his soul was already comparable to an Early Nascent Soul Stage, her eyes almost went wide.

Cultivation of the soul was way harder than ethereal cultivation, which is why there were only a total of six stages in soul cultivation while there were nine realms in ethereal cultivation.

Usually, one would only try to breakthrough to the Early Origin Soul Stage at least after reaching the fifth level of the Initial Ethereal Realm so as to improve their inner senses to sense the soul plane.

Cultivation of the ethereal improves the body, ethereal core, and soul at the same time. But the improvement in the soul couldn't be compared with the improvements one would gain through soul cultivation.

"Heh..am I not awesome? I knew my talent couldn't be bad." Damien said with a smug smile.

"Hmph, don't get ahead of yourself. You have merely entered the cultivation journey. As you advance in this journey, it would only get more arduous and grueling. Also, you have to manage to stay alive without getting killed because of some trivial offense. In the cultivation world, nobody lives too long. In the end, you can only depend on your brawn and wits to survive in this world." Luna said candidly.

"I know...I know. Jeez, you don't have to nag me like this just because I made a mistake once." Damien rolled his eyes.

"Even though I am new to this world, it doesn't mean I would be dumb enough to jeopardize myself. First, I need more information about this empire...especially about that princess. Something just seems strange about her. The way she treats me talks to me...everything seems so fishy. 

I guess I will know what she is planning once the week is over."

"Oh, She seems strange to you?" Luna asked with a playful smile.

"Wait...you know something?" Damien asked doubtfully.

Luna giggled, "Who knows? You will find out soon anyway, hehe."

'This imp is having fun seeing my cluelessness. Heh, goddess or not, you have to grow a bit more to get back at me.'

Damien shook his head, "Anyway, I want to learn how to concoct pills. Since I know the medical ingredients required for different kinds of pills and the theoretical knowledge, I guess I can try. I only just need to read some books on alchemy concoction and try to experiment on my own. It's not like I can expect a teacher to teach me."

Luna raised one of her eyebrows, "You want to be an alchemist?"

"I mean, it would be beneficial, right? I can create my own healing pills, breakthrough pills, etc. Also, if I am really good at it, I could also make easy money out of it."

"Sigh...don't tell me you always forget things when you are excited like a kid. Don't you know the basic requirements to concoct a pill? You need to be at least adept in fire laws or have a soul cultivation base necessary for concocting the pill. Or are you going to say that you are adept in fire laws when you haven't even formed your elemental seeds?" Luna said with a sarcastic smile.