26. Refining Tower

The cultivation of the soul path is the hardest of all the paths, even harder than the will path. The soul is directly linked to the life of a person, so it is difficult to cultivate on this path.

The soul cultivation path is also divided the same as the other paths. Tier 1 to Tier 6, but the first major realm did not have any minor realms in it.

Soul Cultivation Path

1. Mortal soul realm

2. The spirit-soul realm

* Human spirit

* Earthly spirit 

* Heavenly spirit

3. Divine soul realm 

* Divine embryo 

* Divine infant

* Divine soul

4. Spirit ascension realm 

* Yin-Yang refinement

* Shackle breaking 

* Spirit ascension

The spirit-soul realm has three minor realms. In this realm, the cultivator needs to transform their shapeless soul into a spirit. A person's soul at birth will not have any shape; it is in the state of soul energy.

In the spirit-soul realm, the cultivator needs to shape their soul. The shape can be any shape—not only themselves but also plants, animals, stones, etc.—literally anything in existence. But the disadvantage is that the compatibility of body and soul won't be high, and future cultivation will be blank.

The human, earth, and heaven division is the quality of the soul. Each minor will increase the quality of the soul, so they were divided like this. But the quality mentioned here is just the name; the soul won't be as strong as heaven in the heavenly spirit realm.

The divine soul realm is to make the soul divine. The first stage of making a soul divine is to form an embryo around the soul. After that, the embryo needs to be broken, and this is called the infant realm. The nurturing of an infant into the divine soul is called the divine soul realm.

The spirit's ascension is to break the shackles of the soul. A soul needs to be capable of existing outside the physical body, and this realm is beyond the boundaries of the physical body.

The Yin-Yang refinement is to refine the soul with the Yin-Yang element in the proper balance between them. An imbalance will make a single element too strong, and it will be a problem. Both elements need to mutually restrain each other so that they can renew themselves. 

After the refinement, the shackles of the soul need to be broken. Every single person has shackles in their soul; some of them are shackles put by their mind, and some of them are put by heaven. So it is necessary to break them to reach a higher level of cultivation. A soul can dependably exist after passing the heavenly tribulation; the success of passing the tribulation is in the soul ascension realm. 

The information about the other two realms is not in the Slaughter Palace; they only have the information up to Tier 4.

'The soul path is harder than others' thought Kai. He thought about the injuries that may occur during cultivation and the rarity of treasures that are capable of healing such injuries.

'Since the information about these paths won't be of any use for now, I should obtain techniques and martial arts from the library,' thought Kai. Using his willpower, he gave orders for two ants to view the books and the remaining one to hide.

Kai, after giving his order, started to practice his talent to avoid any suspicion. He is now in the transformation realm because the awakening realm is over after awakening the talent. He needs to train harder to break through to the innate realm. But his learning talent can easily reduce his training time, which is a very big advantage for him.

"Junior brother, how are you doing?" Kai heard a voice from outside.

"So it is senior brother James. I am just doing my training session for today." Kai said as he came out of the room.

"It seems I disturbed your training. How about I visit you sometime later?" He replied to James, as he learned that he had disturbed Kai's training.

"You don't have to worry about that senior brother. I am going to finish my session now," said Kai, but that is a lie that he made up. He wants to use James for his plan, so he needs to get close to him. That is the reason he told lies, or else he wouldn't even open the door to his room.

"Junior brother, I want to invite you to go to the refining tower with me. If we both pay the entrance fees in half, it will save our contribution point." Said James. He thought Kai wouldn't be able to stay in the refining tower for a day. So he plans to pay half the entrance fee for himself and use half a day without any extra fees, and the other half for Kai.

"Okay, senior brother. I also wanted to go to the refining tower for a long time, but because of the expensive entrance fee, I did not go for a long time. With your invitation, I can go without wasting my contribution points." Kai said, even though he could stay inside the tower for a full day. He can even stay for three days without any problems.

Both James and Kai started walking towards the refining tower. They reached the entrance of the tower within a few minutes.

"100 contribution points for a single room," said the guard who is guarding the entrance of the tower.

Both Kai and James paid 50 contribution points each and got inside. There are a lot of people in the sect who use this method for paying; not everybody can stay inside the tower for a day. They did not temper their bodies with the five elements of Qi in the body tempering realm, and they didn't even temper their organs in the mortal realm.

Both of them entered the tower and went to the top floor. There are a total of 10 floors in the tower; the 10th floor has the lowest amount of fire energy, but it is suitable for the supernatural realm. The lower floors also cost a lot compared to the higher floors since the fire energy concentration is higher. The [Red Scarlet Flame] is ranked 86th on the heavenly flame list and is located at the bottom of the tower.

Kai and James found a place in the room and sat in a meditative position. James did not have any body-training techniques, so he wouldn't be able to use this energy to cultivate the body. He can only use this highly concentrated energy to make his cultivation easy.

Kai did not have such a problem since he could directly absorb the energy. 'The fire energy is different from outside,' thought Kai. The color of the fire element here is blood red, and the energy intensity is also high compared to outside.

'The fire element in the atmosphere is similar to the red scarlet flame described in the book that my father gave me,' thought Kai. His plan to make his heavenly fire can be realized with this discovery, but it won't be that easy, and there may also be other conditions for the formation of such natural treasures.

Kai started to absorb the fire energy around him, but he only absorbed a small amount.

'It seems the primary elemental resistance works.' thought Kai. He did not feel any pain during the absorption process. 

After confirming that the energy wouldn't cause any damage, Kai absorbed all the fire elements using his willpower. The speed of absorption is faster than before because his cultivation level increased in both paths. He used this energy to temper his body.

Then both of them quietly mediated in the same position for 3 hours. James suddenly stood up from his place, and seeing this, Kai also stood up, following him.

"Junior brother, you cultivated three hours on your first try. It seems you have a natural affinity for the fire element; I was only able to stay an hour on my first try." James said it in a slightly envious tone.

"It is not that, senior brother; I was just sitting there without doing anything. I was only able to meditate for an hour." Lied Kai. James also believed since he was not able to see the movement of the fire element in the surroundings.

Both of them got out of the tower and started walking towards their rooms.

"Junior brother, I will call you next time, too. So be prepared." 

"Okay, senior brother. I will come." 

Kai started to view the information from the scripture pavilion that the ants collected. After reading all the information, he was disappointed since there was no interesting information. The techniques and martial arts books were interesting, but he won't be able to cultivate them for now. He needs to be in the divine realm to start cultivating a technique, so it is like seeing a mountain of treasure but not being able to use it. The same situation happened to Kai.