Chapter 1300 Some Personal Reasons.

He tried to cut off the grip of Nether water on his soul with soul force but it didn't work. Soul force couldn't detach nether water from the point of contact. He could feel the intent to bring his death from the nether waters. It made him feel dread from the depths of his existence.

He used everything he had to fight back. It was Origin essence that finally saved him. It managed to distract nether waters by giving it something else to destroy. This created a buffer between his soul and nether waters which he quickly filled with soul force.

It wasn't until he had completely separated himself from Nether waters that he finally relaxed.

"Something is wrong with the nether water." He said with certainty. "Is it alive? Is it a living thing that I can't understand or is it the energy of a living thing?"

Nether water has always felt docile to him but that has changed now. It was corrosive when he first came to the spiritual dimension but it wasn't this retroactive in trying to kill him. Its behavior reminded him of slimes. They eat by corroding matter. They never excrete so they are used by weak beings to clean.

"Nether water and the spiritual dimension would make sense if I was in a giant slime. Maybe that's why the great mother called the digestion tract of the void universe?"

"Wait a minute. Is the slime the void universe?"

He thought seriously, "It would explain the void universe's hatred for anyone that escapes. We are its food after all."

He always thought the void universe didn't want anyone leaving the void universe because they would be essentially cheating death. It would be bad if death was nullified. It would be breaking a law of the universe and cause Chaos.

All those reasons are impersonal reasons for hatred. The void universe would just be doing its job in making sure those who die remain dead. But it would be awfully personal if those who die were food for the void universe. Then it would not want to let go of them for personal benefits. Especially not when those who are strong enough to escape have souls as powerful as Supreme Origin gods. That would be too much food to let go.

"But why did it suddenly become active? Could it be because I have grown stronger now? Have I been noticed because of my strength?" he asked uncertainly.

He felt slightly amused when he thought about something. "If it is, then I now know why the soul drill is so powerful. I know what the powerful soul prowlers felt when I used it on them. Even the dead should not have to suffer like that."

His experience cost him in soul power and origin essence. That short exposure to nether water took more than 10,000 points of soul power. That is 0.001% which looks small. But 10,000 points is the mark of a transcendent.

That is a lot of soul power to lose in less than a second. Even the knowledge of what his enemies went through when he used the soul drill on them is not enough to make up for his loss.

"So Nether water is out of the question for immortality. It is the energy of death. It is the opposite of mana. I don't know what I was thinking when I decided to try it. This part of the world is meant as a graveyard for souls so I shouldn't have expected that the energy meant to kill me will strengthen me."

"It seems the void universe means business. It wants all of us dead. There is no way to get stronger. Then how did the great mother evolve?"

That is the question on his mind right now. Unfortunately, he can't find the answer to it. So he continued his search for immortality. This continued until Legion-9 awakened and began to accumulate faith.

Legion-9 managed to create the cult of life in the Zargoth plane. This provided him with faith to create his unique divine life energy. All the clones got access to it and It brought hope to Legion-7.

Unlike Origin energy that his core soul couldn't use, divine life energy is like an elixir for his soul. It caused his core soul to grow rapidly which also increased his tolerance for the grafted soul fragments.

It was all good but he felt a strange feeling from the tree father.

"This can't be right." He exclaimed. "Why do I have a feeling of longing for Legion-9?"

He can feel a sort of attraction for Legion-9. It is the sort of attraction that promises evolution. He can feel instinctively that if he eats Legion-9, he will get stronger and evolve. He has never felt that from other clones. It wasn't until Legion-9 awakened and came in contact with divine life energy that he felt this.

"What's different about Legion-9?" he asked. "Do I want to eat him because he is a tree of life or because he is a god?"

He has always been connected to the tree father but it is until the tree father started giving him divine life energy that he felt this sort of attraction. Hence why he believes that the attraction should be related to the Tree father's transformation into a Celestial Hybrid.

Legion-9 is certainly different from the other clones. His body was formed from a life tree grown in the inner world of a world beast and evolved into a Celestial Hybrid. Those are three different things that set the tree father apart from the other clones so what is attracting Legion-7 should be one of them.

Legion-7 couldn't find the answer to that question so he decided to make himself content with feeding on divine life energy. Unlike soul grafts, he can feed directly on divine life energy to strengthen his soul.

This made his soul heal from the damage of the previous experiment and go further to become more powerful. It also made it so that he could graft more soul fragments to himself.