76:

Stepping into his Soul Space had become a matter of habit for Xiao Feng, so much so that he no longer required his predecessor’s guidance to find his way to the door.

But once he was standing before Liulian, or rather, her imagery that had been overlaid onto his soul space, Xiao Feng found himself flummoxed. Beast Master Zen had told him to reach out to Liulian with his soul, but he hadn’t the faintest idea how to accomplish that.

He turned to face Beast Master Zen, only to be met by a placid expression. Perhaps it was another one of those methods that had to be discovered rather than taught, the kind that seemed to be quite common when it came to the discipline of beast taming.

Or maybe it was a test, intended to be a measure of his talent or some other parameter he was not yet aware of.

There had to be a reason why Beast Master Zen was withholding knowledge from him, but that observation did not bring him any closer to solving the mystery before him. How exactly did one reach out with their soul?

“What is the soul?” Xiao Feng asked his predecessor, who was lounging upon a plush diwan that he had likely summoned from his memories. He could only influence a small patch of land in Xiao Feng’s soul space, a fraction of his sprawling college campus, but it appeared that his predecessor had found a way to make his stay comfortable at least.

“An interesting question,” His predecessor replied as he plucked out a cherry colored spiritual fruit from a glass bowl placed upon a side table adjacent to the diwan. “A soul works in conjunction with your body, housing the dantian, acupuncture points and your meridians. That is as far as the technical definition goes.”

“That definition feels incomplete,” Xiao Feng replied, as he turned to give his predecessor a searching look.

“That is because it is,” His predecessor replied with a shrug, before taking a bite out of the pear-shaped spiritual fruit. “You have taken over my dantian, acupuncture points and meridians, yet I still remain myself. Mortals who lack spiritual roots cannot cultivate, but that does not mean that they do not possess a soul. If I had to guess, the soul is what defines a person, what distinguishes me from you and you from the rest of Sephari.”

“Like a Qi Signature, the ingredient that the Beast Bonding Pill uses to make a newly hatched beast look up to you like a parent?” Xiao Feng asked, theorizing out loud.

“A Qi Signature is more like a scent that you can be tracked down by. A soul is far more complex and if I knew the full answer to your question, I suspect I would be at a much higher cultivation stage than foundation establishment,” His predecessor replied, a note of amusement audible in his tone.

“So…,” Xiao Feng trailed off with a sigh. “How do you think I should go about this?” He asked.

“Did you know that taking a step back and choosing to take your time to observe your surroundings instead of running headlong into its designs opens you up to a world of insights you would’ve never noticed before?” His predecessor asked as he took another bite of the cherry-colored spiritual fruit.

If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Uh… what?” Xiao Feng asked.

“You have inherited my memories, you know the life I have led. There was no breathing room, no time to reflect and consider the weight of my actions, to understand the cycle I was trapped within. I was an unmoored raft up against the currents of a raging river, incessantly driven forward without knowing my destination.”

Xiao Feng somberly nodded, realizing that his predecessor was touching upon a deeply personal experience.

“The Beast Master told you to reach out with your soul instead of your physical form. Nothing he said suggested that there was anything wrong with your approach itself,” His predecessor calmly explained.

Xiao Feng blinked, taking a moment to process what his predecessor was suggesting before he blurted out, “It can’t be that simple.”

“Maybe it isn't. Maybe it is,” His predecessor replied. “You see cultivation as a mystical art, but to those born in the realm of Sephari it is merely an occurrence in nature, the natural way of the world.”

Xiao Feng slowly nodded, not having realized himself that his approach to cultivation in general had been that of an outsider.

“Well, not like I have anything to lose,” Xiao Feng declared with a shrug, before focusing his gaze on Liulian.

Extending his palm forward, he gently placed his hand on Liulian’s crown, this time with his soul alone while his physical body remained inert.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then, his eyes widened in shock as he was flooded with sensory feedback in the form of emotions instead of one of the five senses.

He felt a primal instinct rumbling on the surface, a viciousness that was driven by the natural, evolutionary instinct to survive in the ruthlessness of the untamed wilderness. Beneath that, Xiao Feng found contentment derived from the environment, from the comfort that the menagerie offered to spiritual beasts. Even deeper, there was a surprisingly pure warmth and affection, a child-like desire to please that was directed in the Beast Master’s general direction.

And those were only a fraction of the multitude of emotions he was picking up on, many too subtle or mercurial for him to identify.

Xiao Feng was almost certainly headed down the right direction, so he reached even deeper in search of greater truths.

Only to find himself stumbling backwards and just barely avoiding a fall, as he found himself confronted by a furious umbral fang with its jaws unhinged in a snarl as it approached, its size twice that of the sitting Liulian, who had not moved from the spot, while sharing identical features with her.

In attempting to reach for Liulian’s soul it appeared that he had given the female umbral fang a pathway to his own, a realization that struck him as he raised both hands up in the air in surrender.

“I just want to get to know you,” Xiao Feng hurriedly replied, not even sure if Liulian could understand his words but deciding that it was worth a try anyway.

Liulian's soul paused in its approach, turning her head in Beast Master Zen’s direction. Then, she nodded in a display of a remarkably human-like gesture, before turning around and walking towards the opposite direction.

Xiao Feng was confused by the sudden change in demeanour, only to be confronted by another surprise as he discovered that the mouth of a murky cave had superimposed itself on his soul space, in the direction Liulian was moving towards.

Liulian came to a stop before the cave entrance, before barking sharply a single time. Moments passed, yet Liulian’s form remained before the entrance, simply waiting.

What the umbral fang wished to communicate was clear. Xiao Feng just wasn’t sure if he was brave enough to follow and his predecessor was nowhere to be found.