Feeling fear, Sage was frozen for a few moments. He had to reassure himself a few times that they were inside the Universe Ring, and the man in front of him was very dead. Only after taking a few deep breaths and centering his mind was he able to overcome the deep fear that had been assaulting him. At that point, he finally realized something was wrong. He’d already faced death many times in this new life of his, and he’d even died and came back to life. That was without even mentioning the many lives and deaths he’d experienced because of the corpse he was standing in front of.

Aha! That must be it!

He made the connection at that instant and that feeling of fear washed over him once again. This time, he knew what was going on and he ignored it. Just like walking up to the edge of a steep cliff, he could only grit his teeth and sharpen his senses. He could feel adrenaline pumping through his veins, making his perception of the world slow down, extremely wary of the danger in front of him. Fear was the natural response to the unknown. A reaction to danger. The body’s instinctual attempt to protect itself, warning the conscious self with a physical reaction.

Sage pushed through, staring into the maw of the abyss. Figuratively, that is.

In actuality, all he did was take a few steps closer to a shriveled corpse. He kneeled down, and reached out to touch the body. As his hand moved, it felt like he was slowly reaching his fingers out towards a fiercely spinning blade. Only an instant away from being completely mangled. His fingers didn’t disappear. All he felt was cold skin. The vicious fear continued to press against him, but the longer he fought it the bolder he grew. His consciousness pushed into the corpse, riding a wisp of his Qi. Without the Twin Soul around as a medium, he could only use a more normal method of examining a body. The strand of Qi carried his consciousness upon it, traveling through the dead body towards its forehead, where the Spiritual Sea used to be. Soon he passed through a grey misty barrier and found another dried up Spiritual Sea.

Only, this time he wasn’t alone.

Boom!

A ball of flames flew past him, the little wisp of Qi just barely managing to flit to the side and avoid the incoming attack.

Pshh!

Sage’s awareness was abruptly returned to his body. The little wisp of Qi carrying his consciousness had been destroyed. With that, his probe had been destroyed, but at least he knew what he was dealing with now!

“Haha, little flame. You might have a chance against others, but today you’ve met your match!”

He sat down onto the ground, crossing his legs and closing his eyes. After taking a deep breath the outline of his body shimmered. A glowing aura lit up around him like an outline and then it suddenly blinked out. That glowing light wasn’t gone, it had moved. Peeling away from his body and resolving into the form of a glowing tree. It was, of course, Sage’s Nascent Soul. His body was only a vessel now and everything else was contained within the Nascent Soul. It floated over to the body and passed inside without any difficulty. The fear that had assaulted his body was like water off a duck’s back for his Nascent Soul. He slipped through it without any effect and the glowing tree was soon facing off against that entity inside the dried up Spiritual Sea.

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The flames it threw out splashed against the glowing surface of the tree and sputtered away like sparks on dirt. Without fear this time, Sage had time to examine his ‘foe’. It was a roaring orange flame of a very ordinary color. Like a crackling campfire or fireplace, except without any wood involved. Upon closer inspection there was something else within the flames. It wasn’t an object, but a symbol. The flames formed a sort of wall, tall and wide, yet thin. In the center of the flames the white and yellow colors of higher heat formed a shape. A many layered disc, one of the middle rings was divided into sections, making it look something like a wagon wheel with glowing spokes.

Calmly observing, he noticed more variation between the colors and layers. The inner circle was divided into three swirling shades of orange. The first ring around the center disc was divided into two halves, slowly rotating. The third ring was large, taking up most of the huge disc, and divided into six sections that made the dividing lines look like spokes. Lastly, the outer ring had twelve gradients of color, reminding him of a clock face.

As I thought!

The glowing tree flew closer to the disc of orange fire and it started to flicker. A soft pulsing of energy. The orange fire that was so hostile before started to struggle, shaking in place, but unable to move. The green light washing over it stopped it from resisting. Try as it might, the flames could only quiver while the tree shaped Nascent Soul approached. The fire seemed to give up hope just before the tree touched it, the flames dimming and the struggling stopping.

There was a flash of light when the two touched and the flame disappeared.

The tree flew down to the ground of the Spiritual Sea and scooped up a pile of pink crystals from a small puddle and then it flew back out into the grey mist where it came from. Returning to the outside world, the Nascent Soul flew back into a motionless man sitting cross legged in front of a corpse.

Back in his own body, Sage opened his eyes and smiled. The intense feeling of fear was gone. Then he closed his eyes again and his Nascent Soul flew back out. It flew a hundred yards to a dense forest of pillars. Except, these weren’t pillars. They were the bodies of the other Flares that Sage had collected. In this stasis world they could be left floating in mid-air and unaffected by gravity. They were lined up in rows and columns, forming layers up to the ceiling that made them look like pillars from afar. The Nascent Soul didn’t waste any time, quickly diving into them one by one, pulling out the Psionic Crystals from their dried up Spiritual Seas. It wasn’t a pleasant job, but it would be a waste to leave such treasures unclaimed.

A few hours later he was finished and the Nascent Soul returned back to his body again.

He estimated there were nearly 7000 dead flares in this chamber, and after collecting the Psionic Crystals from them, there was a pile of around 14,000. Added to the collection from the mine, that gave him around 17,000 standard grade Psionic Crystals. Thinking about it now, Guan Zhenyan likely already knew about them, yet he didn’t bother to mention them.

That must mean he was really only after the higher grade crystals. There must be more to them than he said.

With the spoils of war sorted, Sage turned his attention inward. Forming the Nascent Soul had created great changes and had been something of a calamity to the Inner World. Sage was fearful of what he’d find so he decided to settle matters outside first before checking. He entered the internal ‘body’ of the Nascent Soul and was surprised. The nebula was now much larger! It was also far more lively. In the past, there was a large planet in the center, with a single large nearby star that acted like a sun for the planet. In the periphery were tiny motes of light that looked like stars. Now, things were different.

Instead of two heavenly bodies, there were nine. A second star had joined the first, as well as six other planets. A blue black gem, a swirling grey and white gas giant, a large yellow planet, a small planet with a silvery reflective surface, a mottled brown and black planet, and lastly a brilliant green one. The two stars, one white and one orange, were now spinning around each other, and now the main Inner World was no longer at the center, it was orbiting the stars along with the other planets.

Another evolution!