Chapter 7 - Exploring the Soul Abode!

Looking at the Yu Family palace in front of him, Yu Yin was filled with bitter-sweet memories. He knew the layout of the castle like the back of his hand. This place was his childhood, the origin of his very being! He could clearly remember spending many an hour exploring the boundless gardens that stretched endlessly across the land. He remembered each one of his relatives, his aunts and uncles, his cousins, and all those people from the auxiliary bloodlines. He remembered the zealous expressions of the members of the three guardian sects of the Yu Family when they were given the opportunity to stand out!

He remembered his grandmother, Yu Jingyi, the Grand Matriarch of the Yu Family. He remembered how she distanced herself from the world and seemed almost otherworldly, although he had heard rumours that she had a very eccentric personality. His grandmother always looked at him with dissatisfaction, as if he could never live up to her expectations. Him extorting the civilians at every opportunity has absolutely nothing to do with that. Every time he had seen her on those rare occasions that she left her abode, she would always scold him before shaking her head and walking off into the distance.

He remembered his father, Song Wei who had married into the Yu Family from the Searing River Sect, located in the Eastern region of the Frigid Enigma Continent. His father was always kind to him and guided him through his early years. When his father looked at him, it was with warmth and love, and it could be said he was Yu Yin's role model. His father taught him that life is not just about the grind but is instead about enjoying the pleasures that it has to offer. Apparently, he was a little too hung up on those worldly pleasures, as he was later executed by Family law for being unfilial. Yu Yin was only nine at the time and was distraught by this matter.

He remembered his talented and beautiful older sister, Yu Xue, the pearl of the Yu Family, and the future Matriarch of the Yu family. He remembered how she always acted extremely arrogant and viewed her fellow family members with despise as if they weren't worthy of even looking at her. Ever since she had shown extraordinary progress in her cultivation, she had acted like an untouchable goddess, like the world was unworthy of her. That was just how she presented herself to the world anyway. With Yu Yin, Yu Xue could always be herself. She could laugh, act girly, and express her emotions that she tried so intensely to hide from the rest of the world.

If Yu Yin had 1 regret, it would be leaving Yu Xue behind to shoulder her fate alone.

Yu Yin let out a sigh as he finally remembered his mother, Yu Xiuying, the Yu clan Matriarch. His mother had always been a confusing person. She carried herself in a prideful but graceful manner like an immortal fairy from another world. She would always look at him warmly and provided him with whatever he needed, however .... that was about all she did. His mother would always have her full attention on Yu Xue, and never pay much heed to himself. It pained Yu Yin how she never paid any attention to him and withheld the motherly love he felt he deserved. He also resented her a little for the incident with his father. That's why he didn't feel too guilty taking the Qilin horns, not that he would have felt that much guilt anyway!

Yu Yin shook his head to remove any thoughts of his family and walked through the front gate. The Yu Family palace consisted of four buildings, being the main Yu palace and three additional crystal palaces to house each of the three guardian sects. He looked around, contemplating what to do.

"My soul must be in the palace somewhere but where? According to what Layla said, it should be the place most significant to me."

After only a little bit of thought, he came to a conclusion.

"My soul is definitely in the family treasury for sure! Where else could be more significant to me than that?!"

With a clear destination in mind, Yu Yin entered the main building of the palace. The main building entrance led to a massive hallway containing two huge stairways and an arched doorway at its far end. The stairways went in opposite directions, one ascending, one descending. He descended the second stairway and travelled many pathways across the palace before finally arriving at another giant set of doors. Along the way, he saw myriads of phantoms representing people from his memories. They were wandering, doing their business as if they were the true occupants of the Yu Family palace! Whenever they saw Yu Yin, they would put on a friendly smile before gossiping to each other.

"Look! Look! Isn't that the Yu Family trash?"

"Yes, you're right! What the hell is he doing out here?"

"What an eyesore, can't he go somewhere else?"

"Just give him a few gold coins and he'll disappear like the filth he is!"

"Tch! Why do we need to bow down to a mere mortal! If he wasn't the Matriarch's son, I could kill him with a single slap!"

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"He thinks he's all that just because he has a Blood Skill like the Crystal Corps, doesn't he know that Blood Skill or none, he's still useless!

Yu Yin frowned at this, displeased by their unpleasant actions. Since he had decided not to cultivate, his peers had often looked down on him. Yu Yin didn't mind them much though, he just looked down at them back. In reality, they never used to say these kinds of things to his face. Instead they would always suck up to him like the dogs they were.

He pushed open the giant doors to reveal the secrets inside. All kinds of immortal treasures could be seen, from flying swords and sabres to engraved runic spells of every kind! Chests could be seen abundantly scattered across the room, sealed shut until their contents were needed at a later time. luxurious alchemy cauldrons were sitting upon golden shelves and precious medicinal pills were kept in jade boxes just to their side. Further inside the treasury could be seen some more unique items, like a small metal collar, and a white faceless mask. At the very end of the treasury stood a stone stele, which Yu Yin walked towards at a leisurely pace. He bit his thumb, creating a wound, and drew a certain pattern on the stele with his blood. Yu Yin smirked at the wall behind the stele.

"Open!"

Suddenly as if to answer to his command, an ancient door mysteriously appeared behind the stone stele and started to open by itself. The appeared and opened upon contact with his blood, just as it had done the day he left the Yu Family.

A grating sound reverberated throughout the treasury as the door slowly opened, dragging on the floor as it went. Behind the door was a room full of display cases, an item resting in each of them. One of them held a crystal mirror which was letting out distressful moaning sounds as to haunt the souls of those who heard. Another display case held a rod which stood two meters long. A green jewel was fixed to the top of the rod, which was glowing and letting out a gentle hum that reverberated around the room. Most eye-catching of all was the display case at the very end of the hall. It was gigantic and was garnished with gold and silver, all kinds of precious jewels plastered across its exterior. Strangely though, this display case was completely empty! Yu Yin walked in and let out a chuckle.

Of course, it was empty. After all, Yu Yin took the treasures that once rested there.

He walked straight up to the empty display case at the far end and rested his palm on it.

"My Darlings were wasted in this stupid heap of metal! They're definitely better off with me."

He turned around to look at the vast collection of treasures in the secret vault. Each and every one of them was a reserve power of the Yu Family. If one were to be picked randomly, even just that one would make even a lofty [Specialised Soul] expert tremble in fear! Yu Yin let out a sigh.

"It's a shame I couldn't take all of this with me back then, although, I suppose it's best to know my limits."

Suddenly Yu Yin's eyes widened in shock as he realised something. He looked around him to explore his surroundings, and then again, and then again.

"Where the hell is my soul?!"

He checked the area one last and low and behold, his soul wasn't in the treasury!

"How can this be?! My soul is meant to be in the place most significant in my memories, this is the place dearest to me so I was sure my soul would be here."

He paced around a bit, a contemplating expression on his face.

"If it isn't here, my favourite location, then where could it be? The place most significant in my memories... perhaps it means the place I've spent the most time?"

He stopped pacing and looked towards the exit to the vault, his eyes sparkling.

"It's in my living quarters!"

He dashed out of the treasury and made his way up all the way to the palace's second floor at an astonishing speed, not caring how he looked in the process. His actions obviously attracted the attention of the phantoms as when he went past any, they would look at him with a mixture of shock and pity.

"Am I seeing things? What on earth is the young master doing??!"

"HaHaHa, looks like that trash has finally become retarded!"

"Poor soul, somebody should put him out of his misery..."

Yu Yin sighed.

‘These phantoms are kind of annoying…’

He ignored them, continuing on his way. He reached his living quarters at the upper reaches of the palace in almost no time. He entered his room, nostalgically smiling as he slipped through the door . Inside laid a king size bed with beautiful golden embroidery across the duvet, and a few chests were littered across the room. Each of the chests was filled to the brim with gold coins and gave off an impression of otherworldly wealth. These of course weren’t even 0.01% of the amount of gold coins tucked inside Yu Yin’s interspatial ring.

He looked around his room, but his soul wasn't in plain sight like he thought it would be.

"The Hell?!!"

He frantically searched every nook and cranny in his living quarters, his scalp tingling the entire time! Although it seemed like not much time had passed, Yu Yin had been in his soul abode for twenty minutes! He was running out of time and had zero results.

"I refuse to believe my soul isn't here!"

He checked inside his closet, inside the chests, under his bed and even his personal bathroom! However, nothing that even resembled a soul was found. Yu Yin at this point was biting his fingernails and pacing up and down his living quarters. Quite honestly, he looked like a lunatic!

"My soul isn't in the treasury or my living quarters? Are the heavens screwing with me?! I mean, It's not like I don't have a soul, so where the hell is it?!!"

It was at this point another idea popped into his head.

"Perhaps my soul isn't in the place dearest to me, or the place I've been the longest. Perhaps my soul is located where my ambitions lie? But where on earth would that be?"

He flipped through everything he wanted to achieve in his head, ticking them off one by one.

"I shall one day claim all things precious and rare in this world, but my soul isn't in the treasury so that can't be it. I will become a money-making tycoon that.....no that's the same thing! I shall.....Damn!"

An impatient expression was on his face as he realised all his aspirations led to the exact same conclusion: Yu Yin wanted to be wealthy, wealthy like nobody ever has been before. He calmed himself and began to think a little deeper.

"If I want to be rich, my soul could be in the place where I could become rich the easiest!"

Yu Yin's eyes suddenly started glowing!

"It's there!!"