“Everyone! Sit around the Genesis Tree and pray! A miracle is happening here! The Tree is blessing us!” Tetsu explained.
“It was said that Lord Biron also experienced this! I’ve only read this in Biron's legends, but it is said that this is the Path of Enlightenment! Allow the energy to go over you! This will benefit you in your search for strength!” Tetsu instructed.
Tetsu didn’t have time to explain. He couldn’t even teach the villagers what to do. But he knew being exposed to this energy could somehow help the villagers learn the ways of Spirit, which is the strengthening that the Biron Monks pursued.
The surging of energies was so powerful that even regular people could sense it. For some strange reason, the power was very aggressive, as if it wanted the people around them to feel it.
Everyone in the village had sat down and prayed to the Genesis Tree. For the first time, many of those around them could feel a joyous sensation. It was a warm sensation that caused them to relax.
Very few in the village have experienced this. In fact, only Vahn had previously sensed this. But as he was the only one, he thought that he liked staying here.
Little did they know that this was an event that would draw much envy from the world where Strafe was.
The Path of Soul Cultivation was a tough but fruitful path.
In most cases, it was impossible to birth Soul Cultivators. A large percentage of those who pursue the martial path may not even touch the basics of Soul Cultivation.
The body was natural to improve. Through physical training, consuming various medicinal or monster meat could also help it as well as any other physically stimulating or tampering means in the cultivation world could help one improve.
As for the mind, it was slightly harder. Those at the Martial Code stage would have to find ways to improve their mental capacity and prowess. Various rituals are designed to allow cultivators to break past their mental limitations.
But the soul was the most mysterious and challenging aspect to develop. It cannot be trained or tampered with until the cultivator is aware of his or her soul. As such, the most challenging part of training to be a Soul Cultivator was becoming one!
The first stage is known as the Soul Sensitivity stage. Most of the abnormal cultivators in the history of Strafe’s world were born to have a naturally sensitive body to the souls. In Dyne’s world, it would equate to people who had a ‘third eye’ and could feel ghosts and such. But being in this stage didn’t mean that the person is a genuine soul cultivator. To officially become one, many consider it only possible if they reach the second stage.
The Soul Awareness Stage. The stage is hard to surpass because humans and monsters live their lives only to see the physical world. And learning how to see in the soul world was impossible.
Only guilds, sects, kingdoms, or families who had the inheritance, resources and guidance from someone in the Saint Realm would have the chance of birthing Soul Cultivators.
And while there have been cases where rogue cultivators become Soul Cultivators, this was because they had stumbled upon chance encounters that allowed them to sense their soul!
Generally, the branches of Soul Cultivators could increase through the empowering of their Souls. If a person is finally aware of the Soul world, he could finally discern the mysterious essence around everything. Although soul-related items were rare, it would be possible to improve the soul's strength.
The other way was to absorb another soul. But because of the merging of souls, a person's countenance and behavior would change and have created powerful but mad and insane cultivators on multiple occasions. As such, this method is generally prohibited.
Strafe wanted to get Dyne started into the Path of Soul Cultivator as early as he can. This was why Legend of Legaia would be the first game. He planned that by combining the powers of a Ra-Seru, which was primarily a Soul Creature, and through the constant teamwork of both, Strafe hoped that as the Ra-Seru grew stronger, his soul, which was bound to Dyne, would allow Dyne to sense it and breach the gap making him a Soul Cultivator!
Yet even with all the possible external means to force a person to be capable of awakening his soul, it was still hard. In the history of Strafe’s world, people generally would spend a decade being exposed to various stimulants until they can sense the soul. Those who were not born with a Soul Sensitive disposition had to use this to become Soul Sensitive and then cultivate even more to reach Soul Awareness.
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Generally, those who have higher cultivation have higher chances of becoming a Soul Cultivator. The lower the rank and the faster someone becomes a Soul Cultivator, the higher their potential in reaching the peak of Soul Cultivation. Those who have ascended would always impart that to their descendants that a person's talent in Soul cultivation would determine a cultivator's possibility to become a Saint.
Strafe himself was among the top talents, which caused his fame and position to skyrocket. He reached Soul Awareness even when he was still on the late stages of the Martial Novice Stage. And that was generally the record. No one has ever awoken to Soul Cultivator at the Martial Advent stage. It was just believed to be impossible.
Yet that impossibility was now changed forever.
Dyne had reached the Soul Awareness stage.
There were many factors to this change.
Since Dyne was already dying, he was in the most entuned situation. Upon reaching death's door, the departure of the soul from the body could allow a person to finally ‘feel’ his soul. But this was so dangerous as the person has to die. Although there were methods developed in the cultivation world to copy this, it was extremely risky.
For Dyne, he did not only tasted death, but his soul was removed from his dying body and placed into another reformed body.
This option was only possible for those who have the highest and strongest backgrounds in Strafe's world as it requires massive energy. So massive that no one was willing to pay that price for another person. But Strafe used the energy generated when he sacrificed the world in the Imaginarium bond to accomplish Dyne's transfer.
Although his memories were vague, that sensation still left an impression on Dyne.
The next was the significant influence of the Mist when he arrived in this world. The Mist was created in Rogues Tower. It was there that the Ra-Seru traitor, Rogue, was banished and found a way to harness his souls' power to create the Mist!
And so, the Mist becomes a stimulant that could affect a soul. This was why people exposed to the Mist would fall into fear, terror, anger, and other negative emotions.
When Dyne realized that, he allowed the Genesis Tree’s soul energy to reshape his thoughts and emotions. Dyne was flung from one end of the pedestal to the extreme other end. One of the Soul's influences on a human body was emotions. Because of that, Dyne was able to observe the mystery of the soul further, and then he was able to commune with it.
Aside from these factors, the soul energies in Legaia all belonged to the souls from the world that Strafe destroyed to create this.
But who would have thought that Dyne’s extreme thankfulness and gratitude towards the souls that died caused him to develop an intimate sensation towards it? It was similar to the power of faith that existed and was used by the gods in Strafe’s world.
Faith and gratitude, fear, and hatred would all be engraved in a soul. This was also how Vahn developed a stronger resistance to the effects of the Mist. He had been praying every day with all his heart.
Strafe originally wanted Dyne to be the Vahn of this world. But since Dyne insisted on something else, Strafe then begrudgingly created Vahn and destined Vahn for Meta. To do this, Strafe made it so that Vahn would have the most times of being exposed to the Soul power that resided within the Genesis Tree.
As such, the Meta would naturally select Vahn because anybody else within the village would have been unable to sense Meta. Only Vahn, who had prayed daily to the Tree, would be able to detect Meta. Vahn was close to reaching the Soul Sensitivity stage, and so, Meta would use whatever reserved power to talk to Vahn when the time would come finally! Vahn also trained in Biron arts and learned how to strengthen his soul through the art of Spirit. This was why Meta had to communicate with Vahn. Tetsu was the stronger option, but Meta knew that Tetsu would never forsake his Biron Vows of not wearing any forms of Seru.
As for Dyne, he was eternally grateful to Strafe and the people of that world. The longing emotions he had, allowed the soul power that the Genesis Tree released to commune with him. Dyne was the person whom Strafe pinned his hopes on. He was also the person to which the former master of the Imaginarium Bond could achieve their vengeance and justice. As such, all the soul energies in Legaia naturally adored Dyne.
But even if it were Strafe himself who would go through everything Dyne would have gone through, he wouldn’t still have achieved what Dyne accomplished.
Because the last factor that allowed Dyne to communicate with the souls and received their blessings was his monstrous talent in Soul Cultivation.
"Enlightenment!" Strafe stood in the spirit world of Legaia and looked at the changes happening around Dyne.
This Enlightenment was a method of refining and strengthening the Soul. Even if the Genesis Tree and all the souls of Elpida did their part, if Dyne was not talented enough, the energy would go to waste.
Strafe planned to use that moment when Dyne would have awakened a number of Genesis Tree and would be familiar with the process of communing. But he didn't expect that Dyne's talent was so great that he was immediately able to commune with the souls even without prior training or with the assistance of a Ra-Seru!
Strafe watched at this process, and his heart shook with awe.
“What a monster! A genius! This Dyne is a genius in Soul Cultivating!”
In terms of the levels of Soul Cultivation, Dyne skipped Soul Sensitivity and immediately achieved Soul Awareness. The sudden leap caused the lingering soul energy to sense that Dyne was now in that stage, and with the lingering love that the soul energies instinctively felt, it rushed towards out of the Seru-Kai world and went into Dyne to help Dyne as much as it could.
There was no bright light and change within the Genesis Tree. The Genesis Tree could only be awakened by the Ra-Seru. And since Meta had not awoken, the Tree did not also awaken. But the surging of souls around Rim Elm was so strong, the Mist around Rim Elm had retreated, and the thin layers that once covered Rim Elm disappeared.