2 Months' Secluded Cultivation

"It is widely known the Soul Race was already alive and at its best, with their Emperor governing over many Archeons, before the Great Sage ascended into over-worldly power. But the truth is, the current Emperor is several dozen Changes old. He has seen as much as a small portion of the world's history," Lady Calisneia commented, a bright little and thin smile on her lips as she spoke of the world in general. "Their current Emperor is the Soul Race's second Emperor in all history. It is said a new seat is being prepared. The current Emperor will give its memories, strength, and wisdom to the next ruler, as the first did."

"It's not possession?" Heian Ciemnosc asked, feeling it was dumb to believe such a thing without questioning anything. Lady Calisneia's smile receded, and she calmly elaborated, doting this knowledge-hungry monster dotingly. "Possession only works for a few moments. Such things are too weak and can be felt even by Second Step cultivators. It's... different... for figures in the Fifth and Sixth Step. Those are the crowns of any Universal Land. Such things are the less interesting things in the world."

"You have to understand, my disciple," Lady Calisneia looked directly at her disciple with a twist of her neck. "To these powerhouses, none of them are ordinary. There are no 'weaker' beings or existences among them. Each one can destroy a Kingdom with a palm's thrust, and anyone can traverse the world with a quick walk. If one wanted to cultivate to the Fifth Step, they can only do so by becoming the entire world's unique figure. Energy no longer matters, and only one's true power holds weight. The armies and word-scale wars are but a polite action to the world. They could directly destroy everything otherwise. Of course, the world wouldn't allow that even if everyone wanted to decimate everything."

“The Soul Race, however, base their initial power levels in their Soul forms. They don’t reproduce nor come out of their territories without first reaching the Third Step. That’s where their main strength lies. They can massively cultivate faster than any other Race due to their teachings. But even those teachings are innately inferior to the Soul-exalting Old World parchment in your hands. Do you now feel a better grasp on your current situation?”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc was astounded and couldn’t speak. His Master waited until he recuperated and heard him ask her. “Will I be in danger with this parchment in my hands?”

“Do you want to let go of it after hearing how fearsome your ‘enemy’ is?” Lowering her head, Lady Calisneia asked her disciple without much emotion but a bit of teasing. Heian Ciemnosc blinked, jolted his head, and paused before directly shaking his head. “No, I’m not. It’s just, I haven’t seen any Soul Race other than in the Large Cities or above, in the space stations.”

“If I do find one, I think it will be difficult for me to hide it if they have a way to know…” Heian Ciemnosc said with uncertainty. Lady Calisneia lowered her head slightly further and became pensive for a few seconds before saying suddenly, surprising and stunning Heian Ciemnosc with her words. “I’ll get into my hands a few Soul Race slaves. You can interact with their bodies. Otherwise, you won’t manage to capture and research them without my help.”

“Master…” Heian Ciemnosc was slightly speechless and didn’t know how to explain to his Master, but before he could continue with his dragged words. She spoke again. “Don’t ‘master’ me. I know you’ve been torturing others during the war and doing all sorts of things to some of them. Even if I didn’t become aware, you speaking of those terrible things in my home, how can I now know you have studied various Races’ sexual ecstasies?”

“!!” Heian Ciemnosc was rendered brainless. He quickly made a mental note to speak through his mind of his adventures, but on another thought, that would be impossible to hide from his Master. Heian Ciemnosc defeatedly hung his head and let time pass to heal. His Master gave him as much time as needed, not criticizing him for capturing so many enemy cultivators and doing the unthinkable to some.

“My disciple,” Heian Ciemnosc felt his right ear tingle right before his hair, and the right side of his head was caressed by a delicate, slender, and small hand. His eyes glanced to the right and looked at his Master, looking at him with calm and old, wise eyes. “In this world, there are worse things than indiscriminate murder, raping, and torture. It is not the same for civilians. Thus, if you ever decide to target them. I will not sit idly by. But as long as you know how to differentiate between enemy and not an enemy, I won’t stop you even if your goal is to spread fear towards the whole world.”

“I know you’re no righteous or good person, but you don’t have to make things to become someone or something for fame. And even less to gain power. As my disciple. You can’t let me look down on you, understand?” With a softer voice for her last sentence, questioning Heian Ciemnosc, Lady Calisneia ruffled through his hair dotingly.

“Don’t worry, Master!” Heian Ciemnosc rapidly responded as soon as his Master finished speaking. He held her delicate hand with both his hands and earnestly looked into her dullest, fully dimmed, goldish pale eyes. “I don’t enjoy nor want to target the world’s foundations. Anyone who is put against me is someone I can’t let live, and there are these sensations inside me, growing stronger, that are further impulsing me to do more.”

“But it doesn’t force me or make me addicted… Those are my instincts. I can deny them and change, but… I do not wish to do that. I may be reckless and bloody - cruel and unlikeable, but there’s no other way to be when this is the world of cultivation. My path isn’t a peaceful one, and so are my desires. I just don’t wish… for others to become by sacrifice nor the reason I could ‘win’ or escape defeat. I don’t want… to lose ever again.”

“...” Lady Caliesneia didn’t retract his hand and gazed into her disciple’s eyes. After a long while, she finally sighed and faced the front, where Heian Ciemnosc’s strange but ordinary-looking flame hovered in the distance amid the darkness. He waited for a response, not daring to hurry for his Master’s answer to his declaration.

“... Very well, take good care of Milyy after I’m gone,” with this almost testament-like sentence, Heian Ciemnosc felt his heart tighten, but he also relaxed, knowing his Master wasn’t even testing him… She just wanted to chat with him about the world… and more about his nature and ideals. With a quiet tone, he spoke, “Thank you… Master.”

“... The Soul-exalting Old World parchment teaches you the Soul is connected to the world when it is formed at the Spirit Rebirth realm, except for those who constructed it earlier.” Lady Calisneia returned to guiding Heian Ciemnosc after a while as he had the Soul-exalting Old World parchment in his lap in the real world. “To the ordinary beings or those with too low cultivation base, their soul just a grain of sand, dirt, rock, grass, air or even life, detached from the world. Like a leaf fallen from its branch, from a tree, connected to the earth and coexisting.”

“However, the leaf is no longer connected, and although one can use them as compost, they are only repeating the process until they can form. This is called reincarnation by many, or in the past. They are alive like a fallen leaf from the branch. Then, they die and become the world’s nutrients; compost to help the tree or grass around it to grow or become stronger.” Lady Calisneia sighed, her words becoming lighter. “And then, depending on nothing, they can either turn into a thin tick, later to become a branch… or repeat.”

“We all belong to the world, and the world is ours. Without this modus operandi, cultivation would be like so many Changes ago, reckless and with endless slaughters every few tens of thousands of years. Even with the 10 year war and the Great Sage’s coming into power, this Universal Lands has always been peaceful, and so have the others. This… seems to be changing recently.”

“Through previous times, the once-in-a-million-years war of the Wrath Nihility Academy hadn’t reached this level of movement and stage from the enemy, almost forcing the well-reputed Academy to capitulate and yield terrain to its enemy.” Lady Calisneia spoke about this non-hidden secret casually, and Heian Ciemnosc was calmly silent as she continued. “If it wasn’t for your sacrifice, it would have happened, and a new Era would be coming in the next hundreds of thousands of years.”

“With this parchment, I will help you, my disciple, learn to see the world as one together as I do. With luck, perhaps… you might be able to attain the impossible in time record.” Lady Calisneia spoke and kept silent for a moment. After a minute, she lowered her head, her chin to her neck, saying in a barely audible voice that was gentle and unmistakable in Heian Ciemnosc’s mind.

“For Ages, the world has seen an increase in Soul cultivation mobilization. The Soul Race has no longer been 100% successful in Soul intervention, attacks, and defenses against other Races in encounters with other Universes. Everyone has started to comprehend the direct manipulation of Soul energy. This force is similar to pure energy but belongs to one alone.”

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“No harm can ever be done via the Soul, but many things can be accomplished with it along the lines. I once used to create many interim and theriac pills to affect the Suol, but it was fruitless. Not one of them worked. That is how powerful the Soul is, unlike the soul, which can shutter with a God’s or Goddess’s thought. Of course, they are not exempt from indiscriminately violating the Glorious Nexus Entente.”

“Master, may I ask a quick question before continuing?”

“Oh? Continue. As long as you do not disrespect me, it will be fine.” Lady Calisneia was interrupted by her disciple but didn’t seem to mind and allowed Heian Ciemnosc to proceed. He nodded and fearlessly asked after glancing at the corners of her meditation room. “Master… why do I feel like I’m always surrounded by many beauties and good women? For example, my wives, Elena, Milyy, Arla, Sakura, etc.”

“Tsk,” Last Calisneia turned her head to face Heian Ciemnosc and looked at him with upturned eyes before talking teasingly, “You think that’s a lot? If you were a woman, this number would increase by 40 times, and that’s if you were in a backwater organization where no one in the world could know about you. Let alone after you ascended.”

“Master, those words… were they from your experience? Master, did you have fun in your early days?!” Heian Ciemnosc suddenly seemed to find a soul mate, speaking to his Master as if they knew the disadvantages of being too damn handsome or beautiful. His Master sighed as she looked up and let it out without shame but understanding her recklessness. “Yes, but only for my first few thousand years. I was a mother once, and as I grew in power or found too powerful cultivators whom I became enemies with soon after, I was all alone…”

“I see…” Heian Ciemnosc fell a little silent to the underlying meaning of her words. It wasn’t all just having fun. But after letting it pass for a moment, Heian Ciemnosc added, his voice teasing his Master back. “Master, no matter how many times one circles around it… But, fooling around for thousands of years doesn’t seem little.”

“You-...” Lady Calisneia looked at Heian Ciemnosc and fell silent. The entire meditation room son became stiff as if locked in time and space. Out of fear, Heian Ciemnosc kneeled before her and started apologizing. “Master, it wasn’t my intention, I’m just glad to have something in common with you, I-”

Whoosh… … … SLAP!! SLAP!! SLAP!! SLAP!! SLAP!!...

“... Hm?” In her bedroom, her pajamas on and her bum facing the ceiling, Milyy seemed to hear something. Alyona and Hong Mei didn’t seem to notice, but she did. Shaking her head as if reminiscing of her obscure, deepest secrets, Milyy prayed for Heian Ciemnosc’s mentality before going back to watching images of his body fighting amidst a sea of bloody enemy corpses, shirtless and sometimes without clothes, not stopping taking lives in savage and feral ways.

… About 20 minutes later, in Heian Ciemnosc’s mind, he and his Master were back to meditating and cultivating. He rubbed his buttcheeks and didn’t dare to sit on the floor of his illusory inner body. It hurt!

“Master, can you please keep guiding me?” Having received a long cold shoulder, Heian Ciemnosc implored his Master for the tenth time. Finally, she opened her eyes and was back to her usual self. She commenced. Her lips parted as her slightly hoarse voice sounded gently and slowly in his mind.

“Civilians’ souls are mostly protected by the cities’ array formations in charge by a cultivator. This cultivator cannot take matters into the daily lives or situations within the City. But a citizen living in a City or a spaceship is protected by those shields from any Soul attack. They are usually manipulated into certain actions, creating havoc or severe casualties to the affected party.”

“However, civilians and citizens are divided by more than their role in the world.” Lady Calisneia slowly opened her eyes, and Heian Ciemnosc saw illustrations above in the dark skies of his illusory inner body. “Civilians work, live, die, reproduce for each other and cultivators. They eat, defecate, piss, create, and search for a better life. Citizens can do that in their free time, but they are the only type of living being in the world who can war with or against cultivators.”

“They can be enhanced and altered without secondary effects. Some choose a few pleasant robotics, but most rely on pills. These pills can only nurture and alleviate the soul, not allow a citizen to form a Soul. However, depending on the capabilities of a citizen, they can still develop a Soul. It doesn’t require pills or being possessed by a cultivator or Aberration. The world chooses its most magnificent citizens and grants them a Soul. These pills can make it easier and less painful for a citizen through the creation of it.”

“Those pills help a citizen sleepless for months. This isn’t so they can not sleep and continue working endlessly. But it is so they can be tireless despite working nonstop under cultivators for long periods of time. Citizens live from a couple hundred to a few thousand years, depending on their luck and the dedication an organization places upon them. Although that is usually left for those chosen to bear a Soul.”

“In the same way, with the Soul-exalting Old World parchment, Heian Ciemnosc, my disciple. One can find those citizens ‘watched’ by the world due to their aptitude and nature. You can already read nature, but not the future. You feel other’s potential, talent, and capabilities through your eyes and Spirit Sense, but you cannot discern their future. You need a Domain, for that matter.”

“A Domain? The Domain one gains depending on the individual’s overall capabilities?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, astounded and understanding why he sometimes lacked in understanding certain other parts. Like back then with the carnivorous plants and their Soul, forming even before attaining intelligence. Lady Calisneia expressionlessly nodded, not surprised Heian Ciemnosc understood it quickly.

“However, that’s for… ‘ordinary’ people,” Lady Calisneia added, eliciting a relieved sigh from Heian Ciemnosc. After all, one could only deduce another cultivator’s capabilities depending on one’s talent or potential. He could do much more than those 2 options and for more than cultivation and Spirit Sense. But then, Lady Calisneia’s words astounded him for the umpteenth time. “Like me and the rest of the world.”

“Master?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, confused.

“Heian Ciemnosc, you are something… One can see what you can with their Domain. Only those with at least a True Domain can see through more. Otherwise, it would be an enigmatic and hidden potential whose truth could only be revealed as time passes. Didn’t the Headmaster inspect you with his Domain before? He’s not at the Third Step, so he can only use his Domain. It must’ve been completely shocking for him to not know what your potential meant.”

“Headmaster?! That… he-... !” Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes widened, and his Master’s lips slightly grinned satisfactorily. Lady Calisneia didn’t let him have too many thoughts and resumed. “I can’t even tell which Domain you might have, so I won’t use ordinary means to guide you.”

‘Has Master placed me in her Domain before? Which Domain is it? True Domain? But she’s to be stronger than Milyy to help her grow up, so it can only be a Godly Domain at the very least… Wait.’ Heian Ciemnosc quickly thought in his mind, but as he processed his Master’s words as she spoke them, his eyes expanded, and she looked at him with some pride. “Master, will you teach me how to use my Domain?!”

“That’s right. But as I just said, I can’t do it similarly like other Teachers or even Supervisors would to other students. Do you understand?” Lady Calisneia said, her eyes and nose facing her disciple sternly, but her mind thought further ahead. ‘Let’s see how you can do with guidance only those at my level would require, Little Heian Ciemnosc.’

“!!” Heian Ciemnosc knelt before his Master, dragging his knees on the dark floor, making his Master speechless. Before continuing and giving Heian Ciemnosc just what he wanted, she truthfully tenderly smiled and tapped his forehead with her left index fingertip after sending it forwards, fluctuating and light demeanor. Her fingers and wrist arched before returning to normal when her fingertip landed on his glabella.

“Let go of any movement, don’t breathe, and only hear my words, my disciple.” Lady Calisneia said, her hands slowly coming together and forming a square shape with her hands before ‘holding’ it in the air. However, there was nothing. Heian Ciemnosc’s eyes weren’t set on it as they were focused on his Master’s eyes, and her voice was the only thing that mattered to him, along with her words’ contents.

“One’s Domain is always experienced and discovered in a situation of need. It is always to one’s survival. Domains aren’t rare, nor the start of a legend, but truth and natural. Only when one’s potential is stimulated do we breakthrough our limits. It is so for every Race’s civilian, and it is so for cultivators of any Step and capabilities.”

“Many times, one wished their Domain could be discovered earlier to save, kill, or rescue someone or something. More often than not, they only awaken when one’s life is in danger, and everything they are can become nonexistent a second later.” Lady Calisneia kept Heian Ciemnosc intrigued and engrossed. The illustrations behind her showing were the incarnation of her guidance to him.

“However, I believe my disciple has already achieved such a thing. That’s not unseen or unheard of. Many do so before the Spirit Rebirth realm. Elena did in the last battle after recognizing the dark Power Energy all around the battlefield when before you collapsed, the rage within her was equal to her master’s when his wife fell. He sent himself on a suicidal mission to go off with his wife. Something similar happened, but as you know. She was saved by her commander and a second-in-command from the same club in the end.”

“She went in and showered everywhere around her with wind blades and chains surrounding her that cut through even the remaining bits of the Small City’s barrier, let alone those of the same cultivation base as her. She is a good example of one’s Domain. However, Little Heian Ciemnosc…” Lady Calisneia suddenly halted after a while of ignoring Heian Ciemnosc’s proud, silly, light smiles. Her subsequent words were spoken as she looked at him straight to the face.

Breathlessly, Heian Ciemnosc’s Master said in a whisper, “But nobody had previously attained their Domain before even their Souls were formed.”

…