Longmin was silently looking at his enormous soul and the flashing multicolored runic seal on its forehead.
A small almost unnoticeable stream of the strange energy was slowly flowing into the seal. Longmin saw that the stream of energy wasn't actually being drawn by his granduncle's seal, but his soul itself.
That unsettling feeling was still there, he felt as if something was slowly awakening within his soul and that made him worried, very worried. He didn't want what happened to him six years ago to ever happen again, especially at a time like this.
Longmin thought to himself, 'If granduncle had wanted me to enter into this Pocket Realm, was it because of this?'
Longmin didn't know the answer to that question, he was never able to guess what his granduncle was thinking.
Longmin sighed in his heart.
'The seal doesn't seem to be weakening in any way, so I guess everything is good for now.'
Longmin began to stare at his soul in a daze.
His soul was obviously a lot larger than what it was supposed to be for his cultivation level.
When someone enters the Foundation Building realm and gained Spiritual Strength, their soul would be around ten meters large. As they move through the minor realms, their soul can increase slightly at each break-through, causing their soul and Spiritual Strength to become stronger.
Normally, disciples in the Foundation realm would use different methods to strengthen their soul and increase their Spiritual Strength, so there would be disparities between the size and strength of disciples' soul and Spiritual Strength, some would have an abnormally stronger Spiritual Strength than their peers or have Spiritual Strength several times weaker.
But there was a limit to how big their soul could grow and that was twenty meters, though this limit was hard for people to reach.
After the Foundation realm, one would enter the Core Formation realm, in this realm, a disciple's soul would become ten times larger than the initial ten meters, and their Spiritual Strength would transform into Spiritual Sense.
Someone in the early stage of the Core Formation realm will be able to extend their Spiritual Sense a hundred meters away from their body. Mid-stage and late-stage Core Formation disciples souls would enlarge by several meters, but like in the Foundation realm it had a limit to how large it should be able to grow, and that was a hundred and fifty meters.
Longmin's soul had broken that limit and reached two hundred meters, which also means his Spiritual Sense was able to extend two hundred meters from his body.
You might be thinking that a mere fifty meters increase was not a lot, but one should remember that when Longmin had taken the Heavenly Pallet and transformed his Spiritual Strength into Spiritual Sense, his Spiritual Sense should have been as strong as someone in the early Core Formation realm.
Believe it or not, but Longmin's soul was only in the early stage of the Core Formation realm, which was absolutely ridiculous because it had surpassed the limit of a late-stage Core Formation cultivator's soul and Spiritual Sense by fifty meters!!
What would happen to his soul when it grows stronger, or even when he actually entered the Core Formation realm? he had no idea.
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When the Grand Elder was guiding the essence of the Heavenly Pallet to his soul, Longmin had watched in astonishment at its continual growth. He had asked his granduncle why his soul was so different from what he read in the books, but like all the other questions he asked, his granduncle just responded that he will eventually know in the future and not to worry about it now.
He also specifically said that he shouldn't let anyone know about his soul, not even his brother Longwei.
Longmin was confused and scared at times, after all, he was still a fourteen-year-old kid and he didn't understand what was happening to him, or why he was so different from a normal person.
As all of these mixed emotions was threaten to drown Longmin, he suddenly heard Longwei's voice.
"Hey, little brother look, I got it!"
Longmin came out of his dazed state and a slight smile form on his lips.
He then thought to himself, 'You're the only one that keeps me grounded brother, I don't know what I would do without you.'
Longmin then closed his eyes and his soul projection that was formed from Spiritual Sense disappeared from his Sea of Consciousness.
The fog that had initially moved away, came back and covered the view of his enormous soul, obscuring the lights of the flashing multi-colored rune.
----
On the outside, Longmin who was still on the rock butt naked opened his eyes. The swirling wormhole of the strange energy around him settled down as he stopped cultivating.
Longmin turned away from the waterfall and looked behind him. Longwei was in the water down below holding up a clear-white bottle that had a golden pill in it the size of a thumb.
Longmin smiled and said, "Congratulations on getting the Heavenly Pallet brother, do you want me to pat you on the back and give you a kiss on the cheek as well?"
Hearing the sarcasm in his brother's voice, Longwei's smile fell, and his joy from getting the Heavenly Pallet diminished somewhat.
While glaring at Longmin, Longwei's left hand that was still under the water formed a seal. From out of the waterfall, a Sword Qi flashed into being and with a blue streak, it flew towards Longmin.
Its speed made it seem as if it had teleported from the waterfall to arrive just inches away from Longmin's unguarded back. Longmin still had his head turned and was smiling at Longwei, his unresponsiveness made it look like he wasn't aware of the attack. However, the Sword Qi simply passed through him and hit the rock he was sitting on.
The hard rock that was eroded by the waterfall over time, leaving nothing but a diamond-like surface, was cleaved in two by Longwei's Sword Qi, leaving one half to remain above the surface, and the other half to sink into the fifteen feet deep pond with a loud splash.
Longmin's clothe-less figure appeared on another rock eight meters to the right. Longwei scowled in irritation at his missed attack.
"You just wait little brother, you'll eventually get what's coming to you."
Longmin rolled his eyes upon hearing that, he thought in his heart, 'If I were to tell him that I had only used 1/10 of my Spiritual Sense to beat him before, I wonder how he would react, would he go nuts?'
Longmin contemplated whether to reveal his abnormal soul to his brother to mess with him, but his granduncle's voice of refusal was echoing in the back of his mind. He eventually decided not to and just save his brother from the heartache.
After Longwei threateningly spoke his words, unaware of his brother's thoughts, he began swimming back and forth in the pond. He then looked towards the Palace ruins that were somewhat visible over the tree and said, "This Spring of Incarnation feels more like someone's backyard than some mystical treasure grounds."
Longmin heard that and looked over at the ruins as well.
"What kind of person's backyard would be able to casually produce a treasure like the Heavenly Pallet?" Longmin asked.
Longwei responded with more of a question than an answer, "I don't know, an immortal maybe?"
Longwei's words provoked Longmin's thoughts.
His gaze lingered on the Palace for a while before he turned to his brother and said, "If this place belongs to an immortal, then where's that immortal? Aren't they supposed to be, well... immortal?"
Longwei stopped his paddling and said with lifted brows, "You're asking me?"
Longmin just shrugged his shoulders in response.
Then, bending his knees, he leaped off the rock into the air, curling up into a ball Longmin entered the water with a loud splash.