It was now time for him to breakthrough to nascent soul.
But his tribulation clouds had attracted some masters.
He saw a group of people in purple robes surround him.
"Which sect are you a part of?"
Zero shook his head.
"I'm part of no sect."
These people didn't seem to have good intentions
"We saw multiple tribulations in a row... how did you breakthrough so many times in such quick succession?"
"Cultivation is simply too easy, that's all."
"Bullshit! Cultivation takes hard work and dedication. It is a path not just anyone can walk. It takes slow and steady growth and a strong dao heart."
A girl beside the man laughed and pointed at Zero.
"You are within our territory. This is the hunting ground for the students."
Zero nodded his head.
"I see... sorry about that. I'll leave."
Zero was about to fly away.
But a giant cage formed around him.
"Who said you could leave?"
Zero laughed...
He could just teleport away.
But why would he, the great Zero run away?
So he spoke:
"I'll give you five seconds to free me."
"We don't have to listen to your nonsense. I just want to know your cultivation technique."
The others began to whisper among themselves.
It was taboo to ask another for their cultivation technique.
"5."
"4."
"3."
"2."
"You really think I'm scared of your thre-"
"1."
Zero's rank 4 auras burst out causing the crowd of people to kneel at his feet.
The cage disintegrated.
"I'll let you guys off with a warning, since I'm in a good mood."
With that Zero teleported away.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
They stared at where he had been previously.
"Was he spirit severing?"
"No... he was clearly core formation."
"A technique that allows a core formation to teleport... that would be super valuable."
"Or could it be an artifact?"
"I left an imprint on him. Let's gather the elders. We'll capture him then search his soul. We must get his techniques!"
Zero had no idea he was going to be chased.
If he knew he would probably just find it entertaining.
But also a bit cliché.
Zero had teleported about ten kilometers away.
He now began to tackle nascent soul.
He used his 'soul arms' that he had given himself to split off some of his spirit.
He then molded this into a miniature version of himself.
The clouds began to appear.
He was about to face the tribulation.
But the clouds disappeared suddenly.
He then felt a headache and coughed up some saliva.
"I failed? Impossible! Heh, again!"
Normally failing to breakthrough to nascent soul would kill the person or leave them braindead.
But Zero had so many consciousness's.
Losing some of his soul was annoying.
But his soul artifact could help him regenerate it.
For someone else, this would be debilitating.
But for Zero, it was just a minor inconvenience.
He tried to breakthrough again.
Failed.
Again.
Failed.
Again.
Failed.
His soul at this point was cracked.
He was bordering on wiping himself out.
He needed to wait to regenerate his soul.
He had failed four times.
It would take about a day to recover his soul.
Then he would try again.
During this time.
He tried to think about what he was missing.
"Maybe I need to scan the body of a nascent soul cultivator."
About 18 hours later.
He was surrounded by a group of cultivators.
He could feel their cultivation.
"15 nascent soul cultivators? You guys came at the right time!"
One of them took out an artifact that was a spatial disruptor.
This was to block him from using teleportation techniques.
They had come prepared.
Little did they know, that such a thing was pointless.
The first reason being Zero was too cocky to run away from a fight.
The second being his technology wasn't a technique at all.
A spatial disruptor couldn't stop him from leaving.
The third being he needed inspiration about what it meant to be a nascent soul.
"I've activated the artifact, he's trapped!"
"Surrender and allow us to soul search you. You'll receive some brain damage, but we'll let you leave alive as long as you allow us to put a soul contract on you."
Zero's eyes shined.
His eyes began to glow.
The aura of rank 4 burst out of him.
"He's spirit severing! No... this is some other type of energy."
While they were talking Zero had vanished.
He reappeared in front of one of them.
He punched their head with his Infinite Time Guard causing it to explode.
A soul jumped outside of the body and fled.
Zero pinched his fingers and caught the soul.
"An interesting mechanism. You're almost immortal as long as your soul gets away. Do you guys happen to grow other bodies for yourself... or do you steal it from a mortal and recultivate?"
"Attack!"
All manners of attacks were shot at him.
Fire.
Earth.
Wind.
His Infinite Time Guard would still be active for the next day.
Until then... he was completely invulnerable.
They didn't notice this.
The attacks stopped as they became exhausted.
Zero sat there, invincible.
"You guys are boring... couldn't even damage my clothes!"
"Impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible! You fools provoked someone you shouldn't have provoked."
Zero briefly paused time.
He then set up his own attacks and time resumed.
All of their heads exploded at once.
Their souls fled...
He didn't bother to capture the others.
He held one of their souls in his hand.
He used his soul artifact to inspect the structure.
"I see..."
This time he copied the structure of the soul.
He let the soul fly away.
Instead of breaking off a piece of his soul.
He shaped his entire soul into a miniature version of himself.
Then formed his nascent soul.
Although it appeared different once more then an average cultivators nascent soul.
It looked like a blackhole shaped into a person.
With a red membrane around it.
He easily withstood the tribulation and successfully became a nascent soul cultivator.
He had it meditate on the pillar in the middle of his core.
He now had a spiritual sense.
Similar to his independent consciousness.
His nascent soul was red.
He refined it again.
It became orange.
Again.
It became golden.
It was now time for him to breakthrough to spirit severing!
He would need to figure out what he would sever from his soul.