Attacks that use Soul Energy are some of the most dangerous in existence. A cultivator with a powerful Soul can use their Soul Energy to turn even a simple swing of a sword into an attack that is almost impossible for someone with a weak Soul to defend against. There are many forms of Soul Energy attacks ranging from simply enhancing an attack to creating a powerful aura that can completely suppress a cultivators Mana or even cause their cultivation base to become unstable.

-Excerpt from Telram’s notes on Soul Energy

The burly cultivator’s face paled as he looked at Gerry’s face, though the old man’s lips were smiling his eyes were as cold as ice and the hand that he had placed on the cultivator’s shoulder seemed to weigh more with every passing second.

All thoughts of forcing Telram to leave fled the man’s mind and soon only one thought remained; This man is dangerous!

The large man started dry washing his hands nervously as he turned to fully face Gerry.

“Of course, sir!” he said in a somewhat forced cheerful tone. “Anything the young master wishes!”

Right now, the cultivator was willing to give up on the tiger cub entirely if it meant he and his friends could leave unharmed but to his surprise the smile on Gerry’s face turned genuine.

“Good!” Gerry said finally lifting his hand from the other man’s shoulder causing him to stumble slightly.

“Now I believe that the usual price for such a specimen is something like ten spiritwood coins, yes?” Gerry asked the man whose eyes widened slightly. Spiritwood coins were one of the highest denominations commonly used, even three of these coins could buy a house in a large city. There was no way that a half-starved Blood Tiger cub was worth more than three houses.

The large cultivator gulped as he tried to determine whether Gerry’s offer was genuine.

“Good sir!” the man cried. “I could not possibly accept such a fortune!”

Gerry grinned, “Nonsense! I am in a very good mood right now; my student has found a Mana Beast that he wishes to form a Soul Contract with!”

The large cultivator gaped at Gerry, he wasn’t a very powerful cultivator himself, he and his friends had only managed to capture the Blood Tiger cub when the mother had been attacked by an even more powerful Mana Beast and even then, one of their number hadn’t managed to make it back with them. He knew just how difficult it was for someone to form a Soul Contract with a Blood Tiger, even one as young as this one, but Gerry was saying that the admittedly tall boy standing in front of the cub’s cage was able to do so?

The cultivator’s lips flapped like a fish out of water as he tried to make sense of what was going on, his eyes moving around as though he was in a daze, barely even noticing either his friends looking at him worriedly or Gerry continuing to talk.

“So, what do you say? Is ten Spiritwood Coins enough?” Gerry asked amused at the man’s plight.

The large cultivator stared at Gerry uncomprehendingly and nodded slowly.

“Whatever you say sir,” he said, after all who was he to doubt such a powerful cultivator’s words?

Gerry handed over the coins and clapped the man on his shoulder enthusiastically sending the man to his knees before walking over to where Telram was still staring at the tiger cub.

Telram was amazed at how simple the technique used by Blood Tiger’s to infuse their roars with Soul Energy was, he thought that if he worked on this for as little as a couple of weeks he would be able to replicate it.

Blinking as he stopped using his spiritual eyes he looked around to discover that the cultivators that owned the tiger cub were gathered around their leader arguing as the big man trembled and Gerry was standing beside him with a massive grin on his face.

“What have you done Gerry?” sighed Telram as he looked at the mischievous old man with a tired expression on his face. Not long after he became Gerry’s student, he had noticed that despite the wise and sophisticated air the old man usually showed people he actually had a tendency to act more like a child than Telram when no one else was around. Sometimes he thought that his father and Gerry were related when they acted the way they did, either that or it was a normal thing for cultivators to be a bit odd.

“Oh, I just bought this Mana Beast for you that’s all,” Gerry replied easily causing Telram’s face to twitch as he looked once more at the crowd of cultivators who looked like they were about to come to blows even as their former leader started rocking back and forth as he stared directly at Telram and Gerry with a terrified look on his face.

“Right,” Telram replied drily guessing correctly that Gerry had done something to intimidate the poor man.

“Wait, that’s it?” Gerry said in surprise he had just told Telram that he had bought him a Mana Beast, and this was the boy’s reaction?

“What?” Telram asked.

“I just told you I bought the cub for you, didn’t I?” Gerry asked. “I didn’t imagine it did I?”

Telram smirked in amusement as Gerry started muttering to himself, he had indeed heard what Gerry had said the first time, but he hadn’t been all that interested in the cub itself, only its Soul Energy based Skills.

Gerry was now glaring at the smirking boy, he had just spent a small fortune on this Mana Beast and now his prized student was smirking at him!

“You do realise that if you form a Soul Contract with that beast you will gain more benefits than just the beast as a companion, right?” he growled angrily.

This caused Telram’s smirk to fade, “Wait, what?”

It was now Gerry’s turn to sigh as he replied.

“When a cultivator makes a Soul Contract with a Mana Beast it binds both of their Souls together allowing them to share their Soul Energy as well as their affinities for different types of techniques and Elemental Mana to a certain degree,” he explained causing Telram’s eyes to widen slightly, the ability to share his Soul Energy with the tiger cub probably wouldn’t do much to increase his strength but it would make the cub far more powerful than it was currently giving him a powerful ally. The Elemental Affinities were perhaps even more interesting, he didn’t know what affinities he possessed right now but if he could gain the tiger’s affinities as well when it became an Elemental Mana Beast it would almost certainly give him a massive advantage over a cultivator who hadn’t made a Soul Contract of their own. Suddenly he realised why his father was able to support all three of them just with his hunting, even though Willa wasn’t yet an Elemental Mana Beast she still had high affinities for techniques involving stealth and speed which had allowed his father to not only create Graceful Mist Step but had also allowed him to change his other techniques to better suit his own needs.

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Telram now understood Gerry’s reasons for buying the Blood Tiger cub, if Telram could successfully for a Soul Contract with it, his own affinities for skills that used Soul Energy would reach new heights allowing him to both learn them much faster than he already could but also increasing the power of these techniques giving him massive advantages even over cultivators of a level similar to Telram’s own who could afford more powerful Martial Skills.

“I’m sorry Gerry, I didn’t realise that having a Soul Contract with this cub would be so useful,” Telram quickly apologised.

Gerry smiled smugly down at his embarrassed student, “That’s what you get for slacking off on your studying,” he teased causing Telram’s right eye to start twitching, it wasn’t that he had been slacking off on studying that he didn’t know much about Soul Contracts it was because Gerry didn’t have a lot of information about them. Although he supposed he could have asked his father if he had been interested but Mana Beasts that were worth making a Soul Contract with were either very expensive, very dangerous or both so Telram had decided that learning about Soul Contracts could wait until he had the power to capture a Mana Beast on his own.

Gerry ignored his students irritated expression and turned towards the group of cultivators, “Can someone open this cage please!?” he shouted as a small fist fight broke out over the spiritwood coins he had given their leader causing the crowd to back away in fright.

The people in the crowd all had the same expression of horror as they backed away, was Gerry really going to release a wild Mana Beast in the middle of the crowded marketplace?

The cultivators ignored Gerry and continued fighting over the money only to find themselves being thrown to the ground by a massive blast of displaced air as Gerry suddenly appeared among them faster than any of them were able to react.

“I said, can I have the key?” growled Gerry as he stared at each of the greedy men in turn causing them to pale and wish that they had believed their leader when he had told them that Gerry was powerful enough to defeat all of them.

Quickly one of their number took a key from his belt and handed it over wondering why a man as powerful as Gerry even needed it, surely, he could just destroy the cage?

Thanking the men who were now quivering like their boss Gerry turned and walked back over towards Telram who shook his head sadly as he wondered why Gerry had felt the need to make things worse by scaring the men.

With a sigh he took the proffered key from Gerry and walked up to the cage causing the tiger cub within it to launch itself once more at the bars in rage.

Seeing this Telram came to a halt just in front of the door to the cage, “Hey,” he said quietly as he sent out a small tendril of his Soul Energy towards the tiger cub which leapt backwards in shock at his actions.

The tendril of energy slowly wove its way towards the cub which pressed itself against the bar at the back of the cage to avoid it, but the tendril continued to lengthen eventually attaching to the centre of the tiger’s forehead despite its best efforts.

“Would you like to form a Soul Contract with me?” Telram continued using the tendril of energy connecting the two of them to send out a wave of calm into the tiger.

The tiger cub blinked and slowly crept forward, it didn’t understand the words that Telram was using but the tendril connecting them allow the cub to understand his meaning. Though it could sense the power of Telram’s Soul it was nonetheless reluctant to give up its freedom, even f it didn’t feel very free right now.

Telram started sending information about himself and his family, Willa and Aran in particular, showing the tiger cub how it could expect to be treated if it agreed with the arrangement.

The tiger cub’s brow furrowed as it sent back an image of its own, that of its mother, a truly massive creature, that gave off both a sense of power and gentleness, followed by the freedom it was used to in the forest, playing with its mother and sleeping under the stars.

Telram sighed sadly it didn’t look like the cub was going to accept the offer. Deciding to make one last effort he sent back the same images the cub had sent him, only this time Telram was there as well, running through the forest with both the cub as they played and hunted together followed by images of what he imagined they would look like when they were older, standing together against anything that Nerrus threw their way.

They were hopeful images that even Telram didn’t believe would work but he didn’t know any other way to convince the cub which stood there staring at him silently, all signs of the aggression that it had shown previously were gone.

With a hopeful look in its bright green eyes it sent a questioning sensation through the tendril connecting the two followed by the image of its mother. Telram shook his head sadly, he didn’t know what had become of the cub’s mother, but he felt that if she was still alive she would have come for her cub by now.

Feeling the sadness echoing back through their bond the cub started keening in pain, it remembered the ease by which its mother had been knocked away by the vicious Mana Beast that had attacked them out of the blue. Anger flared in its eyes as it sent an image towards Telram of a shadowy serpentine form attacking its mother.

Telram’s eyes widened as he felt the pure rage that dwelt within that image, a rage that mirrored how he felt towards Irian and those like him. Then he smiled grimly as he understood what the cub was asking him.

“Of course,” he said quietly placing his hand on the bars between them. “Of course, I’ll help brother.”

Sensing his agreement, the cub started to wrap threads of his own Soul Energy around the tendril that linked the two causing the boy to grin as their Soul Energy braided itself into a rope that would bind the two together until one or both died.

Some of the onlookers who were cultivators themselves gaped as they saw the two creating their Soul Contract, Blood Tigers were notorious for refusing to accept a Soul Contract themselves. It was usually possible to force something like a Soul Contract on a Mana Beast using a technique known as Soul Binding, unlike a Soul Contract which was a partnership of equals the Soul Binding technique forced the Mana Beast to submit to the cultivator which required the cultivator to have a more powerful Soul than the Beast they were binding.

However, what they were witnessing was, without a doubt a true Soul Contract and one more powerful than they had ever seen before as both parties were naturally skilled at using Soul Energy which meant that the sharing effects of the contract would be even more powerful than usual. None of the watching cultivators could believe their eyes as they watched this young Blood Tiger and boy fuse their Souls together willingly.

Even Gerry stood amazed by what he saw happening before him, usually the link created when two parties formed a Soul Contract was a simple looking thing, but these two were weaving their Soul Energy together in a way that he had never seen done before. His amazement soon turned to worry as he started to consider the possible consequences of such a thing.

His face paled further as he saw the two collapse having finished forming their Soul Contract, while there was usually some form of backlash from combining two individuals Soul Energy, but it was very unusual for it to result in both parties losing consciousness and when he got closer he was unable to prevent himself cursing loudly.

Telram’s once pitch-black hair now had streaks of crimson running through it, leading Gerry to guess that it wasn’t just their affinities these two had shared but something else, which was something that Gerry hadn’t even heard of happening before.

More importantly he was worried about what Lily would say when he brought them both back home. If it was just the Blood Tiger cub, then it wouldn’t have been so bad, but he wasn’t sure what else might have happened to either of them causing cold sweat to break out on Gerry’s forehead.

“Yeah, Lily’s going to kill me,” Gerry groaned causing Willa to look at him with an amused look in her eyes.

“Oh, don’t you start,” Gerry grumbled at the wolf. “You’re just as bad as Aran, aren’t you?”

Gerry looked at the two unconscious bodies in front of him and scratched his head, before unlocking the cage containing the tiger and throwing Telram over one of his shoulders and picking up the tiger cub in his other arm. He grunted in surprise at the weight of the two, as an Ascendant Realm cultivator he should have been able to carry both of them easily but it seemed that another of the changes that occurred due to their more come version of a Soul Contract was that Telram, who was already heavy enough before the changes due to his impressive height was even heavier which Gerry guessed was due to the new layer of rock hard muscles that he could feel on the boy’s body.

The amused look on Willa’s face ended up staying there the entire way home as a grumbling Gerry staggered down the street.