“Okay, young master, we should go over the empty soul method I have you a while ago now.”

“Ah, is it finally time for me to start actually cultivating my soul properly?”

“Well, yes and no. In a sense yes, as in you will finally be actively able to work on your soul sea. On the other hand I think you have the talent to take an… let’s call it an unorthodox path. You see young master, every living thing in this world has a soul and ever living thing has the potential to open their soul sea. Every one of these soul seas has a limit that it can reach. This limit has two factors, purity and size. Normal people also have to take density into account, but your True Void Arts attraction aspect is just… broken.

Ahem, anyway, the empty soul method I gave you was made to do all three anyway so it wouldn’t be much of a problem. To increase the size of your soul sea the empty soul method has you use the energy in your soul sea and kind of infuse it into the edge of your soul sea. The edge of your soul sea is a kind of wall or barrier of sorts. Just know, once you start to use this energy to expand your soul sea you wont be able to stop. The empty soul method is overbearing, it won’t stop until your soul sea is completely empty of any and all energy.

As for increasing the purity, that is handled by clearing your mind of all thoughts. The empty soul method embodies emptiness to a degree that only young masters energy of nothing can surpass. When you run this method you will have lingering distracting thoughts, you wont be able to fully empty your mind or soul. But these extra thoughts can be seen as impurities, as you focus and try to completely empty your mind of everything the impurities in your soul sea will slowly go away. This is important because a soul master has to be able to focus to a degree that most would dub as obsessive over specific tasks.

Now then, because you’re True Void Arts are overbearing as hell, we need to kind of simulate the empty soul method as best we can with these energies. Luckily the energies have abilities that are pretty in line with what is needed of the empty soul method. We can cycle your True Void Arts and use the different energies as we go to simulate the different aspects. Firstly the energy of nothing can be seen as emptying your soul entirely, then with the energy of creation you can expand your soul sea. The energy of attraction can draw in energy from the outside to replenish the lost soul energy used to expand your soul sea. Then destruction can remove impurities and cleanse the energy that you have drawn in returning it to nothing.

You will want to run this method until you feel yourself reaching the inherit limit of your own soul. Once you reach this limit you will naturally understand the next steps you will need to take. Any questions?”

“I have two, yes. One, if my soul sea is expanding, what is it expanding into? Secondly, shouldn’t I be working on purifying my energy before I start to use it in order to expand my soul sea?”

“Oh those are easy, to answer the first one, it’s not that your soul sea is expanding outwards into anything. It’s just that soul seas naturally have spatial laws inside of them and what you are doing is strengthening those laws that are held in the walls of your soul sea with soul energy. As for the second one, absolutely you should try to purify the energy as much as possible before using it to try and expand your soul sea. On this note, there is a distinct way to tell what level of purity your soul has achieved. The first level is the one you are at where your soul energy is ethereal, you can see it if you shift your focus but also see through it.

At this level you can use it to make basic formations and the like. At the next level it takes on a misty form, like a fog or a haze. At this level it shrouds your central soul and can be seen as a kind of defense against soul attacks. At the next level, the soul energy condenses and enters a liquid like form. When at this stage your soul is defended by this ocean of soul energy and only by overwhelming or penetrating your soul sea can someone else use soul attacks. At the next level your soul will solidify and at this stage it can be used to form permanent solid objects out of runes.

Finally, there is a level that I had only begun to peek in back when I was still a huma-. Cough Cough! Forget you heard that last part young master! The heavens will not take that secret lightly! Anyway there is another level beyond the solid state that I started to break into. At this stage the solid energy in your soul sea starts to change and form it’s own internal world, universe, whatever you want to call it. I theorize that eventually this soul universe can even produce life! I have no Idea what comes after that point but I’m sure there is more to it than just that, that more lies beyond that level.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

There that should be everything but just in case, any other out of the box question, young master?”

“Nah, I think that’s everything King, but now that were done with that I don’t want to just dive right into it. I want to adjust my state of mind a bit first, I think I’ll wander around the sect a bit, listen to some gossip and learn whats happening around these parts. Not to mention I need to go test out my new limits after my recent breakthrough.”

Having said as much Naath got up from his stump and out of his front door, stretching the whole way in preparation for what he was about to do. Once he was done with that he stated to walk slowly around the edge of the plateau and pick up more speed ever minute or so. Eventually he was speed walking but this speed on Earth would be like an Olympic sprinter going at top speed. Soon he was at a steady jog and moving at speeds no human had any right to.

Now that his joints wouldn’t break apart from the friction and kinetic energy of the speed he was able to go much faster than normal. But after only a minute of jogging his muscled suddenly cramped and refused to move anymore. His vision started to get hazy as his lungs couldn’t pull in air fast enough to keep up with the demand of the muscles. His heartbeat was near the human limit as he fell face first into the dirt when his muscles all cramped like pulling the emergency brake in a car. He had made it a few kilometers at this point but he found his limit like he would a brick wall.

He had to forcibly lay down face first for almost an hour before finally catching his breath and feeling his muscles unclench. Once he could shakily stand up he smiled lightly and tried throwing some punches into the air. After testing his body out like this for only a few minutes he knew very thoroughly what his current limits were! Then, he stated to walk slowly in a direction where he knew some disciples had set up a small improvised town in the sect. It took him three hours of walking on shaky legs to get there and as soon as he did he walked into the first public building he saw which happened to be a bar.

He was blocked at the door though by one of the disciples telling him that unless he was 25 and older or at blood cleansing he wasn’t allowed to enter. Grumbling Naath walked over to a restaurant nearby and finally sat down. He ordered some dishes and then thought about being shood away from the bar. He was never a big drinker in his last life, mostly just after a hard weeks work. But then a though occurred to him. In this world he had heard of wine but not once had he heard mention of beer, or any other form of alcoholic drink. Why was that?

Thinking to this point Naath started to get annoyed because in his last life he loved vinegar as well, but with only wine being produced, it was hard to find any good vinegar in this world. He continued to think more and more about things he hadn’t heard of in this world as compared to earth and eventually decided to open his own bar! After he was done eating he walked out of the restaurant and noticed a crowd of people gathered and clamoring around a signboard. There was one notice in particular everyone was pointing at and discussing that read.

“New merit point system implemented. The sect will now use merit points to reward tasks that are done to help the sect. They can be earned from the sect through actions that advance the sect forward or through information given to help advance their knowledge to benefit their disciples. These points can be exchanged for resources and services from the sect and are to be used as the primary currency in the sect from this point forward. For more details check your sect identity tokens.”

As soon as Naath saw this he smiled an evil grin, reminiscent of the time he tortured some previous do-badders. As soon as he saw the notice he got the devilish idea to use merit points as the price for his drinks so he could rake in a fortune from the sect! After finalizing this idea he made his way back to the area of the True Void Faction and looked all through he forest to spot some wild yeast as he did so. Unfortunately he didn’t find any and returned empty handed. Once he was back though, he gathered the members of the True Void Faction and had them make some water-tight barrels for him. Then he had them all set up a certain series of pipes and chambers to collect and process water from a waterfall nearby.

As he was still kind of exhausted he told them that tomorrow he would show them some blueprints for a bar. For now he had them gather wood and other materials to put the place together. Without yeast he could still at the very least make moonshine, thankfully television had shown that process very in depth in Naath’s last life in moonshiners. It was after all strong, easy to flavor, and cheap to make alcohol. Tomorrow when he got up he would have to start working on everything in earnest in order to get his new bar up and running.

Now all he needed was a logo and a name for the bar. After thinking for a moment Naath decided to use a blank pattern for a logo like for the True Void Faction. As for the name, it would be called the empty spirits bar!