Corrupt Creations

At night, the Purple Illusory Forest was even more eerie than Seth thought it would be. It reminded him of the dark environments of the Demonic Territory, where demonic beasts and wicked cultivators were always lurking in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike whoever was unlucky enough, to become their targets.

The only difference, was that inside that huge forest, there wasn\'t even a lone sentient soul. No one would dare to venture too deep into that ominous environment and Seth\'s initial plan of finding a disciple from the Illusive Ethereal Sanctuary, was completely useless.

He could see the thickness and the color of that illusory fog changing, as they ventured through those dark woods and inferred that they must be getting closer to a crucial place. However, he didn\'t want to get to the Illusive Ethereal Sanctuary borders, without knowing the general situation around it.

After flying for a few more kilometers together with Lan Xue and Arwen, Seth called for a stop.

"Sigh... This won\'t do. Let me try doing something else."

Before the women could ask him if there was anything wrong, he closed his eyes and entered a state of deep concentration.

At that moment, Seth recalled his widespread Soul Sense back and it completely vanished, as if it had never existed. A few seconds later, he summoned it again and started molding it into something else. Normally, Soul Senses would spread equally towards the surrounding area, taking the practitioners body as its center, while creating a sphere around him or her; however, Lexi knew, that in the God Realm, super rare geniuses could shape it as they wanted, relying on their strong will.

Naturally, it was a process that required immense concentration, will power and talent, since it was akin to shaping a part of their souls into something else. Really not an easy thing to do.

Throughout the whole journey, Lexi kept observing everything alongside Seth, since she had already thoroughly devoured the Spiritual Energy that he had acquired for her. With nothing else to do, she felt inclined to stay awake and witness what happened on the outside, through his eyes.

However, she never would have expected to see Seth easily changing his Soul Sense area, to a straight line that stretched for over hundred kilometers straight. He did it so effortlessly, that it was as if it was something natural for him.

"What?! How did you do it?" Inside his head, Seth could hear Lexi\'s surprised voice echoing.

"Hm? Is that something difficult?" He answered her with another question.

"Difficult?! Would you be able to relocate your left arm around your own body, increasing your right arms reaching distance?"

"No. What a strange example..."

"Hah! It\'s basically the same thing you\'re doing with your Soul Sense! Even if you could partially control your senses, you\'re not even close to the threshold where you would be able to do what you just did."

"Well... To me, it didn\'t seem to be something so difficult to do. I just imagined that my Soul Sense had turned into nothing and taking that as a starting point, I recreated it with a new shape."

"Turned into nothing? Again with that?! Why are you focusing on something like that? I\'m certain that cultivating the soul, does not require for an individual to follow that strange path of yours... I remembered that you even tried to nullify your own Soul Essence at that time. Actually, your actions are akin to going against the stream."

"Against the stream? What do you mean?" Seth asked while feeling confused. For him, it really didn\'t feel like he was going against the stream.

"By doing that, not only you\'re not following the correct strengthening process, but you\'re also wasting your Soul Essence. That\'s akin as trying to erase yourself! Aren\'t you afraid of dying with those foolish and selfish actions?"

"Erasing myself? No, I\'m not erasing anything. I can feel it Lexi. That\'s the right path! Even though I have yet to understand it properly, I\'m certain that I was not erasing anything, when I tried to make my Soul Essence vanish. How can I put it...? Ah... I tried to nullify it, but it was still there!"

Lexi was the spirit of an ancient artifact and naturally, the knowledge she acquired while consuming Spiritual Essence, came from it. As its spirit, she was just recalling what she once knew, and because of that, her beliefs were solid. She strongly believed that Seth, was doing everything wrong. Yet, the results of his fast growth and talents, were opposing what she perceived as the truth.

On the other hand, there was absolutely no way for her to know, that Seth felt the same. Inside of him, something was asking him to keep looking into the void, to try doing what Lexi was telling him not to do.

However, he had yet to understand anything about that strange desire to nullify his soul, so he decided against experimenting with it, till he got stronger. But still, he strangely went against his own decisions and slightly touched upon that concept, while he remodeled his soul, bringing forth an exceptional result.

Cutting through the entire forest, his Soul Sense finally captured what was it like in his destination.

While he observed the path in front of him, Lan Xue and Arwen were acting as guards, shielding his body from getting attacked, even though it would probably do nothing to him. They could feel the aura of many different Mana Perception and Profound Mana beasts approaching them from below, but it was something they were already expecting to happen.

As they hovered in the air, their figures were not exuding any fluctuations, so they appeared to be just three defenseless lambs, waiting to be eaten by the whole wolf pack.

But unfortunately for those hungry beasts, a single wave of Lan Xue\'s pristine white small hand, made the entire area enter into a perpetual ice age.