Quest Maker of Soul Land

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***

"Is he still not in?"

The western entrance of the Giant's Fortress was in a mess. Even Ja Sun's most capable subordinates were now having a bit of a hard time dealing with more complicated matters due to their inability to shoulder the responsibility of the decisions involving the matter but he refused to meet anyone. It has been two weeks now and Ja Sun had refused to meet a few elders of various clans who traveled to the Giant's Fortress to have a spirit ring for their young one.

The quota each month is limited due to the damage already done to the forest and Ja Sun also had the task to let his presence calm the giants within from time to time else they are destroyed by their own internal rivalry.

However, it felt like Ja Sun was possessed. His replies were always snappy, and concise—

No.

He had rejected everyone including Oscar and Xie Xan who were planning to just kick back for the night.

"Motherfucker!" Ja Sun hissed, tearing the parchment in his hand before glaring in the direction of a pristine blue scroll that looked ageless in making. He went through the contents of the scroll again.

This was none other than the Divine Grace Array which also complied with the Spirit Bestowal Array. This array was the perfect resource to develop an organization to its peak. Even Ja Sun's personal skills related to the cultivation enhancement couldn't compare to what this array can achieve.

The Divine Grace Array required three major resources to be formed.

1) A mind-numbing input of soul origin.

2) A central control system powered by a divine consciousness of the level of a true god.

3) A good location.

The last one is simply to capital be not considered.

Essentially, the function of the Divine Grace Array is to increase the cultivation of spirit rings. But that was not all. The Divine Grace Array had a subsidiary function, too, but it depended on which direction of set-up Ja Sun will achieve. Both of these functions were already revolutionary and now Ja Sun even had plenty of inspiration on modifying the array and taking it to another level. However, it will take some time.

Regardless, this array cleared one doubt for him.

Soul Origin.

Ja Sun now understood what a Soul Origin is. Simply put, it is the pure form of energy within every living organism no matter how large or small and the spirit energy is the direct 'feedback' of this aspect of one's life. Better put, it is something you are born with and the current cultivation approach of the spirit masters take the opposite route because it's simpler.

Instead of cultivating soul origin to directly increase spirit energy, the path of cultivation dictates the temporary development of spirit energy stored in the sea of spirit or the sea of energy and with the final addition of a spirit ring, a soul origin is pushed through its previous limit. In essence, the bottleneck of the spirit ring doesn't indicate the bottleneck of one's body but soul origin.

This also explained why some spirit masters awaken the full innate spirit and some don't.

Natural talent is thus determined by soul origin.

These, however, were general concepts. Ja Sun had yet to understand soul origin deeply but he had three clues yet again.

His first encounter with soul origin was none other than with Yu Xiaogang. When Ja Sun had killed his martial soul, leading it to miraculously evolve, the martial soul had shed a yellow crystal that instantly increased the cultivation of Bright Goddess Butterfly by a few hundred years. That 'crystal' was none other than the part of the soul origin of Yu Xiaogang cultivated through Luo San Pao.

His second encounter with the writing on Soul Origin came from saving Bibi Dong and earning the Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique from his trait. The technique loosely described soul origin but coupled with the understanding from the Divine Grace Array, Ja Sun now understood what the technique meant and this was a new path to understand soul origin.

Needless to say, every individual's soul origin is going to be different and it cannot be extracted as easily as it did from Yu Xiaogang. The reason why Yu Xiaogang was even alive was due to the fact that his martial soul wasn't the true one and the part of the soul origin shed was cultivated through that part of the martial soul. In essence, Yu Xiaogang may have lost something, but the unlocking of his true enlightened martial soul filled that gap once again.

Others will not be so lucky. Soul Origin was the life of each spirit master and extraction of it was no different than killing them.

The Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique dictated cultivation through the devouring of soul origin. It took the 'orthodox' path of directly cultivating soul origin but it was incomplete. Not in the sense that he lacked text, but the technique itself wasn't ready to be considered the final product.

Coupled with knowledge from Divine Grace Array, Ja Sun now understood that simply devouring soul origin will have lasting side effects even if they aren't revealed early in the path, by the time they show up, it will be too late. But this technique had hinted at extracting the soul origin and this will allow Ja Sun to eventually study various forms of soul origins.

Ja Sun's final encounter with soul origin was within the Slaughter City.

Ja Sun had explored the city's construction extensively, allowing him to manipulate the natural arrays, too.

Why 'too'?

Because the Slaughter City wasn't supposed to be the way it is. Its natural arrays were similar to the drake-shaped array of the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well but someone had forcefully changed it. Not only that, this 'someone' was capable of manipulating the concept of space and time to some extent, the original concept of the blessed land, and turned it into a city of slaughter. The city of Slaughter worked on the strange slaughter and killing energy produced by the Slaughter Egg that it used to store. Not only that, with every death, the spirit master's cultivated slaughter energy would return to the slaughter egg and the soul origin of the individual would be devoured by the giant moon that hung above the city. That 'moon' was one giant source of soul origin.

So, aside from the knowledge of Divine Grace Array, the hints of utilizing and extracting soul origin from the Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique, Ja Sun had a perfect place to study these findings in the Slaughter City.

'It's regrettable that its foundation is severely damaged.'

He had destroyed the slaughter city, or at least, its humble, law-abiding citizens to pass through... so he hoped the city to be filled with life and joy by the time he returns.

But what had irked him for days now was something related to it.

It was a contradiction... or just some strange technicality which he couldn't understand no matter how many times he goes through the Divine Grace Array and the Rakshasa Soul Devouring Technique.

'Just what does it mean by the Bringers of Pain?'

Ja Sun frowned. This was a new term entirely that did not exist in any of the tomes he had acquired through his trait. Even the creator of this array, likely Poseidon, came to find this term in some strange encounter.

Ja Sun didn't know how to feel about this. He loved pain. He liked finding new ways to induce and endure pain. But he also understood that Poseidon did not mean this at all. Instead, he hinted at someone or something which wasn't written in even the tomes of past douluos who can see the future.

And the worst part of it all was the Poseidon was giving him the silent treatment!

The galls!

All Ja Sun did was disrupt his supposed arrangements and capture him but that was no reason to be all pouty!

Scratching his cheek, Ja Sun slumped on his couch. His room was simply unraveled at this point as he sighed deeply and simply resolved to solve the mystery of the so-called Bringer of Pain in the future.

Truly, the more he knew, the more he felt confused and realized how little he knew. It sounded strange in his head, but this is where the situation had gotten him to.

"But... if we're following the opposite path of cultivation, and if I can create a simpler path that crudely translates to directly siphoning energy from the spirit beasts instead of absorbing spirit rings and the whole charade... what would be the benefits? Does it increase the speed of cultivation? Does it create more problems instead? Or does it add more skills? Where would the spirit bone fit into the equation then?"

Ja Sun tried to consider all the situation but he knew for a fact that each spirit master, at least, a capable one, will encounter fortuitous events that change the course of their cultivation. So even if he tries, he won't be able to consider every change and this limits his thoughts on even creating a new cultivation path.

However, one thing was true that this was a different path altogether with its own set of challenges and thus, it was interesting. Whether beneficial or not, only time will tell, but Ja Sun had now the mind to broach this subject sooner than later.

However, there was another project he was already past halfway and now seemed like a perfect time to complete it.

With a thought, Ja Sun produced the threads he had refined from Ground Devil's corpse way back in the day and he began to snicker.

His eyes were bloodshot and his hair was in a disarray. Being naked was an artistic choice. Overall, should any of his subordinates view him now, they will shriek in fright and leave their posts... or attack Ja Sun's crotch. There would be no middle ground.

---

The day of Tang Hao's engagement finally arrived but aside from Bibi Dong, Yuehua, and Ja Sun, nobody left. Even though all of them were invited, their situation was sensitive and someone had to stay in command and Ah Yin was resourceful enough to take up the surveillance of the forest while the rest of the members were temporarily divided into the remaining three gates except for the northern one since it was taken care of by Xie-Hu couple.

Meanwhile, as the leader of the area, Bibi Dong had to leave. And Ja Sun was happy to tag along and get a break from the work while it was Yuehua's brother's engagement so the trio was the only one to leave, keeping the defenses of the Giant Fortress strong still.

Ja Sun really wanted Ah Yin to come along, but she didn't seem interested in the event... at all. She barely knew the Tang Siblings and overall, she would much rather focus on her control of spirit skills. This had turned into a shame for Bibi Dong and Ah Yin. Meanwhile, keeping up with training, even Jun'er was showing signs of progress in this area, leaving the two women with pride utterly devastated.

The Giant's Fortress was situated within the territory of the Clear Sky Sect. Over the year of its establishment, there have been many changes in the distribution of population within the sect.

The Clear Sky Sect has expanded its territory notably and had begun to shift its subordinate clan away from the Giant's Fortress. To short-sighted individuals, this would seem like an act of fear done out of intimidation of Spirit Hall's strength. However, one look at the placement over the map will allow astute ones to realize that this was an act of warning.

Clear Sky Sect had distanced itself from the Giant's Fortress and also created a perimeter around it. Should Spirit Hall and Clear Sky Sect enter a period of confrontation, the Giant's Fortress will be first to be suppressed or even sacrificed. At that time, it will all depend on whether the leading party of the Giant's Fortress will have enough strength or not. Even Tang Yuehua's presence will fail to turn the situation without enough strength.

The trip wasn't long and Bibi Dong's subordinates wanted their leader to present their faction with an absolute impression so the carriage prepared for the trio was a sight to behold, too.