Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 81: Entering the Soul Jade

A few days passed with them enjoying their class discussions. Though they focused on cultivating during the first month of class, it helped everyone to have Ania there to answer any questions they had.

With her experience, she was wiser than most of the other clans’ tribe elders since most of them hadn’t left to explore other territories or regions.

Oli, Netra, and Karos soon started spending their class time in their cultivation chambers. If there was a discussion that day, they would leave afterward, but usually, the discussions were short since Ania insisted on focusing purely on essence control.

One day, Oli decided to ignore his mother’s orders and chose to cultivate his spirit inside his cultivation chamber. This wasn’t the first time, but he was insistent to spend the entire day focusing on his soul training. He had a feeling that he was about to complete the first level of soul training!

And, most importantly, Oli wanted to know if he would finally be able to activate the soul jade.

With no discussion that day, Oli entered his cultivation room and immediately sealed himself inside. He activated sixteen of the forty-eight symbols on the timer and started his cultivation.

With the Infinite Torment technique living up to its name, Oli broke into a cold sweat in the first minute. This was going to be a long training session for Oli.

.....

Struggling to keep his composure, Oli felt like his will was being torn apart. Ten hours had already passed and Oli refused to let up. With no breaks, he was determined to complete the first level of the Infinite Torture technique. All of his years of basic soul training were being put to the test.

His strong physical body was in perfect shape, entirely unaffected by the Infinite Torture technique. However, Oli’s body still wanted to go limp from mental exhaustion being pushed beyond the young ape’s limits.

“I’m... so... close...”

Oli could sense that he was on the brink of success, but he was also on the brink of collapse. Soon, he wouldn’t even have the strength to stand up.

The next hour was grueling for Oli. It felt like his mind was slowly being flattened by a steamroller going at a snail’s pace, letting Oli feel every little bit of pain possible. His will would soon crumble and Oli would soon lose consciousness.

On the cusp of collapse, Oli suddenly felt a sense of relief pass through his mind like lightning. His body finally relaxed, even though he didn’t tell it to.

He relished in the relief for a few minutes. Then, Oli sent out his spiritual awareness. To his surprise, his spiritual strength had doubled in strength! With that kind of spiritual strength, Oli could fight people with his spirit!

Of course, Oli had to learn and practice a spiritual art first. Like he was now, he could only put up the most basic spiritual defense and use his spirit to sense the world around him.

“Finally...”

Oli let out a sigh of relief. He looked at the timer and saw that he still had five hours left.

Since he had no strength to move, Oli let himself rest for half an hour, trying to recover from his mental exhaustion.

Though he hadn’t fully recovered, he felt much better afterward.

“It’s time! Let’s see if I can finally activate the soul jade!” hyping himself up, Oli prepared his will to assault the soul jade with his newfound spiritual strength.

Forcing all the spiritual strength he had toward that relic inside of him, Oli waited to see what would happen.

At first, it was like every other time that Oli had tried to force his way inside of it. But after half an hour of exertion, he felt something change.

Suddenly, the resistance against his spirit was lifted and his spiritual will started to fill the soul jade. It took Oli another half hour to fill it entirely and he was running low on spiritual energy, but there was an evident change taking place inside his body.

At that moment, Oli’s mind was no longer inside of the cultivation chamber. The world around him was entirely different.

Oli was able to look down at his hands and body, but he had a feeling that it wasn’t really his body. He now found himself in an abyssal space without end, floating in the air. The space was devoid of any light or color, yet Oli could still see himself. It was quite abnormal.

While he was looking around himself, a sudden voice echoed inside his mind, startling Oli and making his heart skip a beat.

“Oli, it seems you’ve finally managed to enter the soul jade. Congratulations!”

Oli was petrified. He slowly turned around as the voice continued.

“Since you’ve managed to do this, that means you’ve already learned what a soul jade was and how to bond it with your core. I’m proud to call you my son, Oli.”

Fully turned around, Oli saw the image of his father, Dioro, standing in the air like Oli. Dioro looked normal as if he had never been injured by Brak in the first place.

Oli’s heart ached. He wanted so much to reach out and embrace his father, to thank him for sacrificing himself to protect Oli from certain death.

“Before you get too many ideas about my survival, Oli, you need to know that I have indeed died.”

Those words kept Oli from reaching out, bringing tears to his eyes.

“This is merely a memory which I was able to leave behind,” the image of Dioro continued talking, unaware of how Oli was reacting. “I’ve left behind this memory amongst many others within the soul jade. It was all in hopes that you would be able to grow and surpass me, my son.”

“Here, time works differently. While your spiritual will and mind are inside the soul jade, time will pass six times slower than normal. This was the secret behind my incredible cultivation speed within the perennial plane,” continued Dioro. “Though you can’t practice body refining techniques within this space, you can practice soul techniques and spiritual arts, as well as your usual cultivation.”

Taken aback by his father’s words, Oli was trying his best to listen and stay focused on his father’s last words.

“Oli, in here you’ll be able to access memories of all my techniques and arts, whether it involves essence or spirit. You’ll even be able to witness memories of me using those techniques, but I won’t be able to explain them or answer your many questions,” added Dioro. “I hope that this treasure is even more useful to you than it ever was to me.”

“I know you’ll make me proud, Son. You always will.”

As that sentence finished, Dioro’s image disappeared into the abyss.

Oli wanted to do something, but he remained where he was. He didn’t say or do anything for some time. He was busy thinking of his father’s last few words.

“I know you’ll make me proud, Son. You always will.”

Those words echoed in his mind and would never be forgotten. Amazed by his father yet again, Oli couldn’t help but admire his father even more.

“I’ll make you proud, Dad. And I’ll make sure Mom, Uncle Rathe, and everyone else will always be fine,” promised Oli as he stared into the abyss.

Remembering what Dioro had said, that all his techniques and arts were accessible here, Oli closed his eyes and checked his own memories. Like magic, Oli was able to find all the memories the Dioro had mentioned.

Immediately, Oli activated a memory, curious what would happen.

Just then, the empty world changed and became a mountain summit. Oli was still floating in the air above the mountain and he could see his father, Dioro, standing at the peak.

Dioro let out a monstrous shout as earth essence surround his body and his fist. Then, Dioro punched downward, aiming at the mountain itself.

It didn’t look like a lot of essence was being used, but the impact of the fist proved otherwise.

The mountain shook and crumbled under Dioro’s fist, becoming rubble as the essence carved further into the precipice. Once the essence had run its course and dwindled away, half of the mountain had fallen apart and withered away.

“Whoa...”

Oli had selected a battle art that his father created personally, Infinite Compression.

Using the concepts of spiritual strength he had learned from the Infinite Torture technique and applying them to his essence, Dioro had managed to compress his essence to a ridiculous degree. In theory, Dioro had created a version of the Infinite Torture technique which was applicable to the physical body.

The Infinite Compression art was a body refinement technique that allowed the user’s body to better contain essence, letting it wield and control more essence than normally possible while strengthening it indefinitely.

Also, like the Infinite Torture technique, it was unbelievably painful. Instead of torturing the user’s spiritual will, it tortured the user’s body.

Determined to learn everything his father had and surpass him, Oli started to comb through his father’s memories. If his father was right about having more time inside the soul jade, Oli would use it to the fullest.