Chapter 61 - Old Gods Part 2

"To meet two Old Gods in my life time....how blessed I am," the elder cried as they stood up. "You honor us with your presence, Undying One."

"I was quite surprised you knew how my friend had met his end, and how the traitor was thwarted," the Dragon Fox said. "You are correct about two of those three statues. They are long dead, before the other four came to being. I...killed them. Their existence could not tolerate weaker life forms. They wanted to eat you, breed you, and make you humans their play thing. How did you come by Torlagafa's shell fragment?"

"Undying One, it was given to us by the Bone Demon, the last of the Overseers who watch the mortals of our world. One of them tried to ascend to the Immortal Realms and had the crystal in his possession. How he came to own it, we don't know," the elder bowed. "I am the chief of the Amila Tribe, the tribe that worships Boragan the Almighty, the Old God of Order."

Shu stared at the statue the chief pointed at. It was almost as large as the giant gorilla statue, but was different than the azure dragon statue. Where Uzarog the Azure was a dragon with a lizard's body and wings, Borgan the Almighty had a serpentine body and no wings at all. The Great Spirit laughed with delight as it stared down at them. Clearly, the Dragon Fox was pleased.

"Ah, the existence of Boragan remains as secretive as ever. Always maintaining order from the shadows. He was killed by the other two and the reason I personally slaughtered them. I did not know mortals remembered his name. I suspect that you all live in the section of the Vault of Kings his statue leads to. You said the entrance does not exist. This means ordinary mortals cannot enter it. Could it be you have his blood in you?," Laozi observed as the tribe nodded in unison. "HAHAHA! Interesting. A shame our conversation must end soon. I cannot maintain this state for long. Shu will enter the section belonging to Torlagafa. He has already fused with my body. There is no need to go to my section."

"As the Undying One commands," the chief bowed.

"Inform Black Lotus Academy that Shu can be considered to have graduated as he will stay in the Vault of Kings until he reaches the ninth stage. Inform his family as well as the Bone Demon. You see the jacket he wears. This child appears to be acquainted with the Bone Demon. From now on, the statue of Torlagafa is sealed as soon as the last of whoever is inside leaves," Laozi ordered. "Bring meals for the boy, whether he will eat or not. His dragon and tiger will finish what is uneaten. Of course, Shu will only take three items from the vault," the Dragon Fox said, disappearing into Shu's soul planet once more.

"You heard the Undying One! Send out the messengers at once," the chief roared, scattering the Amila tribesmen present. "Lord Shu, it is our honor to have you at the Vault of Kings. Rest assured we will provide anything you need until you depart."

Shu thanked the chief and became to contemplate what to do next. Shu wanted to sort out the spirit energy he had drained and began meditating as he retreated into his Mystic Crystal. He had killed the students of Steel Horn Temple, one of which was a member of the ancient clans, and directly absorbed his spirit reactor into his Mystic Crystal.

Furthermore, there were two spirit reactors among his birthday presents, gifts he had neglected to open at all. Why? It is because nobles usually gave large quantities of gold or luxurious, expensive clothing and decorations. He suspected his father must have geiven them to him as a present, knowing Shu was a true Archon. All spirit reactors had an abnormally large magical beast core. The book he received from Rian classified them as such as they were not demonic cores normally found in magical beasts. They were something from a higher existence.

His first spirit reactor is a magical beast core with five sets of vermillion wings due to the bead necklace he always wore under his shirt beneath his academy jacket. The second spirit reactor was one he absorbed from a servant spy of the Drakon clan he killed during his birthday. It was a large, human skull with the magical beast core placed like a third eye. The third spirit reactor was one from another member of the ancient clans among the Steel Horn Temple students. It looked like a giant purple bear, save for the magical beast core acting as its left eye.

One of the two spirit reactors, he received as a gift, looked like a black mace with irregular edges as the head of the mace consisted of four pieces of metal with jagged edges that shaped upwards like a triangle connected to a long spike. Within the four pieces of the mace head, the magical beast core was there, as if it were a fly that flew into a spider's web. The last spirit reactor looked like a golem of rock with the magical beast core as the skull and face as the rock covered all but the front part of the core.

"You now have three more of those things," Laozi observed as it noticed the five spirit reactors shining like the moon, bestowing spirit energy into his soul planet like a moon bestows light reflected from the sun. "All you need now is a third energy within your body. With the assistance of the third spirit reactor, your body can tolerate a third energy. However, the other two cannot. No, they must not. The more powerful a soul is, the more powerful the vessel must be or you risk losing control of the spirit energy. The fifth level of soul condensation requires a soul planet. Now you must head into the sixth stage, the forming of another soul planet. I will also break you straight into the seventh stage of soul condensation. Any further would kill you if you have not become an Archon Phoenix. The seventh stage requires the formation of four planets and a meteor belt. When you become an Archon Phoenix, you can condense your soul, safely to the eighth level and create a small sun."

"That's..." Shu began, speechless. "How......? Where will I find a suitable third energy that won't kill me?"

"It awaits inside the section of the vault of Tralagafa. Would you like to harness the energy of an Old God?" Laozi smiled deviously. "Once you obtain his power and condense your soul to the seventh level, I will personally train you. It might take approximately six mortal years. There is little less than ten years until the Pantheon of Devils. Even if you can't become an Archon Phoenix, I am confident you will reach the tenth level of the Spirit Shaman tier in time."

Shu nodded and silently cultivated, planning to enter the vault once all the guests have left, when their time ran out. Once the twelve hours were up, Shu immediately entered the vault, followed by Zhenji and his magical beasts. Shu held out his talisman, and liquid pearl elixirs of spirit energy kept rolling out of the stone talisman. His magica beasts stayed at the entrance as Shu quickly headed to a large statue of Tralagafa the Magnificent. He was shocked to find the statue was made from the shell of the Old God and his Mystic Crystal shivered as it siphoned. The spirit reactor he used to convert the planet's life force into the third energy was the spirit reactor with the black, evil-looking mace. The other two spirit reactors converted the planet's life force into spirit energy, like the first spirit reactor, and helped in maintaining control of the spirit energy as it rapidly expanded to form a second soul planet.

Now Shu finally had a Soul Realm, evident by establishing more than one planet of his three energies. His demonic red spirit energy, divine vermillion spirit energy, and Old God purple energy existed in his body and Mystic Crystal in harmony. As two more planets and a meteor belt, under the guidance of Laozi the Undying, all the objects in his Soul Realm began following a gravitational pull around an invisible center of his Soul Realm. Shu knew this was where his small sun would have to be created. Shu shouted with excitement as he broke through to the seventh stage of Spirit Shaman tier. He had grown two inches, and his hair and body seemed more refined and majestic, as if he were a son of the Heavens. The scorpion tattoo also grew larger as he did and Shu felt he was now able to absorb the life force of any place he was a due to the celestial tattoo. His white shirt had burst, but the jacket given to him by the Bone Demon remained.

Shu sat down in lotus position and retreated into his Mystic Crystal once more. Laozi the Undying and the Snow Emperor Pearl seemed to change locations to the empty center of his small galaxy. Four clones of his Armored Ocean Tiger God spirit now resided in the cores of each of his four spirit ocean planets.

"Now is the time for your closed-door training, a training method mandatory for any Practitioner to truly become strong. Your mind will be isolated from the outside world as you train here. Your magical beasts will feed on the liquid pearl elixirs from your talisman, growing stronger as you do. Do not worry about them. Now, your training begins," Laozi the Undying declared.