Chapter 12: Soul Fragments

I recall the instructions from my memory on the cultivation technique for soul splitting. After entering the Soul Realm, the procedure involves observing and estimating the condition of the Soul. The next step is to integrate consciousness with the refined energy in the body. Since the soul-splitting process is risky, safeguards must be placed to protect the fragility of the Soul in case it cannot handle the process.

First, accumulate the energy into the consciousness and form a protective barrier around the Soul to increase its stability. Although the splitting can be done through brute force, energy-guided splitting will provide maximum efficiency, though it will be a significant burden on the body. These two safeguards are essential to protect the fragile Soul during the process.

I immediately erect a barrier around my Soul and guide my energy to split a part of it from the original. The instant the energy attempts to split my Soul, an intense wave of pain rushes through my body. But I was prepared for it and somehow bore through it. Finally, the tear-shaped Soul split into two parts. The smaller part started rotating around itself and revolving around the larger part, resembling Earth and the Moon.

Azalon remained in the Soul Realm for a full day before his body finally reached its limits. Even though his Soul was strong, it couldn't withstand the burden of being continuously split. After a day, he had split the Soul into 15 parts, with 43 splits remaining. He could sense an increase in his energy absorption and refining speed. However, he didn't start cultivating immediately because the stability of the Soul is linked with cultivation level.

If he started cultivating with the current 15 soul fragments, he could easily break through the lower realms. But once he reached the higher realms, advancing in soul fragmentation would be challenging because the Soul would become extremely stable, making it difficult to split. So he decided to first reach the intended number of soul fragments. Even though with his current strength, he couldn't completely stabilize the large number of soul fragments, once he reached the higher realms, all the fragments could be stabilized easily.

This method is both safer and faster. I immediately fell asleep again, but this time due to mental fatigue rather than physical exhaustion. I woke up after eight hours with a light headache. I immediately entered the Soul Realm again and resumed splitting the Soul. This time it went a bit faster and smoother as I had a better understanding of the procedure. I managed to increase the number of soul fragments to 40 before I fell unconscious from the mental strain.

After three days, I finally divided the Soul into 57 fragments. A cluster of soul fragments moved around in the Soul Realm. As the 57th fragment appeared, the Soul began showing signs of instability. But I was confident I could divide the Soul one more time before reaching the limit. I strengthened the barrier around the Soul and even fed it energy before taking the final step.

After somewhat stabilizing the Soul, I guided the energy to divide it again. This time, the Soul quivered violently as it was split. Even the fragments started behaving erratically. I gritted my teeth, pushing aside the exhaustion, and guided all the remaining energy in my body to the Soul Realm. After absorbing the energy, the soul fragments somewhat stabilized, and I fell unconscious again.

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Because of this, I couldn't witness the changes occurring in the Soul Realm. The main Soul in the center of the soul fragments stopped moving. Nine different colors appeared on it, and eight of them started pulsing in different rhythms. In response to those pulses, the fragments divided into seven groups of eight soul fragments each, with the remaining larger fragment standing alone.

Eight lights flashed brightly from the main Soul. Seven lights divided among the seven groups of soul fragments, and the remaining light integrated into the lone soul fragment. The larger lone fragment moved towards the main Soul, which flashed with a silvery-gold light, and they started revolving around each other. The seven groups of soul fragments arranged themselves into seven circles, each revolving around the pair of larger soul and main Soul in seven different directions. The resulting arrangement resembled a large gyroscope with seven different axes.

If Azalon could see this arrangement, he would have understood the answer to where the energy was disappearing. But since the Soul had been stretched to its limit, he couldn't access the Soul Realm until he stabilized all the soul fragments. This process would take more time than expected, as the Soul had been stretched to its limit, and recovery was a slow process requiring a large amount of energy due to the extensive damage.

I realized this only after some time, and by then, I would have figured out most of the answers. But that's a story for another time.

I woke up with a heavy head, feeling as though it was filled with lead. I tried to check the condition of my Soul, but no matter how much I concentrated, I couldn't enter the Soul Realm. I couldn't think of a reason why this was happening, so I gave up on thinking about it, realizing it was something that couldn't be explained with modern scientific knowledge.

However, I knew I had succeeded in splitting my Soul into the maximum number of fragments achievable. This should drastically increase my cultivation capacity and refining speed. I immediately entered a state of cultivation and began absorbing energy into my body.

This time, something unexpected happened. All these days, whenever I absorbed energy into my body, it would divide into ten parts, with nine parts disappearing. I had figured out LILY's role, but no matter what I did, I couldn't do anything about the eight parts that disappeared. But this time, the energy didn't disappear. The entire amount of energy I absorbed stayed within my body.

Once again, I was dumbstruck. Just what the f*** is going on in my body? I calmed down with some effort. If the energy isn't disappearing, maybe a change has occurred in my body. If I can find it, I might understand why the energy had been disappearing all this time. I explored every part of my body, inside and out, but nothing had changed aside from a small red flower tattoo at the base of my spinal cord. I ruled that out as the reason since the disappearance started way back when my father first injected me with his energy when I was five months old.

I checked and rechecked, but nothing seemed different. I could only sigh hopelessly, though I felt somewhat happy that I now had more than enough energy to break through to the First Realm of Spirit Cultivation.

I quickly began refining the energy. I was astonished by the speed and capacity of the technique. It used to take around an hour to refine the energy that remained in my body, but with the Soul Resonance technique, it took just 15 minutes, and that wasn't just a part of the energy, but my entire capacity. A high-level technique indeed...

I rotated the refined energy along my spirit veins for a full cycle throughout my body before finally guiding it to my Dantian for storage instead of recharging LILY. I decided to reach the first level of Spirit Cultivation within these 10 days, after which I would divide the energy between LILY and my cultivation to slowly advance through the realms.

The energy started moving towards my Dantian and began forming a small whirlpool. As more and more energy accumulated, the whirlpool reached its capacity. I felt I was on the verge of a breakthrough...