Unsealing Emptiness

The look on the Imperial Prince’s face seemed as if he could tell something was off with him.

The smirk of his seemed like a challenge. As if he was proclaiming that he was in control since he knew everything.

Moving through the swarm of people chanting his praises, Ozul shook off these thoughts.

He had felt his emotions which were composed of merely a passing curiosity perhaps.

‘That is an effective technique to catch anyone off-guard,’ he thought about that smirk of his. If he didn’t have the ability to feel people’s emotions, he would have started doubting everything. It did not help that he had many secrets to hide.

Whatever the case was, it could not be refuted that the Imperial Prince could feel something off about him. Was it maybe his attire?

Ozul looked down, he had his never-changing black pants and a plain white shirt on top. The only thing that stood out would be the black conical hat on top.

Now that he looked at it, the hat made from The Purity looked a little too black. No light was reflected from it, which further deepened its color. ‘Maybe the Prince noticed this peculiarity?’ he wondered before spreading his senses in all directions.

.....

Now that he roughly had an idea of what was going on in the Capital, he was returning to the trio.

In the middle of the thousands of people bustling around, it wasn’t difficult to spot them. He was able to instantly identify Raven and Blaze’s aura from a mile away and knew roughly where he had left them.

As directed, Raven had located a tavern and reserved a room for them.

While the incessant chatter and commotion in taverns irritated Ozul, they were also a useful source of knowledge. By simply sitting there and listening to people’s discussions, you could learn a lot about what was going on in the area.

Reaching the room on the second floor, Ozul went straight for Raven, “Hand me the Spiritual Cores.”

Raven didn’t waste his time by asking any questions and took out the Spiritual Cores from her Spatial Ring. “Stay here, I will be back,” he instructed them before leaving the room and flying out of the Capital at full speed.

Although The Purity could contain the outburst of Spiritual Essence, once the container is lifted, the lingering Spiritual Essence in the air is still dense enough to catch people’s interest.

Hence, he couldn’t absorb these five in the Capital.

From what those people were saying, the Imperial Prince had started recruiting people into his army. It also looked like he had just returned to the Captial from how those soldiers were marching towards the palace. So it was obvious that it wouldn’t be long before the recruitment began.

Enrolling in his army would be the perfect opportunity to get close to the princess.

But first, he would have to find the reason for this recruitment. It wouldn’t be as simple as enrolling in the army to become a royal guard and be paid for nothing. There must be a need for strong people for the Imperial Prince for him to go to such lengths.

After all, it wasn’t normal for cultivators of no background to appear out of nowhere and join the ranks of the royal army. There was definitely something going on.

He had seen many cultivators of the Nascent Soul Realm roaming the streets of the capital, so it would be difficult for even Raven, Blaze, and Zier to get in. But it wouldn’t matter much if they weren’t chosen.

As long as he alone could make it in, it would make his work easier.

They had more than 4 months to do that ‘something’ to the princess, he believed it was enough time to gain the trust of the royal family.

It wouldn’t be easy since he can’t do anything about his lack of Spiritual Essence due to which many would eye him suspiciously.

As he found himself in the middle of the forest, miles away from the capital, Ozul enveloped himself inside The Purity and threw all five Cores inside his mouth, and crushed them with his teeth.

The warm current flowed down his throat and quickly spread all over his body before disappearing into a vortex. Once again, a wave of Spiritual Essence burst out of his body pores in all four directions.

Exhaling a deep breath, Ozul removed The Purity and without wasting another second, shot back towards the Capital.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes before he arrived back inside the Tavern, feeling ever more powerful.

As he entered the room, Raven and Blaze looked at him curiously. He had only gone for a little more than five minutes before returning. Having been with him for so long, they could guess what he had done with those Cores.

But as always, they couldn’t feel anything changed in him.

Only they couldn’t feel his emotions, or they would have surely been surprised at how happy he was.

It felt like he could do anything with the strength coursing through him. Only he was trying his best to suppress this feeling since he knew that those in the Origin Realm could still take him down if he wasn’t smart about it.

“So?” Raven spoke, “What are we going to do except for cultivating?”

There were only 2 beds in the room, and Ozul took one of them before replying, “Hmm. For now, you aren’t going to do anything except for that.”

Seeing her unresigned to that, he added, “The Imperial Prince is recruiting people for something. We are going to apply for that. Until the notice comes, you guys will focus on cultivating only.”

Nodding in understanding, Raven closed her eyes and went back to cultivating.

. . .

Ozul spent the entire day sleeping on the bed while the trio cultivated nonstop.

Jinx also slept while cuddling beside Ozul.

He was still a little suspicious as to why Jinx hadn’t appeared to save him when he was so close to death back then. Maybe she knew that Ember would arrive on time to save him? Anyway, that was one of the few possibilities.

Alas, he could do nothing but make up scenarios and consider their plausibility.

Waking up the next day, Ozul stared at the three people who seemed to have had no rest since yesterday.

He had to help them cultivate, but first, he wanted to test his new limits.

Closing his eyes, he tried feeling the changes in his body. However, as always, there was no physical change whatsoever.

Yet, the amount of The Purity he could create and his senses had indeed gone through a qualitative change.

After he had arrived in this Realm, his sense had dulled a little. Unlike the Mana, the Spiritual Essence was potent enough to affect his senses.

Right now, he was back at the level that he was before, in the previous Realm.

Even the movement of an ant inside the room could disturb him, much less the commotion happening in the tavern.

Sighing, he stood up and called for Raven.

Hearing him call her name, Raven immediately stopped her cultivation and opened her eyes,

*Akh!* She shouted in pain as she abruptly stopped the circulation of her Spiritual Essence.

Ozul almost looked in shock and a little guilty before narrowing his eyes at her, “Do you really want to die?”

It was Raven’s turn to feel the guilt as she chuckled wryly. She really should have finished the cycle before doing that.

Shaking his head in annoyance, Ozul asked, “Explain the Nascent Soul Realm. Unless I know what process you go through, I won’t be of much help.”

Looking at the number of people in the Nascent Soul Realm, they needed to at least reach the peak of this Realm before their strength really mattered. At least in this kingdom.

Raven was happy to tell him everything she had learned from the cultivation Manuals. Though it took a solid hour before she had covered all the details.

The gist of it all wasn’t really simple.

Unlike in the Core Formation Realm, they didn’t just focus on the Core anymore. The outer Core, as she called it, had already covered their body, essentially making their entire body a vessel to hold the Spiritual Essence.

There were three stages of the Nascent Soul Realm: Soul Nurturing, Soul Liberation, and Soul Materialization.

At present, they were in the Soul Nurturing stage, at the start of which, they had to keep feeding their inner and outer Core with as much Spiritual Essence as they could refine.

“So you have to be able to feel your soul to enter the next stage?” Ozul was curious as to what this soul was.

Did he have a soul? He felt the answer to that question was a big no, but a man could dream.

“Mhm. You wouldn’t be able to help with that. At this point, you might be able to help us feed our Core, but advancing to the next stage would depend on ourselves,” Raven explained.

Learning from Raven the complexity in the further stages, Ozul realized that the difference in people at the different stages of the Origin Realm wouldn’t be as small as he had imagined it to be.

“The talent of a cultivator is even measured at the Soul Materialization stage,” Raven added as Ozul remembered what Ember had told him about the materialization of the soul at the peak of Nascent Soul Realm.

As it turned out, many cultivators based their worth on the type of soul they would materialize.

And no spiritual tool could help with that. Once a soul was materialized, the cultivators were stuck with that forever.