Soren's killing intent disappeared as he looked at Luvile's projection.
"Very well, let's hear what you have to say, then. As for whether I can win or not, you won't know if you don't try. You said it yourself. This is just a borrowed body. I don't care, even if it's destroyed in the end. Speak, why are you here?"
Krune and the others weren't surprised by that. From the very start, they didn't feel as if that was a living body.
"We came inside because of a companion of ours. He came to investigate this Mental Energy."
Luvile then explained the same thing as Feifei did. He also added that Heavin was stuck at the Soul Control Realm and came to see if he could get inspiration to create the next stages.
"So the guy really created the Soul Cultivation Technique on his own, huh? If that is true, then that's really impressive. I was only able to come up with it back in the God Realm."
Krune, Feifei, and Lucio felt helpless. When they explained it, that guy didn't accept it at all. But now that Luvile said that, he took it in so easily...
Soren then looked at Luvile before asking something else.
"What happened to you in the passage to the outside?"
Luvile shrugged his shoulders as he replied.
"What else? I 'died,' just like you. From the looks of it, your fate was pretty much similar to mine and Cynia. Only your soul remained. However, since you're a god, there are a few things you need to know as well."
Luvile then went over the entire situation about the truth behind the exit. Well, he hid a few things that shouldn't be told.
"Four gates, four keys... The gods are trying to leave again. However, they have found two keys so far. You said that you know where the other two keys are located. How do you know that?"
Luvile shook his head as he responded.
"That's a secret only I know. You only need to keep in mind that there's a real chance of escaping the Four Realms without risking its foundations' destruction."
"Now then. I was the only one giving information to you so far. How about you start talking about what this is all about? Who's Zugen? What does he have to do with your Mental Energy? Also, the fused five elements and laws that you use. Was it you who created the Elements Regulation Technique? I advise you to tell as much as you can. Perhaps this god here can give you a hand."
Soren seemed to fall into deep thought before nodding his head.
"If I tell you everything, you have to help me take my Soul Mani- Ahem... Mental Energy Source back. In exchange, I'll help you get your friend back and take him as a disciple. Someone who could come up with a Soul Cultivation Technique on his own is definitely worth of my tutelage."
"That will depend on the risks."
Soren nodded.
"Everything started way before we tried to escape the Four Realms..."
It turns out that Zugen was a friend of Soren. However, Zugen wasn't a god, even though he was close to that. Unfortunately for him, he had a cultivation defect that made it impossible for him to ever reach Soren and Luvile's level. His only choice was to completely destroy his cultivation and start from the very bottom again.
Naturally, someone who had reached such heights couldn't simply give up on everything. Just how many years would it take for him to cultivate everything again? He did have the experience to make everything much faster, but it would take another lifetime's worth of time nonetheless.
It was then that Soren offered him his Soul Cultivation Technique. Soren was quite a reclused god, rarely ever appearing in the outside world. There were various gods that Luvile didn't know about, but Soren was still considered a nearly non-existent one. It was to the point he had only seen him during the time they tried to escape the Four Realms.
That being said, almost no one knew what kind of power Soren had. There was a rule to become a god, which was to create your own type of laws. Luvile had his Purple Tribulation Lightning, Harold had his Devil Flames, etc... However, Soren was different. He didn't create a new type of law, but an entirely new type of cultivation system, which was Soul Cultivation.
Almost no one knew, but Soren had never reached the God Level through the conventional method. His God Level was achieved with Soul Cultivation instead. It was that Soul Cultivation Technique that he passed to one of his almost non-existent friends, Zugen. That way, Zugen could start cultivating again without losing his actual cultivation.
The Elements Regulation Technique was also created by Soren. However, the one Lucio and Krune were using was just a sub-product. The fact was that the fused elements were part of the next realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique. Later on, Soren created a technique where one didn't need Mental Energy to fuse the five primary elements. That was the technique that the Divine Path Sect's Ancestor found.
Krune, Lucio, and Feifei were surprised to hear that. They finally understood why the Elements Regulation Technique and Mental Energy were related. Krune and Lucio also understood why it was so easy to fuse their Mental Energy with the Fused Elements. It was because they were supposed to work together to start with.
Soren even said that you will need to create your own Mental Energy Source for you to enter the next Soul Cultivation Realm. For that, you needed both Mental Energy and the fused elements and laws. That Black Water Krune was curious about was exactly that, a Mental Energy Source. Well... a tiny part of it.
Going back to Zugen, the guy cultivated the Soul Cultivation Technique at frightening speeds. He was a quasi-god and had Soren's experience to help, after all. Soren was also happy that his friend would reach the God Level he always dreamed of.
Sure enough, Zugen became a God. And it was just a few years before the so-called escapade happened.
"No wonder I don't know this Zugen guy. His time as a god was too small for me to hear about him."
Soren nodded.
"Not only that, but I also asked him to not spread the technique. If possible, he shouldn't use it in front of others as well. After all, I didn't want others to know about this new cultivation system."
Luvile nodded.
"I understand now. Heavin also kept this as a secret, knowing how big of a problem it would be if others found about it."
Soren agreed with that.
At first, everything seemed fine. However, when Soren was invited to try to escape the Four Realms, even Soren couldn't hold his curiosity. Just what lied beyond the exit of the Four Realms? The God Realm was the highest level in the Four Realms. In Soren's case, he said that it would be the Soul God Realm.
However, Zugen immediately rejected the idea of trying to escape the Four Realms. He had just become a god. He didn't have the time to enjoy being a god at all. Why should he try such a risky thing? Not only that, he even scolded Soren for trying to do such a thing. After all, his Mental Energy Source might get uncovered.
How could Zugen understand Soren? One had just acquired the power of a god, while the other had been one for an eternity. Zugen couldn't understand the other gods' feelings of having nothing else to do anymore. To be trapped in that limit of cultivation. Zugen would spend several chaos cycles before he could relate to Soren and to other gods.
There were a few gods that knew that Soren was a God. It was one of them that invited him for the expedition. Still, they thought that his abilities were due to the laws he created himself and not a new cultivation system.
In the end, Soren and Zugen cut ties, just like that.
But who could have thought that Zugen didn't give up? Since Soren didn't want to listen, Zugen decided that a Single Soul God was more than enough. That's where the Heaven Soul Metal came in. Zugen had unlimited time, so he made many things with the help of Mental Energy, which included a type of metal that worked against it.
Zugen then prepared a trap for Soren so that he could get rid of him and keep the secret of Mental Energy for himself.
Still, Luvile couldn't help but point out.
"Wait! But I saw you outside the Four Realms' exit."
Soren nodded as he said.
"Yep. I was there. However, Zugen was there as well."
"Ah!"
As mentioned before, there were many gods Luvile didn't know about who participated in that event. Zugen was obviously one of them.
"Zugen pretended that he decided to follow us to the outside, so I was glad to have him back. After all, we had been friends for way too long. However, he used the dangers inside the exit to act against me. You do remember when the foundations began to get unstable, and everything went out of control, right?"
Luvile nodded. How could he forget about that? It was because they almost destroyed it that everyone perished.
"I tried to cover Zugen at that time, going all out to keep ourselves alive. But who could have thought that it was at that moment that he acted? He aimed at my Mental Energy Source when I was most vulnerable and sealed it."
The source of this c𝓸ntent is fr(e)𝒆webnovel