The first three days passed in the realm of ashes. Everyone maintained a steady pace, with two breaks to collect the "amulets." Whenever Alm and Bruno felt a quick stabilization in the laws, everyone stopped to gather treasures.
On the fourth day, the whale insisted that Ruri take a break. Despite not needing to sleep for a week, she was still in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and her body was in a growing phase. Her extremely focused and dedicated personality seemed to become more evident with age. She grumbled a bit, then moved in front of the whale, hugged it, and immediately fell asleep.
’Are we a giant fat pillow for her? I thought that was something from when she was a little kid, but she refuses to stop...’ Bruno said a bit strangely.
Meanwhile, everyone continued the march. Alm and Bruno couldn’t afford to stop to sleep and recover their souls in this place. It was on the fifth day, when they were very close to the end of the first sector, that something emerged from the ground in front of them.
They were small mounds of soil easily distinguishable from the rest. An area of thirty centimeters of soil emitted a gentle glow, while a little farther away, another mound almost the same size stood out, emanating a sinister sensation.
They were two other treasures of the realm of ashes: life soil and death soil.
The whale turned to Almin, sending him a message. His eyes immediately lit up. Almin approached the life soil and retrieved the seed of a medicinal herb.
Almin planted the seed in that shiny soil, and within a few seconds, his heart started beating loudly, audible to everyone. The herb almost instantly grew, but shortly afterward, the bright soil went out, interrupting its growth.
The life soil turned into ordinary soil, similar to all the others around, as if its energy had been depleted. Then, Almin pulled the sprout from the soil and approached the death soil. He tossed the sprout into the death soil, watching closely as it turned into dust in two seconds.
’Indeed, the name is quite self-explanatory. For Almin, it must be frustrating; he would need a large quantity for it to be effective, and the soil would lose its power quickly, usable only once,’ Bruno commented indifferently. ’Not that it matters much; we’re not alchemists. The soil in our city is pure and efficient; it’s not something extravagant like this, but there’s nothing like our soil on this planet.’
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Alm didn’t respond immediately; he was deep in thought. After a few seconds, he spoke: ’This soil seems to do something similar to our life refinement technique... but where does the extracted life energy go?’
Bruno listened and immediately understood, becoming equally curious. They approached the death soil and touched the common soil around it exactly. They used their souls to investigate all directions below and around that soil.
Then, they felt excited. A few meters below the death soil, a small drop of life was flowing. Around it, they saw a minimal cluster of life soil.
’They feed off each other, not something abnormal to imagine. But the secret to this is the environment of the realm of ashes. Without it, this exchange is impossible,’ Alm mentally analyzed.
The two thought for a moment and quickly came up with a plausible theory. Inside the spatial inventory, they created a large amount of soil, and the Yin and Yang tattoos were activated. Then, they turned toward their Ultimate Fusion card, and in the face of that sudden gaze, Ruri just smiled without understanding. Soon, Yin and Yang merged.
Ten seconds later, they put the death soil in the inventory and took out a mature and vital herb from Almin. The next second... success!
’Excellent. We’ve recreated the same type of soil from this realm; now we can plant these two treasures. In the future, all the city’s soil will become a true sacred world,’ Bruno said excitedly.
Alm then added in a villainous manner, ’The life soil will make our city’s alchemy unparalleled. But... we’ll also create terror for anyone who tries something funny. Abundant death soil can be used for defense, and everyone will fear being used as living fertilizer.’
Bruno snorted but admitted it was a good mechanism. So, they resumed walking, now carefully searching every inch of soil.
Very little was found initially, but as they reached the threshold between the first and second sectors, these two soils were abundant. In no time, everyone focused on digging everything up, leaving nothing behind.
***
A week passed slowly, and now, after harvesting all the soil they could find, they moved on. Stepping into the second sector and beginning to walk, after a few steps, the whale stopped and turned to everyone behind and to Ruri.
"In this place, the spatial laws are at their third concept: ’blade,’" said the whale indifferently. "The laws now break the space, creating a blade of spatial fragments that can cut through anything. It’s practically unstoppable, and the blade just appears directly on your body. There’s no room for evasion or even predicting its movement."
Ruri’s eyes gleamed, and she focused eagerly on everything around her. Meanwhile, the others were breaking into a cold sweat; demons in the realm either vanished or exploded in blood... now they knew the two causes. And it was much worse than they imagined. How could they avoid something so abnormal? Everyone was murmuring in their minds.
But the whale quickly provided an answer. "The only way not to die is to completely deactivate your rational mind and focus on your instincts. In the midst of a fight, that’s impossible, but right now, it’s feasible. This is good training for all of you. I’ll just warn you about the blades that are impossible to dodge; the rest is up to you. I’m not anyone’s babysitter."
The whale concluded its explanation and took steps forward, adjusting Ruri, who had her eyes closed, on its back. Everyone watched as Goku walked, carrying the relaxed girl in meditation, sighing at this apparent injustice.
They moved forward with calm steps, but their minds were tense. It didn’t take long for the black blood to start gushing. Fortunately, it was a wyvern half-blood whose wing was suddenly torn from its body. Despite its extreme strength and defensive power, there was no resistance at all.
If it hadn’t undergone training at the absolute limit, it would have been split in half. But, thanks to its blood, recovery would be smooth, and the wing would regenerate in a few days. This bloodline was, obviously, just as unfair.
After this example, all the half-demons and half-wyverns redoubled their attention. None of them were seriously injured. As for the Cerberi... every hour, a dozen of them died with their eyes wide open.
Fifteen days passed until they covered a third of the second sector. Half of the thousands of Cerberi were killed, but fortunately, the numbers stabilized. Their pure bloodline began to take effect, and their instincts emerged. Deaths stopped happening frequently.
The whale walked casually, not caring much about anything. Until they finally stopped, focusing their eyes on a spot on the ground. There, they saw a small green seed. The whale took quick steps and then saw another yellowish seed nearby.
’Other treasures! The green one is the seed of learning. The yellowish one is the seed of persistence,’ Bruno commented and crouched down with the whale, retrieving the seeds from the soil.
The seeds were buried in the ground as if they had simply appeared inexplicably. Then, Alm and Bruno used their divine souls again. This research method was something only they could use.
They quickly realized strange roots in the depths of the soil. It looked like a root, had no life, and was not a plant; it seemed to be composed only of laws. Thanks to that, they quickly sensed that it was the same law inside the seeds but magnified thousands of times.
Alm and Bruno felt the laws within the two seeds. According to what they read, the seed of learning should enhance understanding and intelligence. And the seed of persistence should help the cultivator enter an extremely meditative state more easily.
Alm seemed to understand. ’The law inside seems to affect the user’s mental power, like a drug. But not on the downside; it’s a drug that has a gentle but useful effect.’
Bruno heard this and then remembered the power of faith that he claimed to know a bit about. It could purify and restore, but also calm and fulfill those who were its worshippers. This strange law... seemed to be very close. Faith was, after all, something irrational like a drug.
So, quickly, Bruno activated the faith rune that was in his core. Soon, he infused this power into a learning seed, and saw the internal law accepting the power of faith without any resistance.
The whale then turned and waved to Runula, who ran to their side, but not forgetting to check if Ruri was really unconscious and couldn’t perceive her.
The seed was given to Runula before she swallowed it without hesitation. And... almost immediately, Alm and Bruno felt her mind clear as Runula’s mental power condensed, and it wasn’t a small amount.
The power of faith multiplied the effect several times, but it would only work on their followers. Bruno then almost jumped excitedly with the whale; he now had the certainty that if he deposited an astronomical amount of faith power in these seeds, he would have a chance to make a root sprout like the one that existed underground, in the soil of his city. Thus, they would have an infinite flow of them.
Both seeds were useful, so they harvested everything. One would bring better intelligence to impure bloodline beasts. And the other would allow everyone to cultivate in a meditative state, which should be almost certain with their amplification.
’Everything is a Win-Win. I’m starting to think the heavens will collapse.’ Alm said a little tensely. Such luck was definitely the prelude for something not very nice.
’Turn that mouth away!’ Bruno roared immediately.