Alm and Bruno recalled the moment they got that technique from a chest after completing the first main mission. It was named the ’Median Soul Sealing Technique’ and had been crucial for Ruri in developing her mental power.
The term ’median’ had never appeared in the system’s purchase options; the division was always by levels. But things obtained directly from the system had a different classification. Now, looking at the runes in front of them, the two began to understand why.
’The Heaven’s Will must divide everything into two types: complete techniques and Daos; and unique things, which are either incomplete or just... interesting,’ Alm murmured.
Bruno nodded. Items divided by levels and bought from the system were almost always complete techniques or Daos, functional with room for improvement. On the other hand, those classified as low, median, or above divine—like the Non-Lethal Strike—seemed to be peculiar and interesting methods, incomplete yet with potential.
In short, the chests delivered strange and random items that might, with some creativity, prove useful—or not. The naming simply indicated their potential.
"There’s definitely something hidden inside. I can feel it from the technique I learned. But this one seems much more complex, like what I know is only the foundation, and this is the final result," Ruri said thoughtfully.
Alm and Bruno thought for a moment. They could easily destroy the seal, but doing so risked obliterating everything hidden within.
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Ruri continued murmuring: "The Soul Sealing Technique uses mental power to seal everything, even the soul... but this thing in front of me is beyond just mental power. It feels like a fusion... yes! The soul and the mind merged, creating a new kind of power... fascinating."
"You have a divine soul and mental cultivation. With just the technique’s basics, can you exert even minimal control?" Alm asked calmly.
"Hmm, this new power feels entirely interconnected, like gears in motion. It’s almost impossible..." She paused, then an idea struck her. "If Master cracks the rune slightly and creates a tiny opening, since I know its foundation, I can infiltrate it and at least break the seal without losing what’s inside."
Alm and Bruno nodded. That was easy enough. They quickly created the Duality of Shadows Law and focused on the largest sealed rune. They merely brought the law’s power close to the rune, and as expected, it trembled, ready to break.
With care, they made the smallest fracture and withdrew their law. Then, Ruri used her soul and mind to invade.
Closing her eyes, Ruri focused, and they waited patiently. After nearly five minutes, she opened her eyes, but the rune didn’t break as expected. Instead, it dissolved—along with all the other surrounding runes.
At that moment, Ruri smiled, and the two saw why. Three ethereal shadows emerged. They weren’t souls; they were lingering wills, remnants of three immortals from the past.
"Hmm? What are you? Why don’t I sense a common divine soul?"
One of the shadows became clearer, resembling a human woman with features strikingly similar to Ruri’s—traits identical to her family and the Alvs.
The other two were a human man, who looked quite similar to the woman, and another man, clearly a pure demon exuding a dark aura.
"It’s a long story, but I’m a missionary, and you’ll understand," Alm said, not wanting to elaborate.
The human woman asked, doubtful: "I see... so the Heaven’s Will gave you my technique?"
"I received something called the Soul Sealing Technique, but it seems you modified it, correct?" Alm went straight to the point.
"Soul Sealing Technique... I see. You received the version I created before becoming an immortal," the woman replied lightly. "Well, it was a bit generic, so much so that the laws didn’t even consider me a candidate for divinity back then. But after becoming an immortal, I refined the technique, and it became something greater. Too bad I’d already lost my chance to be a goddess."
"Then we’re the same," Ruri said lightly. "My Dao wasn’t accepted in time, so I turned it into a unique technique."
The human woman nodded. "Your mental power surpasses mine when I was alive. And you’ve already learned the basic version I created... fate has brought us together. Would you like to become my disciple?"
"No," Ruri replied without hesitation. "I already have a master, but I can help spread your technique to the world. Isn’t that good enough?"
The woman sighed but agreed. Then the human man turned to Alm and Bruno. "So, it was you, missionary, who handled my power of time and the Immortal Chaos Fragment?"
"Hmm? Immortal Chaos Fragment?" Alm was confused, but he opened his inventory and took out that energy they’d called divine Qi. "Is this it?"
"Yes, but... how is this possible? Storing it should be impossible," the man replied, astonished.
"It’s a long story too, but I didn’t store it in a spatial ring—it’s in a micro-universe, with other strange things involved. Anyway... do you really know what this is? Where it comes from?"
The three wills didn’t seem surprised by his question. Then the human man explained: "This is something only immortals can use, and even among immortals, few know of it. The Immortal Chaos Fragment only appears in the underworld, in extremely small amounts, and in almost random circumstances."
"I know it transforms into any kind of law and Qi. But what exactly is it used for?" Bruno asked, doubtful. Even Coltia, Yinou, and Huying didn’t know about this. Now, this knowledge would be very valuable.
"It depends on the type of immortal you are. Do you know the differences between a divine immortal and a regular immortal?" He looked at them, and they nodded. "Once you break past the Divine Sovereign Realm, there are three different realms possible…"
He explained that the three realms were equivalent in terms of power but different because each had its peculiarities and ways of evolving.
A regular cultivator would reach the True God Realm. A divine being would enter the True Inner Dao Realm. A primordial beast, after reaching its limit, would be in the True Primordial Divinity Realm.
Primordial beasts had a relatively easy life because they were blessed by the heavens and connected to them. After being born, they needed to cultivate slowly, absorbing Qi like a cultivator, but would quickly reach their peak and break through to the True Primordial Divinity Realm.
After that, because their bodies were made of primordial energy, they passively reached their maximum level; this peak was predetermined at birth, and they couldn’t go beyond it. Mortal beasts, like the Behemoth, stayed within the first three levels. The Chaos Dragons, the most powerful primordial beasts, were the only ones that could reach the ninth level.
For those born mortal, they needed to use the Fragment of Immortal Chaos to level up, but in different ways.
In the True God Realm, the process was simple: they just needed to find this energy and absorb it. However, finding a significant amount was already extremely challenging; absorbing large amounts was almost impossible, even for immortals with all eternity to search. Finding even a little depended on luck and fate.
For those in the True Inner Dao Realm, it was also necessary to absorb this energy, but that wasn’t the main thing. To level up, they needed to refine their divine Dao, learning how to use it together with the Fragment of Immortal Chaos, which was millions of times more complex than Qi and laws.
Basically, it required 95% understanding and study of this energy. With a very small amount, if they were talented enough, they could level up quickly.
Common immortals needed to find large amounts of this rare energy, while divine immortals needed to study and understand it, and finally, primordial beasts didn’t need anything, but could only reach a limit and couldn’t surpass it.
"Above those realms?" Alm asked the key question.
"The ninth level is the limit... or it was. That queen was the only one who figured out how to go beyond. No one knows anything about it; she’s probably the only one who does," he answered, snorting.
According to his explanation, it was common for immortals to be born and stay at the elementary level forever without knowing how to advance. Past immortals weren’t exactly friendly, because finding this energy was so difficult, and eliminating the competition was essential. That’s why no one shared information, keeping other immortals ignorant.
This surely created animosities and conflicts among all immortals, which, during the war against the queen, reflected in their inability to truly unite.
Coltia listened to everything and sighed in agreement. When she became an immortal, she felt that others at the same level looked at her with bloodthirsty and competitive gazes, but she didn’t know why.
She managed to become an immortal with the help of a master, who she now knew was a distant disciple of the Nine Stars Tree. She used that tree’s technique, but didn’t know its name or much about it. That information was secret and only revealed after becoming an immortal. However, Coltia was captured shortly after ascending and didn’t have the chance to learn anything, much less how to cultivate in that realm.
Since the Fragment of Immortal Chaos only appeared in the Underworld, which was indescribably vast, it was almost impossible for an ignorant immortal to randomly come across it. The reason was that no one liked living in the Underworld; even races connected to Yin felt uncomfortable in that environment, preferring the universes, which made it even harder to discover.
Primordial beasts didn’t need this energy, so they didn’t care much about the cultivation methods of mortals. Not even Yinou had this information. Of course, she had her suspicions, but this energy was so rare she never had concrete evidence or bothered to investigate.
Alm and Bruno nodded, satisfied. This time, they had found something of priceless value: knowledge.
"Thank you," Bruno said honestly. "You’ve done us a big favor. Since you chose to leave your wills, is there anything you desire in the world?"
The three wills sighed heavily. The demon spoke: "We chose to leave our wills because we needed to hide this from the heroes."
He gestured, and an ancient spatial ring appeared, breaking apart. From inside, fragments of a greenish metal appeared. In the center was an immortal core, completely cracked and nearly destroyed. But... an immense aura emanated from it.
Immediately, from the inventory, Liumi roared: ’A Paragon-level core!’
Alm and Bruno’s eyes widened, and they looked at those wills seriously.
"This was once the Heaven Divider Saber, a Paragon-level item," the demon spoke coldly. "There were only three immortal items of that level in that war. We secretly brought this to the battle, to use it at the right moment. But... everything happened so fast, and the three of us only managed to survive for a few seconds thanks to this saber protecting us. So we acted quickly, sealed everything, and left our wills behind."
The human woman added: "The saber was destroyed, but if taken to the world, it might naturally restore itself, though the spirit is dead." She sighed and softly added: "This weapon belonged to our three clans. We were a rare case of allied immortals. We were the leaders, but since we died, it’s unlikely our clans still exist today. Our only wish is that it doesn’t fall into the hands of the heroes or that queen."
Bruno spoke calmly: "Nowadays, the queen already has a method of evolving immortal weapons. She must have created others of that level."
He mentioned something that Huying had already told them, which made the three of them widen their eyes. "But don’t worry. I also have a method. This nearly destroyed weapon will help me a lot, as I’ll be able to study it and make my method faster and more efficient. You did a good job hiding it," Bruno added.
The three of them sighed heavily, then the demon made the fragments float toward him. "Make good use of it, we’ve already died, and now our mission is over."
The human woman turned to Ruri and said, "I want to leave you my complete technique. I’ve had direct disciples before and an entire clan based on my technique, but no one ever came close to your potential."
Ruri nodded, but didn’t seem satisfied and turned to the human man. "Was it you who used the time laws so magnificently here? I also practice space-time, could you teach me that?"
The two human wills were stunned, but nodded. Alm then turned to the demon.
"Did you create this black lake here?" The demon nodded slightly. "This is energy from the heavenly laws, right? It shouldn’t exist in nature. Did you steal it?"
"Steal is a strong word. My demon race can naturally sense and manipulate this energy, we call it Purgatory Qi. With great effort, our bloodline can take a little from the laws, though it’s dangerous during our tribulations. As for me, since I was going to die, let’s just say I borrowed it without worrying about repaying it later."
Alm and Bruno widened their eyes. ’Purgatory? The Purgatory Star, that’s it!’
Bruno exclaimed excitedly. That was the name of the second stage of the fifth level of physical cultivation; something only briefly mentioned and theoretical. They didn’t know what this energy was, so it was nearly impossible to identify it amidst the energy of the heavenly laws. The same name couldn’t be a coincidence.
"Can you extract only the purest essence of this lake?" Alm asked, a little excited. Over the millions of years, the Yin of the environment mixed with the Purgatory Qi and contaminated it, creating this lake. This lake was no longer purely this Qi, but the demon could extract the best part and leave no obvious traces.
"No problem, my last strength can do something simple like this," the demon replied, and the other two nodded beside him.
The weapon fragments had already been handed over. Now, they would burn what was left of them to perform their last acts. The three looked at each other and then pulsed together. From the two humans, two dense knowledge runes were created and floated toward Ruri.
The demon then transformed into a black rune that began to pulse like a heart. Then, the entire lake below trembled as if boiling. Soon, a black sphere made of pure Purgatory Qi began to form, growing to nearly five meters.
When it stopped, Alm and Bruno quickly moved to store it in the inventory.
Then, the three gave one last look at the two and waved. "Goodbye," said the woman, the only one who spoke, before they disappeared forever.
Alm and Bruno were ecstatic with their gains but didn’t waste time absorbing anything right away. Without delay, they nearly cried blood having to take the ’Divine Qi’ out of the inventory, which from now on they would call the Immortal Chaos Fragment.
They left it exactly as it was before, and Ruri created some runes similar to the technique she knew to place inside. Only immortals could open it, and when they did, they would notice something different.
When opened, they would see that the runes were empty. But Alm and Bruno were sure the lucky one wouldn’t make a fuss and would be happy, keeping quiet. This entire Immortal Chaos Fragment would be free for him to absorb alone, and he would choose to accept it without telling anyone else. Heroes and cultivators were predictable when something good was in front of them.
The black lake was also 70% the same, now made only of Yin. No one knew much about that energy, and they would hardly notice what exactly was different.
Thus, they moved to leave that place. Alm, Bruno, and Ruri calculated that the Demoness should be close to arriving. The first day of the test had just ended. Now, they had to resolve things with her before the other competitors reached the second world and started dying in mass.