'How long has it been,' I grumbled as I was standing at the top of the last nail in my sea of consciousness.
All nine Stakes have now been fully disabled. And looking at my palms there was a symbol on them. It looks like the symbol of a small black flame. But only I know the reality behind this thing.
Considering everything I've been learning from these spikes.
These Soul Sealing Stakes are actually not meant to be used like this. These are all fakes. The real thing is far nastier than this. Well... whatever this is, it was still a good opportunity to learn more.
I've been stuck with that twisted fucker for god knows how long. I've already given up on getting rescued a couple of years back, years, yeah, it felt like years had gone by. But I didn't really care.
Because evading that bastard had been pretty simple after a couple of months of torture.
Well, more like completely ignoring him and faking pain that is. No person would come out sane, psychologically if they were to be introduced to unbearable pain for years.
But I was able to thanks to these Stakes.
And thanks to my venture into the Ancient Sect. I learned a bit about Imperial Inscription.
And these stakes are all written in Imperial Inscription. Their main purpose is completely different from their name.
These aren't Soul Sealing Stakes, but they are Soul Preserving Nails. Their original goal was to pin a soul into a body forcefully to help achieve perfect possession. Since normal possession is usually hard when there is an incompatibility with the host, the person who created these wanted to overcome the compatibility issue.
Yet, someone else had managed to change some of the inscriptions to have these stakes cause pain to the souls. Or probably some idiotic copycat tried to replicate these stakes and came out short.
Both the fake and the original stakes are fucking absurd items that shouldn't exist. Tampering with Souls is the path of Devil cultivation. But it's not much of an issue for me.
For some reason, my soul power is stupidly high. I've yet to understand why but I have a reason to believe that it was thanks to my transmigration.
Something happened to my soul when I transmigrated, it became huge for some reason. And thanks to that I was able to split a portion of my almost unlimited soul power to fake my 'pain'
Whenever that fucker comes, I release that small portion of myself so it can receive his 'gentle care' while I remain inside my sea of consciousness to work this shit out.
It's still not without consequences to split one's soul. But to me, giving up a small portion of me had rewarded me with something pretty interesting.
Looking at the tower, now there exist two souls.
One of them was that of a Draconic Soul, a powerful mighty creature that I have yet to fully learn everything about it. I had already managed to relieve it from the pain of the stake, though it took most of my time to understand the stake's function. But I still managed to relieve it from it and set it free, it had been cultivating to repair itself ever since and had already achieved full recovery and even became stronger.
The second soul sat on a chair right next to it.
This one however was special...
It was a whimpering black soul, it looked like a man, it looked like me. But not in my current form, it looked like the old man that was suffering unimaginable pain back at the cave.
It looked weak, it looked feeble, and it looked like it was in unimaginable despair.
It was disgusting to look at.
No, I felt disgusted to look at it, not because it was weak and feeble. Nor because it was whimpering like a dog that had been struck. No, it was because this was also me.
I was not too fond of this sight.
This was the person that has come out from all those pains, and I always sent it out whenever that bastard came just for it to receive more pain.
Thinking about it, aren't I an asshole? It's like I'm escaping responsibility and sending another one to receive punishment.
Just as I had these thoughts, I pointed my palm at the wretched soul and dark smoke came out of me and infused itself into it.
He soul whimpered even more.
This was what I learned from being here.
I could actually separate my emotions, and send the ugly, nasty, and despicable ones toward that being.
Why am I making this one might ask because this soul is Evil.
Well, Evil is a bit of a radical word. But this soul is perfect to practice a special art.
Demonic Cultivation.
Yes. Demonic Cultivation. And I'm pretty damn adamant about using this to the fullest once I leave this place. Because I'll never have to suffer something like this again once I'm a fully-fledged Demonic Cultivator.
I've been too tame. I've been too generous, and I've been too forgiving. I've given chances to people who shouldn't have gotten them, I've forgiven when I shouldn't and I've been indecisive when I shouldn't.
I tried to uphold my modern world morals in a world of cultivation. And look at what it had gotten me into.
I've tried to save that bitch, and this was my reward.
Just as the thoughts continued to perfoliate into my mind. I repeatedly pointed my hand at the soul and sent all those vile emotions toward it.
There exist two doctrines of cultivation. Nothing More, Nothing Less.
Worshipping the Heavens.
And Trampling the Heavens.
The Heaven Worshiping path is simple, it's to achieve Dao by following the laws of heaven, by ascending the stairway to the heavens under the teachings of Dao, and taking what the heavens give as a reward.
The Heaven Trampling Path is the second one.
It's where cultivators TAKE what they want, DO what they want, and RULE over the heavens, it is a path to wrest away Heaven's gifts. And in this path exist two ways.
The Devil Cultivation where one uses the souls of the dead, and the vileness of the world to improve upon their own power. A path that is incredibly easy to find success in. Because those who tread it need not improve upon their own power, but take from the power of others.
Devil cultivators are nothing but wicked people who achieve their goals by slaughtering others, bending their wills, and taking them away from them. Simply put, the Devil Path is using others to improve oneself.
The Demonic Path is close to this doctrine however it is slightly different. The Demonic Path takes not from others but only takes from oneself.
It may sound simple but it isn't, not many dare tread the demonic path. Because it is agonizing and difficult.
For example, if a Devil Cultivator wishes to climb a cultivation rank, he would need to slaughter and sacrifice a thousand souls. But if a Demonic Path cultivator wishes to cross the same path, he will need to have within himself the emotion of suffering a thousand deaths.
It may sound absurd, how one can suffer a thousand deaths.
But it isn't that hard, losing one's parents for example is far more painful than losing one's life. That is emotion, and that can also be used as Demonic fuel to increase one's cultivation.
Rage, anger, wrath, the pain of loss, solitude, abandonment and the evilness of the world all aimed at you can be transformed into power.
And with that, one can become a Demon in a world where even the gods have abandoned.
"You're awake," I heard.
I immediately sent the whimpering Soul outside.
The soul was fearful yet couldn't plead or beg, I removed that ability from it, though I kept only one thing, the eyes, they weren't eyes that plead. Even if the whole body looked like it was submitting, the eyes will never submit, and it was always enjoyable to see that fucker being completely confused about how I managed to have unyielding eyes even if the body looked to be begging for mercy.
"This again..." the old man said as he pulled out that annoying dagger of his.
"Oh no matter, we don't have time. Today, we'll be taking a trip," he said.
'Oh, now that's interesting, I could find a way to escape since I already disabled all of those Stakes. Though sadly even after disabling the stakes that fucker had somehow managed to completely block my will to speak that woman's name. But it doesn't matter, I just need a moment once I remove these stakes to speak her name, just one moment,'
"For now, sleep, this will be the only bliss you'll ever have for entertaining me for the last five years."
'Five years huh...I wonder how the rest are doing... it doesn't matter now.'
Suddenly darkness permeated the eyes of my body as I remained within my sea of consciousness.
"Well, it doesn't matter I just need to finish this, and once I'm done, it should be complete"
I clenched my fist tightly around the black flame symbol
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