Unsealing Emptiness

The Tiger Fangs were residing in that forest, according to the details Ember had provided him.

He wanted to know when they were going to start the abduction before deciding what he was going to do about it.

‘I don’t think I can kill the County Lord’s father as of now. I will have to think of something else,’ Ozul was contemplating his options.

...

Meanwhile, back in the Beastkin’s estate, Ember was currently chatting with the trio... or at least trying to.

“So... Is Ozul your boss or something?”

.....

“...”

“Uhm... Are you perhaps all family members?”

“...”

“Don’t tell me he’s threatening you guys to do his bidding?”

“...”

No matter what she asked regarding Ozul, those three kept their lips tight.

‘My Scarlet Eyes would have detected a slave mark if he had used some enslavement technique, so it’s not that...’

If she wanted to bring any of them to her side, she would have to first understand what their relationship was like. Once she brought them to her side one by one, Ozul would also be forced to officially join her. At least that was what she planned.

For now, she gave up and decided to change the topic, “I’m free. You can ask me questions regarding your cultivation.”

She hadn’t even finished her sentence before she saw their eyes lit up like fire lamps. She internally smirked, ‘Heh... Power-hungry brats. They don’t know how vast the sky is.’

“The cultivation is always explained rather crudely in the books. You can ask me whatever you want regarding that until I’m here,” she repeated before enjoying their reactions. Maybe she could get them to stop following Ozul this way?

Zier was the first one to raise his hand, and Blaze couldn’t help but chuckle. They were no kids, so it was rather comical that Zier first raised his hand to ask a question.

Realizing the reason behind Blaze’s snickering, Zier awkwardly dropped his hand and directly asked, “Can you explain all the cultivation realms? I don’t even know how many there are?”

Ember took a deep breath and grabbed a chair to take a seat. She knew this was going to be a long session. She, the once feared Ember of Destruction, was reduced to tutoring some greenhorn kids. It was humiliating for her after previously rejecting a slew of geniuses countless times when it came to accepting them as her disciples.

Yet, she didn’t let this humiliation get to her mind.

“You have all cleared the Foundation Realms, so I will skip those. After the foundation is built for cultivation, there are a total of 6 known cultivation realms.”

“From the lowest, they are Core Formation, Nascent Soul, Origin, Transcendent, Sage, and Empyrean Realm.” She paused to let the names sink into their mind before adding on, “Advancing through these cultivation realms not only increases your strength but also expands your lifespan.”

“Some people cultivate to gain authority with power while others simply want to live longer. What is your purpose?” She questioned the trio.

Ember saw their unrelenting gaze. It was evident that each of them had a certain purpose in mind.

Despite the fact that they didn’t appear to want to tell her, she nodded in appreciation since a cultivator needed to have such firm beliefs, no matter what they were.

“Since I have limited time, I shall only tell you in detail about the Core Formation Realm,” she spoke in a stricter tone remembering that she had so many other things to do.

“The Core Formation Realm is divided into three smaller stages. Once you have formed the Core, you have achieved the Formation stage which is followed by the Nourishing stage and Expansion Stage.”

She looked specifically at Raven and continued,

“Since you have finished the Formation stage, what you will now be focusing on will be Nourishing your Core with Spiritual Essence. Gather as much as you can and solidify it from all sides equally. There will naturally come a time when you will feel all your efforts in improving the quality of your Core going to waste. At that time you could officially set yourself in the Core Expansion stage.”

Seeing Blaze in a downcast mood, she understood that he was depressed for not being the first one to step into the Core Formation Realm.

“Cultivation is not completely about talent,” she spoke, “Maybe half of it is, but a solid half is certain to be persistence and an unyielding will.”

Just as she said so, Ember realized the meaning of her words. ‘Unyielding will huh... It seems like that kid will never follow anyone...’

She sighed thinking that Ozul would never submit to her. From the start, he was firm and unyielding. He knew what he wanted and wasn’t willing to compromise whatsoever.

“Anyway, the Expansion stage is the most difficult and painful part of the Core Formation Realm. You have to expand the core to the extreme parts of the body, slowly enveloping all the internal organs inside of it.” Ember explained thoroughly, “The process ahead of it is after you fuse together with that expanded core and make your whole body a container for the Spiritual Essence. For now, only focus on developing your core.”

“What about the ranks of cultivation techniques and spiritual arts?” Raven asked.

They were given a 7-star cultivation technique, but she still had no idea how those ranks worked.

What did Earth Grade signify and were 7-star better or 8-star?

She had a lot of questions and asked them in an orderly manner.

Ember also didn’t mind her questions since a genius was always pleasing to her eyes.

“Spiritual Arts are techniques that make use of Spiritual Essence inside a cultivator’s body and perform actions that seem impossible otherwise.”

Having said that, Ember’s eyes again glowed in a red hue, mesmerizing Zier who felt enchanted by those eyes.

“These are known as Scarlet Eyes, they are a very high ranked Spiritual Arts to probe the strength of others. Though I can barely use a fraction of its power now that I’m reduced to a pseudo-Origin Realm expert.”

Again to demonstrate the power of Spiritual Arts, she held her palm to face the wall and slowly poured a fraction of her Spiritual Essence into her hand.

Raven was astonished when she noticed a wave of Spiritual Essence leaving through her palm in its shape and shooting towards the wall.

In the blink of an eye, the wall had a hole through it in the shape of a hand!

Raven noted that it was very different from the Spells that they would use in their world. She just couldn’t explain it in words.

“Don’t be surprised about this. It’s merely a 5-star Earth Grade Spiritual Arts. That is the extent of what it can do. Spiritual Arts are ranked according to their power and strength. From 1-star as the weakest and 9-star as the strongest in Earth Grade.”

“There are other grades, yes?” Blaze interrupted.

“Indeed. After 9-star Earth Grade, there comes the Spiritual Grade. Those, however, require you to have reached the last stage in the Nascent Soul Realm. Unless you are at that stage, Spiritual Grade ones are useless for you.”

“If Ozul completes the task, you will give us 8-star Earth Grade Spiritual Arts. How powerful are they?” Raven asked, she was only interested in getting stronger right now.

Ember made a thoughtful face and just briefed them on a few of them, “A 1-star is only slightly better than normal martial arts. While a 5-star can obliterate normal rocks without using physical strength. A 9-star attack-based Spiritual Arts could even leave small craters on the ground.”

Ember then began to describe that not all Spiritual Arts were attack based. Some were used for support like her Scarlet Eyes.

She also showed them a small blade which was a peak Earth Grade Weapon. Unlike Spiritual Arts, the weapons were divided into low tier, medium tier, high tier, and peak tier.

At last, she came to tell them about the Cultivation Techniques.

“Having a cultivation technique is the most important in your journey. As your cultivation realm increases, your cultivation speed won’t be able to keep up with your realm. Suppose an Origin Realm expert whose life span is at most only 3000 years, he or she won’t make progress with a Mortal Grade cultivation technique even in ten thousand years.”

The trio made a thoughtful face at that remark. They currently had a 7-star Mortal Grade technique each. For higher realms, they obviously needed better cultivation techniques.

‘That is now the priority now though...’ is what Raven thought before noting this down in the back of her mind.

Suddenly as if realizing something, Zier jumped excitedly, “So you can only live for at most 3000 years?”

After all, she had admittedly told them that she was just a pseudo Origin Realm expert right now.

Ember scoffed hearing that question and replied, “I can still outlive your ten generations. Don’t worry, I have my means.”

Again, a snickering came from Zier’s side. It was Blaze.

Raven also smiled seeing Blaze enjoy himself. She hadn’t seen him have so much fun anywhere else.

Seeing that the atmosphere had warmed up quite a lot, Ember decided that it was the right opportunity to bring this up, so she went,

“Since we are on this topic...”

It caught the trio’s attention. She continued,

“I’m personally willing to provide you all the resources you will ever need until the Transcendent Realm. A Transcendent Realm expert’s actions are never neglected no matter where you go in the Realm of Abezan. I’m willing to give you all of that if only you agree to come under my wings.”

Seeing Blaze about to speak up, Ember quickly intercepted, “Don’t rush it. Think it through. You can give me your answer anytime you want. I won’t mistreat you once you are my disciples.”

She stood up from her chair and warned them once again, “Cultivation in Higher Realms isn’t so flexible like that in the Broken Worlds.”

Raven’s ears perked up as a distant memory resonated in her mind whenever Higher Realms such as this one and her previous Broken World were discussed.

“Admittingly, you Dragon Hatchlings have always proven to be geniuses. But make no mistake, countless geniuses have appeared in the Realm of Abezan and perished without making a ripple in its history.”

“Your destiny is not in your hands. For as you stand right now, I can kill you in a matter of seconds and none of you will be able to resist. Getting stronger is the only way to have a say in your own life and I can give you that.”

Ember walked out of the room before Blaze could say anything again.

Otherwise, she would have heard a flat ‘No!’ from him again.

Only Raven and Zier heard her last words, and even between them, only Zier bothered to think about them...