‘That was much easier than I thought. Strange…’ Ambrose shook his head and returned indoors, then moved onto the room where the flickering candle was still going strong.
He sat cross-legged on the bed and then inhaled and exhaled.
“Iiiiiiin… Ouuuuuut!”
The world froze, and time seemed to stand still.
His soul flew out of his body. However, it looked like it was injured, with a large bruise on its chest. The bruise was purple in color and it pulsated like bunch of veins. It looked rather creepy.
‘You alright?’ Ambrose asked and then remembered that the Brown Inquisitor managed to speak inside the world of souls. ‘I wonder how he did that.’
‘It hurts…’ The soul whimpered in pain.
‘I know, but there is something I need you to do.’
‘Learn… harvesting and releasing the energy?’ The soul bopped its head up and down. ‘I’ll try my best.’
‘Good, start meditating and clear your mind.’ Ambrose instructed his soul.
The soul did that and sat cross-legged on the air while levitating.
‘Now, focus on harnessing the energy flow within you.’ Ambrose instructed as he watched the soul’s ethereal form glow with a radiant light. ‘Imagine the flow of energy entering your heart, then moving onto the brain before leaving your body.’
The soul did as it was instructed, visualizing the energy flowing through its heart and brain before finally exiting its body. However, the effect wasn’t great. The energy didn’t move inside its body.
‘Keep doing that.’ Ambrose instructed with a calm look. ‘Don’t stop.’
After five hours, Ambrose’s forehead was covered in sweat. Keeping up with the world of the soul was very exhausting for him. Thus, he stopped for a moment and slouched down, completely drained of his stamina.
Because he had been in the world of souls for five hours, only five minutes had passed in the outside world.
‘I wonder how many years people have spent in the world of souls without anyone knowing. If I spent the whole night there, many months would have passed, but only I would know it.’
It was a rather scary thought to be somewhere alone for so long.
However, he put those thoughts on an imaginary shelf in his mind and closed his eyes again before returning to world of souls.
‘Hmm…’ Ambrose saw the soul returning to meditating. He had a sudden thought. ‘I can’t move around, but I have heard about mental swordsmanship training. Let’s try doing that.’
While the soul tried harvesting and releasing the energy, Ambrose began imagining a scene in his mind. The scene happened in an empty dojo, with Ambrose standing at the center, surrounded by ethereal opponents.
The ethereal opponents started looking more and more like the Inquisitors. They stood up, drew their weapons, and attacked from all angles.
Imaginary Ambrose tried to fight back but was defeated in a matter of seconds. He didn’t lack strength, but in terms of techniques, he was nowhere close to them. He lost because his swordsmanship was weaker.
‘How should I Improve?’ Ambrose analyzed the moves of the Inquisitors. All the Inquisitors moved somewhat similarly because he was only imagining the fighting style of the three White Inquisitors who defeated him.
All the Inquisitors clearly had different fighting styles, but he didn’t know them, so he was basically fighting against clones of those three White Inquisitors.
His imaginary self had to rely on his instincts and adapt quickly to their unpredictable moves.
However, he continued losing.
While hours passed by in the outside world, Ambrose had lost track of time and didn’t know how many weeks or even months had passed. He was completely disconnected from reality as his imaginary self fought back against the monstrous White Inquisitors.
He had lost thousands of times. His imaginary self had died countless times, only to be revived again so it could continue fighting.
The floating soul’s eyelids fluttered, and it looked like it was about to grasp something!
Another few hours passed, and the darkness vanished into thin air, revealing a breathtaking sunrise. The doors opened in nearby cottages as the people of the village started doing their morning routine.
On top of the glorious temple stood a statue of a deity, bathed in the warm golden light of the rising sun. The deities hands carried a golden bell, which then automatically rang out a melodious chime.
The chime of the bell reverberated across the vast valley, waking up everyone in the village.
The villagers marveled at the beautiful sound, knowing that it was a sign of divine presence.
At the wooden cottage situated at the top of the stone path, Honorable Zhen returned from his night shift at the temple. He opened the door, put his sandals to the side, and saw an ajar door, showing a glimpse of a dark room.
He opened the door and saw a young man cross-legged on the bed. It didn’t look like he was breathing much.
“Time’s up.” Honorable Zhen said and then lit up the candle.
The young man’s body flinched before the eyelids fluttered and slowly opened, revealing dull blue eyes that felt deeper than the ocean itself.
“Oh, it’s morning?” Ambrose lifted his gaze and saw the bald-headed figure. He at first looked somewhat unfamiliar, but then flashes of memories flooded back.
“Ugh.” He grabbed his head and shook it. “How long has it been…”
Honorable Zhen frowned and asked. “Just how long were you in the world of souls?”
“I don’t know. Almost the whole night.” Ambrose said as he had lost track of time a long time ago.
“That is very dangerous.” Honorable Zhen said sternly. “Only a person who has mastered meditation should stay longer than a few hours in the world of souls. You might accidentally forget yourself or worse, lose your own soul to abyss.” 𝒩𝚘𝓋𝗅𝒩xt.𝐂𝑂
“Oh, that’s dangerous, huh.” Ambrose thought he felt fine, except for the small headache and fuzzy memories.
“Now, it’s time for you to leave.” Honorable Zhen grabbed the slightly torn map and handed it over to him. “Take this. I will help you leave the village unnoticed, but then you are on your own.”
“Did you forget our bet?” Ambrose looked at the bald-headed man. “If I successfully learn to hide my soul scent, you let me speak to the village chief.”
“Well, did you?” Honorable Zhen raised an eyebrow but was confident that no one could learn it in one night’s time. It should take months of tireless training to reach level 10 in meditation, and then many months inside the world of souls to teach the soul.
“Well, look at yourself.” Ambrose smiled mysteriously.
‘Why is he so confident? Did he really do it? No, it’s impossible!’ Honorable Zhen sat cross-legged on the floor and inhaled and exhaled before entering the world of souls.
He opened his eyes, and his soul jumped out of his body. They both looked around, but there was nothing there—not a single hint of soul scent.
‘I-Impossible!’ Honorable Zhen’s eyes trembled, and his breathing got rough. He couldn’t believe this. It was simply impossible to learn it so quickly!
‘H-he… how…’ He glanced at the smiling young man, who was frozen in time with an enigmatic expression on his face. ‘Did he really get Luck Awakening or is he simply incredibly talented in the ways of meditating?
‘Whatever it is, I have to ask Honorable Fang to arrange a meeting. The Wisdom King will have the answers to everything!’