After filling their stomachs to the brim and talking for hours the brothers went their own separate ways once again.
Michael was impatient to return to the Origin Expanse. He wanted to advance to Tier-1.
Danny stayed in the Central Trading Hall for some time while Michael hailed a shuttle to return home. Once inside the apartment, Michael willed the War Rune to form the Runic Gate to take him back to the Origin Expanse.
Back in the Origin Expanse, Michael told Tiara and the others that he would focus on advancing to Tier-1 and that he shouldn’t be bothered if there is nothing important.
After that, he isolated himself inside his room.
He sat down on the bed cross-legged and closed his eyes. Michael focused on the pulsating War Rune on the back of his right hand. He didn’t divert his focus and entered the depth of his consciousness not long after.
A source of light appeared in his inner eye. Michael could see a pillar of light in the center of his consciousness, surrounded by several wisps of light and both the Symbol of Extraction, and the Symbol of Eagle Eyes.
Dimly lit streams of light were sucked toward the pillar of light from all directions, which made it seem as if the pillar of light was branching out in all directions, reaching every single nerve and cell inside Michael’s body.
After Michael focused on the state of his entire body, he was able to see that his entire body was faintly lit up. Michael knew that his entire body was filled with energy but he had never seen this state from the inside. So far, he had only felt it.
The state of being able to see inside his body was called introspection. It allowed him to see the energy invigorating his body, his Soultraits, the Artifacts revolving around his War Rune, and the pillar of light – which was what the War Rune looked like from within.
Michael took a deep breath now that he was able to see what happened inside his body. He focused on the streams of energy that were sucked inside the pillar of light and used his willpower to accelerate the flow of energy.
From one moment to the next the faint stream of energy turned into a thundering flood.
This phenomenon occurred to the streams of energy all around the pillar of light, which began to pulsate strongly.
The pillar of light that had been restricted through an invisible barrier slowly expanded.
The sound of crackling glass rang through Michael’s entire being. It grew louder with every second and turned into a thunderous explosion as the pillar of light broke through the invisible barrier.
Soothing warmth and unfathomable power swept through Michael in the next instance. Simultaneously, dazzling light filled his senses, forcing Michael to escape.
His dark eyes shot wide open, and he began to gasp for air. His body felt extremely warm the next instant, but it was not soothing at all. No, on the contrary, it was a burning heat that spread through the deepest parts of his body as if he was on fire.
The burning heat first emerged inside his heart. Michael felt as if his heart would melt on the spot, and he could barely endure the pain and not scream his lungs out. His fingernails cut deep in the soft flesh of his palms, while he grit his teeth as the searing hot warmth began to spread through his blood vessels.
At first, Michael was worried. He was getting increasingly restless, only to recall that every Awakened would undergo a natural cleansing upon advancing to the next Tier.
Michael had learned that natural cleansing was miraculous and that it allowed Lords and Awakened to become much stronger, but why did nobody ever tell him that it would be this painful?
Was his body actually filled with rubbish?
Michael couldn’t have imagined that the human body was that filthy and overflowing with impurities. Understanding this was enough to clench his fists even tighter and endure the natural cleansing.
As long as his first natural cleansing was successful and completed smoothly his overall strength would increase drastically.
Michael accepted the searing heat that spread through his blood vessels and let it do its work. Once it had spread evenly across the blood vessels all over Michael’s body, the searing heat started to push itself outward.
The pores all over Michael’s body opened and the first dots of black mass appeared on his body. The impurities smelled the worst, but that was given.
Time seemed to slow down as the impurities inside his body were pushed outward and soon layers of the badly reeking black mass covered his body from head to toe.
They engulfed his body like a second layer of skin, hiding the golden glowing human skin beneath.
Only the faintly golden glowing streams in his hands were a bit visible.
Michael was not sure how long it had been, but he got an idea as his body was being cooked by the searing heat that spread through him.
If it was possible to use Extraction on the Summoning Crystals to extract some Impurities, why shouldn’t the same be possible on his body?
His pores were already opened and the searing heat spreading through his body loosened some of the impurities that were deeply embedded after having accumulated over the years.
By using Extraction to extract more impurities, Michael didn’t harm his body. On the contrary, he used Extraction to enhance the effect of his first body cleansing.
It was dangerous because Michael had never done something like that, but he didn’t want to waste the severe pain that spread from his pinky toe up to the last strand of hair on his head. It was uncomfortable and hurt either way, so Michael felt that it couldn’t get much worse.
A body void of impurities would be the best. His strength would increase by a few times, and he would be able to achieve things that were unthinkable right now.
However, Extraction was only a 3-Star Soultrait. It was not strong enough to extract all impurities inside his body. The first body cleansing removed some impurities within him, but it was not omnipotent either.
Attaining a perfect body was not feasible.
It was said to be impossible.
But was that really the case?