Alexander was exhausted but excited. "Finally, I can slow down these trainings now," he said, bending forward with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
After a while, he straightened his posture and murmured in a low voice, "I should go back first and clean myself. I'll check what I've gained from leveling up later."
After taking a bath in the tub in his private chambers, Alexander felt refreshed. He then summoned the system's screen. First, he opened the Attributes app and checked his attributes.
Physique: 8
Agility: 8
Vitality: 8
Spirit Root: 9
Spirit Capacity: 9
Spirit Power: 9
Soul Sense: 30
Soul Sea: 30
Soul Force: 30
Attribute Points: 3
"Hmmm, aside from gaining three undistributed points, I also seem to have gained +1 point to all my attributes," Alexander discovered.
"Great! With this, I'll be able to increase my chances of getting into White Griffin Royal Academy. All my body and spirit attributes now seem closer to ten. I should probably start my Path Cultivation again in the next few days," Alexander thought excitedly.
"If only I had a manual for the Soul Sage Path. I've heard those are very rare," he mused. Suddenly, he remembered something and thought, "Wait—could that ring from the dead guy contain one?"
Alexander had considered opening the guy's spatial ring and checking its contents again over the past few days, but he hesitated. First of all, the ring was kind of creepy—it had a carving of a skull on it, which was an immediate red flag. What else could a skull represent but danger? Second, it contained some dark clothes and a creepy mask, suggesting that the owner was involved in something shady. Third and most importantly, the ring came from a dead guy who was most likely murdered. If Alexander got involved and learned too much, the killer might come after him next. He originally planned to throw the ring back into the hole or even dispose of the corpse and the ring somewhere far away.
Having read too many novels, Alexander knew this was dangerous. Yet, curiosity still tugged at him. "Damn, curiosity killed the cat," he muttered. Then he added with a smirk, "Whatever, I'm not a cat."
He took out the spatial ring from the Inventory App and began to examine its contents. First, there was a set of black robes. They looked similar to the robes of an assassin from a video game he played in his previous life—hooded, to cover the head, and designed to conceal the entire body except for the hands and feet. Next, there was a mask that resembled a Chinese Devil Mask, carved from wood and painted red. There was also a sword hidden inside a bamboo pole, several potions whose purposes he didn't recognize, some clothes, a pile of gold coins—some of which did not originate from the Holy Griffin Empire—and finally, a few books.
As Alexander looked at the contents, his suspicion grew stronger, confirming his guess that the owner of the ring had a shady background. This made him hesitate even more.
Calming himself slightly, he muttered, "Damn, can't you tone it down a bit on being shady?"
"Haiz, since I'm already this far, I might as well keep checking," he decided.
He turned to examine the books and was pleased to find the one he had been searching for.
"What a great coincidence—I'm looking for a Soul Path Cultivation manual, and here it is," Alexander thought with amusement.
The book appeared very old. It looked more like a stack of notes hastily piled together, then covered with a thick cover and bound with straw thread.
The book's title was Starry Sky's Soul Manual. As Alexander scanned through it, he saw that it described a method of harnessing natural energies from the stars in the sky to temper one's soul. According to his memory, this was a very peculiar way of training the soul, and he had certainly never heard of any similar methods.
Based on the book, this cultivation method was extremely demanding on the cultivator's soul talents, as forming a connection with the stars was incredibly difficult. It required connecting to a star— which are incredibly far away— and creating a reflection of it within one's soul.
Alexander was truly amazed by the intricacies of this book.
First, it was almost impossible for methods in this world to bridge such vast distances and establish a connection using only the soul. He clearly knew that the distance from a planet to a star is at least a few light years away.
Second, the more stars one could connect to, the faster their soul cultivation would progress. This is because the Soul Path Cultivation is an indirect process. One can only use techniques that enhance or hasten the natural development of the soul. Even without cultivating, the soul will still naturally progress, albeit very slowly.
Third, near the end of the book, it stated that surpassing ten thousand stars could enable a practitioner to go beyond the soul forging stage. This revelation shocked Alexander. Although information on soul training was rare, he knew there were only two major stages in Soul Sage Path Cultivation—yet the book hinted there might be more.
Alexander flipped through the last few pages of the book to see if there were any hints about what lay beyond the soul forging stage, but he didn't find what he was looking for.
A little disappointed, he wondered, "Is this Cultivation Manual incomplete?"
"Well, at least the first two major stages—Soul Tempering and Soul Forging—are covered," he consoled himself.
He returned to the first page to thoroughly read the book—or so. His attention immediately focused on the section detailing how to establish a connection with a star and create its reflection within his soul. If he hadn't skipped a certain page, he would have come across a warning: 'Do not connect with the Sun. Extremely dangerous—it will annihilate your soul instantly.'
After memorizing the steps, Alexander tried to recall them and practice mentally. "Too bad it's still afternoon, and there are no stars in the sky. I'm already itching to try it," he muttered, a bit irritated.
Suddenly, a brilliant idea popped into his head. "Wait a minute— the Sun is also a star, right? Yes! I'm such a genius. I'm sure the author of this book would praise me for being this smart."
He immediately went to his garden and began trying to connect to the Sun. After a few minutes, he succeeded. Now, it was time to create the reflection of the Sun within his soul. Following the instructions, he used the established connection to pull a trace of the Sun's aura and drag it into his soul to form the reflection. Everything went smoothly until the aura reached his soul. Suddenly, he felt a surge of pain in his soul and immediately fainted. His soul sea dried up, and his soul core shattered into billions of tiny light dots. His soul was destroyed on the spot when the aura arrived.
If he had read the warning or fully studied the entire Soul Tempering chapter beforehand, this wouldn't have happened. Besides the initial warning, there was also a section near the end of the chapter. It explained that the energy from a star's aura is extremely high, and during the process of traveling through the established soul connection, the aura dissipates. This is what makes the training so difficult—one must create a strong enough connection to the star so that the aura does not dissipate entirely and can form a proper reflection upon reaching the soul. From what happened, although Alexander's connection to the Sun was weak and fragile, the Sun was still too close, causing only a small amount of its aura's energy to dissipate as it traveled. This is what led to his soul's instant destruction.
'Ding'
[Special Skill Activated: Soul Reincarnation]
Within Alexander's destroyed soul, a dazzling light suddenly burst forth from something that resembled a small laptop. The tiny fragments of his shattered soul core began to drift toward its center, gradually rebuilding the core. It took about an hour for the soul core to be reconstructed. Then, it spun wildly to gather a new soul sea, a process that took another two hours. Remarkably, the trace of aura from the Sun finally formed a reflection of the Sun high above the soul sea. Alexander's destroyed soul was restored, and the reflection of the Sun was successfully created. Not only that, but the newly reformed soul core took on a reddish hue and shone more brightly than before.
All around the world, powerful Cultivators with strong souls sensed a sudden fluctuation from the Sun. It lasted only a moment, but they were certain it had occurred. Curious and alert, they began to wonder what this strange phenomenon might have been.
In a faraway place, on a boat in the middle of a lake, an old man dressed in a worn-out tunic and a straw hat opened his eyes. "The Sun just blinked," he said. A few moments later, he closed his eyes once more and resumed fishing with his rod.
Back in Alexander's garden, he woke up feeling dizzy and nursing a headache. He was confused about what happened. Right after he succeeded in pulling a wisp of the sun's aura through the connection he established, he experienced a sharp pain in his mind and fainted. When he woke up, it was already almost dark, and he was lying on the ground. Thankfully, no one in the manor noticed him there.
Suddenly, he heard Sara AI's mocking voice, "Congratulations User, you've accomplished a magnificent feat, not even two weeks from reincarnating, and you died again."
"What?" Alexander was so shocked. He quickly summoned his system's screen and saw several notifications.
[ System Notice: User's soul is dissipating ]
[ Special Skill Activated: Soul Reincarnation ]
[ Achievement Unlocked: Reincarnator (Soul) 2 ]
He went on to check the details of the Special Skill
[ Special Skill Activated: Soul Reincarnation
Details: Triggered upon destruction of the soul. This special skill will repair the soul (duration of repair is based on how powerful the soul is.)
Cooldown: 10 years (Timer: 9 years 11 months 29 days 20 hours 58 mins) ]
"Damn, I really died earlier. Thank God I had this plot armor special skill," Alexander sighed.
"Sarah, was this skill also the reason I got reincarnated into this world?" Alexander asked.
"Indeed," Sarah replied.
"Then why am I still here in this world and haven't moved on to another?" Alexander asked.
"Your body and spirit didn't die, so your soul remained inside. It was simply reinstated back into your body," Sarah explained.
"Fuck, this is so shameful. I've only been here for, what, 13 days? I didn't even encounter any enemies, and I managed to die just like that. So much for my main protagonist vibes," Alexander lamented to himself.
"Indeed, shameful," Sarah mocked.
"Damn it" Alexander cursed.
He then went on to check the achievement notice.
[ Achievement Unlocked: Reincarnator (Soul) 2
Details: Get reincarnated using the Special Skill 'Soul Reincarnation'. (Repeatable)
Rewards: +10 to all Soul Attributes
Current Count: 2 ]
"This achievement isn't actually that bad. If only the skill didn't have a ten-year cooldown, I'd be tempted to spam it," Alexander mused.
"Let me check my soul, too—maybe there was some damage," Alexander thought.
He then went into meditation. Having practiced this many times over the past few days, he became familiar with the process and was able to reach his soul in just a few minutes.
Upon reaching his soul, he noticed a familiar scene, with only a few differences. First, his 'Soul Sea' was slightly larger. Second, his 'Soul Core' had a tinge of red and was brighter. He recalled that this change would occur as he progressed in the Soul Sage Path Cultivation—the soul would change its color through the Soul Tempering stage, shifting from white to red, then orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and finally black.
The third change was the one that truly surprised him: there was a sun hanging above his Soul Sea. It wasn't a star, but a sun. This unexpected transformation was what caught him off guard the most. He didn't know if this was good or bad. But he couldn't care anymore as he remembered something important.
"Fuck its already late. I need to finish up my attribute grinding routines."