"Sigh…."
A strange, eight-coloured soul hovered over Fan Zhi's prone body. The eyes and hair of the soul were an incandescent black just like Fan Zhi.
Despite the soul's quite transparent form, it still radiated a powerful, but very natural-seeming aura.
Looking at Fan Zhi, the soul's eyes seemed to turn softer. After all, it had always been observing him, even if Fan Zhi hadn't been able to tell until recently.
Watching over Fan Zhi for a decade, seeing him grow and mature had caused the soul to feel almost like Fan Zhi was a son to him.
"You resemble someone I once knew so much. He was much like you, born with the inability to cultivate. One day, however, he discovered that he possessed near impossibly high soul talent with an affinity for the attributes of space and time.
Comprehending the laws of these attributes, the boy decisively abandoned his own body to forge a new body with his comprehensions. The body he created was a Sacred body of the Dao of Space-Time so strong that it summoned a Tribulation upon him. However, he had to sacrifice his cultivation to survive the Tribulation."
Musing to himself quietly, the soul stopped speaking when he noticed Fan Zhi was beginning to rouse.
Fan Zhi's eyes soon fluttered open and he raised his arms to tiredly rub his puffy eyes.
Sitting up, Fan Zhi observed his surroundings and promptly found the eight coloured soul.
Staring at it for a minute, Fan Zhi then stood up before the soul and bowed to the best of his ability with his cramped body.
"Senior."
The soul looked at Fan Zhi for a while, before smiling slightly.
"Good kid, you passed the trial perfectly; even comprehending the Primordial Dharma, one of the 10 Divine Dharma."
"I would like to thank you for the opportunity senior."
"Why? The reason you could have such a chance was due to your own efforts, I only gave the opportunity, you seized it."
"I am thanking you for something else senior."
"What are you thanking me for inheritor?"
"The chance to say goodbye."
The soul fell silent.
It knew exactly what Fan Zhi meant, but never realised that Fan Zhi could have been able to tell what he had done.
Seeing the soul have no reply, Fan Zhi continued.
"If you hadn't of used the now deceased souls of my parents and grandfather, then how would I have been able to say my farewell?"
"How could you tell?"
"Simple, out of all of the replicas within the trial they were the only ones to have a sense of identity. The rest all blamed me for similar things sure, but they spoke as if it was separate from them."
The soul was shocked; such attentiveness to detail was quite rare to come by, and especially in someone who was only 15 years of age.
He had tried his best to be subtle about what he had done for Fan Zhi, but it was evidently caught by Fan Zhi quite early on.
He had originally intended to give Fan Zhi's loved ones to say the last words they wanted to say to their son before they passed away as a thank you for their care of his inheritor, but he didn't realize that Fan Zhi would discover this.
After Fan Zhi's explanation, silence reigned for several minutes. Both the Soul and Fan Zhi had something on their mind; Fan Zhi was still pondering on the events of the past few days and the soul was internally debating upon how much information it should give Fan Zhi.
The trial had only taken a couple hours, despite how it felt like several days to Fan Zhi. Fan Zhi was the one to break the silence.
"Are you from within the Pearl?"
"Yes. Since you passed the test, you can acknowledge me as your master."
The soul's voice turned arrogant.
It wasn't an irrational or immature arrogance, but the arrogance and self-confidence of one who knew just how powerful he was.
It was the arrogance of a true expert.
He didn't care for his face or his pride, the soul simply believed in himself; he believed in his breadth of knowledge and experience.
"Are you the one whose inheritance is contained within the Pearl?"
"That is my inheritance yes."
"Will you take away your inheritance if I don't accept?"
"No, I won't. The experts who do that are those who care about their pride. If you don't want to become my disciple, then I won't force you. I will simply ask you to leave the Pearl in any random place, so I can find another to pass my inheritance to who has the talent. So, will you accept me as your master."
Fan Zhi was in contemplation.
The reason he asked the last question wasn't just because he was scared of refusing, but also because he wanted to see the temperament of the soul.
After all, what kind of person would want to be under someone who cared more about their pride than their disciples?
Smiling lightly, Fan Zhi replied in assent to the soul's question.
"Yes I will, master."
"Good… Good… Good. I accept you formally as my personal disciple Fan Zhi. Now, I hate formalities so stop kowtowing kid. Alright, you got any questions?"
Fan Zhi nodded and asked a question he had been confused about for a while.
"You said I had comprehended the Primordial Dharma, what did you mean? What is a Dharma?"
Sighing internally, the soul decided to just give Fan Zhi the commonly known knowledge for people in the realm, this small planet being far too weak to know anything about things like Dharma.
"A Dharma is… complicated. To put it simply, a Dharma is a form of qi that you can use to cultivate that keeps its properties no matter the attribute of qi you use. Everyone has a particular Dharma that they can comprehend and no matter what, they will only ever have comprehended or had the chance to comprehend that Dharma."
"Why?"
"Because comprehending a Dharma requires the cultivator to discover their path, their way of life or innermost desires so to speak. This comes from the core being of a person and will never change; therefore, they will never comprehend another Dharma, if they even comprehend a Dharma at all…"
"What do you mean, 'if they even comprehend a Dharma at all…'?"
"Well… comprehending a Dharma is an incredibly rare thing for people who haven't reached a certain level of cultivation. Even if they reach that level, it requires quite the lucky chance to get the opportunity to comprehend their Dharma. For someone your age to comprehend a Dharma isn't too rare since many genii your age in the realm have reached the level that Dharma becomes important to cultivation, but for someone of your cultivation to do so is something that I have never seen except in the so-called 'Heaven's Children'."
Fan Zhi was nodding lightly, having understood the explanation of the soul.
The soul decided that any more information on advanced things like Dharma would be detrimental to Fan Zhi until he reached the cultivation levels in which Dharma played a large role.
"That is all the information I can give you in relation to the specific uses of Dharma, for now, the rest is all irrelevant to you at the moment. The most your comprehension of the Primordial Dharma will do at the moment is further increase the purity and density of your Qi. It will take time to do since it will have to cycle the natural ambient qi, but ambient primordial qi will be what you end up absorbing to cultivate now. I would suggest not advancing in cultivation until you have fully switched because then the benefits will be at their highest."
"Errr… What are the other types of Dharma?"
The soul looked at Fan Zhi when Fan Zhi spoke.
Examining Fan Zhi after hearing his question, the soul saw only curiosity in Fan Zhi's eyes.
"There are a near infinite amount of Dharmas kid, but all of them fall under 10 other Dharma which all together make The Dharma, which is literally everything. These 10 Dharma are called the 10 Divine Dharma, each of these Dharma do different things for a cultivator that has comprehended them.
Your Primordial Dharma is one of them and is related to your strength as a cultivator in general; it is the path of power. However, not all the things that result from comprehending a Dharma are positive.
Let's take your Primordial Dharma for example, what are the downsides of increasing the purity and density of your qi? It is the same downside that affects the early Domain cultivators of the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] too."
"err… It makes the qi harder to control?"
"Precisely! Not just your qi, but everything that the Primordial Dharma enhances -much like the [Elemental Divinity Scripture]- is harder to control."
"Wait… you said 'much like the [Elemental Divinity Scripture]? Does the [Elemetnal Divinity Scripture] make it harder to control other things like it does for qi?"
"Yes, it does. Your ability to control your physical strength is less and also your ability to manipulate your soul force is harder. Luckily, the cultivation method for the Nebula and Aegis Domains of your soul cultivation in the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] aim at increasing the connection your soul has to your other cultivation systems."
Seeing Fan Zhi's confused expression, the soul chuckles lightly.
It is easy for the soul to forget that Fan Zhi is only around 15 years old.
Fan Zhi acts like he is older and things like comprehending his Dharma make him seem older as well due to the fact that normally people are in their twenties at the earliest they comprehend their Dharma.
Stifling his chuckles, the soul simplifies his explanation.
"To simplify what I just said; in the Nebula and Aegis Domains of soul cultivation, the [Elemental Divinity Scripture] will focus on the control of your physical body, qi and soul force. Usually, this problem of control would be solved by the time you reached the peak of the Nebula Domain, but you comprehending the Primordial Dharma means that you will only have the same level of control as others of your cultivation when you reach the peak of the Aegis Domain."
"Oh... Okay."
Fan Zhi nods again, understanding the simpler explanation from the soul.
The atmosphere turns quiet again, Fan Zhi wanting to question the soul more but is not sure how to ask.
The soul notices Fan Zhi's hesitation and decides to take the lead in the conversation.
"What is the question kid?"
"Ahhh, earlier at the end of the test you mentioned something about a Heavenly Necropolis. What did you mean?"
The soul started in surprise.
He had muttered those words unconsciously, thinking that Fan Zhi had already been unconscious.
However, it was information that was beyond what someone Fan Zhi's cultivation and was also a useless piece of information anyway.
"That is fairly useless information. It is just what experts of the realm call this location. There is one in every realm. Ohhh!... A realm is simply a collection of planets that orbit a sun by the way."
"Ohh ok. So, what do we do now?"
"What do we do now? Simple. We need to make you strong enough to safely pass through the forest. You have chosen the Primordial Dharma, the path of power, so it is clear you desire strength am I right? You also love cultivation and training in general if what I saw of your life since you inherited my Pearl is correct."
"Yes, that is true. So I simply should cultivate and become strong?"
"For the moment yes. Although planning ahead is good, we don't really have any goals to achieve as of right now except leave the forest. I have several things I might ask you to do, but you are far too weak to even mention what they involve right now. Therefore, growing strong it is. Now then, why don't we start."