The following day started much like any other.
The sun rose from the east way too early as always, stabbing with its bright sun rays in the eyes of the sleeping folk.
Gerald grumbled in his sleep and rolled over to avoid the light, only to land with his face deep in the sand.
"Puah! Okay, fine! I'm awake!" he shouted towards the sky after clearing his nose and mouth of the filthy dirt and grains of silicon. He slept well, just not long enough.
As the rest of the gang woke up, they went to take care of their bodily needs and then rapidly packed the camp and took down the tents that protected them from the cold night.
The breakfast they had on the move as the time was short and they had to go. The lizards had their own feed prepared by their master and packed to carry with them. After a few quick bites, they were ready.
Gerald then explicitly warned the group against waking him up unless it was absolutely necessary. Dug, despite not knowing what was going on, readily agreed. They were just going to be traveling in a straight line for the entire day anyway.
And so, having eaten well and drank plenty of water, Gerald took a relatively comfortable position in the saddle on top of his Earth Dragon and started Cultivating. His mind sank deep inside him, all the way down to his core where his Soul was anchored.
It didn't change from the night prior. It was still in bad shape and corrupted, tainted by all the filth he unwittingly absorbed in prior battles. He was still clueless as to why he had this unusual ability, but having nothing to go on, he couldn't even speculate.
And now he was back, faced with the nasty figure that was his Soul. The broken chunks and torn corrupted pieces tried to establish an equilibrium, equally spreading across his entire being. He could feel their force, the call for chaos.
Not much was needed to keep it at bay and he could move wherever he wanted with ease, but it was not enough. He had to eradicate the disease, the corruption, and the fragments of other beings that tried to take over his Soul, like monsters from a nightmare.
He worked hard, moving them further away, piece by piece, separating the healthy from the blighted. A simple guess would put his Soul at 50% pure versus 50% tainted.
It was a long road ahead of him, but he did it with glee. Especially since he was feeling better with each piece of filth moved further away from his core.
It was like a drowning man slowly gaining the ability to breathe again. It was not much, especially since he only did it for the second time yesterday, and now the third. He couldn't wait until it was all done. Perhaps then he could truly begin Cultivating for real, instead of just cleaning up the mess of the past.
Some hours later he awoke by himself. He felt tired, however, the grogginess he experienced the other two times was nowhere to be found. The progress also didn't slip back, and instead remained at about 20%. It was going well.
But the concentration was still too great for him to sustain it for an entire day. it was now barely a few hours past noon and he was already exhausted. It was also really hot, with barely any wind, so he looked into his Ring to get himself something refreshing to drink.
And would you know it, his thoughts landed upon the white crystalline spheres he found in the Phoenix Temple way back then. He had already forgotten about them, and for a good reason too.
He had absolutely no clue what they were!
Magic, explosions, hammer strikes, nothing seemed to budge these things. From his standpoint, they were simply indestructible ornaments that shone in the sun.
He took them out and examined them up close.
Was it perhaps somehow connected to Cultivation? It was found in a Phoenix Temple after all. Surely it had at least something to do with it.
Gerald scratched his chin. It was possible, he just had to find out how to make it work.
Some artifacts required Mana to awaken, but he tried that already and it didn't budge. It even rejected his energy as it was clearly not something it needed.
'Maybe, just maybe… What if it had to do something with the Soul?' The thought suddenly crossed Gerald's mind. That's something he didn't try yet.
'If I can somehow send a piece of my Soul inside…' The only problem was that the actual Soul was firmly anchored in the body, and could not leave it under any circumstances.
The Aura, the sphere of influence, the light membrane, or whatever it was called was the only thing that could expand and be in direct contact with the outside world.
Holding it in his hand, he tried to approach the sphere with a piece of his Soul.
It didn't work. There was absolutely no reaction.
Then he brought the sphere to his chest and tried to establish contact that way. It also didn't work.
The Soul was equally spread out throughout the body, except for the head where it was about a hundred times more concentrated. It made sense as that's where the consciousness originated.
He placed the white crystal sphere on his forehead and closed his eyes. The Soul swirled around inside him on its own and slowly moved towards the outside.
As soon as a part of his Soul passed through the bone and gathered beneath the outside layer of his skin, the orb suddenly reacted.
It felt like a bolt of lightning striking Gerald straight in the face, trying to bore through his skull and into his mind.
His entire being was thrown up by such an immensely painful feeling that he fell off his seat and into the sand while throwing the orb as far away as he could.
The sudden excruciating pain made him lose himself as he roared at the top of his lungs, back arched, legs kicking around wildly, and held his head.