A nap wasn't the right word Xue Chang would use to describe what he had woken up from.
He felt like he had been in a coma for several years and had finally snapped out of it.
His mind was a jumbled mess as he attempted to shake off the dizziness that consumed him.
A stinging pain on his arm sharpened his mind a bit, and as he looked over he could see a small puncture wound there.
With a single thought, the injury immediately repaired itself as he got up from the ground he was lying on.
Xue Chang had the strangest dream. He felt like he did something incredible but didn't know what.
"You're up-"
A tired voice rang in his head as he looked over to see where the kind came from. And to
His surprise, he saw Tian Hai sitting there beaten and bruised with a strange white blade in his grasp.
"Tian Hai? What's going on, where are we?"
Xue Chang froze for a second in shock. His own voice was extremely hoarse and the more he tried to speak the more he realized that his mouth was completely dried up.
"Xue Chang? Is that really you?"
"No, I'm Lou Lan." Xue Chang gave back a sarcastic answer with a dumbfounded look on his face. Couldn't Tian Hai tell it was him just from looking?
"Good, you're back."
"Back, did I go anywhere?"
"No- no it's just... sigh it's a long story."
Tian Hai got up from his seated position and helped Xue Chang completely get back up on his feet.
His body felt weak and a little shaky but after a couple of steps he regained his footing easily. Looking over at Tian Hai, Xue Chang couldn't help but give a double take as he noticed the aura around Tian Hai.
Although before he was able to barely perceive the true cultivation of some of the people around him, it was very vague. Plus the stronger one was the harder it was for him to read it.
But things were a little different. He was now able to see a person's aura, and while he wasn't sure how, he could instinctually obtain some information out of it.
He wasn't sure how he knew what he knew, but he was positive that what he was being fed was accurate. He also felt that his ability to sense aura had changed in some way. It felt more powerful than usual.
"You're in the first level of Qi refinement! And as an elemental cultivator as well!"
Xue Chang couldn't believe what he was seeing. Even with his unique cultivation method and their uncommon quantity of earth fire, he knew that Tian Hai and Tian Kai would break through eventually but it was too quick!
"Did you destabilize your foundation?"
To his question, Tian Hai just shook his head with a weary smile in his face, "I told you, long story. Honestly what I experienced might be crazier than what you've seen so far."
Tian Hai brought the two of them down back into the chamber. While walking he explained everything he experienced within the last few hours.
"You're saying I stopped the dragon?"
"Yeah but it was weird, it was as if you weren't you. I'm not sure exactly what was so different about you but you just... felt different. And then you gave me this sword."
Holding up the blade before him, Tian Hai swung it a few times before putting it back down.
"And then you just passed out. I stayed there for a while just waiting until you woke up again."
Xue Chang quietly thought to himself as he questioned Tian Hai.
"But why?"
"Excuse me?"
"Why did you put yourself at such risk for me? If anything went wrong you would've died, what made you even think of absorbing the spiritual force within me? Not only that but your internal organs aren't doing so well either. If you are trying to repay me for saving you and Tian Kai all those years ago, you don't have to. I told you already, you owe me nothing!"
Pausing his steps for a second, Tian Hai turned to face Xue Chang calmly.
An eerily calm expression embraced his face as he said in a harsh tone, "I didn't do it out of a debt of gratitude... aren't we friends? You said it to me years ago"
[I'm not your master or owner, nor your debtor or teacher. I'm your friend, as long as you watch my back I'll watch yours.]
"You've helped me and Tian Kai all this time but don't you ever forget, we are your friends. You kept watching our backs and as your friend I'll do the same. Understand?"
Xue Chang had no words as they continued there walk down the steps, eventually returning to the chamber where Tian Kai was still passed out.
Sending a swift kick over to his little brother, Tian Hai shouted out in order to get him to wake up.
Tian Hai wobbled and groaned as his slumber was disturbed, "Mmmm five more minutes."
A couple of rough punches later, all three of them left the chamber together.
"Despite all of that, we still aren't any closer to figuring out what happened to the village. We don't even know if this chamber had any connection to that slaughter!"
Tian Hai nodded at Xue Chang's words as he thought to himself, "If only we knew what that orb was. Maybe it's the missing piece of the puzzle we need."
Suddenly Xue Chang's eyes lit up as he realized he might have a way to figure out what it was.
Faintly, ever so faintly, he did remember Yong Heng calling it by a certain name before.
"I have an idea, give me a second. My throat hurts a bit and I need a drink. Head back to the village and keep searching for clues, I'll catch up soon."
Walking away and reading toward the nearby stream, Xue Chang immediately attempted to contact Yong Heng.
"Hey, you there?"
"Yes, and I already know what you want to ask. It's called a spirit seal, and while it isn't something insane or rare, it's not something that should be found here."
"A spirit seal? So it seals up spiritual force?"
Xue Chang connected the spirit in its name to spiritual force since it was producing a ton of the stuff just momo moments prior.
But Yong Heng gave a disapproving snort as he explained, "Spiritual force? No, that's not the use of the orb. It's purpose is to produce spiritual force, of various forms, but it's main use is the ability to capture and seal souls."
His words made Xue Chang spit out the water he was drinking. Coughing out the last few drops of liquid trapped in his throats, he wiped the spittle off of his mouth while asking, "Souls? What do you mean by that?"
"I mean exactly what I said. The spirit seal has the ability to capture the souls of human beings and convert it into power. You should understand Xue Chang, souls are an extremely valuable resource. It is the very core of all living things, the more powerful the person the greater the soul."
He spoke in a matter of fact tone of voice. And while nothing seemed to strange about how he was acting, Xue Chang felt that he was a little off today. He was answering his question too easily, and not avoiding anything at all.
He continued to give some explanations about the orb while adding in a few more details about souls.
"-you see even you should understand how valuable a soul is, if it wasn't for your own soul then you'd be able to virtually live forever. The body can die or be rebuilt but the soul is vital to ones existence. As such if it were to be converted into power, imagine how much you could get out of it. Usually these spirit seals would be used by those cruel cultivator to speed up their cultivation, but rarely would it be used during a village slaughter like this."
That very last sentence immediately made Xue Chang's ears perk up.
"You mean the village slaughter was to obtain their souls?"
"Of course, but this method is very cruel. The perpetrator killed so many mortals just to fill up this orb, but why mortal souls. The conversion rate of cultivator souls to mortal souls is immense. So slaughtering this mortal village doesn't make sense..."
"And what happens to these souls trapped inside of the orb exactly?"
Yong Heng stayed silent for a second before finally deciding to answer, "They are completely removed from the reincarnation cycle. There is no second chance for them, once their soul dissipates they are gone forever."
Hearing these words, Xue Chang's face blanched. That meant that the seal within his stomach contained innumerable souls that were slowly being killed.
"We have to save them, is there a way to release the seal!"
Xue Chang quickly tried to see if he could save them before it was too late but Yong Heng's response dashed this hope.
"There is but it won't matter even if you try."
"But why!?"
"Because the souls are already gone."
Hearing the answer for himself he couldn't believe it. Xue Chang was angry, very angry.
Someone had purposefully killed all those people, just for the sake of filling the orb. But for what and why? Who did this? The only lead he had was the woman who appeared at the auction. He needed answers, and he was determined to find them!
"So all of the spiritual force that the golems and Tian Hai absorbed was actually... the soul of other human beings."
While Xue Chang thought of this, he realized something odd. Yong Heng had said that the conversion rate of mortal to cultivators was vastly different, yet within the chamber several cultivators had been slain and he refused to believe the orb didn't absorb their spirits.
And considering how much spiritual force both Tian Kai and the golems consumer, things weren't adding up.
"Yong Heng... if all of the spirits in the chamber were added up all together and converted to energy, and if souls really are that powerful, then those golems and Tian Hai wouldn't be enough to empty the orb... where are the rest of the souls?!"
He received no response for a couple of minutes, but a sound that almost sounded like a sigh rang within his mind.
"...theirs was a worthy sacrifice-"
"Where are they!?"
But Xue Chang didn't need an answer. Looking into himself he could already feel it.
His soul had been strengthened even further, and his own strength had increased. No wonder why he felt as if his abilities have been enhanced even further when he was inspecting Tian Hai earlier.
Xue Chang had absorbed the souls himself.