"Still...you put in too much ethereal energy into your attack. How can you absorb it's life essence when it's already dead? You should have just left it in a near dead state and it would have been enough." Luna sighed.
"Well, it's not like I could help it. This is my first time using this skill and its way too overpowered." Damien knew it would take him a few tries to fine tune his usage of ethereal energy. But he also felt it bad that he couldn't absorb the life essence of the dead beast. After all, it had a stronger ethereal cultivation than him.
He didn't plan to absorb the soul essence of ethereal beasts since their soul cultivation was very poor compared to their ethereal cultivation. So, it would do no good to Damien if he absorbs the soul essence of ethereal beasts weaker than him in soul cultivation.
Generally, ethereal beasts weren't intelligent enough to cultivate their soul on their own. But ethereal cultivation was simply as easy as breathing for them. As long as they feed on other ethereal beasts or herbs with strong ethereal essence then their ethereal strength would automatically improve.
"Anyway, it's fine. I will take its ethereal core and just hunt for more." Damien smirked.
"Well, aren't you forgetting something?" Luna smiled whimsically.
"Oh, you mean I don't have a blade with me. Well…" Damien scratched his head.
It's not that he didn't forget about needing a blade if he needs to cut open an ethereal beast. It's just that he had no means of obtaining or buying a good enough blade. However, his main purpose for hunting ethereal beasts in the dead of night was to improve his ethereal cultivation and the idea of selling their ethereal cores for spirit stones only dawned upon him now.
Since he already thought of selling pills as a money making scheme, he didn't bother to think of any other methods.
He then thought of using Searing Strike Rendering Worlds to cleave open its belly. But didn't feel much confidence about cutting it open perfectly without damaging the core.
'I guess simple spatial rings won't be sufficient for him in the long run...' A thought flashed through Luna's mind.
"Ha..., no need to beat your brains out thinking of a solution. You can use my soul space to store that filthy thing." Luna said with a sigh of irritation.
"Wait...what? Your soul space? You can store things in your soul space?" Damien had a blinking expression on his face.
"Of course, do you think this goddess' soul is simple? I can store potentially an infinite number of things."
'But why is she offering her help without any benefit? Especially when she's willing to store a filthy corpse in her own words.' Damien was puzzled thinking when Luna became so generous.
He knew that there must be some other reason she was offering her help on her own.
But he decided not to think too much about it and take advantage of her help before she changes her mind.
"Of course, sure. Please store this carcass in your soul space. In fact, do you mind if I use your soul space to store everything I need in the future?" Damien asked expectantly.
If he can use her soul space to store his things, why would there be any need to buy those expensive spatial rings.
"Hmph, I knew you would ask that. I have divided a certain amount of my soul space and linked it to your soul plane. The soul space I have given you is more than big enough for your needs. So, you need not bother me every time you need to store something. You can store things on your own and consider that soul space as your own." Luna said factually.
'Wow, she even made me a master of a portion of her soul space? Isn't that like she's sharing her room with me? Did she hit her head somewhere or....?' Damien felt that the chance of the world ending tomorrow is more than the chance Luna is being generous.'
But he knew better than that to ask her why. As long as it's beneficial to him why should he care.
But he wondered if he could also store things in his soul once his soul cultivation is at a certain stage.
"What other unimaginable things can you do?" Damien eagerly asked.
"Hmpf, you will know when you need to know." Luna scoffed.
Damien sighed as he shook his head.
——
*welp*
A Brown Clay Wolf at the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm was lying on the ground with its limbs singed and shriveled like a dead branch.
Damien learned to fork his lightning bolt so that it can split up and attack certain areas of his target, though the power would diminish the more branches of lightning he makes from the bolt.
Damien walked towards it with an apathetic expression in his eyes. He was proud that he managed not to kill it before absorbing its life essence.
He crouched down and put his palm on the belly of the helpless wolf. With the help of his Anti-God Arts, Damien started absorbing its life essence.
The wolf's body started shriveling as if it's body was aging; it's muscles started sagging and its fur started to become thinner and lose its sheen. Within just a few seconds, the wolf looked like it had neared the end of its lifespan. Soon, its eyes drooped and slowly closed as its breathing came to a halt.
"Don't absorb it right now." Luna warned.
"Why not?" Damien asked.
"It's better if you accumulate the life essences of the wolves you are going to kill and then try to absorb them in one go." Luna instructed.
Damien didn't ask any further as he stored the life essence of the Brown Claw Wolf in his ethereal core to be absorbed later.
——-
"Ha...ha….I think I have lost count of how many I killed."
Two hours before daybreak, Damien was sitting on a rock trying to restore his spent ethereal energy. He had used his Shattering Strike Rendering Worlds too many times to finish off the wolves. But he avoided using Mirage of Myriad Phantasms too much since he didn't want to exhaust his energy needlessly.
However, he did get to absorb a lot of life essence in total. But he didn't meet any wolves above the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm since he hunted only on the outer regions of the forest.
Most of them were either at the tenth level of the Initial Ethereal level or the first level of the Nascent Ethereal Realm. The rest were too weak that Damien didn't even glance at them as he killed them.
He had been killing and cutting down the wolves for hours like a madman who had some personal vendetta against the wolves.
Well, Damien hadn't forgotten how these very same wolves pushed him to near death at the slave market. Maybe that was also one of the reasons that kept him going.
But there was not a speck of blood on his clothes. All of his kills had been clean.
"I think I feel like I can break through to the Nascent Ethereal Realm now." Damien stated.
"You seriously want to try and breakthrough here?" Luna raised one of her eyebrows.
"Well, I am confident that there are no more wolves lurking around this area. Not in at least a 200 meter radius. More wolves would only wander here after a few hours anyway." Damien confidently said.
"Ha...go ahead and do whatever you want. All this impatience for a girl…" Luna shook her head in helplessness.
Damien didn't comment anything and closed his eyes as he started focusing on his ethereal core to prepare for his breakthrough!