He just touched the surface of the nest and observed it trying to figure out the species of the bird living here, but just at this time, he felt something wrong. When he pushed one side of the nest he found it was too soft and squishy like there was nothing below it.
Kale carefully pulled aside that part of the nest and found a football-size hole at the growth point of the branch where it was joining the upper trunk of the tree.
Kale's eyes shined, he took out a mini torch he prepared in advance and looked inside the trunk, the trunk was hollow from inside, it was empty and was covered in webs.
The interior of the tree was quite spacious, an adult man could easily sit inside it without any problem. Kale thought about it and tapped the outside part of the trunk, he was surprised to find out that just by the sound it was almost impossible to tell that the tree was hollow from inside. The surface of the tree was hard but the algae outside affected the tapping sound.
'A good place,' Kale thought, He first used his knife to further expand the hole to make it big enough for him to enter, he then took out four small square paper which carried the soul essence of four foxes and pasted them at the edges of the hole with equal distance from each other.
He made a small cut on his finger and added a drop of blood on each paper then carefully entered the hollow tree while hiding the entrance again using the abandoned nest.
Just after a few seconds, he had entered the hollow space inside the trees, the red diagram on the four square papers got deformed like someone sprayed water on them. Then a faint gloomy atmosphere appeared around that place, giving a bad feeling to any life around it, making them subconsciously avoid it. The old tree now felt like a cursed tree that shouldn't be approached by living beings.
Kale used the small torch in his hand to lighten his surroundings and clear the webs using his knives.
'I thought I would have to dig out a small cave under a tree or make a temporary hideout on a big tree but it looks like there is no need anymore, I can spend the night here without a problem. It was a good idea to buy cold resistance inner wear instead of leather armour, I also have compressed glucose biscuits. Everything's good it's time to start serious cultivation,' Kale thought while checking the leather pouch on his waist.
Earlier when he told Layla that he would be heading out of Academy tonight and won't go to his room, it was of course a lie moreover it was an obvious lie but he wasn't worried about Layla figuring it out because no one in the right mind would ever do that.
They won't do something like this unless they are moving in a group and heading to a faraway place, why would they stay at night in the dangerous forest when they have the luxurious dorms of the Academy?
Kale took out ten of the twenty remaining Soul Essence Seals and pasted them into a specific pattern on the inner walls of the tree. After they were arranged on the wall, he manipulated his finger bone to cause a small injury on his fingertip. Then drew several blood lines to make a diagram that connected all those Soul Essence Seals taking them as nodes to form a pentagon-like pattern.
Five seals were inside the pattern while five on the edges.
Kale then pressed his hand in the center of the diagram and activated the contract.
A strange phenomenon happened outside the tree, tiny newborn leaves of the trees in the vicinity that were full of vitality a moment ago started to curl up, a few of them directly withered. The insects flying around among the trees fell on to the ground and became motionless.
Soon after, Kale felt the inside of the tree wasn't gloomy anymore, the dried tree was now full of vitality. The hollow tree was acting like a cursed tree from outside while a holy one from the inside, it absorbed the vitality and life from the surrounding and filled its insides with it.
Kale looked at the small cuts on his finger, that automatically healed at a speed visible to the naked eyes.
'Good it's working, I have decided to cultivate «Nether Venom Body» although its origin is the same as «Demonic Poison Body», it has differences, its offensive power is lower, the poison it cultivates is different and isn't made to instantly kill, it also has a lot of restrictions like not being able to eat flesh until reaching the entry mastery level.
But it has better compatibility with «Undying Flesh Seed» because of its attribute moreover it doesn't have terrifying side effects like poisonings the user on overusing it. In some ways, it's like a modified version of «Demonic Poison Body».
But whether it's «Demonic Poison Body» or «Nether Venom Body» both have a pre-requirement before starting to cultivate them, that is, a strong vitality-filled body.
A 15-year-old child like me isn't suitable for it that's why I will first cultivate a body strengthening technique suitable for me, and that is «Snake King Body Toning Art»,' Kale organized his thought.
He waited until there was enough vitality inside the tree.
During the wait, he did simple cultivation and nurtured his body using Battle Qi.
Under the effect of the contract, the vital energy that was sucked inside the tree was sealed inside, there were no traces of it being leaked outside, moreover, the seal created at the opening of the hollow tree was already an additional measure in case of leakage.
'Snake King Body Toning Art'
Kale sat cross-legged, placed his hands on his knees while keeping them straight, he then closed his eyes and circulated Battle Qi in his body according to the ways recorded in «Snake King Body Toning Art».
If the use of Battle Qi is excluded, the technique only had two main steps.
In the first step, stop breathing from the nose and inhale using the pores on the body until you can't inhale more.
In the second step, keep the air inside the body as long as you can hold then release it.
Just repeating these two steps is the main focus of the technique, as long as one keeps doing it their aura points all over their body will open up which is highly beneficial for any type of cultivator. But is it that easy? Simply put, it's impossible to do it in one go. Even if Kale had cultivated for hundreds of years.
But there is a trick to it, which was to force open aura points using the Qi, in this case, it's Battle Qi. Doing this will damage the body or overly strain it at the very least, that's why Kale used the 10 soul seals to make this contract.
He was damaging and healing the body at the same time, nurturing it in the process to achieve the result that might take him years to gain if done slowly especially when opening aura points becomes harder with the growing age.
Kale held his breathing while forcing out the Battle Qi from his body at a specific location, for him, it was like trying to break a stone wall in his way without harming the canal.
His face was almost blue, Kale stopped cultivating and took a deep breath to make up for the lack of oxygen in the body. He waited and recovered his Battle Qi before trying again.
He tried again and failed.
He kept doing it but he failed several times.
It was almost night outside when Kale succeeded for the first time and finally managed to breathe once or twice through the pores of his body before giving up. Even so, his skin was now covered in veins because of the strain, some even showed signs of ripping, and traces of blood were present at the corners of his lips.
By midnight, Kale managed to grasp the rhythm and most of the aura points all over his body opened up.
To reduce the time wastage, he decided to multitask, now that he had already got the hang of it, he also activated his primary cultivation technique to recover the origin energy in his body and transform it into Battle Qi with a secondary cultivation technique soon after. By doing this, he didn't have to take a break in short intervals and he could continue his cultivation without any problem.
Several hours passed just like that.
A formless energy cloak made of energy was surrounding his body, the aura fluctuated as he breathed, it was like a burning flame enshrouding Kale acting as the core.
Kale opened his eyes and looked at the formation in front of him using the torch, the bloodlines on the paper were so faint that it looked like they were on the verge of disappearing.
Right now, Kale's origin energy absorbing ability had been increased by a big notch, even if he doesn't use his primary cultivation technique and absorbs origin energy naturally, he would still be a few times faster compared to an average person.
He checked the time and it was almost morning.
'I have opened most of the pores but the lesser pores are left the harder it gets, I believe I need to do it for 3 more times at max to open all the pores. But I can't use this method continuously, letting the body rest is also part of the training. Now let's make use of the remaining ones,' Kale took out the other ten Soul Essence Seals and started to make a new contract.
According to the WitchCraft Practitioners, the soul of a creature is unkillable, even if it's destroyed then it would disintegrate into soul energy and will give birth to a new soul later on. A soul may be immortal but the memory and personality it posses aren't, when the memory and personality inside the souls are completely wiped out means true death to a being. Then again, a new being will bear with a new vessel from it.
Soul Essence Seals are like forcibly extracted soul fragments from a soul when it is leaving its vessel or we can say their body. The soul will get nurtured on its own even after they are extracted when entering the reincarnation cycle, of course, these are just myths with no concrete proof.
The new contract looked like a big circle that was enclosing a smaller circle inside, several lines were drawn inside the inner circle with the center being the point where they all met.
Kale took out his knife «Fallen Sakura» and dripped his blood on its sharp edge. He then stabbed the center of the contract with the knife.
He kept holding the handle and started his chant.
Suddenly, the blood lines looked like they were being pulled at the knife piercing the tree wall, the blood at the edge of the knife spread and covered the whole blade like a blanket then it became faint and disappeared.
The knife started to tremble, it acted like a living creature that wanted to free itself from his clutches. Kale tightly held onto the handle and didn't release it.
He could occasionally feel some chilling cold air touching his cheeks and hear the crying noises echoing in his ears but Kale ignored them and focused on the knife.
The blood lines consisting of the contract became faint and disappeared with the passing time, the knife then stopped struggling and returned to its previous normal self as nothing happened.
Kale pulled out the knife from the tree wall and gently caressed its edge 'From today onwards you are no longer «Fallen Sakura» but «Cursed Sakura» or maybe «Sealed Cursed Sakura»? Eh... No, I'm supposed to be a normal righteous practitioner, should I name it as «Holy Sakura»? Hm... Changing it is a hassle, let's leave it for now, «Fallen Sakura» sounds much better anyway,'
He ate some compressed glucose biscuits before removing the traces of the contracts from the wall and heading out of the hollow tree.
Kale used ‹Camouflage›, and left the danger zone of the forest, after arriving at a safe distance he decided to rest, he took out a cigarette and started smoking, after letting out a puff, he looked at the birds flying high up in the sky and thought 'Hmm... Should I try to enslave a bird? They are like natural drones if used properly, maybe if I increase my affinity with it then I succeed in using ‹Vision Share›?'
Kale thought for a while and shook his head, he currently had no way to catch a living bird as the bird in the vicinity were very cautious and won't even come close to him. After he finished smoking, he stood up and headed towards the academy.
He kept using ‹Life Sense› in fixed intervals to make sure he didn't step in the range of a strong beast or a beast group.