Luhei Household Palace, conference hall.
"How is your progress?"
"Her sea of knowledge's defenses are crumbling bit by bit, you should be able to annihilate her soul and implant a wisp of your own in its place soon."
"How long is soon exactly?"
"As short as 30 years or as long as 50..." This answer came after a moment of hesitation, even the volume of the speech was in tatters.
"That's too long, we have almost been caught and you haven't even spent a week on her! You better not disappoint me, lord Xue, if you value the life of your daughter that is."
"I'm trying my best here, sovereign Arima... But, how easy do you think it is, to invade the spiritual consciousness of an Oracle?"
....
Presently, Lord Xue sat in a lotus position, his body covered in ancient scripts drawn in the blood of an unknown creature.
In front of him was a woman chained to a cross, her pale complexion reflected the endless cycle of pain she's going through.
This woman surprisingly looked about 30 years old, but her hair and eyelashes exuded a desolate and detached feeling as if she had been through the tribulations of life over and over again.
Back when Arima established his dominance, lord Xue was unfortunate enough to be caught in the chaos.
Being nothing more than a fish on the chopping board, and since his household also inhabited a province within the Eastern region, he couldn't go back to warn his family even if so he wished.
Ultimately, lord Xue had to spit out everything he knew, pouring information like a broken dam in hopes of finding a silver lining in this disastrous event.
Eventually, he was able to entice Arima's curiosity by revealing the information about the body of an Oracle, and this information allowed Arima to demand this woman from the other households under the premises of limiting his activities to the Eastern Region.
This woman seemed to be in a peculiar state of eternal slumber, but her appearance matches the descriptions in ancient documents about an Oracle with the ability to record history.
It can be said that events since ancient times of this realm were engraved into her consciousness, information that even the Imperial family doesn't have.
However, even though her consciousness has been dormant for countless years, her soul force remained iron-clad, even Arima who is a Python, couldn't make waves in front of her knowledge sea.
At most he could split his consciousness to work in tandem with Lord Xue's, with the help of the soul breaching array to invade her knowledge sea.
And even with these preparations, they need an estimate of 50 years? How can Arima accept this?
This is tantamount to Arima roaming around with half his spiritual capabilities for 50 years, that's like asking someone to willingly cripple themselves.
Arima cannot underestimate Noire's soul power because if Noire got close enough to the point of noticing the spiritual fluctuations, who can guarantee that he won't be moved?
If not for his weak state of losing half his spiritual efficiency and his longing to toy with humans with information, Arima wouldn't have allowed Noire to bully him.
Now, Arima has about 3 hours remaining to prepare the human-grade flying treasure.
One must know that in a lackluster place like Shadowed Continent, a top-grade treasure is considered a legendary existence.
Mortal treasures have their grades from low to medium, and high.
After that comes pseudo-immortal treasures that are ranked from human-grade to earth and finally heaven.
Some people made speculations that there exist higher grades, but no one can prove it.
If Arima can obtain the Oracle's knowledge, he won't just confirm these but also obtain the location of these exotic treasures. But, for that to happen, he needs the human-grade flying treasure to traverse the Chaotic Ocean!
'How ironic! I thought to use the Nine Family's plan to myself and enjoy their years of preparation, now everything is hanging on a thin thread called Siyu Noire! Fuck!' Arima's face twisted in anger.
Doesn't matter how he views it, every turn is a dead-end worse than the one prior to it.
Arima could only blame his luck for being so careless and swallow this loss.
....
"It has been two hours already, senior brother... Do you want to go check?" Yinfer asked.
To tell the truth, Yinfer didn't mind sitting near Noire for hours or days, for some reason she felt content just from being close. Although her face is expressionless most of the time, that's only a side effect from the endless cycle of suffering she witnessed throughout her thousands of years inside the ancient egg-shell.
However, she can tell how anxious Noire is to depart, even if she has no idea why he's short on time, she still harbored a swelling feeling of uneasiness.
"No need," Noire answered. He provided Arima with five hours, so what if he had spent two of them? Furthermore, Noire wanted to use this time to reflect and meditate over his gains and loses over the past five years since he can't rely on his prowess from the sixth dimension anymore.
When he first used the forbidden soul splitting and body compressing technique to compress a body, he integrated a fraction of his overall prowess from the main body.
One can say that this technique is some sort of a cloning technique. But, his new body will have its own duplica of genetics, meaning his skelton age is about 7 years old at most, which is very conspicuous.
If there are relics to examine one's age through their bones, Noire simply has no way to explain himself. His best option currently is to roam the Chaotic Ocean or enter a secluded retreat for 10 or 12 years, breaking through a few minor realms as his bone age would at least reach 18 or 19 years old, something that would aligin with his outer appearance.
Around 10 years of closed cultivation will pass within the blink of an eye, which is why Noire is so adamant about obtaining extreme Yang resources in addition to the ten thousand high-grade Qi crystals. Once inside the Divine Inheretance Island, Noire can focus on digesting some Elder's inheritance while simultaneously cultivating.
Another problem is combat related treasures, such as inconspicous weapons.
Noire's soul weapons are incorporeal bodies, only by flooding them with an abnormal amount of compressed energy can they obtain a mass and a physical resonance in this realm.
One can look back as to when Noire preformed the Eclipse; Mystical River technique, he had to compress enough Eclipse Essence into galvanizing the Eclipse Spear almost from nothing.
Now since he can't rely on the Eclipse Essence anymore, if he was to construct the 'Angel's Wish' dual blades, he will need to directly pour a substantial amount of his Qi Essence, which is tantamount to suicide with his pathetic cultivation base.
The only good points are his movement skill that assimilated his innate spatial affinity into a comprehensive Martial Avenue. His special physique that enhanced his resilience, defensive, and offensive attributes. Finally, his extreme affinity towards fire; even though his technique with fire feels pale and incomplete currently, he might find a good inheritance to make up for it.
As Noire was still in deep thoughts about his future plans, Arima already came from the distance.