Chapter 44: Feeling of Horror
After calming her heart from pounding, Maria checked her body after the breakthrough to Nascent Soul. Her skin tone had turned lighter, and she could also feel her height had gotten taller. She felt immense power in her skinny hands, so she clenched her hands into a fist and punched into the air. It made a loud sound, disturbing Aakesh in turn.
He opened his eyes and saw Maria punching the air. "What are you doing?" He expressionlessly asked.
Maria stopped punching in the air and awkwardly looked at Aakesh. She was still naked, so her face turned red like it would burst the next moment. She didn't look directly into his eyes due to embarrassment.
She covered her private parts and rushed to the counter. Her clothes were present there due to Aakesh crushing her space ring. She took whatever she found first and wore them.
"I am sorry, senior. I was only testing the power of my punch," She awkwardly apologized after wearing something to cover her private part.
"Congratulations on the breakthrough!" Aakesh forgave her and congratulated her for getting a breakthrough.
"Thank you! Senior," She responded. Her face was still red due to embarrassment. She was still thinking about something when her eyes suddenly turned blank like a dead person.
It was Aakesh who did this since he called her soul form out. After getting out, the baby looked at Aakesh with horror as if it was a newborn just waiting to be eaten by the tiger.
"You look real," Aakesh complimented, seeing the baby looking real despite only being a soul.
In the Qi cultivation system, when the cultivator reached the Soul Formation stage, their soul started taking a form. It is still in the form of a ball of light, but it touches the concept of physical form. As the cultivator grew in the level, the ball of light would grow bigger.
In the Soul Formation stage, talent plays a more prominent role. The talent decides the endpoint of the ball of light. The higher the talent, the larger the ball would grow in size before stopping. Maria had a high talent. It was why the ball of light only stopped growing when it reached half the size of her body.
The highest known size of the ball of light is eleven times the size of the cultivator, and only one person has achieved this until now. He was the first Qi cultivator of the Primal dimension. Unlike the first Qi cultivator, the second most talented cultivator's ball of light only grew twice the size of hers, so no gifted human has emerged to rival the first Qi cultivator.
Aakesh knew about him because the system had pieces of information regarding him during his learning of the cultivation systems. The first Qi cultivator is on the same level as Kartikeya, the god of war.
The ball of light then turns into the newborn baby form of the cultivator, signifying the birth of the soul from the embryo. In Nascent Soul, the soul of the cultivator becomes a physical entity instead of only touching the concept.
Nascent Soul signified the physical formation of the soul of the cultivator. It didn't mean the soul becoming indestructible or invincible; it just meant the body and the soul were ready to touch the void. It also gave an increase of several centuries of lifespan to the cultivator. A Nascent Soul cultivator had a lifespan of 2000 years.
Nascent Soul was also the stage where many cultivators left the Qi cultivation system and instead went up to the Soul cultivation system. In the Soul cultivation system, cultivators cultivate the soul to become indestructible and invincible, and the soul getting a physical form only starts the cultivation.
After looking at the soul form of Maria, Aakesh sent the soul back to her body. Colors returned to her eyes after that. The next moment, a feeling of horror emerged in her heart. It was her soul that caused the sensation. She felt standing naked in the ice storm due to the intense feeling of terror.
"You have a great talent."
The next moment, Aakesh commented as he could see the sudden change in the atmosphere around Maria. The fear she was feeling vanished, and a feeling of satisfaction for the breakthrough emerged in her heart.
"Thank you!" A smile spread across her face as she thanked him. Her entire psyche changed subconsciously after his one comment. She felt horrified in her heart thinking of it, but the next moment that feeling vanished, and a happy feeling emerged.
"I think you should buy a new space ring. You can't carry so many things on your own," He suddenly commented while pointing at the rings and the content present on the counter.
"I think so too," She responded while nodding her head. She couldn't manipulate the space of other rings as they already had owners, so she would need Aakesh's help to get the contents of the space ring successfully out. She even forgot, she was refusing to take them before eating the blood pearl.
She didn't speak anymore and turned around to exit the store since Aakesh didn't sell space rings, but her steps came to a halt the next moment.
"Where are you going?" Aakesh asked, seeing Maria turning around to leave the store.
"To buy the space ring," she confusedly turned around and responded.
"You don't have to. I'll make you one at the market price," He told Maria. He had already asked the system about it. He could sell the things he created, and he didn't need to pay commission to the store.
He wanted to end the problem with the Schiller family before something serious happened with Maria. For that, he needed to go outside. And if he went outside, he couldn't just return without seeing the food of the Bisan Kingdom. For that, he needed money. He could also rob the Schiller family of their wealth, but it would be beneath him to do something like this, and the system had also warned him against doing something like this.
"Okay!" Maria responded right away. She didn't even feel surprised since Aakesh had already given her so many surprises.