Soul Seed

Zhao Yun was in a hurry to go into meditation due to two reasons. First he wanted to ask Ling Yun about that murderous desire he can't control while the second being discussing his further path.

"Old Yun, what is this desire to kill? I'm a little afraid."

Ling Yun's expression was serious, he said, "Murderous intent. When you suffered through the attacks of those evil spirits, it forced you to the brink. In that state, your negative emotions slowly surfaced. Your will power was at its weakest at this time. Thus when incidents including the danger your parent faced r the upheaval in the clan, brought those intents. This is the reason I asked you to remain out of conflicts and meditate on your condition. Only when you have controlled your intents, can you break through again."

Zhao Yun nodded slightly.

"Go and stabilize your cultivation. Then come into the scroll world." Ling Yun continued.

"How do I do that?" Zhao Yun asked.

"Simply touch the scroll with your consciousness and express your desire to enter." Saying so Ling Yun vanished.

Zhao Yun quietly sat on his bed and entered meditative state. He started inspecting his body. He noticed that the genesis energy, which was formed due to the merging of his spirit, Qi and essence, was slowly circulating on its own. It was constantly clearing any impurity that might have entered his body. This surprised him a little. He knew that this was not a normal condition as if this continued then his body would always remain in a pure state. At this moment he realised that his knowledge on cultivation and his own Divine Sovereign Ascension art was too low. He shook his head and smiled, "Well I have all the knowledge I want just inside me. It wouldn't be too late to read them now."

He inspected his body and Qi and found no other anomaly, but when he inspected his soul he was shocked "This... how could this be?"

Inside his sea of consciousness, the tempered spirit was quietly hovering in the void. It was crystal clear and extremely pure. Any unwanted impurity was cleared away by the genesis energy, but a red tint was now covering it. The genesis energy was showing no intention to drive it away. This confused Zhao Yun as he could sense the murderous intent plaguing him from that red hue.

"That's odd!!" He murmured, "My genesis energy removes all impurities from my body but why does it not affect this red hue that is affecting my emotions? Does that mean it is not harmful?" as he thought up to here, he relaxed a little.

"If it is not harmful to me then it means that I can control it. If I'm able to control it, then at crucial moments I can enter a miraculous state, where I can slaughter my enemies. But I need to have total control before attempting that. If I'm not able to control myself then I might become a slaughter machine." Having thought this much, Zhao Yun calmed his mind. He slowly communicated with the red hue using his own consciousness.

As soon as his consciousness touched the red hue, a strong intent to kill emerged from his soul. An intense desire to slaughter took over him and an overwhelming killing intent burst forth from his eyes. He was about to lose himself when faces of his parent, Zhao Yin, Su Wan flashed through his mind. His eyes which were still red due to his killing desire slowly gained some clarity. He bit his tongue to keep his senses and did his best to control his desires. His will power was immense, so no matter how much he desired to kill, he controlled himself. His situation was similar to a severely addicted drinker, who was abstained from drinking by binding him with chains and then keeping a bottle of liquor in front of him.

Zhao Yun roared and screamed he even clawed on himself tearing out some of his flesh and injuring himself in the process, but with his will power, he controlled himself from any pointless killing.

This condition lasted for an hour in which Zhao Yun was feeling every moment as if it was a year. He was on the verge of collapsing both physically and mentally. At this moment, the genesis energy slowly mended his wounds and for the first time ever it made its contact with the red Hue.

Zhao Yun awoke from his state at this moment. His back was drenched with cold sweat at this moment.

"How scary." He murmured. He had nearly lost himself in that state. He knew that if he lost control now, he would have slaughtered the entire city including his parent. This thought frightened him a lot.

He thought about it for some time and slowly sunk himself into the sea of consciousness once again. This time he was stunned to see that a small crystal droplet, that appeared to be a drop of blood was hovering near the soul droplet. It was countless time smaller than the original drop but it was radiating a thick murderous vibe. Slowly, it was absorbing the red hue surrounding the Soul drop. Zhao Yun was stunned at first, but when he observed more deeply he found that this new droplet was slowly merging with some of the essence of the original drop with the guidance of genesis energy. It was as if a new soul was being formed. Zhao Yun was totally confused about what was happening.

"Maybe Old Yun would have the answer to this anomaly." Thought Zhao Yun.

He slowly made his way toward the scroll that was floating nearby. As soon as he touched the scroll and thought about entering, he was hit by a pang of dizziness. When he opened his eyes again, he was in a mystical place. It was as if a world of its own there were mountains and rivers lush green forests brimming with vitality were surrounding the mountains. The place he was standing was a large circular patch of land, with short fresh green grass covering it. There was a thatched hut in the centre. Near it was a small pond with crystal clear water.

The scene was truly beautiful. If anything it lacked then it would be living creatures. Yes apart from Zhao Yun, not a single soul could be seen this surprised Zhao Yun as he could not find Ling Yun anywhere.

"Is he inside the hut?" he wondered.

As he was making his way towards the hut, the door of the hut opened and Ling Yun walked out. Surprisingly there was a faint distortion behind him which Zhao Yun could feel but cannot make out what it was.

"You have come" smiled the old man. Then he turned towards his back, and chuckled "Don't be shy! You were the one who chose him right? Now why don't you greet him?"

Under the confused gaze of Zhao Yun a small illusionary figure peeked out from behind Ling Yun. One could not make out the appearance of the figure as it was too hazy and flickering as if it would disappear any moment. It was small and humanoid. If comparisons were to be made then the figure appeared to be that of a child. The figure slowly floated toward Zhao Yun, it action similar to that of a timid child. It slowly circled around Zhao Yun as if observing him. Then it stood before the boy, and a bizarre thought was sent to Zhao Yun. It was an emotion mixed with satisfaction, approval and affection as that of an adult while it also had that naïve happiness of a child who had accomplished something big. In all the feeling it gave was same as that of a little child who acts as an adult with their older siblings. [1]

Unknowingly a warm smile appeared on Zhao Yun's face. Somehow he felt extremely close to this hazy figure. He slowly raised his hand intending to pat the head of the figure, when the figure instantly backed away and a feeling of annoyed anger was passed to him. Zhao Yun laughed loudly

Ling Yun saw this exchange with a gentle expression. He stepped forward, patted the head of the child, and then said with a smile, "it is the spirit of the scroll. Due to breaking the world barriers in reverse, the original spirit was almost annihilated, but it stored all its memory into a soul seed. This seed grew to form the entity you are seeing now. In age, behaviour and intelligence it is similar to a mortal child, but in terms of knowledge, well it knows almost everything."

This information shocked Zhao Yun. So this was the spirit of the scroll. No wonder that he felt so close to it.

"Right now it is still growing and to grow, it needs your soul energy. This is the reason why it resides into your sea of consciousness. The stronger your soul, the greater her nourishment." Explained Ling Yun.

He continued, "In fact once the spirit is completely materialised, it can also cultivate. Once it is strong enough, it can even break free from the restraints of the scroll. Furthermore, once it is completely materialise and starts cultivating, it would no longer need your soul energy, thus you can bring the scroll out. Then the world you are seeing now would become a pocket realm that has similar rules to the world you are in, thus allowing you to store living beings here. As for how long it would take to materialise, that I don't know."

Although it would take an indefinite amount of time, Zhao Yun was still excited at the prospects of having his own pocket realm.

Ling Yun turned toward the child and said, "Okay little one you have met you chosen one now, so you can go and recover in peace. Leave the rest to me."

It nodded obediently, then looked toward Zhao Yun for a moment, then vanished. Zhao Yun could swear that he felt that the child must have made a face at him before.

Ling Yun chuckled, and then he slowly observed Zhao Yun.

"Eh" a surprised exclamation was raised.

Zhao Yun looked doubtfully at the old man who was glaring at him with wide eyes.

"Hahaha You brat, congratulations for forming a soul seed." The old man chuckled.

Soul seed? Zhao Yun was perplexed.

"Hehe let me explain." Ling Yun smiled. "A soul seed is one of the rare occurrences that can happen to a soul cultivator. It is essentially another soul. This means that you would have two souls in your body."

"Two Souls." Zhao Yun was surprised.

"What does having two souls mean," he asked.

"Well it would not be any benefit now, but in the future, if you can create a clone body of yours, this soul seed can become the soul of the clone." Ling Yun explained. "This clone would have no thoughts of his own; instead it would do whatever you ask it to do. Although it won't give you an alternate life, it can boost your strength for example, you can meditate n your cultivation while the clone would do the killing for you. In fact this soul seed is formed due to that murderous intent, s the soul formed will have a great affinity towards slaughter so if you use this puppet for killing, this would be the ideal option As you yourself would be out of danger and at the same time you will obtain all the experience of the clone thus increasing you battle comprehension."

Zhao Yun's eyes widened in surprise 'does that not mean that I would have a slaughter puppet with me all the time'

Brat, first you have to forge a body, only then would you realise this dream otherwise, if a soul developed out of this soul seed, it would have a mind of its own, thus giving you a split personality" Ling Yun grinned

Cold sweats appeared on Zhao Yun's body when he thought of having a split personality he smiled wryly

"How can I form a clone?" he asked.

"Well there are many materials in heaven and earth that can absorb a soul and then create its own body with the soul at its centre Among them, the primal elements of metal, earth, water, fire, and wood are the best sources." Ling Yun answered

"I can create a clone from the essence of five elements?" Zhao Yun asked excited

"NO not the essence of the five elements, but the primal form of five elements. Ling Yun replied "Primal forms are the true representation of the elements for example, the primal form of metal element is primordial gold, of water is primordial water of life, of fire is heavenly fire of destruction, of earth is core soil and for wood is Ancestral tree bark."

Zhao Yun was confused as he never heard of these entities.

"These materials are the most primal representation of the five elements, and thus it is extremely difficult to find one but if you do then the clone created from any one of them is top notch. Anyway, there exists another materials who combined with each other can also create a clone body comparable to these. You don't have to worry, it would take at least ten years for this soul seed to mature, by then you would have enough strength to gather the required materials." Explained Ling Yun.

Zhao Yun nodded.

"Well enough of that, now that you have formed a soul seed, you won't have to worry about losing your mind for a long while. Now you have to cultivate and increase you strength swiftly." Ling Yun said. Then he started walking towards the hut, "Let me show you the true value of this place. Follow me."