The True Earth Realm

As he cleared his mind, Shui began piecing together the hints towards Soul Perfection. He knew that the Soul Realm existed to strengthen the bond between the soul and the body, but then he took it a step further.

'What was the soul?'

This was a question so difficult that even the gods would struggle to decide on a singular answer, so Shui picked out the common points.

'The soul was the self.'

As cultivators had proven, as long as the soul existed one would still be alive and could reform their body. Therefore, the soul could be considered the core of creature's life. However, this led to a new question. If the soul was the core of a creature's life, then why was it considered to be separate from the body? As someone with talent in the area of soul cultivation, Shui thought differently. Although the common theory was that the soul stayed in the brain and controlled the body from there, like a puppeteer with its strings, Shui believed that the soul was distributed throughout the body like blood, but it manipulated everything from the brain.

Both theories were similar but the crucial difference was in how the soul existed in the body. If the common theory was correct, then the Soul Realm would be about increasing the amount of control the soul had, but if Shui's theory was correct, then in addition to increasing the soul's control over the body, the Soul Realm would also be where cultivators attempted to synchronise with their souls. In other words, they would attempt to achieve mind-body-soul union.

At this moment, Shui felt a thump. As the sensitivity of his entire body increased, Shui knew that he was on the right path, but there was one more step. Once he understood the meaning and importance of the Soul Realm, he needed to figure out how the Soul Realm affected the Earth Realm. If he stuck to the common theory then he would just need to create a phantom palace that would lock his soul in his body, but with his theory it was different. If the soul was present throughout the body, then the phantom palace wouldn't be refined to house his soul. His body itself would become the phantom palace.

!

With that last hint, Shui could sense himself reaching Soul Perfection and then heading straight into his ascension into Earth Realm. He couldn't make a breakthrough in his soul cultivation, but he could feel a quantitative change happening there as well. Shui was already used to being unmatched among those in his cultivation realm, and he was sure that that trend would continue.

As he focused on this breakthrough, Shui lost touch with his surroundings so he sat there, unaware of the presence of runes spinning around him or that pure white crystals gathered to imprison him and the natural crystal...

With both Shui and the red spirit in closed door cultivation, the vibrant atmosphere of Black Rocky Plains quickly went back to normal and it was the same with the nearby towns. However, things were heating up two regions away, in the neutral territory between three great major-level forces.

In Ashen Star City, where a very influential branch of the Coin Storm Auction House was located, more and more cultivators gathered. It was already a city with high population density due to the wide array of resources that could be bought and sold here, but the density spiked as word of a certain event spread.

It was a special event hosted by the three great forces that occurred once every ten years, and gave members of the younger generation a chance to show off their skills and be rewarded for their strength. Both vagrants and famous young masters looked forward to the grand prize, but simply making it past the preliminaries would be enough for most. Everyone who could get past the preliminaries would be allowed to enter a secret realm which supposedly contained the inheritance of ancient Kings.

Naturally this secret realm held frightening dangers and promised more than a few causalities every time it was opened, but no one was willing to believe that they would be part of that statistic.

Although the three great forces had a strong presence in the city, only Coin Storm Auction House could occupy the land at the centre of the city. From a room inside the auction house that could overlook the landscape, there was a certain young woman. Her gaze was cold as she surveyed the city, but in that coldness was also a bit of amusement.

"It's finally time."

The young woman stood before the window with a serene aura, but there was a little trouble occurring behind her. Her beauty was one that could strike both men and women with awe, and she herself was proud of her looks. Unfortunately, there were others who coveted them.

"A little girl like you dare stop our young master!"

"Yes, and this little girl is telling you to leave, musclehead."

At the door, a petite, cute beauty was looked down upon by a muscular brute of a man. There were few who were allowed to come up to this floor, so there was no one to berate this scene of a man bullying a small girl. Still, there was one who was uncomfortable with maintaining this situation. The handsome young man with soft features that stood behind the well-built man, addressed the woman inside the room directly.

"Amber Princess, it's me. Won't you invite me in?"

"..."

He was as polite as he could possibly be, but no matter how long he waited, there was no response. The muscular man was quick to notice his master's growing frustration. He knew that the little girl in front of him had courage much larger than her size, so he stopped trying to intimidate her and went straight for more direct methods of persuasion.

Under his breath, the man whispered an apology before reaching to grab the girl. Although they were both in mid Earth Realm, he was a level above her and trained in a body tempering art so he was confident that he could restrain her for a short time. However, the girl had not a hint of fear on her face, in fact, she looked at him with pity.

The moment his broad hand was within an inch of the petite girl's shoulder, a sudden force knocked his back into the wall.

"Hmph, daring to make trouble in Coin Storm? Scram before I call the guards."

The young woman in the room, kept her back facing the door and finally spoke to them, but it was only a warning. The young master who watched his follower groaning on the floor, hurriedly turned and tried to persuade her.

"No, this is his fault. I didn't mean to-"

"Will you really make me repeat myself?"

"..."

Once she made herself clear, he could only bite his lip and leave with a flap of his coat. After the muscular man held his gut and limped after him, the petite girl shut the door and went towards the young woman. She then wrapped her arms around her from behind and pouted while resting her head on her back.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get rid of them by myself. Those guys were such meanies."

"It's fine. I know you did your best. More importantly, are you okay?"

Unlike when she spoke to the two men, her voice was warm as she addressed the girl.

"Yeah, thanks for saving me."

"That was nothing. You're my precious friend after all."

"Ehehe~."

The petite beauty hugged her even tighter while smiling bashfully.

'Thank you, Alice.'