Triplets Down, Only a Child Remains

Rictoli planned to cultivate two, if not all three paths, during his second life. The eventual transformation of his soul would make him the greatest talent in the Soul Cultivation path in this world. His Body Tempering talent was already extremely high, so that was already fine. As for his talent in the Qi Cultivation path, he would only possess the body of a youngster who was talented in that field, so this meant that he would at worst be a cultivator of two paths, something already pretty rare.

In accordance with this plan, Rictoli traveled before his death, collecting many techniques, skills, guides, and even potential teachers for his second life.

What Astoria just did to the lead triplet was one of the many skills that Rictoli learned. It wasn't an extremely high-ranked technique, but it was enough.

Called Soul Extinguishing Light, it did exactly as its name said. By forming a giant ball of soul essence and practically lobbing it at whoever's soul like a rock, Astoria could extinguish the soul of anyone weaker than her.

It wasn't the best technique and certainly rough around the edges, but it was enough for what Astoria wanted to achieve.

The lead triplet's physical body was unharmed, but without a soul to control it, his body simply collapsed onto the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Sages were much scarier when it came to fighting than the direct and brutal martial artists and the basic immortals.

Their peers who followed the Body Tempering and Qi Refinement paths, respectively, usually needed to fight more physically and at a closer range than sages.

A sage only needed a line of sight to kill anyone they needed to. 

That was why sages were extremely rare and heavily regulated.

Not just any orthodoxy could teach this path. They needed public acceptance and, more importantly, enough strength to support their bold decision.

If a weak group of sages banded together and created an orthodoxy that would teach Soul Cultivation, nearby forces would band together and get rid of this "public enemy" with pitchforks and torches the next day. 

Such a fear was not without reason, though. Imagine walking down the street only to fall over dead without any warning—a terrifying fate for any person, cultivator or not. This was why there were no sages in the Black Lotus Domain and the reason this triplet was so ignorant in front of Astoria. 

Rather than being wary and backing up fearfully without daring to anger Astoria, he didn't even bother to have his guard and turned his back to her.

But there is no medicine for regret, and the lead triplet crumbled lifelessly to the ground, shocking his two younger brothers.

Once the leader dropped to the ground dead, two things happened. First, his two brothers looked at each other before instantly sprinting off, both going in a different direction. Second, Raiden fell to the ground, landing wretchedly.

Astoria somewhat expected such a situation and wasn't surprised.

Using Rictoli's memories as a foundation, she quickly formed a series of hand seals that soon had a magical effect on the environment around her.

After creating one final hand seal and uttering a soft "Creation!", Astoria summoned a white sphere about 10 meters in diameter that trapped everyone inside. From the assassins who were running away and preventing them from running too far to the coughing Raiden, they were all trapped with Astoria in the dome she had created.

"I warned you two. You can't blame me for following up on it," Astoria said.

Looking at the two middle-aged men who were seconds away from begging for their lives, Astoria raised both of her hands, which were in the shape of a gun, before pointing the barrel at the both of them.

"You can only blame yourself." 

Once again, using the same method she used to kill their eldest brother, Astoria extinguished the souls of the other two, bringing the once-rowdy forest to a dead calm.

When she was finished, Astoria clapped her hands together to signify a job well done, only to see her hands phase through each other.

'I'm a soul form. I forgot!' Astoria felt embarrassed at her stupid actions and even wanted to smack her forehead. Thankfully, she stopped herself from doing that, as it would look even stupider than the clapping failure.

Ignoring her failure, Astoria looked down at Raiden, who was holding his throat and hacking up a lung, trying to regain control of his lungs.

Though he died before he caused any mortal damage, the leader still caused considerable damage to Raiden.

Astoria didn't rush the boy and instead took the chance to give him another, much closer look.

Raiden wasn't old. Astoria had glanced at him briefly earlier and thought he was only 12, but after a second glance, she realized he looked much older than that.

His body was extremely thin, and his face was hollow. It was a clear sign of malnutrition.

'He's probably a bit older than twelve. Maybe 14 or 15?' Astoria readjusted her guess.

Other than his age, though, Astoria's attention was once again drawn to the ring on his left hand.

Rictoli had hidden his soul inside his priceless treasure, which on the outside looked like any other deep black spatial ring. However, since Rictoli was beyond selfish, he naturally sealed the core functions of the treasure, leaving only the limitless expanse part behind. There, he hid his soul and core memories.

That way, even if someone did find the ring like Raiden did, they would only think of it as a large spatial treasure rather than an immortal artifact. 

This is also why Astoria first woke up in that white expanse of a room rather than the garden. It was only after she reviewed Rictoli's memories and figured out how to undo the seal that she discovered what the ring truly was.

But even if Rictoli hid the ring's true ability, how the hell did it end up so far away? Moreover, on the hand of a mortal kid?

The Nine Desolate Domains was one large continent surrounded by a few sporadic islands. However, where they currently were, the central landmass was so large that it had to be divided into nine regions or domains, each with its name, history, and culture.

Crossing from one region to another nonstop would take years at the very minimum, even for Heavenly Seal Realm experts.

This, of course, could be shortened by taking teleportation formations that the Nine Desolate Domains had plenty of, but even if. Who or what would go from the Heavenly Martial Domain, the strongest of all the domains, to the weakest, the Black Lotus Domain?

It was like moving from Beverly Hills to Camden—a pointless and potentially self-harming decision.

The Black Lotus Domain, where Astoria is now, was the poorest and weakest of the nine regions.

They weren't even the weakest due to a cruel tyrant overlord, a systemic issue, or even a systematic suppression from a rival domain.

Rather, it was weak due to its geographical position.

The three universal essences that permeate throughout the Nine Desolate Domains, Spiritual Qi, Vital Energy, and Soul Essence, originated from the center of the plane and then spread out from there.

Every mile away from the center, the universal essences slowly lessened in density. As the region furthest away from the center of the Nine Desolate Domains, the Black Lotus Domain is by far the region with the least amount of thin universal essence.

Which region sat at the center of the Nine Desolate Domains? Why the Heavenly Martial Domain, of course.

As the strongest domain, how could it be anywhere else but the center? With spiritual qi so thick that it almost turned into a mist, the Heavenly Martial Domain was a place where a mortal could open a dantian and become a cultivator just by breathing naturally for a year or two. 

Any slightly talented cultivator could become a true cultivator of the Fourth Earthly Realms, and a truly talented genius could, with some luck and guidance, enter the Heavenly Seal Realms.

Scared of his competitors, Rictoli sealed every function of his ring, planning to unseal them only when he was strong enough, which he deemed to be the Four Earthly Realms. That was why Astoria was able to unlock her prison and escape once she reached a power level that was equivalent to the Child Soul Realm.

Without enough power, she would've been forced to stay inside the ring and continue to cultivate using Rictoli's Soul Essence.

But the ring was in the Black Lotus Domain. Here, even if they saw the ring's true functions, they would barely even tap into 1% of its true potential.

Rictoli wouldn't have sealed it if he had planned to reincarnate in the Black Lotus Domain. It wouldn't make sense.

Astoria continued to wonder what she would do next, but at the same time, the boy finished regaining control of his lungs.

Standing up, he quickly wiped away the dirt that blinded him and looked up at Astoria for the first time.

Even though she was in a soul form and therefore didn't need clothes, her soul form still had them. She couldn't be naked, could she? But since she was just an apparition with no physical form, she could make her outer appearance whatever she wanted.

Without a reasonable image in her mind of what the people in the Nine Desolate Domains wore, though, Astoria chose the first thing she thought of. It was just that the clothes she had on weren't available in the Nine Desolate Domains.

She was wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt—simple, yes, but Astoria barely wore anything else at home. She barely even left her apartment. What else would she bother wearing?

If it weren't for the fact that she knew showing skin was taboo for women in backwater and sexist cultivation worlds, Astoria would've made her soul form wear a pair of shorts and a crop top.

But as taboo as it was, she really didn't care about how she looked or what others thought of her. So, covering her legs was enough.

Thankfully, this boy wasn't a perverted young master and didn't focus on her looks. Other than giving her clothes an odd glance, Raiden didn't show anything odd before he started speaking.

"Senior, this little one thanks you for saving my life!" Raiden humbly spoke as he cupped his fist in gratitude toward the floating Astoria.

"Your gratitude means nothing to me. Answer my question from earlier." Astoria didn't care much about Raiden's thanks and instead just waved them off with a wave. She didn't forget her reason for leaving the ring.

Someone cursed her and threatened her not to leave the ring. Astoria was a petty girl. She wanted revenge!

"Um, Senior, I remember your question, but I don't know the answer. Neither those shameless old fellows nor I even knew you were here. How could we curse you?" Raiden awkwardly answered. There was also another thing that he didn't add to his sentence.

If they did know Astoria was there, which of them had the guts to curse her? Did they think life was too boring and they wanted to die early?

However, this thought stayed in his mind.

Raiden had seen what happened when people dodged Astoria's questions, and he had no plans to become like them.

After his response, Astoria stared at Raiden for a few seconds to see if the boy was lying, but his facial expression remained the same. Even his soul fluctuations were steady, meaning that there were no abnormalities.

"But I remember clearly someone shouting out, 'Don't you dare,' right after I said I would leave the seal. If it weren't any of you guys, then who would it be? There isn't anyone within miles of this place." Astoria spoke aloud as she tried to reason out the answer.

If it wasn't Raiden or any of those triplets, then who was it? Astoria was confused and really wanted the answer.

Thankfully, right before she gave up, Astoria noticed something had changed in Raiden's expression.

After he regained the ability to use his lungs, Raiden's face was normal, albeit slightly pale. However, now, there was a noticeable blush on his cheeks. He even looked embarrassed as he looked at the ground, not daring to make eye contact with Astoria.

'Did he finally notice my beauty and become embarrassed just by being in my presence?' Astoria was arrogant beyond remedy and immediately thought of one of the most unlikely scenarios.

Sadly, her dreams were quickly shut down as Raiden finally spoke up.

"Senior, I think I know who said those words." Raiden awkwardly spoke up, gaining her attention.

"Oh? Which one of those idiots was it?" Astoria replied, intrigued.

Though she wasn't outside while it happened, it wasn't hard to assume that Raiden was getting the crap beaten out of him a few moments ago. So she didn't think the boy was the one who cursed her and was more inclined to believe it was one of the triplets.

"No, no, it wasn't one of them. It was me." Raiden answered, but the deeper he got into the sentence, the quieter his voice got. Toward the end, it was no louder than a whisper.

Astoria's face sank.

"There better be a good story."

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