Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 427: Changes.

While the trio began their cultivation session with more resources than ever, Ozul patiently waited.

It was only after midnight when he sensed Ember’s presence fade from the range of his senses.

’Finally...’ he spoke in his heart before he willed it for the Purity to create thick walls around him.

He had already made sure that no one was spying on their room. With Ember gone, the strongest Beastkin in the estate were at most at the peak of the Nascent Soul Realm. Blaze alone could handle them if there were a problem.

The Purity allowed him complete isolation from the world as he took out the so-called Mind’s Eye without any worries.

At this point, there wasn’t anything different he expected from consuming a dense source of energy.

He ate it without a second thought and as he expected, the stone immediately melted once he swallowed it down his throat.

Thin strands of energy as if threads untangling from a yarn ball began to shoot out from the stone and started spreading throughout his body.

As the energy kept absorbing into his body, there was at once a euphoric feeling that jolted his eyes open only to force him to surrender to the pleasure.

He allowed the energy to run rampant in his body as it got absorbed or pushed out automatically.

’This feeling...’ He had never felt it before, "Ah..."

Unknowingly, a moan escaped his mouth as his lips unconsciously stretched after a long time.

He was smiling.

He didn’t know why, but there was a smile on his face. There was happiness in the air. Something warm and embracing was enveloping him.

But just then when he felt happiness pouring into him, there was a sudden setback.

And there came sadness splashing into him. Like a glass of water filled to the brim, sadness began to drip out in the form of tears trailing out of his eyes.

There was a smile on his face still, and now even those glistening tears added to the mystical beauty of this scene.

But in succession came all other emotions, and all at once, they fell into him.

Anger, disgust, fear, anticipation, surprise...

Until it all made him nauseous and as if a distant buzz that slowly grew closer to the ears, his head started to ache by the second.

"Arh!" An inexplicable groan rang out, but courtesy to the Purity, no one outside heard anything.

*Thud!*

And just like that, overloaded with emotions and unable to bear it any longer, his consciousness gave up and he dropped to the ground.

. . .

The trio continued to cultivate, unaware that Ozul had fallen unconscious surrounded by the Purity.

Their progress had a rapid growth as they sucked a purer form of the Spiritual Essence through the Essence Stones.

Such a thing could also be done through the currency of this Realm, but it didn’t help much unless one was stuck in a place with scarce Spiritual Essence.

The Essence Stones, on the other hand, made a significant difference in the cultivation speed as evident from the pace of the trio. But that was also the reason that they were a rare commodity.

Those Beastkin in the estate were all under Ember and they followed her orders without question no matter what it was. With the three cultivating nonstop, there was already a dense cloud of Spiritual Essence surrounding their room, yet none dared to investigate.

"Hasn’t it been a while?" Stopping his cultivation, Blaze pointed out the obvious.

It had been a few hours already since Ozul covered himself with the Purity. Starlight had already begun to illuminate parts of the estate.

Slowly, Raven and Zier opened their eyes as well, and all of them collectively eyed the giant box in the middle of their room.

By now, they knew why Ozul created these walls and could only conclude that maybe he had received something special from the inheritance that he could absorb. He hadn’t yet revealed to them the things that had transpired in that realm.

"It’s useless to worry. Taking down those walls isn’t something we can do at our level," Raven shook her head, though even Zier could see that she was worried.

But she was right. Even after they had achieved the peak of the Nascent Realm, their collective strength wasn’t even enough to shake the Purity.

"Doesn’t it seem unfair sometimes?" chuckled Zier, intently eyeing the unblemished black walls.

"I mean, we have to work so much and that guy just eats stuff. I wish I had that kind of body."

Though Raven and Blaze didn’t voice it out, they held similar thoughts.

"But there is a problem in that too. What happens when there’s nothing to eat? And ask yourself, do you really want to be in his shoes?" Raven replied with a little pause.

Her words reminded them of the feeling they got from him. When someone really looked at Ozul, they wouldn’t miss the profound sadness dwelling deep in his eyes.

From the side, Blaze spoke in a hardened tone, "It’s only a matter of time before I deal with whatever troubles him."

But Raven only smiled slightly while shaking her head, "His very soul is tortured. He wasn’t made for this world and that reality gnaws at his bones. We... can only hope to ease it."

Though she spoke as if she understood it all, even she hoped herself to be wrong.

She hoped with great intensity that there was salvation possible for Ozul. That she could repay the man who had saved her life and the man who she had feelings for.

Their conversation was ongoing when the black walls began disintegrating, shifting their attention back to it.

And there stood Ozul with his back humped slightly when he stretched his hands together with his back.

*Yawns*

"How much time has it been?" he asked with a neutral face, but there was still something different about it. While before his indifference leaned to the side of annoyance, now it was the opposite.

The trio immediately felt the change and quietly exchanged glances between each other.

"What? I asked how much time?"

"Not much," Raven abruptly replied, "It has only been a few hours."

Ozul hummed in response before hopping onto his bed and lying in a comfortable position.

"Continue your cultivation..." he had to remind them since they kept staring at him.

While the trio resumed their training, he instead focused on himself. More precisely, the changes within him after he had consumed the Mind’s Eye.

There was a fundamental change in his abilities and the way he perceived the world after he woke up from that deep sleep.

While he was unconscious, his mind adapted to all the new things he could perceive in nature and the absolute control he felt he had over the Purity and in relation, the surroundings.

He didn’t understand why, but consuming that Mind’s Eye unlocked something that allowed him to ’understand’ everything around him. The air, the light, the smell, the life budding around the estate; he felt a thin connection with all of it.

’It’s concerning...’

When he sat down to think over it objectively, these new changes in him were worrisome.

The things surrounding him were able to influence him to the point of smiling like an idiot and crying at the same time. The emotions overwhelmed him and they weren’t even his.

On the other hand, his control over the Purity wasn’t anything to scoff at either.

Right in front of him, blobs of the Purity floated in the air and he rapidly changed their composition without any effort.

But his control over the Purity was already enough for him to make it do anything he wanted.

The greatest gift he had received just now was his mental fortitude after he woke up.

When it came to battles, he couldn’t escape the eyes of a peak Origin cultivator or even hope to injure them in normal circumstances. It was because his power actually depended on how much force he could exert with his mind.

The Purity was already a matter of such unique form that with enough force, it could pierce through anything. However, it required equally strong mental fortitude to exert such a force.

’I have gotten a little too strong...’ he thought and as the reality of this situation set in, he smiled unconsciously again.

*gasps!*

Zier sucked in a cold breath as he witnessed the scene of him smiling.

He wasn’t alone; Raven and Blaze were also too astonished to speak as they intently stared at his face.

But his smile disappeared just as quickly as it arrived when he heard those gasps. Looking at them coldly, Ozul spoke, "Stop fooling around. I better see you all as Origin cultivators in a month."

And that was enough for the trio as they tried to distract themselves from the sight etched into their memory.

Ozul went back to inspecting his body and realized he could feel more; he could ’see’ more.

And it was the first time he actually felt something leaving his body.

’The Scent...’1 That instantly came to his mind.

He focused on the invisible pores of his body and tried to stop the Scent’s emission.

Like a new limb, he had suddenly found attached to his back, once he focused on it, controlling it felt as natural as his other limbs.

’Hmm...will that work?’ he suddenly had an idea and testing it wasn’t hard as he just focused on those invisible pores again.

This time, instead of willing it to stop emitting the Scent, he applied more force on it to emit as much as he could in quick succession.

The trio didn’t feel it nor could they see it, but Ozul felt the Scent leaving his body and enveloping the entire room.

Just as it was about to attach to the trio, Ozul willed it all to disappear from existence and it all worked flawlessly!

’Now I can finally test its effects!’

Tiny particles like The Purity that his body unconsciously releases. Ozul considers it the Scent of the Purity.