Unsealing Emptiness

Chapter 461: A New Path.

Raven, Blaze, and Zier were tired after fending off against more than a hundred feral beasts.

This home of the Spirits was the only place with no wild beasts around. That is why they decided to rest the night there.

With Ozul around, none of the Spirits dared to even approach, so they didn’t need to worry about being killed in their sleep.

While the trio rested peacefully, Ozul’s mind was filled with too many thoughts to try sleeping.

He kept an eye on the Spirits in the vicinity while also thinking about whether Purity could even be used for any other purpose.

’Why aren’t they eating them now?’ He noticed the small creatures such as birds and rabbits hop around carefree even with the Spirits around.

The older Spirit was more than clear that the young ones did not grasp the concept of death as clearly as they should.

’But they have instinctively decided not to eat around their own home,’ he concluded that the instincts could be purely coincidental.

From how softly and warmly they interacted with everything around them, it was evident that the Spirits loved nature or at the very least, they adored harmless creatures such as birds.

He couldn’t help but notice wherever the Spirits passed through, life itself seemed to dim ever so slightly.

The older Spirit could only explain that since they were creatures of the Darkness, it only made sense for them to consume everything else.

Only, they also had feelings and were easily attached to the other creatures.

Since their very existence rotted life, they couldn’t have a permanent home anywhere. And so, they were always moving and searching for their brethren in a perpetual cycle.

As he showed interest in their ability to ’eat’, the older Spirit was more than happy to show them what they were capable of.

The trio could only stare in awe when they realized these clueless Spirits had such a terrific ability.

Their bodies, like mist, did not simply melt objects. They could absorb all kinds of Essence from living things, leaving merely a shell that would wither away in the soft wind; perhaps a better description would be ’sucking out life.’

’They want to make friends with life yet they are beings of death... a pity.’ He wasn’t one to pity others, but these Spirits were one of, if not the purest creatures he had come across.

Unfortunately, only Ozul could look at these creatures and feel a sense of pity in his heart. Anyone else would find them too unpleasant for sight.

It was while thinking about their ability to absorb did he remember he had something similar.

’Are they afraid because I too can absorb them?’ he pondered but rejected that thought. They were even more afraid of Purity than they were of him.

But just as the thought struck him, his eyes widened ever so slightly, realization dawning upon him.

Quickly, he produced a strand of Purity and grabbed a grasshopper right under his feet.

The air around him stilled as he removed all thought from his mind, focusing entirely on willing the Purity to absorb the life out of the grasshopper.

"!!!"

The nearby Spirits shrieked back as they watched in horror how the tiny grasshopper began to shrink and dry rapidly, turning into a hollow husk in mere seconds!

If Ozul had a heart, it would be thumping loudly in excitement.

He had almost given up and would have tried eating something alive any day now!

All along, the Purity had another ability he could use and he never knew! The thought alone brought him some shame.

After all, he could already absorb things by putting them in his mouth. His first instinct should have been to try the same with Purity.

Uncaring of the fearful Spirits nearby, he brought the Purity in front of other small living things, and as naturally as he could move his limbs, he could absorb the life essence out of them.

He felt the tiniest bit of that essence trailing along Purity and being sucked up by his body.

It was so minuscule that he would have to keep at it for a thousand years to see the slightest change in his strength.

But he wasn’t demotivated. Being able to absorb life essence using Purity was a blessing.

All along, he could only use rare artifacts to increase his strength. But now, just like the Celestial Phoenix or the Spirits, he could absorb even living beings.

Although he was gleeful, he didn’t continue to absorb life out of things in sight.

The Spirits were freaked out by him, some even fleeing away at the sight of Purity. Others were calling on the older Spirit to stop him while the latter could only give him pleading looks.

Having found a new path forward for himself, Ozul was finally at ease.

The sense of emergency gnawing at his conscience was quenched.

Although he would have to keep this ability a secret as well since just like the Spirits, being able to ’suck out life’ did not sit well with Humans or even the Beastkin.

’Where have Jinx been?’ he suddenly wondered, only now realizing that he hadn’t seen her for quite a while now.

Just as he thought that, however, a black feline leapt up on his lap before brushing past his chest.

’How do you even do that?’ Ozul questioned in his heart, staring into her eyes.

He knew that she could understand him, but as always, Jinx refused to speak, instead rolling herself into a furball on his lap and closing her eyes.

. . .

Morning came as quietly as night had fallen.

The thick canopies of this strange forest barely allowed any rays of light to pass through.

Yet, when the trio opened their eyes, the Spirits were already gone.

Raven, using the Scarlet Eyes, could see from the lifeless signs which direction they were headed, but there was no need to follow them.

"Let’s go," Ozul called out.

Blaze was already by his side in the next moment.

Zier muttered aloud, "We’re going back?" He was more than happy to go back. Killing endless waves of beasts wasn’t a dream of his even though he was more graceful with blood than even Blaze and Raven.

Ozul crushed his hopes by shaking his head, "We are going deeper," he stated with a tone of finality.

Unlike Blaze who followed him blindly, Raven was curious about what made him so determined to go deeper into the forest.

...

As they slowly marched forward and encountered a group of wild beasts, Zier was ready to utilize the tricks he had learned yesterday, but he didn’t get the chance.

Before he could even move, Ozul had already used Purity to slice through the group of 6 wild boars.

They were big enough to uproot trees with their claws, but Purity could even slice through Transcendent cultivators, so their fate was already set in stone.

"What happened?" Raven asked, noticing that instead of moving, he stayed there, looking at the corpses.

She received her answer in the next moment when Ozul spread Purity all over the area, wrapping all the corpses in a layer of black.

In front of their eyes, the corpses suddenly began to shrink in size, and the leaves and roots of trees also deflated and dwindled.

The trio watched with widened eyes as this scene reminded them of the previous night.

"Is that why we met those Spirits? He learned their ability?" Zier whispered to Raven and Blaze.

Unlike his previous feelings on the matter, the sight of Ozul sucking out life from other things didn’t feel as macabre as it did with the Spirits. Maybe it was the Scent altering his feelings, but he didn’t care about that.

While they watched in awe as Ozul utilized his newfound ability, the latter was immersed in the feeling.

Although it felt good, the essence transferred to his body was still as worthless as ever.

The boars were at the level of Nascent Soul cultivators.

The amount of essence that he got from them at least gave him an idea of what he needed to do for actual improvement to be felt.

’This will not be as easy as I thought,’ he admitted that he had gotten a little excited yesterday.

He estimated that it would be of no use to him at all until he could draw the essence from humans or animals at the rank of Transcendent.

"This forest ought to hold the Transcendent beasts, right?" Staring into the depths of the woods, he pondered.

So he marched on, determined to find one Transcendent beast if not more.

He had to explore the limitations of this skill as well as all of its benefits and drawbacks. And where better to do these trials than in a jungle that nobody ventures into?

He had just taken another step when a wave of pressure swept past him!

Tremors arose from the ground, birds abandoned their nests, and the forest rang from the howls of scared beasts.

A wave of Spiritual Essence just phased past the entire Realm of Abezan!