He just stayed silent for a few minutes before focusing ahead. He stopped reaching for the Soul Energy.

"What is the different approach here other than absorbing it?"

He began thinking. Soul Energy was, at first glance, probably one of the most complex energies to exist. Not only the fundamental structure of this energy, but the very core of its mechanism was difficult to understand.

For the moment, he had been treating it like Verth, gathering it from the external world and then compressing it inwardly, after that building density through accumulating it. That’s it.

But the application of that mechanism was entirely wrong when applied here. Soul Energy wasn’t external to him.

"!!!!"

"T-This white space is inside my consciousness! Everything was already in me. I just have to become it."

Finally, a brilliant light of comprehension showed in his otherwise dark eyes.

He stopped trying to move the energy and himself. It was not meditation, but something more than that.

It was stillness.

The first question the mirror asked flashed in his mind, reminding him of his own nature.

"I...should be the awareness that watches the thoughts rather than...being the thoughts."

And he did exactly that, he let himself be. Nothing more, he was the watcher and the chooser.

He sat like that for several hours, and finally, thirteen hours later...the Soul Energy stopped passing through him.

It stopped because there was nothing to pass through, the boundary between Emperal and the energy thinned.

From all of this, he understood one thing.

The energy in the white space was of the same nature as the consciousness observing it.

The energy he was chasing so desperately was...already him.

And finally, in the very center of his consciousness, something began to form.

It wasn’t a cluster of light or any crystal. It didn’t fall into any category of matter that existed in the physical world.

A seed!

The Soul Energy suddenly doubled in output as the seed began to grow crazily. It went from the size of the tip of a needle to something bigger than a dot.

The size of that thing was nothing, but it contained everything!

"There you are!"

Emperal muttered as his consciousness slowly began returning. After a while, he decided to just observe it.

The seed pulsed lightly when it felt the attention. For a moment, nothing happened.

But Emperal stiffened lightly, his body! It was changing!

Not the fleshly body but his consciousness and mind, something was forming there.

"Good job, you have passed this with flying colours."

As always, his cheering dragon came in with those words.

"Is that really the seed? It...really didn’t take as much effort as you said."

Emperal spoke. If he had a head, he would definitely shake it.

"..."

The Infernal Dragon didn’t reply; it hadn’t grown old just because of the passage of time.

Without hesitation, Emperal left the Soul Space, returning to his physical world.

...

Emperal’s eyes snapped open to the ceiling. Looking down, he immediately felt the changes in his body.

"The seed, it is...working like a Spirit Root, no way."

Emperal was shocked when he saw that the Spirit Seed was still absorbing the Soul Energy from the Soul Space. But...

"Why has the absorption speed decreased by more than half?"

He couldn’t help but ask; this thing was truly unpredictable.

"It’s because you have left the Soul Space; only by going there and actively absorbing can you achieve that type of speed."

The Infernal Dragon spoke, which further made Emperal sigh. He massaged his temples.

"Then, isn’t this thing basically useless now?"

"Heh, obviously not. There are more ways to absorb the souls now, since you have formed the Soul Seed."

The Infernal Dragon chuckled, making Emperal’s eyes brighten.

"And? What are they?"

"I’ll tell you, but why don’t you try using Soul Energy?"

"...True."

Sitting cross-legged, he once again focused on his Soul Core. Suddenly, his hands glowed!

A small white light appeared for a brief moment before disappearing gently.

"This..."

Emperal was speechless when he saw this, but nonetheless, he continued.

"What a good little thing I have discovered! This Energy doesn’t even require a medium for me to use!

Emperal muttered, occasionally the white light flashing in his palms. At first, it just flickered for a few seconds, but gradually, it began to sustain.

The more Emperal tried, the better he got. But at the end of the day, his Soul Energy was severely limited. There’s no way it could keep up with Emperal’s demand.

Emperal sighed when he saw this, "Well, at least this is better than nothing."

... 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Solmere, the Royal Castle, where the Monarch of the Phoenix Empire resided.

In the grand hall, which was decorated with incredibly ancient and luxurious items, it all paled.

Paled in front of the figure sitting high up on the throne, looking down at the hundreds of people gathered in the room.

Soleine’s eyes swept through each of them coldly. They were ministers, pure-bloods, generals, and powerful Verth practitioners.

"The summit will be held exactly six months later, which means we will once again be able to send the younger generation to EverHeart’s realm. By my words, all the preparations required for it shall begin from now on!"

The Phoenix Empress declared in a cold tone, shocking the Elders and Practitioners below. After the shock came...joy.

"The EverHeart realm is once again going to be opened! T-The opportunities my generation has...are limitless!"

"Sigh, what a greenhorn. Someone explained to him that place is nothing but a hellhole designed for all races to shed blood."

"Shut up, Seria, don’t scare the new ones."

Just like that, the crowd broke into endless conversations and discussions. But suddenly, one man in the crowd raised his hand, catching the attention of the Empress.

Soleine raised her brow when she saw this. Leaning on her armrest, she gestured for the man to continue.

"Empress, with all due respect, if I may ask, who will be accompanying you to the summit?"

He asked, making the crowd go silent. They all looked at their Empress hopefully. The Empress in question merely chuckled.

"That...you’ll see."