"Nee?"

Shibyo slowly approached Tyler. Although he could still feel the heat around him, it was slowly dissipating.

He got closer to Tyler and nudged against his face.

At this moment, Tyler was on his knees while holding his face. His entire body was sweating like crazy, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Huff! Huff! Water...Water..."

Tyler barely let out those words, and Shibyo instantly disappeared. Only a minute later, it reappeared, holding a large stone carved into a bottle.

Tyler used all of his strength to put his face on that water and started drinking while also cooling his body.

After a minute or two, he pulled his face from the bottle and sighed.

"Finally, I feel alive."

Although he said, his face looked quite weak.

"Nee?"

Shibyo approached him and patted his hand with his paw.

Tyler turned his head and patted his head.

"Don’t worry, I will be fine. Only my soul hurts."

He said while pointing at his body. Those charred skins were completely healed when Tyler’s body was occupied by someone else. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

No, his body wasn’t even occupied. It was just a wisp of soul that was sustaining that control.

That woman hadn’t escaped the tower. When his life was in danger, the tower opened a small part of the first floor, allowing the woman to release her power.

When she did that, she instantly took control of his body. Because of the difference in their souls, she was able to keep this control by consuming other people’s souls.

And everything she did with his body, Tyler could feel it. So, he knew that the woman somehow used his mana to heal himself.

That was quite weird. He didn’t even realize his mana could do that.

More importantly, her powers were scary. It could literally burn anything.

She wasn’t lying when she said she would burn heaven and earth. If she got a massive boost in strength, she could literally do that.

This was done from a wisp of her power, not even her soul, just a small wisp of her energy released from the first floor.

As for why he was able to regain control, it was thanks to a special technique that appeared in his mind.

He didn’t know why it appeared there, but not only did it appear, he could seemingly use it.

Soul Explosion Technique literally did what its name suggested. It would explode his soul.

This could be done to gain a temporary boost in strength since Spiritual Power was more potent than normal mana.

But that wasn’t the reason why he used it.

He didn’t even know why he used it in the first place. That technique came to his mind, and he instinctively used it when Shibyo’s life was threatened.

Only after he used it did he understand why it appeared in his mind.

It was left by his parents.

Why was he so sure?

Because this technique burned his soul, which affected the tower.

Otherwise, this tower wouldn’t have forcefully pulled that energy into itself and stopped him from using that technique.

This tower was connected to his soul, so burning his soul would affect his tower.

Although he wasn’t sure why it couldn’t leave him, he knew this was the only way he could threaten this tower.

But this incident also revealed a major danger to his life.

If he reached the Treasured Body Realm and opened the first floor, how much could this woman influence him?

She only used a wisp of her energy, not a small portion of his soul or a technique, just a small part of her energy, which was similar to his mana.

Not only did she control him, but she also incinerated Soul Sublimation Realm cultivators with his Mana Condensation Realm.

She did that with such ease that her powers couldn’t be under the Soul Sublimation Realm.

That meant even a small portion of her energy could destroy his entire family.

From her words, her intentions were clear.

She showed jealousy towards Erena and Daisy, but not because of their power or beauty, but for their improvement.

She also showed disdain towards them because they couldn’t fully utilize the potential of that sound.

So, there was a high chance that if he unlocked the first floor, she could instantly take control of his body, not kill but control those two women as well.

In fact, she could also control him to have sex with six more ordinary women, who would gain his Yang Origin.

Since it was something that could be given to others, it could also be taken from others.

Before, he didn’t know about this, but after learning it, he kinda understood why this woman accepted Daisy and Erena quickly.

In her mind, she could easily seize the Yang Origin in their bodies, but she couldn’t do the same with the other eight women.

So, those eight women were her main enemies. As for Daisy and Erena, they were just ’pets’ at best.

In other words, he couldn’t step into the Treasured Body Realm because that would mean living as her puppet.

As for why this tower wouldn’t help him?

Because this tower was never supposed to be with him. Even Hongsu said he didn’t have any destiny with Dual Cultivation.

If he had any now, it was a destiny he forcefully seized by merging his soul with the tower.

At this moment, he realized that even improving his strength was full of traps.

’Maybe that’s why I didn’t hesitate to activate that technique.’

After all, exploding his soul wasn’t something normal people could do. The moment he was controlled by her, he lost all hope.

Even death would be better for him.

At this moment, he made a decision in his mind.

He would rather not improve his realm than put his people in danger.

He would rather be ordinary and stay ordinary than become someone’s puppet.

That woman showed no mercy to Shibyo.

This was just a cat, a pet, not even her enemy. She simply wanted to kill him to make him feel despair.

At this moment, he realized just why his parents left.

If they weren’t dead, they must’ve left because of this tower.

His parents deeply loved him. They couldn’t just watch him become someone’s puppet.

That’s why he genuinely believed that technique was left behind by his parents.

This tower wasn’t friendly to him, not to mention the women inside the tower.

But there was one doubt in his heart.

What if the tower suddenly decided to go out of control? What if it releases those women?

That’s why, despite having a heart to prevent disaster, Tyler was also afraid of bringing more disasters.

’For now, let’s just cultivate to the ninth level of the Mana Condensation Realm. Then, I will think about it.’

Tyler decided not to worry about his situation.

He didn’t want to become a cog in this game of fate, nor did he want to cause trouble for his people.

There were things that he needed to consider, plan he needed to improvise. For now, he should just follow the previous plan.

Go back, solve the problem of fishmen invasion, and cultivate to the peak of the Mana Condensation Realm.

Then, he would need to think about his situation.

Furthermore, he had another thing to consider. Although he didn’t explode his soul completely, he did activate the technique.

That’s the whole reason why the tower felt threatened and locked up that woman.

So, his soul was affected by the technique, and it had been weakened severely.

Now, not only did he need to improve his body, but also his soul.

At this moment, he was just very grateful for having such wonderful parents. It was a blessing for him.

Now he firmly believed they had left more clues about their existence, and he could only find those clues if he improved his strength.

That conflicted with his previous idea of not improving his realm.

’So, thinking about it doesn’t make sense at all. Right now, I should just focus on two things. Ending Fishmen conflict and reaching the peak.’

’Once both of them are completed, I will think about where I need to go.’

At this moment, he suddenly remembered the time when he was ready to just forget everything and remain an ordinary person.

The time when he believed his talent was gonna be very low. He prepared his trip to the Yellowstone Mine just for that.

And, now, after so many improvements, he felt like he had returned to the point where he didn’t know whether improving his strength was good or not.

"Hahahahahaha!"

Thinking about it, he couldn’t contain his laughter.

Shibyo gave him a confused look and asked.

"Nee?"

"Nothing! I was just thinking about something fun. By the way, my clothes are completely gone."

Tyler explained it to his pet before looking at his body. He gave it a closer look before letting out a scream.

"Fuck! I am completely naked."