How Much For Your Soul

With the equivalent of two months of Heavenly Energy sucked into his soul realm, it was enough to initiate the process of forming a Fate Soul. Rays of divine light revolved around him, continuously evolving as they flowed in a swirling mass of multi-coloured splendour. Shen Yue had gained astonishing enlightenment into the mysteries of the universe. Compared to his previous life, there was now a drastic difference in his outlook on life thanks to the profound truths of his cultivation technique that the Heaven's Path Library had created for him.

His body began to float from the ground as the light show around him intensified. His soul was opened to truths about the universe that was simple, but also so profound that he would never have realised them without his cultivation technique opening his mind to them. Then agony replaced his chanting with soul splitting screams of torture. His soul realm began tearing as surges of pain washed over him, an ordinary person like him was unable to endure it. Any thoughts of keeping a clear mind to make sure the process didn't fail were instantly forgotten as he cried in agony.

The pain was indescribable, he would have passed out immediately if not for his cultivating technique forcefully keeping him conscious and operating the forming of his Fate Soul. How Nie Li shrugged this pain off and continued to cultivate was impressive, considering how immature he always acted. How his mental discipline was able to shrug of soul tearing pain, but not childish insults, was an enigma that could only be explained by retardation.

Like an enormous vacuum, his technique had somehow kept operating on its own, draining the limited amounts of Heavenly Energy in the Immortal Jade Realm into helping the formulation process. Shen Yue's mind was on autopilot, his body forcefully being guided in using Heavenly Energy to refine his Fate Soul and commanding all the opposing Laws and Energy to help create it. Shen Yue's skin had turned pale, the only colour visible was a sickly ashen sheen as he continued to scream with sweat and tears trickling down his face.

Nie Li had frantically controlled his Fate Soul to absorb more Heavenly Energy and continued to strengthen it until it grew to three times its original size! Unfortunately, Shen Yue was but a mere mortal, and if not for his god-like cultivation technique controlling the creation of his first Fate Soul, he would have passed out and failed. Therefore, unlike Nie Li, he lay there gasping for air as he tried to regain enough mental capacity to make sense of the situation. Even if he could continue to cultivate, he had no more spiritual stones and the Heavenly Energy inside the Immortal Jade Realm was now too scarce to be of use.

Thirty minutes later, Shen Yue still felt like his entire body was about to cave in. However, the multi-coloured Fate Soul that burned in his soul realm put a massive smile on his face. Colour aside, his first Fate Soul gave off a powerful aura that was not normal, especially for one that had just been formed. Even though it was newly developed and needed to be further fed with Heavenly Energy, it was like a blazing sun that lit up his Soul Realm with rainbow coloured lights.

His Soul Realm's Ying Yang symbol now dominated the sky, growing from the size of a basketball to a couple kilometres. It had also increased the speed it was rotating, releasing more energy to nourish his body and soul. His three slave seals, the dog collar, a jewelled crown and a white dove in a golden cage, were still floating in the sky to the side but had increased in size and become more tangible. The vine had grown and become sturdy, not quite a vine or a tree, but something of a mixture of both, it made Shen Yue think of Jack and the Beanstalk.

The twenty-nine elements had all been attached to the vine-like tree. It looked like a pyramid with the seven primary elements on the bottom as the foundation. Six elemental attributes had made up the second level and decreased by one each layer. The Fate Soul was orbiting the Ying Yang symbol as it spun like the moon did the Earth. Which was strange, since it was supposed to be the centre of his Soul Realm, not the Ying Yang symbol. Either way, he could find nothing wrong since it released an aura of dominance and did not look like it was about to dissipate, even though he had not strengthened it after it had formed as he had intended.

Since Shen Yue had missed the opportunity to increase his cultivation to the pinnacle of the 1-fate Realm, he could only expend more effort and spiritual stones like most people. With the aura and different colour of his Fate Soul, he suspected that it would need many times more spiritual stones than an ordinary colourless one to improve. But knowing the future would grant him many money-making opportunities, especially if he managed to acquire the Myriad Miles Rivers and Mountains Painting. To achieve this goal, Shen Yue would need over two hundred thousand spiritual stones to buy it when it would be actioned in seven months.

It took Shen Yue a full day before he felt well enough to start cultivating again. During his recovery, the Heavenly Energy had once again begun to accumulate to satisfactory levels. With his mental state mostly recovered, he began to refine his Fate Soul as best he could. Shen Yue had no idea how ordinary people managed to reach the Heavenly Fate Realm with the intense pain that came from mutilating one's soul to achieve it. Maybe his was just much worse since it contained multiple Laws and his technique was so overpowered. One thing was for sure, he was not looking forward to forming eight more!

Fifteen days later of training in the Immortal Jade Realm, Shen Yue had become accustomed to his new strength. His physical prowess and stamina had increased by leaps and bounds, and his physique would put Long Yuyin's Blood Dragon Lineage to shame. He now had the strength to start his forceful minion recruiting. Exiting the Realm back to his shoebox room in the Skysoul Institute, Shen Yue laid down on his bed for some well-earned sleep. Hopefully, when he awakened, his men would have the information needed to make a move.

Sure enough, the next morning brought minions eager to report their success. As Shen Yue had suspected, most of Hua Ling's men were housed in the free rooms provided by the school. Only two men stayed in his private courtyard to act as servants and guards. With a list of room numbers, the God-Emperor set out to expand his army! The plan was fairly straight forward, get one of them to open the door then quickly restrain them and enslave them. Once they had one, the rest would be easy to convince to open their doors.

The only problem came in the form of getting caught fighting on school grounds outside of a sanctioned competition. Shen Yue was not worried about his slave seal being found out, as they would have to examine a person's soul realm to find it. There was a minuscule chance of a master forcefully invading a nobody's privacy to that extent without a significant reason. This was why Shen Yue wanted to stay away from influential young masters and focus on the general population that was only thought of as fodder for their factions.