The Rebirth of Evelyn Knox

Evelyn didn't know how long she had been swimming for before she finally managed to reach the giant glowing orb she had sensed, though to her it felt like an eternity.

Thankfully, it didn't seem like she could get physically tired while in this state, or it might have taken her even longer to get here.

In her attempts at finding this thing, Evelyn had ended up exhausting almost half of her soul value, and she knew that it would take a while to recover.

At first, her plan had been to simply confirm the orb's location, and then exit the array to wait for her soul value to recover. After all, wouldn't it be better if she was in her peak condition, at least in terms of soul value, when she attempted to comprehend a cultivation technique centered around the soul?

But on her way to the main orb, Evelyn had encountered many large orbs that had obviously been in other places before, and came to a realization.

This place was obviously meant as a 'test', and the better she performed, the better her rewards. The larger orbs had been moved to be in her way as she got closer to the main orb to pose as both a temptation and relief, and if she fell for these 'traps', her overall rewards would of course be lower.

These 'rewards' weren't anything material, of course, but the rate at which she could cultivate and comprehend the 'Searing Soul' in the future. As Aurora had emphasized to her repeatedly, Evelyn was determined to grasp nothing but the 'core' of the cultivation technique.

Since that was so, her previous 'rest first and return later' strategy would obviously not work. Even if she did so, the location of the orbs would simply change based on her starting location, and finding the core orb would simply be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Moreover, if she truly decided to forego using her 'Soul Ripple' method, how could she even be sure if she was going for the right one?

So Evelyn decided to just grit her teeth and go for it, even if her soul value was currently half depleted. Anyway, she still had almost seven hundred points, which was several times what anyone her age was supposed to have.

Evelyn didn't hesitate any longer, and as soon as her hand made contact with the giant orb, the world around her warped as the dark waters disappeared, and she appeared in… White Lily Palace.

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Aurora had already told Evelyn that only three other students had acquired the searing soul, and only one of them had moderate success with the technique, but she never told her where the technique came from.

It wasn't that Aurora didn't know, but that she simply did not wish for Evelyn, or anyone else, to know of such a thing.

After all, the one who created the technique… was the woman she hated the most in her life.

As she watched the little children diligently 'guarding' their pink haired friend in the center of the array, the platinum blonde couldn't help but feel a little complicated in her heart.

Having already accepted Evelyn as her student, Aurora of course intended to 'take care' of her even if she ended up failing her test in the end. This was why when she finally chose the technique that she knew was most suitable for her, even though she herself put it in front of her eyes, the platinum blonde couldn't help but feel like perhaps it really was… destiny.

The founder of the Ancient Academy, her 'creator', and the one who always treated her as nothing more than another failed experiment would finally have a 'worthy successor' for her life's greatest achievement, the 'Searing Soul'.

Perhaps if she was still alive, her so-called mother would be laughing in joy upon seeing all her 'plans' come to fruition. But Aurora could only feel self-hate, because even after all these years, maybe she was still nothing more than a tool.

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Not only was the place she found herself in the same familiar 'White Lily Palace' that she had been staying in, it was even the very same 'apartment'! For a moment, Evelyn thought that this must be a scenario based on her own memories, but soon realized that it wasn't the case at all.

Because in the center of the room was a 'spirit egg' with golden white engravings, surrounded by dozens of elders exuding formidable auras.

It was the first time Evelyn had seen a spirit egg with her own eyes, and she had to admit that it really did look a lot like an oversized bird egg that had been painted over. 

To think that such a thing was considered a 'treasure' in this world because it allowed their children to gain more power in exchange for their 'humanity', and so many people sought it out with not a second thought of if their children would even want such a fate. 

Of course, Evelyn herself was more than happy to have a little more power in exchange for this useless 'humanity' that everyone else seemed so proud of, but she knew that this wasn't the case for everyone else.

After all, having a spirit physique came with many 'side effects', including never being able to have regular children of their own. The only way to have 'offspring', for someone with a spirit physique was to use the rare and expensive spirit eggs once more, which could be impractical when considering the long-term survival of a family.

This was why, despite the multitude of benefits it brought, some royal families, such as the one in the Kingdom of Gwyntere, only allowed their 'disposable pawns' to use the spirit eggs. They could still get strong, after all, but with a harder path ahead, and a much slower start. With their plentiful imperial coffers, that was hardly a problem.

The spirit egg with the golden white engravings cracked slowly, and Evelyn could feel that everyone in the room seemed to be getting excited. 

Although she knew that this was only a 'memory' from the creator of the technique, Evelyn couldn't help but wonder who this person was in this room full of elders.

Her questions were answered soon enough, as a blue robed lady with flaming red hair, green eyes, and long, prominent razor-sharp nails stepped closer to the cracking spirit egg, looking both anxious and despondent.

The elders around her were already murmuring to each other, and Evelyn caught many disappointed sighs as they discussed how nothing strange seemed to be happening. Everything looks normal.

The pink haired girl couldn't help but tilt her head. 'These are all academy teachers or something, right? How come they actually WANT something to go wrong with this baby's birth?'

Evelyn's mild curiosity was replaced with shock, however, because when the adorable little baby head finally popped out of the egg with a 'wuh!', the platinum blonde hair and mystical purple eyes finally made her realize whose 'birth' she might be witnessing.

And what a tragic scene it was, because as soon as she came into the world, the already anxious red haired lady snatched her up by her hair, lifting the tiny little toddler up to her face despite her mournful screams.

Unlike Evelyn, who had almost waist length hair right as she got out of her egg, Aurora's hair was barely two to three inches in length, and the woman's hasty movements had obviously scratched her scalp somewhere, because blood was already trickling down the baby's face as she sobbed and tried to wriggle her powerless limbs to get free.

But the woman's face was even more full of despair as she looked at the child, as if it had shattered all her hopes and dreams. "No Soul Ripples… No otherworldly aura… Even this one is a failure!"

The other 'professors', or whatever they were supposed to be, didn't seem concerned about the baby's well-being at all, and consoled the woman instead.

"Don't lose hope, headmistress."

"The Lotus Throne may have some other requirements we don't know of, we can keep working on it, right?"

"If nothing else, she's still an excellent seed worthy of nurturing as a talent, our efforts weren't pointless!"

The lady shook her head before putting the baby back in her shell and healing her wounds with a wave of her hand. She then proceeded to shove all of the shell pieces in Aurora's mouth one by one, almost vengeful, as she started instructing the professors.

"Halt the Lotus project. We can't afford any more failures. This is the last one."

The others seemed reluctant to 'give up' on whatever their plans had been, but could only agree to the woman's will.

The baby Aurora was as docile as her adult counterpart, and seemed to have 'forgiven' the lady's previous transgressions as she chewed on the shell pieces she kept getting roughly shoved in her face.

Evelyn vaguely remembered her own father mentioning that the shell couldn't be touched by anyone but the baby when her mother had begun getting impatient, and she wondered if that was wrong, or if the red haired lady simply didn't care to be so patient with Aurora. 

The latter seemed far more likely, and the pink haired girl sighed as she hoped that whatever 'contamination' her father had mentioned wasn't something too serious.

As Aurora gazed at her 'mother' pitifully, Evelyn felt a chill run up her spine as she wondered what sort of life she had lived. It couldn't be any worse than her own hell on earth in her past life, right?