by William Bill
"Ha, creating new ethereal core points for a mortal cripple like you should have been an easy thing to do. Since you don't have any cultivation and you are starting from scratch, I only have to create basic ethereal core points that you would find in children. But even if you had high cultivation, you would still have to start from scratch, since now I can't afford to create ethereal core points that have evolved to a certain point. Each time one breakthrough, their ethereal core points would also develop to keep up with their strength and power.
"But now, for just creating some elementary ethereal core points, I would have to sacrifice a significant amount of soul essence...Hmph, you should do well to compensate this goddess when everything is done." The girl demanded.
'Creating a new set of ethereal core points that too, stronger than common people's; no matter how low level it is, it is not something that nobody has ever done in this whole continent! And here she is sad about losing some soul essence...well she must not have much of her soul essence left. I guess she is taking a chance with me.' Damien mused.
"It would also hurt a bit when I remove and construct new ethereal core points in your body. Try your best not to die." A sadistic grin emerged on her face.
"Heh, I wouldn't be here if I couldn't even handle pain. And I have already died once, so even if there is a chance that I would die...I wouldn't have any regrets since I tried my best. I just hope…"
'Sofie is in a nice place somewhere. Is she happy now? Did she forget me? Or is there any chance she remembers me? I wish I could see her just once more.' Damien continued inwardly.
"Hope what?" The girl asked, seeing that Damien was trailing off in thought.
Damien shook his head and gave a light smile, "Nothing."
"Very good. Then since everything is clear between us, why don't we start?" The girl said with a smile.
"You mean here?" Damien said as he took a quick glimpse around the room.
"Don't worry. No one is going to find out anything that will happen here. Since this involves my interests, I will take care of this whole situation."
"But how—"
"You don't have to worry about how I am going to do it. Now just shut up and focus, as I am going to start!"
Chapter 16: Reborn
As she spoke, the girl's eye flashed and brightened as she lowered her luminous snow-white wrist. A white strand of energy flowed out from her fingertips and pierced Damien's chest in a flash.
The moment the white strand of energy entered Damien's body, he felt like something inside his chest was shaking violently...but what he didn't know was that it was his origin seed reacting to the new strand of energy.
Originating from his chest, dozens of jet black lines fanned widely across his body.
In an instant, the lines spread over his body. His chest, hands, legs, face, ears, and even his pupils were now full of jet black colored channels that looked like a hellish pattern of streaks.
"Arrrhhkkk..."
At that moment, Damien felt as if ten thousand knives were slicing his body.
Extreme pangs of pain beamed violently from every corner of his body, forcing him to let out a painful groan.
His entire body started to shake tremendously, as his vision became blurry until it became a complete shade of jet black.
A wave of pain emanated from a force that seemed to destroy the insides of his body.
He finally realized that it was his destroyed ethereal core points that were being shredded into pieces so small...it's as if they never existed in the first place.
The ethereal core points' function was to absorb ethereal energy from the air and channel it towards the ethereal core. But now, since the ethereal core points were no longer there, the minute amount of ethereal energy that was already in his body due to the undamaged ethereal core point escaped from his body and into the air.
One could still live without ethereal core points; they just wouldn't be able to cultivate the slightest amount of ethereal energy. Although ethereal core points do not affect one's life and death, it was still a part of the body.
The destroyed ethereal core points were continuously being eaten away and slowly ripped and shredded, so one could only imagine that degree of misery.
'She said that my old ethereal core points would be removed first before creating new ones in their place...then this pain means it's really happening! So, how can I not bear with this little bit of pain if I can get a new set of ethereal core points!'
Damien's body was still bearing the indescribable pain. The pain had already surpassed the limits of what a normal human being could endure.
He felt as if each second lasted for hours...every second of pain made it unbearable for him.
The girl was meticulously removing the old ethereal points without causing any side effects; at this rate, the total process would take around twenty minutes to finish.
'It doesn't matter if I couldn't even make use of the Origin seed...or even if my ethereal core points were ordinary...as long as I get the chance to cultivate like others...I would have no complaints...even if this pain was ten times more intense, I would still definitely do it!'
His nerves were numb from the terrifying pain. They made his body fiercely spasm...but in his heart was a feeling of tranquility and excitement!
As the girl started ripping away Damien's ethereal core points, her lips curved up, revealing a gleeful smile...seeing his agony.
She knew that the process of tearing away one's ethereal core points from inside was inhuman torture, a pain of the highest degree that would make even the world's strongest beings roll on the ground and shriek.
'Did you think I would just forgive you for your rudeness...Hmph, this pain would indeed grant you a new set of ethereal core points, but it would also grant you the most brutal punishment!' The girl snickered inwardly.
She cruelly smiled as she saw the jet black veins all over his body; as she saw his eyes suddenly turn black; as she saw his whole body tremble; as she saw his face contorting in pain.
But slowly, her smile waned and disappeared, and what replaced it was a face that expressed an ever-increasing shock.
His four limbs trembled, his entire body spasmed, and the contortion of his facial features became more pronounced as each second passed.
Bean-sized beads of sweat slipped down his forehead at a terrifying speed. It was difficult to imagine how great the pain had to be for the body to respond in such an alarming way.
However, aside from that first moan, Damien didn't utter a single sound of pain afterward, not even a single trace!
As time ticked away, one minute…three minutes…five minutes….The girl's expression eventually changed into one of complete astonishment.
Under the extreme agony of his ethereal core points being torn apart, he didn't even let out a single outcry of pain!
Damien's body was already covered with his sweat as every spot of his skin and flesh trembled in pain. Yet between his clenched teeth, the fact that no sound escaped was extremely shocking. And his distorted face hid a little trace of excitement!
'How can a mortal bear such an amount of pain? He should be in enough pain to wish for death to escape this torture! How can a crippled mortal like him have such daunting will power? Can mortals even possess such will power?
This crippled young boy...housing an origin seed...what exactly is he?'
At this point, in her shock, the girl realized that she had completely and unfairly looked down on him.
His body was pathetic, and his ethereal strength was almost non-existent. Still, at this time, he exhibited frightening willpower that completely contrasted with his other aspects.
Before, she had wondered how an Origin seed could merge with his ethereal core.
But she remembered that one of the basic requirements for an entity to form an origin seed like his was extraordinary willpower. And the more powerful one's willpower was, the greater the potential one's Origin seed would have.
But she still found it impossible that a god's origin seed merged with a mortal. Even so, she decided to think about it later.
Few minutes went by…
At this time, the jet black marks on Damien's body slowly subsided, and his contorted face started to ease down.
The obliteration of the old ethereal core points had finished. What followed was the construction of new ethereal core points.
From the areas that had been obliterated, Damien felt the growth of the new ethereal core points, and the growth speed was extremely fast, over ten times the speed of the destruction of his old ethereal core points.
A feeling of completeness slowly replaced the barren feeling from just before. And the pain he had also experienced slowly disappeared like a subsiding tide.
His sweat no longer trickled down, and his muscle spasms stopped; even his expression became calm. Damien closed his eyes and remained motionless. If one looked carefully, they could see a relaxed smile hanging from the edges of his lips.
In the quiet stillness, Damien suddenly found out that he was able to see the insides of his body!
Cultivators have the ability to see the insides of their bodies or inspect their bodies using inner vision.
He could see his heart, muscles, organs, bones, etc, and based on the knowledge from his previous self; he identified some strange looking small discs embedded on his bones as the new ethereal core points!
A human's ethereal core points start developing from birth and reach maturity at around thirteen. But he found out that his ethereal core points were completely developed in just less than five minutes!
The ethereal core point's size and shape were all the same as in Damien's knowledge of a human's ethereal core points.
Under his thorough sense, the locations of all forty-seven ethereal core points were quickly found out. Even the distribution and sensation was the same as before.
At the same time, he found out that all forty-seven of his ethereal core points were active!
If the empires or prominent sects in the continent knew about the fact that Damien had all of his ethereal core points active; they would do everything in their utmost power to recruit him to the point that they would even offer up their own daughters for marriage, riches, and resources so that they could rope him into their families.
But if he didn't join any of them, they would rather hunt him down and find out the secret behind his ethereal core points and how he managed to activate all of them.
After all, they didn't want a single person to grow strong to the point that can cause a threat to them. Well, this is how most of the influential persons in this world think.
Speaking from the standpoint of his talent, with the activation of all ethereal core points, Damien's talent was supreme and superior compared to anyone in this world.
His speed of ethereal cultivation and ethereal strength activation would be increased greatly. There would be no limit to any ethereal techniques practiced, and he will never hit a bottleneck in ethereal strength.
He finally saw the ethereal core in the energy center of his chest, just under his heart. He could see an empty region, which was the energy center with nothing but a small jet black sphere that was none other than the origin seed.
But nothing strange was happening. The Origin seed was simply suspended and was not giving any reaction at all. It was as if it was just a dead seed...just like what the girl told.
There was no godly power emanating from it, nor were there any different attributes. It was just as if the Origin seed didn't exist at all.
But Damien's didn't even possess a sliver of disappointment. His heart was overwhelmingly ecstatic with joy as his blood boiled in his entire body...because his ethereal core points were completely reborn without a single flaw and he didn't die from the process either!
This means he could finally graduate from being an eternally useless wastrel who couldn't even cultivate beyond the first level of the Initial Ethereal Realm.
'Sofie, just wait for me. One day I will become strong enough to find you. If you remember me...you would be overjoyed when you see me...but if you don't remember me...I will just make you fall in love with me all over again. And...I would also find the one who brought this upon us!'
Damien bellowed in his heart.
At this time, the jet black lines on his body stopped shimmering and instantly vanished altogether. Along with it, Damien finally opened his eyes.
"How does the reborn ethereal core feel?" The girl narrowed her eyes that glinted like a star.
Chapter 17: Luna
During this period of time, the girl had thoroughly observed him for a while now. He was only fifteen years old, and observing his disposition, he seemed to have died young in his previous life.
Other than his handsome good looks and swordsmanship, he had nothing else noteworthy.
But how could he possess such horrifying willpower? Had he actually experienced hell before?
"It really was a success!" Damien tightened both of his hands into fists, as he said with excitement. He then noticed that his right hand was almost healed, and he could move it without much discomfort.
"Surprised seeing your right hand almost healed?" The girl asked with a light smile.
Damien inspected his right forearm using his inner vision and found that his bones and muscles were almost healed, and only the skin was scarred, which would also heal at least within a month.
"Seems like the pill you took earlier was not fully absorbed since you were crippled. It was a pill meant for healing cultivators since they possess ethereal energy inside their bodies. If one were crippled, then the pill wouldn't be fully effective since they wouldn't be able to utilize the medicine's properties without ethereal energy. And so, when my energy came into contact with in your body, it somehow triggered the residual medicine left in your body to act and heal your forearm."
"Wow, I never really knew the difference would be this huge when a pill depends on the ethereal energy inside one's body," Damien said with an awed expression.
"Ugh..this is nothing compared to what one can do with ethereal energy as they break through to higher stages." The girl said with a bored expression.
"Also, since you are not a cripple now, your ethereal core points have slowly started forming your ethereal core. But still, you have not really broken through the first level of the Initial Ethereal Realm. As I removed your ethereal core points, whatever ethereal energy was left in your body already escaped into the air."
Damien smiled, "Well, it doesn't matter. Now that I can cultivate like a normal person, I can slowly build up my foundation from the start."
He then narrowed his brows, "Are you sure my Origin seed is something that belonged to a god? Because right now, I am not feeling anything special."
The girl's eyes flashed with a glimpse of disappointment. Then she said in an indifferent tone, "Do you have any idea how much soul essence I just sacrificed to fix your ethereal core? Since I basically restored your ethereal core, I had to use a significant amount of soul essence because I had to use laws related to restoration. If I had my [Shard Of Restoration], I wouldn't have had to make the same sacrifice. But to think that you didn't seem to get any reaction from the Origin seed." The girl shook her head in disappointment.
'I thought his Origin seed reacted when my energy entered his body. Maybe I guessed things wrongly. An Origin seed in a mortal's body might work in a different way I cannot predict. Maybe it will react when he forms a nexus world, or maybe it never will.' The girl mused.
Damien felt a little bad thinking if it was his problem that the Origin seed was not giving off any reactions. He saw that the girl's spirit body had become a little hazy...probably due to utilizing a significant amount of her soul essence to fix him.
"I...don't worry, since you have kept the end of your deal, I would do everything in my power to fulfill all your three conditions. Even if the origin seed turns out to be useless doesn't mean I can't become powerful
without it." Damien said with his back firm.
"Hmph, we will see." The girl scoffed, but her eyes had an approving look.
"I am going back into the shard to sleep, don't disturb me till I come out on my own."
Saying this, the girl went back into the shard as it went inside Damien's chest and the crescent moon-like imprint on his chest vanished as if there wasn't even one in the first place.
'Wow...I can't believe a goddess exists inside me. Guess she was too tired. Well, I hope this is all not a dream.'
Damien's mind was still in a state of disbelief as too many inexplicable things recently.
First, he had transmigrated to a strange world with cultivation, waking up as a crippled slave, only to have a life and death battle with beasts.
Following that, he got rescued by an imperial princess, and after that, he found out a goddess had linked her soul with his. The very same goddess fixed him by giving him a new set of ethereal core points.
'What does this new world have in store for me? But no matter what, I won't let myself die pathetically like in my previous life. This time my fate would be decided by my own hands.'
Damien vowed in his heart.
Sniff sniff…
'Ugh...I guess I stink really bad.'
Seeing how he was stinking really bad, he dashed right into the bathroom. He filled the bathtub with hot water and immersed himself in it as he let out a moan of relief.
'Ahhhh...this feels so refreshing...I even forgot how relaxing this is. But I never thought the process to fix my ethereal core points would be that painful. Damn...that little imp told me it would only hurt a little and to think that she was messing with me at that time...But in the end, she did fix me by even sacrificing her soul essence. She must be pretty desperate, I guess.'
Damien found the bath so refreshing and relaxing that he fell asleep while drifting through various thoughts in his mind.
It was early morning when Damien suddenly opened his eyes. His biological cycle always forced him to wake up during this time.
'Damn...I fell asleep here?'