Death... and me

Rean and Roan then looked at Sister Orb, who pretended to not notice it. [Oh, congratulations! You now have your Soul Power and Spiritual Energy fused. Now, brace yourselves for the Spiritual Energy.]

Kentucky, Rean, and Roan were confused for a moment when out of nowhere, the Soul Gem Orb began to shine. The black and white threads that connected Rean and Roan through the Soul Gem Orb then appeared. However, there was another link there, one that connected Kentucky and the twins.

Following that, the Soul Gem Orb began to absorb Spiritual Energy nonstop. Following that, Rean, Roan, and Kentucky's connections shone as well as some kind of ethereal light passed through it, entering their heads.

Only then did Rean and Roan understand that the Soul Gem System was transforming Spiritual Energy into Soul Power. Their Soul Power Strength soon began to increase at breakneck speeds after that. Fortunately, there was no pain this time. It felt the same as a breakthrough when their Spiritual Energy Pools increased in size.

It was also a lot faster. Kentucky, who already had higher Soul Power, was the first to finish, taking only ten minutes. As for the twins, the Soul Power entering their Souls stopped after fifteen minutes. Nevertheless, they could tell just how much strength their souls now had. If they activated their Soul Marks, it would become even stronger...or so they thought.

Out of nowhere, Kentucky, Rean, and Roan's Soul Marks appeared on their foreheads. The Soul Gem Orb then shot a few strands of Spiritual Energy and Soul Power that connected with the marks. After that, they watched as those marks began to leave their foreheads and separate from their Souls.

*Crack...crack...crack...*

*Shatter!*

Eventually, those marks couldn't resist the Soul Gem Orb's power anymore and shattered, turning into specks of ethereal light before disappearing completely.

"This..." The trio was confused. Why would they lose their Soul Marks? That thing could increase their Soul Power a lot during battle, so they obviously wanted to keep it. "Sister Orb, what just happened?"

[Oh! Didn't you notice? Check your Souls and your Dantians. In Kentucky's case, check your Demon Core] Sister Orb told them.

Rean, Roan, and Kentucky immediately did as Sister Orb said. Sure enough, they saw something new there. There was some kind of threads now connecting their Souls with their own energy cores. It was fixed directly into their Spiritual Energy Pool. Some threads kept sending Spiritual Energy up to their Souls. In contrast, the others brought Soul Power into the Spiritual Energy Pool.

Rean couldn't help but say, "So this is how our Soul Power and Spiritual Energy are connected, huh?"

[Exactly.]

Roan still couldn't understand, though. "That's good and all. However, why was the Soul Mark removed?"

[Simple. The Soul Gem System marked it as a harmful power. From what I can see, the fact that the Soul Mark was made with someone else's Soul made it incompatible with your own. That was one of the reasons. The second reason was that the mark can only increase your Soul Power, not your cultivation realm. Now that your Soul Power and Spiritual Energy are connected, forcefully increasing one will be detrimental if the other can't follow suit. This imbalance of powers could even make your Soul break apart or destroy your Spiritual Energy Pool.] Sister Orb explained after checking the Soul Gem System.

Kentucky then asked something else after Roan was done. "Doesn't that mean that we're losing strength instead?"

Sister Orb immediately shook her body, responding, [Of course not! Do you have any idea how perfect this fusion between the two energies is? I might as well tell you this. Even a Rank Ten Soul Mark wouldn't match this fusion of yours. Otherwise, why do you think you can jump the barrier of the Nascent Soul Realm to fight someone at the Soul Transformation Realm? You're only a couple of Initial Stage Nascent Soul Realm Cultivators and an Initial Stage Five Demon beast. If you don't believe me, try to compare your Soul Power Number, which is fuelled by Spiritual Energy, against a cultivator or demon beasts at the same level as you.]

Seeing how confident Sister Orb looked, Rean and Roan really felt like asking a Nascent Soul Zasfin to show them their Soul Power for comparison. However, they had never asked anyone before, so they didn't know the average number without activating a Soul Mark.

Rean then took out the Soul Measurement Orb, saying, "Well, let's take a look at how strong our Soul Power is at the moment. We can ask some random Zasfin in the future. No, even better, we can ask the Zasfins in those tribes once we head there to challenge them."

Kentucky and Roan agreed with Rean as they waited for him to test his Soul Power first. Sure enough, the result appeared after a few moments.

-Soul Power, 3961-

"Holy shit! Almost 4000!" Rean was truly taken aback. "Isn't this a little overpowered?"

Sister Orb laughed in response, saying, [Hahaha! It has to be if you want to fight a Soul Transformation Realm cultivator with your current cultivation. However, it's a little wrong to think of your Soul Power like that now.] Rean's group looked at Sister Orb in confusion, waiting for her to continue. [The Orb is giving you a number. However, your Soul Power shouldn't be measured in numbers anymore, but in realms. In a certain way, you could say that you're at the Initial Stage of the Nascent Soul Power Realm. Of course, I just invented this name up on the spot. You can change it if you want.]

Roan understood. "Indeed, that makes sense. After all, we can't improve our Soul Power individually anymore. It will always follow our cultivation realm and vice versa. Using numbers is only useful if we need to deal with Zasfins."

Rean shrugged his shoulders, saying not long after, "Well, the term Nascent Soul Power Realm fits pretty well, so I don't see a need to change it. I'm already more than happy enough to know that cultivating with Spiritual Energy is enough to increase my Soul Power."

"Alright, it's my turn!" Kentucky was already losing his patience with all those words, so he pulled Rean aside and put his wing on the Soul Measurement Orb.

-Soul Power, 3811-

"What?! Why?! I always had more Soul Power than any of you!" the Minokawa complained.

*Ouch!*

Roan kicked Kentucky's leg in response, saying, "Shut up! Rean is a full Light Element Affinity cultivator. Even if your Soul Power Cultivation was faster, you're not as compatible with it as him. Look at mine. It should be smaller than yours."

Roan touched the Orb, and sure enough, the result was smaller than Kentucky's.

-Soul Power, 3703-

Roan then looked at Kentucky, saying, "See? Half of your Elemental Affinity is Light, so you still get some advantage from it. However, I only get Light Element from my connection to Rean. It's not like I have an affinity with the Light Element myself. Naturally, I'm the worst between the three of us."

Kentucky sighed in relief after seeing that as he soon uttered, "Well, at least I'm better than you."

Roan's mouth twitched, saying not long after,  "Oh, is that so? Then, why don't we have a bit of sparring? My hands have been itching to try out my new sword."

Kentucky looked away, pretending that he didn't hear anything. "Ahem...look at how beautiful the Soul Gem Realm's sky is right now. Truly a wonder..."

Roan snorted after hearing that but didn't pursue the issue. As for Rean and Sister Orb, they just laughed by the side. The bird was just too shameless.

Eventually, Rean calmed down from his laughter before saying, "Alright, alright. We still have 14402 Destiny Points. Let's see what else we can buy."

Roan nodded in response, and they once again touched Sister Orb before accessing the reward list.

[Soul Power and Spiritual Energy Fusion - 20000 Destiny Points] (Bought)

[Nascent Soul Revival - 20000 Destiny Points]

[Soul Gem Dimensional Realm Pass - 10000 Destiny Points] (New)

[Dragon Bones - 5000 Destiny Points]

[Spiritual Energy Absorption Upgrade Level 3 - 10000 Destiny Points] (From 10% to 15% more Absorption)

[Soul Gem Dimensional Realm Upgrade Level 4 - 50000 Destiny Points]

[Yin Yang Bathhouse - Reward from Destiny Strugglers Title]

[World Essence Formation - Reward from Grade 2 Efficiency Title]

[Soul Connection Range Upgrade level 4 – 20000 Destiny Points] (10000km)

[Soul Gem Blacksmith Workshop - 1000 Destiny Points]

[Soul Gem Alchemy Workshop Upgrade Level 3- 3000 Destiny Points]

[Soul Gem Electrical Formations Repository Upgrade Level 3 - 3000 Destiny Points]

[Destiny Points: 14402]

"Oh, right!" Rean immediately looked at Sister Orb and asked, "What is this Nascent Soul Revival?"

[Isn't that pretty self-explanatory? If your Nascent Soul dies, you can revive it. Well, it's really expensive, so I wouldn't let that happen if I was you.] Sister Orb explained.

However, that wasn't what Rean meant. "Wait! What I wanted to say is how exactly do you get your Nascent Soul killed without dying? Is that even possible?"

Roan pondered a bit before answering, "Oh, are you talking about in the off chance our Dantians are destroyed?"

However, Sister Orb shook her body right and left as she replied, [No, idiot. If that happens, you'll need to cultivate from the very start. Naturally, an Energy Gathering Realm Dantian couldn't possibly hold a Nascent Soul. It's too powerful.] Sister Orb sighed before continuing, [In a situation of life and death, a cultivator is able to draw out his Nascent Soul and transform it into pure energy. For a very limited time, you'll surpass your limits, being able to fight two or maybe even three stages higher than normal. However, that also spells the death of the Nascent Soul. Fortunately for you, the System can revive it. It's that simple.]

Sister Orb also added, [You can check the method to do it in the System, though. It's quite rare to find someone who knows how to do it. At least I don't think anyone on this planet knows how to do that.]

"Oh!" Rean and Roan were quite surprised by that. Sure enough, there were a lot of things regarding cultivation that they still didn't know. "Alright, this is a nice power. However, let's leave it aside for now. So, what should we choose?"