Eternal Temptation: Awakening Sinful Desires

Chapter 92: Mysterious Formation

After practicing all of his techniques, Asher entered the cultivation chamber, sitting comfortably in the middle of the room. With closed eyes, he gradually calmed down while concentrating on absorbing the abundant spirit essence flowing freely throughout his whole body into his Dantian through his skin pores.

Soon after beginning, his abyssal whirlpool inside his Dantian stirred, rapidly spinning to welcome more spirit essence and devour it. As such, Asher felt his energy replenish itself much faster, restoring his exhausted spirit essence reserve.

Currently, he felt like a bottomless pit with no end, capable of absorbing an unlimited amount of spirit essence from the world around him. It was amazing how powerful a cultivator's ability became with each step forward in the cultivation realm! Asher wondered what limits were possible to reach, causing him to look forward to finding out someday.

While remaining concentrated on refilling his spiritual reservoir, Asher carefully monitored his progress throughout the process to avoid making any unnecessary mistakes during cultivation.

After a while, when he sensed that his body could hold no more spiritual energy, he opened his eyelids slowly and stopped absorbing more from the atmosphere. Then, he relaxed himself and meditated while reviewing everything he learned today. During his meditation session, he dwelled upon how useful shadow illusions were and the ways they could be employed in battles.

He visualized himself using various combinations of techniques in different scenarios against different opponents in his mind.

He observed how his shadow illusions moved when attacked by opponents and how effective their counterattacks were against those adversaries. At the same time, he calculated whether it would be beneficial for him to deploy additional numbers of copies into specific situations or not.

By doing this repeatedly, he gained much insight regarding his capabilities, thus allowing him to develop creative strategies that would maximize his overall performance during critical moments.

Nevertheless, without real battle experience and a lack of knowledge of opponents powers, Asher believed that he wouldn't be able to devise intricate tactics yet. Yet this didn't discourage Asher in the least bit; on the contrary, he became motivated instead, knowing that after actual battles he would definitely grow more.

While practicing and gaining insights into his skills, Asher suddenly remembered about the special place in the Mystic Starry Realm that could help everyone increase their natural talents to cultivate spirit essence.

Immediately, he contacted everyone through mental transmission and told them to meet up at the altar of the Astral Nexus Core Orb. Once he finished that, he swiftly got up and headed towards the mentioned location.

When he arrived, Asher saw Aria, Olivia, Lysandra, Mia, Nadia, Eleanor, and Maria waiting for him with curious looks on their faces. They stared intently at him, wondering why he had suddenly called them here without telling them anything beforehand.

Seeing everyone gathered, Asher began explaining while pointing out at the altar where the Astral Nexus Core Orb was hovering above it.

"As you all know, the orb is a mysterious artifact of incredible value that contains limitless amounts of information. Through it, we can obtain knowledge about the paths of cultivation as well as cultivation techniques, martial arts, and skills that cultivators of various levels should master for progression."

Aria looked at Asher, confused, as he had already told them about it, so she asked, "But isn't this something we already know?"

"Yes... but that's not why I called everyone. What I am going to talk about is related to what I said."

"When the orb gave me all the information regarding the Mystic Starry Realm and all the facilities for cultivation progress, it also told me about a special place that can improve our inherent aptitudes in controlling and cultivating spirit essence," he paused while scanning everyone's expression carefully as he continued, "According to what I read, humans weren't blessed by heavens to cultivate, and all of them were mortals.

By some luck, ancestors of humans absorbed the blood of star-beasts after hunting them down and accidentally gained the ability to use spirit essence. Later, with continuous development, they developed cultivation methods and became cultivators, eventually surpassing mortals.

That's why we awaken different types of Spirit during our cultivation breakthrough to the Spirit Foundation Realm as we all have a mixed blood of humans and other Star-Beasts."

Listening to Asher, Lysandra furrowed her eyebrows, looking thoughtful, and muttered, "Hmm... There's no record about it in the history books of our continent."

Asher gave Lysandra a smile while responding, "It's fine. Anyway, the fact is that the Mystic Starry Realm has a place that can improve one's innate aptitude for controlling and cultivating spirit essence."

Everyone nodded; they were very excited after hearing Asher say that.

Aria spoke while pondering, "There must be some limit or restriction on increasing this natural talent. So how exactly does the process work?"

Asher replied promptly after hearing her words, "There's indeed a limit for how many times we can use the place. Since there is a limited amount of the main ingredient available, we won't be able to use it endlessly, but it is definitely enough to use it numerous times. Other than this, we won't have any issues at all."

With narrowed eyes, Mia asked suspiciously, "How do you know so much about this matter? I couldn't find anything about it in the orb just now."

"Of course, it's because the orb gave me plenty of secret information as master of the realm." He stated it confidently without hiding anything.

Mia just silently nodded to his answer while Olivia, who had been silently listening to the conversation, inquired curiously, "So where should we go, Little Ash?"

"We don't have to go anywhere, as the orb will teleport us to that place in the Mystic Starry Realm." Asher said this while giving command to the orb.

Instantly, a circular portal of light appeared in the middle of where everyone stood, which they crossed and teleported to a new location.

This time, they found themselves in a dark place, with only a few small, bright lights floating around and illuminating everything nearby in a soft glow. The ground underneath them felt smooth and flat, unlike the usual rugged stone surface, while the ceiling above them looked like polished glass panels, reflecting whatever happened below.

As they took in their surroundings, a sense of surreal calm settled over the group. The air was cool and refreshing, filled with soothing scents like fresh flowers, creating a pleasant atmosphere that instantly relaxed their tensed bodies.

There was a mist around them, obscuring their vision beyond a couple meters away. But even then, it didn't stop them from seeing each other clearly due to how closely packed together everyone stood.

They looked around cautiously; no one dared make a sound as their eyes adjusted slowly. Eventually, they felt a refreshing feeling through their body and even their soul as they inhaled the air.

As they felt refreshed, they let out sighs of satisfaction; their minds cleared as if foggy thoughts that had been plaguing them for some time dissipated instantly. The tension left them as soon as they realized this fact, leaving only tranquility.

The atmosphere surrounding the place they were currently situated induced a profound sensation of inner peace; therefore, nobody felt compelled to disturb its tranquility with idle chatter.

Instead, they all took pleasure in just being there, without uttering a word, as they bathed in the divine comfort provided by a mystical source, which created this wonderful aura that permeated their surroundings.

"This place gives off an otherworldly aura. I have never seen or felt anything similar to it before," Olivia commented aloud softly while everyone else nodded in agreement with her observation.

Asher guided them towards a mysterious formation drawn on the ground in the center of that hall and said, "This is the Mystic Body Refinement Array, a formation that can help increase your natural talent for cultivating spirit essence.

It will remove all impurities from your body while purifying it to the perfect state for spirit essence absorption and refine your body to a spirit body, letting you efficiently utilize the spirit essence energy."

Olivia wondered while gazing at the formation drawn on the floor with interest. "Little Ash, when you speak about refinement, does it mean that our appearance will change?"

"Yes, and you will look even more beautiful," Asher answered with a smile.

Olivia blushed lightly at his words before asking curiously. "Will there be any side effects?"

Asher shook his head, then replied confidently. "No, there won't be any side effects; you should've already noticed a slight change in spirit essence after inhaling the air around you, right?"

She nodded affirmatively after thinking of how clean and pure spirit essence felt; it was quite easier for her to absorb it here. "Indeed."

Lysandra mused while examining the formation carefully. "Interesting. Although it sounds simple enough, this kind of method wouldn't be possible without an extremely rare ingredient. I am sure that it would be impossible to create this formation in any other place in the outside world."

Asher nodded. "You are right. The core ingredient necessary for the formation is incredibly rare, even in the higher realm, as per the orb."

Nadia gazed at Asher curiously as she asked. "Young Master, then what is this ingredient called?"

"Sacred Nectar of the Eternal Tree. It's extracted from the sap of the oldest tree in existence. This tree is an ancient entity with countless secrets and mysteries, transcending the origin of stars, heaven, and earth, connected to every plane yet incredibly hard to find." Asher explained briefly about the Eternal Tree.