Mage And Wolf
Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Chapter 274

I’ve only made it a few steps when a cloud of death energy crashes into me and activates my domain. The recently deceased are pulled through the domain into the afterlife, first hundreds, then thousands, then tens of thousands of souls.

It’s not possible that there were so many living in that compound, so I slow down to better understand what is happening. My Domain is up in full force, the chill of the underworld tainting the air, and the souls are pushing through it and into me, using the Soul Shrine in my Spirit Ocean as an escape.

The feel of them varies, both by species and by how powerful they were in life. But I now notice, it also changes with how long it had been since they died, and some of these souls have been trapped for a year or more. They must have been using some sort of array or device to hold them as potential materials for their experiments.

The Immortal Plane requires strong souls to survive, and if a traveler doesn’t have them they won’t stabilize there, instead being ejected back to the mortal planes. It’s possible the same holds true for trying to move an entire world and that they were intending on using these trapped souls to bolster those of the residents for the transfer.

Whatever the truth, they’re free now, gone on to the underworld to be sorted and rest for whatever awaits them.

The various flavors and feeling of souls passing through me to the other side is helping me to merge with my Domain, every new feeling leaves behind a bit more knowledge and understanding of the nature of the underworld. How it works, how it accepts those who enter it, and most importantly, where I fit into that equation. The feeling is incredible, and it’s all I can do to follow Elder Song as enlightenment fills my mind and my Domain starts to merge with my Nascent Soul to form a full and proper Origin Soul.

It will be a while before it is complete, as the process has only just started, but with so much death energy, and so many thankful trapped souls passing through me, dragging my Domain into my body to merge life with afterlife and my Immortal Cultivation with the Divine Truth of the Underworld Domain, I don’t think it will be all that long before the process at least stabilizes.

As usual for my unorthodox advancements, nothing is happening in the proper and expected order. The Origin Soul, as the fully formed version of the Nascent Immortal Soul is called in the text books of the Shadowed Blade Sect, should fully merge with your domain and then start absorbing Divine Energy to start creating a Divine Body for the cultivator. Once that process is complete, and your understanding is sufficient, you can attempt to provoke the Divine Tribulation and ascend into the lowest ranks of Divinity.

Only, that’s not how mine is going at all. Already the Divine Energy and Death Energy in my body are beginning to merge with my Immortal Soul, even as it changes and merges with my Domain, forming the very beginnings of the Divine Body long before its time.

Not that it’s a bad thing, the closer to divinity, the better for me. Who doesn’t want to be a proper goddess, right? I’m just a bit concerned that with everything happening at once, that some important stage will be missed and I will be stuck at a random spot in my cultivation, looking for where I went wrong for years upon years. It wouldn’t be the first time it happened, in fact it’s the expected outcome if someone tries to skip steps in their cultivation journey.

Only I’m not trying to, it’s just happening on its own. The fact that it’s directly related to the Soul Shrine is the one factor giving me hope that all is as it was intended to be. The shrine has a stabilizing effect on the bearer and helps smooth their journey, though not usually to such an extent that the entire journey through Immortality happens in one single merged stage.

Elder Song has led us back to the Refugee Camp and I set the Investigator down to absorb the last unstable elements of the influx of energy that I was bombarded with after the explosion. The Librarian is clearly curious about what’s going on, but how do I even explain this? Maybe give him a cliffs notes version?

"The cultivators that were in that sect compound had a lot of trapped souls of people who died in the last year or so. The explosion destroyed whatever containment vessel they were using, and the souls all tried to pass through me to the afterlife at the same time." Yes, that should be enough of an explanation for now.

"Good enough. I’ll expect a report later, once you’ve settled and analyzed the phenomenon." The Librarian agrees, picking up Gerald and fluffing his tail, pulling the transformed Investigator from his reverie.

"That really happened. I saw the laws of the universe torn asunder and rearranged, then put themselves back together again." he says with an exultant look, the childish voice making his moment of enlightenment sound more than a bit ridiculous.

"Just right. I thought you were stunned by the explosion or the resultant shockwave, but who would have imagined that an old fart like you would have an actual moment of enlightenment during the destruction of a cultivation sect?" Elder Song teases the apparently old cultivator.

I just can’t seem to wrap my head around whatever form they’re used to seeing each other in. All I can picture is the old Librarian and this little wolf kin girl, sitting together in a pile of books, like student and pupil. Maybe if I’d seen the actual form of Gerald it would help, but chances are I’ll forever see him as an adorable little girl with a fluffy tail. A tail that Elder Song is taking full advantage of stroking while the other Divine Realm Cultivator is distracted.