In the most profound depths of his spiritual world, Mu Ran’s consciousness floated in front of sothing massive—a frozen figure of a colossal dragon towering above him where Mu Ran’s foundation tower was supposed to be.
The foundation tower is a very flexible concept. It adopts the form of what one subconsciously imagines it to be prior to its formation, responding to the inherent potential of every cultivator.
Many experts who nurture disciples from their childhood intentionally guide their minds into giving birth to a unique foundation tower. And many prodigies are known for their deliberate influence over the formation of this foundation, usually done through monastic thods or unorthodox mystic arts.
As soone who had cultivated the extra, special minor cultivation realm—the zeroth layer, Mu Ran’s unorthodox foundation tower was the living proof of this thod, and a testant to his potential.
A majestic dragon, coiled around a vertical axis, with its head resting thousands of ters high amidst the illusory purple clouds...
This was what Mu Ran envisioned in any conversation about his future as a cultivator, his future as a prodigy, and his potential to beco the youngest primordial being in the macrocosm of mankind.
A true dragon, the most mysterious primordial race in ancient tis when all macrocosms and totalities were in harmony. Now they existed only in myths and fairy tales which even children did not believe in.
In Mu Ran’s spiritual world, the dragon’s body was massive enough to frighten mortals and cultivators alike, but in the primordial tis, any ordinary dragon could swallow planets for a al and treat stars as its bath.
He still had a long way to go before reaching that stage. Mu Ran couldn’t help but wallow in self-pity, observing the poor state this dragon was in.
A thin layer of gray fog covered its body, a fog that had a striking resemblance to the fog of the fallen Holy Land of Laws. Only the lowest of the innurable coils of its body was visible clearly. Everything above it was barely a silhouette.
Eventually, Mu Ran’s focus gathered on the recently uncovered portion of the dragon’s tail. More than a dozen new scales had been freed from the gray fog. This was his greatest reward from the risky venture into the Holy Land.
"A significant portion of our soul seems to have recovered. How much longer can you hold on?" He spoke after a mont of silent scrutiny.
The inanimate dragon’s tail shivered slightly. Then a deep voice from the dragon’s body, eerily similar to the automatons inside the Holy Land’s platforms, responded to Mu Ran.
"The answer is not easy to calculate. The Abomination has taken a rather reckless, albeit brilliant path, dividing the combination of three souls into twenty-one parts, creating twenty-one spiritually corrupt soul shards. Most of the soul shards managed to temporarily suppress their corruption in that state.
"We managed to snatch one complete soul shard inside the platform, and another afterwards. After expelling the spiritual corruption in these two soulshards, I have managed to assimilate and recover almost one-tenth of my lost soul.
"This should give ... about a couple of years of ti. I can also now recall so stronger primordial arts and a deeper knowledge of laws. Now it depends on whether you can use our gains to break through to the next realm and go chase down the purified abomination directly."
The answer clogged up Mu Ran’s voice, even though he was in his spiritual form.
"That’s way too short of a tifra. The abomination must be at least at the brink of a breakthrough to the Dao Genesis realm. By the ti I reach the soul reformation realm, he might even have completed the first genesis.
"Moreover, he definitely won’t stay chained inside that ruined world fragnt, now that he has purified himself. Where are we supposed to find him?"
Trailing off, Mu Ran gloomily considered his options. His future was not looking particularly bright at the mont.
"If you had managed to et the abomination face to face and use the astral spell, our situation might have been different. Even if we didn’t manage to assemble at least half of the soul shards, collecting three-tenths wouldn’t be an issue.
"Granted, that might have affected our sanity a bit, but we currently do not have the luxury to think about the damage we’d receive from the forced assimilation. What a pity, that boy Han Xuhan flipped the situation around sohow and made a fool out of everyone, despite his good intentions."
"Now that the abomination has possibly purified himself, who do you think will be the dominant personality among the trio? Pri disciple Zhao Weiqing, old freak Shi Xian, or the severed part of your soul?" Mu Ran asked curiously.
"A wounded dragon is still a dragon. No human can dominate my ntal strength. I will not lose even if a single shred of my soul resides in the body of the abomination."
Mu Ran thought about the future for a while.
"Give two years, then. I’ll do my best to reach the soul reformation realm and look for that bastard again. If, by chance, he doesn’t manage to reach the Dao Genesis realm within that ti, we can go all out and force a reverse assimilation."
"Impossible! Two years is way too long. I can give you fifteen months at most. If you cannot break into the Soul Reformation realm within that ti, I’ll take over our body," the voice from the dragon replied angrily.
"...Fine. Fifteen months it is," Mu Ran mumbled in a depressed tone and turned to leave. But the dragon’s voice called him back.
"And another thing... I think we both can agree that we need to be more careful when dealing with our little human underling, don’t we? At least we shouldn’t let him in on any more of our secrets for now."
"...Well, that’s fine by . But I don’t know what to think of him when he seems so genuinely interested in being our friend. I’ve t few young humans so selfless and honest, despite being naturally cunning..."
"Indeed, cunning, he definitely is. But I also believe that Han Xuhan is definitely hiding his cards, even better than we are. I refuse to accept that he is an ordinary human cultivator. No way!"
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