221 Blessing in Disguise?

For a while, Leon was blank. He could not think nor speak.

He couldn't draw any power from his cultivation base. Both awakening and divine cultivation were dead like still water, not adhering to his command. 

It was like his cultivation was gone. The only thing stopping him from losing his mind was that he could still feel it.

However, what was the difference between having his cultivation and not having it, if he can't use his powers? He would be no different to regular mortals, an ordinary human. 

If he had lost his cultivation, although he would be slightly devastated, he could just start from scratch. The problem is he still has his cultivation, but no access to it.

'Dammit, why do problems keep cropping up one after the other?'

Leon frowned. He thought he was supposed to have a lucky halo over his head from exterminate evil nobles and accumulate karmic virtues that bless him with good luck.

He found that in his weakened state, frowning was also a draining task. Leon weakly rubbed his temples and calmed his nerves. 

"Got to stay calm… I should first investigate the state of my body first."

His wound was closed, leaving behind a single deep scar and his body was pale from the lack of blood. 

Fortunately, he kept some Longevity Blood on him. Although it was meant to be used as gifts, these were desperate times. He would just find another opportunity to refine more or take some from the Treasury once he gets back.

"Although this 5-Year Longevity Blood is mainly used for minor lifespan replenishments and won't be able to replace the blood I lost, it will provide some nourishments for my body's recovery and aid the production of new blood." 

"Do you usually talk to yourself? That's so lonely." A voice asked him suddenly before it burped afterward. 

"Who?" 

Leon became alerted and looked around. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He became doubtful when his gaze landed on the stone coffin. 

'The voice didn't happen to be coming from the stone coffin, right?'

"I'm not the dead geezer in the coffin obviously, idiot. Have you ever seen the dead coming back to life?" The voice sounded slightly angry like it was insulting to be mistaken for the corpse within the stone coffin, even if the corpse belonged to a prestigious person of the past.

A little girl soon materialized in front of him. She had starry eyes and pearly skin with a twin ponytail. Her appearance was very adorable and overflowing with cuteness. Anyone would have the sudden urge to hug her once they laid eyes on her.

However, her starry eyes shone with wisdom that did not match her young appearance, making others stop and not treat her as a simple little girl

The girl's image was soon destroyed by her own behavior. She patted her round stomach boldly and unrestraint in satisfaction like she just had a big buffet.

"You may address me as Maya." 

The little girl nodded with a sly smile while licking her lips. She seems to still be savoring the sweet aftertaste of a great meal. 

"So, what do you think of this form? Don't you just want to commit a crime?" Maya said coyly.

Leon closed his eyes and began chanting like a Buddhist monk. 

'The heart sees no evil; the heart sees no evil.'

He was not a lolicon.

Suddenly, he realized why his father never introduced the artifact spirit after the [Divine Book of Life] was exposed.

This artifact spirit's character was rather... peculiar. Despite having an age that most likely longer than his own family's entire ancestral lineage, it chooses to remain in the form of a child and tease him from the get-go!

His father introducing the artifact spirit would be the same as inviting misunderstandings that would hurt his prestige and image.

Although artifact spirits have slower intellectual growth than plants, Leon did not believe that after so many years, the artifact spirit of the divine book did not grow beyond its child form.

Artifact spirits can freely control their form once they reach a certain level of intelligence. Maya, for whatever sick reason, chose to remain in her child form.

After Leon calmed down, he chose to temporarily ignore the artifact spirit and perform self-introspection. He will deal with the artifact spirit later. He had more important matters to be concerned about.

Maya, however, did not seem bothered by his disregard and quietly studied him.

Within Leon glabella, his condensed pseudo-Grandmist energy was no longer present. It was replaced by a greyish core that rotated at a noticeably slower rate.

'Revolving Core Realm?' 

Leon creased his brows. How on earth did he jump an entire large realm? No, that is not right. The density of energy in the core was not comparable to someone who had just entered the ranks of Revolving Core Realm experts.

Divine practitioners would usually fill their glabellas to the brim before making their breakthroughs to higher realms because energy is easier to control and collect in its lower state. 

Although Energy Condensation Realm practitioners can enter the Revolving Core Realm at any time by compressing their energy into a core, doing so would just slow down their cultivation.

If he had really entered the Revolving Core Realm when he was still in the early-stage Energy Condensation Realm, his current strength would only be comparable to middle-stage Energy Condensation Realm.

But then again, none of that matters if he cannot draw any power from it. He didn't know what was going on, but neither his divine cultivation nor awakening cultivation was reacting to him.

'What about my elemental seeds?' Leon thought with a frown.

Entering the subconscious space of his soul core, Leon's body shook. His elemental seeds were all missing. They weren't orbiting his soul core as they should be. In fact, his soul core looks rather different.

'The elemental seeds are merging with my… soul core? This… where did this wood elemental seed come from?'

Leon attempted to analyze calmly, but he was shocked by the additional elemental seed that complete his five-element cycle.

'Was this change brought forth by the unknown changes of my body?'

From the outside, Leon had his brows furrowed deeply. As this was happening, Maya continued to study him intriguingly. She seems to be more aware of what was happening to him than he was as she was awake during the time he was unconscious.

Leon slowly opened his eyes with a pale face. 

'Not good. Nothing's working.'

It feels like his cultivation had been sealed with a lock, but with no key to unlock. Did he have to destroy his cultivation and start over?

Leon became lost.

"Hey, hey, you look like a little kid that's about to cry after losing sight of your mommy," Maya said teasingly.

Glancing at the baby-faced artifact spirit, Leon responded with, "I don't want to hear that coming from you." 

"You seem to be wondering what is going on with your cultivation. Good thing is, I know what happened. Bad thing is, I don't know why it happened.

Some color returned to Leon's face as he perked his ears and looked at Maya with rapt attention. 

"Tell me," Leon said bluntly.

"Is this how you should be asking someone a favor?" The artifact spirit grumbled in dissatisfaction.

Leon began making a complicated face. He wanted to say since the divine book was bound to him, he was her master, but he did not say this. 

This was an artifact spirit with an attitude. Perhaps, it had switched too many owners, thus no longer displaying the loyalty and devotion an artifact spirit would to its master.

Leon could imagine the artifact spirit exploding and saying something like, "You are not the master of me, I am the master of you!!!" 

Thus, he had refrained from saying something that would displease it, lest it decides not to tell him what he wanted to know. 

However, he could also not get himself to beg. That would be lowering his standing as the master. He did not want to look like a pushover.

Seeing Leon's expression, Maya didn't plan on making it difficult for him. She was only asking casually. 

However, she still intended to observe him for a period of time and see if he was a worthy master. None of her previous owners had been able to use her to the full extent of her capability.

"Well, I don't know what kind of body you have, but it was like a black hole, swallowing up all the energy and vitality in the surrounding greedily. Right now, it's in the middle of a transformation process."

That is to say, he won't have access to his own cultivation until the transformation process is completed. But what sparked its initiation? 

Did his body know how to gather its energy towards a central point and protect itself? If it did, wouldn't it have been better if it focused on stopping his bleeding?

Leon was puzzled by Maya's statement. His body couldn't possibly ingest all that energy, not to mention where did all that energy go if it did?

"My body did? You don't know anything about my Five Element Body?" Leon asked quizzically. 

"I don't. The technique you are practicing seems to be more ancient than I am." Maya shook her head and answered. 

"Well… never mind then." 

Leon didn't fixate on the matter. Since the artifact spirit didn't know then it didn't know. 

"But you said my body absorbed all the energy? How are you awake then? You seemed to have recovered enough not to fall back into a deep slumber, not to mention you once told me you needed a lot of energy." Leon looked at the artifact spirit quizzically with a strong gaze. 

Under his strong gaze, Maya became awkward and started fidgeting guiltily with fingers and head lowered.

"Well… your body couldn't hold all that energy, so it began seeping into me and allowed me to wake up. Your body was still pretty swelled up and absorbing the excess energy helps me recover quicker… so I decided to help you out by taking some of that energy away too while I was it."

'Some, you say? More like everything, no?' 

Leon's mouth twitched. His own energy didn't increase, only its state had changed.

"Wait, what about all the wood energy? Why didn't it heal my body?"