262 Nothingness, Devouring, and Fear

Within a realm of infinite darkness, Leon was dumbfounded and frozen still like a block of wood. The change happened too suddenly.

"What just happened? Why does this place look awfully familiar?" Leon scratched his head. Seeing the slight transparency of his own hand from a corner of his eye, he flinched.

"I am in my soul form? No wonder this place looks so familiar! Isn't this my own damn sea of consciousness?!" Leon cursed in understanding.

There was not a problem with entering his sea of consciousness. The problem was that he did not enter on his own volition! Being trapped in his sea of consciousness once, he developed a slight fear of being trapped inside again.

Not to mention, he was still outside in the open just a moment ago. His defenseless body was there for others to abuse. Who knows if the maids will be able to resist his charms or not? What if they—Ahem, he was thinking nonsense again.

"Hold on. Something is different." 

Leon frowned and refocused his gaze on the location of his soul core and froze again with wide eyes. His soul core was missing. 

However, he did not freak out. The matter was not as simple as it seems. If the soul core was gone, he would not be alive and conscious of his own thoughts.

Six threads of energy could be seen drawing towards the center in a steady stream from the outside. These threads of energy correlate to each of the elemental seed he had formed. There were fire, ice, lightning, metal, earth, and wood.

At the center of his now absent soul core was a black hole-like object. The energy threads were drawn inside like a vortex and forming a thin ring of multicolored light that made the black vortex visible in the darkness of his sea of consciousness like a sun-moon eclipse. 

Expanding his divine sense, Leon was able to sense that his soul core was residing inside the said black vortex. 

"How intriguing. A subspace has been formed in my sea of consciousness." Leon rubbed his chin with a thoughtful expression. "Of the possible changes I was expecting from my elemental seeds merging with my soul core, I did not expect this one."

Rather than being concerned about the unknown, Leon was intriguing in learning the theory behind the change. He had a gut feeling that it contained the secrets of the universe.

"This is quite similar to the stable inner world of Divine Origin realm practitioners." Leon mused.

Humans can only contain so much energy in their bodies. The Heaven Ascension realm was the limit for humans after compressing energy to the limit. 

To go beyond, one must first create more room in their glabella by shattering the core and form a pocket universe within their glabella, also known as the inner world.

Failure equals death and success equal stepping into the Void Realm. 

While studying the black vortex, Leon soon shook his head. It was like an inner world, but that was about it. 

An inner world could store objects and even nurture life at a higher realm, but the black vortex could only store energy. At least, that was the feeling Leon was getting. But no matter, it was trivial when the Worldspace was already capable of all that.

"What could have caused this change? Is it because a sixth element was introduced? When the five basic elements are fused, pseudo-Grandmist is formed."

However, Leon was puzzled. There was no such thing as pseudo-Grandmist. It was something he made up because the Grandmist energy he refined was not as powerful as what Grandmist energy was described to be.

He thought it was a minor error the creator made in the technique. As a result, he believed that Grandmist energy becomes more complete the higher he advances in the stages, but that no longer seems to be the case.

Legend states that first, there was Grandmist, then there was Primal Chaos. In other words, Primal Chaos was formed after Grandmist first appeared in the world. But after Primal Chaos was formed, Grandmist energy disappeared.

Yet, the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] states that Grandmist energy was needed to refine primal chaos energy. This was not right. Grandmist energy should be at a higher level than primal chaos energy.

After a round of deep and careful pondering, Leon understood where the contradiction exists.

[Hegemon of Primal Chaos] was an ancient technique created during the primordial era of gods when the disappearing Grandmist still exists, most likely. 

When Grandmist disappears, primal chaos energy becomes the next most powerful energy. One who can control primal chaos energy, controls Primal Chaos.

The reason no one could practice the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] back in the Divine Realm was not that it was incomplete, but because it was flawed, to begin with. There was a great disparity between the eras and the world was no longer the same.

No one would be able to succeed in practicing the technique in the present era even if they were given a million years. Grandmist had practically vanished from the world and only exists at the center of black holes, a place inaccessible to even Divine Kings…

So, why was he able to practice the technique? Because Grandmist energy was present? Recalling the star map, Leon's eyes began to shine. He seemed to have understood something. 

The central region of the Divine Realm, the graveyard of divine practitioners… Was that not one massive black hole?

"A world within a black hole, huh? Who would have thought…?" Leon softly murmured as many thoughts flickered across his mind. The veil over his mind was lifted. He was enlightened.

Grandmist formed Primal Chaos, this was true, but it was not the absolute beginning. In the absolute beginning, there was nothing. Everything began with a big bang on the cosmic scale. From nothingness, Grandmist was born. From nothingness, everything was created. 

Looking back at the black vortex, Leon hovered in the empty space with a profound look. He knew what played the greatest role in the formation of the black vortex.

When he first started practicing the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos], there was a point when he thought he was going to fail in refining the first strand of pseudo-Grandmist energy, but he managed to draw power from an unknown source and succeeded.

That power was his willpower—No, mental energy—No, that is not correct either. It was soul energy that came from his very soul.

The soul was intangible. It was immaterial, illusory, incorporeal, and transcendental. It was nothingness, but from it, anything was possible. What is reality? What is imaginary? With one's will, the virtual can become reality. Everything can be created with a single thought, including the universe.

All energy was derived from Grandmist energy, but Grandmist energy was derived from soul energy that is illusory. From nothing came everything, and everything will return to nothing.

That is what formed the black vortex in his sea of consciousness. As Leon arrived at this conclusion, he seemed to have gained preliminary comprehension of a great law and awoken the black vortex from its slumber as it began to swallow energy like a bottomless pit. 

It was not just the six elemental energy he possesses, but all other energy there was. This includes solar, wind, light, and darkness itself. Everything was drawn into the black vortex and ground down into fine particles before they were fused together.

Leon had a feeling the black vortex would be able to devour everything between heaven and earth.

…

Outside, Princess Faelyn began performing her diagnosis on Leon's body. She placed her delicate fair hand on Leon's sturdy chest and sent out her energy to scan his body. 

"Hmm…"

At the same, Heinrich blinked as he looked at this scene and hummed a low tune. Much as he was concerned about his son, he was also concerned about the future. 

He was not stupid either. The elves' presence was a pleasant surprise, but their beauty was also a source of future trouble. No doubt, there would be friction between their two races due to blind and greedy people. The world never lacked idiots after all.

If the Supreme Elder were enraged due to such a conflict, the king doubt there was anyone in the Crawford Kingdom that could contain the rage of such a Seeking Insight-level Transcendent.

How could he bind their two races together more strongly? Something stronger than a verbal agreement between vassal and lord? A marriage agreement?

'Fuck it, he already engaged to multiple ladies. One more won't hurt.' Heinrich looked at his son's sleeping face and thought.

Like Grandmaster Don, Princess Faelyn found no irregularities with Leon's body condition itself. The problem seems to stem from the soul. As she swept her energy towards Leon's glabella to investigate, she gasped with surprise and retreated.

"Ah!"

"What happened?"

The Supreme Elder caught the princess and asked.

"I'm not sure… Something is wrong with his… his Highness's soul."

The wood energy of elves had curative powers like any wood-user. It could mend any physical wounds, except mental ones. But as she was checking Leon's soul, she felt a strong tug, and her wood energy was wrestled out of her control.

She had decisively cut off her connection to that bit of energy before she sustained any more losses and damage to her own spirit.

"Allow me." The Supreme Elder said with a serious look. He had said that the Princess Faelyn's proficiency in medicine was greater than his, but if none of them could even cure the prince, it would be a great smack to their faces.

He sent out his own powerful energy to diagnosis the prince's soul. He immediately frowned when he felt the same tug, but he did not resist and allow the force to drawn him in. 

It was not long after he was sinking deeper inside that he felt that this was a terrible mistake. He felt like he was staring into the deep abyss that wanted to swallow him whole. 

The Supreme Elder's face soon changed to one of sheer terror. His cultivation was being devoured! It was not just his wood energy but even his law comprehension that was being devoured!

'Nooo!'

He inwardly roared with fear. The comprehension of laws was the lifeblood of Transcendents. It was more important than the energy that could be replenished anytime.

The Supreme Elder tried to wrestle back what was lost but to no avail. Instead, the more time he wasted, the more energy and comprehension into the law of wood he lost.

'Son of a… Arghhh! Give it back!' 

At the same time, inside his sea of consciousness, Leon suddenly felt a surge of energy. He did not know where it came from, but he devoured it happily. His reinstated and unified awakening cultivation began to rise at an alarming rate.

Three-star level… 

Four-star level… 

Five-star level…

'S-Stop… Stop it!'

The venerated aura of a Seeking Insight-level expert was gone, and in its place was a 400-yr old elf begging like a child who had his candy snatched.

Six-star level…

Seven-star level…

Eight-star level…

The Supreme Elder was at his wit's end. He was about to drop back down to the Preliminary Accession level. He was the venerable Supreme Elder of Elvengarde. Their Elven Tribe will become more vulnerable with one less Seeking Insight-level Transcendent!

'How can this be?! How is this happening?! Why am I losing with my strength? Arghhh… Dammit!'

Seeing that someone at his level had no chance of wrestling back his lost cultivation, he finally decided to cut off his connection. If he were not so stubborn and had done it immediately, he would have cut his losses to a bare minimum.

The Supreme Elder paled and retreated a few steps before falling on his buttocks. 

"Are you alright, Supreme Elder?" Princess Faelyn rushed over to support the Supreme Elder.

"What happened?" 

The king and Grandmaster Don were both surprised. What on earth did the Supreme Elder see? Peeking into someone's sea of consciousness can bring a Seeking Insight-level expert on their knees?

The Supreme Elder's mouth twitched profusely at the question as he stared at the peacefully sleeping face of Leon with lingering fear.

"M-Monster…"