15 The Path to Cultivation I Edited

"Isha you said that your purpose is to guide your contractor in becoming strong, but this body can't cultivate, so just how are you going to help me to become stronger?" Jayde asked she was really curious just what Isha could do.

"Of course you can cultivate," Isha replied matter-of-factly, as though Jayde should have already known this.

He further went on to clarify "It's just that all your magic has been sealed away by a seven elemental weave blood-curse ward."

"Seal? Seven Elemental Ward, explain further," demanded Jayde, shifting into a more comfortable position, her buttocks were becoming numb from sitting on such a hard surface.

Need to get some soft cushions, she thought, thankfully Isha didn't hear that private thought, as he would have been quite irate with Jayde, worrying about your buttocks during such a serious discussion would have lowered his opinion of his new contractor.

"A seven elemental weave ward means that seven wards are sealing your magic, each layer being a different element, it would require someone at least of Emperor of the 6th class to place this ward," Isha explained patiently.

"Hmm, Isha does that mean that the person who hijacked my soul also sealed this body as well?"

"Not necessary, the seven elemental wards is a blood-curse, meaning only someone sharing a direct blood relationship with you could have placed it," Isha explained.

Isha explanation confused Jayde even further, from the previous soul's memories Jayde parents were shocked and disgusted she was a null so they couldn't have placed the blood-curse on her, and thinking about the other members of the Freehold clan, no-one was that powerful, which only left two alternatives. One there was an unknown member of the Freehold clan or two she wasn't related to the Freehold clan.

Either way, there was nothing she could do about it now, but it was something to investigate later. Quickly bringing her mind back to the current issue at hand.

"Alrighty, so how do we go about lifting this curse?" she asked.

Isha explained to Jayde lifting the first layer wouldn't be too difficult, but due to the amount of energy he had spent transferring her soul and healing the terrible injuries on her body, he would need some time to recuperate.

Jayde wanted to find out more about Isha and the Divine Proteus artifact, but Isha requested to be excused telling her that he needed to rest. Hearing the exhaustion in his voice, Jayde decided to let things go for now, and speak to Isha later once he had recovered his strength.

With Isha resting, Jayde explored her cave, it looked like she would be staying here for a while.

Taking one of the oil lamps, she shook it gently to check if there was still oil left, happy to hear the sloshing of liquid, she took a small twig to the campfire, once the twig was lit, she then lit the wick.

Smelling a strange fragrance, Jayde eyebrows knitted in confusion, there was a memory of this scent, examining the memory from the previous soul, she recalled that this oil was from the Fragrant Katydid.

A rare bug found deep in the Dark Forest. The oil from the Katydid was a luxury item, which was highly sort-after. Besides producing a pleasant fragrance when burnt, the oil lasted over 100 times longer than regular oils.

Happy with the discovery, Jayde as least knew she didn't have to worry about light for a while, the oil left in the lamp would last a couple of weeks.

Opening up the chests, Jayde was pleased to discover they held some treasures and a lot of items she sorely needed. There were heating crystals, a number of flasks with Katydid oil, jars of spices, cleaning materials, towels, tunics, and robes.

In one chest she found some weapons — a bow with a quiver full of arrows, a short katana shaped sword and a couple of daggers.

Jayde was curious why these items were in such good condition, as the dampness in the cave should have eroded them. She wondered if there wasn't some sort of protection spell on the chest that had protected these items. She made a mental note to ask Isha about it when he awoke.

Looking at these ancient weapons, Jayde really missed her blaster. Thank goodness she had some training in swordsmanship, although that was decades ago and her skills were really rusty. Looks like I will have to brush up on those old skills, she thought.

Another chest was filled with bottles of potions, and small porcelain jars of pills. Having no idea what she was looking at, Jayde made a note to speak to Isha about it; hopefully, he had some clue about what was in the chest.

From the memories, she inherited she knew that potions and pills were precious in the Lower Realm and that they could be beneficial to cultivators. She was also very curious about the healing potions and pills that the previous host had in her memories.

Jayde found it fascinating that one could just drink something and your injuries could heal. She could understand why near-instant healing happened in the Federation as they had the technology to inject nanobots which repaired the damage, but her mind boggled just trying to think of how some magical potion could have the same effect.

Jayde was finding it difficult to come to grasp with all this magic, the dagger that she had picked up in the forest could self-sharpen, chests that could keep everything in stasis, people being able to shoot fireballs from their fingers, everything was just too unbelievable.

Jayde felt like she had landed in an upsidedown world, where the standard rules of the universe didn't exist anymore. It was like the universe was playing a prank on her — either that or she really was dead, and this was some sort strange last minute dream she was having. The last firing of her dying synapses.

Her left arm was covered in tiny bruises from the number of times she had pinched herself, trying to prove to herself that she was awake and experiences this mad world.

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