Chapter 176 - Day 4 - Soul Cultivation

I spent my time throughout the night cultivating my soul energy. Of course, I got nowhere with that because I simply did not have a base to how I would get around to cultivating my soul energy.

While on the one hand, I could ask a mortal like June to show me, I'd rather not be limited to the feeble understanding of the humans. On the other hand, though, I have no basis on what to do nor how to do it if it was possible. I still had the soul cultivation manual given to me my analysis more than 2 years ago, but I had already tried it and that specific cultivation method simply did not work for me.

[Do you want a hint?]

'Oh god, yes please!' I shouted inwardly while a beautiful smile blossomed onto my maskless face.

[Most cultivation techniques teach you to strengthen your soul (Soul flame), then your soul channels which your soul energy will run through, before breaking the soul energy down to its key components, those being intent and energy, purifying them before finally controlling the soul energy to do whatever you want with it. There are many ways to strengthen your soul flame and soul channels, but you do not need those.]

Before it could carry on, I interrupted and inwardly shouted 'WAIT WAIT! What do you mean I do not need any of that! Of course, I need it!'

[It would be nice if you would listen instead of shouting bullshit you do not understand.] 

'Sorry...' I pouted silently

[As I was saying, you yourself don't have to use the same methods these normal mortals use. While they have found their own ways of strengthening the soul flame over time, you were born with a natural affinity to gluttony, and therefore, even though you had not awakened the gluttonous skill until now, it was always in your genes. The only difference between then and now is that you have -Absolute-Consumption- which just makes the consumption of the soul flames easier. Every time you consume a soul flame you are directly strengthening your soul flame. This is also the reason why you feel so much ecstasy whenever you absorb a good amount of souls.]

'Wait, then why do some taste worse than others?' I raised a brow

[Think of soul flames as food and taintedness as seasoning, just in this situation the more seasoning you have, the tastier it becomes no matter how much seasoning you have. Now tell me, what souls do not taste nice?]

'Uhm, those red ones?'

[And those red ones are from?]

'Animals' I replied with a confused expression

[Now tell me, how tainted would an animal be compared to humans?]

'...'

[Hello? Earth to Pandora?]

'Oh... My... God...

[Mind-blown, right?]

'So human's souls taste so good because they are tainted?'

[Yep. However, at the same time, you have to consider the fact that a human baby is like an animal. They do not know what they are doing and they are moving and doing things based fully on their own instincts.]

'I finally have a reason to kill more people!' I clearly did not listen to anything after the word 'yep'

[OH LISTEN!]

"OUCH OUCH I AM SORRY" I quickly covered my ears while my brain shook.

[Anything inherently innocent will not benefit you in either taste or soul strengthening. Anyway, let us get back to the main topic. Your soul has been strengthening every day since the day you had killed your first living being. While taintedness is a good indicator of how much you will increase, the whole thing is more like a maths equation. Strength of Soul x Taintedness of soul x Percentage of soul consumed = Amount of soul strengthening]

[Anyway, since your soul has become substantially strong anyway, the only thing you need to do is purify the soul energy inside your body before storing them in your soul flame to be burned and consumed by the soul flame. The soul flame will then grow more purified and therefore more powerful yet more importantly, it will become ready to be used in body cultivation techniques or to simply circulate around the body to just use as a weapon or to perform a Martial technique]

Eventually, Analysis stopped talking after mentioning martial techniques. While this might have been trying to be secretive and whatnot, it still gave me the 30 seconds I needed to analyze, organize and fully absorb all the information I had dumped onto me out of the blue.

'So what you are saying is that I have a sit ton of soul energy in me that I had simply not purified yet, right?' I asked while slightly rubbing the bridge of my nose

[That is not totally accurate. You have purified a lot of it, it just wasn't done correctly since you purified it like an animal. All you did was put it into your soul flame to get burnt, which it did very slowly. Now you have slightly impure energy within your soul flame that you will have to separate and purify to get the full benefits out of it. If you are able to do that with all the soul energy you have within you, your goal will start to sky-rocket as all the previous kills will finally be counted.]

'That makes sense... Anyway, do you think you can give me some tips on how to start the culti-'

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

'???'

[Meeting, bar, today, guy called Lagi?]

'Oh shit, that was happening to today' I lightly smacked my fist into my palm before holding it thereafter finally understanding the reason for the sudden visit.

I swiftly got up and used wind magic to get everything in place and tidy before placing a mat on the floor as if I had been cultivating my mana heart this whole time and whoever had knocked on my door had interrupted my precious cultivation time.

I quickly put on my mask and walked towards the door.

*Click*

Unlocking the door, I slowly opened it before greeting my eyes with the annoyed expressing of June and the happy face of Maji