Chapter 93: Failure
MingYue still doesn't understand it since the timespan Vesa talks about is so far away from her.
"Vesa, me and Alex got the progenitor's blood almost at the same time; what if that didn't happen?
Since the old progenitor wanted their inheritor to be a couple."
[In that case, Queen, then it would not activate at all, the same if the one that got it is of the same gender.]
[If it's more than two, then it will choose which one is more suitable.]
[The old Progenitor didn't want others to have the same curse he had. It's better to wait longer than someone else gets the same curse as him.]
Progenitor's blood cannot be destroyed; in the eternity of time, the possibility of two people of opposite genders activating it at the same time is just a matter of time.
MingYue understands this, but this revelation makes her both relieved and afraid.
There are so many ifs for this to happen. If someone told her it was the plan of a higher being, or in Alex's words, fate, it wouldn't be weird.
If Alex didn't have the vampire blood, if he didn't go to that place, she would probably be dead now.
MingYue shook her head; the 'what if' scenario was not important to her now.
She looked toward the Qi Vein tree and then started walking toward it step by step.
After absorbing the life force from all the snakes and experiencing fighting the spirit beast, MingYue knows she is now on the periphery of a breakthrough.
The next level is the nascent soul stage; she needs to evolve the core in her body into an embryo of a soul, the beginning of life.
She has pondered over this many times but still found no way to create this.
Just what is a soul? What is life?
She has asked Vesa about this before, as Vesa should have a deep understanding of life force energy.
Based on Vesa's answer, life force is just energy, the basis that makes the creation of organic beings possible.
As for the soul, it's a result of compounding experiences and memories throughout life.
This made MingYue understand the soul is a shelf; it's her own personality.
Then what does it mean to create a soul? Is it to create a personality?
Doesn't that just mean she will need to go crazy, then? But MingYue quickly shook off the idea.
The concept of multiple personalities doesn't exist in her world; she only thought of this because of some novels she read from Alex.
And it's not like nascent soul cultivators in her world have a new personality.
She placed her palm over the Qi Vein, closing her eyes to feel the flow of Qi.
"The next step after the nascent soul is the golden core, creating it into my own core, not transforming the nascent soul into a new being.
This means my way of thinking is wrong."
She then remembered Vessa's explanation that lifeforce needs to be filtered before it can be used to enhance her cultivation.
"Soul is the result after lifeforce is mixed with life experience and memories, which means I need to make the Qi source in my own body mine, dyeing it with my will and life."
Having an epiphany, MingYue sat cross-legged under the tree, starting to look at her inner world where the core formation exists.
"This is made with all the Qi, passing through my body and my life, meaning my life should already be etched on it.
The only thing I need to do now is to acknowledge it as part of my existence, not just an energy source," she mumbled.
She started to feel over the core formation, then focused on her mind.
The core formation then began transforming, a wave of ice Qi emanating from MingYue's body, starting as a gentle breeze at first but soon spinning, turning into a storm of ice Qi.
MingYue could see the core, which she had been expanding every time she raised a minor level, now started condensing and making a connection with her will.
This allowed her even more control over her Qi, reducing the necessary motions she needed to perform for secret techniques.
BOOM!!! The Qi exploded, and the core formation now turned into a small sphere, spreading ice Qi all over.
She was about to finish when Vesa interjected.
[Queen, why not test King's theory? Let's infuse the lifeforce energy into the newly born nascent soul and transform its nature.]
MingYue thought about it; it was quite risky, but the reward was worth it. In the worst case, she wouldn't die but would need to recultivate the core formation.
Alex's idea was to use lifeforce to add another attribute to the core, making it work not just from Qi but lifeforce energy, and also add an attribute to accept the use of Qi and mana to mix it with the life force energy.
But Alex's idea was to start doing it since core formation and then grow it from there.
MingYue could feel the nascent soul energy she just made could still be transformed.
Using Vessa's help to implement how the core would work, MingYue then took out two high-grade mana crystals, turning them into dust and allowing the energy of mana to surround her.
Vesa then released some lifeforce energy she had saved for MingYue toward the nascent soul.
Feeling the pour of pure Energy, MingYue started feeling pain from the nascent soul since it wasn't made to accept this type of energy, but she forced it by will and started creating a pathway based on Vessa's guidance.
The process was excruciatingly painful and slow, but she could feel the progress. They kept going from the outer layer, then started permeating it into the core of the nascent soul.
But the moment she tried to etch onto it, the nascent soul imploded, a searing feeling of pain assailing her whole existence; she threw up blood as her cultivation dropped back to the late foundation stage.
"[QUEEN!]"