Prime Originator

After popping the Soul Enhancing Pill in his mouth, Leon worked to replenish his mental strength by spreading the medicinal efficacy to work its magic quickly. 

A cold soothing sensation waved over his soul. His mental fatigue was elevated and 50% of his mental strength was recovered.

The core of the Soul Enhancing Pill was to enhance and not to recover. As such, he did not recover as much mental strength as he had hoped to, but his soul did improve a bit. 

His divine sense and Divine Will could now reach up to 220 yards away. It was an improvement of 20 yards with one pill.

The range of Divine Sense for a Divine Origin practitioner was up to 1000 yards. Compared to a Divine Origin realm practitioner, he was still far from his peak. But compared to Revolving Core practitioners, his soul was already many folds more powerful.

"If I want to sustain such a frightening cultivation speed for longer periods, I have two choices. I can continue to enhance my soul, or refine some soul recovery pills that focus on the replenishment of mental strength." Leon ruminated.

Ideally, enhancing the soul was the better choice as he could also improve his divine sense and Divine Will ability.

However, he was not sure how many times he could enhance his soul with Soul Enhancing Pills before his soul starts to feel the strain from overstretching. If that happened then, the loss would far outweigh the gain.

He was quite sure that the secret to breaking past the Divine King realm was greatly related to the soul.

"It seems I should start looking into soul recovery pills." Leon decided. "But before that… let me test one more thing."

He was not done with his Divine Will experiment. There was one more test, possibly the one he is most curious about.

Leon expanded his divine sense and gathered all the faint traces of spirit energy in the sky to his palm. The scarcity of spirit energy only allowed him to gather enough to produce a speck of azure glow. 

He creased his brows, thinking that such a pitiful amount was not even close to drawing the simplest of runic circles. 

Could his grey ring of energy also transform into spirit energy to compliment what was lacking?

Sure enough, the grey ring of energy began to change under his Divine Will and a stream of spirit energy channel out of his body and merged with the tiny speck in his palm.

In a brief moment, the tiny speck became the size of a walnut. Under his Divine Will, the walnut-size spirit energy began to flatten and spread to form a simple array of runic circles and symbols interlinked together.

The process only lasted a couple of breaths before the array was formed. It was much quicker than manually engraving runes. If Leon had a clear and concise image in his mind, the array would easily from like its been drawn from several points rather than from a single point.

Crack…

Unfortunately, the fire-type attack array he invented on the spot with the help of his rich runic knowledge fragmented and dispersed the moment it activated upon its completion. 

"Sure enough, there is no spirit energy in the surrounding to support the activation of a spiritual array, causing it to consume its own energy and collapse."

The ancient spiritual array master did not die out without reason.

Leon shook his head. He had met the prerequisite to becoming a Spiritual Array Master, but the scarcity of spirit energy between heaven and earth did not allow him to witness the might of a spiritual array as vaguely mentioned in the inheritance.

A series of distant footsteps immediately perked Leon's ears as listened to the sounds drawing closer. He turned towards the courtyard entrance as expected incoming guests. 

Leon smiled wryly as he did not find it strange at all for his eye-catching experiment to draw other people's curiosity over. In fact, it would be strange if it did not.

The head of the Supreme Elder and Princess Faelyn soon popped around the corner with two palace maids. If not for some procedures that had to be done to enter the Inner Palace, they would have arrived much sooner.

"Good afternoon, Esteemed Envoys. How may I help you?" Leon greeted and asked casually, but it was enough to cause the Supreme Elder to flinch. He was immediately amused as he could see a trace of fear in the person's eyes. A powerful Transcendent was afraid of him? Why is that so?

"Ahem, greetings, Your Highness." 

"Pardon our sudden visit, Your Highness. We were curious about the phenomenon that just happened here. If I may be so impudent as to ask, what was it?" The Supreme Elder continued while maintaining a respectful distance from Leon and under his curious gaze. 

"Oh, that? Just something I was testing out. Since you are both guests here, please allow me to perform as a proper host. Come, have a seat while we chat over tea. I believe it's hardly appropriate to talk over such awkward distance." Leon invited them over to the tea-table.

He had missed the negotiation talk previously, but his father had informed him afterward about what went down. He was quite surprised to learn that the elves were willing to become vassals of their Crawford Kingdom to overcome a calamity that may or may not happened.

Nevertheless, he highly doubted that their only reason for coming here. Surely, they had come from the World Tree. The timing was too coincidental. 

"It's fine… Since your Highness is unwilling to divulge, we do not want to impose upon you." The Supreme Elder respectfully rejected the offer. 

"You seem to be afraid of me?" 

The Supreme Elder was caught off-guard by Leon's bluntness and coughed, "Ahem, no… that is certainly not the case…"

"Is that really not the case?" Leon moved forward a few steps as the Supreme Elder retreated and responded with, "It definitely isn't."

Leon took another step forward, and the Supreme Elder retreated again.

"…"

A drop of sweat ran down the side of the Supreme Elder's face. Afraid? Of course, he was afraid! The boy in front of him had robbed a chunk of his cultivation when he was still unconscious! Who knows what could happen now that the boy was awake? If he is not cautious, he might just get his entire cultivation stripped with a touch!

Princess Faelyn was also a bit nervous but she stepped forward to explain.

"Your Highness… it was like this... While you were unconscious, your father, the king had permitted us to demonstrate our medical expertise by treating you. However, we are quite ashamed that not only were we unable to rouse you awake, but the Supreme Elder had also lost a portion of his cultivation to you, Your Highness."

"I see…" 

Leon was quite surprised when he heard the Princess's explanation. No wonder there was a sudden surge in his cultivation. It came from the Supreme Elder. 

It appeared that he also had the ability to steal other people's cultivation. Leon was both pleasantly surprised and guilty at this revelation as he glanced at what had become of a proud Transcendent. 

He had no scruples when it comes to robbing the cultivation of his enemies, but if it happened to his allies, and future subordinates, he felt compelled to compensate the other party.

But… what would be suitable as compensation for someone's loss in cultivation? Leon wracked his brain in thought.

Seeing that the prince was at a loss, the Supreme Elder did not want to make it difficult for him. He was a temporary Marquis of the Crawford Kingdom now, and his own stubbornness was to blame.

"There's no need to feel guilty over something… something like this, Your Highness. My own stubbornness was to blame." He waved it off lightly, but everyone present could tell that the Supreme Elder's expression was a bit forced.

Within the Transcendent Realm, the further one progresses, the more difficult it becomes. At the Seeking Insight stage, hard work was no longer enough. Innate talent was more important. If one did not have a high level of perceptiveness of the laws, it was difficult to progress further.

What the Supreme Elder lost was equivalent to a few decades worth of cultivation. His talent was considered ordinary within the tribe. The reason he was the strongest was that he was also the eldest in the tribe. He had cultivated longer than the others. 

But now, it was just a matter of time because one of the elders of the council or royal members surpasses him unless he receives another spark of insight or lucky chance.

"Regardless of what happened, it can also be said that you have aided me greatly in my own cultivation. As my father has granted you the status of a Marquis, your contribution could be considered merit worthy of a reward."

"But…"

Leon raised a hand to stop the Supreme Elder from interrupting him and continued, "As a royal member of the Crawford Kingdom, we do not treat our people unfairly. I will see to it that you will be rewarded and compensated fairly for your loss. Take this pill as compensation. You may find it unexpectedly useful." 

Leon was firm in his words and decisive in his choice, handing over a Soul Enhancing Pill to the Supreme Elder. He would be left with 5 Soul Enhancing Pills afterward.

It was only a Tier-1 Spirit Pill and the effects are not too strong, but an enhancement in the soul covered a wide range of aspects such as improving mental strength, fortifying memory, heightened perception, quicker reaction, and information processing. 

Supreme Elder Haldir accepted the Soul Enhancing Pill with doubt. A single pill was his compensation? What does it even do? 

"May I ask what kind of pill this is, Your Highness?" 

"It's called the Soul Enhancing Pill. As for its exact effects, you'll know when you take it." 

The Supreme Elder appeared shocked when he heard Leon's vague explanation, but he swallowed the pill without hesitation. Princess Faelyn also covered her mouth in shock. 

Leon raised an eyebrow at their shocked reactions.

"You know about Soul Enhancing Pills?" Leon asked Princess Faelyn curiously, seeing as the Supreme Elder had quickly entered deep meditation to absorb the pill's efficacy.