Prime Originator

Maya's mood slightly improved when she saw how quickly Leon had agreed to her request. She permitted Leon to ask her any two questions, to which she would answer without any conditions.

With the artifact spirit's pompous attitude, Leon began to wonder if she was the master, or if he was master. But since he was beggar, it was not wise to irritate the artifact spirit, lest he can forget about asking the two questions he was granted.

How did his father put up with the artifact spirit when he was still the master of the [Divine Book of Life]? 

Thinking back on it… 

His late father had never revealed any other otherworldly techniques or cultivations methods to him. 

The Divine Medicine King had wholeheartedly focused on cultivating the way of medicine and helping people his entire life. He reached a height, no one else could dream of coming close to achieving in the art of medicine.

But this height can be achieved by merely studying the alchemy knowledge stored in the Archive and did not require any supreme technique.

Leon faintly guessed that his late father may have never met the artifact spirit.

When the first question was raised, it was as Leon had guessed, Maya had not once conversed with Leon's father because she had deemed his father's talent to be too lowly for her to recognize him as her master.

As such, while Leon's late father had bound the [Divine Book of Life] to his soul core and became its master, he was not its true master, not without the artifact spirit's recognition.

In the artifact spirit's eyes, Leon's talents were also considered low, initially. If not for needing Leon's help, Maya would not have deigned to seek him out. 

Leon was not aware that when his soul traveled to this world and fused with his identical self, the artifact spirit was briefly conscious and inspected his body's talent before falling into a long slumber.

Also, the world traveling transmigration was an instantaneous process. No distance was actually covered when Leon's soul entered this world. It was like a character dying in a game and return to a spawn point, except that spawn point was in the world of Gaia and not in the Divine Realm.

To visualize Leon's transmigration, it would not look like two souls fusing but rather one soul suddenly becoming the size of two. 

As such, Leon experienced confusion with one part believing he had reincarnated, while another believing he had awoken past life memories when he also knew for a fact that they were both him.

There was a theory on parallel universes that when one dies, the strength of the dead person is transfer to all their parallel selves. Leon's transmigration was similar, except only one soul received everything.

The strange part is that Gaia is not part of a parallel universe but an extraordinary world that might exists within the black hole at the center of the Divine Realm. This was the greatest riddle on Leon's mind.

The black hole was thought to be a place impossible for any life to survive with its immense crushing gravitational force that can reduce the stars down into mere atoms.

As someone who is bound to Leon's soul, Maya was equally puzzled by the riddle. A regular leap through spacetime would not have injured her so. 

She was, after all, a peerless treasure created by the Old Gods, divine beings who were born by the Grandmist during the early formation of Primal Chaos. It was clear that a great force had impacted her entry into this world.

The whole mystery regarding Leon's transmigration might contain some secrets as to why the age of gods ended. 

Apart from Maya's interest in the present world, she grew interested in Leon after reassessing his talent the last time she woke up. This is all due to the [Hegemon of Primal Chaos] practiced by him. 

If not for Leon's talents being changed by the effects of practicing [Hegemon of Primal Chaos], she might not have bothered to pass him the [Black Turtle Heavenly Guard].

As the artifact spirit of a peerless treasure created by the Old Gods, Maya enjoyed an everlasting life like the gods. She had every right to look down on all mortals who had little to no chance of attaining godhood. They were beneath her notice.

However, Leon was different.

[Hegemon of Primal Chaos] was a lost technique of the Old Gods that could no longer be practiced in the present era of the Divine Realm. 

As baffled as Maya may be about the mystery of the present world and if such a technique existed back in the primordial era of gods, she could at least tell that this was a powerful body forging method capable of raising Leon's body to the ranks of gods.

The primordial era was ruled by the Old Gods, and to be a Hegemon of Primal Chaos is to be above the Old Gods. 

Whether a mortal's body can surpass the Old Gods that existed at the beginning of creation or not, Maya was curious to find out if Leon could reach heights.

"What is your second question?" Maya asked.

Leon already knew what kind of question he wanted to ask for his second question as he asks, "Do you have any soul cultivation methods?"

Cultivating his soul would significantly improve his usage of Divine Will. If his soul were powerful enough, this skill would even become omnipotent. It has so much potential he had yet to tap into.

"I do, but it's not the same type of soul cultivation method you are hoping for and will not be beneficial to you," Maya said nonchalantly.

Although Leon was expecting it, he was still surprised when the artifact spirit admitted. However, this surprise quickly changed to puzzlement.

"What do you mean?" 

Maya flashed him a look and said, "Although I said I will only answer two questions, it seems you won't be satisfied with just that answer. Alright, take it as I am expanding on that question."

"Although I do have some soul cultivation methods in my memory, these soul cultivation methods cannot be considered true soul cultivation methods."

"These soul cultivation methods all require the use of energy to strengthen the soul, but this type of strengthening is like adding a layer of armor on a bare man. It can improve your defense against soul attacks and improve your strength, but it will not increase your mental qualities."

"Not only that, but you also cannot practice both soul cultivation and energy cultivation. It is the same as practicing two different energy cultivation methods and will clash with one another. The backlash will leave you severely injured, if not crippled, or even death."

"That is to say that this type of fake soul cultivation method will not improve my Divine Will…" Leon mused to himself with furrowed brows.

Maya nodded and continued, "Unless you have a true soul cultivation method, it is better to stick to consuming miracle elixirs, comprehending laws and increasing your divine cultivation. Only these can improve your soul without affecting your soul's purity."

Leon was about to ask, but Maya was not finished.

"You should already know that a soul in its purest form is formless and colorless. It cannot be seen and can only be vaguely sensed."

Leon nodded. He learned about this from the Archive. If a pure soul could be seen, the big question about whether people had a soul would never have been asked throughout history.

From what he had just learned, the way vengeful spirits cultivated were also not true soul cultivation. They should be considered impure souls that only know how to absorb yin energy to preserve their existence, like covering oneself in ice.

"A true soul cultivation method should improve your soul's quality and quantity without affecting your soul's purity. If you can create a true cultivation method, you would have already surpassed the Old Gods."

"The soul should be something connected to us but exists on a higher plane of existence. Thus, it should not be possible to cultivate the true soul on the physical plane."

Leon's jaw slowly dropped at the mention of Old Gods, something people of the Divine Realm only managed to uncover records of in ancient ruins that hinted of their existence since time immemorial. 

"Alright, that's enough answering. Go find me some books to read. I'm going back to sleep." 

Maya immediately shut Leon down before he could ask about the Old Gods. It was a sensitive topic that Maya believed would not benefit Leon if he knew, as it would divert his focus from cultivation with useless worries.

There were some things that the artifact spirit also did not have answers to. For example, what happened to the Old Gods. 

When she woke up for the first time many years ago, when the Divine Medicine King found her in an ancient ruin and bound her to his soul, she had already found out that most of her memory was blank with nothing except raw knowledge like they have been wiped. 

Seeing the artifact spirit dematerialized from view and become silent to his callings, Leon felt a bit frustrated. He barely had any chance to speak at all.

He did not understand the artifact spirit. When it is in a good mood, it might joke around and tease him, but any other time, it would be solemn, cold, or distant. In any case, he felt it was eccentric.

Nevertheless, he had learned much from conversing with the artifact spirit.

In the end, Leon helplessly returned to the outside and focus on studying the formations and array.