Chapter 119
Ji Xian smartly decided to ignore Xia Lihua.
Shaking his head, his attention returned to the company of the Grahas. With not much else to say to them, he performed a single hand sign, further tightening their spatial prison.
Then, Ji Xian raised his arm high into the air with his index finger pointing upward. A mysterious energy began to form above it. It was warm yet shapeless; the instant it appeared, the heavenly bodies surrounding the Mortal Desolate World dimmed even further. It quickly grew in size, resembling a distant star shining blindingly.
Not only was everyone dumbfounded by this scene, but Xia Lihua was as well.
Watching the formless mass continue to expand above Ji Xian’s head, her heart instinctively shriveled, and her blood boiled from the threatening aura that emanated from him.
Is this some sort of Divine Art? Or is it an ability? She wondered inwardly, her surprise evident. Thinking back, this wasn’t the first time Ji Xian had used this move. He had unleashed it once before against the Nether race in the Mortal Haven World. At that time, however, she had been unconscious and missed it entirely. Everything she knew about it had come from the Ancestors back home, who had recounted the events that unfolded while she was in a brief coma. Now that she was seeing it firsthand, she understood why the Ancestors had so much trouble describing it— the formless mass wasn’t created by True Essence!
Xia Lihua narrowed her eyes. By now she was well aware that this world contained more than just True and Astral Essence. The Graha were living proof of this, as was the Soul Liberation Art she cultivated. Within her, the Soul Essence Vessel- formed after reaching elementary mastery— contained what she and Ji Xian simply called Soul Essence, a name that was as self-evident as the vessel itself.
With that, she had identified three known Essences. True Essence was of the Heaven, Astral Essence was of the individual, and Soul Essence was clearly of the soul. Yet, as Xia Lihua set her gaze beyond the exosphere, her piercing silver eyes witnessing a lusterless nearby star, she realized that there was possibly a fourth Essence type.
Just how many types of Essence are there? She pondered. Since I started cultivating, I was taught only two types of Essences in the Mortal Haven World. There was never a mention of another. Was this information purposely hidden from us, or was the Lower World just lacking details? But then again, even if we know of them, so what? Most people seem capable of cultivating only a single Essence type— unless they’re as peculiar as Ji Xian and me. The Soul Liberation Art isn’t something anyone can just cultivate. Looking at the entire Mortal Haven World, I can’t imagine anyone else qualified enough to read even a single word of it, and in the Mortal Desolate World, I dare say only Yueyin is competent enough to do so. What a shame that the requirement is so extreme, otherwise, we could spread this around and increase our collective strength.