The other path is the path of the soul. This path is very difficult to start both for those with and without a bloodline. The soul is more resistant to changes than the body. There are a few things that can expedite the activation of the first stage, the soul awakening stage. The soul needs to break the cocoon of the body and extend its sphere of influence to areas beyond the body. This sphere of influence is what is known as the divine sense or soul sense. It is very difficult to achieve and the difficulty is exasperated by the strengthening of the body through body forging.
The soul is nourished because when it awakens, you will be able to manipulate ambient mana and cast spells. It is why in the days of old those on the path of the soul are called magicians, wizards, spellcasters, mages, etc. They would be able to actively control mana to cast spells with their divine sense. Mages of old discovered that the process of soul awakening can be quickened with the accumulation of knowledge and experience. Knowledge and experience serve as nourishment for the soul. Some special materials can nourish the soul but are expensive and difficult to use safely.
Those on the path of the soul also don't train their bodies so that it won't inhibit their soul prowess. The body is like a vessel for the soul but the stronger it is, the more restrictive it is on the awakening of the soul. A strong body leads to a strong soul but it makes it more difficult for the soul to awaken and extend its influence outside the body. Those that train their bodies exclusively are called warriors.
The path of the body makes the vitality in the body exuberant which increases lifespan. For example, normal battle sage monkeys without any form of training have an average life span of 50 years. Those that reach the peak of body forging gain extra 20 years. Breaking through to the vitality core stage will raise the limit to 200. The lifespan granted is not fixed but depends on the extra amount of vitality acquired. The awakening of the soul will double that amount. This is because the rate of deterioration of cells or the aging process will drastically reduce. So there is an advantage to combining both the path of the soul early on till it culminates in transcendence. It is just that it is too difficult to achieve.
That's for normal battle sage monkeys. Those with awakened royal bloodlines have a lot of inherited memories that enrich their soul with knowledge, instinct, and experience. It is just that the automatic forging of their body by their bloodline delays their soul awakening but they still have an advantage. Unlike those without bloodlines who don't have any confidence whatever concerning their soul awakening, those with bloodlines can be sure that it will occur sometime after their vitality core is formed. It is because as their body grows due to the bloodline, so does the soul. When the body stops growing in the vitality core stage, it will give the soul time to catch up and awaken.
Soverick doesn't have that problem. His soul has long awakened. The strength of his soul is kept directly proportional to the strength of his body. His soul is too strong for his body so his body cannot limit its awakening. But the amount of strength his soul can express is limited by the amount his body can sustain without damage. The good news is that because he had created a big vitality core, his body will continue to grow stronger to catch up to its potential and capacity. It is a situation that those with a normal vitality core will not get to enjoy.
He would have preferred to lay low for while after forming his core but the reminder of how the realm lord left someone that he couldn't beat behind in only 30 origin cycles made him realize he had to continue growing. 30 origin cycles are like 30 years to origin gods and it is unbelievable that someone could make the leap to the next stage in that short period. He had spent 4 origin cycles in meditation to create the beads of origin essence he need for his reincarnation plan. It felt like he slept and woke up 4 origin cycles later. Countless people had grown old and died in that period of a short nap. He had to utilize all his advantage to develop or it wouldn't matter that he had the advantages in the first place.
All he had to do now is gently resonate his soul with his body. Their synchronization will ensure his divine sense will be within the safe limits of his body.
He stopped his physical exercise to do that. It took him five seconds before a weak divine sense swept out from him. It stopped after reaching about 20m away from him. Then he heard a small popping sound and a screen appeared in front of him.
The Status screen finally appeared.
NAME: Soverick Ghastorix (Legion-2)
RACE: Battle Sage Monkey
BLOODLINE: Unknown Royal bloodline
POWER LEVEL (BODY): Vitality Core (1% Conversion)
POWER LEVEL (SOUL): Soul Awakening
PHYSIQUE: Body of law(Incomplete)
HP: 100%
STAMINA: 100%
ENERGY LEVEL (BODY ): Vitality
ENERGY LEVEL (SOUL): Mental Energy
VITALITY: 500
ENDURANCE: 47
STRENGTH: 37
AGILITY: 52
PERCEPTION: 1,000,000,000
SPIRIT: 200
LIMITER (BODY):55%
LIMITER (SOUL):0.0000002%
DIVINE SENSE (GRADE): 20(A)
OTHERS
MANA AFFINITY: 55%
LAW AFFINITY: 50%
ELEMENTAL AFFINITY (GRADE): FIRE (DIVINE), WATER (DIVINE), AIR (DIVINE), EARTH (DIVINE), LIGHT (DIVINE), DARKNESS (DIVINE), SPACE (DIVINE), TIME (DIVINE), CAUSALITY (DIVINE).
STATUS: Healthy
Anytime an inhabitant of the realm of high heaven completes the first two steps of refinement, the status screen will appear. Its origin is mysterious and even with his powerful soul, he couldn't track the source of the phenomenon. It seemed like it simply appeared out of nowhere. Thankfully he knew what was up with it now. Another legion has made surprising progress in revealing the mysteries of the system. The system might look like it just showed up, but it has secretly latched on for some time unknown. The knowledge that Legion unearthed made soverick dread the realm lord even more. 'The realm lord is a very ambitious man, I must also be ambitious if I aim to reach the peak too.'
The existence of the realm has shed light on what lies at the end of possibility. Some things that have been considered impossible to achieve have been debunked by the realm lord and have become possible. If one cannot achieve these new possibilities then one can give up on venturing into the unknown and achieve the impossible.
He doesn't appreciate the Status no matter how handy it is. He doesn't know how it works but he knows it is a tool for the realm lord to become stronger and he doesn't want to be part of that. If he had the power, he would remove the status screen but there is nothing he could do about it. He resigned his fate to enduring its presence just like he decided to do with Hadrick's spying.
He looked at the status screen and noticed some changes. Since his body and soul haven't fused yet, he currently possesses two sources of power based on the two paths of refinement. Hence the two types of power and energy level. His race has changed, and so has his bloodline. The progress of the conversion of his Vitality core is also shown. 1% is a very large amount of progress for someone that just broke through. The high amount is due to his incomplete body of law. It will hasten his conversion rate.
To change the composition of an organ by just 1% can lead to a detrimental change in its mode of operation and lead to its subsequent shutdown. Thankfully, the vitality core is tolerant to mana infusion. In those without the advantage of a bloodline, the percentage of progress has to be increased steadily and constantly reinforced or they will lose their progress. The body will try to repress such a flaw in its system if training is neglected. Even for him, the difficulty of increasing the conversation rate will become more difficult.
His vitality is through the roof for his stage but it is his perception that is alarming. The normal value for someone in the vitality core ranges from 150 to 200. The high value of his Vitality stat can be attributed to the large size of his core.
His perception on the other hand is even higher than when he was a sovereign. It is because he used to be an origin god.
He smiled and said, "Looks like I have a huge advantage."
It is because of this advantage that he was able to destroy the mana array that they placed in his former room without Ghoto noticing. Soverick's perception is much too high than Ghoto's, so Ghoto's senses could be easily deceived.