Liam's fingers twitched against the cold surface of the rock platform. He felt everything—his body, his mana, his dao fields, his consciousness… and most importantly, his soul. He sat up with a jolt, fully shocked and surprised that his soul was still intact.
What the hell was that place? Where was he? He had no idea. A seared pain erupted in his mind when he tried thinking about what he had experienced just now. Liam immediately let go. Now was not the time. He needed to heal first.
He had felt it. His soul getting crushed. Everything tearing apart. How was he whole again?
His gaze darted around the platform, searching for any remnants of the presence that had nearly obliterated him. But there was nothing.
That man had disappeared. The only thing that remained was the void which endlessly stretched in all directions, silent and empty once again.
However, he only felt relief at that thought. That man was far too dangerous and Liam had done something he shouldn't have. He had been way too daring and asked him directly for a handout.
And now he was paying the price for it. He touched his chest instinctively. He felt the remnants of that destruction still lingering, a ghost of what had happened.
His soul had been utterly crushed, torn apart—he knew it. He had felt every fiber of his existence disintegrate, every piece of himself being broken down to the point where there was nothing left but a whisper.
And yet, here he was. Whole again.
He closed his eyes to settle down and meditate. His soul cultivation was completely undone. His constellations were nowhere to be found as if they had never existed.
Liam frowned but the next second his body trembled in excitement. Though all of his hard work had been completely undone, his raw soul strength had increased.
It wasn't just a minor boost. It was like his soul had been reforged from the ground up, stripped of all impurities, of all excess, and condensed into something purer, denser, and infinitely stronger.
Liam's heart pounded as he extended his awareness inward. His constellations were definitely gone, wiped out as if they had never existed. But in their place, he felt something new—an empty but powerful foundation, waiting to be shaped.
He hadn't been reset.
He had been given a chance to rebuild.
And this time, he could do it better. A lot better than the first time around. A slow, sharp grin stretched across Liam's face. That bastard.
Liam exhaled, pushing away his previous frustrations. This wasn't a loss. This was an opportunity.
His previous cultivation had been painstakingly developed, each step forward a result of endless struggle. But now? Now he had a chance to reshape it all with his current understanding.
His soul was stronger, purer, and more refined. If he rebuilt his soul cultivation now, it wouldn't just be as good as before—it would be on an entirely different level.
Liam wasted no time. Well, all he had was time right now so it did not matter anyway. He sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and began.
His mind steadied as he drew upon his understanding of soul energy, of structure, of balance. Slowly, meticulously, he began weaving together the runes of power—threading them like delicate strands of fate, linking them into the framework of a new constellation.
The first rune flared to life almost instantly, burning with intensity. Everything felt a lot smoother, a lot easier. Of course, he had spent several painstaking months on this but the jump was still noticeable.
Next, the second rune flared.
Liam continued. He kept going without any hesitation or haste in his path. One by one, they locked into place, forming the skeleton of something vast.
His breathing was steady, his control absolute. There was no hesitation, no doubt. His soul had already been broken and reforged many times before—he would not falter here.
Time flowed and after a while, a pulse of power rippled through his being as the first constellation completed itself, shining within his soulscape.
Liam sucked in a deep breath as his eyes snapped open and he finished the process. Immediately, a notification chimed in front of him.
[Ding! You have completely mastered the Myriad Constellations Technique Part-1]
[Ding! You are now allowed access to the Myriad Constellations Technique Part-2]
Liam couldn't help but swallow hard. The first time when he had formed his first constellation, he did not receive any such notification. Heck, even after he started his second constellation, he did not receive any such notification. But now he had unlocked the second part of the technique.
Not that he was overly surprised. After all, his new and improved first constellation was vastly different from his previous one. This time he did not simply string together a few hundred runes. No, he managed to touch the magic number thousand.
He took a deep breath and focussed, once again focussing inwardly. There inside his soul sea lay the new constellation, silent and dormant, packed with power.
It piqued his interest that the overall structure of the constellation still ended up resembling an infinity loop though it wasn't his intention to maintain the same structure. It looked like it was his natural constellation shape.
Maybe even if he undid all this work and redid it again, it would look the same way. He pinned that thought for a later time when he had more understanding.
Instead, his gaze swept past the thousand runes silently simmering in the depths of his constellation. Each one held power that was many times stronger than before.
He could feel that the capacity of his soul had tremendously increased. This meant that he should now be able to control a lot more soul minions than 39000 and change.
Liam wondered just what was his current limit. Perhaps now, he would have a lot more control over the two transcendent souls in his possession. He was about to retrieve the soul storing orb when he realized he had nothing on his person at the moment.
Also, perhaps it was time to do something else. Liam gaped as the first time in a while something other than complete darkness stared at him from the void.