Spirit Soul

After hearing that his age would be measured, Kyle couldn't help but start sweating profusely.

He got up from the ground and looked towards the Lich, only for it to ignore him completely.

With a single flick of his finger, many things began to manifest in the otherwise empty room.

Within moments, it began to transform completely.

From a scarcely decorated room with the bare necessities, everything seemed to change within a single moment.

However, this moment was magnificent in Kyle's view and his eyes began to gleam brightly.

As he watched in a daze, three pillars emerged in the center, reaching the height up to his waist.

Each of the pillars had a levitating orb right above them.

Kyle couldn't believe his eyes as more furniture and magical devices manifested.

On his right side, he could see a small field that held a large set-up for archery practice.

Multiple targets were placed in a neat row for archers to practice and train themselves.

An orb was levitating right in front of the targets.

This one was green in color, and Kyle didn't require much time to understand that it was an orb that had to do the essence of the wind or the wind affinity.

Yet, what piqued his curiosity the most was the multitude of devices that were emerging to his left side.

One of them was probably the device to measure his age, which was not something Kyle wanted to do, at all.

That was the case because there were a total of three scenarios that could occur.

And, not a single one would be able to give an accurate assessment of his statistics, potential, or whatever the Lich wanted to find out by testing him.

In the end, he was either more than 18 years old according to the physical age of his body in addition to the time he spent inside his body, or he was measured as a being at the age of half a year.

His body had only been constructed a few months ago, so there was this possibility.

However, what he feared the most was how the Lich's device would measure his soul's age.

Thinking about the worst possible scenario made him dread the outcome.

If what he dreaded were to happen and the Lich's device would really measure his soul's age, that would be an eternity!

Kyle couldn't put a number to the age of his soul.

He simply had no way to keep track of time when the Omnipotent being had activated the thing it created, devouring the entire Universe.

However, even afterward, Kyle was not sure how much time he had actually spent in the reincarnation trial.

Nor did he have any idea of how long he had been inside the core of Shima.

Karnias might have been 50,000 years old, but that might also be falsified information.

Or, he was not one of the Old souls of the devoured Universe, who knew?!

Nobody could prove anything, and Kyle was a little bit worried about the age test.

Meanwhile, the Lich only sensed that Kyle was sweating profusely and that he was worried about something.

Thus, it assumed that the young man in front of him was not confident in his own capabilities.

This was a big downside because confidence could make a huge difference in someone's overall strength.

It could allow someone to cross the boundaries one would never even come close to while being timid.

As such, the Lich made a mental note which was a rough assessment of Kyle impassively.

"You can see the mastery orbs of the respective cultivation paths. I know that your cultivation situation is slightly different. But I want to see if you're compatible with any of the three main cultivation paths!

On your right side, you can see a wind affinity mastery orb, and you'll have your affinity's strength and comprehension measured with it.

Afterward, you can show me the extent of your control, energy consumption, and strongest attack.

This will fetch you bonus points.

In fact, the real test about your affinity and cultivation energy will happen later...if you're able to survive that long!

As for the last examination you'll have to undergo, its a simple test of your age, so as to allow me to compute your statistics properly.

Afterward, I will ask you questions about this Horned Tempest Fox of yours, and the soul devouring ability, or whatever it is!"

The Lich spoke in an emotionless tone, and simply dumped all of the information at once.

While it was not further astonishing, somehow Kyle was frustrated.

Not only was the Lich ordering him around, but it didn't even spare a glance at him.

It was as if he was not even worth a single moment of its time to look at him, which was the most infuriating.

They seemed to want something from him, and grill him through a dozen tests.

But the Lich behaved like it was under the control of everything. As such, Kyle couldn't help but retort angrily.

"What if I lie about my abilities? Will you kill me? Will that help you in whatever plan you have if I were to be the person all of you seem to be searching for?"

In a blinding speed, the Lich turned in his direction.

Kyle had not even blinked and the Lich was staring down at him as its death aura filled the entire room.

Within a split second,  everything around him began to shake.

Yet, only a moment later, the death aura was retracted and everything was back to normal.

"Do as you please, but know that you will die the moment you're useless to me! Right now, the others can't see anything I am doing because my abode is perfectly sealed!

But, bear in mind that every lie or information you intentionally hide can be the cause of your death.

And I promise you...your death won't be an easy one if you dare to lie to me!"

Kyle felt like cursing at the Lich for being so overbearing.

But the calmness with which its voice rang through the room told him that the Lich was truly unbothered by his decision.

The Lich's was starting to get to his nerve and he was half inclined to pull a tight slap on its face, which he did…in his head.

If that were to happen in reality, he would probably be dead the next moment.

Thus he was happy that he forced himself to stay quiet.

However, according to what Kyle understood, two things made him stand out from the rest of the participants of the trials so far.

The first and the most obvious was that he was the first living being to enter the Castle of the Undead.

The second was that his Nurture ability seemed to be more important than he had assumed.

Because of that, the Lich or its words definitely did not represent the opinion of all six powerhouses, whose silhouettes he had perceived earlier.

It was not difficult to figure out that all of the Undeads had their own individual plan.

But all of them seemed to be oddly intrigued by Kyle.

This was not something to be proud of.

At the same time, it told him that the glowing crimson-eyed being, Knirg, Lahan, and the Banshee wouldn't want him to die that easily.

Or so Kyle sincerely hoped.

Nevertheless, Kyle nodded his head while being seemingly calm.

Sadly, his wildly thumping heart gave him away.

Clenching his fist, he shook his head and knew that the Lich was able to perceive his heartbeat easily.

Thus, he tried to avert the attention from it to the three mastery orbs of the cultivation paths.

Walking towards the first one, he gently placed his hand over the orb. I

It was the Spira mastery orb, and Kyle simply inserted his soul force into it.

Under normal circumstances, one would prepare oneself before even thinking of nearing a mastery orb.

In fact, it was a puzzle with a specific level of difficulty.

The puzzle required a specific amount of the required cultivation energy, precise control, focus, and so on.

As such, his move could be deemed as naive, but Kyle was not someone to be worried about such a thing.

Instead, he fully focused on the task at hand.

Closing his eyes, he placed both hands upon the orb.

His entire mind was solely thinking about the puzzle that was not as hard as he had assumed.

Nevertheless, it was still difficult and took him multiple hours to finish.

Once he was done, Kyle took a deep breath and wiped away the sweat that trickled down his temples.

Yet, instead of stepping away and announcing that he was done, Kyle turned towards the next hurdle.

He walked to the Maest mastery orb before he followed the same procedure.

Oddly enough, the puzzle was exactly the same.

The only difference was that he had to solve it using mana instead of Soul force.

His speed had increased and it took him even less time for the second orb.

He then turned towards the Pryr mastery orb, which Kyle finished too.

It was once again the same puzzle, and when Kyle was done, he couldn't help but mumble,

"That was not really innovative…."

He noticed too late that he had spoken his words out loud and cursed his loose mouth.

But upon turning towards the Lich, he gave it a fleeting glance.

Kyle was relieved to see that the Lich wasn't angered simply because it hadn't heard him.

Instead, its gaze was transfixed on the Spiral and Maest mastery orb for the time being, before it averted its attention to the last orb.

"Your cultivation energy is compatible with all three main cultivation paths?...accuracy, focus, and all other properties are at the average of a being that cultivated in the path of Spiral…

Brat, are you cultivating in all three paths at once?"

It was not difficult to find an answer to this question, but the Lich asked nonetheless, just to be sure.

Seeing Kyle nod his head as if the question was nothing special, the Lich continued to stare at him. But its flaring soul flames had calmed down.

"Take the next test!" It drawled emotionlessly though its thoughts were completely different.

'He has only one cultivation vein, but his energy is compatible to all three paths...but it cannot be the energy of the or-..no that cannot be.

While the Lich was deep in thoughts, Kyle utilized his wind affinity while touching the green floating orb.

He began solving another puzzle, just that it was a different one this time.

It was much more difficult for him to solve it, and he spent several hours on it.

This gave the Lich more than enough time to digest every single piece of information.

After his wind mastery was assessed, Kyle simply shot a few wind blades, and wind needles at the targets that stood more than 30 meters away from him.

With that, he completed the test that seemed to be only a basic evaluation to determine the difficulty for one of the following trials.

At least, that was what Kyle assumed, only to turn towards the Lich, who looked at him, with flickering soul flames.

"Now, we shall test your age, and after that, I have lots of questions for you!!"

Feeling a little bit distressed to see the Lich grow suddenly eager, Kyle could only sigh before he approached the weird-looking device.

He was not even able to tell what it looked like but there were four holes in it. Two of them looked like boots and two like gauntlets.

Looking at the Lich for a moment, he saw it give him an encouraging nod. Kyle slipped into the holes before his limbs were fixated all of a sudden.

Just a moment later, he was swept through by some unique transmutation of energy.

He also heard loud noises that echoed through the room.

But, amidst those noises, Kyle heard an astonished voice. It was the first emotion he had sensed inthe Lich's voice for a long time.

"You...are less than six months old? Is that physically even possible??

'Sigh...better than millions of years…' Kyle just thought. He was simply happy to have escaped a major problem, only to smile dryly with the small issue that was popping up in front of him.

**

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