"Heh heh, thanks, brother." Hagson took the crystal ball and stroked it feverishly. "With this soul essence, my injuries should heal completely. After that, I can use any more soul essence to strengthen myself."
Hagson put the crystal ball into his Interspatial Ring, then took out four more crystal balls filled with Sanctuary souls.
"My good brother, this is what our tribal warriors have gathered lately. Sorry for the trouble again."
"It's no trouble. The more Sanctuary souls, the better."
Roger accepted them. "There are quite a few souls this time. Come back for them in a year, Hagson."
"Heh heh, no problem. I'll come by myself when the time comes."
Hagson was delighted. He only had to wait a year, and a large quantity of soul essence would be his.
Yet the price he paid was negligible.
After leaving Hagson's residence, Roger headed off.
Roger rose into the air and flew toward his own courtyard.
High in the sky, Roger looked down.
At that moment, few people could be seen moving about within the Fire Rhino Tribe.
In the distance, however, he could see many Sanctuary-level tribespeople working together to hunt Sanctuary magical beasts.
Flying a little higher, Roger could even see the Fire Rhino Tribe's Lowgods at the edge of his vision, busily killing all kinds of Sanctuary creatures.
He watched for a while.
Then Roger sped back to his residence, his expression blank.
Many Sanctuary beings had died because of him.
But this was the Netherworld.
Weakness was the original sin.
Roger was neither rigidly moral nor self-righteous. Becoming stronger demanded a price, and someone had to pay it.
If he did not want to pay it himself, someone else would have to.
"You're back already." Allen walked over with a smile. "Did Hagson give you any trouble?"
"He needs something from me right now. Why would he give me trouble?" Roger took out the crystal ball. "We split that batch of soul essence evenly. This is my share."
"By the way, Allen, how is your cultivation going?"
"Me... so-so, I guess. I'm still a little short of the Saint Domain Limit," Allen said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.
His brother was advancing by leaps and bounds, while he was standing still.
That left Allen deeply frustrated.
"Slow cultivation? That's nothing!"
Roger patted Allen on the shoulder. "There's plenty of soul essence here. I can't use this much by myself, so I'll give you some."
Taking out an empty crystal ball, Roger transferred half the soul essence into it.
"Allen, absorbing this soul essence is simple. All you need to do is extend your soul power into it."
"No, I can't take this!"
Allen looked at the crystal ball filled with gleaming golden soul essence. Absorbing it would make his soul several times stronger and greatly increase his cultivation speed from then on.
Yet Allen kept waving his hands in refusal. "Roger, you need it more than I do. You only need to take one more step and reach the Midgod level. Only then will we brothers truly be able to establish ourselves in the Netherworld. As for me, it doesn't matter if I cultivate a little more slowly."
Seeing Allen thinking only of his interests, Roger would have been lying if he said he was not touched.
"It's all right, Allen. Look at these."
Roger took out the other four crystal balls containing large quantities of Sanctuary souls.
"With the Fire Rhino Tribe and Hagson around, we won't lack soul essence. Listen to me. Take it and use it now. The sooner you become a deity, the safer you'll be."
Without allowing any argument, Roger shoved the crystal ball into Allen's arms. "I don't want to see anyone else close to me die."
"Then... all right." Seeing Roger's resolute gaze and hearing those last words, Allen finally accepted it.
"Ha ha, that's more like it." Roger laughed. "Go on, let me watch you use it."
"All right!"
Allen held up the crystal ball and carefully extended his soul power into it.
The moment it touched the soul essence, the absorption began.
Whoosh!
Allen rapidly absorbed the pure soul essence.
Several minutes later, he finished.
"Wow, this soul essence is incredibly potent!"
Allen's eyes shone. "I can feel it. My soul has been strengthened to its limit. It's almost ten times stronger than before!"
Allen spread his soul power outward.
It soon reached its limit.
But the area it covered was nearly ten times larger than before.
"Roger, you're amazing!" Feeling his surging soul power and the countless-fold increase in the speed of his mental deductions, Allen was utterly exhilarated.
With his soul so much stronger, even if he were a pig, he could cultivate to the Saint Domain Limit in an extremely short time.
Moreover, as his soul grew stronger, his aptitude seemed to improve as well.
His chances of becoming a deity were much higher now.
"Ha ha, as long as it helps."
Seeing the change in his brother, Roger was delighted too.
"From now on, focus on cultivating. Just assign those miscellaneous chores to your subordinates. What matters most right now is increasing your strength as quickly as possible!"
"All right, I will!"
Allen also knew that the Fire Rhino Tribe where they lived was not truly safe. It faced the threat of the Black Bat Tribe at all times.
"Good. I'll go back into seclusion, then. Unless something truly important happens, like the Black Bat Tribe attacking, everything else can wait until I come out."
"No problem. Leave it to me."
Roger returned to the secluded chamber.
Roger absorbed the remaining soul essence and sensed that his soul had grown considerably stronger again. Then he took out the four crystal balls filled with Sanctuary souls and began the long refining process once more.
As he refined so many souls, his understanding deepened.
Roger came to understand souls more and more thoroughly.
Although he failed to break through the final bottleneck of the Soul Refining branch, he made progress elsewhere.
Without realizing it, he had taken his first step into another branch, called Soul Control.
That was an unexpected bonus.
It meant Roger could now condense soul threads and exert a preliminary influence over Sanctuary beings with weak soul power.
As for going a step further, condensing a Soul Seed and taking complete control of their souls, that remained beyond him.
Roger could not do that yet.
Pausing his Soul Refining, Roger consolidated the insights he had gained into the Soul Control branch he had just begun to grasp.
Then he resumed refining.
A little over a month later, he finished.
Roger stopped working.
"Phew... finally done."
He looked at the four crystal balls on the table.
Roger was pleased. After resting briefly, he extended his soul power and absorbed twenty percent of the soul essence in each crystal ball.
"Not bad. My soul is over sixty percent stronger than before. My cultivation speed should increase quite a bit again."
Roger found this steady, tangible progress deeply absorbing.
"There's still plenty of time before my appointment with Hagson. I'll keep cultivating."
Putting away the crystal balls, Roger began cultivating.
At first, he focused on the bottleneck.
Roger tried to break through it, hoping to fully master the Soul Refining branch and advance directly to the Midgod level.
But breaking through this bottleneck proved even harder than he had imagined.
After three straight months of unsuccessful attempts, Roger decisively shifted his focus to the Soul Control branch he had only recently begun to grasp.
His cultivation immediately became smooth and unhindered, and he progressed rapidly.
Several more months passed in the blink of an eye.
Roger still had not fully mastered the Soul Refining branch, but he had achieved considerable success in Soul Control.
He had now firmly reached its late stage and could condense large numbers of soul threads. He was not far from condensing them into a Soul Seed capable of controlling another person's soul.
Before you continue