Prime Originator

"My soul disappeared? From my body?" Leon's eyes widened with a startled look.

"Mm!" Aria confirmed with a nod.

Shortly after, she wrapped her arms around Leon's body and hugged him tightly. Darlene followed suit and embraced him as well.

Leon could feel their bodies trembling from the lingering fear of losing him.

While giving Aria and Darlene back rubs to calm them down, Leon recalled the entire experience with a frown.

'His soul left his body? So it wasn't a simple out-of-body experience, huh?' Leon mused.

It made sense not to be; the out-of-body experience felt way too real to be a dream, not to mention the things he discovered inside.

The inner demon, the grey region, and…

'My spiritual strength has fully recovered…' Leon's eyes slowly widened with surprise at the discovery.

Shortly after, he closed his eyes and introspected.

It wasn't just his spiritual strength that was fully recovered. His Spatial, Ice, and Lightning Law have all advanced to the Preliminary Accession-stage Transcendent Realm, especially his Spatial Law.

It advanced to the Late Preliminary Accession-stage Transcendent Realm.

However, these law advancements were most likely the benefits of dual cultivation with Aria and Darlene.

But besides his advancement in the Spatial, Ice, and Lightning Law, his Fire Law had also advanced to the Transcendent Realm.

'Aria and Darlene have not comprehended the Fire Law, let alone to a high level, so this advancement must be due to another reason,' Leon mused.

Nevertheless, Leon found his spiritual strength recovery and law advancement to be of lesser importance.

His most crucial discovery was his state of mind.

Not only did it feel exceedingly clear, but his thought process has also become slightly faster. Even some primary laws seemed easier to comprehend.

'It seems like I can advance my Wood Law to the Transcendent Realm if I just meditate for a bit beside the Tier-5 Spirit Herbs in the Worldspace for a bit…' Leon noticed.

His transformation was too startling.

It seemed like he experienced a major breakthrough—No, he did experience a major breakthrough. However, it was nothing like what he expected.

'The quality of my soul has improved,' Leon's eyes flickered.

If operating dual thoughts at 100% efficiency was his limit in the past, then the current him could now operate the third consciousness at 50% efficiency on top of the two.

Leon did not expect such a bizarre yet frightening experience in the monochrome world could improve his soul's quality.

'Did it have something to do with the grey energy particles? No, it did have something to do with them,' Leon quickly corrected his thought.

What he absorbed was most like soul energy. And not just any soul energy, but the purest form of soul energy.

Leon recalled the grey region and the countless grey orbs flying towards it. If they were all pure soul energy, then…

He faintly guessed the monochrome world's origin, and it shocked him.

'The legendary Astral Soul Realm, origin land of the souls… I suspected that such a realm existed, but I never thought I would actually find it soon, let alone enter it. But how did I enter? What are the conditions for entry?'

Leon wondered.

Nevertheless, he was greatly astonished that the Astral Soul Realm was so close as if it is within reach, yet at the same time, impossibly far from it.

So close, yet so far…

Having experienced the great benefits of the Astral Soul Realm, Leon was determined to learn more about it.

He lacks information, but fortunately, he knows where to start looking.

There were plenty of medical records on out-of-experience in the Archive; that's where he'll start looking.

…

"What happened to you, Leon? Why couldn't we feel your soul's presence in your body earlier?" Aria suddenly asked after calming down.

She was well aware that Leon possessed the Divine Book of Life.

However, she had never experienced his soul disappearing whenever he entered the Divine Book of Life with his consciousness as it did earlier.

"What happened to me earlier, huh? It's actually quite interesting now that I look back on it. You'll be surprised to hear about it," Leon smiled amusedly.

He had no intention of keeping the information from his women. On the contrary, the more they know about it, the better prepared they'll be if they ever get the same opportunity.

"I experienced my first out-of-body experience," Leon stated.

"Out-of-body experience?" Aria's eyes flickered with surprise.

"I thought out-of-body experience is something that only mortals get to experience and a very rare experience to boot. But, more importantly, I never heard of the soul actually leaving the body when they experience it."

"I also thought so too until I experienced it myself," Leon nodded.

"And since I've experienced it, I have a different outlook. If we think about it, the mortal doctors only describe out-of-body experiences as a result of sleeping paralysis and fear of the unknown, which gives birth to the demon in their dream."

"However, mortal doctors are, after all, mortals; they are not cultivators. They wouldn't know when someone's soul left their bodies. More importantly, they've only heard about it from their patients. They weren't there to witness it for themselves."

"I see… That makes sense," Aria nodded.

Then, she furrowed her brows and mentioned her doubts, "But this is the first time I've ever heard—no, witnessed a cultivator experiencing the out-of-body experience."

"There must be some condition that makes the already rare out-of-body experience even rarer for cultivators," Leon speculated.

"Mm, most likely," Aria agreed before asking, "But this wasn't supposed to be the surprise you mentioned, right?"

"Nope," Leon shook his head and said, "Since you felt my soul disappeared from my body. Can you guess where I went?"

Aria furrowed her brows in thought before she shook her head.

"Where?" Aria asked shortly after.

"The origin realm of souls," Leon stated.

"Oh… Huh?" Aria suddenly picked herself up from Leon's chest and stared at him in shock. "T-the origin realm of souls?!"

"That's right," Leon nodded with a smile.

Meanwhile, Darlene silently rested her head on the other half of Leon's chest with a dumbfounded look.

She couldn't follow their conversation.