Chapter 259 - The Two Souls Of A Cultivator
"The Nascent soul realm cultivators are different than the cultivators in the Qi refining realm and the core condensation realm in that they have two souls," Xukong spoke.
"Two Souls?! What?" Lin Mu asked with a surprised tone.
"Yes, two souls, although they are of different kinds. You see, the soul which everyone has and is born with is called as the True Soul. This is the soul which forms the very basis of your existence and without it, you cannot live nor reincarnate.
The True soul is what undergoes the cycle of reincarnation and is also the soul which accumulates karma. It is the soul whose destiny is dictated by Fate.
The Nascent soul meanwhile is a construct born from the Spirit Qi Core of a Core condensation realm cultivator. When a Core condensation realm cultivator reaches the peak of the core condensation realm, they undergo a heavenly lightning tribulation which allows them to hatch a Nascent soul from their spirit qi core.
With the spirit qi core as the egg, the Heavenly lightning as the life spark and the Dantian as the incubator a nascent soul is born." Xukong explained.
Xukong stopped and let Lin Mu digest this information first before continuing. He had not told him the actual circumstances behind the creation of a Nascent soul realm cultivator before and knew that the information was a bit complex to understand.
"The difference between the True soul and Nascent soul is in that the True soul cannot leave the mortal body under normal conditions. Thus, the nascent soul acts as the secondary vessel for the consciousness and allows the cultivator to leave his body.
This can even allow the cultivator to escape death and live on in the form of a soul. And if the cultivator is fortunate enough, they will even find a suitable vessel and be able to take over it, allowing them to be reborn.
Lin Mu nodded in response and took a step back before using his spirit sense to probe the skeleton. The result was the same as before, and his spirit sense probe was repelled. But Lin Mu did not lose hope and tried again, this time with more power than before.
The spirit sense tendril came in contact with the repulsion layer of the skeleton and hovered there, unable to proceed. A strange equilibrium had been reached, and Lin Mu knew that now was the time. He started channeling the spirit qi into his spirit sense tendril and pushed further into the repulsive layer.
For the first minute, no change was observed but after another minute a small depression seemed to be forming as Lin Mu’s spirit sense pressed on.
Ten minutes passed by and Lin Mu’s forehead was covered in sweat by now. He had depleted a good chunk of his spirit qi wisps by now and barely had four hundred left. His progress was also evident though as the repulsive layer was nearly gone by now.
~Pop~
Another five minutes later, Lin Mu finally breached the repulsive layer and it dissipated but in exchange, Lin Mu was now left with only fifty wisps of spirit qi in his dantian. Of course, there was still the liquid spirit qi there too, he had not touched them yet.
~Phew~
"That certainly was exhausting, I didn’t expect it to take so much spirit qi from me." Lin Mu stated as he wiped the sweat off his forehead.
His back was covered in sweat too making his clothes stick to it.
"Rest and recuperate your spirit qi. Only after your stores are back to the top should you proceed, there can be some unexpected surprises so it’s better to be cautious." Xukong advised.
"I understand, Senior." Lin Mu responded before sitting down to recuperate his spirit qi.