Unsealing Emptiness

The front of his body seemed perfectly fine from the outside even if it hurt from the inside. His back, however, still bore the evidence of his near-death experience.

But if someone asked him, he didn’t feel worried that he was about to die in that situation. He regretted taking on the task since he was in so much pain. But if he really thought about it, he didn’t feel much at the prospect of approaching death.

Would there be endless nothingness in death? He pondered in vain, knowing full well that he would never know since he surely wouldn’t be able to think or feel after death.

‘How nice would that be...’

As he fantasized over this matter, Raven had finished ‘unwrapping’ him.

She was paralyzed in shock after seeing the two ghastly incisions on his back. She was anticipating several minor wounds all over his body, so she was pleased to discover none on his chest.

.....

However, the two big wounds on his back were worse than she could have imagined.

It had been decades since she had last seen him so injured. There were no bruises since he didn’t have any blood in the first place, but the wounds on his back showed how injured he really was.

Just like always, she didn’t bother him with questions of who, how, and, what.

Ozul never liked that and she also wasn’t going to agitate him with that. She knew better.

Raven, as understanding as she was, couldn’t ignore his condition. Previously, she would rather cry to herself if anything like that happened, fearing that bothering him would make him despise her.

Her sentiments and concerns would be overshadowed by her dread of his disliking her.

This time, though, things were different. She was not concealing anything from him.

He knew she loved him, and he had made it apparent that he would not return her affections.

She had come to accept it, if reluctantly, by this point.

And so, the root of her fear had vanished.

The harsh words were stuck in her throat as she gently wrapped him up with the cloth again. He would heal on his own; she had never seen any medicine or healing potion better than Ozul himself.

As she was done, Ozul was about to stand up when Raven held him down again.

“What are you doing?” Glaring at him with an upset face, Raven didn’t let him stand up from the bed.

Before he could say anything, “You aren’t leaving until those wounds close up!”

He wasn’t like others; he wasn’t like humans, but there was still a limit to how much he could endure. Even the most savage of beasts would need to heal after suffering such injuries much less him.

“I am fine...” Ozul replied back; he didn’t know what else to say. Although it hurt bad, it was only a matter of a few more hours before he would be back to his original shape, so he felt that he was entirely fine. There was no need to waste time here.

Raven’s expression didn’t falter as she quipped, “Those injuries go a long way in explaining how fine you are. Lie down on the bed; I am not letting you leave until you are healed! You like sleeping, no? What’s so urgent now that you don’t want to sleep?”

“That...” Ozul looked at her, speechless, “...was a good retort.”

He really didn’t have any answer for that except for the fact that there were 5 Spiritual Cores of the Origin Realm right in his fist.

Putting them on the table, Ozul plopped on the bed. Raven was right, he could absorb the Cores later. A little nap wouldn’t hurt.

Laying on his back, he was just about to close his eyes when he again heard the irritated voice from his side, “Lay on your chest! Your back is half open, what are you doing?!”

Instinctively, he immediately got off his back and looked at Raven with a deadpan face, almost pouting.

Muttering to himself grumpily, “I slept like that for two hours before though...” Turning his body, he again plopped on the bed, this time on his chest.

‘Oh... this is more comfortable...’

While laying on his back, it only stung for a little while before the sensation numbed, hence he didn’t care much. But it seemed that if he didn’t comply with her demands, she would keep bothering him. And so he made the smart decision not to argue.

The comfort of the bed soon embraced him as drifted off to his favorite place, complete blackness.

Seeing him complying with her demands with a grumpy attitude, Raven sighed in worry.

She knew he wouldn’t take long to completely heal; she was worried if she had done the right thing.

It was coming back to her again; would he hate her for forcing him to do something that he didn’t want to? Shaking her head, she told herself that it didn’t matter.

“Grandma Carol would have done the same...” muttering to herself, she sat on the other bed beside his in a lotus position, trying to calm down her beating heart.

. . .

Ozul woke up from the ‘nap’ that lasted for more than just a few hours.

Blaze and Zier were both asleep on their beds. After coming to this Realm, with the absence of the Mana, sleep had again become a necessity for them.

Turning his head towards Raven’s bed, he saw her maintaining her lotus position, although she wasn’t cultivating. The book of Scarlet Eyes was open and placed before her as she would occasionally open her eyes to check up on him and then read the book before going back to meditation.

He guessed that she was trying to comprehend the Scarlet Eyes in meditation.

He didn’t want to disturb her focus, but just then, she again opened her eyes and when she saw him sitting on the bed, she immediately got off hers.

“Are you properly healed?” Raven looked at him with skepticism.

“I am,” Ozul said, but she continued to gaze at him with distrust. “You can confirm it yourself,” he mumbled, releasing a sigh.

Raven nodded and came up to him to remove the piece of cloth from his body.

Raven was relieved to find that there were no huge gushes of scars engraved deep into his back as she finished unwrapping him again.

Throwing the cloth away, Raven took out a white shirt and a pair of pants from her Spatial Ring before handing them over to Ozul.

Turning around, she gave him some time before he changed into those clothes.

As soon as he was done changing, Ozul began to look for the Spiritual Cores. It was the middle of the night, and he was completely healed of his injuries. The only thing left to do now was to absorb those Cores.

Seeing him shoot a look towards the table where he had placed the Spiritual Cores, Raven extended her arm, and in her palm appeared the Cores. She could tell they were important so she had put them in her Spatial Ring as well.

“Were these the reason why you risked your life?” Raven inquired, curious as to what these crystals were. She hadn’t seen Spiritual Cores before.

Ozul nodded his head before taking the Spiritual Cores.

Walking out of the room, he flew towards the forest to find a suitable location where he could absorb them. The Purity would always be able to contain the burst of excess Spiritual Essence after he absorbed them, but he didn’t want to take any more chances.

He had already paid for overestimating his abilities; it wasn’t going to happen twice, or at least that’s what he hoped.

As he left the room, Raven sighed in relief,

“Seems like he doesn’t hate me...” muttering to herself, she happily went back to meditating and reading the Scarlet Eyes. Others could question why she was so sure of that, but Raven was certain of it, for one reason or another.

. . .

As Ozul spent a few minutes flying in a certain direction, he found it harder than usual to find a quiet spot. It seemed that the forest was still a lively place after the previous incident of him slaughtering so many beasts.

Still, the forest was vast, and night had already fallen. It didn’t take long for him to find an obscure place in the middle of the woods.

Sensing no life other than insects around him, Ozul released all of The Purity and enveloped himself like a cocoon.

“One at a time...”

He threw one of the Cores inside his mouth and swallowed it in one go.

Just as he expected, the heat began to rise from his body and before long, a burst of dense Spiritual waves unleashed out of his body, attacking the barrier from all sides.

He placed another Core inside his mouth and repeated the process without waiting for his body to calm down and assess the improvements.

Waves upon waves of Spiritual Essence streamed from his body.

These waves were powerful enough to suffocate any cultivator at the Nascent Soul Realm if they came too close. Despite this, the Purity managed to contain it all without moving an inch.

Ozul released a mouthful of foul breath as he was done with the last Spiritual Core.

He quickly fled the scene after gradually extracting The Purity and absorbing it all back into his body.

In the barrier around him, there was too much extra Spiritual Essence, and as soon as the barrier was taken down, it could only spread over the area, but not as powerfully as before.

If there was even a single expert at the apex of the Nascent Soul Realm nearby, they would rush over to this scene.

And so a dark silhouette of a man was seen gliding through the night sky, impervious to the blemishes of light cast upon this world...