The Vengeful Spirits Origins
After Arana permitted Lynne's stay at the ice palace, Lynne borrowed a room to refine the shattered ice souls she collected.
During that time, Arana did not disturb her—or rather, Arana never took the initiative to approach her for anything. And before long, Arana entered her secluded cultivation in the inner chambers.
Inside one of the many guest rooms, Lynne refined with shatters ice souls with her ice power.
At the same time, the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress watched over Lynne's refinement with her powerful divine consciousness.
Nevertheless, the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress's mind dwelled on Arana's matter.
She didn't expect a humanoid arachnid could get along with humans so well. Not only did Arana not attack Lynne for destroying her twig home, she even gifted Lynne a spider silk dress.
Arana was an irregular being for not being hostile, but the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress didn't believe Arana was good.
"Master, don't you think Sister Arana is rather nice?" Lynne suddenly mentioned.
She was already wearing the white spider silk dress. Not only did it feel comfortable, but it also had good defense.
Nevertheless, Divine Ice Phoenix Empress turned serious after hearing Lynne's question.
'You're already referring to that Paragon as Sister Arana? Didn't I warn you not to become close to that person? She is dangerous. No matter how nice she is, she belongs to the monster race. They are even more dangerous than the beast race.'
'At the very least, members of the beast race still have sentiments and emotions. As long as you can overcome the obstacle of differences, you can get along with the beast race very well. But, on the other hand, the monster race only follows their instincts.'
'Thus, they are generally aggressive to all races most of the time. In a sense, they can be even more terrifying than demons. Just because they haven't killed you; doesn't mean that they wouldn't kill you.'
'Demons would toy with their prey before killing them, but at the very least, their prey would already know the demons would eventually kill them. However, monster races are different. You can get along well with them, and they would still suddenly decide to kill you one day on a whim.'
The Divine Ice Phoenix Empress never thought
However, she had to let her disciple understand the dangers of getting close to a member of the monster race.
"But Sister Arana wasn't aggressive at all despite my mistake? She even gifted me a tier-4 spider silk dress for protection. How do you explain this?" Lynne argued.
'That is something Master is still trying to figure out. However, Master just wants you to be aware that just because one monster is different from the rest of the monster race, it doesn't mean that you should ignore the dangers, child,' the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress stated.
'My best guess is that the Paragon is using the Yin energy to suppress the instinct of her monster race,' the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress added shortly after. 'But never mind that; focus on your cultivation, child.'
"I understand, Master…" Lynne complied.
Half a day later, Lynne completely refined all the shattered ice souls. Then, she spent another day cultivating Ice Phoenix Divine Soul Art with her.
'Good. Your soul cultivation has swiftly risen to Peak Rank 2 Transcendent Realm in this past day. You are ready to advance your awakening cultivation to Seeking Insight-stage Transcendent Realm without hurting your foundations,'
'It's time to continue your journey. You can advance on the way,' the Divine Ice Phoenix Empress stated.
"Yes, Master," Lynne nodded.
…
…
…
In another part of vast Extremely Misty Forest's inner region, Leon traveled through the thick mists with Aria, Darlene, and Faelyn.
Initially, Leon didn't bring anyone with him.
However, the three ladies all insisted on following him—especially, Faelyn, who had not seen him for over three weeks.
Furthermore, Faelyn's reasoning was very convincing that Leon had no choice but to bring her along.
As a Wood Transcendent, she could connect to the trees in Extreme Misty Forest and expand her senses. This ability would allow her to understand the forest's topography and have a great search range.
In other words, Faelyn's wood ability was useful in navigating through the misty forest.
Before leaving for Extreme Misty Forest, Leon had paid his father a short visit. However, they did not have any time to catch up.
When Leon transmitted several dozen primordial cultivation techniques and battle skills to his father and stated his intention to look for his mother, Heinrich had locked himself in his study room to create hard copies.
…
Scree—!
A Mid Rank 1 Transcendent-level vengeful spirit screamed before it was exterminated by Aria's lightning power.
Lightning was the bane of all spirits.
Thus, the group had a relatively easy time traveling through the inner regions. After spending five days in this region, they had slain over 400 Transcendent-level vengeful spirits.
At the same time, they had all collected the purified soul cores the vengeful spirits left behind.
"Are these things really Transcendent-level vengeful spirits? They are nothing like Duna at all. They don't have a shred of intelligence, and they only react to their instincts," Darlene mentioned with a frown.
"If Duna knew you compared her in the same breath as these mindless vengeful spirits, I don't think she would be happy," Leon smiled with amusement.
Darlene's expression immediately turned awkward.
"Ugh… Please don't tell her," Darlene pleaded wryly.
"Hahaha," Leon laughed.
"These vengeful spirits are most likely remnants of the Nova civilization that ended ten thousand years ago during the Cataclysm. They all relied on artificial spirit energy for cultivation and paid the ultimate price for it during the Cataclysm's eruption."
"Thus, they had most likely already lost their minds when they died. And that is why we have such a large number of mindless vengeful spirits at the Transcendent level, probably," Leon assumed.
"That's probably it," Aria agreed.
"Dealing with these vengeful spirits isn't a problem, but how do we expect to find Sister Lynne and Mother-in-law in such a huge forest?" she mentioned shortly after.