When he heard the words ‘I’ll take my chances’, Niel could not believe it.

Before making himself known, he had assumed that Allan was desperate enough to trade the soul energy gathering formation for a star map.

He knew that there would be some skepticism involved from Allan but Niel maintained the faith that nothing would go wrong in his plans.

Yet, even faced with his goodwill, his target had blatantly refused.

As dignified as he was, it was a slap on his face.

Allan just stood there waiting for an attack that never came. He then decided to attack first.

He wanted to use the opportunity to use Djen’s powers.

He had a rough idea of how to use some of Djen’s abilities through the few memories he had stolen during the Ancestral awakening.

He needed practice.

He flapped his wings and flew towards Niel only to stop midway and exploiting the momentum to punch through space and sending an invisible imprint of a fist flying towards Niel at incredible speed.

Niel seemed to wake up from his reverie and just slapped the fist made of compressed space with the back of his right hand.

It looked like he had just shooed a fly away.

“You’re kidding me !!” Allan said.

“You’re using borrowed power and still think that you can leave a scratch on me?...Even if that Awakened was here, he wouldn’t be able to do anything to me...stop this nonsense and save yourself from torture...hand over the formation...” Niel said. He sounded annoyed.

Allan summoned his sword of light and then compressed the space around it to envelop it with the space element. The result was that the sword now had the space element around it.

He swung it repeatedly and sent multiple space blades towards Niel.

Niel finally released soul undulations that numbed Allan’s senses and destroyed the blades making the space around them chaotic.

While this was happening, the temple had been destroyed and the nearest houses a few hundred meters away were about to collapse from the pressure Niel emitted.

“Are you done?” an irritated Niel asked.

Allan recovered his senses and spat blood. His eyes, nose and ears all had blood flowing out of them.

As the nearest to Niel, he had suffered the most and were it not for his powerful body, he would have already fainted from the pressure.

Allan reckoned that all the humans in a three hundred meters radius below the ascendant god realm had died.

It was at this moment of danger that something erupted inside of him.

Soon, Allan caught on fire and his features turned reddish under the flames that had engulfed him.

Niel was surprised for the first time. Something that he had a hard time believing was happening in front of him.

Normally a human being cultivated one law. Demonic beasts also did the same.

Those who could cultivate two laws were half-demons but the burden was immense.

What was rare was those who could cultivate more laws through affinity and comprehension but the price was a second inner world or second demonic core or even more.

As more power was added to a body, the burden to bear increased and some experienced backlashes and died or opted to destroy that additional power to stay alive.

On the outside, Allan finally unconscious.

Inside Allan’s body, another inner world was appearing right under the inner world of light.

Primordial energy was absorbed from the outside world and nurtured the new inner world of fire.

As it was an ignition of a law, the new inner world would expand until it reached the 1st tier of the Ascendant god realm.

The inner world of fire, backed by the endless supply of primordial energy from the outside, went from the human realm and expanded to a suitable size until it started stabilizing itself in the Immortal Realm.

Then came the god realm as an inner core was formed.

The core then fused with the inner world in the Primordial God realm.

The Ascendant God realm was reached in an instant.

All of this happened in mere seconds.

His body was also seeing some changes.

Before, with the power of the ancestral awakening, he could barely fight the Golden king to a standstill.

Now as his body evolved even further under the pressure of the law of fire, it could be said that the Golden King was no longer a match for him physically.

Allan opened his eyes to a world of fire.

He was inside his new inner world.

He understood immediately what was happening.

“Is this really okay?” Allan expressed some doubts.

“I feel like I am about to explode.” He felt like he had too much power contained in a small body.

In a way, it was true.

His demonic core had awakened giving him power over the law of space.

His previous inner world of light was sure to allow him to ignite the law of light with little effort in the future.

Those two powers could barely exist in harmony as he was a half-demon with a stronger body than normal humans or demonic beasts.

The addition of another power was about to put a tremendous burden on his body.

“What to do?...If I let this Law of fire run rampant inside my body like this, I feel like I may experience a backlash from it in the near future...It is possible that I lose my life in the process...the other worst thing that could happen would be that Djen will exploit my weakness to take over this body once again...”

He contemplated the issue for a moment before he sighed:

“The only way to avoid such a thing would be to shatter this inner world once and for all...But I would lose a trump card that could be useful against the kings of this world...I would be at their mercy once again...”

“I’ll first resolve all my problems in this world and take care of this time bomb once I am safe back home...”

He had chosen to not discard it as he felt that his recent power-up was the only thing that gave him a fighting chance against the Golden King and the Dark King. He still had to try it against Niel but he had the impression that there was much more to the Underworld King than what he had seen so far.

With the arms crossed behind his back, Niel looked unperturbed as he watched the hundred meters long pillar of fire and the small shadow inside of it.

“I wonder...What will he choose?...I’m curious...” the Underworld king thought.

“It would be a shame for a promising youth to die because he was too greedy for power...The will of the Light Bringer chose him after all...”

“You went and left me to choose disciples all over the alliance for the sole purpose of leaving something behind...Was she so worth it that you had to follow her to her death?” He sighed and took a deep breath before he adopted a solemn look.

A few minutes later, the fire receded as a winged silhouette could be seen standing up.

Allan wore new clothes under the cover of the fire.

His whole being now radiated heat and scarlet sparks could be seen amidst the almost invisible hue that escaped his black wings.

“You just made a mistake...” said Niel as he shook his head.

“That’s for me to worry about...since when do you care about my well being?” Allan asked.

“Are you ready to share that formation now?...You should have already realized that I came with good intentions...I could’ve captured you while you were unconscious just now...” Niel said with a smile.

Allan who was gauging his new strength said: “It doesn’t count...you may be thinking that whether I am unconscious or not, I’m still at your mercy no matter what kind of strength I now have...”

“Let me guess. You want to use me as a target to see if you have gained the upper hand with that new upgrade of yours...Come.” said Niel as he once again released the same power that had numbed all of Allan’s senses earlier.

“You should know that I specialize in attacking the soul. Unless you cultivate the same soul Laws as me or have a stronger soul, you cannot defend against it...I was lenient on you earlier, which is why you are still alive.” Niel said.

“I should gradually increase the pressure on his soul until he can’t take it anymore, or else he’ll die on me if I use my full power.” thought Niel.

An invisible and formless pressure descended on Allan.

Allan immediately felt that the entire world was against him. He wished he could reach Niel or even attack from a distance but couldn’t.

“My soul alone can make your soul and body useless against me. You do not qualify to even make me move from this spot. Forget about being able to move, you can’t even think if I don’t want you to...” Niel said as he watched Allan struggle to even lift a finger.

Allan thought: “There must be a reason why he fights like this. It can’t be because he too overpowered...maybe his bodily strength is weak, which is why he relies on his powerful soul to fight...but what kind of body is that weak when it contains such a strong soul.”

It was at this moment that Djen voice could be heard: “Just give the guy what he wants and be thankful that he doesn’t kill you...He’s really trying hard not to kill you...Surely, you’re not that dumb and can already see it...You’re just wasting your time and his.”

Djen was standing in front of the golden palace looking in the distance. It was obvious that he was spying on Allan waiting on the right moment to repossess his body should the second inner world experience initiate a backlash on Allan’s body.

Allan ignored the reason why Djen was spying on him and asked: “Is there really no way for me to fight him?”

“He is a soul cultivator. Chances are that he doesn’t need to use a magical art or law to cultivate his soul but eats souls to strengthen his own soul. It is one of the easiest ways to become strong if one has a nigh unlimited amount of souls to eat...The reason he wants that soul energy gathering formation so badly is obviously because it is very enticing to him as he may have an Underworld formation that gathers souls of the dead...Imagine the quantity of soul energy crystals he can produce with that formation if he has access to that many souls.”

Allan then asked: “Are soul energy crystals that valuable?”

“To him, it is useful to acquire a Spirit body as he needs a huge quantity of soul energy crystals to force a fusion between his soul and body.”

“I don’t understand...if he already eats souls, why would he need soul energy crystals that are created from actual soul energy?” Allan asked.

“Because soul energy crystals are refined through the formation by stealing soul energy from souls of the living or dead. It is a physical way of using energy. When he eats souls, his body is incapable of refining the soul energy separately, instead, the souls he eats become one with his own soul.”

“What about his body? How can it be strong enough to contain such a soul?” Allan asked.

“That’s not his true body, it is an underworld puppet. He is too strong to remain in his own body so he creates a puppet made of materials that cannot be corroded by his powerful soul. For him to reclaim his body he must turn it into a spirit body by fusing it with his soul in a short span of time. The longer he stays inside a normal body, the more it is corroded by his powerful soul. He must gather enough soul energy crystals to force a fusion almost instantly the moment he enters his true body or else he must stay inside an Underworld puppet until he is sure of his chances of success.”Djen explained.

Allan stopped struggling.

He waited for Niel to stop releasing his pressure which Niel did the moment he saw that Allan had stopped fighting against his pressure.

With the pressure gone, Allan could now talk.

“Give me the star map first,” Allan said.

“Alright. It’s a good thing that you have become reasonable.” Niel said as he retrieved a multicolored stone. He held the stone to his forehead and a bright light ensued.

Niel then threw the stone towards Allan who caught it.

“A memory stone...” Allan said.

“Yes...I just put the star map inside it. I merged all the maps in my memories inside it. You can verify its contents...Oh. I made sure to highlight your home.” Niel said.

Allan then sent his consciousness into the stone.

He found himself inside a starry sky that he miniaturized at will.

He could see indicators that indicated the various alliances near him.

As he miniaturized the three-dimensional map further he saw a shining light at the edge of the map.

“This is where my home planet is...but why is it so far from anything...” he could not believe that this small solar system was his home.

It was called the Lumos solar system with one inhabited planet out of seven planets. His home planet also shared the same name as it was named Lumos.

“It is outside any alliance I can see...I don’t know if that is a good thing or not.”

He left the starry sky and then opened his eyes to the outside world. He asked: “How am I supposed to get there? It is way too far.”

“Join an alliance and pay the right price, they will let you use their teleportation formation. They have a limit to the distance they can send you, so most of the time you will find yourself traveling from alliance to alliance and pay their horrendous prices to be teleported. It’s not going to be easy...” Niel said before he added: “Now. It is time for to give me that formation.”

Niel produced another multicolored memory stone which he gave Allan.

Allan inscribed his knowledge about the soul energy gathering formation inside the stone and then gave it to Niel.

“Perfect.” Niel said before he disappeared from Allan’s eyes just like he had appeared.

Allan stood there wondering if he had just dreamt the encounter or not but the memory stone he held in his hand told him otherwise.

He looked where the altar had once stood one last time and sighed before he flapped his black and fiery wings and found himself flying towards the unknown.

He had no idea where to go as he was even too weak to tread into space.

For the first time, he truly felt like a real stranger in this land that only sought to exploit him.