SPIRIT SOUL

After he had seen the speck of something green, Kyle was not worried about encountering a gigantic ocean anymore once they were to reach the ground.

As such, he finished preparing everything before fastening the belts and hooks around Beatrice that would prevent her from falling out of the hang glider.

Meanwhile, she was still in deep thoughts, confused about everything she was just realising by staring inside her spatial ring.

'Was he really not that bad?' She wondered while thinking about Karnias, and the possible reason for him to do everything he did during the last 50,000 years.

Unfortunately, she was unable to get the hang of it.

Because of that, she could only avert her attention, and try to distract herself.

And what better distraction would she find than Kyle.

While observing him, Beatrice got more curious about the young man.

Not only was he considered the youngest reincarnation of the Old Soul according to Nitran's understanding, but someone must have brought him to the flying island.

Otherwise, he would have never been able to reach the Razkadan castle.

With that in mind, she continued to stare at Kyle who noticed this.

Yet, instead of asking her why she was staring at him, he secured the belts of the glider around himself.

Giving her a reassuring smile, he tightly grasped the bar in front of them before he shouted.

"Let's go!"

That being said he used his physical strength to push the hang glider to the open space which gave him an adrenaline rush.

Meanwhile, Beatrice was more worried than overjoyed because she knew how it felt to fly.

However, that didn't mean that she wanted to rely on the hang glider to leave the flying island.

Unfortunately, she had to accept Kyle's idea because neither of them had a high enough cultivation base to fly.

Because of that, she remained quiet as the wind brushed past her face and in her hair while they descended the flying island by gliding through the clouds.

Eyeing him from time to time, Beatrice was not even able to complain about their slow speed.

She knew that it would take extremely long before they would reach the ground because Kyle was simply too happy with the activity.

This behavior was a stark contrast to how the young man usually acted, which caused Beatrice to be even more interested in him.

From the looks of it, he never seemed to have done anything similar to hang-gliding.

Yet, considering the limited amount of information she had about the Souls of the old universe, she tried to make sense of the situation.

Doing something like this was easier said than done, but after making her mind up, it was not even that difficult.

The more she thought, the easier the answer became which convinced her that the final solution she came up with, was the correct one.

Thus, she turned her head towards the vibrantly smiling Kyle as she asked in a loud voice.

"You are someone who couldn't cultivate in your past life, right?!"

The wind currents around them were extremely strong as well as loud. So, she had to shout through the ice-cold wind in order to be heard despite being close to him.

Hearing the sudden question, Kyle took a while before he even understood her. But, when he did, he fumbled for a response, wondering if it was so obvious that his past life had been a mess.

His smile stiffened for a moment but afterward, he realized that there was no reason to hide anything from her.

As such, he decided to be honest as he nodded his head before answering,

"Not only was I unable to cultivate, but I was poor too."

The answer he provided was simple, but Beatrice couldn't help but look at Kyle in a new light with respect gleaming in them.

'Does that mean he has only been able to sense the cultivation energies for…around a year now? Even the Undeads thought that he had already received some martial art training in his past life after they understood that he was a reincarnation.

To think that we were all wrong…that's quite shocking…'

Within mere moments, her opinion of Kyle had improved considerably.

And, it was not even owing to the blood pact, but solely based on her own decision.

Beatrice could hardly believe how much Kyle had improved his soul force, wind affinity, and body movement control. It was to the extent that he was even able to hit opponents that had been alive for several thousand years.

There were many other factors that had allowed him to hit Knirg and Lahan during their trial.

However, none of that was not important right now because Beatrice's mind was running wild.

Continuing to stare at Kyle, she didn't even notice how much time had changed.

As such, she didn't realize that they had already passed through the white clouds that reflected the sunlight, dazzling him.

Kyle had already used some of the replenished soul force to supply it to the Nurture ability.

Through this, he wanted to see if there were any hues of dangerous beasts around.

In fact, the more a beast's hues were developed, the easier he could see them.

This was also the case for Beatrice, whose hues had, and were still changing after the two of them had formed the blood pact.

Kyle was interested to know up to what extent Beatrice's body would change, and if he could do something for her to nurture her.

Right now, this was unlikely to be the case.

But in the future, Kyle believed that Beatrice would require his ability's nourishment to strengthen herself.

However, before that time would arrive, he would have to nourish Arashi, and hopefully also Selene, whom he hoped to meet soon.

Beatrice might not like the fact that he wanted to reunite with her, but that was something he had promised to Selene long ago.

And even without promise, he felt obliged to protect her.

After all, he was the one to free her from slavery, including the aftermath of her turning into a noble of the Lohar race.

As such, there was not even the need to discuss whether they should search for Selene or not.

It was something inevitable for them to do!

Because Kyle's resolve was clearly visible, Beatrice had accepted it, even if she felt somewhat sour about it.

Despite her being in a deep train of thoughts, the moment Kyle exclaimed, "Woaahh!", she was pulled out of it, staring in the direction he looked.

In fact, his eyes were darting all around trying to make sense of their altitude.

While staring at the ground, Beatrice immediately realized what Kyle felt so magnificent because she couldn't help but exclaim too.

"That…is so beautiful!" She mumbled while staring at the magnificent landscape of Shima's lands.

Even though she had been able to fly, she had been restricted to the outer boundary of the Razkadan castle.

Thus, she had never seen something from a height of several thousand meters above the surface.

To be precise, Beatrice didn't even know that the Razkadan castle was located on a flying island.

Because of that, the scene below her bewitched her, distracting her from looking in the direction Kyle was staring at.

His initial reaction was an astonished exclamation because he saw the landscape below him. It shocked him to the extent that goosebumps sprang up all over his body.

Unfortunately, it seemed like his breath had caught up in his throat as he perceived numerous hues of existence he could only describe as terrifying.

There was just no different word because he was unable to see all the lurking existences.

Yet, their hue was clearly visible even if the beings that radiated them were several hundred kilometers away from him.

In fact, he was not sure how far away the existences were.

But, the tiny glimpse he got from their hue was several times more terrifying than any of the Undeads, the Undead heart or Beatrice!

Thus, he couldn't help but shudder until he realized that their distance from the hues was increasing at a rapid speed.

Sighing in relief, Kyle noticed that his forehead was covered in cold sweat.

And, after taking a glimpse towards Beatrice, he was glad that she didn't notice anything.

'Just what kinds of existences were they?! I thought Li and the others were powerful…but those things were…unfathomable! Will I ever become as strong as them?'

Suddenly, wondering how strong he will become in the future, Kyle's worry was washed away.

It was replaced with excitement that filled him, knowing that his potential to reach this strength was high.

However, having the potential didn't necessarily mean that he would reach the cultivation base.

It would take him a lot of time and effort to be comparable to the strength of the beings to which the hues he had seen, belonged.

With that in mind, he grasped the bar in front of him tightly.

A bright smile that was overflowing with excitement made him look eager as well as hopeful.

Turning his head, he wanted to see if there were other hues he had to pay attention to.

But there was nothing like that at their altitude.

This allowed him to finally avert his attention back to the ground admiring the landscape on the ground.

Kyle was not even able to clearly tell how big the vast space of land below him was.

It seemed to be endless, and all he could see was varied shades of green.

It indicated the existence of different trees, which were dotted with tiny streams of blue which were, in fact, sky blue rivers weaving in and out through the greenery, decorating the entire magnificent scene in front of them.

Staring at it more intently, Kyle realized that he could see various landforms such as small hills, and even mountains which he couldn't decipher earlier, and the longer the two of them looked at it, the more intriguing it became.

Despite all the beauty they were able to see, Kyle couldn't help but be confused for a moment.

And, just by looking at the entire environment below them, a frown began to emerge on his face.

'There…are no signs of any intelligent races living in settlements, shelters, or even cities…'

It was easy to see something from a bird's eye view.

But even then he was unable to see the outlines of a large, wide structure that pointed out a city, or something similar to that.

This made him feel a little bit odd as he was eager to find out more.

Their current altitude was still high, and Kyle hoped that this was the only reason for him to gauge anything clearly.

If that wasn't the case, they would have a big issue.

Not knowing what direction they had to take in order to find the Sadorla forest was already problematic.

This meant that they would have to rely on other races who were the most likely to know any information.

Even if they wouldn't know where the Sadorla forest was, the bare minimum one should know would be the closest city.

And a city should have the necessary information for him to fulfill his tasks.

Yet, even that didn't have to be the case.

Only Li out of the entire group of Undead powerhouses knew where the Sadorla forest was located.

He had also stated that it was quite far away.

With that in mind, Kyle's mind was rumbling with all kinds of thoughts.

And, he even tried recalling the map of the Shalivra valley in order to figure out if they were even inside the valley right now.

Being outside the valley would mean that their journey would take much longer than he assumed. Likewise, the dangers would also be many times higher than before.

Unfortunately, he was unable to notice anything special that would help him ascertain his current location.

As such, he could only use the hang-glider to glide into one direction, hoping that it was the correct one.

If it was by chance the correct one, it would be perfect, allowing him to cut down the distance he had to travel on the ground by a large margin.

However, oddly enough, Kyle felt that he might either be flying in the wrong direction or that he would enter dangerous lands if he were to continue traveling in the said direction.

Because of that, he used some of the soul force he had in order to utilize his wind affinity.

This helped him alter the direction they were flying to by slightly adjusting the streams of wind around them.

'Why can't I know the direction of the Sadorla forest…I would have been able to use my affinity to let the hang-glider cross a much larger distance…' He grumbled to himself, while Beatrice was still captivated by the environment below them.

It took them a long time before they even reached a little bit closer to the ground as Kyle pulled Beatrice out of her bewitchment, which frustrated her.

Yet, the moment she realized that they didn't have a plan on how to land in a place that was abundant with trees of all kinds of sizes, she turned serious.

She simply stared at Kyle with her glowing crimson eyes as she asked.

"Alright, what should we do?"

This caused Kyle to look at her for a moment before he sighed deeply.

He couldn't help but wonder once again how Beatrice could be 50,000 years old, while still depending on him to figure out an answer.

'Just what am I going to do with her?'