Chapter 185
Foundation
Chu Shen trained for another two hours before calling it quits. During that time, he learned how to properly utilize and control his soul energy. By detonating only one star, Chu Shen learned how big the explosion was.
When the star exploded, a gray energy shot outwards in sphere around the star. This gray energy was just like acid, corroding through the strands of soul energy that composed the domain. It only covered a small part of the domain though.
Chu Shen exploded one star at a time until he had finally destroyed a thousand stars. The domain slowly dissolved as the stars exploded one after another. The point of this exercise was to discover just how many stars it would take to destroy a domain.
It was a very weird appearance. The fireball around Aslo slowly disappeared, giving the illusion of a fiery ice cube melting. It was a very confusing image but an apt one to describe the situation.
Chu Shen found that exploding 2,309 stars one after another destroyed Aslo’s domain. Exploding 1,481 stars at once also destroyed the domain. By having Aslo create domains of varying strength and intensity, Chu Shen was able experiment with how many stars were needed to fully destroy domains.
At the end of the two hours, Chu Shen had advanced a lot. He had made huge strides in learning how much soul energy was needed to dispel domains of various levels. While it wasn’t perfect, Chu Shen was definitely making progress and only made a few low-level mistake.
Master Ti Wu deemed him as acceptable and told him to retire for the rest of the day. Aslo was all too happy to stop being his punching bag and instead decided to stay down in the forest, sleeping amongst the stars.
Chu Shen teleported back to his bedroom and slept. He could have worked on without sleeping but that would always result in poor results. Meditating was different since the mind would be in a state similar to sleepwalking and didn’t require rest.
The next day, it was back to the grinding wheel. For the next couple hours, Chu Shen continuously trained until he was able to instantly determine the strength of a domain based upon the soul strands present inside it. Then he would use the appropriate amount of stars to destroy it.
In Master Ti Wu’s words, this was training the foundation! What was a foundation? Something that everything to come after would be based on. Even if Chu Shen became a hundred times stronger with hundreds of galaxies, he would still need to learn how to control his soul energy.
It would be better to learn such things now when he had a guinea pig, ahem, ‘sparring partner,’ of the appropriate strength. If he became too strong, then simply the presence of his universes would cause Aslo’s domain to dissolve.
After five hours, Chu Shen was finally able to master this technique to Master Ti Wu’s standards. “Alright brat, you’ve done enough. Aslo, you’re dismissed. We won’t need you again so go back to training.”
Aslo shook his head. “I think I’ll stay down here for a bit and go back when you’re done training. I just want to explore for a bit longer.”
Master Ti Wu sighed before waving his hand. “Fine, but don’t blame me when you’re lagging behind your own sister.”
He turned to face Chu Shen. “This is the next step for you. I suspect you have theorized it since I had you training in how to disrupt an elemental domain. Now you must learn how to prevent your own Void Domain from collapsing from a soul attack.”
“Recall that the domain is made up of soul strands. When you create your domain, look at the strands in your own domain. Try and fuse soul energy into it and strengthen the bonds. I will disrupt your domain for you.”
Chu Shen nodded before doing as he was told. His domain formed a black fog around him, carried by his soul strands. These strands sover the ground before seeming to hit a gla.s.s barrier.
Chu Shen didn’t spend long looking at the soul strands that composed his domain. They were just lie Asloo’s, only thicker. It must be because he had advanced in his cultivation while Aslo was still at the Natural Realm.
Chu Shen then saw something spectacular. Multiple galaxies in the shapes of spirals, ellipticals, and abstract images formed in the sky around Chu Shen. The mere presence of this universe forced Chu Shen to his knees. Aslo, who had ran off by now into the forest, was also affected.
He fell to his knees and started shivering. Cold, clammy sweat dripped down his back. It was like he was trying to carry a mountain on his back. The presence of Master Ti Wu’s soul universe, for that was what it was, truly dominated everything around him.
Without question, Chu Shen’s domain broke instantly. Master Ti Wu saw this and frowned. “That’s it? Wow is your domain weak. I only manifested a million galaxies and this happened. I should have manifested all fifty million and be done with it if you are so weak right now.”
“You didn’t even do as I asked. You just observed your domain for five minutes without trying to infuse your soul domain into your elemental domain. Go ahead and try to fuse them together to strengthen the soul strands in your domain like I told you a couple minutes ago.”
Chu Shen slowly picked himself off the ground. “I’m sorry Master. I will not fail you a second time.”
“You better not, brat.”
This time, Chu Shen was prepared. Upon activating his domain, Chu Shen dispersed his entire galaxy of stars. Taking the gray mist, Chu Shen used his mind to make the mit flow to and bond to each strand of soul energy that formed his domain.
This required excellent control over the energy to attempt, which was exactly what Master Ti Wu had been training Chu Shen in. Since he was able to fully utilize his soul energy, it only took a minute for his domain to be strengthened.
Externally, it appeared as though nothing had happened. To the physical world it had indeed looked like nothing had happened. The reason for this was because soul energy was intangible.
Unless one was in the Universe Realm, one would not be able to see soul energy. Instead one would have to rely upon mana. Since Chu Shen didn’t draw more mana but instead strengthened the soul strands, nothing would be visible.
It was similar to reinforcing the skeleton of a person. While it would undoubtedly make them more resilient to damage, their muscle strength would not increase and there would be no outward sign.
Master Ti Wu had dismissed his domain in order to let Chu Shen explore his own. Now that he had finally finished his own domain, Master Ti Wu thought it was time to test Chu Shen’s domain out once more.