Chapter 5363

Chapter 5360: Successfully Tempered?

*Clap~* *Clap~* *Clap~*

Davis stood up as his palms struck each other, "My good son. You withstood my soul pressure for nearly three days without succumbing to it completely and arrived here without uttering a single word of complaint. That’s outstanding even in my books. But if it were me, I’d definitely be cursing my father ten thousand times under my breath and take revenge later, but you’re still seeking validation from me and beaming happily, you little rascal. Come here, take some rest."

He walked towards him, and as Azariel saw him come closer, his taut body appeared to relax as he cracked a smile. And that was the end of it as his eyes rolled back and he fainted again.

But this time, Davis didn’t let him fall, quickly catching him.

He raised his hand up to his forehead, and life energy began emerging from his palm, encompassing Azariel in its pure warmth.

Davis checked Azariel’s soul essence and saw that it had numerous corona-like cracks and kept throbbing while ejecting soul essence as though it was on its way to dispersing. It had definitely cracked a few times under pressure, but Azariel’s Will held it together and kept it from leaking soul essence and entirely dissipating.

He could tell that Azariel lost nearly five percent of his soul essence, but most of the soul essence was badly damaged as though it was squeezed and twisted like a sponge, leaving it dried out as it turned dull. The worst-case scenario was that it could disperse or dissipate into nothingness, but the fact that it still held together meant that Azariel was very much conscious in his subconscious.

His Will should’ve been tempered this time.

Even if Azariel were to die in some battle, Davis knew he could resist the reincarnation cycle’s pull for a longer time than most people, even if it was just a difference of a few seconds.

He massaged Azariel’s forehead and gently caressed his third eye, knowing Evelynn also liked it when he did that because it was a sensitive eye-organ that was connected with the soul. Davis could tell it was unusable because it had completely cracked and bled a lot, losing its hex essence.

Nonetheless, he was confident in restoring it.

Azariel’s body was also in a bloody mess, as there were cracks all over his bones and holes in his blood vessels. However, all these bodily injuries were secondary to him and didn’t get a second glance from him, as they quickly healed under his life’s touch, could even heal Peak-Level Exalts easily.

The only problem was the soul, not because he couldn’t heal it, but because he must make sure that the Will wasn’t soothed in the healing process or all that tempering would be lost.

Sometime later, Azariel woke up groggily.

He found himself on the same couch where he’d been playing spatial chess with Lucian. He raised his hands to his head and wiped his face as he stared at the ceiling.

"Don’t tell me I actually... fell... before making the final step..."

He sat up fairly quickly, noticing he was healed and his soul was no longer throbbing like someone hammering his head from all sides. As for his body pain, he didn’t bother to take it into account before, much less now.

He stood up and saw the trail of bloodstains, and then his expression churned.

’Wait... don’t tell me I have to do this all over again...?’

Azariel grit his teeth. He looked around for some answers, but finding no one, he forcefully took a step forward and nearly reacted instinctively to brace for the suppression. And as he expected, it came. His body instantly sank a few centimeters down, but he was able to withstand it.

Clenching his fists, he took a step forward again and followed the blood trail, making it out of the main mansion without fainting.

But the moment he stepped out, his vision went white before the scenery changed before him.

Azariel’s gaze flickered as he saw his father standing before him, but this place wasn’t the entrance of the mansion but the secluded training grounds where his mothers fought many battles that, if some people witnessed, would think that they were fighting to the death.

He knew this place was Mother Schleya’s favorite training grounds, as this one place was where she wouldn’t need to hold back since there was a wood-attributed healing formation built here, including even a soul-sealing formation to suppress one’s soul from dispersing should they accidentally die. It merely supported Low-Level Empyreans at the moment, so it became unused after entering the Upper Realms.

"You’ve once again done well, my son."

Davis said with a light smile.

"Illusion..." Azariel realized as he looked up and sighed, "What does Father mean by that?"

He didn’t even realize it was an illusion, making him feel embarrassed that his father’s praise sounded like mocking instead.

"You’re not supposed to realize that it’s an illusion. You were not supposed to back down, seeing that you need to make your way back to this place all over again for your tempered Will to be forged. If you had even as much as whined a little, then I could only relay my condolences since there’s a high chance what you had gained through this effort could’ve been quickly lost. A person’s Will is like that- malleable in its initial stages, trying to find itself until it could be tempered and forged and finally manifested."

"..."

Azariel nearly broke down in a cold sweat.

Fortunately, he didn’t whine.

Raising his hands, he cupped them and bowed, "Many thanks for your guidance, father."

"Hmm, go freshen up." Davis nodded, "You reek of blood so much that even your mothers don’t dare come visit you, worried that they would stop you from doing what you want."

"Haha, did they curse you, father?"

"You dare ask?"

"I, Azariel, am the loved one. You can’t compare."

"You-" Davis raised his hand, looking like he was going to beat up Azariel, causing the latter to laugh and escape.

Davis watched him leave, making sure that Azariel was fine mentally before communicating with his true body and a few others as he took a messaging talisman.

Shortly after some time, Azariel returned, his skin complexion naturally pale but his health good. He had taken this chance to reassure his mothers that he would respond to their expectations, lest they worry about him.

"I’m ready!"

Once he was back, he shouted after taking a deep breath to compose himself.

"Slow down," Davis’s voice echoed in a gentle tone, "Don’t be in a rush to die."

He then patted the stone rock.

"Haha..." Azariel laughed dryly before he walked up to his father and sat by his side.

The two of them went silent for a while before Davis opened his mouth.

"Honestly, your body and soul wouldn’t be able to handle what I’m about to do, so it’s best if we do it to your avatar."

"Hmm?" Azariel raised his brows.

After a pause, he said hesitantly, "Father, you don’t need to worry about my mothers. I can handle them."

Davis nodded, "True, but I’ve once again realized how your mothers care for you. When they stand united like this, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want to. If I keep hurting you in the name of making you powerful and allowing you to uphold duties, they’ll start to think I’m a true monster, and I don’t want that."

Azariel smirked amusedly, "Father... the world wasn’t kidding when they said this is your only weakness..."

"Nonsense." Davis harrumphed and chuckled, "But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop. Honestly, what I’m about to do is life-changing for you and can utterly break you, so in these three days, I’ve found another solution, which is to create a special avatar for you, one that’s more powerful than your true body."

"Wha- is that even possible?" Azariel looked shocked.

It must be known that avatars can’t reach the level of the true body because most, if not all, avatars were just formed from a unique percentage of soul essence and blood essence. It was unlikely they would be more powerful unless there was a heavenly resource that was of a higher grade than one’s own cultivation involved.

"Of course." Davis answered confidently, "Given enough time, there would be problems such as the more powerful body trying to overwhelm you, but it’s better than you succumbing to a wide variety of bloodline problems and mental afflictions that would come with mutating your rare bloodline. When the time comes when you attack the World Hegemon Stage bottleneck, you can fuse both the avatar and the true body and combine both bloodlines, but naturally, this is a worry for the future. But now, you can retain your dragon-arachnid bloodline as it is and continue with your cultivation while your avatar takes care of the battles. How does that sound to you?"

"..."

Azariel’s gaze quivered.