The Witch Hunter System

Chapter 1218: Drawbacks of Soul Cultivation

31%...56%...98%...100%...!

An undetermined amount of time passed within the Astral Soul Realm before Vaan's soul was saturated with soul power, achieving another minor breakthrough.

Late-stage Divine Warrior Rank!

Although the Forging Will Stage of the Everlasting Will Secret Art mainly tempered the soul and will, transforming rigidity into elasticity, and had yet to undergo the process of expansion to elevate soul power, his Soul Cultivation advanced nonetheless.

This increased elasticity of his soul naturally granted extra space to hold soul power, but he had yet to fill up.

His Soul Cultivation improved due to the increased density of his soul, raising the quality of the soul power he could exert to new heights. It was a qualitative improvement without any quantitative increase.

That said, the increased density of his soul was very much different from the increased density of matter.

After all, it wasn't increasingly solid and rigid in form.

On the contrary, its form was becoming increasingly malleable and elastic, capable of changing and stretching.

It was firm in integrity, but free in form.

Although Vaan had made two breakthroughs, he did not cultivate his soul in one continuous session. He had taken repeated breaks to rest and recover.

No matter how firm his will was, it would eventually become weary under the relentless tempering of cultivating the Forging Will Stage of the Everlasting Will Secret Art. Progress could only be achieved through consistency and diligence.

There was no such thing as instant success in the cultivation of this Soul Cultivation Technique.

After taking ample rest within the Astral Soul Realm to recover his willpower, Vaan continued to cultivate, and his cultivation progress began rising once more.

Through this repeated, dull yet torturous cycle, Vaan achieved breakthrough after breakthrough.

Peak-stage Divine Warrior Rank!

Pinnacle-stage Divine Warrior Rank!

Boom!

Early-stage Divine Knight Rank!

With each consecutive breakthrough, Vaan's cultivation speed dropped, especially after his Soul Cultivation reached the Divine Knight Rank. It was noticeably much slower than when he was at the Divine Warrior Rank.

Even so, his current cultivation speed was still much faster in the Astral Soul Realm than it would have been in reality.

If his cultivation speed was compared to that of other Soul Masters, no one would even come close. His cultivation speed was countless times faster than everyone else.

However, it wasn't the rate of improvement itself that other Soul Masters severely fell short. Rather, it was the frequency of their cultivation sessions. Their cultivation sessions were generally short and infrequent.

For example, Soul Master Vastmind and Soul Master Voidwhisper would generally take breaks that last hundreds or even thousands of years. Moreover, this wasn't because they were extremely lazy with soul cultivation.

On the contrary, they were very diligent with their Soul Cultivation as they had always aspired to become True Divinity-rank Soul Masters.

Unfortunately, the recovery of their willpower was extremely slow. What was even harder to recover was their drive, motivation, or determination. Long-term Soul Cultivation would deprive them of such aspects. ʀäΝοβĘS̈

Once such aspects drop to low levels, Soul Masters would experience an existential crisis; if they disappear completely, then they could even become like lifeless zombies, living aimlessly.

Such was another danger of Soul Cultivation besides soul annihilation.

Naturally, Vaan was no exception to the drawbacks of Soul Cultivation. Even the Heaven-rank Soul Cultivation Technique could not help him negate its debuffs. At most, its progress-to-debuff ratio was better than that of lower-quality Soul Cultivation Techniques.

At least, that should have been the case.

However, Vaan realized he did not seem to suffer such decreases in his drive, motivation, or determination to cultivate. On the contrary, they did not seem to be affected at all. As such, he was able to continue cultivating despite taking short breaks between sessions.

Most likely, it was another benefit of cultivating in the Astral Soul Realm.

Whether it was the Astral Soul Realm's laws or the soul essences he refined, something from the Astral Soul Realm was helping him maintain his drive, motivation, and determination.

'I must have spent a few weeks in the Astral Soul Realm already… However, I have yet to reach my cultivation goal. No matter, I just have to keep cultivating!'

Vaan renewed his determination.

He had already estimated that, in reality, it would take him about one week to advance to the Divine Lord Rank. Given the difference in time flow, he should still be on track, working within the estimated timeframe.

Shortly after, Vaan resumed his Soul Cultivation, gathering his will to condense the Will Seed.

However, this time, the Will Seed did not concentrate on his chest but on the abdomen area of his astral body. The chest area was already fully tempered. Thus, he could work on the next area.

Only after the astral body of his soul core was fully tempered could he advance from the Forging Will Stage to the Soul Core Expansion Stage, the second stage of his Everlasting Will Secret Art.

Thud, thud, thud!

Before long, Vaan's temporarily conjured Soul Avatars began relentlessly bombarding his abdomen area with fist-shaped soul power, hammering his Will Seed against his astral body.

It was like placing a thin metal sheet atop a thick, molten metal bar and hammering the two together.

Each impact would meld the two together bit by bit.

Perhaps this was where the depreciation in the drive, motivation, or determination values was supposed to occur. They weren't consumed to resist the tempering force. Instead, they had blended with his astral body, strengthening his soul core.

Through this fusion process, consciousness and existence would become one.

Upon a more careful reflection, Vaan discovered that his drive, motivation, and determination weren't actually in a state of stasis due to the Astral Soul Realm's laws. Their values decreased normally, just like any other Soul Master during Soul Cultivation.

It was just that they were instantly replenished after the decrease. As such, it was hard to notice unless he was focused.

Vaan quickly realized the replenishment came from the process of refining the Astral Soul Realm's soul essence into his soul power. He didn't expect the Astral Soul Realm's soul essence to also have this benefit.

Such a discovery made him wonder whether there were any other undiscovered benefits to absorbing the Astral Soul Realm's soul essences and refining them into his soul power.