Divine Emperor of Death

"Are you just letting them leave?" Davis asked in a doubtful tone, not sure if the old man will really leave them alive or would just hoodwink him and kill them later.

"Of course, why not? Since you told me to leave them alone, I do not need for them to be here..."

Davis asked with an incredulous expression on his face, "Aren't you afraid that your hidden location will be found out by your enemies or the Tripartite Alliance by letting them leave alive?"

Garvin shook his head, "It doesn't matter, and even if they do, by the time they get here, I will long be dead, and you will be somewhere else."

Davis tried to probe more, "What if they were just nearby?"

Garvin grinned, "Then they're just asking to die!"

Davis furrowed his brows and turned confused. Wasn't his enemies supposed to be powerful?

"Come with me..." Garvin prodded and dropped his feet to the ground.

His transparent soul body suddenly morphed into a body that had flesh and meat. To be more precise, it looked like a body that had flesh and meat but in truth, it was just a real soul body that had materialized.

Davis blinked at this marvel and subconsciously followed behind him.

Going through the closed door, which Davis tried to probe before when wanting to escape, they arrived in front of an underground water body, inside a cave-like structure.

"What is this place?" Davis questioned, his eyes wide open.

He couldn't see anything or sense anything in this place but when Garvin waved his hands, he was able to see an underground lake in front of him.

"This is the underground cave below the West End Valley, and the source of the fog which perpetually exists throughout the valley."

"..."

"Down here, this lake was just a damn normal lake, yet the body of an unknown Eighth Stage Beast decomposed into every part of this lake, causing the property of the lake to change and generate this kind of fog over time as far as I know."

Davis was astonished and finally understood the source of the fog, but even so, he couldn't understand, "What has this got to do with them wanting to die by coming here?"

"As long as they are here, their souls will be temporarily suppressed to a huge degree. This will grant me enough time to kill them even if they were powerful than I was at my peak!" Garvin boasted as if he was confident.

Davis raised his brows, "Then, can't you just bait them here and save me the trouble..."

"Idiot! This is just my last resort! Listen here brat, things will not always progress as planned. You got to take a step back before planning to move ahead. Doing so will help you see the big picture."

Once Garvin said that he turned to look at Davis in a meaningful light, "You get it?"

Davis nodded in agreement but quickly realized something.

"Wait, why isn't your soul suppressed? You don't even have a fleshy body to protect you!"

Garvin gave off a derisive sneer," Hmph! What do you know? I had to spend thousand years tempering my soul body in this lake to gain resistance, and in the process, I had to make sure I wouldn't die halfway."

"Can I temper my soul body in that lake?" Hearing that, Davis's eyes lit up in greed.

"Don't even think about it! You won't even last a second with your soul forging cultivation base..." Saying so, Garvin turned back to leave.

Davis, who couldn't see anything to his front without Garvin's help, followed him back into the room.

...

First day...

"Out of the three cultivation systems, Soul Forging Cultivation is the hardest to cultivate! I assume you know the first five stages of Soul Forging Cultivation System."

"I'll start explaining the first one, Nascent Soul Stage. This stage is where your existent, yet non-existent soul, takes form..."

Garvin started to explain. He vocalized his thoughts and made Davis understand his teachings to a great degree, even taking the time to explain the first five stages in Soul Forging Cultivation to stabilize the latter's foundation.

"Understanding the soul through heaven and earth energy is the mysterious element. What kind of law do you practice with your soul?"

"Light?" Davis said doubtfully. After all, he also used Fallen Heaven's dark-like energy as well.

"Light, is it? Most of us tend to subconsciously stick to Light for our Soul Cultivation. In truth, it doesn't matter if you practice light or dark. Understanding the mysteriousness behind the soul law is what's important."

"What is soul law?" Davis turned confused as it was the first time he heard of the term.

"I thought of explaining that when I get to explain about the Fifth Stage but whatever... Laws are of the embodiment of the universe. It is boundless."

"Since it is boundless, you won't be able to even understand completely. Not even I do, nor do Ninth Stage Experts!"

"People since ancient times decided to come together to compile their comprehension and doing so resulted in laws being divided into three major types in accordance with the cultivation systems created for humanity."

"Energy Laws, Body Laws, and Soul Laws."

"But in truth, all are one and the same, belonging to the same major law."

"For example, let's say you practice fire laws. Using fire body laws to temper your body is effective but to train your soul and energy with fire body laws will result in no progress at all."

"You're simply using the wrong source of energy and comprehension to feed your power."

Davis's eyes widened as he understood, "Then how do I differentiate between the laws I comprehend?"

"Heh, that depends entirely on your comprehension and the ability to understand laws. This is entirely innate and there are no records of one being able to improve their innate talent of comprehension as far as I know." Garvin shook his head.