Chapter 37: Clarifying the Power of Laws

Vilyric and the others temporarily distanced themselves from the convoy, near a farm in the southern region of the Nobos Ironblood Empire.

It was a sunny morning, and most villagers in the spring were busy plowing and sowing in the surrounding fields. Aiming to avoid the crowds as much as possible, Vilyric moved outward for about ten kilometers and finally stopped in the outskirts near the woods.

“This place… should be undisturbed, right?”

Looking around, Vilyric found a relatively open corner, crouched down, and placed a small crystal bottle containing a little bit of Disaster on the ground.

“Milady Vilyric, I’m still not quite sure what exactly you’re planning to experiment with?”

The Winged Woman, silently following behind, couldn’t help but voice her curiosity, and it seemed even she was quite wary of this Disaster power.

“Well… It might be a bit complicated, Leila, just watch and don’t worry, there won’t be any danger.”

Following that, the White Robed Girl gently twisted the bottle’s cap open.

It seemed that being sealed for too long had rendered it somewhat inactive, or perhaps it was due to the elimination of Phantom Cloud’s essence; the gray mist inside the bottle did not surge out as expected but instead lingered for a moment before beginning to slowly leak out like a normal gas.

Of course, Vilyric didn’t let this Disaster run amok; she immediately conjured a small circular shield with Holy Light to contain all of it.

The aura of death represented by Disaster was utterly the opposite of the pure light possessed by Vilyric. As soon as they made contact, the visibly weaker gray mist started to dissipate rapidly, just as it had many times before.

However, Vilyric intentionally controlled the strength of the light shield, meaning this was merely a simple energy release that couldn’t even be counted as a first-tier spell, preventing those thin Disasters from being immediately annihilated.

Seeing things unfold as she had expected, Vilyric did not breathe a sigh of relief; instead, her expression gradually grew serious.

Next was the time to verify her hypothesis.

She infused a wisp of SP into the light encasing the gray mist.

Back in the game, Vilyric, like most players, believed that HP and MP were the most crucial attributes, while SP was merely used to power advanced magic. Losing a lot of it would even leave one in a weakened state—an undervalued stat that some thought little of.

But now, in this real world, after experiencing the presence of souls, which was impossible to feel in the game, the Priestess gradually realized the importance of this attribute representing Soul Power.

In a certain sense, SP was even more important than HP or MP, and its application methods and strengths were much greater.

If one were to divide biological existence into two components—body and soul—then life points, magic points, and even most of the gear worn should fall under the body category, while the strength of the soul was entirely dependent on SP.

Many of the world’s top-tier beings, especially those who had reached the Pseudo-God level or higher, were something Vilyric had previously handled easily due to her level but always struggled to understand from a fundamental perspective.

This was likely because it involved the soul level, a realm she had never paid too much attention to or researched, which appeared very mysterious to her.

While methods at the Pseudo-God level might be countered with brute force, what about true Gods and perhaps even higher-level entities that could exist beyond that?

For example, the root consciousness of Phantom Cloud—the fragment split from the Earth Mother Goddess Xi Fu—could stealthily observe Vilyric through the disaster seeds, and although the Priestess had perceived it, she remained clueless on how to trace back or counterattack.

If Vilyric were to advance her application of Soul Power, or SP, perhaps she could, via an invisible link between the seeds and the original, directly deal with the opponent from thousands of miles away, without needing to travel so far to handle it personally, right?

Neglecting her shortcomings due to her own strength would eventually lead to a heavy loss due to this arrogance.

That was why Vilyric wanted to attempt something new.

She intended to use her Soul Power as a thread, to control those unclaimed Disasters, making them work for her.

This was a brand-new innovation by the Priestess based on her observations and experiences in the real world, completely detached from the game.

Vilyric’s Soul Power was immense, so powerful that she did not even have a specific concept of it since SP itself was a rather abstract value in the game.

It was not simply marked by a number but would show a pure Q-version avatar resembling the player in the upper right corner of the panel upon reaching level 100.

The darker the color of the avatar, the higher the amount and strength of the player’s SP, and consuming SP would lighten its color. If the avatar vanished, it meant the player’s SP had been depleted, and they could no longer fight.

Vilyric’s SP avatar in the game was the same brilliant gold as her standard representing color, but in this reality, she had lost most of the game’s interface.

Yet, she could still see that avatar.

Because it was Vilyric’s soul, representing the true essence of who she was.

Vilyric did not know how much SP she had; at least back when she was feeding the fragment of Xi Fu in the Sky God statue, the part of Soul Power that she was told was “so vast” had never made the Priestess feel any change in the color of her soul avatar.

However, this massive soul power ran into a wall when dealing with the small Disaster seed.

The extension of SP was a strange sensation, as if countless limbs had suddenly sprouted from nowhere. Although it was only a small amount, Vilyric used this method of contact to feel the nature of Disaster—or the Life-Death power of the Earth Mother Goddess—in a way that was hard to articulate.

This was actually very similar to the light element she was most familiar with, as well as various regular element types; if she had to label it, Vilyric would call it Decay.

This was not simple death—death is the endpoint, while decay is the process; life and death are a cycle, and the end of decay brings about a new beginning.

This was probably the essence of the once truly powerful Earth Mother Goddess Xi Fu.

Thus, creatures parasitized by Disaster would grow weird branches, while the parasitic body would perish quickly after the Disaster separated—that’s because the power represented by Phantom Cloud was solely that of the Earth Mother’s death aspect, an incomplete manifestation of authority.

The cycle of birth and decay.

And Vilyric could not control this power.

To explain it in game terms, it meant her Elemental Affinity was insufficient.

Vilyric was not omnipotent; she was powerful, but that did not mean she could master all elements and do anything—that was a necessary balance.

Just like how she had always been a Priestess, and only a Priestess.

After several fruitless attempts, ultimately, that little Disaster fully dissipated under the illumination of Holy Light.

   

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