The instinctive resistance to being enslaved, combined with this hostility, made it virtually impossible for ordinary Beast Soul Masters to subdue a Beast Soul they had personally slain—one bound by blood feud.
"Pointless resistance!" Leilin shook his head. When it came to True Spirit cultivation, wizards and warlocks far surpassed the natives of the Purgatory World by an immeasurable margin.
With his methods and precise technical skills, he could even extract the hatred and will embedded within this Beast Soul like the most delicate surgical procedure, drastically reducing the difficulty of subduing it.
However, compared to simply using the True Spirit to crush it, this surgical approach was considerably more difficult and consumed far more time.
So Leilin chose the direct route—forcibly subduing it—rather than a slow, gradual approach.
"If all the resistance and hatred within this Beast Soul were stripped away, then even a Fourth-level Beast Soul Master could probably subdue a Fifth-level Beast Soul. Especially Belinda—using her bloodline power to influence it, the chances of success would be even greater… Of course, it's still completely useless to me…"
Leilin felt he had inadvertently uncovered a far more terrifying method of utilizing Beast Soul Arts within the Purgatory World. Unfortunately, he was not of this world, and his primary discipline was not Beast Soul Arts, so he simply filed the idea away.
"Hiss hiss…"
As Leilin's spiritual power invaded, the white serpent phantom inside the crystal ball grew extraordinarily agitated, its scarlet tongue flickering ceaselessly.
"Like an insect trying to stop a chariot!" Leilin snorted coldly. His terrifying spiritual power immediately forced the small serpent to cower in a corner as though struck by lightning, the glow in its pupils dimming noticeably.
"At this rate, about half a month should be enough to completely tame it. And before we reach the Holy City, I can seal the Beast Soul…"
Leilin assessed the progress and nodded.
For an ordinary Beast Soul Master, subduing a Beast Soul of this caliber would typically take years. Even the method Leilin had previously used—extracting fragments of resentment—required roughly the same amount of time. Only this crude, brute-force approach actually took the shortest time of all.
"Crossing the Serpent Plains to reach the Holy City will take about a month. In that case, before we arrive, I should be able to advance my True Spirit to the Full Moon level…"
Leilin rubbed his chin.
In principle, the feedback power from a Fifth-level Beast Soul should be roughly sufficient to push his True Spirit to Full Moon, but with the Serpent Curse Seal's presence, Leilin suspected he would need additional preparations.
"Taming a Beast Soul isn't a one-day process. I need to give it time, otherwise the Beast Soul might collapse outright…"
After finishing the day's work, Leilin put away the crystal ball, a hint of amusement in his eyes.
"Since we've reached the Serpent Plains, 'that' should be beginning soon…" A piercing cold radiated from Leilin's pupils, carrying an overwhelming sense of evil, so intense that the surrounding temperature seemed to drop noticeably.
Fortunately, he had set up a barrier; otherwise, this anomaly would certainly have been noticed by the Belinda sisters.
If Sophia saw what her "brother Nick" had become, whether she would still be as close to Leilin as before—that would be a serious question.
……
Whoosh whoosh! Whoosh whoosh!
The yellow-green grass trembled continuously, and then a plump animal shadow darted past in an instant, making Sophia cry out in excitement.
Due to her limited intellect—or perhaps also because she had been confined to the family estate her whole life—the girl was amazed by everything she encountered on the journey, even causing quite a few amusing incidents.
"Sophia!" Belinda called out in mild disapproval, but didn't scold her directly.
With herself and Leilin present, they could confirm that whatever had just scurried past was the most harmless of creatures and posed absolutely no threat to Sophia.
After all, Sophia was a half-breed of the Fifth-level devil White Phosphorus Serpent. With her bloodline power alone, reaching the level of a Second or Third-rank Wizard was trivially easy.
She didn't even need to cultivate—simply growing older would naturally bring her to advanced levels. One could say she was extraordinarily blessed, though her childish mind meant she had no idea how to make proper use of it.
"A Dust-powder Rabbit!" Leilin identified the creature's name.
With the Chip's terrifying learning capabilities, Leilin was no longer the clueless newcomer who had first entered the Purgatory World.