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Duncan woke two days later…

His head still throbbed with pain. Duncan felt as if someone was driving a nail through his skull. His eyesight was blurred. Even his body was aching all over. Duncan groggily sat up from his position and looked around.

"I am glad that I found a hidden spot to cultivate," Duncan grimaced. "If I was not hidden, I don't know what would have happened to me while I was unconscious. Who knows, a passing by demonic beast would have taken me for a snack."

Duncan didn't know why he felt so tired despite not doing anything for some time. He didn't know how long he had been unconscious. But, he vividly remembered being full of energy when he started his seclusion to deal with the missing soul strand. 

So, it was a surprise to him that he was feeling so tired now.

"Let me get something in my stomach first," Duncan mumbled rummaging through his hidden stash and finding some demonic beast meat. "I hope this alleviates my tiredness. Whichever the bastard did this to me better hope I don't find out who you are…"

Half an hour later, Duncan felt his stomach was full. Yet, the tiredness he felt didn't seem to alleviate any bit. This made him sport a helpless expression. He was currently feeling both full and very tired. It was as if he was both filled with energy and not. The sensation was uncomfortable to experience.

However, Duncan wasn't a fool either. He understood why he was feeling tired. Since he meddled with his soul, this tiredness must come directly from the soul. Nothing else made sense to him. After all, there wasn't any trouble with his body as far as he could tell.

But this also made Duncan a bit helpless. If his body needed nourishment and energy, he knew how to solve it. But his body was brimming with energy. His stomach was full as well. It was his soul that needed nourishment currently.

Duncan knew that there were some spirit herbs that could be used to nourish the soul. But, they were all incredibly rare and highly sought after. It wasn't as if he could just go out and buy it somewhere. He was currently in the Grotto Heaven, after all.

Even if he was in the sect, Duncan didn't think he could easily get access to the herbs that nourish the soul. No cultivator would give it up. Furthermore, those kinds of herbs were in high demand for Nascent Soul cultivators. Who was going to grant him access to such rare herbs?

Say that he somehow got his hands on one, then it was most likely that a disaster would fall on him. Even his master wouldn't hesitate to grab that herb from him. Let alone other cultivators whom he had no connection with. 

That was the reason no low-level cultivator would advertise possessing such a thing. In fact, if they ever got hold of such things, they would immediately consume it before anyone could find out about it.

So, Duncan can only dream about getting his hands on such a resource.

As for finding it somewhere in the Grotto Heaven, those kinds of precious herbs could only be found in the central region. Rarely do they grow in the outer region. Even then, it would have a demonic beast at a high level to guard it. So, it wasn't something Duncan could get his hands on by strolling for a while.

That meant, Duncan must find another way to nourish his soul.

If not, he could only wait for his soul to come back to normal slowly. Until then, he would be feeling this tiredness. Just thinking about it made Duncan have a headache. The tired feeling inside him was also making him listless.

"I guess there is no other way," Duncan mumbled. "I can only use <Spirit Transcendence> to nourish my soul. Wasn't one of its effects strengthening the soul, let me give it a try."

It wasn't that Duncan didn't think about using <Spirit Transcendence> before. But, he was a little wary of cultivating that particular technique with how tired he felt. This tiredness was a direct result of trying out one of the methods recorded in it. If he cultivated it without any thought and endured some backlash, Duncan was sure his suffering would be far worse than this.

Typically, when a cultivator tries to practice a soul art, they would usually have a few herbs that nourish the soul as an emergency response at hand. Even for cultivators, meddling with something metaphorical like the soul was not an easy thing.

That was the reason only Nascent Soul cultivators and those with high soul energy cultivate soul arts. When Liang Tianye explained cultivation types to Duncan, he never went in-depth regarding this type of cultivation because of a reason. 

When Liang Tianye checked up on Duncan, he found that Duncan's talents in soul were just average. So, it would be impossible for him to expound more on soul arts due to Duncan having no need to know about it at his level.

Only when he reached the Golden Core realm did Duncan need to know more about this kind of knowledge. However, according to the plans of the Heavenly Demon Sect, Duncan reaching the Nascent Soul realm was not needed at all. If things went as per plan, Duncan's use would be over by then.

So, Liang Tianye never bothered even educating Duncan on these basic things. All the knowledge Duncan had on soul arts and the herbs that could nourish the soul were due to his time spent in scripture hall in his early days.

"Now that my soul is not missing any soul strands, I should be able to cultivate this soul art, right?" Duncan mumbled to himself and closed his eyes. "Let's hope this works."

*****

While Duncan was recovering from the ordeal of retrieving his soul strand, things in the Grotto Heaven began to get more and more heated. 

Initially, a few righteous cultivators, who obtained some small benefits from the main hall, came out thinking that things in there were beginning to turn turbulent. But, when they were blocked and robbed by the Heavenly Demon Sect disciples, the news spread fast.

As a result, the righteous cultivators decided to just wait it out by staying in the main hall itself. This created more confusion and chaos inside the main hall. With more and more people staying behind, the fights and disputes inside the main hall soon came to a boiling point.

Those who had lost the opportunities initially got a second wind and wanted to rob others of their opportunities. Those who won treasures were being hunted by others to grab their treasures. This made the main hall not very safe for cultivators who weren't at the high level.

Even then, those cultivators refused to walk out. Their thinking was that, since they will robbed by the Heavenly Demon Sect, it was better to stay here and try to find some place to hide themselves. Compared to dealing with the entire Heavenly Demon Sect, dealing with a few jealous cultivators was a bit easier for them.

This also inadvertently created a phenomenon where any fight for treasure inside the main hall was done to the death. Since leaving someone alive would come back to bite them back in the ass, the cultivators inside were ruthless to their opponents.

The Heavenly Demon Sect disciples who waited outside in vain were enraged by this cowardly behavior of the righteous sect disciples. They never thought that they were doing anything wrong. Robbing other people was just a casual matter to them.

However, with no one walking out of the main hall and them being unable to enter due to the sect's order, they all sported a belly full of rage. This, in turn, made them turn their attention to the cultivators who remained outside. 

Thus a series of cascading effects began to appear. The Heavenly Demon Sect disciples started hunting righteous sect disciples outside the main hall to vent their anger. 

As it happens, those disciples who were outside were not very strong, so they could only run and hide in hard-to-access places in the Grotto Heaven. Thus, the outer region also began to become chaotic during this time.

Duncan, who was hidden away and dealing with his soul issue, was unaware of all this. Right now, the forest region where he had been living for the past month was teeming with a lot of righteous cultivators who had run away from the Heavenly Demon Sect's persecution.

If they got to know that a weak disciple of that hated sect was near them, they would surely hunt him down to vent their anger. It wasn't just those four cultivators who came to the forest region, there were others who had the same thought as well.

And those evil cultivators from the other sects, who chased after them, entered the forest as well. In the end, fights between practitioners and evil cultivators were commonplace during this time in the forest region.

The recent events only added fuel to the originally chaotic situation in the Grotto Heaven.

Duncan was lucky that he hadn't poked his head outside for some time now. But, how long he could remain hidden is yet to be seen. In short, Duncan was at the most perilous situation since he entered the Grotto Heaven.

And he didn't even know his situation…

*****

A/N: Check out my other works and let me know your thoughts...

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