In a place where the trees grew shorter and the lush greenery, existed almost on every part of the surface. Various flora painted the scenery making it look grander and mystical.
Davis looked around and admired the view in silence. He had passed the outskirts and entered the heart of the inner region!
The decision to leave the group came as a result of Fallen Heaven playing with his soul without informing him.
He wasn't so sure that he would even survive to see the day where he would reunite with Evelynn or his family to speak of, so in a sense, his urgency to return increased a few folds.
Although not traveling with those two gave him quite some information about the First Layer, it also curbed him from efficiently hunting the magical beasts.
Sooner or later, he knew that he would have to leave them since his efficiency to collect higher grade Soul Essences was dropping at a rapid rate.
So he felt that his decision to leave them at this point was entirely correct and logical to his goals.
Before, his target was to hunt down and absorb the Soul Essences of Peak-Level Grand Beast Stage Magical Beasts!
But now, he remembered something.
After making recurrent breakthroughs to the High-Level Elder Soul Stage and the event with Fallen Heaven, he remembered a piece of vital information that he didn't include or forgot to include in the plan of his return.
That is, he had to be at least at the Sixth Stage to open up a portal or a spatial gateway to the Second Layer, Grand Sea Continent.
If not, he had to wait for 15 years for the secret entrance to open and enter along with the other geniuses through employing various stealth methods.
5 years had already passed, even so, he still had to wait for 10 more years for the secret entrance to open.
That amount of time is probably enough for him to reach high standards in Soul Forging Cultivation, but compared to the time he could spend with Evelynn, it seemed worthless to him.
Besides, he had already decided and even etched in his heart that he would return within a year if it was possible a few days ago.
That is why he now decided to hunt down Peak-Level Grand Beast Stage Magical Beasts and upon entering the peak level, planned to hunt down Saint Beast Stage Magical Beasts!
If he could fortuitously enter the Sixth Stage in Soul Forging Cultivation, then like that Empress Ruth, he assumed that he would also be able to access the independent spatial pathway or gateway to the Grand Sea Continent.
If this successfully transpired, then he was sure that within a month or two after the breakthrough, he could triumphantly return to the Second Layer and reunite with his family!
Looking around and feeling the atmosphere, he faintly felt the heaven and earth energy get increasingly a bit pure.
Seamlessly floating on the air, he glided towards a direction.
800 meters away from him, he noticed a magical beast.
'Hmm! That is...' Davis silently exclaimed as he scrutinized the herb that was beside the magical beast.
'It... It's an Evergreen Dusk Herb!' His eyes widened in greed and excitement.
The gaze that stayed on the black-green herb shifted to the magical beast which protected it.
A silver-colored head, with bluish diagonal stripes, covered all over its long lengthy body.
It was a Peak-Level Grand Beast Stage Magical Beast!
'A snake again?' Davis was in distaste.
The whole region housed various species of snakes, yet the ones to rule this region were the powerful apes.
As long as one is powerful and invincible in their region, one could disregard all the rules and live their lives as they wish.
This was a universal truth, and no one dared to question it.
Davis took a glance at the herb and flew to the magical beast. His eyes went deep red like a devil's eye and the snake trembled a moment later.
Davis's expression was unperturbed but no matter how many times he saw this scene, he couldn't get help but sigh at how easy it is to kill by using Fallen Heaven.
Davis focused and entered his soul sea, "Say, Fallen Heaven..."
"Yes..."
"How do you like actually kill them, without even making a sound or even the slightest trace? They aren't mortals, and can probably even escape with their souls... What type of attack are you using?"
Although Davis asked that, he more or less knew what kind of attack Fallen Heaven unleashed against the target.
Besides, when he said that the magical beasts could escape with their souls, it wasn't entirely true.
Just like humans, magical beasts also had to train their souls to do that kind of maneuver, otherwise, they wouldn't be able to extricate their souls from their own bodies.
But it wasn't like the same as the humans who had a separate cultivation system to train their souls.
Magical Beasts just had to strengthen them by eating the appropriate natural resources, or through various other methods.
"Isn't it obvious? I directly wipe out their souls... To be exact, I destroy their soul imprints, leaving the precious soul essence to be devoured by me, hehe" A cacophony of eerie laughter sounded in his soul sea.
Soul Imprints were related to one's soul aura and its wavelength.
For example, Davis has a soul aura of a certain wavelength and when others who were familiar with him will be able to tell that the soul aura they felt belonged to him.
From where did this wavelength come from? It was exactly from one's soul imprint.
In modern terms, it was like a unique ID, akin to one's DNA, but in terms of soul.
Davis extricated himself and neared the corpse to extract the Soul Essence and store it inside his soul sea.
Soul Imprints and Soul Essences were not one and the same. Destroying the former would mean death while destroying the latter will result in the loss of identity.
The host whose Soul Essence has been destroyed will still live but will be in a permanent vegetative state, no different than the fictional zombies.