The first level of the Heaven's Hell technique was simple compared to the following levels and it only used up a marginal amount of soul energy, even Jason could barely afford.
While the first level indicated that one had around 0.1-9 soul energy units in numbers, the second level would need at least 10-49 soul energy to work properly, with a few additional requirements.
Jason's soul energy was close to non-existent and it was already fortunately that he could form a contract with a one-star wild beast cub.
Now with his increased soul energy due to Artemis's growth, his breakthrough, and the big overall share he received through his unique soul, Jason's soul energy reached finally one unit, which was enough to control Artemis properly as his soulbond.
Having the lowest required soul energy, Jason could only perform the Heaven's Hell technique once before his soul had to replenish the soul energy over time.
As such he had to be careful.
Even if the first level was simple it could be extremely dangerous.
He entered the soul world carefully where Jason met the sleeping Artemis.
Walking around his own soul world was interesting and he hadn't done it before because there were too many things he had to do.
It was the first time for Jason and he looked around with shining eyes.
All kinds of color could be seen floating around his soul world while a dense golden hue accompanied everything inside his soul.
Looking down he could also see the golden hue enveloping him, causing Jason to feel refreshed and calm.
There was not the slightest anxiety seen in his eyes.
Looking around Jason got the feeling of a home.
In this place, he was welcomed, which made him happy as he continued to walk through his soul world until he entered the center of it.
There was a golden unstable liquid in the form of a ball that was floating slightly above Jason′s head.
Everyone who underwent the soul-awakening had the same thing inside their soul, which was a mysterious liquid in various sizes.
Meanwhile, the soul and the size of the liquid, surrounding the weird-looking ball, differentiated for each individual.
The existence of the liquid ball was the same for everyone and it was the soul energy surrounding the so-called soul world core.
Many also called it one's soul but the commonly used name was soul world core.
Around the soul world core was the soul energy attached in form of unstable liquid.
The amount of soul energy within indicated the size of the core because it was normally stored within.
While most cores had at least the size of a ping-pong ball, Jason was glad that he found his grain-sized soul world core within a rather short amount of time.
His core didn′t have a particular form right now and there was only the mysterious liquid floating aimlessly around with the soul world core as the center.
The soul world core was the starting point of each soul world and its life.
Looking at the grain-sized soul world core, Jason was slightly embarrassed about his unique and fabulous soul world but useless soul energy.
The golden hue around him began to shine faintly as he calmed down almost immediately, which Jason didn′t really notice.
Remembering his main purpose to enter the soul world, Jason concentrated on the grain-sized soul world core.
Opening the soul world core slightly Jason wanted to move the soul energy around.
From the formless liquid, he created a wafer-thin thread which most humans wouldn′t even see except someone with his exceptional eyesight.
The more soul energy Jason took out, the smaller the size of the liquid around the soul world core became.
After his whole soul energy was taken from the liquid that enveloped his soul world core, Jason saw a golden-colored marble with an indescribable size as it was almost not visible, even for him.
This almost invisible marble was his real soul world core and it was almost embarrassing, only to look at.
This golden marble had mysterious inscriptions on it and it was his core while the liquid mass floating around it was unstable soul energy ejected by the core was produced by his first soulbond.
The first step of the Heaven's Hell technique was to draw out the unstable energy around the real soul world core with his mind to form a thread with the energy.
This step wasn't dangerous, instead, one needed to have a sensible and accurate control over soul energy.
His soul energy thread was less than half a meter long and wafer-thin due to the very good innate control he had over mana.
The first step was done in a relatively short time once Jason got the hang of how to handle soul energy.
After that, one could see Jason sweating buckets inside his tent while gasping for air.
He only sat down and nobody could imagine that he entered his soul world except the small golden hue shining around his head as an indicator.
Inside his soul world, Jason made himself ready for the painful part as the unstable soul energy was now formed into a complete thread.
He would have to pierce through the golden marble with his thread to inject the soul energy inside it to force a certain growth.
Without a slight push, Jason's soul energy wouldn't increase and it was necessary for him to force himself through in order to do that.
He had to aim at a certain spot to maximize the effect of the technique and it took him quite a long time to find the right spot as it was already difficult for him to even see the soul world core.
Piercing into the marble with the thread, searing pain spread through his whole body as it felt like hellfire ignited inside him.
It spread from his brain which felt as if it was roasted to his heart where it dispersed into the veins only for Jason to feel a searing pain all over his body.
While he cried out in pain inside the soul world, one could see the liquid thread invading the golden marble blending into it after a certain amount of time.
Jason had never felt such pain before and he continued to cry out loud, but he couldn′t leave the soul world as it could harm or even destroy his soul if he made a single fault.
Until the whole wafer-thin thread completely blended into the golden marble, Jason had to endure the torture.
An hour later the whole process was over and Jason left the soul world with the floating golden marble in the center, only to fall into a deep slumber caused by his exhaustion.
**
Waking up by suffocation early in the morning was as unpleasant as before and Jason pushed the furball, also called Artemis away gently.
Opening his eyes, he could see Artemis who looked at him as if he had betrayed her and Jason felt her range of emotions that were filled of sadness.
Taking her into his embrace, her mood changed quickly.
Looking at her plumage with his mana eye's special ability activated, he saw that she had slightly more mana in her blood than a day before.
If this continued, Artemis′ ability could reach the strength of a two-star wild beast while being a one-star wild beast in the future.
Continuing this mind game Jason was expectant about her future growth and her evolution.
Entering his soul world to look at the golden soul world core Jason noticed something unexpecting.
Injecting the unstable foreign soul energy into his soul world core should only be done once a day because the replenishing effect would take a long time for the soul world core to push out the unstable energy.
However, looking at the still unstable, formless liquid surrounding the marginal small golden marble Jason noticed that his whole soul energy was already replenished and expelled.
A soul world core was like a generator and dialysis at the same time, producing a fixed amount of soul energy until its energy was used up.
Refilling it with the expelled soul energy would activate the generator, cause it to once again expel the injected soul energy after cleansing and purifying it in order to make it more stable.
Once the soul energy reached a certain size, purity, and degree of stability, the real process of the Heaven's Hell technique would begin with the following levels
Jason wasn't even remotely close to meet a single requirement that was previously named but he was still astonished to see that his soul energy was replenished this fast.
With this, he could already practice the Heaven's Hell technique again.
Normally it would take a whole day to have one's soul energy replenished but Jason slept for less than 6 hours and his soul energy was already completely replenished.
Thus Jason set down and repeated the same procedure as the day before.
It took him 90 minutes and instead of less pain, this time it was even more painful but he didn't faint.
Enduring the pain quietly, Jason finished his practice, before he stood up.
Washing up, he washed out of the tent into the open plains where he could see hundreds of youth gathering next to some strong looking middle-aged men and women