Chapter 894: Growth

Upgrading River of Vigor was a little painful. It was a powerful Soultrait, without a doubt, but it cost six times as many SoulStar Fragments as the average Soultrait to upgrade. Cosmic Stride was already a pain to upgrade, but River of Vigor Cost 1,500,000 SoulStar Fragments, pushing his upgrade cost of four Soultraits to 2.6 million. River of Vigor didn't evolve, but it changed quite a lot. The Soultrait could produce more healing serum after advancing to 7-Star, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Michael could create different types of healing serum now as well. The information influx procured from upgrading his Soultrait showed him how to form three types of healing serum. The first was the ordinary silver serum and how to produce it more efficiently. The second was a preservation serum, which put the patient into eternal sleep. The patient wouldn't die. Instead, their lives would be preserved while the body stopped working normally until the energy compressed into the preservation serum ran out. It was near impossible for a patient in eternal sleep to die as long as there were no further external interventions, which was perfect in the middle of a fierce war. Michael could use the preservation serum on his half-dead subjects to preserve their lives and treat them once the threats had been removed. Of course, the preservation serum wouldn't always work since the external factors in a large-scale war would be problematic, but Michael was glad about River of Vigor's progress.

Last but not least, River of Vigor could create an energizing serum. It did exactly what the name suggested: energizing the target. Using the energizing serum, the target's stamina and energy replenished rapidly, and his mind calmed drastically. The exhaustion and fears filling the target dispersed with the energizing serum.

Michael liked the energizing serum as well. He wondered if the calming effect worked on his emotions as well, but he had to find out once his Curses returned to him.

The Curses didn't leave him, but they hadn't been very active since the Blaze household had been destroyed. Their inactivity was fairly advantageous. Michael could control his emotions much better than before and was growing stronger, but the number of his Cursed Seals didn't increase.

He had as many Cursed Seals and Serpent Seals as two years ago, but his control of curse power, the Cursed Seals, and Major Seals had increased significantly. Nonetheless, Michael didn't think for once that he'd subdued the Curses. If anything, the World Serpent and Wolf Curse chose to gather their power and wait for the perfect moment to do...something. Michael didn't hate his Curses. They helped him on many occasions, which was how he survived this long. Still, Michael couldn't be certain about their true intentions. Sometimes, he felt like the Curses wanted to swallow him whole, while it seemed like the opposite in other situations.

It was confusing and something he had to keep paying attention to if he didn't want to be overwhelmed one day. But there was only little he could do other than grow stronger. He had to be prepared for his final clash with his Curses to clarify their hierarchy.

That's why he upgraded Taming to 7-Star by spending 480,000 SoulStar Fragments, and both Sphere of Elements and Mind Reader to 6-Star by spending 895,000 SoulStar Fragments, which left around 3,000,000 SoulStar Fragments behind to either invest into his Subordinates or further invest into himself.

After some consideration, Michael chose to do both. He strengthened his Subordinates with a portion of his SoulStar Fragments and invested the rest into himself. Since Michael had been too generous to some Awakened over the last few years, Rebecca and others told him not to gift anyone SoulStar Fragments or Soultrait Symbols. Only in times of war would it be allowed to give someone Soultrait Symbols and SoulStar Fragments free of charge or in exchange for a war loan. The state of emergency was important, forcing Michael to put his SoulStar Fragments in case someone wanted to purchase a Soultrait upgrade.

That happened often in the last two years, but the expenses were low. Nobody accumulated enough Jungle Points to purchase a Soultrait Upgrade after their Soultraits reached 5-Star. Some Awakened was close, but since Michael and his people weren't at war, it would take a while before they could finally acquire their first 6-Star Soultrait.

Michael hoped to stay out of the war a little longer. Even though he'd gotten stronger, Michael knew the next war would be a war of regions or massive carnage in the Untamed Jungle. He was prepared for large-scale wars but hoped to avoid war until all constructions in the Sacred Desert Region had been completed.

The settlements in the Sacred Desert had enough space for 100 million additional subjects. If trained properly, the subjects would generate a massive amount of soul power, and Michael's army would increase to four million Combat Summons. Given that his high-ranked Soultraits produced more soul power for every Awakened and Summon linked to him, Michael hoped to grow stronger and develop his soul even more to acquire more Awakened.

His Soul was growing stronger by the day. He could easily contain two 8-Star Soultraits, six 7-Star Soultraits, and two 6-Star Soultraits. How was that possible? Well, for one, Michael's second 8-Star Soultrait was Sacred Constitution, which he'd upgraded by infusing 2,500,000 out of his remaining SoulStar Fragments into the Soultrait Symbol.

He was left with 500,000 SoulStar Fragments, which was more than enough to nourish 3,000 Awakened and their Soultraits.

Upgrading Sacred Constitution had been one of his harshest upgrades. First, Michael had been worried that his physique would be too weak to contain the power of 8-Star Sacred Constitution because his skin, energy veins, blood vessels, and organs ruptured for weeks. However, Michael quickly realized that the destruction of his body was part of the strengthening process. If Michael's body had been strong enough from the beginning, his Soultrait wouldn't have had to resort to this technique, but since that wasn't the case, Michael's body would have gotten shredded.

Fortunately, he had River of Vigor healing him by his side. River of Vigor repaired whatever Sacred Constitution destroyed, accelerating the assimilation process gradually. Several weeks passed after upgrading Sacred Constitution before Michael could tap into the power of his newest 8-Star Soultrait. Sacred Constitution's prowess was devastating. Michael was merely at the Mid rank of Tier-4, but Sacred Constitution pushed his physical prowess across the board. He didn't have to use Greater Enhancement, Soul Tears, Foundation Break, or Heavenly Beast Physique to acquire the physical prowess of a Tier-5 powerhouse. At this point, the Soullife Art, Soul Technique, and augmenting Soultraits were only required to push his raw power closer to Tier-6!

Maybe his combat prowess could reach the threshold of a Tier-6 powerhouse by going all out. Even if he wasn't that strong just yet, Michael was certain he would reach the threshold after the Sacred Desert's settlements were filled. More settlements would have been constructed by then, but that wasn't the crucial point.

Importantly, the Sacred Desert had become Michael's biggest source of income due to several well-hidden ore deposits of rare and highly valuable ores, alongside the Energy Vein and other mines, which had already been revealed all across the Sacred Desert.

Interestingly enough, however, Michael's True Vision found more of the Sacred Desert's secrets. But the same applied to the Untamed Jungle...and the Temple of the Forgotten.