Chapter 321: Life Force

His own Soul.

Atlas slowly focused on himself again, and this time he didn’t merely observe his Soul from a distance. He began directly sensing everything contained within it. ’Now that I’m directly feeling everything through my Soul, I can feel my own lifespan draining away at an extremely slow pace.’

He carefully followed that sensation and noticed that the gradual loss wasn’t simply related to the passage of time. Something within his existence was constantly being consumed as time passed, and that same force was deeply connected to both his physical body and Soul.

’This force must be the Life Force... The reason my lifespan exists in the first place.’

Atlas continued observing it without attempting to interfere. He could feel that Life Force wasn’t confined to a single location within his body or Soul. It existed throughout both, connecting the physical and spiritual aspects of his existence together.

His body possessed it, his Soul possessed it, and the connection between the two also depended on it in some way. Yet despite being able to sense its presence, Atlas still couldn’t claim that he understood it. He had only identified it.

’Hmm... I need to understand it?’

The question remained inside his mind as he remembered the description from the book. The words had told him that Life Force existed within every living being, but that was only a definition.

Knowing what something was called and understanding how it actually worked were two completely different things. Atlas needed to comprehend the force itself, not simply repeat what he had read.

If he wanted to control a fundamental force, then he needed to understand how it existed within him before attempting to manipulate it.

Atlas slowly extended both hands while continuing to examine the Life Force inside his body and Soul, ’What if I tried releasing the Life Force?’ The thought appeared naturally, but he immediately shook his head.

He didn’t even understand the force itself yet, so trying to release it simply because he could sense it wouldn’t even be possible.

’...First I need to understand it.’ Atlas closed his eyes again and completely focused on himself. Instead of trying to search for Life Force as though it were another form of energy, he began observing the things that were already happening within him.

He could feel the gradual renewal of his body, the movement of Spirit Energy through his pathways, the connection between his Soul and physical form, the continuous maintenance of his consciousness, and even the subtle passage of his lifespan with every passing moment.

The more carefully he observed these processes, the more he began noticing that Life Force wasn’t simply another energy source that could be gathered and released.

It was something much deeper.

Atlas slowly began understanding that Life Force was connected to the very process of remaining alive.

His body could repair itself because Life existed within it. His Soul could remain connected to his body because Life existed withinit. His consciousness could continue existing because that same force was maintaining the connection between everything that made him who he was.

Even the gradual loss of lifespan was connected to it, because Life Force was constantly being consumed as his existence continued forward through time.

The definition from the book had told Atlas that Life Force existed within every living being, but now he was beginning to understand why.

A living existence wasn’t simply a body containing energy or a Soul inhabiting flesh. Countless processes were constantly occurring together, and Life Force was the fundamental force connecting those processes into a single continuous existence.

Atlas didn’t need to immediately control it.

He just needed to simply feel it for now and understand how it moved through every part of himself. With that, he remained completely still within the darkness as he continued observing his own existence.

Moments passed which turned into hours, hours turned into a day. Then days started turning into a whole week, the passing of time became unnoticeable as Atlas remained consumed in understanding each part of how and why Life Force existed.

Only after an unknown amount of time did Atlas opened his eyes and spoke up, "Time is what moves one’s Life and that is why one’s Life span passes, while Life Force is why we are alive, this did seem complicated but now I understand."

He lifted his hands again and suddenly his shoulder began looking as though it was fading while his clenched fist became more concentrated, "If I focus my Life Force in a certain place in my body, some other part will become weak, after all It is not energy which remains uniformly distributed."

He nodded at that and thought again, ’If Life Force didn’t exist in one’s body or soul then they will fade away completely, this...is a very dangerous fundamental force. If I can control others’ Life force, then they would die without able to notice that their life span is draining away.’ With that he smiled and thought.

’It’s time to learn all the applications of this force and move on to abandon my spirit energy like others.’ He looked one last time at the codex before his consciousness came back to the outside world, in his body.

Appearing outside he saw his body was in the exact position it was before and the spatial dimension he had made was intact without anything happening to it. Seeing that he nodded and without wasting time, he shifted to the book in front of him and started flipping to the next pages.

From them he learnt one application after another, one of them being that if one were to strike another being with their concentrated Life force, then the other being’s Life Span will drain away at a rapid fast pace. Then there was another application where it was written one could increase the amount of their life force if they took the life force of another living being.

After reading through each of them carefully, Atlas finally closed the book and set it aside before altering the logic of space to deactivate the spatial dimension around him. The moment he did and also deactivated the defensive mechanism to protect his spirit energy to clash with Aether on the ambient air, Atlas felt the Aether energy to slam into him in waves after waves.

’Damn, this is really way too potent in quality than spirit energy.’ Atlas thought before exhaling and sitting in a Lotus position, without hesitation he immediately started to release all his spirit energy into the surrounding while enduring the waves of Aether energy.

He completely emptied out his spirit veins until there was not a single ounce of spirit energy. The moment he emptied them out, his cultivation ranks regressed one after another at a rapid rate until he was back to being nothing more than a normal Human who had the capability to take in energy through his empty veins.

only when he was finished, did he finally call out the codex once again after a long time, "Originate."