Chapter 227: Improving Soul Power

"I am encountering more and more Crawlers," William muttered as he flicked the Blood Moon, clearing the drops of black blood from its blade.

Around him, over fifty Lesser Night Crawlers, similar to the ones he had encountered on his first night in the Trial Realm, lay dead.

It had been ten days since he was sent to the Trial Realm, and during this time, other than moving toward Varhan City, he hadn’t done anything else.

He also hadn’t encountered any special Crawlers like Malra and had only faced Lesser Night Crawlers that resembled lizards.

Moreover, all the Night Crawlers he had encountered had attacked him at night, with none of them attacking during the daytime.

Looking around at the dead bodies, William soon found two Spirit Orbs and put them into his storage ring.

Leaving behind the pile of dead bodies, he walked over to a boulder nearby, where a small fire was burning.

A little girl was sleeping soundly beside the fire, with drool flowing from her slightly open mouth.

William threw a dry branch into the fire and sat down, staring into the darkness in the distance.

’The reason I am encountering more and more Crawlers at night might be that I am getting closer to the army I saw on my first day.’ He pondered with a thoughtful look.

With his current strength, William knew that getting too close to that army was extremely dangerous.

The Lesser Crawlers he had faced so far were no problem, but encountering some powerful Crawlers would cause him considerable trouble.

’I should either take a detour to avoid them or slow down a little.’ Taking a deep breath, William leaned back against the boulder and sighed.

What annoyed William the most was that, over the last ten days, his progress had been extremely slow compared to what it used to be in the Vermilion Realm.

Ever since he had returned to the past from the original timeline, he had made progress every day.

But here in the Trial Realm, the lack of Aether Energy made it impossible for him to increase his level.

The only thing he had done over the last ten days was improve his mastery of his Battle Arts and hone his techniques further.

Since he had only recently broken through to the Star Commander level, he could now unleash more of his Battle Arts’ power, allowing him to improve his mastery.

As mentioned before, there were four levels of mastery when it came to Battle Arts:

Beginner, Familiar, Experienced, and Perfection.

For William, mastering a Low-Level Battle Art to Perfection was very easy. However, because of his low level, he could only unleash power equivalent to the Familiar level of Low-Level Battle Arts.

But now that he had reached the Star Commander level, he could use Battle Arts at the Experienced level.

This significantly increased his combat power, but compared to the progress he was accustomed to making, it still felt very slow to him.

Shaking his head, William stopped staring into the darkness and took out the Spirit Orbs he had gathered over the last ten days.

He had killed nearly two hundred Crawlers during this period and had obtained a total of eight Spirit Orbs from them.

The drop rate of these things was very low. He was lucky that two orbs had dropped today.

Placing them on his lap, William picked up one of the orbs and tossed it directly into his mouth.

He felt the familiar, cold sensation in his head as his soul power slowly increased.

Once the energy of the first orb was exhausted, he didn’t stop and tossed another orb into his mouth.

Eva watched William consume one Spirit Orb after another, and when he picked up the fifth orb, she couldn’t help but remind him, "Don’t forget what I told you. If you consume too many of them, there might be some problems later on."

William didn’t stop upon hearing her words.

"Don’t worry," He said as he tossed the orb into his mouth. "I know what I am doing."

Eva fell silent upon hearing him. After hesitating for a moment, she sighed and shook her head, deciding to trust his judgment, as she knew William wasn’t someone who acted recklessly.

Soon, William finished consuming all eight orbs. Feeling his soul power increase by about 12 to 13%, his lips curled upward slightly.

’Although the effect of these small Spirit Orbs is decreasing as I consume more of them, they are still quite useful.’ He thought and closed his eyes, looking inside his sea of consciousness.

When his Chaos Bloodline awakened, the hazy mist in William’s sea of consciousness had turned grayish-brown.

But at this moment, upon looking closely, William could see a faint, almost invisible black color amid the mist.

This black color had appeared after he consumed all the Spirit Orbs.

William’s expression didn’t change when he noticed the alteration in his sea of consciousness and after taking a closer look, he silently withdrew his consciousness.

"Even if I take a detour to avoid encountering the Crawler Army, I should still be able to reach that place in five days..." He muttered under his breath before closing his eyes to rest.

"Aren’t you going to use the Black Blood Crystal to improve your physical body?" Eva couldn’t help but ask when she saw that he had used the Spirit Orbs he had gathered over the last few days but still hadn’t used the Black Blood Crystal he had obtained from Malra.

"It’s not time yet," William responded without opening his eyes.

"Not time yet?" Eva was confused by his words.

Although she had also detected an abnormal energy inside the Black Blood Crystal, just as she had with the Spirit Orbs, she had assumed William would use the crystal as well, considering how readily he had consumed the Spirit Orbs.

However, after learning that the crystal contained something unusual, William hadn’t tried to use it and had simply put it away.

Eva was confused by his actions, as she couldn’t understand why he was using the Spirit Orbs but not the Black Blood Crystal.

’Forget it. He must have his own ideas.’ Eva shook her head and didn’t ask anything further.

The night passed without more Crawlers attacking them.

William woke up, and after they had eaten their fill, he once again set off toward his destination.

Time continued to pass, and four days later, he finally reached the location Malra had told him about.