"Fey" a word that seemed just as if a person had muttered under his breath came out of Cylius' mouth. Yet it was also this soft and quiet voice that had traveled through the whole planet, reaching every corner.
This was his power after completing the Dimensional Spirit Core.
Not just the space, it also reached every sentimental being on the planet although it seemed like no one was left alive. He couldn't sense the consciousness of any being at all... well except one. And this only consciousness belonged to Fey.
After some time of waiting, Fey finally appeared.
It didn't go through much change except its aura. As it had absorbed many precious minerals and treasures within the planet, it had gotten abundant benefits. Not only did its aura grow to become increasingly closer to the semi convert stage, its physical quality also seemed to have undergone changes.
It grew a bit resistant to fire.
As it had exploited the whole planet, it was sure to have found some Crystalized Fire Essence. Although its rune core was like that of a spiritual planet, the planet consciousness had a demand for rune strings because it needed them to survive.
So only some of the rune strings created would be left. That would result in the planet just being somewhat above normal planets.
Since the previous spiritual planet he went to was a special spiritual planet that was used for the production of crystalized elemental essences, the amount of crystalized fire essences within this planet was reasonable.
But it should've been keeping them or have already devoured them. Well, he had no use for it anyway.
Just then, Fey nudged him a bit. Feeling it, Cylius also turned around to look at what it wanted to do. Well, he already knew what it was going to do. It was giving him something.
The fire essences.
It was two little essences the size of grain but one, the size of a whole pebble. Overall, it was seven grams. It might just be what the whole planet had to offer. It was likely that the elementals had already devoured all of them. Finding these must've been difficult.
"Good" he patted the head of the winged serpent.
The winged serpent that had the size of a mountain. It was continually releasing this threatening aura but in front of Cylius, it had become as docile as a dog.
After patting it, he then threw out the fire essences it gave to him towards it. Also realizing his intention, it happily picked them from the air and gathered them inside its mouth.
With a gulp, it had all gone into its stomach.
"Now we shall hunt for rune cores"
.....
One week later.
'I should devour this rune core and see if it would raise my cultivation'
Holding the colorless planet rune core in front of him, Cylius thought.
Getting this rune core was very easy. For the planet, he just picked up the planetary system the lava planet was in. There were eleven planets orbiting around this star and he had just picked the closest one.
The journey there was smooth. He didn't even need to travel through his spaceship. Since there weren't many runes and other kinds of troublesome things in space, it was much faster compared to traveling on the planet.
One week was all he needed.
Although the temperature was hot, it wasn't yet a lava planet. There could still be life found on it.
Well, he didn't care anyway.
He just got into it and took the planet rune core. He didn't care whether there was life there or not. The planet would soon self-destruct due to not having the rune core anyway. Just like the lava planet he had encountered before.
As for why he wanted to devour the planet rune core, he wanted to increase his cultivation and also wanted to test its efficiency.
It was said that some powerful creatures could directly devour these rune cores of planets and increase their cultivation. The Thousand Eyed Ghosts were one of them.
They were dimensional creatures that were the subspecies of ghosts. As all ghosts had, they didn't have a distinction between soul and body; they were combined together to form a unique type of body. They were proficient in controlling dimension and usually lived alone.
When they were born, they would be left in a planet's core and grow by devouring the energy around them. Just like a parasite.
As much as they grow, the bigger the deterioration the planet would have.
After reaching half maturity, they would go alone to hunt for the planets and after all of the planets have been destroyed, they would go for the star so when they reach adolescence, the whole planetary system usually tends to get destroyed.
They could usually be found in the dimensional world.
They were a strong race that had the growth potential up to the fourth-tier. But there was an accident later on.
Somehow, the whole race got cursed to serve the lord of death for eternity. Although it was unfortunate, they also got a new affinity to control spirits. They were the grim reapers of Death. Due to it, their bloodline also got their potential raised and some of them could even go up to the fifth-tier.
It wasn't impossible to go up to the sixth-tier either.
Even though they had to serve Death for eternity, they didn't lose out at all.
So after their curse, they could also advance through the death of others. By absorbing their spirit and also the negative energy. Although this way was rather inefficient.
After entering the dimensional world. Cylius got down to absorb the rune core. For this time, he decided to only improve his dimensional rune comprehension so he first turned the planet rune core into the dimensional rune core.
He would think about his comprehension of death and such later.
After some time, the rune core had turned into the dimensional core. Now that it was only producing dimensional strings, it would be far more efficient to absorb it. But well, the disadvantage of this was that he could only increase his dimensional comprehension and not his comprehension of other runes.
Sitting down he began his cultivation.
.....
Three weeks later.
The surrounding was an eery silence. No sound could be heard, not even the sound of water dropping. Not to mention the sound, there wasn't even any light in here. It was just pure darkness.
It was probable that they would go insane if a person were to stay here for an extended amount of time. With nothing to measure the amount of time, who knows how much time has passed. Maybe a moment and maybe a month.
However, a pair of eyes suddenly opened in the dark, illuminating the whole place.
They were bright yet also dark. It was a weird pair of eyes. It seemed to lighten the place up yet it also seemed as if it was making the place even darker.
However, at the time, this pair of eyes looked confused. Something seemed to have clouded them, clouded their reasoning. It looked as if it was polluted.
"10%" His dimensional comprehension had increased by 10%. What was this logic? So absurd. Was it this fast to advance through cultivation?
Yes, it was befitting of an entire planet's treasure. Yet... it was just too much. If he were to absorb three more, he could complete his rune comprehension!
It was so easy to obtain it too... Was there some kind of consequence he didn't know about?
He knew about the impurity left within him. Well, the reason he's able to increase his comprehension with a material thing was because he was using it as fuel for his soul to comprehend faster.
Since he was using it as fuel, there have to be bits of pollution left in his soul. Since he has used so much of it too, there's got to be much of it.
He really got to be careful. If it was this easy to obtain this amount of cultivation, everyone would've already reached the peak.
He really got to be careful. If the star of this planetary system were to come to him and try to kill him what could he do? Those were things that could equal domain existences. Fourth-tier existences.
He would be completely suppressed.
"Hmm" He found the reason after a bit while.
It was such a simple reason. It because of the pollution. When they use it as fuel for their cultivation, their soul gets very polluted. So polluted that they start to change to become another existence. The side effect would basically cripple the person.
So, no one dared to such a thing. Maybe only the powerful races can.
And his race was considered powerful. The growth potential of a fourth-tier, you can't underestimate it.
Even if he was a half ghost, he was still a ghost. His race was that of a Thousand Eyed Ghost.
His mind just got muddled from the impurity. It just took a few moments for him to realize the situation.
*Sigh*
Well, fortunately, due to his bloodline, this pollution to his soul would soon disappear. He had nothing to be scared of.
Shaking his head, he left the place. Just as he got out, he saw that he was standing on nothing. He was in the air. Looking down, there was nothing but if he looked much deeper, he would be able to see the ground.
Well, a half split ground.
It took a while to realize. The planet was in the process of getting destroyed.
Because the rune core of the planet was gone, it was collapsing. Rune strings were the foundation of everything. Life, water, air, elements... without rune strings, there could exist nothing.
Even in the most barren place, there were still rune strings. Although very few.
Since the planet was cut off from the source of rune strings, it had already moved in the path to destruction. But it seemed like Fey had quickened the process and started destroying it.
The previous planet may have been able to take it because they had a better quality of rune core and also better storage of rune strings but this planet was normal. It wasn't special at all.
For it to collapse, it only needed a year but now, what may have taken a year has been shortened to a month.
'Let it have its fun.'
It may take another week for the planet to get fully destroyed, so he went into meditation.
.....
One week passed and now, the planet had been fully destroyed. Alongside him was Fey, whose body had shrunken into the size of a palm. It was on the shoulder of Cylius as they both watched as the last of the planet faded into nothingness.
No pieces of the planet were left. Unlike a spiritual planet where once their rune core was destroyed, they would break into asteroids, normal planets just faded into nothingness.
Their ground wasn't strengthened with rune strings much after all.
He wasn't going to lie. Watching a planet self-destruct was fun.