The place they were looking for was not far from the borders of the Julandra region.
In fact, the Shiman camp was relatively close to the borders.
However, this was mostly owed to the fact that there was something located on the borders that only the humans of Argos could use.
When Jason first heard this, he didn't believe it, and thought of it as a baseless rumor. B
But after Jennifer told him that there were specific realms and other places that could only be entered by races with specific elemental affinities, unique traits, or soul awakenings, he began to believe her.
However, Jason didn't really understand what could be special enough for the Shadow walkers to allow the humans of Argos to enter some sort of secret place.
After all, there was a risk of them breaking the soul contracts they made with the Shadow walkers.
If the place they couldn't see or enter were to have something that allowed the humans to free themselves of the soul contracts, no human would think twice about doing it.
But, he could know this only after visiting the camp.
Now, he could only make assumptions but that wouldn't take him anywhere.
As such, he averted his attention from unnecessary thoughts of things that didn't matter to him, to the fact that he had to hope for Lux to be outside this unique place.
Otherwise, he would have to wait for Lux, or enter the place personally, leaving Jennifer behind.
That was something he wanted to avoid at all costs.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})After the dungeon trials had forcefully separated them, he never wanted to be in a situation to part his ways with Jennifer anywhere.
With that in mind, Jason and Jennifer entered the Shadow walker's territory by making big detours through the battlefield.
They circled around the fighting armies of the Shadow walker alliance and the side of the Julandra region to reach their destination.
Unfortunately, this took most of their time, which was the reason why almost two weeks passed until they had finally arrived near the Shiman camp.
Initially, Jason had expected that the Shadow walker prodigy must have lied to him a few times.
This included the number of humans of Argos that had willingly accepted to obey the Shadow walkers and to follow their lead.
However, when he could finally take a first glance of the Shiman camp that was more like a huge town, it was impossible for Jason not to be flabbergasted.
The sight of several thousand mana fluctuations of humans from Argos caused Jason to feel mixed emotions, including a growing sense of uncertainty.
He could have never assumed that thousands of humans would willfully accept being under the reigns of the Shadow walker race.
After all, it would mean that more than a few tens of thousand humans had most likely accepted becoming subordinates of the other dozens of races that had a world bridge connecting them with Argos…or so it had been before Wisse destroyed the world bridges.
This made Jason wonder if just the Shadow walker race had a lot of humans on their side, or if this was the case with every race.
But neither of these probabilities felt correct, and Jason could only look at the situation on the ground with confusion.
Nurturing the humans of Argos at a single location meant that the Shadow walkers didn't want them to interact with their people…or so Jason thought.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})However, that was not exactly the case and it took him a while to understand this. But when he perceived that almost every single human of Argos was much stronger than he had first assumed, Jason was astonished.
"There are only a few thousand Initial Prismar stage Cultivators on Argos…how the hell could they have advanced so fast? It has only been a few years since the other races started to increase their efforts to gather more humans under them… wait…that's not true either…"
His first thought was that every human of Argos must have left the planet a few years ago, but that was not the case.
In fact, since the mana awakening on Argos, humans had begun to vanish.
As such, some of the humans with a soul awakening might have left Argos more than 300 years ago.
This indicated that they might have already attained a kind of strength even some common races might never reach.
After all, the soul awakening of humans on Argos allowed them to break through all kinds of norms.
Jason was fully aware of the exceptional potential soul world's had.
He had experienced its strength and might after all.
Because of that, he shouldn't really be shocked about the fact that he was able to see Initial phase Ascendion stage Cultivators that had the strength comparable to Cultivators at the Low Ascendion stage.
That shouldn't be a surprise, but what surprised Jason was the fact that almost every single Cultivator inside the Shiman camp was much stronger than their cultivation base indicated.
This meant that all of them had powerful soulbonds which was hard to believe.
Every single soul world was unique, and the vast majority of them had a soul amplification below 10% of their soulbound beast's strength.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})With that in mind, one had to bind numerous beings that were at the same cultivation base as their own in order to reach the same strength as someone at a higher rank of cultivation.
In fact, if one were to compare the strength of someone at the Initial phase of the Ascendion stage to someone at the Low rank of the Ascendion stage, the latter was on average two to three times stronger.
Taking this into consideration, one had to bind far more than 10 beasts at the Initial Ascendion stage!
And that was with an average soul amplification of 10% and under the circumstances that one's soul world was large enough to hold that many beasts.
It was also inclusive of the fact that one's affinities or other specific traits had to be compatible to bind a beast, to begin with.
As such, it was perfectly normal for Jason to be astonished about the sight in front of him.
It made him a little reluctant to enter the Shiman camp because he was not sure how safe it was for them to enter this place.
Yet, his worries were washed away the moment he felt warmth around his hand.
It made him look down, only to see that Jennifer had slid her hand in his palm and intertwined her fingers with his.
Lifting his head once again, he saw that Jennifer was looking at him with determination in her eyes as she asked.
"Should we enter the camp?"
Feeling much more reassured than before, they descended towards the ground before entering the Shiman camp with a calm demeanor.
Oddly enough, they met no resistance and didn't even spot any guards.
What was surprising was that nobody seemed to be bothered about their arrival even after they entered the camp.
In fact, both Jason and Jennifer resembled the humans from Argos, which was essentially the case for Jason.
However, he feared that his golden eyes would still attract some attention.
Thankfully, it was not the case, at all.
While seeing several humans with all kinds of body parts belonging to different types of beasts, Jason couldn't help but think about the fusion function of his soul world.
This caused him to be curious to know if some humans were already able to fuse with their soulbonds or not.
But that question was already affirmed by the sight that unfolded in front of him.
Yet, at the same time, he felt that his fusion with Artemis, Petri, and Solaris was different compared to the few he was able to see.
While his fusion was naturally evolved, that of a few humans he saw looked forced.
This made him eye them weirdly.
It was at this moment that a young man spotted them before he saw how Jason was observing the fused humans.
This made him misunderstand the situation as he approached Jason and Jennifer, who quickly realized that they were discovered.
However, what they didn't expect was to be greeted in a warm welcome.
The young man smiled at them brightly and introduced himself.
"Hello there, my name is Linus, and I presume you two are newcomers from the other camps? Are you two here to learn more about the fusion process, and ways to dissolve a forced fusion?
Perhaps you wish to cultivate, or to hunt one of the Ninad beasts to bind them to your soul?"
