Aside from the oddities of his soul after being burned, there were other mysteries as well. For example, instead of regressing back to the Foundation Stage as she should have, Ri actually progressed to the Overlord Realm.
If that was all, maybe Dyon would still be able to accept it easily. However, Ri actually entered the three facet Overlord Realm in a single bound. On top of that, since Dyon purposely cut off her soul from the refinement process, due to her dual cultivation with Dyon, she was not so far from the fourth facet either.
Of course, the main reason Dyon protected Ri's soul was to namely guard against a potential failure. In that case, he would at least be able to reform a body for her. In addition, by protecting Ri's soul, he was also able to preserve all the beast contracts she had… including her fairies.
The simple explanation for all of this was the power of the nine times reinforced pill. Dyon believed that this, along with the fact tribulations were many times stronger on the Ancient Battlefield, led to this.
Upping a pills refinement above the top grade didn't only increase its potency, but sometimes gave it new abilities. For example, when Dyon refined the Cultivation Cleansing Pill, it gained the ability to not only wash away cultivation, but also convert one's qi cultivation into bodily strength.
It was possible that after reaching this state of refinement, the Fate Breaking Pill was able to do away with its main drawback of losing one's cultivation and even became capable of improving one's cultivation as well.
Due to this, Ri's body and qi broke into the Overlord Realm simultaneously. In addition, since Dyon protected his wife's soul, the comprehension breakthrough she had that caused her to enter the state of enlightenment that catalyzed all of this to begin with was preserved and likely even strengthened.
However, even though these explanations sounded plausible, Dyon couldn't say with any sort of guarantee that his reasoning was flawless. Reason being… his refinement method.
Dyon had gotten the idea to use the human body as a cauldron because of an issue he faced with Ri's particular problem.
If he refined the pill first, and then tried to feed it to Ri, the explosive medicinal properties would have likely killed her before the refinement was finished.
At the same time, Dyon didn't have the luxury of slowly feeding this medicinal essence to her because the World Tree would be able to step in and intervene unless he was quick enough about it.
Dyon's method of cutting off the connection to the World Tree was precisely related to purging Ri's Elvin bloodline. If he couldn't withhold the World Tree from intervening until Ri's Elvin Blood was purged, he would fail.
But this novel refinement method added countless new variables Dyon wasn't quite certain of how to process just yet. How much of the result was due to the refinement method and how much was due to the quality of the pill…?
And… Just what kind of potential did this refinement method have?
What Dyon did know, however, was that it was impossible for him to use this refinement method again unless he burned his soul once more. Even his soul talent and deep reserves wasn't enough to accomplish this feat under normal conditions.
And just like that, this long list of problems led him right back to square one. Just what was going on with his soul? Just why did burning it not seem to be as big of a deal as it should be?
Of course, this was a bit of an exaggeration. Dyon still needed Ri's virginity to recover so fast. And currently, her talent could only be matched by his other wives on the mortal plane. It wasn't like he had an endless supply of virginities to take, and even if he did, he would never do such a thing.
But that was where another problem creeped up. Had he really needed to take Ri's virginity this time around?
If he really thought about it, the last time he burned his soul, the reason his situation got so bad was because of how long it took to do what it needed to be done to heal him. In addition, the Soul Tome was much too slow at healing him back then because his cultivation was still too low.
However, two things had changed this time.
First, the solution was applied almost instantly. Secondly, the Soul Tome was much more powerful than it had been in the past. It seemed for every incremental increase in strength his soul had, the Soul Tome followed it up with an exponential increase in its own.
So this was where the real crux of the matter lay…
Just how much of a problem was burning his soul really? And more importantly… Did he dare to test it out?
Dyon's lips curled. He suddenly felt an overwhelming arrogance boil up from the depths of his heart.
There was nothing in this world or any other he didn't dare to do.
'Burn.'
Dyon's body was immediately engulfed by an illusory white flame. The sudden changed startled his wives awake.
"Dyon what are you doing?!"
Ri's mind went blank. They thought they were out of the woods, why was he suddenly doing something so ridiculous again?
Dyon waved a hand, indicating he was fine. Inwardly, though, he couldn't help but chuckle. Weren't these four just mad at him for hiding things from them? Now look at how they react when he puts it out in the open. Was there much a difference anyway?
'My soul is burning… But it isn't tearing apart like it should. Is it that my soul is sturdy enough to withstand the sheering force? Or is there another reason?'
"Don't worry, I'm just testing something." Dyon said slowly. "I have a feeling that my soul is different. I've spent almost 200 years trying to understand what's different between my soul and the soul of others… Why is it something that's a certain death for other people isn't like this to me? This is the first clue I've managed to grasp in all this time."
