Soulbound: Dual Cultivation-Chapter 73: Life Force

Lucas inhaled shakily, his chest rising and falling as though every breath carried the weight of the battle. His limbs still trembled, the toll of what he had unleashed bearing down on him like a mountain. Yet, even in his fragile state, he managed a faint nod of gratitude toward Nyx, his voice barely more than a whisper.

"Thank you," he muttered, his tone carrying both exhaustion and sincerity. "You saved me."

Nyx didn’t answer right away. Her eyes were still scanning him, unsure whether to berate him for the reckless power he had just released or express awe at the impossible feat he had performed. But when Lucas raised a shaky hand, silently asking her to help him stand, she responded without hesitation. She looped an arm around his back and pulled him upright. He groaned softly as his feet found the ground again, his knees wobbling beneath him like twigs in a storm.

He braced himself beside her and turned his gaze once more over the edge of the wall. The sight that greeted him was one he expected, but it didn’t lessen the awe. Smoke still curled up in distant, and the air shimmered faintly where his energy had scorched the earth. The landscape below was marked by deep burns, shattered remains, and broken stone. For a heartbeat, satisfaction welled within him. He had done it...he had made a difference. He had halted what seemed unstoppable.

But the moment of relief didn’t last.

His eyes narrowed as he looked beyond the destruction, squinting against the rising haze of dust. Movement...far more than there should have been. Beasts....hundreds more where he had just torn through their numbers, more had come to take their place. They emerged from the distant edge of the forest, stampeding with the same unnatural rage, the same suicidal determination.

Lucas’s blood turned cold.

"They’re increasing again..." he whispered, more to himself than anyone else, but Nyx heard it. She followed his gaze and her face hardened.

Then something clicked in his mind. A memory stirred....one from the life he once lived, in the future, in an era far more advanced than this.

He remembered reading about the behavior of beasts. Not myth or legend, but real. He had read that, sometimes, hordes of beasts didn’t simply migrate or swarm randomly. They could be led, provoked from their nests with unnatural precision. Such movements often had a singular source...life crystals. In his time, these crystals were known to be embedded deep within the bodies of higher-level beasts. They carried something primal, a raw, living resonance that lesser creatures instinctively followed.

He turned to Nyx, his voice still hoarse but suddenly urgent.

"They’re coming from the nest," he said. "Directly from it. That’s the only way their numbers would rebound this fast. Someone... someone must have led them here. They didn’t just appear out of instinct or hunger."

Nyx’s expression shifted subtly, her brows furrowing.

"That’s what I said before," she replied slowly. "Before we arrived. I had a feeling they weren’t just wandering aimlessly."

Lucas gave a faint nod, then looked back out toward the forest, his mind racing. His hand clenched unconsciously against the stone of the wall. He remembered another detail...one that had struck him as fascinating during his old studies. The beasts’ nest was always centered around the strongest life crystal, and such a crystal gave off an energy signature that the lesser beasts would rally around. If that crystal was moved, the entire nest would shift with it. Not immediately, but it would eventually cause a migration.

His breath caught in his throat.

"The crystal," he murmured. "That’s how they were drawn here. Someone... someone must have taken it. Moved it. That’s why they’re coming. That crystal marks the nest’s center, and now, this place has become their nest."

He stared into the wilderness, the realization sinking in like a stone in water. This wasn’t just a random horde attack....It was planned.

Lucas’s mind was already racing far ahead of his body, and that alone made the weight of his current weakness even more frustrating. The answer was clear now...the beasts were converging because of the crystal, their aggression and focus not borne of randomness but rather the unmistakable pull of life energy resonating from a central source. And now that source, somehow, was here...either hidden within the city, planted somewhere along the wall, or carried by someone with a purpose darker than they could yet understand.

But how was he supposed to find it?

He didn’t have the tools. He didn’t have the technique. The very method of detecting such a life force required a refinement in spiritual perception that only high-level cultivators possessed. He hadn’t even stabilized the surge of energy he’d just released, and already the responsibility of solving this crisis was falling heavily onto his shoulders. His body was failing him, his limbs numb and sluggish, and his core burned from the strain of forcing power beyond what his current cultivation rank should ever attempt.

He grit his teeth, suppressing the tremble in his legs, and closed his eyes for a brief second. His heart beat heavily in his chest, each thud a dull echo of the battle still waging below. The beasts were still coming. The wall was still under threat. And every moment they wasted not locating the crystal meant more death, more destruction, more innocent lives caught in the chaos.

He opened his eyes and turned to Nyx, who had been watching him with a mix of worry and anticipation. Her expression told him that she knew he was on the brink of collapse, and yet she also knew he wouldn’t allow himself to rest. Not yet. Not while the city still stood on the precipice of disaster.

"Princess..." His voice was low and breathless, but there was urgency behind it, fierce and pressing. "You need to take me back, to the castle...now."

Nyx blinked, clearly not expecting that. "What? Why?"

"I can’t find the crystal like this. I don’t have the means. But someone in the castle might. There must be something there...someone...who can help us track it. I need to go and I can’t get there on my own."

His knees buckled slightly beneath him, and he caught himself on the wall’s edge, barely holding his weight. freeweɓnovel-cøm

"I need you to ride me back," he added, the shame of the request not enough to overshadow its importance. "I can’t even walk straight right now."

Nyx didn’t didn’t argue...she didn’t hesitate. Without waiting for further explanation, she moved to support him, already understanding the weight of the moment.

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