Oak had never felt like this.
His body was being cooked. He felt like a cooked lobster. More importantly, he was feeling pain to the core of his soul.
But at the same time, he sighed a breath of relief. Because there was no other voice in his mind.
He did hear a roar and knew where it came from.
Because he was standing right in front of it.
Three-Headed Netherworld Wolf had turned into Five-Headed Netherworld Wolf.
At the same time, he found that his Netherworld Wolf had improved from three stars to five stars.
He also got an answer to his previous question.
Why was his upper limit at Sixth Rank when he could inherit the power of the third head at Ninth Rank?
It turned out his Martial Spirit had a total of Nine Heads. Because his body and soul couldn't provide enough energy, he couldn't manifest it fully during the awakening process.
Now, if he wanted to complete it, he had to get a lot of heavenly resources to upgrade it.
He was lucky this time because he got a small portion of blood marrow in this person's skeleton that provided it with enough energy to upgrade itself.
But this bone didn't just provide him with upgraded Martial Spirit.
Now, it went further and gave him a powerful consciousness. That's how he was able to enter his Sea of Consciousness and appear in front of his Martial Spirit in his spiritual form.
More importantly, this was just the beginning. He could feel the pain. This pain was coming from his body and soul.
They were still being crushed and remade as if they were a bunch of toys for this Golden Skeleton.
The only good thing was that his soul was improving. He could feel this direct improvement due to his Spiritual form being clearer and stronger.
As for his body, he couldn't feel anything aside from feeling numb.
The pain had surpassed the level he could bear at this moment. Outside, he had already fainted.
It was only inside his sea of consciousness that he could still move in his spiritual form.
While inside his sea of consciousness, he began to interact with his Five-Headed Netherworld Wolf.
Because he had awakened two more heads, giving him two more abilities in the future.
It's just that he didn't know what they were.
After he used his spiritual form to touch the Martial Spirit, he quickly learned the fourth and fifth abilities.
[Hell Dimension] [Devouring Soul]
Hell Dimension was an ability that could connect him to a separate dimension that had the power of Hell.
He had no idea what kind of hell this was, but the ability to connect with hell while being alive felt strange yet amazing.
But he realized that to awaken this ability, he must reach a level outside the Ninth Rank.
It was simply called 'Spirit Level Third Rank'.
Devouring Soul was even higher. It required a Spirit Level Sixth Rank.
He didn't even know what the Spirit Level was.
But he could make a guess.
If the ranks were divided into a certain category, then Levels should be the category.
Spirit Level should be the next level in his cultivation journey.
He certainly wouldn't know what his current level was called.
While he was thinking about it, he felt his eyes open and his consciousness instantly disappeared from the SOC.
"Ahhhhhh!"
As soon as he opened his eyes, his brain registered an intense pain as if the previous pain hadn't disappeared instead increased its level.
'This is killing me. It hurts. It f**king hurts. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!'
Oak's eyes turned red as he screamed in his mind. His hands clutched the ground, trying to inject himself with other kinds of pain.
Because this pain was specifically hurting his head. It was like a headache, but so severe that he wanted to pull out his brain, clean it, wash it, and put it back.
That's how painful it felt.
'Calm down! Calm down! Damn! God, let me go back. If I can just go back in time, I won't touch this skeleton.'
'It's killing me.'
Pa!
Oak's hand trembled as he raised it and slapped himself on the face.
The slap didn't cause him any pain. But it didn't reduce the previous pain either.
Pa! Pa! Pa! Pa!
Oak continued slapping himself until his cheeks turned red, but the pain hadn't been subdued.
With tears falling down his cheeks, he placed his head on the ground and roared.
"Why? Why did I come to this world? I don't want this. I don't want to feel this pain. Please, god, take me away! Please god! Please god! Please God! Please God! PLEASE, GOD!"
At this moment, Oak realized he wasn't a cultivation type. He couldn't bear the pain, he couldn't bear the suffering.
Every time he was in a tough situation, he would pray to the gods for help.
He was just a coward.
His previous action wasn't to keep his parents safe.
He was just afraid of Arvin.
At the same time, the pain slowly disappeared in his head. But it didn't disappear completely. It got transmitted to his chest.
After his head became better, he no longer felt that kind of pain. It made him a bit happy.
Even though he was still feeling the same pain in his chest, his tears stopped, and he no longer cried.
But his previous action left him confused.
He had read many novels before being reborn in another world.
He knew people would cry like him, but they would mostly do it during a certain torture.
He wasn't being tortured. He should've borne the pain and stubbornly continued his progression.
But he couldn't do that. He wasn't a cultivation material. He was just a waste and a coward.
He wasn't even a waste. At least, every single waste he had seen in fiction would do its best to counterattack.
At this moment, he realized something.
He was just an ordinary person.
He didn't have the courage and Willpower like those people. He didn't have talent and extraordinary cheat like some characters.
He was just an ordinary person, sent into a cruel world of cultivation, where he had a lucky encounter.
He could truly say he was lucky. Because this cave was supposed to have a restriction. That restriction was broken when he came.
Otherwise, there was no possibility that he would be able to enter this cave. Not to mention, he wasn't a genius; he didn't even have some level of perseverance.
'Can I really change myself? Adapt to this world?'
For the first time since his rebirth, he questioned himself and his goal.
He just wanted to protect his parents. With his talent, he had higher upper limits, and he should utilize that to protect his parents.
But what did he do?
He remained a coward, followed someone who didn't take his life seriously, had a lucky encounter, and when trying to inherit it, he felt like he should kill himself.
That idea of pulling out his brain to clean it wasn't just a random thought. He thought about it and almost tried to do it.
If he hadn't had a small percentage of rationality during that moment, he would've used the broken sword to pierce his head, just to free himself from pain.
The idea of protecting his parents, the cowardly nature stuck to his soul, and his lack of perseverance made him doubt himself.
What was he supposed to do next?
Was he just going to kill himself if he went through a similar situation in the future?
Leave behind everything, including his parents, and die?
Was that truly what he wanted?
So many times, he thought he would fail to create that technique, but his intense desire to make his parents' lives better forced him to continue it.
Even though it didn't become as good as an Intermediate Grade Technique, it was still an amazing technique because of its potential.
At this moment, he realized something. He was able to do it because he wanted to make his parents' lives better.
But cultivation wasn't about others.
The cultivation was an act of going against heaven. A cultivator would take the energy from the earth and use it to improve their lifespan.
That was the whole thing was the cultivation.
So, how could he continue his cultivation journey when he never truly had a dream for himself?
At this moment, he remembered the words that he had said when he was young. Maybe it was just a childish sentence, maybe he did feel ashamed after saying that.
But it was his ambition.
[I will conquer the power of the star, use the blood of the dragon, and dominate the world.]
Oak subconsciously placed his hand inside his pants. It had a small pocket inside. He pulled out a small scroll from his pocket.
He unfolded it. The small scroll turned into a large paper.
[Star Dragon Dominating Technique]