Lord of the Truth

Another Week Later—

"Tsk, tsk~" Robin groaned as he painstakingly pushed himself up into a seated position on the edge of the bed. His body still ached as though it had been run over by a collapsing mountain. He felt like he had the physical strength of a two-year-old, maybe less—but at least now he had enough fine control to execute basic movements like this without completely exhausting himself.

He let out a long, weary breath, the kind that comes after days of silent effort, and slowly closed his eyes.

Inside Robin's soul domain—

His soul avatar suddenly leapt up with surprising energy, bouncing freely on his toes as if he'd been unshackled after centuries of confinement. "Ahhh~ now this is more like it."

He began turning around, taking in his surroundings with slow delight. His soul domain had grown significantly larger than before, with every corner pulsing with vibrant, palpable life. It wasn't just bigger; it was alive.

The soul creatures inside were no longer still or meditative—they were interacting energetically in a language too alien to decipher. They communicated using intricate pulses, waves of soul energy and subtle fluctuations of their forms. They raced through the domain, chased each other in circles, argued in bursts of flashing color, and even playfully collided. There was community here. They had lives, systems, routines—like a miniature ecosystem evolving on its own.

To his surprise, Pythor, the most ancient of his soul creatures, had even gathered a personal following. Creatures of various shapes and sizes surrounded him, treating him with awe and reverence like he was some kind of spiritual monarch.

When Robin saw this display, he couldn't help but smile to himself. "Heh… that bastard always did love attention. Even in death, some things don't change."

He widened his perception even further… but noticed something missing. The once-familiar pattern of raw soul orbs dancing and playing in the background was nowhere to be seen. That gentle, ever-present hum of growth had gone silent.

The automatic soul-harvesting had ended years ago—ever since Robin reached a total of 810,000 soul units. From that moment, the number had stopped rising entirely. There was nothing left for the soul domain to extract from.

Compared to the rapid gains he had made using his advanced soul-filling techniques and the brutal collection methods he'd developed during large-scale massacres, passive harvesting now felt utterly pointless. Even the most advanced absorption methods, when used alone, felt like drawing water from a dried-up well.

And Robin had no patience for that. Once you've tasted power drawn from a thundering river, how could you go back to licking dew from moss?

"Finally came to visit us, boss!!" Evergreen came dashing up with a gleeful expression, practically hopping in place from excitement.

"Shh, you should refer to him as Owner," Neri corrected with a faint huff, though she too approached with a warm, happy smile.

During Robin's time locked in the archive, and throughout the intense sessions of weaponization and the agonizing recovery that followed, he hadn't interacted with either of them. And they—sensing his state—had avoided disturbing him entirely. This was their first direct exchange in more than sixty years.

"I see things are quiet and peaceful today," Robin said as he gently patted both girls on the head. "How are the soul creatures progressing in their training?"

"We've taken all of them as far as they can possibly go," Neri replied matter-of-factly. "We're worried that pushing them any harder might cause actual harm rather than progress. Even with my gift, the core strength of a soul creature seems to impose a strict ceiling."

"That's completely fine," Robin replied with a satisfied nod. "Compared to where they started, they've come incredibly far. Without your assistance, my entire arsenal of soul creatures might have become obsolete by now."

He started walking toward the central sapling within the domain. Each of his steps crossed large distances effortlessly, a testament to how deeply he had mastered his inner space. "Anything else I should know about the current state of the domain?"

"Nothing really," Evergreen replied quickly. "Only that we've officially run out of initial soul orbs, as you've probably noticed. And while that has made things calmer overall, if your goal is rapid power advancement, you'll probably need to bring in more—sooner rather than later. Why not just buy a handful from the Soul Society? In the past you didn't need to, since you had your own surplus. But now, there's really nothing stopping you."

"Hmm…" Robin frowned. "Putting aside the risk of diluting the essence of my soul domain, it's simply not practical."

He shook his head slightly.

"Back when I ran a full search on the soul market, I didn't find a single soul creature with a unit capacity higher than five thousand. Anyone in possession of powerful creatures wouldn't let them go—ever. Giving up a soul creature means giving up a piece of your soul domain itself. The creature doesn't come alone—it brings its power, its memories, its internal structure… and when it leaves, it takes all of that with it. It tears a chunk out of the domain on its way out."

Robin pointed subtly toward Pythor. "If I were to sell that guy with his max capacity —he's sitting at 350,000 units right now— it would instantly cut my soul domain in half. No matter how delicately the fairy tries to sugarcoat it, the process is dangerous."

He let out a breath and smiled faintly.

"So naturally, I'm not finding any strong soul creatures available on the market. And really—what kind of lunatic soul master would sell one of their most treasured soul creatures?"

Right after that, he arrived at the mirror sprouting from the soul sapling. With a gentle motion of his hand, he activated it with a smile. "Alright, girls. I'll be stepping out for a while—don't burn the place down while I'm gone, deal?"

Woosh

Without even waiting for the fairy's image or the interface panel to appear, Robin leapt directly into the Soul Society the instant the link was established, vanishing in a blink—leaving the two girls behind, standing in silence and watching him go.

"…It's starting to feel dull around here," Evergreen muttered, sighing heavily.

And in one of those extremely rare occurrences, Neri actually agreed with her. "Yeah. The initial souls used to bring a certain lively energy to the place, and training them gave us something to do."

"Hmm, I really hope the boss brings us something exciting soon," Evergreen said while tilting her head playfully, then suddenly took off in a full sprint in a random direction... She was headed straight to kick Pythor's leg and get him to chase her around again like a game.

"Something exciting?" Neri repeated with a sigh. "It's nearly impossible for the Owner to spend any time without triggering some kind of event. I'm just curious what kind of madness he'll drag in this time. I just pray it won't be something too dangerous, or catastrophic…" With that, she followed after Evergreen, her expression a mix of worry and curiosity.

Inside the Hall of Focus—

Beside a glimmering waterfall and in front of a stream that gently wound its way across polished stone, Robin closed his eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the peace of the environment. "Ahhh~ all the distractions just vanished like smoke... I really missed this place."

<And we missed your presence, Human Lord. It's been nearly sixty full years since you last stepped into this sanctuary!> the fairy said brightly, spinning in a full circle around him, her light dancing with delight. <So, what would you like to start with today? Would you prefer to look through the new commissions in the Truth Chamber? Or check your pending message queue?>

Woosh

Before Robin could even open his mouth, a massive menu of requests materialized right in front of him, rising so tall that he nearly felt his knees buckle just trying to look up to the top of the list. And when his gaze finally reached the first entry, he was completely stunned.

"What the—?!" Robin's eyes widened like full moons. "The top commission is worth 375 million energy pearls?! And the next few aren't much cheaper either… What is with these insane numbers? These are nearly twice the difficulty—and price—of the missions I saw during my first ever session in the Truth Room!"

<After your previous appearance, many of your clients leaked news that you had resumed taking Truth Commissions, proudly boasting that they owned techniques or creations marked with your personal seal,> the fairy explained, floating calmly. <Meanwhile, our internal promotion team—based on your instructions—leaked a statement saying that you now only review the most complex and highest-paying requests, while ignoring the lower-tier ones.>

She gave a subtle, mischievous smile. <Naturally, this led many high-tier cultivators across the mid-belt to submit missions they once thought unsolvable. They attached enormous rewards to them just to catch your attention. The top request, for instance, involves discovering and repairing the underlying fault in a severely ancient and malfunctioning merged law—something no one's been able to fix in thousands of years.>

"…Urghh." Robin groaned and dropped his forehead onto the small desk in front of him with a soft thud. "And just like that, all the distractions I cleared from my mind came rushing back. Should I just go to Specter Valley like I planned, or do I stay here for a few years to deal with this madness first?"

Then his eyes lit up a little. "Oh right—you mentioned I've got some mail?"