Void Cultivation

Chapter 313 - 312

Here’s a corrected and expanded version of your passage, keeping your style but tightening grammar, fixing inconsistencies, and adding depth to the lore and tension:

"Thirty-two Spirit Lotus Talismans, and other items that can temporarily increase the amount of spirit energy in my sea of consciousness," Grey said in a low voice after finishing his count of the small pile before him.

They included several Spirit Lotus Talismans, a few auxiliary spells that could boost the density of spirit energy around him, and some rare artifacts capable of forcefully drawing ambient spirit energy into his body at an accelerated rate.

Alongside these, Grey held a small piece of cloth in his hand. It was not part of the pile on the ground; it had just been retrieved from his storage ring.

At first glance, it looked like nothing more than a torn fragment of fabric—no larger than a rag. Ordinary. Forgettable.

But at this moment, a faint golden glow pulsed softly from its surface.

As that light shimmered, an ancient, oppressive aura spread into the surroundings.

Divinity.

The moment Grey held it properly, his expression subtly shifted. A strange pressure seeped into his body, causing his very soul to react.

His sea of consciousness trembled slightly. The spirit perforations within him instinctively recoiled. Even the brilliant flames of his Spirit Fire dimmed faintly, as though bowing in suppression.

When he was still in the Qi Accumulation realm, divinity had been something distant—rare, untouchable, belonging only to beings far above him. Creatures infused with divinity were not measured by normal realms. Hunting them required entire factions, and even then, success was never guaranteed.

Back then, he had avoided using such power not because he lacked it, but because it was dangerous.

Divinity attracted greed.

And greed always attracted death.

Even before the descent of gods, humanity had been like this. Now, in a world turned upside down, it was even worse—no different from primal beasts tearing each other apart in the dark.

Grey had eventually stored the cloth away and forgotten about it entirely.

Until now.

Because this fragment... was something he had taken from a Devil Race member he killed in Sky Mist City.

That opponent had escaped using a teleportation talisman, but not before Grey managed to rip away his storage ring and leave him critically wounded.

Inside that storage ring had been countless treasures—but among them, this cloth stood out.

At the time, Grey had not been strong enough to understand it. So he left it untouched.

But now, holding it again, something felt... wrong.

The divinity on it had changed.

When he first obtained it two years ago, only a small corner had carried that golden divine trace. The rest had been inert.

But now—

Almost the entire cloth was saturated in divine intent.

Grey’s brows slowly furrowed.

"That’s impossible..." he muttered in a low, hollow voice. "When I first got it, only a fragment contained divinity. Now it’s spread across the entire thing..."

He stared at it with deep focus.

And then he felt it.

A call.

Not loud. Not physical.

Something deeper—like the divinity embedded within the cloth was trying to reach outward... trying to summon something across impossible distance.

Grey’s eyes narrowed.

But this world was not normal.

It lay at the bottom of the Dead Sea, wrapped in layers of concealment so thick that even divine senses could not easily penetrate it. Worse still, it existed within the inner reality of a Soul Ascendancy realm expert.

Unless reality itself permitted it, nothing could cross in or out.

"Could it be..." Grey’s gaze darkened. "While it was inside my storage ring, the divinity mutated... and developed a will?"

He paused, then slowly lowered the cloth.

It fell to the ground like ordinary fabric.

No reaction.

No surge.

No anomaly.

Just stillness.

"...Or is it like that purple scythe?" he muttered.

"No," he corrected himself almost immediately. "That spirit didn’t ’gain’ sentience. It awakened. It already had a broken soul."

His eyes shifted slightly, narrowing.

"Without a soul... true sentience shouldn’t be possible."

A faint silence settled.

Then Grey’s hand moved.

The purple scythe was taken out of his storage ring.

The moment it appeared, an overwhelming aura erupted outward—wild, ancient, and sharp enough to make Foundation Establishment cultivators instinctively feel fear. It carried a pressure that bordered on Spirit Core Formation.

But Grey didn’t even blink.

He snorted coldly in his heart and flicked the blade lightly with a finger.

Bang.

A dull, resonant sound echoed inside the weapon.

"Aye! What are you doing?!" a voice immediately snapped. "Ah-wait! It’s you! I thought you had died since you stopped bringing me out!"

A faint spirit gradually formed along the surface of the blade.

It had a humanoid shape, but its most striking feature was its six eyes, each one pitch-black, filled with a deep, chaotic malevolence.

Yet the moment its gaze landed on Grey, that hostility quietly settled and silent fawning appeared in it’s eyes. But the spirit forced it’s emotions to settle down.

Grey ignored its complaints.

"Look at that piece of cloth," he said calmly. "Tell me. Has it gained sentience?"

The spirit turned its gaze.

Then looked back at him.

"No," it answered immediately. "It has not gained sentience... yet."

Grey raised a brow.

Seeing his expression, the spirit let out a short chuckle. Seemingly seeing the opportunity to improve Grey’s image of it, it explained in a calm way.

"What I mean is, it has not yet formed the will of the divine being it originates from."

It tilted slightly, continuing in a more serious tone.

"What you’re feeling is not true divinity. It is an aura of divinity, an imprint left behind."

"But the original source... must be unimaginably powerful. Powerful enough that even its residual aura can persist and evolve."

Grey remained silent.

The spirit continued when it saw that Grey did not interrupt it.

"If left long enough, that aura will continue to accumulate intent. Eventually, it may give birth to a faint will."

"And once that happens..." its voice lowered slightly, "it will no longer be just a cloth carrying divinity."

"It will become a divine artifact."

Grey’s eyes sharpened as he spoke.

"...And it could even summon the original divine being?"

The spirit nodded slowly.

"Yes. At that stage, the artifact and its source become loosely connected across space and existence. The new will... will be like an extension of the divine entity"

A faint pause followed. Although Grey was alarmed by what he heard, he knew what the spirit was talking about. The cloth would eventually turn into an avatar of the divine entity. Obtaining similar divine powers and might. And all this would happen from the aura of a divine entity.

’But why am I surprised, after all, the captain had once sacrificed her body to be used as an avatar for a divine entity to descend. I should be used to this. ’Grey said in his mind.

Then the spirit sighed inwardly.

’That was the level I once stood at... unfortunately, it crumbled away as soon as I died.’

But instead of respect and awe, Grey’s expression darkened further.

"Are you certain?" he asked slowly. "Because if that’s true... then what I felt wasn’t just a pull."

His eyes narrowed.

"It tried to reach beyond this world."

A heavy silence dropped.

The spirit’s smile vanished.

"...What?"

Grey’s voice turned colder.

"And it failed," he said. "Because this place is sealed. Even divinity cannot cross it freely."

A beat passed.

Then...

"WHAT?!"