Several hours later, Vincent opened his eyes and slowly exhaled.
He got a bit close to the 4th Stage is Soul Refinement, but he didn't care as this was not the goal.
All he wanted is simply to slightly increase his soul force and stabilize his mind before everything begins because he'll not be able to stop in the middle or all his work will be wasted if he cuts in the middle.
Vincent glanced at his hands.
He has no idea how his body will handle the Body Tempering reverse process, but something tells him that whatever the result would be, the sight of it will definitely not be a pleasant one.
Vincent clenched his hands and gathered all his courage, all his willpower and all his dreams and desires.
It is now, or never.
The next moment, he touched his both palms to each other.
Shivers began to run rampant throughout his body as his long messy hair started to lift up.
The green grass beside him began to burn as well as the tree trunk he was leaning onto.
Soon, a circle area of several metres around him also began to wither and turn dead.
Vincent appearance suddenly started to change.
From healthy pink, his face began to turn pale, though his expression remained the same. Tranquil.
His body also started to make a noticeable change.
Vincent's muscles were slowly… shrinking.
His teeth were clenched, his hands that were set together, trembling.
His physical appearance gradually became quite… horrifying to look at.
But his mind was tranquil and focused.
This was just the beginning.
Unnoticeable to Vincent, several figures stood far away from him and observed this very rare scene.
All of them had one thing in common.
Though they had calm expressions on their faces, inwardly they were all shocked.
It was not just from the sight of Vincent's change, but also due to the fact that someone was actually willing to do something like this to themselves.
Even if Vincent knew that he had people watching him, he wouldn't care.
His full focus was not on finishing dissolving entirety of his Body Tempering cultivation by driving, sucking as much force from it as he can and redirect it towards his cracked essence seed.
1 minute… 10 minutes… an hour…
Two hours later, Vincent's body was unrecognisable.
It looked like a withered tree or a very sick old man who was on his last breath.
But one part of his body was looking somewhat normal.
It was a part where his essence seed resided.
'My 3 stages of Body Tempering cultivation are successfully gone…'
As he had assumed, this wasn't enough to fix his essence seed.
Vincent stayed relatively calm and tranquil due to this fact.
If it was any other normal person, he or she wouldn't even last a few minutes and would fall short in the middle due to the extreme pain that such a process requires.
But Vincent had handled a much more dire process before so this wasn't much of a surprise.
'Now the second phase…'
His Soul Refinement stages.
Vincent took a deep breath.
He needs to act quickly or else the force derived from dissolving his Body Tempering stages, would soon vanish.
If it happens, there is nothing to save him.
Well, he'll die soon anyway if he fails, so Vincent didn't care at all about this.
Thus the second phase of his dissolving process was much more difficult than the first one.
Dissolving his soul force will require him staying sane, focused and conscious all time as he brutally forces his soul power from his mind towards his chest and then to his essence seed.
This will require a concentration a step higher compared to the process of reaching 3rd stage in Body Tempering that he successfully went through not too long ago.
But he had no other choice as this was just a second phase of the three.
Though the third phase is not as hard as the previous two, it will require something he never tried before.
It is to forcibly drive out power from his life itself.
Dissolution of his lifespan.
Lythaera had thought him how to do it which made him shocked how much force can be sucked out from just a few years of a person's lifespan.
It was no wonder that High Elves are so feared and revered by other races as they are considered immortal beings with limitless lifespan.
Though the price of such a thing is unknown to others, except a few, and it will definitely be immense.
Vincent steadied his mind and began the second phase.
Immediately, a sharp pain assaulted his soul the moment he began.
But he prevailed.
He had to.
Vincent can't stop, neither would he wish to.
The pain was something he yet to experience.
He gradually recalled Alisia and their future together, to give him another stimulation.
It worked.
1 minute… 10 minutes…
One hour later, Vincent had opened his eyes.
They were blank, almost devoid of life. But it was still there.
It was a success.
His chest was now filled with two different forces of power, and it was burning, almost on the verge of explosion.
But Vincent didn't finish yet.
Now was the last, 3rd phase.
This is to sacrifice his lifespan.
And the more the better.
This process didn't require handling pain or extreme focus, but rather courage and determination, because even if he succeeds and his essence seed will be fixed, he will have only a few years of life left.
And to fix this issue, he'll have to progress in his new hybrid path quickly to obtain some boost in lifespan that the stages will provide.
It wasn't an easy choice, but not for him in his current situation.
Lythaera had told him that due to his odd blood that was in between Royalty's and High Elves's, he can actually partially use High Elves's ability to transform their lifespan into force and use it at will.
This was unexpected and very reassuring news for Vincent.