The moment the portal vanished behind him, Paul took some pills to recover his qi and drank a mana potion to recover his mana.
He didn't do so earlier because his reincarnation soul warned him that the portal would be opened for at most a few seconds, so there was no time to waste.
-Alright, Sei, where do I go now?
Paul asked, as he stood in a long corridor with dozens of doors on both sides, and he could not even see the end of the corridor.
Only now did he understand why his reincarnation soul said that it would take a couple of days to retrieve the soul treasures, as the stash turned out to be a massive warehouse complex.
-You have a lot of walking ahead of you.
I'll tell you where to stop and which doors to enter.
Lord Sei answered.
-I figured that part out already.
You said that it was a stash, but this is a whole warehouse complex.
Paul shook his head at the understatement he was witnessing.
-It is just a stash, and do try to remember that I had many more ladies than you do, and this place was prepared so that I could supply all of us for a minimum of a century.
Additionally, the few wives of mine who had access here also added many items, and we had thousands of years to accumulate stuff, so it grew to this size over time.
The soul explained.
-Do I even want to know what is in these rooms?
Paul asked, looking at the doors as he passed by.
-Weapons, armor, food, alchemy ingredients, ores, pills, potions, scrolls, books, money, clothes, and everything else we deemed to be a good idea to stash for an emergency.
-Then why don't we use these things?
From what you told me, the situation you and your family are in is definitely an emergency.
-Mostly because I would need a body to use any of it, and you are all too weak to use these items.
When I established this place, I never thought I'd be murdered and reincarnated.
Even less probable was a scenario in which I would need anything usable in the mortal realm, so almost everything here is prepared to be of use in the ninth realm and above.
The idea was to prepare in case our enemies united against us and somehow managed to destroy everything else, which was unlikely, but remained a possibility.
Sei explained his reasoning.
-You said that there were a few wives of yours who had access to this place.
Was Su Yao one of them?
Paul asked, a bit nervously.
He knew that there was no way for him to face an enemy like that and survive
-No, Yao never had access to the stash, and she never even knew that it existed in the first place.
This was something only a few of my ladies knew about, as I didn't want anyone outside the family to know about this place, and some of my ladies had a hard time keeping secrets.
After an hour of walking, Paul started to wonder just how big this stash was, as he had already walked past at least hundreds, if not over a thousand, doors at this point, and there was still no end in sight.
-At this pace, it would take you at least three days to reach the end of this corridor.
Sei explained when Paul asked about it.
-Fortunately, it won't take that long to reach the room we need.
He added.
It took another eight hours of walking before Sei told Paul to stop and enter the room to his left.
The room he entered was gigantic, at least ten times larger than the imperial treasury and filled from wall to wall with shelves.
-This has to be a joke.
Paul said seeing tens of thousands of items, stacking the shelves.
-It's no joke.
Sei assured him.
-This is one of the smaller rooms in the stash, and every item here is a soul treasure that has no soul inside.
-How the hell did you manage to get so many?
The human asked.
-You told me that these things were rare.
-They are rare, but as usual, you are forgetting that I lived for a very long time.
I accumulated a lot of treasures through my travels.
The reincarnation soul said with a sigh.
-Alright, let's get what we came here for and get out.
Paul said, not wanting to discuss this at the moment.
It took a while before Sei found the items he was looking for.
A box containing a pendant shaped like a peacock, and a bracelet made of small onyx balls, with golden runes engraved into each one.
-These two will be enough for now, and if we need more, then we can always come back.
The soul said and asked Paul to wear the bracelet.
The moment he put it on his hand, he felt like something was being removed from his body.
This feeling lasted for only about a minute before it ended, leaving him with a sensation of losing something.
-Don't worry, it was only the remainder of my soul entering the bracelet.
Sei explained.
-But are you not a part of my soul?
Paul asked, a bit disturbed by this, since he always thought that they were the same soul.
-Partially, I am, but since I now moved to this bracelet, our souls became separated.
From now on, you won't get any more of my memories, and I won't be assimilated by you.
The downside is that both our souls are now slightly damaged.
-What does that mean?
Paul asked, not liking the part about his soul being damaged.
-In the long run, it only means a bit slower cultivation speed for you, but it won't come to that.
There should be some soul-restoring dew in another room, which you can use to regenerate your soul.
Lord Sei explained.
-Then what about you?
Paul asked.
-I can't drink it, but you don't need to worry.
All I need is some time to regenerate my soul.
This made sense, but it didn't stop Paul from worrying.
With the two items in his possession, they left the room, and Sei told him to go further inside the stash to find the soul-restoring dew, as Paul would not be the only one who needed it.
It also puzzled him a bit, since Sei said that he could not use anything from the stash as he was too weak.
-The dew does not work on your body, but on your soul, so there is no strength requirement to use it.
The soul explained, when Paul asked about it.
Six hours of walking later, they entered another room which was as big as the previous one, if not even bigger.
The shelves in this room were stacked with vials of transparent liquid.
-You really need to explain your definition of rare items to me.
Paul said when he heard that every vial in this room contained the Soul-restoring dew, which, by the words of Lord Sei, was a rare and valuable item.
-As I said, I lived a very long life, and whenever I had the opportunity, I collected anything that could be useful.
The soul said.
-Now stop overthinking things and drink a vial to restore your soul.
Paul did as he was instructed.
The liquid tasted like water, but was way thicker, resembling jelly.
As soon as he drank it, his body started glowing with white light.
That lasted for only a moment, but after the light disappeared, Paul could feel his mana and qi move more easily through his body, and it became much purer than usual.
-Your soul is now fully restored.
The reincarnation soul stated, seeing the changes in Paul.
-Grab a few more vials.
Su will need one to restore her soul, and it would not hurt to give one to every one of your ladies.
Additionally, you can sell a vial or two in the beginning realm if you run out of money.
Lord Sei added.
Without hesitation, Paul grabbed around a hundred vials and placed them in his storage space.
-Is that all we need, or is there another room we need to visit?
He asked after storing the precious liquid.
-There is one more place I wan't to visit since we are already here, but it won't take long.
Came the answer.
As the soul said, it didn't take too long, as half an hour later, Paul entered another room, this one filled with jade tablets, most of which were broken.
-Are these…
-Yes, these are soul tablets of my wives.
The soul confirmed, before he could finish his question.
They walked among the broken tablets, finding a few that were still intact here and there.
-I'm glad to see that some of them managed to survive.
Lord Sei said, seeing around two dozen whole tablets among hundreds of broken ones.