CHAPTER 770: CHAPTER 191: SOUL PATH VAST QI, KILLING SPIRIT TAI CHU

Zhou Yan speculated that if nothing had gone wrong, Zhou Lingyi’s bloodline was extremely peculiar and even transcended Lee Ran’s ability to freeze time, allowing him to see Lee Ran bestowing the inheritance on him and utter the words that led to his "erasure" and the reconfiguration of his soul.

This must have been a sort of Heavenly Heart Transformation of the soul. Thus, it made complete sense that Zhou Lingyi could later face Hou Ling’er’s Void Soul and not die but rather fully comprehend the situation.

But, beyond that, what did those words from Brother Lee Ran mean?

Zhou Yan showed a pondering expression.

Also, back at the Black Water River, Zhou Yan distinctly remembered seeing the anomaly of his brother rowing the boat and fainting, only to be awakened by Zhou Lingyi.

All of this seemed like a space-time rift, progressing bit by bit and converging at certain points.

"So that’s it, I think I understand the gist of it. The underworld, Sky-reaching River, Sword Ancestor."

Zhou Yan nodded slightly as he spoke to Liu Jin and Fang Hong.

His words, however, left everyone incapable of fully grasping the meaning.

"Let’s go, there’s no danger here anymore."

Zhou Yan said.

"Brother Zhou Yan, up ahead is the waters of the underworld that corrode everything..."

Liu Jin expressed his concern.

"It’s okay, let’s go, trust me, this time we can definitely enter the Nine Origin Soul Sea and should also be able to enter the Endless Ice Palace," Zhou Yan confidently said.

"Well, if Brother Zhou Yan says so, we all trust you, we’ll follow you."

Fang Hong hesitated slightly, but quickly resigned himself to fate.

As Fang Hong did, Liu Jin naturally didn’t harbor any doubts either and immediately committed as well. The Four Evil Kings didn’t have the slightest doubt at all, particularly since Zhou Yan had recovered most of Lei Yan King’s memories, vastly outpacing them.

Given they were prepared to die in this perilous place, they trusted Zhou Yan even more.

After all, with Zhou Yan’s current strength, killing them would be all too easy.

"Right, follow me,"

Seeing everyone’s trust, Zhou Yan felt a sense of gratification in his heart, yet the pressure also grew substantially.

The greater their trust in him, the more he needed to ensure their safety.

"Fairy Die, how is your soul strength now?"

Zhou Yan once again maneuvered the Black Chess to protect everyone, then released a wave of Original Soul Power to execute the Undying Rebirth Technique to heal Fairy Die, but now Zhou Yan’s own soul power was less than thirty percent, and he dared not forcibly deploy major moves.

"Lei Yan King, don’t waste your precious soul power for me; I’m alright. My foundation is solid, and having spent several days here, I’m somewhat accustomed to it, and my soul strength loss is less than thirty percent."

Fairy Die said nonchalantly.

However, after she finished talking, she quietly coughed up blood, clearly in a much more severe condition than she claimed.

Zhou Yan saw this and used his soul power to restore nearly twenty percent of her strength but stopped there. Despite having various Sword Bodies and formidable strength, soul power recovery was extremely slow here; Zhou Yan didn’t want to exhaust his soul power too quickly as then nobody could take over the guardianship from Black Chess.

...

Zhou Yan led the six people to the edge of the Black River, silently watching the river water which indeed still carried a white robe floating, but Zhou Yan took out a Heavenly Dao Soul Stone and activated it with Tai Chu Rune and soul power.

The Soul Stone suddenly transformed into a Lonely Boat, appearing in the void.

"Come aboard, Fairy Die, come by my side."

Zhou Yan said, stepping onto the Lonely Boat first.

Then, Fang Hong, Liu Jin, and Fairy Die among others also boarded the boat one after another.

The Lonely Boat was a pitch-black color, its inner space was not large, but hosting seven people did not seem cramped.

In front of the boat, Zhou Yan stood like a lonely crane, with Fairy Die quietly beside him, her light green dress and faint glowing light wings giving her a spiritual yet fragile appearance.

The dress fluttered lightly with the wind, the hems floating, and a faint scent blending into the deep black around them.

The Lonely Boat slowly traversed the Black Water River, heading for the other side. As the water flowed, it gradually grew turbulent, with various Evil Spirits and Ghost Shadows appearing faintly.

Saint Yao, Turquoise Pool, and the likes of Evil King and Liu Jin were quite nervous, but Zhou Yan remained calm; these malicious entities could not come close to the boat.

After about half an hour, having crossed through darkness, the black water in front finally turned light blue, making the Ten Thousand Ghosts Sword Tomb even more distant and indistinguishable.

The black sky gradually turned blue, with more and more thunder energy in the sky.

"Thunderflame Breaking Path Mountain’s Thunderflame Soul Sea? So it is here, it seems the breeding ground has adopted the style of various divine and extraordinary desolate lands, thus preventing the higher-ups from peering in,"zhou Yan muttered to himself.

"So, the Endless Ice Palace... Lei Yan Continent? Could it be that my formidable power on the Lei Yan Continent was because my soul level inherently restrained theirs?"

Zhou Yan pondered, feeling that it seemed unlikely.

The Lonely Boat sailed into the azure Heaven and Earth; this place was clearly the Nine Origin Soul Sea. Through the azure light screen, Zhou Yan saw countless Cultivators’ souls shattered, reconvening here to form this place’s pure soul energy.

The Heavenly Dao Soul Stone transformed the Lonely Boat, impervious to the Soul Sea’s harm; Zhou Yan’s Devouring Sword Body, in turn, could absorb some of the external pure soul energy, speeding up his recovery.

"The Heavenly Mechanism and the Heavenly Dao Soul Stone can shield against the malice of Thunder Flame Breaking Path Mountain, and the same should apply here. Thus, I should seize this opportunity to restore my soul energy and prepare for the upcoming crisis."

Zhou Yan muttered to himself, realizing that not absorbing the pure soul energy here would be wasteful. The key was that the Lonely Boat was free to navigate temporarily, uncontrolled and moving forward autonomously. Black Chess gradually stabilized, and the Guardian Light, together with the Lonely Boat, formed a quiet shielding light screen.

"It’s dangerous outside this area, don’t release your soul energy, nor extend your sensing power. I’ll use this opportunity to recover. If anything unusual occurs, the internal channel of Black Chess can transmit sound to awaken me."

Zhou Yan said.

Everyone immediately became serious and followed Zhou Yan’s orders. Fang Hong and Liu Jin were particularly mindful, ready to alert at the first sign of any anomaly.

...

Pure soul energy was indeed a great nourishment for the soul.

The Devouring Sword Body felt almost divinely assisted here, with various kinds of pure soul energy gathering bit by bit, then transforming into energy as clear as springwater under Zhou Yan’s Emperor Qi Dragon Swallowing Sky Divine Skill.

For now, this part of the Soul Sea was also peaceful, but outside the Soul Sea, lightning began to flash, and thunder rumbled, heralding the arrival of endless Void Thunder Tribulations, much like inside Thunder Flame Breaking Path Mountain.

Yet, no Ghost Fox appeared here; rather, this kind of Heavenly Tribulation could even annihilate the Ghost Fox.

This was also the origin of the Tai Chu Heavenly Tribulation, the Land of Origin, seemingly the divine land of Thunder Pool where Heavenly Tribulation was born.

Zhou Yan’s soul, initially absorbing droplets of pure soul energy, soon had vast amounts of pure soul energy pouring into him. In less than an hour, his soul’s depletion had fully recovered.

But the process had not stopped yet.

First, Zhou Yan released a wave of soul power to perform a powerful Nirvana Rebirth Technique, fully restoring Fairy Die’s depleted soul; only then did he continue to condense the pure energy of the Soul Sea.

This time, Zhou Yan’s Soul Sea did not increase in size at all but rather its density became more refined, akin to a massive ocean proportionally shrunk into a palm-sized lake. However, the grandeur of vast waves continued to exist.

This transformation had devoured energy over ninety-nine times that of Zhou Yan’s soul.

Subsequently, the soul energy was devoured again, pouring back in to form an oceanic waterfall-esque anomaly.

However, the Soul Sea underwent no changes; this was perceivable only by the state of soul energy. Those around Zhou Yan, having heeded his word, did not use soul sensing to explore and only felt a sudden oddity in the Heaven and Earth.

But this place was inherently bizarre, so such odd occurrences were not out of the ordinary.

After Zhou Yan’s Soul Sea underwent transformation, it began devouring endless soul energy again. After undergoing 9,999 times the soul energy multiplier, the Soul Sea once more shrank, morphing into a Sea of Hongmeng Vast Qi.

It was still a Soul Sea, but within the Sea, it was not soul liquid, but Soul Path Vast Qi.

Before, Zhou Yan did not understand what Vast Qi was, but at that moment, he suddenly understood; it was Soul Path Vast Qi.

The Soul Sea had transformed into endless Vast Qi.

Then, the soul continued to devour the energy and soul liquid in this azure Thunder Soul Sea, the purple Vast Qi endlessly densifying, reaching a limit, after undergoing 999,999 times the soul strength multiplier, the Soul Sea Vast Qi morphed into a Soul of Vast Qi Soul Liquid.

It was a dead-water-like Black Water, the Yellow Springs, the Black Water River, and the Sky-reaching River Water, also the Vast Qi Soul Liquid of the Soul Sea.

At this moment, Zhou Yan was shockingly enlightened, suddenly comprehending the inheritance of ’Soul Path Vast Qi, Tai Chu Killing Spirit’ – he had inexplicably inherited it.

Yet, he had a very peculiar feeling, as if the Black Water of the Sky-reaching River, the Yellow Springs... were originally meant to be manifested by his own Soul Path Vast Qi, feeling like he was merely reclaiming what belonged to him!

This feeling startled Zhou Yan, and he suddenly withdrew from his cultivation state.

"We’ve passed through the Nine Origin Soul Sea, truly passed through. Just now, with the flashing of electric light and the appearance of endless Slaughter Qi accompanying the Void Heavenly Tribulation, everything suddenly disappeared, as if faced with the most terrifying thing."

Fang Hong breathed a sigh of relief and explained to Zhou Yan.

"Soul Path Vast Qi, Tai Chu Killing Spirit. They encountered Tai Chu Killing Spirit, so they receded."

Zhou Yan casually replied.

"Eh? What did you say?"

Fang Hong was a bit puzzled.

"It’s nothing, just thinking aloud. But I can ensure that from here, I can safely get you all out."

Zhou Yan confidently stated.

This confidence stemmed from his primordial soul becoming Tai Chu Killing Spirit. A Tai Chu Killing Spirit is none other than the Divine Tao of Slaughter, the Spirit of Slaughter.

Coupled with the Twelve Forms of War Beast Sword Soul, should a soul battle arise, any Ghost Fox appearing would have but one path—death!