Stronger with Crimson Modifier

Chapter 213 - 209: Spirit Realm [2]

In the room.

The moment Hu Qi spoke, the gazes of the several people present snapped toward him.

"You don’t even know about the Spirit Realm Sea Eye?"

Shi Xiao, who had been sitting across the round table, glanced at Hu Qi.

As he said this, a look of sudden realization dawned on his face, as if he had just remembered something.

"I forgot. You only just became a Speaker. You’ve been hiding your Cultivation and fumbling around on your own all this time, so it’s only natural you wouldn’t know about these things."

Although his words seemed understanding, anyone could detect the obvious mockery in his tone.

Clearly, he was still holding a grudge over their last encounter.

In his view, if Hu Qi hadn’t deliberately hidden his Cultivation,

the two of them never would have gone looking for trouble with him. Naturally, they wouldn’t have suffered such a humiliation, nor would they have needlessly lost so many Spiritual Materials and Treasure Medicine.

While this loss was nothing to the Sword Pavilion, it was still irksome.

Hearing this, Hu Qi didn’t respond right away. Instead, he shot Shi Xiao a strange look.

This gaze made Shi Xiao very uncomfortable, and his brow furrowed slightly.

Before he could say anything, Hu Qi finally spoke slowly.

"Why does a grown man like you have to be so passive-aggressive, like some whiny woman? Could it be that the Secret Martial Arts you cultivate in the Sword Pavilion have some kind of side effect?"

"Hmph? Say that again..."

Shi Xiao’s eyes hardened, his expression turning ugly.

As he spoke, the Stone Sword slung across his back trembled slightly, as if it would fly from its sheath at any moment.

"Heh! So what if I say it again? You’ve provoked me time and again. Do you really think I wouldn’t dare to kill you?!"

Hu Qi’s face suddenly turned cold, his frigid expression sending a chill down one’s spine.

In that instant, a powerful aura unique to the Refining God Dharma Aspect Realm surged from his body like a violent tide.

Behind him, the faint, colossal shadow of a serpent slowly materialized.

The serpent shadow seemed like a top-tier Hunter from the unknown void, radiating a heart-pounding aura.

The shadow’s body coiled and writhed, each scale glinting with a dark, blood-red light, as if carved from the hardest of gemstones.

Its blood-red eyes flickered with a cold glint that seemed capable of piercing through anything.

With the serpent shadow’s appearance, the surrounding Heaven and Earth Primordial Energy, which had been flowing gently, was now drawn in as if by a powerful force, surging toward it like a tidal wave.

The Primordial Energy roared like a rushing river, flooding toward Hu Qi and the serpent shadow.

Around the serpent shadow, the Primordial Energy formed a massive vortex, spinning ceaselessly and emitting waves of rumbling sounds.

An invisible pressure descended like a heavy, dark cloud, threatening to solidify the very air.

’This aura... it’s a Dharma Aspect?’

Seeing this, Shi Xiao’s pupils contracted slightly.

’Then again, without this level of Cultivation, he couldn’t have blocked my Divine Power Intent Sword before.’

To the side, the other Speakers also wore strange expressions as they looked over.

They had assumed Hu Qi was merely at the Self-Phase Realm. Never had they imagined he had actually reached the Dharma Realm.

With this level of strength, he couldn’t be considered weak, even among the ranks of Refining God experts.

He had simply hidden it far too well.

A strange thought arose in their minds: could there be other Refining God experts like Hu Qi hiding within the Xia Federation?

Before, they would never have believed such a thing possible. After all, why would a being like a Refining God be content to stay in a mere Middle-tier School?

Whether for available resources or access to information, revealing one’s strength to become a Speaker was a far more profitable path.

But now, with this oddball right in front of them, they had no choice but to believe it was possible.

According to the information they had gathered, just a few months ago, he was still just a Martial Artist.

A Refining God Venerable disguising himself as a Martial Artist—it was truly hard to imagine.

"That’s enough! We are all Speakers of the Xia Federation and masters of our respective Schools. We should treat each other with respect. I hope something like this does not happen again."

Xuanqing, who had been standing to the side, finally spoke up, breaking the tense atmosphere.

At this, Shi Xiao snorted coldly, and the Stone Sword on his back stopped trembling.

Hu Qi also retracted his aura, and the enormous, terrifying serpent shadow behind him faded away like an ephemeral illusion.

Xuanqing continued.

"It is normal for a young friend who has just joined to be unaware of such secrets."

"The Spirit Realm Sea Eye is the only entrance to the Spirit Realm. As for what the Spirit Realm actually is, you can think of it as another dimensional space, distinct from the physical world. It is a domain that ordinary humans cannot easily touch or comprehend.

For example, it is the space where spiritual bodies reside.

It is also the realm of dreams, which ordinary people can only touch or see under special circumstances..."

As Xuanqing explained, information about the Spirit Realm slowly unfolded before Hu Qi like a magnificent, vibrant scroll.

The Spirit Realm, as its name suggests, is another kind of dimensional space.

The part of the Spirit Realm where souls reside is merely its most basic layer, and this layer has another name: the Mind Realm.

The Mind Realm, naturally, is born from the mind. This realm is sustained by every living creature in the world.

If all life were to die out, the Mind Realm would naturally cease to exist.

In fact, any Refining God Venerable can perceive the existence of the Mind Realm.

The Power of the Heart, for example, can be used to invade another person’s Spiritual World.

It was just that Hu Qi hadn’t known this before.

However, the Mind Realm cannot be considered the true Spirit Realm, only an outward manifestation of it.

The true Spirit Realm is the original birthplace or source of all living souls, which is one reason for its name. It has another name as well: the Sea of Sumeru.

It is a collective consciousness of souls in a higher-dimensional space, like a vast, boundless ocean.

Countless souls are born from the Spirit Realm, then cast themselves into various worlds to take on different forms of life.

You could say the true Spirit Realm is the "nursery of souls."

Its existence provides the foundation for souls for all life in the universe.

The waters of the Sea of Sumeru flow through countless universes and spacetimes.

For some powerful beings or special Power Users, they can enter the Sea of Sumeru through a Spirit Realm Sea Eye, thereby ignoring the barriers of space and time and following its waters to traverse different universes and spacetimes.

In a way, the Sea of Sumeru is itself a special channel connecting different worlds and dimensions.

However, the Sea of Sumeru is very difficult to access.

For ordinary creatures, only after death does the wisp of the Light of the Soul they contain return to the Sea of Sumeru. Only after its waters wash away the impurities of memory contained within,

can it, by some twist of fate, be cast into another world in what is known as reincarnation.

Under normal circumstances, even a Refining God Venerable would find it difficult to touch the true Spirit Realm.

This is why it is necessary to find a Spirit Realm Sea Eye.

Only through a Spirit Realm Sea Eye can one access the Sea of Sumeru.

"So by finding a Spirit Realm Sea Eye, if we can’t defeat the Black Blood Species, we can use it to leave Earth Star and travel to other worlds?"

Hu Qi’s eyes flickered. This information was beyond his expectations.

"Correct. But so far, we still haven’t discovered the location of that Spirit Realm Sea Eye!"

Xuanqing said.

"Over the past two centuries, we have searched nearly every place on the surface, except for a few hidden locations on the seabed.

However, that possibility is extremely small. As the final destination of life and souls, a Spirit Realm Sea Eye is unlikely to appear in a place devoid of life.

Therefore, there is only one possibility left: the Spirit Realm Sea Eye is at the Earth Core, or it doesn’t exist at all."

Hearing this, Hu Qi frowned.

"If no one has ever seen it, then who spread this information, and how do you know about it? How can you be sure this so-called Sea of Sumeru even exists?"

Hu Qi could feel the other man’s gaze lock onto him the moment he asked the question.

"This information comes from the Miwu Civilization. The most elite individuals of that era discovered the existence of the Spirit Realm. Unfortunately, they didn’t have time to explore it..."

Xuanqing said lightly, then paused before continuing.

"Furthermore, the reason I am certain the Spirit Realm exists is because I am not originally from this world. I was reincarnated into this world through the Sea of Sumeru."

Even with Hu Qi’s temperament, hearing such a secret for the first time caused his expression to change slightly.

’Reincarnated? Could it be that this man is a transmigrator, just like me?’

However, the man’s following explanation made him realize that was not the case.

According to Xuanqing, after his Cultivation reached a certain level, he awakened some memories from his past life.

While such cases are rare, they are not unheard of.

For instance, when ordinary creatures die, the wisp of the Light of the Soul they contain returns to the Sea of Sumeru.

After the waters of the Sea of Sumeru wash away the memories contained within, it becomes a pure, flawless Light of the Soul to be reincarnated.

But this process is not absolute.

Occasionally, some beings with immense power or special souls appear.

The Light of the Soul of these beings is exceptionally strong.

It can endure the scouring of the Sea of Sumeru for a long time.

Before the memories contained within the Light of the Soul are completely cleansed by the waters of the Sea of Sumeru, it enters another world and is reincarnated.

Such beings exist in the real world.

They are known as those who have awakened their Innate past-life wisdom.