novelraw Chapter 254
Chapter 254
Perhaps because this section had been better preserved, the number of Blood Corpses was extremely sparse. Correspondingly, the strength of the formations they faced rose sharply.
After all, the Heavenly Soul Sect had once been one of the supreme forces of the ancient era.
Even though only a portion of its arrangements remained, it was still difficult for the two to fully break through them. The sect token was the correct method to proceed.
Half a stick of incense later.
Inside the Heavenly Soul Sect’s Scripture Pavilion.
As Wang Yu attempted to step forward, a faint gray barrier suddenly rose before him, blocking his path. The two exchanged glances, then simultaneously pressed their tokens upon it.
Ripples spread across the barrier like waves, and as they advanced, it engulfed them like water.
For an instant, his vision dimmed. Then Wang Yu realized he had arrived at the tenth floor, with Long Yiran’s figure nowhere to be seen.
The situation was clear. The number of layers one could enter depended on the identity token they possessed.
Taking a moment to observe this floor, he saw that pieces of jade slips were neatly hung upon the walls. The space inside was far more expansive than it appeared from outside. Most of the jade slips were gray-black in color, a sign that their power had long since faded.As expected, when Wang Yu reached out to touch one, it crumbled into powder and drifted away.
He sighed softly.
“Time truly is a terrifying power.”
The principle behind jade slip transmission lies in the divine sense inscriptions and insights engraved within. Cultivators often prepared them for convenience.
But when too much time passes, the divine sense within dissipates, and without timely replenishment, even the jade slip itself decays.
From this perspective, the most primitive recording methods were still the most reliable.
Sweeping through the area, Wang Yu found that most jade slips had indeed been damaged, though a few remained intact. When he infused his divine sense into one and absorbed all the information, the jade slip completed its final act of inheritance and turned to dust.
“Not bad.”
Just this alone was enough to make Wang Yu satisfied. Almost all of the contents were advanced techniques of divine sense manipulation, along with the insights of ancient cultivators.
Threading the Divine Sense, Soul Seizing Thought Extraction, Moving Objects with Will, Soul Impact, Meditation to Strengthen the Spirit, Commanding Spirits to Capture Ghosts, Soul Devouring and Thought Nurturing—the techniques were countless.
They completely refined his crude methods of divine sense usage. These high-level techniques were enough for him to study for a lifetime. They were true foundational treasures.
Though not offensive secret arts, the benefits were immense.
And this was merely a portion of what the Heavenly Soul Sect once held. It was unimaginable how deep their understanding of the Soul Path had been at their peak.
Aside from those divine sense techniques, there were also two secret arts: one complete fourth-rank art and one incomplete art of uncertain grade.
The former—Heavenly Infant Rebirth Possession Art.
A profoundly mysterious possession secret art that only Nascent Soul cultivators could use. According to its description, it allowed one to perfectly reshape their own body within another’s vessel.
Though it appeared to be a possession technique, in truth it was a rebirth through borrowing a body. Using it on a newborn infant produced the best results and could even extend one’s life by one hundred years—truly domineering.
One must know that ordinary possession techniques cannot extend a Nascent Soul cultivator’s lifespan. If one possessed a body at one thousand years old, they would still have only six hundred years remaining.
Yet this technique could seize the lifespan of the infant host.
Of course, it would only be effective the first time. Using it a second time would not merge the remaining lifespan again. Wang Yu doubted he would ever need to use such a technique, but it did not prevent him from learning it.
The latter—Soul-Destroying Death Light.
It was an incomplete Soul Path divine ability. The damage was not overly severe, and judging by Wang Yu’s experience, even the remnant portion retained the strength of a third-rank art.
If completed, it would at least reach fourth-rank, perhaps even higher.
After taking stock, joy spread across his face.
“The True Disciples of the Heavenly Soul Sect… did they really have such great authority, or was the owner of this token someone special?”
He leaned toward the latter possibility.
After finishing his search, he noticed a black octagonal stone platform in the middle of the floor. It was only knee-high, appearing to be a platform for meditation.
Ancient characters, blurred with age, were carved on its sides. After a long moment of careful scrutiny, Wang Yu’s eyes brightened in surprise.
“The complete Ancient Soul Art… it really is here.”
Fortunately, it had not been preserved in a jade slip, or he might not have been able to restore it.
After some hesitation, Wang Yu sat cross-legged upon the stone platform.
The Ancient Soul Art began to circulate on its own, as if something had been triggered. Each time he completed one full cycle, a new verse of scripture would naturally emerge within his mind.
They were precisely the contents of the third-rank portion. Realizing the wondrous function of the octagonal stone platform, Wang Yu sat quietly and continued cultivating, steadily completing the inheritance.
Until an unexpected change occurred.
Within the Niwan Palace.
This was the dwelling of the soul within the human body. All the divine sense Wang Yu had cultivated resided here. It appeared as a region shrouded in gray mist.
Hundreds of pitch-black paper boats drifted through the fog, circling around a brilliant blue light cluster that shimmered with multicolored radiance. The boats revolved unceasingly, forming a protective layer around it.
It was precisely the manifestation of the introductory stage of the Soul-Gouging Evil Boat Curse.
Around the azure light cluster was a ring of white light. That was the secret art Heavenly Soul One Qi cultivated by Wang Yu.
It could strengthen divine sense, protect the Niwan Palace from external evils, and even purify the mind. Truly, it was comprehensive beyond words.
At that moment, within the azure threads of light, there was a faint image of Wang Yu himself. It was not his divine soul, but the miraculous entity formed when the Ancient Soul Art reached perfection — the Ancient Soul.
As the cultivation method grew more complete, the Ancient Soul became increasingly radiant, its phantom gradually taking form. Yet with that advancement, crisis also followed.
In the mist that shrouded his Niwan Palace, faint rustling noises echoed. The feeling was familiar, as though someone were whispering into his ear.
He could not make out the words, but the sensation was maddeningly irritating. Wisps of black qi rose from the surface of Wang Yu’s Ancient Soul, transforming into malicious ghostly faces.
They howled as they scattered the divine sense around the Ancient Soul. The black paper boat and the Heavenly Soul One Qi gave no response, while Wang Yu’s consciousness suddenly widened in alarm.
Heavenly Demon Evil Intent.
He knew this power all too well, yet he never expected the inheritance of the Heavenly Soul Sect to be so closely linked to the legendary Heavenly Demons.
Soon after, the octagonal stone platform transmitted a method for refining the Heavenly Demon Evil Intent to increase the origin of the divine soul.
Wang Yu hesitated at once.
Having once cultivated the Demonic Embryo Mysterious Origin Curse, he deeply understood the terror of this evil thoughts.
A single mistake could lead to madness or corruption at best, or complete body takeover and annihilation at worst.
To ensure safety, he never actively absorbed Heavenly Demon Evil Intent to nourish his Demonic Embryo, instead relying only on passive growth through the Idle Slot.
“Demonic cultivation truly is extreme, but its effects are undeniably powerful.”
While he hesitated, the ghostly faces surrounding his Ancient Soul, failing to be refined, developed devouring intent and lunged at it.
“Damn it.”
Without hesitation, Wang Yu allocated all six of his idle slots to the current segment of the Ancient Soul Art to respond to the crisis.
As expected, with sixfold efficiency enhancement, the Heavenly Demon Evil Intents emerging from the void were captured one after another.
They condensed into black orbs, forming one hundred and eight in total, hanging around the Ancient Soul’s neck like a string of Buddhist prayer beads.
Wang Yu frowned deeply. Could it be that the Heavenly Soul Sect’s inheritance had connections to remnants of the Buddhist path? One came from the ancient era, the other from the archaic era. Tens of thousands of years apart, yet perhaps not impossible.
No one knew how long had passed when the octagonal stone platform’s inheritance was finally complete. Wang Yu immediately withdrew from cultivation, restoring his Idle Slots, though his expression was dark and complex.
He had succeeded.
The complete Ancient Soul Art was a fourth-rank high-grade Soul Dao technique, sufficient to allow a cultivator to temper divine sense to the fifth rank. However, its perfected effect was to refine the Ancient Soul into a Second Nascent Soul.
Using divine sense as the foundation, Heavenly Demon Evil Intent as the bones, and a portion of Wang Yu’s own soul as the root, it molded a Second Nascent Soul — a top-tier divine soul separation art of this world.
The two would share a single consciousness. If Wang Yu’s true body were destroyed, the Second Nascent Soul could transform into the main body.
It appeared incredibly powerful, but it touched upon Wang Yu’s greatest taboo.
The greatest danger of a secondary soul was developing an independent consciousness — and with Heavenly Demon Evil Intent as its core, rebellion was almost guaranteed.
To Wang Yu, the value of the Ancient Soul Art was greatly diminished.
“Sigh...”
Wang Yu exhaled deeply and slowly rose from the octagonal stone platform. If he wanted to control his Three Corpses in battle, his divine sense needed another breakthrough.
Otherwise, he could only control one third-rank corpse puppet at a time.
What could he do? He would just continue cultivating.
After all, perfection was impossible within a century or two. Without reaching the Nascent Soul Realm, the Second Nascent Soul could never be born.
Moreover, he believed that there might yet be a solution in the future. Among the arts utilizing Heavenly Demon Evil Intent, the Mysterious Origin Demonic Embryo was far more profound and elegant.
He did not know its true origin, but if he had the chance, he wished to personally ask the Nine-Sword Evil Lord.
With his cultivation method now complete, Wang Yu had also obtained several divine sense secret techniques, pill recipes, and soul artifact forging methods.
Most were upgraded versions derived from the second-rank Ancient Soul Art, mainly at the third rank. The fourth-rank techniques were fewer, and one even involved the Second Nascent Soul, better than nothing.
Searching Mountains, Hunting Demons — Third-rank: Ten Thousand Miles Manifestation.
The gray-white vision range was expanded, though the consumption increased. It allowed extremely detailed detection. Within range, even the wing patterns of a mosquito could be seen clearly.
Ordinary concealment arts were useless. It could penetrate most natural obstructions, such as earth, mountains, or thick fog.
Soul-Shattering Finger — Third-rank: Soul-Extinguishing Finger.
An upgraded version with much greater power. Its special trait was the ability to erase memory without harming the soul, provided control of strength was precise.
Heavenly Soul One Qi — Third-rank: Heavenly Soul One Qi.
As the method advanced, all his previous secret arts transitioned smoothly. Since Wang Yu had already cultivated them to perfection, his progress through the upgraded versions would be rapid.
Within a few months, he could achieve minor completion, a benefit of his accumulated foundation. After all, these were third-rank divine sense secret arts, not easily mastered.
Still, it was much faster than starting anew.
He was confident he could reach major completion within a decade or two. Achieving perfection, however, would depend on the Idle Slot, for he lacked the time and energy to manage all of it manually.
As for the pill recipes, they were increasingly precious. Some ingredients he had never even heard of. Yet to quickly break through the mid-third rank of divine sense, pill assistance was indispensable.
Regarding soul artifacts:
Glazed Soul Lamp — Third-rank, eighth-grade Soul Lotus Treasure Lamp.
Soul-Suppressing Seal — Third-rank, Nether Tiger Ghost Prison Seal.
Additionally, a new Scattering Soul Evil Whip and a fourth-rank soul artifact, Ancient Soul Sword, were all high-tier items that would be difficult to refine in the short term.