Volume 1, Chapter 400 – Nascent Soul

Towering cold-iron ramparts wrapped around magnificent palaces that rose like a sea of clouds.

Following behind a disciple of Yunlai Immortal Palace, Shi Lan walked among the halls as if treading on clouds.

Dense spiritual qi spread through the void like the tide, stirring layer upon layer of energy vortices.

Suppressing her increasingly active Innate Spiritual Body, Shi Lan slowly made her way deeper into the palace complex.

Only she was allowed to enter the Yunlai Immortal Realm, so she had not brought Tianbai with her.

After a while, a black-iron gateway appeared before Shi Lan. A middle-aged woman sat cross-legged in the void, dressed plainly, her head full of silver hair tied into a single tail that hung behind her.

Shi Lan’s palm tightened slightly. She did not even need to look to sense a terrifying mass of blood and qi lying dormant there, far stronger than Canglong’s.

This was a dreadful powerhouse who had gone an extremely long way down the martial path, but her life essence was not especially abundant, and there was already a faint trace of decline about her body.

“Venerable Song, please open the gate and send this person into the Yunlai Immortal Realm.”

The disciple leading the way stepped forward, bowed respectfully, and offered up a jade scroll with both hands.

The woman seated in the void slowly opened her eyes. Deep within her gaze, one could faintly see reflected a vast starry vault of heaven.

Lowering her eyes, she drew the jade scroll into her hand and then flicked her sleeve, shaking the gate open.

Rumble…

Rеαⅾ оո КаtReαԁіnɡСαfe

The black-iron doors slowly opened, and spiritual qi so dense it was almost mist flowed out.

“You have only one month. You are not to touch the spiritual herbs inside. Once your time is up, even if you are at a critical point in cultivation, I will bring you out. Judge for yourself.”

A voice transmission sounded in Shi Lan’s mind, offering her a warning.

Shi Lan cupped her hands in salute, then strode through the gateway.

The woman seated in the void closed her eyes again. The black-iron doors slowly shut, cutting off the two worlds from one another.

…

Hearing the doors close, Shi Lan turned back for a glance. The gateway had already vanished without a trace. Before her stretched a forested landscape, with spiritual qi gathering into clouds.

Rare spiritual herbs, seldom seen in the outside world, were almost everywhere. At a glance, every one of them was at least several hundred or even several thousand years old.

Shi Lan took a deep breath and released her suppression of the Innate Spiritual Body. Surging waves of spiritual qi came roaring in, turning into masses of cloud that wrapped around her.

She stepped into the air and sat cross-legged in the void. Within the sea of consciousness behind her brow, ripples spread layer after layer. Her vast spiritual fluctuations nearly boiled over, and a phantom surfaced from within the sea of consciousness, gradually becoming solid.

The immortal-path Nascent Soul seated atop her Dao foundation opened its eyes and looked at the Nascent Soul that was gradually taking shape, a faint sense of rejection arising within it.

That strange sensation made Shi Lan frown. It was not that the immortal-path Nascent Soul had developed independent consciousness, but rather that an instinctive resistance had appeared.

This was the sense of divergence between two paths. Whether it was the immortal path or the martial path, the further one went, the more they would drift apart rather than arrive at the same destination by different routes.

Reαⅾ oո KαtReαⅾіոɡCαfe

But with a breakthrough imminent, Shi Lan would not miss such a chance. Suppressing the rising resistance, she turned her palm over and took out a violet pill the size of a baby’s fist.

This Spirit-Transforming Pill had been in her possession for several years. At last, it had found its use.

Stuffing the Spirit-Transforming Pill into her mouth, Shi Lan circulated the Secret Canon of Spirit Refinement and began strengthening the power of her soul to shape her Nascent Soul golden body.

A passage of scripture wrapped in faint golden light poured into Shi Lan’s mind.

It was the opening section of the fifth layer of the Yuqing Creation Art, the method for shaping the Nascent Soul golden body.

Thread by thread, the medicinal power of the Spirit-Transforming Pill was drawn out and refined in an instant.

With the pill’s power driving it, the speed at which Shi Lan condensed her Nascent Soul rose explosively. In just half a day, her soul had become completely solid.

A spark of light flashed between Shi Lan’s brows, and her soul stepped straight out of the sea of consciousness, exposing itself to heaven and earth.

The tidal waves of spiritual qi stirred gusts of warm wind, bringing a slight stinging pain to her still somewhat fragile soul.

In the blink of an eye, another day and night passed.

As the power of her soul gradually increased, its features became more and more distinct, and it gradually took on a layer of pale golden divine radiance, extraordinarily mysterious.

The laws of space between heaven and earth became increasingly clear in Shi Lan’s mind, as if she could reach out and touch them.

The moment the golden radiance appeared, the spiritual qi surging in from all directions grew even more violent. The true essence within Shi Lan’s body seemed to break through a barrier and began to swell at a tremendous pace.

Rеаd оո ΚatRеαԁіոɡCаfе

With the Spirit-Transforming Pill’s help, the process of condensing the Nascent Soul golden body went far more smoothly than she had imagined.

The golden light gradually spread, enveloping her entire soul as if coating it in a thin layer of pale gold lacquer. Shi Lan’s cultivation entered the Nascent Soul Realm as naturally as water flowing downhill.

Her cultivation did not stop increasing. Under the baptism of abundant spiritual qi, the golden body continued to grow slowly.

Three days later, the Nascent Soul had grown to over one zhang tall, like a divine statue with a solemn and majestic appearance.

After condensing the Nascent Soul golden body, Shi Lan’s soul perception increased dramatically. Faintly, across the boundless starry sky, she sensed the location of a split soul.

…

Within the Xiongming King World, in a desolate mountain valley, several hundred huts of stone and wood were scattered about.

Inside one stone house, a young girl wrapped from head to toe in bandages lay asleep on a stone bed, her face deathly pale.

A dark green pendant hanging at the girl’s chest suddenly began to emit a faint glow.

Inside the pendant, after assimilating the recent memories, Shi Lan slowly opened her eyes. This pendant was a rare treasure capable of nourishing the soul. Not only had this strand of her divine sense not weakened in the slightest after so long, it had even faintly grown stronger.

Ever since Shi Lan took away the Scarlet Crow War Halberd, nearly half a year had passed in the Xiongming King World, yet the girl’s injuries had still not healed.

The Xiongming King World was a great world divided into four continents, where gods and devils stood high above and split the world between them.

Across the four continents lived several hundred races. The strong commanded gods and devils, stood above the clouds, and ruled the world. The weak had clans of fewer than a thousand members, and their strongest could do no more than split stone and cleave rock.

Reаd oո КαtRеαⅾіոɡCafе

The Green Ghost Rakshasa clan was one of the races at the bottom.

Several months ago, the Green Ghost Rakshasa clan dug up a war halberd from a mine tunnel deep underground. After repeated examination, they discovered that it was a slumbering god-devil weapon.

After plotting and deliberating, the clan’s aged elders made the final decision to pour the full strength of the entire clan into a blood sacrifice for the halberd, awakening the weapon spirit within it so that it could protect their people.

And after that, there was the scene Shi Lan had witnessed when she crossed worlds.

The girl’s name was Bian Qin, the youngest high priestess of the Green Ghost Rakshasa clan.

Looking at the girl’s pale face, Shi Lan suddenly found herself interested. She wanted to know how far Bian Qin could go in the Xiongming King World with a bit of outside help.

Recently, the Green Ghost Rakshasa clan’s situation had not been good. The ape-devil slain by the Scarlet Crow War Halberd that day had come from a powerful race.

During this period, that ape-devil’s clansmen had been searching for the killer nearby, placing enormous pressure on the weak tribes around them and constantly threatening them with extermination.

The Green Ghost Rakshasa clan needed a variable.

…

Within the Yunlai Immortal Realm, Shi Lan slowly opened her eyes. Behind her, the Nascent Soul golden body was already close to four zhang tall.

Because of the immense distance and the difference in the flow of time, the information Shi Lan was receiving at this moment was, roughly speaking, about events that had happened in the Xiongming King World a month earlier. It was difficult for her to react in time, so she could only let that strand of divine sense act according to circumstances.