The primary ingredient of the Great Soul Pill was a rare resource, though not entirely unobtainable.
In fact, Luo Chen had acquired it once before.
It was called Soul Essence!
All living beings possessed three ethereal souls and seven corporeal souls.
They had neither form nor substance, neither appearance nor aura.
Only when one reached a profound realm, where the soul condensed into something tangible, could it truly manifest.
The so-called ghost generals and ghost kings might seem to possess solid bodies, but in truth, most were simply sustained by concentrated yin qi.
Cultivators throughout history had proven remarkably ingenious, using secret arts to extract the quintessential core from vast seas of ethereal souls to form this so-called Soul Essence.
Rumor held that Soul Essence was an exceedingly precious commodity.
When consumed alongside specialized secret arts, it could substantially bolster the foundation of a cultivator's soul.
At the same time, if someone refined Soul Essence into an offensive technique, its might would far outstrip ordinary soul attacks.
The Soul Essence Luo Chen had obtained in the past had come from a demon hunter assessment mission for the Myriad Immortals Association. Duan Li had been struck by a lethal technique from a remnant of the Yuan Demon Sect's Soul Refining lineage. After Luo Chen resolved Duan Li's injury, he had claimed the Soul Essence left behind.
Later, it was by relying on that very Soul Essence that Luo Chen had thoroughly grasped the divine-slashing and soul-breaking effects of the Dragon Slaying Art.
That insight had laid the foundation for him to personally slay Han Zhan within his sea of consciousness a decade ago.
Now, having come full circle, cultivating Han Zhan's Soul Splitting Art required collecting a vast quantity of Soul Essence to concoct Great Soul Pills. In a way, it seemed like an uncanny twist of fate.
Thinking of Duan Li, Luo Chen's expression darkened slightly. He wondered how Duan Li was faring in the Myriad Immortals Association and whether he had been implicated by Luo Chen's actions.
He shook his head, studying the pill formula in deep contemplation.
As noted before, the thirty-six pill formulas left behind by Demon Lord Heaven Refiner prioritized versatility rather than sheer medicinal potency.
Consequently, Luo Chen was familiar with most of the medicinal herbs listed. As for the few he did not recognize, he retained vague impressions of similar varieties; likely, the passage of countless years had simply caused their names to change. If he truly set his mind to gathering them, it would not be particularly difficult.
Only this Soul Essence...
"Among the five continents of the Mountain Sea Realm, the Northern Sea and Southern Border cultivation worlds yield the greatest amounts of Soul Essence. The Northern Sea's supply exists because of the Yuan Demon Sect, which encouraged cultivators to slaughter the boundless demon beasts of the Northern Sea on a massive scale, using their flesh, blood, and souls to practice demonic arts."
"Soul Essence was the most vital commodity for their Soul Refining lineage."
"Back then, even when people in the Northern Sea cultivation world refined vast quantities of Soul Essence, the trading channels were basically monopolized by the Yuan Demon Sect. Now that the demonic sect is destroyed, where did all that Soul Essence go?"
After a moment of thought, Luo Chen carefully stowed the pill formula away.
Once he returned to the human cultivation world, he would have to spend some effort inquiring about it.
Then, he looked back at his status panel.
Unlike the cluttered layout of the past, it had been subdivided once again.
Soul arts had been split from ordinary spells and given their own column.
Upon it, the Soul Intimidation Technique, the Soul Bewitchment Technique, and even Mirror Flower, Water Moon were all clearly listed.
On the whole, they were few in number, far behind his dazzling array of spells and body techniques. This underscored Luo Chen's deficiency in the path of the soul.
Once a cultivator reached the Nascent Soul stage, the physical body was no longer so paramount. In the eyes of certain extremists, the physical vessel was now merely a bamboo raft used to cross an ocean, shielding the fragile Nascent Soul from being eroded and dissolved by the external world.
What truly mattered were dharma and soul!
Dharma was embodied in the Nascent Soul, while the soul manifested through the divine soul.
If the physical body was destroyed, a Nascent Soul cultivator could still cling to life.
If the Nascent Soul was destroyed, leaving only a wisp of a remnant soul, death was not far off.
If the divine soul was destroyed, one was thoroughly and utterly extinguished.
At this moment, the importance of the divine soul had been elevated above all else.
Luo Chen's lack of attainment in the soul path had become his glaring shortcoming. That was precisely why he had forced himself to cultivate the Soul Splitting Art even knowing it was incomplete.
"A meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and things must be done step by step. Remedying a deficiency in the soul path cannot be achieved in a day. Besides, most Nascent Soul cultivators suffer from the same shortcoming and have no good solution for it either. Before I can fix that, I must ensure I possess sufficient means to protect myself!"
Luo Chen murmured to himself as he took stock of his current capabilities.
Not the ordinary tricks of the past, but formidable methods capable of contending with or even threatening cultivators of the same rank.
First and foremost was undoubtedly his extraordinary body cultivation.
A desolate beast physique at the mid-Rank Four level was comparable to a third-tier Nascent Soul cultivator, or even the weaker cultivators of the mid-Nascent Soul stage.
These body arts, combined with high-speed movement and the augmentation of source power, posed a terrifying threat. Thus, he had his first trump card.
Next were his methods in Qi Refinement.
Gazing at the few spells listed, Luo Chen felt somewhat helpless.
The path of spells, once his greatest pride, now felt rather strained. The Dragon Slaying Art was fundamentally a supportive spell, and its derivative soul techniques were restricted to his sea of consciousness. As for the Origin Core Art, rather than calling it a spell, it was more like a secret art meant to cultivate a second primal core or even a second Nascent Soul; without a second primal core, it could not be used in battle at all.
Therefore, he had no choice but to optimize his older techniques.
Now that his cultivation was higher, the underlying principles of those low-tier spells had become simple, and enhancing their power would not be difficult.
Take the Qingyang Great Handprint, for example; Luo Chen already had a few ideas in mind. Yet even if realized, those ideas would serve only as standard combat techniques.
"Standard methods are fine too; every bit counts."
"Then there's the Senluo Fire Prison. After acquiring a true Nascent Soul domain, it seems somewhat redundant, but perhaps it still has some merit?"
Luo Chen recalled the moment he had formed his Nascent Soul. When his Nascent Soul slipped out of his body and lingered in the void, there had been a fleeting instant of communion between heaven and earth.
In that split second, he had almost grasped something, only to miss it.
Now, he understood what he had missed.
It was the opportunity to comprehend laws!
A Nascent Soul cultivator's divine soul was too weak to sustain communion with heaven and earth for long. Even when such an opportunity arose, it rarely lasted long enough to fully comprehend a law suited to oneself.
He felt no regret. After all, throughout the ages, almost no one in the early Nascent Soul stage could comprehend laws; having even touched that threshold was already proof of his innate talent. In fact, he felt a measure of delight.
Because in that fleeting instant, he had attained a rudimentary understanding of heaven and earth.
"If I strip away the primary effect of the Senluo Fire Prison—restricting the enemy—and instead extract its second form to augment myself, then merge that with my Nascent Soul domain, could it bring about a transformation in my strength?"
The main effect of the Senluo Fire Prison was agitating a Golden Core cultivator's magic power, preventing them from fighting unhindered. Against a Nascent Soul cultivator, that effect was utterly inadequate.
Yet its second form was the True Fire Form!
Luo Chen had comprehended it during combat, utilizing the Wither-Bloom True Fire to empower his physical body, so that true flames accompanied his every movement.
What Luo Chen now contemplated was integrating his Nascent Soul domain on top of that True Fire Form.
"There is still time before Longyuan Island falls into total extinction. Before leaving, I must do my best to develop this move."
Luo Chen settled on this plan, then continued assessing his remaining assets.
The Wither-Bloom True Fire could never be overlooked.
A significant reason Luo Chen held such high hopes for the new technique was due to this flame.
It had already gained sentience; unleashing it on its own was a formidable killing blow. If merged into his own body, his every strike would undeniably become vastly stronger.
Lastly was his natal treasure, the Hunyuan Cauldron.
Ten years had passed, and the cauldron had grown quiet once more, seemingly having thoroughly digested the tribulation lightning power. Yet Luo Chen could still drive it, and could even actively unleash that lightning.
This was unquestionably a devastating trump card.
If he released that tribulation lightning power without restraint, it might well replicate the heavenly tribulation itself. How could an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator withstand that?
After running through these calculations, Luo Chen's confidence surged.
Though he lacked a formal sect lineage, having just reached the Nascent Soul realm, he was far from weak; he had plenty of formidable methods at his disposal.
Furthermore, he had other ways to expand his arsenal.
Closing the status panel, Luo Chen waved his hand, and several beams of light settled before him.
A storage pouch, a white jade cloud-patterned belt, the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion, and a Soul Beckoning Banner.
Over the ten years spent stabilizing his realm, he had gradually undone many of the restrictions on the first two, and was not far from opening them completely.
As the relics of two Perfected Cultivators, they might contain items Luo Chen could put to use. As for the latter two, he had been unable to refine them before, but now that his Nascent Soul had stabilized, he could attempt to refine and master them.
"Step by step!"
Time slipped by, and Luo Chen worked with increasing speed.
The first technique he completed was the optimization of the Qingyang Great Handprint!
As the powerful spell that had earned him fame in the Golden Core stage, it had once been polished to the point where it could be improved no further. Yet from his current vantage point, armed with the realm and insight of a Nascent Soul cultivator, fresh ideas had emerged.
One day.
Above the boundless sea, Luo Chen hovered in the void.
Suddenly, he pushed out his right hand, which had been resting behind his back.
A massive handprint struck the sea, blasting up towering waves and leaving five deeply sunken finger impressions on the water's surface.
In the distance, Black King watched this scene with indifference.
The master's technique was somewhat more impressive than during his Golden Core days, but that was all; Black King felt he could withstand it using sheer physical toughness alone.
Luo Chen stood motionless in the void, his expression neither joyful nor sorrowful, yet his hands began to move once more.
This time, he used both hands. His ten fingers fluttered like butterflies, shifting seals in a blur like falling rain.
At first glance, Black King vaguely sensed that two distinct sets of hand seals were being formed.
One appeared to be the Innate Seal from the Innate Primordial Qi Great Handprint, the original foundation of the Qingyang Great Handprint.
The other, however, made him feel profoundly uncomfortable in both body and soul, as if laden with the scent of servitude.
"The Spirit Subjugation Seal!" Black King's heart jolted.
He could not possibly be mistaken. This was the Spirit Subjugation Seal used exclusively by cultivators to enslave spirit beasts; cast repeatedly, it would gradually bind a demon beast's soul.
Low-rank demon beasts were incapable of offering soul blood, so enslaving their souls required combining spells and pills to erode their will over time.
What his master was performing with his left hand was undoubtedly that detestable Spirit Subjugation Seal!
"Why is Master forming two seals simultaneously? What is he trying to do?"
While Black King puzzled over this, Luo Chen's preparation concluded in an instant.
Clapping his palms together, his right wrist turned, and he pushed his palm forward in a slow, deliberate motion.
A palm-sized, transparent handprint drifted out gently, revealing no apparent might.
Yet once the transparent handprint flew forward, its speed accelerated and its size swelled dramatically.
The primary cause of this expansion was the countless ownerless, wandering wisps of spiritual energy between heaven and earth converging toward the handprint.
One zhang, ten zhang, a hundred zhang, all the way to a thousand zhang, and still it did not stop!
Boom!
The colossal handprint slammed into the ocean, rolling forward and surging across eight hundred li without pause!
Boundless seawater evaporated. A terrifying, sky-cleaving corridor emerged across the vast expanse of the ocean. At the bottom of the trench, the bare seabed was exposed, revealing hills and deep valleys. On both sides of the corridor, seawater hung suspended high in the air, immense waves churning furiously yet unable to crash down.
The sight was breathtaking and terrifying.
Black King swallowed hard, unable to fathom the devastation if that strike were to hit him, or land upon solid ground.
Dimly, Black King grasped the principle behind Luo Chen's technique.
Using the Innate Seal as a foundation and the Spirit Subjugation Seal to subjugate the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, he had pushed the once-ordinary Qingyang Great Handprint past its limits.
A Qingyang Great Handprint that swept across eight hundred li!
The slight arrogance born from breaking through to Rank Four vanished entirely before Luo Chen's single palm strike.
Luo Chen remained standing in the void, watching the lingering force of the Qingyang Great Handprint gradually subside as boundless seawater surged back to submerge the grand corridor. A look of satisfaction appeared on his face.
To take a spell originally limited to Rank Three and shatter its ceiling without relying on the status panel was truly a matter of pride.
Indeed, his talent in the path of spells was beyond question.
Glancing at Black King, Luo Chen waved his hand and returned to the subterranean abyss on his own.
Three days later, good fortune arrived again.
The restrictions on Han Zhan's storage pouch were completely unraveled.
The speed was somewhat surprising, though not inexplicable.
The pouch itself was not of high quality, Han Zhan had spent little effort leaving behind brandings, and Luo Chen had absorbed his soul fragments, allowing the process to unfold smoothly.
Opening the storage pouch, Luo Chen withdrew the items one after another.
A Ten Thousand Soul Banner and a set of Seven Fiends Swords; neither was surprising, as they had originally belonged to Luo Chen.
He did not think much of them; to him now, these items had become rather superfluous.
Next were spirit stones.
Gripping the diamond-shaped crystals in his hand, Luo Chen froze for a moment.
They had distinct color, shimmering with brilliant golden light!
What did this mean?
Supreme-grade spirit stones!
And ten of them!
A full ten metal-attribute supreme-grade spirit stones—where had Han Zhan obtained them?
Then, realization dawned upon him.
"They must be his spoils from the Puppet Realm!"
"When I inspected that White Tiger puppet earlier, there were several indentations clearly intended for spirit stones. High-tier puppets like that cannot be driven by ordinary spirit stones. Clearly, these supreme-grade spirit stones were the power source."
"An unexpected windfall, a true unexpected windfall!"
Luo Chen beamed, stowing the ten metal-attribute supreme-grade spirit stones away.
Then, he retrieved the final object from the storage pouch.
It was a wooden tablet.
A tablet crafted from Soul Nourishing Wood.
Holding the tablet, Luo Chen shook his head. With no remnant souls at his side, the tablet had lost its practical use.
He would keep it for now; perhaps it might prove useful later.
Just as Luo Chen was about to put it away, his divine sense paused.
He swept his senses thoroughly inside, and information engraved upon the tablet flowed into his mind.
When he finished reading, a look of startled delight spread across Luo Chen's face.
Recorded within was none other than a complete sword formation!
Its name was the Great Five Elements Sword Formation!
When Han Zhan had acquired Luo Chen's Seven Fiends Swords to explore the Land of the Fallen Demon, he had lacked the original Seven Fiends Sword Formation. As a result, he had deduced a sword formation capable of controlling the Seven Fiends Swords on his own.
Luo Chen had known this from early on; even the Soul Sky Sword Casket had been refined at Han Zhan's request.
What he had not known, however, was the underlying process.
In his earlier years, Han Zhan had mastered a Dual Polarities Five Elements Sword Formation, using it as a blueprint to deduce the Seven Fiends Sword Formation.
After completing the Seven Fiends Sword Formation, inspiration had struck, prompting him to refine his earlier Dual Polarities Five Elements Sword Formation. In the end, he had developed this brand-new Great Five Elements Sword Formation.
According to the text, if this sword formation could be formed, its power would be boundless, not a whit inferior to the Dual Polarities Five Elements Sword Formation.
Luo Chen had long envied sword formations.
Flying swords had always been the most common magic treasures for cultivators, convenient, swift, and formidable.
Formations, meanwhile, were the very definition of power.
Merging the two allowed them to be deployed at a moment's notice, instilling a sense of utter invincibility in adversaries.
In his earlier years, how had Han Zhan dared to challenge the long-renowned Perfected Jade Cauldron with only the strength of a newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivator? How had he dared to initiate the opening war against Wolf Sovereign Ao Xiao? Had it not been because of the sword formation crafted for him with the full power of his sect?
Within the Land of the Fallen Demon, Luo Chen had also been plunged into a bitter struggle by Feiyunzi's sword formation.
If not for relying on his physical body to step into the formation and lure Feiyunzi close, he would have been severely wounded if not killed under that white-gold sword formation.
One could say that any renowned sword formation was a dream for countless weaker cultivators.
Luo Chen was not weak, but he certainly did not mind adding another lethal technique to his repertoire.
Especially now, when his methods were in short supply.
Yet after reading the Great Five Elements Sword Formation carefully, Luo Chen's expression calmed.
For no other reason than this!
This sword formation had been optimized by Han Zhan; its might was greater than before, but its requirements were correspondingly higher.
To assemble the formation, the five sword-cultivator puppets had been discarded. In their stead, it required five sword pellets at the level of True Artifacts, each corresponding to one of the five elements: metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.
This allowed the swords to be deployed and recalled with greater freedom, concentrating their power more effectively and, above all, eliminating the vulnerability of puppet sword cultivators.
"This was likely his intended self-preservation method for when he acquired a physical body in the future."
"Yet where am I supposed to find five element sword pellets at the True Artifact level?"
Luo Chen could only give a wry smile.
Sword pellets!
At the True Artifact level!
And spanning all five elements!
Even the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect at its peak probably could not have scraped together so many sword pellets!
With a bitter chuckle, Luo Chen put away the Soul Nourishing Wood tablet.
He began focusing his efforts on refining the Penglai Octagonal Pavilion and Feiyunzi's belt.
Three years later.
Luo Chen stared at the dazzling treasures scattered across the ground, holding a jade slip in one hand and pinching a golden pellet in the other, feeling somewhat dazed.
Upon the jade slip, spiritual light flickered faintly, bearing the title Feiyun Artifact Refining Record.
It documented the lifelong crafting insights of Feiyunzi, a master artifact refiner.
Yet none of that was the most important part.
What truly mattered was that at the very end of this artifact refining manual was recorded the method for refining sword pellets at the True Artifact level!
Beyond being an artifact refiner, Feiyunzi had also been a powerful orthodox sword cultivator.
As for the golden pellet, a closer look revealed wisps of golden threads squirming beneath intricate layers of restrictive seals.
This was an unrefined metal-attribute sword pellet!
Its rank had reached the level of a True Artifact!
Had he obtained these things in isolation, Luo Chen would not have lost his composure like this.
Yet when paired with the Great Five Elements Sword Formation acquired three years prior, the affairs of the world seemed impossibly coincidental...
"Could this be considered good fortune born of disaster, turning misfortune into a blessing?"
Murmuring to himself, Luo Chen looked down at the two objects in his hands, his eyes filled with an indefinable swirl of complex emotions.
Chapter 716