“The ghosts in the Netherworld Abyss are growing more and more numerous!”
This was Luo Chen's first discovery after leaving the Alchemy Saint Blessed Land.
He had thought that after Monarch Qixia swept through the abyss, the formidable ghosts lurking within would be wounded, slain, or driven into hiding, leaving few behind.
Yet the actual situation was completely different!
Vast swarms of low-grade ghosts drifted everywhere, brushing past Luo Chen from time to time as he kept his aura concealed.
Even Ghost Kings comparable to the Core Formation stage appeared with alarming frequency.
After encountering these new ghosts just a few times, Luo Chen grasped their origins.
“Humans!”
“From the Mingyuan Sect!”
Indeed, the Soul Formation battle that swept across the Mingyuan Sacred Land had caught all disciples of the Mingyuan Sect in its wake.
Many cultivators had been utterly bewildered when the aftershocks of the mighty experts swept over them, reducing them to ashes in an instant.
Yet precisely because the attacks from Monarch Qixia and the others had not been primarily directed at them, many souls were fortunate enough to survive.
Now that two years had passed, those dazed souls had gradually awakened, joining the endless ranks of ghosts in the Netherworld Abyss.
“I wonder if any of the Mingyuan Sect's Nascent Soul True Persons managed to preserve their souls?”
Luo Chen was even more curious about this.
There were three distinct thresholds for cultivators transforming into ghost cultivators, depending on their realm before death.
The first was the Core Formation stage. Cultivators at this level could project their divine sense outward. Once they perished, after passing through an initial phase of confusion, their past-life memories would gradually return. Pang Renxiong of the Jade Cauldron Sword Sect back then was one such example.
Below the Core Formation stage, it was extremely difficult to become a normal ghost cultivator.
Unable to preserve their memories and consciousness, most remained foolish, muddled spirits.
Take Bai Meiling: had she not met Luo Chen, she might never have set foot on the proper path of a ghost cultivator in her entire life.
The second threshold was the Nascent Soul stage.
At this stage, a cultivator's soul could reside within their Nascent Soul. Even if the physical body collapsed, the soul still had a vessel.
Relatively speaking, transforming into a ghost cultivator was far simpler for them; they did not even need to endure an initial period of disorientation, retaining full lucidity throughout.
They even possessed the power to seize the body of a normal living person and embark once again on the path of cultivation.
Han Zhan in the past was the prime example.
Luo Chen could not be certain whether the Netherworld Abyss currently harbored ghosts formed from the souls of Mingyuan Sect's Nascent Soul True Persons, but he figured that even if there were, there wouldn't be many.
Given Monarch Qixia's ruthless methods, any Nascent Soul expert who dared cross her would undoubtedly suffer death and utter annihilation, their souls scattered to the winds.
As for the third threshold?
Even Luo Chen was not entirely clear, having only seen brief mentions of it in ancient texts.
Certain mighty beings, even upon suffering death and the dissolution of their Dao, possessed souls that could endure without perishing.
At that juncture, they had two choices.
One was to switch to cultivating the Ghost Dao; the other was to retain a sliver of true spirit and re-enter the cycle of reincarnation, being reborn through a womb.
The latter in particular: once successful, they would possess innate wisdom. Upon awakening, relying on their past-life experience and insights, their cultivation speed would be astonishingly swift.
Mulling over these random thoughts, Luo Chen pressed forward.
Once he had put a great distance between himself and the Alchemy Saint Blessed Land, he halted, his golden pupils gazing toward the expanse above.
“Time to go up and take a look!”
Without a second thought, he shot toward the water's surface like an arrow loosed from a bowstring.
Golden flames suppressed the abyss, preventing any entity from escaping.
That had also been one of the primary reasons Luo Chen had been trapped previously.
However, this time—
*Chii!*
A wisp of identical golden flame emerged from within Luo Chen's body. After coiling once, it wrapped around his entire form.
Then... *swish!*
Like a fish leaping into the blue sky, he re-emerged into the mortal realm.
Luo Chen glanced down, and with a single look, he could not help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.
As far as the eye could reach—stretching across thousands, even tens of thousands of li—countless golden flames burned steadily.
*Gulp.*
Luo Chen swallowed hard, an overwhelming sense of disbelief welling up inside him.
*Just how profound is Monarch Qixia's mana to be able to unleash the Nirvana Holy Fire over such an immense expanse, suppressing the Netherworld Abyss through her strength alone!*
He estimated that even if he attained the Soul Formation realm in the future and unleashed the Wither-Bloom Divine Fire, it would at most cover ten thousand li.
Let alone this magnificent spectacle that stretched beyond sight.
As for now?
Even if Luo Chen gave his all to the point of shattering his Nascent Soul, his Wither-Bloom Divine Fire would probably cover only a few hundred li.
Shaking his head, Luo Chen stopped thinking about others, picked a direction, and flew off swiftly.
At the breach in the water's surface from which he had emerged, a cluster of ghosts slowly gathered. Hesitant and curious, a Core Formation Ghost King finally could not hold back.
It swam upward stealthily, and upon reaching the breach, leaped with all its might.
Immediately, a bloodcurdling scream rang out that sent shivers through the very souls of every ghost beneath the water.
Golden flames surged, sealing the breach.
The so-called Core Formation Ghost King had already turned into a wisp of dark smoke, dissipating into nothingness.
...
Two days later.
With an exceptionally grim expression, Luo Chen halted in midair.
He did not dare move an inch. As if bound by an Immobilization Technique, he stood motionlessly suspended in the sky.
At his left arm, bare flesh was exposed, marked by a fine red line.
As for the snow-white sleeve, it had completely vanished.
One had to know that this Daoist robe was the Snowfall Frost Robe bestowed upon him by the Mingyuan Sect.
Though it was only crafted for alchemists to wear—shielding them from fire poison during prolonged alchemy sessions—its grade was by no means low, reaching the level of a True Artifact!
Yet without encountering a single enemy, the sleeve was gone.
Not only that, even Luo Chen's immensely powerful arm had just been severed clean off at the base!
Had Luo Chen not reacted swiftly enough to halt his forward momentum and sweep the severed limb back with mana, it would not have ended with merely a torn sleeve and a severed arm.
Source power circulated; the red line vanished, and his left arm was restored to its original state.
Luo Chen's gaze remained fixed rigidly on the void ahead. Several black lines flickered there in and out of sight, like the gaping maw of a colossal beast waiting for prey to walk into its trap.
“Spatial rifts!”
Gritting his teeth, Luo Chen spat out those words like popping beans.
He was no stranger to this bizarre phenomenon.
When Monarch Qixia knocked down Mount Yanfu with a single strike, the terrifying force had rattled the void, revealing wisps of spatial rifts.
Yet he had not anticipated that long after the battle had ended, spatial rifts would still linger in this place.
Furthermore, they were quite numerous and unstable, appearing and disappearing at random, catching travelers completely off guard.
Had Monarch Qixia left them behind?
Or had the fierce clashes between Soul Formation experts exceeded what this part of heaven and earth could bear?
Luo Chen did not know.
He only knew that the path above the abyss was treacherous.
It might even be more perilous than the depths below.
“And besides...”
Frowning, Luo Chen looked up toward the high sky.
Dark clouds gathered there, with lightning flashes and peals of thunder crackling from time to time.
“Why haven't the thunderclouds dispersed for so long?”
This time, he caught sight of something peculiar.
Luo Chen murmured, “An array formation?”
Not just an array formation, but one that had spiraled out of control!
Luo Chen recalled something.
Castellan Lingtian had once mentioned that the Mingyuan Sect's mountain-protecting grand array incorporated methods left behind by ancestral patriarchs of successive generations.
Among them was a divine ability from the mighty expert Bai Ye, called the Nine Heavens Puyuan Great Thunder Technique.
Lei Daozi had even drawn upon the accumulation of this technique to break through all the way to Monarch Qixia's presence.
Now that the Mingyuan Sect was destroyed, the mountain-protecting grand array should have perished along with it.
However, based on Luo Chen's understanding of the array Dao, this formation had not been centered around people when it was first established; rather, it was rooted in the land.
As long as the Netherworld Abyss remained, the array foundation had not collapsed.
It was merely that without human control, the remnant array had lost its restraint, uncontrollably drawing in the power of thunder between heaven and earth.
“Another Mount Thunder Accumulation's Nine Peaks!”
Luo Chen sighed. Seeing that the spatial rifts had mostly dissipated, he resumed flying.
Only this time, his speed was vastly slower than before.
It was barely faster than that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
He truly did not dare touch a spatial rift again.
If he failed to react in time, it would not be a mere matter of a severed arm.
If his entire body were drawn in, even with regenerative powers comparable to a desolate beast, he would probably be ground into powder in an instant, beyond any hope of recovery.
Under these circumstances, even a powerful divine sense was useless.
A spatial rift was not a living being. It possessed no aura, let alone soul fluctuations, and lacked physical substance unlike mountains, stones, or wood.
Suspended in the void, what could one perceive?
Fortunately, Luo Chen possessed the Scarlet Eyes Golden Pupils!
So long as he watched with sufficient care, there was no great danger.
Moreover, as he observed the appearance of spatial rifts day after day, Luo Chen gradually noticed certain patterns.
“If this heaven and earth are compared to a grand house, spatial rifts are caused by the instability of its walls, roof, foundation, and tiles.”
“Their emergence isn't actually without precursor.”
“Usually, before one forms, an exceedingly faint spatial fluctuation appears, triggering a chain reaction that allows it to take shape.”
Upon discovering this, Luo Chen felt an unexpected surge of joy!
For there was once a formidable foe against whom he had been completely helpless, someone supremely adept in this kind of escape art.
Borrowing the power of space, she appeared and vanished unpredictably, unfathomable and impossible to trace.
Whenever someone faced her, they could only passively take a beating, yet her attacks, while simple and unadorned, carried an irresistible might.
“If I become familiar with these spatial fluctuations, would I no longer be so passive the next time I face Qingshuang?”
Relations between Mount Cangwu and Luo Chen had eased considerably of late, no longer completely irreconcilable.
Nor was there any deep-seated hatred between him and Qingshuang.
Yet Luo Chen despised that feeling of utter helplessness, of being completely suppressed by another.
Monarch Qixia was too far beyond him; there was not even room to treat her as an imaginary foe.
Yet Qingshuang, at least, was in the same Nascent Soul realm as he was.
Luo Chen felt confident that against any cultivator of the same rank, he could put up a fight. Yet before Qingshuang, even detonating his Nascent Soul might not be enough to hold her back.
How could he resign himself to that?
When another spatial rift formed, Luo Chen halted.
He remained vigilant, but now with an added layer of keen observation.
Whenever his eyes felt dry, he even took the initiative to drip two drops of Jade Sovereign Clear Pupil Liquid into them.
“Man walks upon heaven and earth; fish swim within water.”
“The fish is unaware, and man grows accustomed.”
“Yet when water moves, waves arise; when man moves, there ought to be a sensation of spatial shifts.”
“It is merely because we are too weak, unable to comprehend the true meaning of the spatial law, that we cannot feel those changes in space.”
“Everyone is like this, and so am I. But looking at it now, these shifts seem to bear some connection to the Spatial Restriction among the Seven Basic Restrictions of array formations.”
The Seven Basic Restrictions of array formations—Mountain, Water, Wind, Cloud, Obscurity, Manifest, and Space.
Mountain and Water Restrictions, dealing with physical matter, were the easiest entry point.
Wind and Cloud Restrictions were ever-changing, but at least one could feel and observe them, so they were not overly difficult either.
Obscurity and Manifest Restrictions leaned more toward the realm of the soul; in his earlier years, Luo Chen had excelled most at the Obscurity Restriction.
Only the Spatial Restriction was the most obscure and difficult, nearly impossible for ordinary people to master.
It was only after becoming a Tier 4 array master and crafting the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths Great Shift Array that Luo Chen gained some insight into it.
Now, using the Spatial Restriction as a stepping stone to understand the birth, emergence, existence, and ultimate collapse of these spatial rifts, he seemed to have found a way in.
Just as Luo Chen was concentrating on his study,
suddenly—
a flash of white light!
“Not good!”
Luo Chen had kept a split soul monitoring the outside world, so he naturally detected that something was wrong.
Thunder crashed down from the nine heavens!
Under ordinary circumstances, he could have easily dodged it with flight.
Yet right now, newly formed spatial rifts surrounded him; how could he recklessly dash about?
His only option was to take it head-on!
His expression calm, Luo Chen cast a spell toward the sky.
Sevenfold Blazing Heaven Rings!
Ring after ring of fire materialized abruptly, only to shatter and vanish the instant the thunder struck.
Luo Chen was not surprised; the upper limit of this defensive spell was merely that.
To withstand thunder summoned by the Nine Heavens Puyuan Great Thunder Technique, he needed to exert more strength.
Fiery Phoenix Consuming the Prairie!
A phantom of a phoenix rose from behind him, colliding violently with the thunderbolt.
All of this took long to describe, but occurred in the spark of a flint.
After two consecutive moves, the thunder gradually dispersed.
Only then did the deafening roar of thunder explode in his ears.
Luo Chen shuddered slightly, wisps of electrical arcs still flickering across his body.
Evidently, this bolt falling from the sky was no simple strike to parry.
And this was with no one controlling it.
It was hard to imagine the sheer lethality if someone had tried to force their way through the mountain-protecting grand array during the Mingyuan Sect's peak, with a Soul Formation expert personally activating the divine abilities within.
Monarch Qixia herself would likely have found it difficult to cross the Netherworld Abyss under such pressure.
Circulating his mana, frost and snow diffused from the Snowfall Frost Robe, driving out the residual lightning power.
Just as Luo Chen breathed a sigh of relief, his pupils suddenly contracted.
Due to the commotion just now, the surrounding spiritual qi had grown even more chaotic.
The newly formed spatial rifts seemed affected, expanding inch by inch at a visible speed in a chain reaction.
In particular, a rift above him had already grown seventy to eighty feet long, spreading straight toward Luo Chen.
Without hesitation, Luo Chen dropped downward.
With crushing momentum, he plunged beneath the surface of the sea.
*Splash!*
Amid rolling waves, Luo Chen's figure vanished from that stretch of heaven and earth.
Spatial rifts spread like cobwebs all around, lingering for a long time even after Luo Chen's departure.
Such a sight would make even a Nascent Soul cultivator avoid the area at all costs.
Once, the Netherworld Abyss could be considered a forbidden ground, but now, following the great Soul Formation battle, it had become a perilous land!
A dead land where living beings could scarcely survive!
Yet Luo Chen had no time to observe any of this.
For at this moment, holding his breath, he peered into the deep darkness.
A pair of lantern-sized eyes, glowing with a blood-red light, was staring straight at him!
Chapter 914