The five-colored lightning crashed toward Long Chen. Following the first bolt, the dark world became bright once more.

Countless streaks of lightning could be seen in the sky, and they began to fall one by one at Long Chen.

The lightning was berserk and merciless, possessing a pure destructive will. Anyone else would have been killed by the first attack.

However, Long Chen was fearless. Lei Long already possessed the power of five-colored lightning, so he had no fear of this lightning. He allowed it to strike his body. Then he calmly sat and formed hand seals.

Spiritual Strength surged within his body. The energy of his four qi seas gathered into his mind-sea. Once the energy from all five seas gathered, huge waves exploded in his mind-sea.

The spiritual yuan of his four qi seas broke through the restrictions of his mind-sea and merged with his Spiritual Strength.

Before reaching the Soul Transformation realm, a cultivator’s spiritual yuan and Spiritual Strength were completely separate. While fighting, they might be able to assist each other, but they definitely couldn’t merge.

Upon entering the Soul Transformation realm, things were different. Upon reaching this realm, they could merge and change.

This was one of the largest mysteries of the cultivation world. The cultivation world’s realms and levels were all left behind by their ancestors. Due to how long ago that era was, there was no way to find out the truth about it. The current cultivators were only following what the ancestors had left behind and didn’t know why the cultivation realms were what they were.

Everyone cultivated this way. First, there were the five Houtian realms. This part was the most understandable, as it involved laying a foundation. Qi Condensation, Blood Condensation, Tendon Transformation, Bone Forging, and Meridian Opening.

After reaching the Xiantian realm, there was no way for anyone to comprehend why there was Foundation Forging, Jade Core, Soul Transformation, Life Star, etc. They simply followed the teachings of their ancestors, generation after generation, obediently cultivating like this without understanding the profundities behind it.

Long Chen was also doing the same. There was no way for him to know the mysteries behind why he had to condense a Yuan Spirit. The fact that he had to condense one was simply foundational knowledge that everyone knew.

As he sent the energy of his four qi seas into his mind-sea, he immediately felt like some kind of energy was being sucked out of his body and into his mind-sea.

“So the Soul Transformation realm involves merging a person’s essence, qi, and soul into the Yuan Spirit!” Long Chen came to a sudden comprehension.

The so-called essence referred to the physical body. Qi referred to the spiritual qi and spiritual yuan. As for the soul, it simply referred to the soul, the spirit. All three had to be merged to create the Yuan Spirit.

As Long Chen sensed these three kinds of energy merging within his mind-sea, runes began to appear in it. These were his Yuan Spirit primordial runes. They were the foundation for condensing his Yuan Spirit. However, each Spirit Transformation expert would condense a different number of primordial runes.

The greater a person’s talent, the greater their Spiritual Strength, and the more Yuan Spirit primordial runes they would condense. And the more runes they condensed, the stronger the Yuan Spirit would be.

According to the records of Soul Transformation experts, the lowest record was three hundred and sixty of them, while the highest was nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine.

The records of nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine runes were all left behind by rank nine Celestials. As for Empyreans, they kept how many runes they condensed a secret, refusing to tell others. Rumor was that it related to the secrets of the Heavenly Daos, so they didn’t say anything.

Long Chen was also observing his runes carefully, wanting to see how many he would condense.

In just a couple breaths’ time, over three thousand of them had appeared. And as time passed, more and more of them condensed.

Four thousand… five thousand… six thousand…

“Nine thousand nine hundred… they’ve already broken past ten thousand!” Long Chen was shocked. In less than ten breaths’ time, he had broken past ten thousand. It had to be known that most Soul Transformation experts spent six hours condensing their Yuan Spirit primordial runes.

Ten thousand… twenty thousand… thirty thousand…

As more and more of them appeared, Evilmoon was at first calm, but when it reached the third hour and broke past three million, even Evilmoon was shocked. “Long Chen, just what kind of cultivation technique do you use? The number of Yuan Spirit primordial runes you’ve condensed in this short time is even greater than those Empyreans.”

The Empyreans it was referring to were Sha Guangyan, Peng Wansheng, and the others. It was able to calculate how many Yuan Spirit primordial runes they had condensed based on the power of their Yuan Spirits.

Lu Qingfeng had condensed around three million runes, while Long Chen had already reached that level. As for Sha Guangyan, Peng Wansheng, and Ye Qingkuang, they were more talented and had condensed around five million of them.

This was the so-called dividing line that Lu Qingfeng had brought up between Empyreans and rank nine Celestials who had reached the Soul Transformation realm. Only someone who had condensed three million primordial runes was capable of condensing a Yuan Spirit that could fight along with the main body. As for rank nine Celestials, their Yuan Spirits could at most help them use their weapons or leave them with some chance at surviving once their physical bodies were destroyed.

More and more Yuan Spirit primordial runes condensed. Their numbers increased faster and faster.

Eight million… ten million… a hundred million…

“Long Chen, you’re doomed. Do you realize how slow your cultivation speed will be after condensing this many Yuan Spirit primordial runes? First of all, your Nine Star Hegemon Body Art cultivates a hundred times slower than other people. And you should know that in the Soul Transformation, each increase in cultivation base involves increasing the power of the Yuan Spirit. Those Empyreans you’ve encountered before, they condensed three to five million runes, while you have one hundred million. Even if you were using the same cultivation techniques as them, if it took one year for them to increase one level, it would take you twenty to thirty years,” said Evilmoon.

“What? No way!” Long Chen suddenly felt a chill.

If identical cultivation techniques would take him twenty to thirty times as long, then what about with the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art? The difficulty would be over a hundred times greater!

His cultivation speed was at the bottom of the entire Dragonblood Legion. Wouldn’t it take him a hundred years to progress as far as another person progressed in one year? Then what would be the point of having a powerful Yuan Spirit?

“The main thing is that if it was just one hundred million, then that would be one thing. But yours already passed one hundred and fifty million… Sigh, I can probably only have a moment of silence for your sorrow,” sighed Evilmoon. Even it felt despair for Long Chen.

Although it didn’t comprehend the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art, it was aware of Long Chen’s abnormal difficulty in advancing levels.

Originally, it was hoping for Long Chen to break through to the Life Star realm as fast as possible so that he could release its seal. But this made it give up hope.

With its great experience, a few hundred or even a thousand years was nothing. If Long Chen just calmly cultivated, then even if he was slow, he would sooner or later break through to the Life Star realm. But right now, he was surrounded by enemies. Who would let him grow to that level?

“What the fuck, two hundred millions? Fuck, hurry up and stop!” howled Long Chen. He did his best to force the runes into condensing into his Yuan Spirit. Two hundred million? That was forty to sixty times the amount of a normal Empyrean. This was practically a death sentence.

No matter how strong a Yuan Spirit was, if his cultivation base didn’t ever increase, what was the point? His opponents would quickly advance to the Life Star realm or even higher, while he was stuck at Soul Transformation. Wouldn’t he simply be hunted down like a dog at that time? No, he probably wouldn’t even have a chance to run.

Long Chen did his best to condense them, but when he gathered the runes together, they were like sand. No matter how he pressed them, they would immediately scatter.

He tried three times, failing each time. There was simply no way for him to control this. He could only watch as the number of his Yuan Spirit primordial runes broke past three hundred million. Long Chen almost despaired.

“If you have guts, just try breaking past four hundred million!” howled Long Chen.

They really did have guts. They quickly broke past four hundred million.

“If you have guts, try breaking past five hundred millions…”

Very quickly, they passed five hundred million. Long Chen became silent, no longer daring to shout. He almost felt like he had cursed himself by saying that, which was why they were still rapidly increasing.

Six hundred million… seven hundred million… eight hundred million…

But even with his mouth shut, his Yuan Spirit primordial runes continued to crazily increase in number. Long Chen had already given up on trying to do anything. Evilmoon was also deathly silent.

Time passed bit by bit. The lightning tribulation was still crazily attacking him, but he was numb to it. He silently stared at the sea of runes in his mind-sea.

“Fuck, who can say whether this is a blessing or a curse? Come, if you have the ability, just break past one billion.”

This time, Long Chen won. They really did break past one billion. They stopped at exactly one billion, eighty million runes.

This time, without Long Chen even having to do anything, the runes all gathered together, forming one giant man.

In his mind’s eye, this figure was tens of thousands of meters tall. He had long flowing hair and black robes while possessing sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes. He looked exactly like Long Chen. This was his Yuan Spirit.

As soon as it condensed, a whirlpool appeared on Long Chen’s forehead, and thunderforce poured into his mind-sea.

The thunderforce crazily attacked his giant Yuan Spirit, and crackling sounds rang out as they struck it. The giant Yuan Spirit absorbed their energy, slowly shrinking.

“It’s tempering your Yuan Spirit. Well, perhaps only such a terrifying Yuan Spirit is capable of surviving this kind of tempering,” said Evilmoon.

As the five-colored lightning poured into his mind-sea, his Yuan Spirit continued to shrink. But as it shrank, it grew more condensed, and Long Chen began to feel a connection to it.

When it reached a size of three hundred meters, it slowly opened its eyes. Its eyes shone brightly like golden lanterns.

“This is my Yuan Spirit?”

Long Chen found that he could now control his Yuan Spirit. This Yuan Spirit was him, and he was the Yuan Spirit. It was just their viewpoints that were different.

“The thunderforce inside here is too weak. Come out and try it.”

A ray of light shot out of Long Chen’s head, and a giant figure appeared before him.