In the unknown area of the starry river.

Nie Tian floated in front of the Nether River as the soul power in his sea of awareness was consumed at an alarming rate.

His fluctuating soul shadow, which he was concentrated on, dove into the Nether River in the blink of an eye.

BLUB! BLUB! BLUB! BLUB!

The slowly-flowing Nether River instantly started surging.

Nie Tian’s soul shadow, along with his soul will, seemed to be experiencing repeated tempering from the surging water.

During this time, glowing cyan spots would fuse into his soul shadow from time to time.

Soon, the soul shadow started to morph into a prismatic seal.

As Nie Tian examined the morphing seal closely, his eyebrows suddenly rose. “A prismatic seal that looks just like the prismatic crystal on the forehead between the eyebrows of a Phantasm!”

He came to realize that this unique seal bore a great resemblance to the prismatic crystals the Phantasms had on their foreheads.

All of a sudden, a strange gravitational force was born within the forming prismatic seal.

The vicious spirits and evil souls in the Nether River that had backed away to avoid his soul shadow let out terrified shrieks.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The soul-form beings were sucked into the prismatic seal one after another, shrieking as they did.

This was similar to how the Spirit Pearl absorbed discarnate souls.

In a flash, six soul-form beings were absorbed by the prismatic seal.

Further refined, the prismatic seal seemed to congeal into a solid form, sparkling with cyan light.

“Hmm?!”

Taken aback, Nie Tian stared blankly at the prismatic seal that had practically turned solid from an illusory state after absorbing six soul-form beings.

“This Heavenly Spirit Seal was formed based on a wisp of my soul essence. Now after being tempered by the Nether River and absorbing soul-form beings, it has actually morphed...”

While he was absorbed in thought, the prismatic Heavenly Spirit Seal suddenly rose out of the Nether River. Semitransparent and sparkling, it bore a certain resemblance to the Spirit Pearl as well.

“A Heavenly Spirit Seal can be used to brand and enslave any soul-form being.” Muttering to himself, he communicated with the Heavenly Spirit Seal with his soul, and controlled it to fly into the Spirit Pearl and towards one of the Illusory Ancient Talismans.

That Illusory Ancient Talisman was sealing the evil god of hatred.

HOWL!

The evil god of hatred let out shrill cries, as if it knew that it was facing a dire situation and that once the prismatic Heavenly Spirit Seal entered, it would be bereft of freedom forever.

A cold smile appeared at a corner of Nie Tian’s mouth. “Are you scared? Good. That means this Heavenly Spirit Seal actually works on beings like you! I’ve been trying to figure out a way to enslave and gain full control of you this whole time. Now I’ve finally found it.

“As I expected, the answer lies with your previous master, the strongest grand monarch in your people’s history.”

The prismatic Heavenly Spirit Seal made contact with the Illusory Ancient Talisman.

FIZZ!

The Illusory Ancient Talisman started to sputter wisps of crimson, white, and green light that looked like worms.

Apparently, the Illusory Ancient Talisman was resisting the infiltration of the Heavenly Spirit Seal.

A clash instantly broke out between the powers from two different origins.

Seeing this, the evil god of hatred let out a cunning laugh.

“You want to laugh?” Nie Tian reached out and pointed a finger at the Illusory Ancient Talisman, and the flame, star, and wood power, along with his flesh and soul power, that had made it started to dissipate.

As more than half of the powers disappeared, the prismatic Heavenly Spirit Seal he had forged with his own soul will and the nourishment of the Nether River descended into the evil god of hatred without any obstacles.

FIZZ!

The prismatic Heavenly Spirit Seal vanished.

Nie Tian shuddered slightly. Eyes glittering with excitement, he muttered, “My soul will seems...”

For a moment, he felt as if his true soul was swimming inside the evil god of hatred, sensing and absorbing its memories.

“Such a vast sea of memories!”

The evil god had been a late tenth grade Netherspirit grand monarch that had lived for several dozen thousand years before his death. Even though the soul fragments of its soul will had been scattered across the three worlds, a large part of them had been recovered over the years.

Because of that, though still incomplete, its sea of memories seemed boundless to Nie Tian.

However, the memories were separated from each other and in disarray, without any logical order or pattern to them.

If Nie Tian tried to sort through them to derive knowledge from its lifelong experience, it would only overburden his mind and affect his cultivation.

In merely a few seconds, Nie Tian pulled himself from his thoughts.

He chose to focus on what was happening instead of the incomplete but vast sea of memories of the evil god of hatred.

“Umm...” As he examined the evil god of hatred, which had just been branded with a Heavenly Spirit Seal and was free from the confinement of an Illusory Ancient Talisman, an astonished expression appeared on his face. “You look very much like a Phantasm now with that prismatic crystal on your forehead like a third eye.”

A prismatic crystal had been added to the forehead of the evil god of hatred.

Clearly, it was the Heavenly Spirit Seal!

After entering the body of the evil god of hatred, the Heavenly Spirit Seal had absorbed its nether power and flesh aura, and eventually condensed into a crystal.

At this moment, the evil god of hatred looked quite similar to the Phantasms in the Spirit World.

The Heavenly Spirit Seal on its forehead had been vested with Nie Tian’s soul will. As long as he liked, he could activate a terminative spell with a thought, and the evil god’s soul would be eliminated.

Through it, he could even vaguely sense what the evil god was thinking now.

Most surprisingly, the evil god that had been nothing but hostile towards him seemed to have its hostility erased as soon as the Heavenly Spirit Seal was implanted and the prismatic crystal appeared on its forehead.

What took its place was obedience and loyalty.

The Heavenly Spirit Seal seemed to have actually changed the evil god fundamentally.

Stroking his chin, Nie Tian looked at the evil god of hatred with a thoughtful look on his face. “I can’t believe it’s so easy.”

Then, he gave an order, “Get out of there.”

WHOOSH!

The evil god of hatred flew out of the Spirit Pearl to float in front of him, obedient and full of respect.

Without saying a word, it bowed its head and asked with its soul, “What can I do for you?”

It appeared its rebellion towards him had actually been erased.

“Even a being at such a level becomes so obedient after being implanted with a Heavenly Spirit Seal?” Nie Tian was carried away in thought. “It’s said that the Phantasms rose as a people because of the Nether River. It was the Nether River that vested them with power and intelligence.

“Then, the Nether River was transformed from Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit’s soul awareness after his demise. All Phantasms were born with a prismatic crystal on their foreheads.

“Many of their bloodline talents and secret magics need to be cast through it.

“Is it possible that those prismatic crystals are Heavenly Spirit Seals too?

“If they are...”

As his train of thought came to this point, his expression suddenly grew grim.

Frowning deeply, he turned to look at the flowing Nether River. “Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit, has your awareness really perished? If your awareness still exists, then are all Phantasms your slaves? Do you have full control over what they think and do?”

Though rendered anxious by the thought, he separated another wisp of his soul will and sent it into the Nether River, where it condensed Nether River water into a new Heavenly Spirit Seal.

Then, he repeated the process.

One Heavenly Spirit Seal after another came to form as his soul power was rapidly consumed.

With the same method, he fused the newly-formed Heavenly Spirit Seals into the other four evil gods.

After the Heavenly Spirit Seals entered their bodies, identical prismatic crystals appeared on their foreheads.

Then, all of their resistance and killing intent against Nie Tian was eliminated. Instead, they became very obedient and docile.

Nie Tian even found the effectiveness of the Heavenly Spirit Seals a bit hard to believe.

“The Heavenly Spirit Seals work incredibly well on them. Is this because of the Nether River water, or the fact that this is Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit’s secret magic?” Nie Tian pondered. “If these Heavenly Spirit Seals can erase their rebellious intentions, will one work on the Four Manifestations Flame Soul Cauldron?”

With this thought, he went on to condense a sixth Heavenly Spirit Seal.