Chapter 101: Soul Link

Within the valley, smoke flooded the sky as the burning flames raging on sealed all of the ways in. Liang Zhong and the generals of Dark Asura Hall could only anxiously wait and watch outside as they had no way to charge into the valley.

Although Tu Ze, Zhuo Qian, and the rest felt uneasy about Qin Lie, they also had no way to charge into the flames, so they could only anxiously wait and watch the valley.

As the flames continued to incessantly burn at the edges of the valley, the fire further in had already become less fierce due to the destruction of the formation and the frigid air which spewed out of the cold spring.

Roiling heavenly lightning repeatedly descended, obeying Qin Lie as it struck him like a waterfall.

Thunderbolts coiled around his body like dragons, constantly rumbling as every bone in his body crackled. Every vein, strip of muscle, piece of flesh, and drop of blood had already reached the limit of soreness and pain.

Clap after clap of thunder echoed in his ears and resonated non-stop within his mind.

The heavenly thunder and lightning, like a hammer forging a blade, tempered and grinded away at his body, cleansing his muscles, bones, blood, flesh, and soul as it helped him truly form the Heavenly Thunder Sacred Body.

On the other side, Xie Jingxuan sat atop the Profound Nether Beast, wearing the finely wrought Blackscale Armor. Her graceful body turned stiff as the imprint of the main soul of the Soul Devouring Beast emerged within the pupil of her left eye...

The imprint within her left eye, along with the enormous savage mask which covered her face, caused her to suddenly seem extremely evil at this moment.

"Get out!"

Her chilly voice seemed to be somewhat anxious and angry as wisp after wisp of black colored smoke quietly flew out from within her body like fine black lines and slowly moved towards her body, trying to entangle her so that she would be completely be controlled by them.

The lower half of her right arm, which was snow white as jade, was entangled by the fine black lines. It was as if an insidious evil design had appeared on her arm.

The Soul Devouring Beast's soul imprint within her left pupil began to become less blurry, clearly up bit by bit as it continued to take over more of her consciousness.

"Qin Lie!" suddenly shouted Xie Jingxuan. A cold light flickered within her bright and clear right eye as it fixated itself on Qin Lie's body. "Come over right now! Quick, come beside me! The Soul Devouring Beast's main soul has invaded my body through my spirit artifact. Get over here now and use heavenly lightning to attack me, don't hold back!"

Qin Lie was still wondering why the main soul of the Soul Devouring Beast had suddenly disappeared when he heard her words. Naturally, he immediately understood.

At this time, the sky filled with lightning still constantly descended as before, submerging itself within his body, still raging throughout his body to temper his bones, muscles, veins, blood and flesh.

The pain had directly reached the depths of his soul, but he was able to endure it and had yet to lose his sense of reason...

He did as told and walked towards Xie Jingxuan.

"Hurry! I-I can't hold it back much longer!" exclaimed Xie Jingxuan as the glow in her right eye began to dim and the imprint of the Soul Devouring Beast's soul in her left eye became ever clearer.

Enduring the wild strikes of the heavenly lightning within his body, Qin Lie grinded his teeth as he sped up his pace and finally reached Xie Jingxuan.

"You really want me to use the heavenly lightning to attack you?" asked Qin Lie, suddenly hesitating.

"If you want to let this Soul Devouring Beast charge out using my body, if you want to leave behind future trouble, then you don't have to do it," said Xie Jingxuan. Even her voice sounded exhausted. "Otherwise, you must use as much of your power as possible to try and exterminate its soul, to truly destroy it!"

"Let's first try some other methods," said Qin Lie, raising his head. Gathering his mind and consciousness, he prevented thunderbolts from descending onto Xie Jingxuan's body, immediately saying, "Give me your hand. Let me hold your hand."

"I can't move," replied Xie Jingxuan as she became increasingly weak.

Qin Lie furrowed a brow, no longer hesitant. He simultaneously stuck out two thunderbolt-covered hands, taking Xie Jingxuan off of the Profound Nether Beast. Afterwards, he immediately clenched her two delicate, white, jade hands.

"Bzzt bzzt bzzt!"

The violent electric current which enveloped his entire body, accompanied by the rumbling of heavenly thunder, followed his two hands and wildly surged towards Xie Jingxuan's arms.

Instantly, lightning began to crackle on Xie Jingxuan's two jade hands as the energy of heavenly lightning directly surged into her body like a river which had overflowed her banks.

Xie Jingxuan's body instantly began to uncontrollably shake as traces of lightning leaked out from within the Blackscale Armor.

"Zzzt zzzt zzzt!"

The black soul lines which had covered her whole body like a vine suddenly began to break apart as it was attacked by the thunderbolts.

Xie Jingxuan's arms and the skin on her neck once again became snow white.

Her eye which had been about to lose its light suddenly glowed with a radiance once more as she endured the thunderbolts ravaging her body. She controlled a portion of the energy of heavenly lightning and directed it straight into her mind.

"Boom!"

The moment the thunderbolt entered her mind, she suddenly calmed down, as if heavy shackles had just been blown apart.

Upon being struck by the surging thunderbolt, the soul of the Soul Devouring Beast which had entered the depths of her mind was no longer able to hide and suddenly began to wildly release an evil mind consciousness, crazily bombarding her soul.

An expression of blank helplessness surfaced within Xie Jingxuan's eyes.

As if she had taken a heavy blow, she began to unconsciously mutter, "Daddy, don't, don't leave me, I'm afraid, I'm afraid..."

At this time, the Soul Suppressing Orb between Qin Lie's brows suddenly began to shine with a radiance, directly shining into Xie Jingxuan's eyes. From within the Soul Suppressing Orb emerged a mysterious suction force...

A pitch black soul strand was sucked out from Xie Jingxuan's left eye, and the strand connected with the Soul Suppressing Orb between Qin Lie's brows.

Wisp after wisp, strand after strand, the Soul Devouring Beast's soul was directly pulled out from within Xie Jingxuan's mind.

The Soul Suppressing Orb's radiance suddenly greatly increased even further.

At the same time, a soul connection had seemingly been formed between Qin Lie and Xie Jingxuan.

As if he had entered Xie Jingxuan's mind, Qin Lie was able to a witness a memory which had been deeply hidden within the depths of Xie Jingxuan's memories. It was a most profound scene...

It was a dark red sky devoid of the sun, moon, and stars. The depressing, silent atmosphere was enough to cause anyone to go crazy.

Not even a single piece of vegetation could be seen atop the crimson red ground. Looking in the distance, all that could be seen were bare mountains, and littered between the mountains were massive humanoid and beast-like bones. Many of the bones were covered with dust and were already in the process of decaying, as if the mountains had been left unattended for ten thousand years.

Many exotic, Ghost Bird-like spirit beasts circled in the desolate sky, their cries resounding like a doomsday bell.

Right in the middle of a group of pure white spirit beast bones was a beautiful young girl wearing battle armor and wielding a short knife. Her small body was faintly trembling as tears emerged within her crystal clear eyes. She couldn't contain her sobs as she begged, "Daddy, don't, don't leave me. I'm scared, I'm scared..."

"Jingxuan, no one can help you, you must live on by yourself." A robust, imposing male figure with his back facing the little girl,gradually walked away. The man never turned his head, only indifferently saying, "If you cannot even handle the first level of the Nether Battlefield, then just die here and never return."

Ignoring the bitter entreaties of the young girl, the man slowly walked away until he finally disappeared.

After the man disappeared, the girl wielding a short knife powerlessly crouched there, sobbing.

The sobs eventually attracted a ghastly looking spirit beast with strange thorns covering its body. Once this spirit beast appeared, it immediately opened its bloody maw and prepared bite down, wanting to swallow the delicious looking immature body in front of it.

Her eyes still extremely red and crying, the little girl wielded her short knife and began to fight against the spirit beast with great difficulty.

In the end, she won.

Her body was covered in blood, some from the spirit beast, some from herself. She sat beside the corpse of the spirit beast for a very long time.

She was very hungry, hungry to the point of dizziness. However, her father hadn't left her anything to eat, nor had he left her any fire stones.

She looked at the spirit beast corpse beside her. Then, as she cried, she used her short knife to cut off a piece of meat from the spirit beast's body. Grinding her teeth, she forced herself to eat the piece of raw, bloody flesh...

The scene abruptly ended at this point.

Qin Lie returned to his senses and discovered that there were still black soul strands flying out from within Xie Jingxuan's eye, but the Soul Suppressing Orb had hidden itself again.

Xie Jingxuan's eyes were still closed, her hands still in Qin Lie's. She had seemingly gone into a coma.

The blazing flames encircling the valley were still as monstrous as before as the thunderbolts in the sky continued to descend on Qin Lie. The energy of thunder and lightning within his body was still in the process tempering his body's flesh and bones.

He temporarily didn't bother overthinking it as he slightly moved away from Xie Jingxuan and sat down.

Meditating, he began to circulate Heavenly Thunder Eradication, attracting over the energy of heavenly lightning and wildly circulating it within his muscles and veins to cleanse his body and use the energy of the lightning and thunder from the Ninth Heaven to form the Heavenly Thunder Sacred Body.

He became fully focused.

Time gradually passed.

After who knows how long, the thunder and lightning in the sky disappeared and the dark clouds dispersed, revealing the bright moon suspended in the sky.

The flames within the valley had already died down. Only the flames outside were still burning. Those originated from the crimson stone pillars which had fire inciting Spirit Gathering Boards within them.

Outside the valley, Liang Zhong and the generals from Dark Asura Hall were all solemn as they worried about the situation within the valley.

Tu Ze, Zhuo Qian, and the rest were also anxiously waiting as they hoped to learn about Qin Lie's condition. However, because the flames had yet to completely die out, they had no way to enter the valley.

They could only helplessly wait.

Another period of time passed. As the cold spring exuded frigid air, the temperature around Qin Lie and Xie Jingxuan decreased further.

Perhaps it was due to the coldness, but Xie Jingxuan was the first to wake. She opened her eyes, which were now as clear as a pristine lake, and looked at Qin Lie who was sitting in front of her.

Lightning had concentrated itself atop QIn Lie's body as the rumbling of thunder emanated out from his body non-stop. It seemed as if he were bitterly cultivating some secret art.

The Soul Devouring Beast had long since taken its last breath, and the flames within the valley had already stopped burning. Only the outer ring of flames had yet to extinguish.

As she pondered and observed Qin Lie, her memories slowly returned and her expression gradually became complex.

After a while, she stroked her shrunken scythe, and upon discovering that everything was normal, inwardly let out a breath of relief.

Afterwards, she then analyzed the circumstances of her body. She discovered all her aches and sores. Every muscle and vein was inflamed, as if they had been mangled and stretched.

She slightly narrowed her brows as she, like Qin Lie, also sat down. Taking out a medicine pill, she swallowed it and began to recuperate her body so that she could recover her combat power as soon as possible.

The moon hid itself as the sun rose, and the flames outside the valley had now completely died out.

Liang Zhong, Tu Ze, Na Nuo, Xiong Ba, and the rest all entered the charred valley, arriving beside the central point of the cold spring. Immediately, they saw Xie Jingxuan and Qin Lie.

Both of them had their eyes closed, and they sat face to face about ten or so meters apart, both seemingly using their mind to attune themselves.

As for the body of the Soul Devouring Beast, it was still beside the cold spring, completely lifeless. It had clearly died long ago as its soul fragments were no longer active within the valley.

Chapter 102: The First Natal Palace

Not even a trace of fire could be seen within the valley.

Liang Zhong, Tu Ze, Na Nuo, Xiong Ba and the rest all circled around Xie Jingxuan and Qin Lie, looking at the two with puzzled expressions.

As they had no clue what had happened, they didn't dare ascertain whether or not the Soul Devouring Beast had been killed and extinguished. Thus, they all looked on with heavy expressions.

"Ban Hong, check the Soul Devouring Beast's body and see if there are any abnormalities," commanded Liang Zhong.

Ban Hong and three generals of the Dark Asura Hall, who had recovered some of their mind and spirit energy after taking out their spirit artifacts, moved to the Soul Devouring Beast's side and cut open its skull as they began to carefully analyze it.

"Mister Liang, the Soul Devouring Beast has already died," loudly reported Ban Hong a long while later. "There aren't any fluctuations of life within its thunderbolt ravaged head. However, its main soul is gone as well, I don't know whether or not it was able to escape."

Liang Zhong silently nodded and then said, "Yesterday, Miss already said that the Soul Devouring Beast had given up breaking through. Thus, even if it escaped, it will be unable to bring about any devastating calamities."

Everyone all clearly let out a deep breath.

"It's good if it's like this, it's good if it's like this..." Na Nuo's tensed nerves also calmed down as she looked towards the Soul Devouring Beast's corpse. Then, she looked at Xie Jingxuan and Qin Lie's bodies, asking, "Those two should be fine right?"

"I'm fine," suddenly said Xie Jingxuan as she opened her eyes.

Circle after circle of dark light released from her Blackscale Armor. The scale armor which covered her shoulders, waist, and legs detached piece by piece from her body and flew into her ring.

After the Blackscale Armor disappeared, she, who was wearing black, skin tight clothing, became movingly graceful and beautiful.

She put away her hideous mask, exposing her delicate and slightly pale face which added another level of moving beauty and delicateness.

"The Soul Devouring Beast's main soul should have been eradicated." She looked towards Qin Lie, then uncertainly said, "Qin Lie seems like he is about to enter the Natal Opening Realm. He's currently at the crucial period of developing his first Natal Palace. Once he has formed his Natal Palace in his dantian's spirit sea, he will wake up."

"Natal Opening Realm?"

Everyone's eyes revealed surprise as their gazes all turned towards Qin Lie, and all of them were inwardly astonished.

"Tu Ze, Zhuo Qian, you two watch after him. Don't let anyone disturb him at this time, and make sure you two also don't converse too loudly." After Xie Jingxuan said this, she suddenly stood up. "Ban Hong, retrieve the spirit materials from the Soul Devouring Beast's body. Be a bit more careful when dealing with its three eyes and beast core. You must not damage them."

"Don't worry, milady." Ban Hong's face was full of happiness as he hurriedly collected the other generals of the Dark Asura Hall. Using their weapons, they began to dissect the Soul Devouring Beast with their weapons.

"Miss, did the Soul Devouring Beast's main soul truly die? Its breakthrough didn't succeed did it?" asked Liang Zhong in a whisper.

At this time, Liang Zhong and Xie Jingxuan were already a fair ways away from the masses as they began to quietly converse. Tu Ze, Na Nuo, and the rest couldn't hear anything.

"I'm not certain," replied Xie Jingxuan as a glimmer of uncertainty flashed through her eyes. "Once he wakes up, I will thoroughly question him. Whether or not the Soul Devouring Beast was truly extinguished, only he knows," she continued as she looked towards Qin Lie.

"What happened?" asked Liang Zhong again.

"Nothing," said Xie Jingxuan, narrowing her brows as her face showed a slight hint of annoyance.

Thus, Liang Zhong didn't dare to continue asking about it.

Within Qin Lie's world.

Spirit energy, like thick white clouds, wound around every outer corner of the boundless spirit sea within his dantian.

In the middle of the boundless spirit sea, bolt after bolt of blue lightning gathered and twined together. Accompanied by the rumbling of thunder, the lightning was currently forming an existence which depended on the spirit sea. But at the same time, it seemed like an independent small world - a Natal Palace!

The bolts of lightning, like intelligent snakes or twisting earthworms, surged into his dantian's spirit sea from outside, constantly moving towards the center of the gradually forming Natal Palace where they turned into sturdy walls, resulting in the true creation of a small space.

-A small domain was formed with spirit energy as the base and thunder and lightning energy as the core.

Gradually, the initially unstable little domain became increasingly sturdy as it slowly took shape within the spirit sea.

Qin Lie's mind consciousness, from the start, had also entered into his dantian's spirit sea and had been observing the formation of his Natal Palace as it slowly condensed and took shape.

He knew of the intrinsic differences between the Refinement Realm and Natal Opening Realm.

In order to break into the Natal Opening Realm from the Refinement Realm, one had to establish a Natal Palace within their dantian's spirit sea-a small domain.

The formation of the first Natal Palace meant that one had successfully opened their natal palace and entered the Natal Opening Realm.

Advancing along the stages of the Natal Opening Realm was like constructing a small domain within a boundless sea which would gather to become a small island, then a small continent...

-Forming into a independent small world that existed atop the sea.

A Natal Palace was as such, a small domain within the dantian's spirit sea. These Natal Palaces could contain powers which were different from spirit energy.