Chapter 996: The Insurmountable (1/2)

There seemed to be an independent world inside the cyan Spirit Pearl, which was divided into five regions.

Each region swarmed with numerous discarnate souls and one overseeing evil spirit.

The five evil spirits, each of which oversaw one region, thrummed with fear, despair, rage, and bloodthirst respectively.

Meanwhile, they continuously absorbed the five negative energies from the discarnate souls in their respective dominions.

Normally speaking, negative energies such as fear, despair, rage, and bloodthirst were considered impurities that were usually attached to soul power, which couldn’t be refined into one’s true soul.

However, to the five evil spirits, they happened to be the nourishment they needed to strengthen themselves.

As the evil spirits absorbed negative energies to strengthen themselves, wisp after wisp of pure soul power flew towards the Spirit Pearl’s soul that resided at the center, like silk extruded by silkworms.

As the Spirit Pearl’s soul refined the pure soul power it kept receiving, it gradually grew distinct.

Nie Tian examined it with rapt attention, and discovered that fine strands could be seen within its blurry soul body, and that how it strengthened its soul was very similar to how he strengthened his true soul.

The only difference was that he relied on soul crystals to refine his true soul.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul, however, had the five evil spirits devour the impurities, then fused itself with the purged soul power to boost its growth.

Fragments that looked like incomplete maps could be seen floating over each of the five regions.

Nie Tian, who had long since understood the Spirit Pearl’s wonders, stared at those fragments for a while before realizing that the memories of the outsiders, whose discarnate souls had been sucked into the Spirit Pearl, had formed these fragmentary maps.

However, the memories those discarnate souls carried had become fragmented after their violent deaths.

Adding in the fact that they belonged to different races, such as Demons, Fiends, and Florigrims, even the Spirit Pearl couldn’t integrate such heterogeneous memories to form complete maps of the domains they had lived in.

“It’s hard to believe that the Spirit Pearl actually has a use that’s similar to that of Soul-devouring Lakes. So the Spirit Pearl drags discarnate souls into itself with the help of the five evil spirits. Afterwards, the five evil spirits devour the discarnate souls’ negative energies and use them to strengthen themselves.

“Meanwhile, after being rid of their negative energies, the discarnate souls are refined into pure soul power, which is fused into the Spirit Pearl’s soul, allowing it to grow bit by bit.

“The Phantasms’ Soul-devouring Lakes generate soul crystals that can be used by all races. Even though the Spirit Pearl doesn’t produce soul crystals, it produces pure soul power that can be used to strengthen itself.

“At the same time, the five evil spirits can strengthen themselves with the impurities within the discarnate souls.

“But I don’t seem to be getting anything from the Spirit Pearl.”

A wisp of Nie Tian’s soul awareness morphed into an illusory shadow that drifted into the cyan heaven and earth inside the Spirit Pearl.

The discarnate souls in the five regions didn’t seem to notice his arrival.

However, the Spirit Pearl’s soul and the five evil spirits did.

His soul shadow passed through the areas where numerous discarnate souls were hovering, and eventually came to the center where the Spirit Pearl’s soul was.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul took the initiative to approach his soul shadow in an affectionate and cheerful manner.

Even though they didn’t communicate in any sort of language, Nie Tian understood it perfectly. He felt its joy and learned that after gaining a large number of discarnate souls, it was now growing at a high speed.

After a moment of pondering, Nie Tian sent out a soul message, expressing that he needed pure soul power to strengthen his star souls.

He asked for its help.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul was intelligent enough to understand him.

It suddenly let out a sharp screech that filled every corner of the Spirit Pearl.

As soon as this happened, every single discarnate soul that was confined in the five regions made desperate attempts to escape, as if they knew that they were facing some catastrophe.

At the same time, the five evil spirits, which worked under the Spirit Pearl’s soul, bore their fangs and gave sinister grins.

They started chasing and massacring discarnate souls in their respective regions. One discarnate soul after another was torn to pieces and devoured.

The incomplete maps that floated inside the Spirit Pearl instantly exploded.

As the discarnate souls were eliminated, the memories that had been taken from them vanished as well.

Simultaneously, wisp after wisp of fine soul strands started to rise from the five evil spirits’ enormous blurry bodies.

Each and every soul strand contained pure soul essence, completely devoid of impurities.

The soul strands flew ethereally out of the Spirit Pearl.

Nie Tian’s eyes snapped open, and he saw them flying into his forehead between his eyebrows before streaming into his sea of awareness.

Such pure soul essence was practically the same as the soul power he had channeled from soul crystals before.

As soon as the soul strands entered him, his star souls that floated over his sea of awareness were like sharks that sniffed blood. They swooped down and pulled the soul strands directly into themselves.

As his star souls gradually grew stronger, they were filled with more refined soul power.

The Spirit Pearl, however, was losing its discarnate souls by the hundreds. The five evil spirits had kept them like livestock, which they could use for power in the future. However, in such a short time, a third of them were already gone.

Countless soul strands continued to rise from the evil spirits and fuse into Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.

His star souls grew stronger and stronger...

The process seemed to last a long time, but at the same time, it felt as if everything was happening in a split second.

Nie Tian suddenly touched the obstacles that were stopping him from entering the next level, blasting them into shatters in the next moment.

“Breakthrough!” Ecstasy filled Nie Tian’s eyes as spirit jades, Star Stones, Heavenflame Crystals and materials that contained wood power flew out from within his ring of holding. Moments later, the spiritual materials were piled into a hill beside him.

Normally speaking, minor breakthroughs in cultivation weren’t accompanied by risks or fundamental changes.

As long as the cultivator wasn’t disturbed, a minor breakthrough at the Profound realm would usually be safe and smooth.

At this point, no one on this floating continent would disturb his breakthrough, as the other human experts and Ancientbeasts were all very far from his current location.