Chapter 667: Wiping Out the Soul
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Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Chen Fei sensed Shen Yuanjun’s presence, and at this moment, Shen Yuanjun, in the Xiangtan Domain, also sensed a distant call, resonating with his essence and soul.
Shen Yuanjun’s expression changed abruptly as he perceived the situation.
At this moment, Shen Yuanjun found himself in a rather difficult situation.
Years ago, in the mysterious situation of the Fallen Heaven Pavilion, Shen Yuanjun, as a precautionary measure, quietly moved a portion of his soul out of the situation. If someday his attempt to devour Qin Bingxiu failed, this portion of the soul would have a chance to rise again.
And if he successfully broke through to the Mountain Sea Realm in the end, Shen Yuanjun would reclaim this portion of the soul to replenish the deficiencies in his own soul.
This move was considered his final insurance.
However, despite the insurance, Shen Yuanjun’s strength at this moment was too weak.
Although his experience at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm allowed Shen Yuanjun to manipulate his current corporeal body to exert a combat power similar to that of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, he was limited to this extent.
Pushing further was not allowed by his foundational realm.
According to Shen Yuanjun’s original plan, he would quietly cultivate using his current body, utilizing the records of the Minghe Record to seize opportunities to replenish his soul.
Without the a.s.sistance of the Fallen Heaven Pavilion, Shen Yuanjun himself would need an extremely long time to re-cultivate to the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, with several decades being the minimum, and perhaps even longer due to the damage to his soul.
However, Shen Yuanjun had long antic.i.p.ated this situation.
Nearly a hundred years of imprisonment, motionless, thoughtless, and emotionless, merely a walking corpse.
During this time, Shen Yuanjun’s spirit forged an extremely resilient mind.
But now, sensing the resonance of the essence in the distance, Shen Yuanjun’s faith was somewhat shattered.
If he could sense it, then Chen Fei naturally could as well.
Even at the absolute peak in the Mysterious realm, Shen Yuanjun’s strength was no match for Chen Fei’s and was forcibly slain. Now, at the level of the Visceral Tempering realm, what could he possibly use to fight back?
For a moment, a deeper despair than being captured years ago pervaded Shen Yuanjun’s heart.
His hands tightened involuntarily as various thoughts flashed through his mind. Shen Yuanjun was unwilling to be slain by Chen Fei a second time like this.
But escaping the pursuit was incredibly difficult, if not impossible.
Go to the territory of the Sea Monsters?
Shen Yuanjun’s gaze shifted. With Chen Fei’s strength far surpa.s.sing the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, as long as the Monster King didn’t appear, Chen Fei would only need to be a little cautious; the other Sea Monsters would be enough to make him wary.
Unless Shen Yuanjun ventured deep into the territory of the Sea Monsters.
The deeper he went into the Sea Monsters’ territory before Chen Fei caught up, the greater his chances of survival.
Shen Yuanjun began to dig into the information stored in Yu Xinfeng’s mind. After a moment, his heart sank. The distance from here to the territory of the Sea Monsters was the span of two entire sea domains.
With his current level only at the Visceral Tempering realm, unable to fly swiftly, it was simply impossible.
Shen Yuanjun immediately abandoned this plan in his mind. Crossing such a long distance was definitely out of the question. As for directly seeking out Min Yanlu, exposing Chen Fei’s prowess at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, and opting for a mutual destruction, even just considering it briefly, Shen Yuanjun knew it wouldn’t work.
Apart from the distance factor, the crucial point was that, given Shen Yuanjun’s current status, he couldn’t even meet Min Yanlu.
Any mid-to-late Combined Aperture Tempering realm cultivator could easily intercept him.
If he were to claim that Chen Fei of the Primordial Sword Sect concealed his cultivation and was actually at the peak of the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, those cultivators at the Combined Aperture Tempering realm would simply consider Shen Yuanjun to be mad.
Shen Yuanjun’s eyes flickered. Running away was already out of the question, and mutual destruction was also not feasible.
The only method now was how to conceal himself, making it so that Chen Fei couldn’t pinpoint his exact location.
Recalling all he had learned, Shen Yuanjun sat cross-legged and began to activate his techniques.
In just a moment, Shen Yuanjun’s aura began to diminish, eventually becoming so faint that it was almost imperceptible, like a stone.
Shen Yuanjun sensed his own condition, no longer resonating with the distant essence.
However, this was due to the distance being too far. If the distance were closer, this resonance would still occur.
Shen Yuanjun furrowed his brow. The ultimate object of resonance for the essence was not something else, but Shen Yuanjun’s soul. As long as the soul remained, this resonance was unavoidable.
Only with the pa.s.sage of time could this resonance gradually weaken. At present, this resonance was almost at its strongest.
“Soul!”
A hint of fierceness appeared on Shen Yuanjun’s face as he activated the Minghe Record in reverse. An indescribable pain spread through Shen Yuanjun’s body.
To self-consume and shatter one’s own soul was a sensation more painful than torture.
Torture, aimed at the flesh, eventually leads to numbness, but the grinding of the soul has no such numbness, only intensifying agony!
Shen Yuanjun trembled, feeling his already damaged soul diminishing more and more until only a trace of spirituality remained.
If this trace of spirituality dissipated, there would be no more Shen Yuanjun in this world, and the fragments of his soul just now would have merged into this body.
Shen Yuanjun’s spirituality began to quiet down, and only with true silence would the resonance truly disappear.
However, Shen Yuanjun had set a rule for his own spirituality: it would automatically revive at critical moments.
The trembling of his body gradually ceased.
After an unknown amount of time, his eyes slowly opened. His demeanor was completely different from before, his gaze filled with confusion.
Yu Xinfeng looked at himself strangely, lowering his head. He had a strange feeling that something had happened just now, but he couldn’t remember anything at this moment.
His clothes were completely soaked, and Yu Xinfeng noticed that the speed of his thoughts had increased significantly at this moment.
If he had only felt his comprehension improve slightly in the past few days, now Yu Xinfeng was certain that after the strange cultivation just now, both his ability to think and his understanding of techniques had improved significantly compared to before.
It was as if there was a blocked position in his mind that had suddenly opened up, and everything in the world seemed vastly different.
“This technique is truly miraculous!” Yu Xinfeng recalled the techniques he had learned in his dream, his face filled with incredulity.
In the Sea Peak City, at the Primordial Sword Sect.
Chen Fei sensed the distant resonance gradually weakening, eventually disappearing altogether. Obviously, Shen Yuanjun had also noticed something amiss and actively cut off this resonance.
Searching for someone thousands of miles away was akin to finding a needle in a haystack.
The clone merged into Chen Fei’s body from behind.
Chen Fei wiped his forehead with his right hand, and suddenly the world turned black and white. His figure flickered, disappearing into the Primordial Sword Sect.
Three days later, outside the North View City in the Xiangtan Domain.
Yu Xinfeng shattered the shield in the hands of the person in front of him with a single strike. Taking advantage of the opponent’s instability, Yu Xinfeng stepped forward and slashed across the opponent’s neck.
Amidst the mist of blood, Yu Xinfeng turned his head to look around. There were not many people left standing at this moment.
The faction Yu Xinfeng belonged to was engaged in a b.l.o.o.d.y battle with another faction within the city, and the acc.u.mulated conflicts between the two sides had been brewing for a long time.
The other faction arrived in North View City following the migration tide some time ago.
After initially remaining quiet for a few months, they began to continuously probe the position of the original factions within North View City. Naturally, the friction between the two sides grew increasingly intense.
Recently, the situation had become irreconcilable.
Yu Xinfeng’s current battle was just one of many skirmishes.
His figure flickered, his once perplexing footwork now flowing smoothly without any hesitation.
In the blink of an eye, Yu Xinfeng appeared in front of another person. The blade in his hand transformed into a streak of light, and before the person could comprehend what was happening, darkness had already engulfed their vision.
Yu Xinfeng used to favor the sword, but for some reason, as he continued to cultivate, he found himself increasingly drawn to the art of the blade.
Yu Xinfeng was a minor leader within the faction, but he had no access to the truly profound secrets of blade techniques.
Yet even with just ordinary blade techniques, Yu Xinfeng could unleash astonishing power. Those with slightly lower cultivation levels than him sometimes fell to just one stroke of his blade.
Even opponents with similar cultivation levels, also at the Visceral Tempering realm, found it difficult to withstand his three strikes.
Once he obtained profound blade techniques, Yu Xinfeng believed that his combat power would continue to rise.
However, Yu Xinfeng also understood the principle of being a standout among peers. Even with his current surge in strength, he did not reveal all of it.
Half an hour later, the battle ended, and the faction leader rewarded Yu Xinfeng with numerous elemental stones.
Yu Xinfeng appeared overjoyed on the surface, but his inner turmoil was minimal.
According to Yu Xinfeng’s own estimation, it wouldn’t take long, at the latest the day after tomorrow, for him to have the confidence to break through to the Combined Aperture Tempering realm.
North View City in the Xiangtan Domain was just a small city, with no Combined Aperture Tempering realm experts within the city; the strongest were only at the peak of the Visceral Tempering realm. Once Yu Xinfeng broke through to the Combined Aperture Tempering realm, he would have a significant status in the entire North View City.
Returning to his own courtyard, after confirming the safety of the surroundings, Yu Xinfeng couldn’t wait to practice his techniques.
As his strength continued to increase, Yu Xinfeng found himself increasingly enamored with the technique in his mind. While the others in the faction were off enjoying themselves on the flower boats, Yu Xinfeng was more eager to practice his techniques.
As the technique continued to operate, Yu Xinfeng’s aura began to fluctuate.
Yu Xinfeng had a feeling that, if he wished, he could directly break through to the Combined Aperture Tempering realm at this moment.
In the past, the Combined Aperture Tempering realm had always seemed distant and unattainable to Yu Xinfeng. He never imagined that ever since he started having strange dreams, the Combined Aperture Tempering realm would suddenly become within his reach.
Suddenly, Yu Xinfeng instinctively felt a shock in his heart. He withdrew from his state of meditation and opened his eyes, looking ahead.
At some point, a figure had appeared there, calmly watching him.
“Who are you!”
Yu Xinfeng instantly grabbed the blade by his side and shouted sharply at the figure.
Moonlight shone in from outside the window, revealing the figure’s face. It was none other than Chen Fei, who had come from the Sea Peak City.
Three days ago, Chen Fei had already arrived in the Xiangtan Domain. Two days ago, he had pinpointed North View City, and today, he had found Yu Xinfeng.
Chen Fei looked at Yu Xinfeng with interest. To his Heavenly Eye, Yu Xinfeng showed no signs of anomaly, at most just a Visceral Tempering realm cultivator with a solid foundation in his techniques..