With Song Weihan, She Meixiao and Mu Ye all gathered up around him, Sheng Feilong sat down with his legs crossed. After entering a meditative state, he started to remove the protective measures around his own spiritual consciousness so to allow Song Weihan and the other"s to enter it.
As the one with the highest Spirit Power among them, Song Weihan observed the process, waiting for Sheng Feilong to remove all protections before telling the other two to release their Spirit Power. All of them sat down as well, then drifted off into Sheng Feilong"s spiritual consciousness.
Soon, they all appeared within the silvery white world near Sheng Feilong, who was already waiting for them. Song Weihan"s eyes didn"t leave Mu Ye"s figure, while the latter, as well as She Meixiao, were looking around in awe; Unlike Song Weihan and Sheng Feilong, the two of them hadn"t reached the Spirit Domain Realm yet, the seemingly infinite size of it thoroughly shocking them.
"...This is what it looks like once someone reached the Spirit Domain Realm?" She Meixiao muttered while looking around. She took a deep breath, inhaling the refreshing fragrance, her mind calming down within seconds after which a smile crept up on her face. "It really is completely different from the Spirit Abyss Realm."
Mu Ye was in an even worse situation; While he had heard of the Spirit Domain Realm, he had never met someone who had actually reached that level. He himself, as the Master of the Body Sect, was only at the early stages of the Spirit Abyss Realm. "At the Spirit Abyss Realm, one becomes able to evolve all of their Spirit Souls and Soul Rings to the 100.000-years-old boundary and beyond; Yet, at the Spirit Domain Realm, one creates their own domain – Their own world..."
Song Weihan smiled at him after hearing that, his eyes showing a cheerfully nostalgic expression. "Ones own world, yes... An infinite expanse within ones own spiritual consciousness, enough for one to understand the truths of the real world, yet we stay as mortals; Our own world – A world for only one themselves."
"Beyond that, lies the Divine Origin, where one starts to pry beyond what mortals can comprehend, prying into the realm of G.o.ds." He suddenly started chuckling and shook his head. "How far are we, the t.i.tled Douluos, who pride themselves as the top of humanity, from real G.o.ds? With but a single thought, they create a new world in their mind, a second thought to have that world become a reality, with a myriad of creatures, maybe even more humans, within. Considering that, which is our ultimate goal, how impressive is the Spirit Domain Realm, really?"
Sheng Feilong looked at Song Weihan in silence, as did She Meixiao and Mu Ye. The latter two couldn"t quite understand what he meant – The Spirit Domain Realm was already this incredible, yet Song Weihan wasn"t satisfied? He wants to compare himself to the G.o.ds?
While the two of them didn"t understand, Sheng Feilong did. After reaching the Spirit Domain Realm, ones perception of the world changes at a fundamental level and only then would one truly understand how mysterious the world truly is, yet the G.o.ds could create such a world on a whim – How could Soul Masters who understood that truth not want to reach that level?
For every Soul Master, becoming as powerful as possible was their ultimate goal; Understanding how great the rift between the G.o.ds and humans truly was could be devastating, but haven"t others already proven that it is not impossible to surmount that rift? 20.000 years ago, it was the Tang Sect"s founder, Thousand Hands Douluo Tang San, and 10.000 years ago, the Spirit PaG.o.da"s founder, Spirit Ice Douluo Huo Yuhao.
They were icons widely recognized by everyone in the world, prodigies of their generations that had changed the world, shaking it at its very core and bringing about a new era mainly by themselves. How could one not aspire to do what they did?
"You humans truly are amusing. You live such short lives, yet you still aspire to surpa.s.s all and compare yourselves to the G.o.ds." Shortly after Song Weihan finished his speech, a sonorous voice came from the side of the group. Song Weihan, She Meiixao and Mu Ye were caught off guard, immediately turning into the direction of the voice with wary expressions.
A few hundreds metres away from them stood a towering, golden lion, slowly walking towards them with an indifferent gaze. Song Weihan stiffened for only a moment before calming down again; He recognized the old lion king from when he saw it before, but was still slightly wary of it.
She Meixiao had a similar reaction, though she took a moment longer to calm down, more shocked by the old lion king"s sheer size as opposed to it appearing here. Mu Ye, on the other hand, froze when he saw it, his eyes widening, while his pupils constricted.
Sheng Feilong had told him about the lion king being his Spirit Soul before, that it was a 100.000-years-old Spirit Soul derived from an actual Soul Beast, yet the pressure he felt from it was entirely different from what he had expected; The old lion king was, at the very least, as strong as Mu Ye himself at his strongest, but he was only in a spirit form at the moment – Far, far too weak to compare himself to his prime, much less the old lion king.
The lion king walked closer to them, moving the few hundreds metres within a few seconds and coming to a halt just about ten metres away from the group. Sheng Feilong smiled, while the lion king"s gaze skimmed over them. It"s gaze halted on Song Weihan for a moment, lightly frowning as it recognized Song Weihan, then continued to She Meixiao before coming to a halt on Mu Ye. "You must be the one who gave Sheng Feilong that strange technique?"
Its voice was quite calm, but its gaze was fixed on Mu Ye like it was staring at prey, causing the latter to tense up with cold sweat running down his back. "What is that thing? It"s just a Spirit Soul, how can it give off such a terrifying feeling? Is that what the kid meant by retaining its intelligence? It"s a wild beast! A hunter out to find prey!"
Mu Ye forced himself to remain calm, forcefully nodding his head to answer the old lion king"s question. "The kid- I mean, Sheng Feilong, told me that there was a problem with it? That it was changing his bloodline in a way that wasn"t beneficial and that he needs a different one. And that you wanted to talk to me and show me something, so that I would better understand his and your needs."
The old lion king glanced at Sheng Feilong, not expecting for him to have already explained everything to Mu Ye. It nodded its head loftily, remaining silent, while Sheng Feilong spoke up with a smile. "Well, now that Senior I here as well, I"ll show you where the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon is... It"s, well, the cause of the problem, so to say."
Song Weihan and the others nodded, motioning for Sheng Feilong to lead the way. The old lion king was following directly behind Sheng Feilong, its back turned to the t.i.tled Douluos. All three of them noticed a weird spot on the old lion king"s back, only to recognize it as a small, sleeping child in a purple dress, that was grabbing on to its fur, riding the lion king"s back.
She Meixiao and Song Weihan were taken aback, their lips twitching at the weird sight, while Mu Ye stared at the sleeping Purple Forest Witch with a frown. Although its aura was vastly overshadowed by the over 100.000-years-old Three-Eyed Golden Lion, upon closer inspection, he could feel that its aura was also incredibly terrifying. Just staring at it, Mu Ye felt like having a sharp spear pointed at his throat. "What"s with that child? Is that another one of his Spirit Souls? It"s a notch lower that the golden lion, but still terrifying. It can"t be another 100.000-years-old Spirit Soul..."
Despite his doubts, Mu Ye didn"t say anything, nor did he question anyone about the Purple Forest Witch and followed the group. Under Sheng Feilong"s lead, the soon reached the border between the silvery white world and the desolate wasteland. They didn"t pa.s.s te spot where the Ancient Hypnotic Toad, the Radiant Emperor"s Phantasmagoric Eyes and Sheng Feilong"s Soul Bones usually were, but took another route.
The border had calmed down, both of the parts of Sheng Feilong"s spiritual consciousness seamlessly flowing into another without conflict, but She Meixiao and Song Weihan were frowning deeply; They knew that Sheng Feilong"s spiritual consciousness was split in two and that it was currently quiet, but the desolate wasteland still felt strange to them.
That was especially true for Song Weihan, as his Spirit Power was the highest and he could tell what was going on there more clearly. Mu Ye didn"t say anything, but his expression was as solemn as Song Wiehan"s and She Meixiao"s.
Sheng Feilong turned to them, but didn"t stop walking. "We"re about halfway there. There"s a ruined castle in the middle of the desolate wasteland; that"s where the Netherworld Putrefaction Demon is chained to its throne."