Chapter 415 – Soul Transformation (2)
Along the way, w.a.n.g Lin spread out his divine sense and saw many cultivators with very ugly expressions that only seemed to hide their worries. Even when they met someone they knew, they would just quickly reply to each other and then head their own way.
As w.a.n.g Lin flew, he suddenly frowned. More than ten cultivators who had their divine senses linked in a mysterious way were sweeping the area.
Among these ten or so cultivators, three of them were at the Soul Formation stage and the rest were at the Nascent Soul stage.
They weren’t targeting anyone specifically but seemed to be checking every cultivator.
When their scan came toward him, w.a.n.g Lin didn’t have time to deal with them, so he took a step and dodged their divine senses.
None of them noticed anything wrong, so they continued to sweep the area.
w.a.n.g Lin’s speed was very quick, so he arrived outside the Soul Refining Sect shortly after. The sect protection formation was already activated. It formed a black cloud around the sect, and this cloud looked like it was filled with ghosts.
Waves of screams would occasionally come from the cloud. This place looked very daunting, almost like it was the underworld.
None of the cultivators of Pilu were willing to come near here, so they would always take a detour around this place.
When w.a.n.g Lin saw the sect protection formation, he let out a sigh of relief. This meant that everything inside the sect was still safe. He activated the soul sealing technique and opened his mouth to spit out a strand of black gas that turned into the 30-foot-tall soul flag.
“Enter!” w.a.n.g Lin pointed at the flag and it began to move. It quickly wrapped around w.a.n.g Lin and brought him through the formation.
The moment the flag charged toward the black fog, the soul fragments made room to allow w.a.n.g Lin through. Then w.a.n.g Lin and the flag disappeared deep within the Soul Refining Sect’s formation.
Soon after, the black cloud returned to normal; the pa.s.sage that had opened up was quickly sealed.
There weren’t many changes since w.a.n.g Lin was last here, but there seemed to be even fewer disciples now; only 10% of them were present.
Looking at the distance, of the nine golden rings, only three remained…
“You have returned…” An ancient voice came from the void. A blood ring suddenly appeared before w.a.n.g Lin and then Du Tian walked out of it.
Du Tian looked even older than before and his entire body was giving off a thick death aura. The current him looked so different from the last time w.a.n.g Lin had seen him.
“Senior, you…” w.a.n.g Lin’s eyes became serious as he examined Du Tian. He let out a sigh as he saw that Du Tian’s lifespan was almost at its end.
“You saw through it… It’s no problem; I still have a few years of life left. I won’t die too soon.” Du Tian let out a laugh, and as he laughed, the death aura around him seemed to lessen.
“Not bad. In these short years, your cultivation level has increased a lot. You have already reached the point where you have to absorb celestial spiritual energy and refine your body. If you have a large amount of celestial jades, then it is only a matter of time before you reach the Soul Transformation stage!” Du Tian took a closer look at w.a.n.g Lin. What he saw shocked him and made his eyes s.h.i.+ne brightly.
w.a.n.g Lin pondered a bit before asking, “Does senior have any celestial jades?”
Du Tian looked toward the sky and laughed. “What a guy you are, Ceng Niu. You came back to the Soul Refining Sect only for celestial jades. If you had enough celestial jades, I’m afraid you wouldn’t even have returned.”
w.a.n.g Lin faintly smiled and shook his head. “I would still return for the one-billion-soul soul flag.”
Du Tian’s eyes lit up. He looked at w.a.n.g Lin with an appreciative gaze and smiled. “Good, the one-billion-soul soul flag is yours. My soul fragment will also be yours in a few years; heck, even the entire Soul Refining Sect is yours! If you don’t like this place, you can give up on the Soul Refining Sect here, but you have to remember how good I was to you and you have to keep your promise.
“This old man only wants you to promise one thing and that is to keep the one-billion-soul soul flag safe. As long as this soul flag is safe, then my Soul Refining Sect still exists. This planet is too small to hold someone like you, Ceng Niu. When you leave, you must find a place suitable for my Soul Refining Sect to grow once more. You must also build 999 heaven-reaching towers to complete my Soul Refining Sect’s dream of becoming a rank 6 cultivation country.
“Listen well, Ceng Niu!”
w.a.n.g Lin’s eyes were calm. There was nothing free in this world, so if you wanted something, you would have to pay a price. After pondering for a bit, w.a.n.g Lin agreed with Du Tian’s words. He nodded and said, “I can do it!”
Du Tian carefully looked at w.a.n.g Lin before letting out a sigh. He looked into the sky and thought, “Senior apprentice brother, I have gambled everything on your prediction. I hope I won’t lose everything on this bet…”
He took a deep breath, waved his sleeves, and said, “Follow me!”
With that, he led the way and w.a.n.g Lin followed closely behind.
The two of them moved like lightning as they pa.s.sed through the Soul Refining Sect and arrived at the back mountain.
Du Tian sent out a seal, causing the surroundings to tremble and a black vortex to suddenly appear. The vortex had black lightning coursing through it, and then a dangerous aura quickly spread from inside it.
“This is the forbidden area of my Soul Refining Sect. Only those who have mastered the soul sealing technique are allowed in here, so bringing you here doesn’t break the sect’s law.” After Du Tian finished speaking, he disappeared into the vortex.
w.a.n.g Lin pondered a bit. Although his expression remained calm, he put up his guard as he carefully followed Du Tian inside.
The moment he entered the vortex, he felt like he was entering a transfer array. His vision blurred, and when he could see clearly again, he was inside a cave.
This cave wasn’t very large. On the wall before him were more than 30 tablets made of celestial jade.
“These are tablets for all of the past Soul Transformation cultivators of the Soul Refining Sect.” Du Tian bowed to those tablets.
w.a.n.g Lin also bowed.
A hint of joy entered Du Tian’s eyes and he faintly nodded. Then he walked to the side and pressed his hand on a wall. Shortly after, rumbling sounds came from all directions.
“Ceng Niu, sit down in the lotus position. My Soul Refining Sect doesn’t have many celestial jades left. Although we had a lot saved up when we came over from Planet Four Saints, after tens of thousands of years and more than 30 Soul Transformation cultivators, our supply has long been used up. The remaining jades are what my senior apprentice brother and I got from the Celestial Realm when we were young. I’m afraid that they aren’t enough for you. However, you don’t have to worry; even if this isn’t enough, I’ll just bring you out to steal some. No matter what, you must reach the Soul Transformation stage soon.
“My Soul Refining Sect has never worried about not having enough celestial jades because when someone is ready to reach the Soul Transformation stage, we just pick a sect and bring the one-billion-soul soul flag to steal what we need. If one sect isn’t enough, we will visit two sects; if two aren’t enough, then we will go to a third sect. Sooner or later, we will get enough celestial jades.”
“When I reached the Soul Transformations stage, my teacher took the one-billion-soul soul flag and stole from all of the sects in three rank 5 cultivation countries.” As Du Tian spoke, there was pride in his eyes.
w.a.n.g Lin could only bitterly smile after hearing this. He thought that the Soul Refining Sect sure was tyrannical. The one-billion-soul soul flag was something even the Suzaku dreaded. With it, the Soul Refining Sect could sweep the planet and no one would dare to stop them. No wonder they were able to produce so many Soul Transformation cultivators; all of the celestial jades they used were stolen from others.
At this moment, the rumbling got even louder and the ground began to crack. Then two blocks of celestial jade, each one the size of a person, came up from underground.
Rich celestial spiritual energy began to fill the area. w.a.n.g Lin took a closer look and found that the quality of these two celestial jades wasn’t as good as the quality of his jades. However, they were simply ma.s.sive, so they naturally contained more celestial spiritual energy.
w.a.n.g Lin took a deep breath and began to absorb the celestial spiritual energy.
One piece of jade was in front of w.a.n.g Lin and the other was behind him. They both emitted rich celestial spiritual energy which he absorbed at an incredible pace. It was as if his body was a large vortex.
The celestial spiritual energy coming from the celestial jades was so rich that it became a visible white line that connected the jades and w.a.n.g Lin.
Du Tian, who was standing on the side, nodded. He slapped his bag of holding and took out seven small, white flags. He threw them out and the seven white flags landed around w.a.n.g Lin.
Strands of white gas came out from the white flags, linking them together to form an irregular shape.
Du Tian pointed at the air and said, “Stand!”
White lines came out from the lines connecting the white flags and completely surrounded w.a.n.g Lin.
“Ceng Niu, with this formation, the speed at which you can absorb and convert your spiritual energy will increase. This old man has never held back on you.”
An endless amount of celestial spiritual energy entered his body and his body constantly refined it, causing the spiritual energy inside him to change.
w.a.n.g Lin gradually forgot about the pa.s.sage of time and completely emerged himself in absorbing celestial spiritual energy and converting his spiritual energy. Throughout this process, he gained a deep understanding of celestial spiritual energy.
Reaching the Soul Transformation stage means a change in quality for cultivators. Only by converting spiritual energy and controlling celestial spiritual energy can one truly be considered a powerhouse.
Soul Transformation cultivators can control celestial spiritual energy, so many treasures that use spiritual energy become useless because they can’t withstand celestial spiritual energy.
Similarly, there are some treasures that can’t be activated with spiritual energy at all; they can only be activated by celestial spiritual energy.
The celestial sword and War G.o.d Chariot were like this.
With the pa.s.sage of time, no matter how many celestial jades there were, they would eventually be absorbed. On this day, there were gentle crackling sounds as cracks appeared on the two jades.