Devouring the Stars: Soul Master

Chapter 193 The Terrifying River of Souls
"It's almost ready to be born."

Inside the Myriad Soul Banner space, Qin Ming's body hovered in the air, looking at the egg with blood-red patterns in the blood pool, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.

Not far away, the enormous eyes of the mountain giant, which is 60,000 kilometers high, are also watching.

Waited for a moment.

Click!Click!Click!
The blood-red eggshell, which was only about 10,000 kilometers high, suddenly cracked open.

Then, an incredibly strange blood-red crystal was revealed. This crystal seemed to be composed of countless tiny particles and had a total of 10081 facets.

Each cut surface is covered with incredibly complex blood-red patterns.

The crimson runes were completely integrated into the entire crystal core, which was the core of the River of Souls—the Soul Crystal Core!
woohoo~~~
Streams of blood-red energy rapidly surged from the soul crystal core and then quickly condensed into shape.

A phantom human figure, ten thousand kilometers tall, with an appearance exactly like Qin Ming and long, blood-red hair, appeared.

This makes it look particularly eerie.

……

"The River of Souls actually has its own primordial core?"

Qin Ming and the mountain giant looked at each other, their expressions showing surprise and doubt.

His ability to create clones was not bestowed by the original universe, and it differs from other clone abilities in many ways.

But the situation that was unfolding at this moment made Qin Ming somewhat uneasy.

The pronucleus, or the internal world.

It is the shackle that hinders the breakthrough to immortality. Once the breakthrough is achieved, one can merge with the spatial fragments in the spatial turbulence to form a divine kingdom.

Therefore, although the Golden Horned Beast has clones, it only has one original core.

The divine kingdom is also the foundation for the future strongest beings to break through the universe. When the clones merge into one, the divine kingdom transforms into a microcosm.

However, at this moment, another world actually appeared inside the soul crystal core of the River of Souls, and the inner world was extremely large, even larger than the mountain giant.

Doesn't this mean that I can have two divine kingdoms when I break through in the future?
Do not!
More than two.

Bring along your true self and your future third avatar, and these will be the four divine kingdoms!

"interesting!"

The Soul Giant emitted a leisurely voice.

As a soul life form, its core is a soul crystal core. As for its appearance, it can change at will. However, the one located in the Northern Frontier Secret Realm likes to transform into the shape of a river, hence the name River of Souls.

Blood-haired Qin Ming seemed to shift like air currents, quickly transforming into the giant form of Teacher Qianwu. Then, his size shrank rapidly, turning into a humanoid figure only a hundred meters long.

It then rapidly swelled and transformed into a winding river stretching for thousands of miles.

Then it split apart, turning into streams of water, which in turn transformed into more than a hundred Qin Ming figures.

"Soul life is indeed peculiar," Qin Ming smiled.

The River of Souls can change its form at will, but there are limits to this change.

In its normal state, the River of Souls is about 10,000 miles long, its smallest compressed state is 100 meters, and its largest state has no limit.

This change is essentially a change in the density of the soul's energy composition, and it does not consume anything of the soul itself.

However, if you want to maintain a strong defense even after growing larger, then the consumption will naturally increase.

Even if it splits into individual soul entities, the total number remains unchanged.

"As expected, the life level of the River of Souls is about 1000 times higher. Such a powerful soul has an extremely clear understanding of the fundamental laws of the universe."

Qin Ming, now restored to his former status as the giant with ten thousand miles of red hair, felt the fluctuations emanating from the vast universe.

Unlike the mountain giants, he is the king of the fundamental laws of earth and space.

The River of Souls has the same understanding of all fundamental laws, and can clearly perceive all ten fundamental laws: metal, wood, water, fire, earth, space, wind, light, lightning, and time.

It has no inherent properties.

However, the extreme power of the soul allows it to be considered as having all attributes.

As for which one to specifically understand, that's entirely up to you.

"Perhaps I can then devote some energy to comprehending other laws?"

Hundreds of souls merged like flowing water, eventually transforming into 10 humanoid figures, each about a thousand miles tall, each comprehending a fundamental law.

The extreme power of the soul allows it to easily multitask.

"No rush! Focus on spatial direction first, and you can start to comprehend it when you become a realm master."

However, this ability to multitask has made learning the secret arts of apothecary and life puppetry much easier.

Qin Ming was overjoyed; his talent far surpassed that of Bo Lan.

However, being a jack-of-all-trades is not as good as being an expert in one thing!
Learning the methods of pharmacists and puppeteers is actually a deep study of the essence of the soul and flesh, serving the core purpose.

At this stage, my primary goal is to improve my combat strength.

He will definitely stay at the Realm Lord level for a considerable period of time in the future.

To comprehend the laws of time, and to achieve the spacetime integration when becoming the master of the universe, can be done after the three-part body is conceived; that would be more efficient.

Because his third avatar is most likely a special life form that chooses a certain time or spacetime.

With top-tier time or spacetime talents, combined with the River of Souls' extraordinary soul abilities, one's speed of comprehending laws will rapidly increase in a short period of time.

When Qin Ming possessed his second clone, 'River of Souls', he naturally became aware of the River of Souls' innate secret techniques.

Innate Secret Technique - Soul Control!
As a soul life form, the River of Souls is completely different from humans and mountain giants in its life form; it is composed of the most basic soul particles.

His control over the soul also brought his characteristics to their fullest potential!

As the name suggests, this talent grants absolute control over the soul power within a certain range, allowing one to manipulate their own soul and even the souls of other beings at will! The ability to split into individual soul entities is essentially about separating a portion of one's own soul entity.

Each clone possesses a portion of the original's strength and can act, fight, and explore independently. Its strength is related to the soul particles contained during the split.

In addition, Qin Ming developed some uses for his Soul Control talent in a very short time.

This control over the soul allows Qin Ming to clearly see himself, as well as the soul fluctuations and composition of each soul within the Myriad Soul Banner!
It is thousands or even tens of thousands of times stronger than the original, simple soul's powerful perception!
This was used for spiritual practice, which was crucial for his journey on the path of the soul and his exploration of the essence of things.

The speed at which the River of Souls operates is incredibly fast, far surpassing both its human form and the Mountain Giant. It can multitask and quickly acquire vast amounts of knowledge.

When used in combat, it can use soul insight to see through the defenses, disguises, and concealments at the soul level, allowing its soul attack capabilities to reach an extremely terrifying level.

As for the enemy's soul attack?
Ordinary soul attacks are laughable in the face of soul control, whose weaknesses can be easily seen through.

The moment the second clone appeared, Qin Ming discovered dozens of vulnerabilities in his prized "Eternal Reincarnation" secret technique and the Nine Hells defense within his soul's sea of ​​consciousness.

If the two are at war, they can even silently erode each other's souls and enslave them!

Its soul attack ability is almost terrifying.

"No wonder the body of the River of Souls in the Northern Frontier Alliance can reach tens of millions of kilometers, and it has also enslaved a special plant-type life form that is also a top cosmic overlord."

Any life that gets close to it will have its soul devoured.

Qin Ming chuckled. As a soul life form, the body of the River of Souls was entirely composed of the most primordial soul particles, and the talent of soul control was the absolute control of the soul.

This gave rise to a terrifying ability.

That is soul plundering, or rather, soul devouring!

Kill other life forms and directly plunder their most basic soul essence to strengthen your own body!
The more souls it devours, the larger the River of Souls will become.

Theoretically speaking, as long as it devours enough souls, the body of the River of Souls can expand almost infinitely.

But in reality, it's very difficult to do.

Because the souls of different beings possess soul imprints and memories, merging them into oneself requires clearing these away; otherwise, it will negatively impact oneself.

Consuming too much can drive you insane.

Therefore, even after a long period of time, even the most supreme cosmic overlord's divine body was only tens of millions of kilometers long.

Moreover, excessive killing will inevitably arouse the hostility of other powerful beings in the universe.

Although special life forms are powerful, they are not invincible.

"However, this limitation doesn't seem to apply to me?"

Qin Ming looked up at the bright moon in the sky. The Myriad Soul Banner had the function of refining the origin of the soul. The purest soul power could be easily absorbed even by the human body itself.

hum!
With a single thought, the pure essence of the soul stored within the bright moon spills out like moonlight.

Upon contact with the River of Souls clone, it was quickly absorbed, and the River of Souls grew larger at a visible speed.

"As expected, it can be easily absorbed."

Qin Ming was overjoyed. He hadn't really expected the size of his second clone's divine body, but unexpectedly, it possessed such potential.

If they could devour enough soul essence, they might even grow to the level of the Nine Nether Blood Sea, reaching the limit of the primordial universe.

That is—12 light-years!

"It just takes too much to consume the soul. If I rely on killing, I don't know how many I would have to kill to bring my divine body to its limit."

Sensing the rapid depletion of the soul essence stored within the Myriad Soul Banner, Qin Ming's expression changed.
The River of Souls can indeed grow rapidly, but only if there are enough souls for it to devour!

The Nine Nether Blood Sea only needs to continuously generate clones and absorb cosmic energy.

But the River of Souls is clearly not an option.

Although there are also free-floating soul particles in the universe, when a life dies, its soul will naturally transform into the most basic soul particles and drift away in the universe.

And when life is conceived, it also needs to absorb the 'essence' of the universe!
In Qin Ming's view, this so-called 'essence' is very likely related to the free 'soul particles'.

However, if it grows by absorbing free 'soul particles', its growth rate will inevitably be extremely slow.

Therefore, the fastest way is still to kill!

Not only should you kill, but you should also try to choose powerful, high-quality lives to kill.

As a special life form with a life level a thousand times higher from the beginning, the River of Souls possesses an extremely high life essence.

The advancement of life level in the River of Souls also relies on devouring souls!

The larger the soul entity, the more primordial particles of the soul it controls, and the higher its level of life!
If it were to grow to 12 light-years, how many lives would it kill?
"This isn't a river of souls, it's a river of death!"

Qin Ming seemed to see a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The Banner of Ten Thousand Souls inherently has an extreme thirst for souls and flesh.

Another River of Souls will inevitably force him to go on a killing spree, transforming him into the most terrifying soul harvester.

"Killing is inevitable."

Qin Ming's gaze returned to calm. Although his path to growth would inevitably be accompanied by bloodshed, he did not intend to kill indiscriminately.

The growth of the Myriad Soul Banner primarily involves devouring demonic beasts or irrational ferocious beasts, aside from enemies.

He is not a good person.

But I also have my own bottom line.

Only by adhering to the bottom line and having a clear mind and true nature can we make him fearless and move forward without hesitation!

"But, you can also choose!"

(End of this chapter)