Breaking the Masked Man

He chuckled and said, "It's not much trouble. As long as your soul can withstand it, you can absorb any soul essence within the Heavenly Palace."

As soon as he finished speaking, Hun Miesheng raised his hand and distorted the surrounding space, disappearing from the spot with Yao Yan.

Yao Yan felt a blur before his eyes, and he and Hun Miesheng found themselves in a magnificent palace. It has to be said that the Dou Sheng powerhouse's control over space has reached an inconceivable level. In comparison, the Dou Zun's control over space is still at the beginner stage, and there is no comparison at all.

Yao Yan couldn't even sense any fluctuations in spatial power from Hun Miesheng's spatial teleportation technique.

Hun Miesheng led Yao Yan to the center of the palace, where there stood a colossal stone pillar thousands of feet long, inscribed with extremely intricate blood-red patterns. It was incredibly eerie; just looking at it gave one the illusion that one's soul was about to leave the body. Even though Yao Yan possessed a soul power at the Heavenly Realm level, she was still somewhat affected.

"Contain your soul power... There is a soul-capturing array here, specifically designed to target disobedient souls." Soul Void reminded him, then looked at the stone pillar covered with blood-red patterns as if looking at his most outstanding work, and continued with a slight smile, "Do you know the purpose of my creation of the Soul Palace?"

Yao Yan pondered for a moment before slowly saying, "I'm not quite sure. I only know that the Soul Hall has always targeted alchemists with powerful souls, and therefore, it has a very bad reputation in the Dou Qi Continent."

"Reputation is nothing, ability is everything!"

Soul Extinction was clearly the kind of person who valued strength above all else, and his tone was rather cold and domineering.

As he spoke, he raised his hand and condensed a jet-black flame, which he then cast into the stone pillar in front of him. As the flame of the Void Devouring Flame entered the pillar, the tall stone pillar instantly glowed with a black and red light, which was extremely dazzling.

After a while.

A black and red portal appeared before Hun Miesheng.

“The difficulty of cultivating soul power far exceeds that of battle qi. The rare and precious natural treasures in the world that can increase soul power are extremely scarce, and most of them are useless for soul power at the Heavenly Realm level. Even for a peerless genius, it would take hundreds of years to raise soul power to the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm, let alone the Emperor Realm!” A burning light appeared in Hun Miesheng’s eyes. He paused before continuing, “Most people in this world, even those high-level eighth-grade alchemists, cannot raise their soul power to the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm in their entire lives… But here, if I want, I can cultivate a Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm in just a few years!”

As he finished speaking, he stepped into the portal, with Yao Yan following closely behind.

After a moment of disorientation, an extremely dreamlike world appeared before my eyes. Like a dream bubble, countless transparent and pure light clusters floated in it, surrounding a milky white light cluster several meters in size, emitting a gentle glow.

Looking at everything before him, Hun Miesheng softly explained to Yao Yan, "These orbs of light are the soul essence collected by the Soul Palace... Just this small orb contains the soul essence of tens of thousands of people, which can easily allow an alchemist to break through to the Spirit Realm level."

He raised his hand and grasped a small ball of light, then looked at the milky-white orb in the center, his eyes burning with an even stronger intensity.

"Do you see that milky white ball of light in the very center? The soul essence contained within it is equivalent to that of tens of millions of people. If you absorb it, you can easily raise your soul power to the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm. Even at the Emperor Realm, you'll have a slight chance to make a breakthrough!"

"The Soul Palace should be renamed the Underworld..." Yao Yan sighed inwardly. To condense so much soul essence, alchemists alone were clearly far from enough. Moreover, alchemists had the Pill Tower backing them up. The remaining choice was naturally ordinary people. He wondered how many people the Soul Palace had slaughtered over the years!

"If your alchemy skills can reach the ninth rank, you will be qualified to obtain it in the future!" Hun Miesheng said to Yao Yan, trying to entice him.

Then I must first eliminate Hun Xuzi!

Yao Yan was not brainwashed by Hun Miesheng's words. He knew the situation within the Soul Clan very well. Hun Tiandi's soul realm had already reached the Emperor Realm, and Xu Wu Tun Yan should be close to it as well. The only one left was Hun Xuzi. However, in the original work, Hun Xuzi's soul realm did not break through to the Emperor Realm. It is conceivable that Hun Miesheng's words were nonsense.

It's not even his turn!

He took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "This junior will try my best."

"With your talent, this was bound to happen sooner or later." Hun Miesheng smiled faintly, then handed the soul essence in his hand to Yao Yan. "Absorb it, but be careful during the process. Use a strange fire to refine it completely before absorbing it. Don't be affected by the negative emotions in the soul essence. If it affects your future, your teacher will have to come after me."

Yao Yan nodded and solemnly accepted the fist-sized soul essence. There were many more of this kind of soul essence here, which showed what the Soul Palace had been doing all these years.

But he didn't seem to have the right to point fingers.

To avenge them?

Yao Yan wasn't that great. After a moment's thought, a purple-blue flame surged from his palm, instantly covering the soul's essence. As the temperature gradually increased, the power of the strange fire penetrated into the soul's essence, forcing out countless black energies formed from negative emotions, which vanished into nothingness as the flames rose.

As the large amount of black energy dissipated, the ball of soul light became increasingly transparent and crystalline, dreamlike and unlike anything real.

"Be careful. Although the strange fire can remove most of the negative emotions, the obsessions that fill the soul's origin are not so easy to refine. They can only be slowly worn away through absorption!" Hun Miesheng reminded him. Everything has its gains and losses. Although the soul's origin can make one's soul power surge, the risks involved are also extremely high and can easily affect one's future.

Because these soul essences are formed by the condensation of a large number of soul bodies, the process is filled with killing and bloodshed. Naturally, these soul essences are also filled with negative emotions, obsessions and resentments before death. This part is very difficult to refine with strange fire, because those obsessions and resentments are almost integrated with the soul essence. If they are completely refined, then this soul essence will also dissipate.

However, these are ultimately just the negative emotions of the dead. As long as one is strong enough and has a firm enough will, one can still slowly wear them down!

Yao Yan looked at the clear soul essence in front of him and could vaguely sense the rejection emanating from it. He naturally knew why, but he was no good person. How could he give up his opportunity just because of the resistance of a dead thing? Purple and blue flames rose in his eyes. After a moment, he closed his eyes slightly, and the soul power between his eyebrows surged out, transforming into a soul body that was exactly the same as Yao Yan's original body. It sat cross-legged in front of the ball of light, and then suddenly inhaled, swallowing the soul essence in front of it into its mouth.

As the soul essence entered his body, an exceptionally pure soul essence dissipated, nourishing Yao Yan's soul. At the same time, it brought a large amount of negative emotions. Even though a lot of them had been refined by the strange fire, the fear, resentment, and unwillingness before his death were still tightly entangled with these soul essences, repelling Yao Yan's absorption.

Yao Yan accepted all of this and suppressed all the negative emotions. At the same time, he felt his soul body rapidly strengthening. The growth rate was terrifying. In just a few hours, he stepped into the middle level of the Heavenly Realm. A powerful soul pressure swept out instantly, forcing the surrounding soul origin light clusters to flee into the distance.

Several more hours passed before Yao Yan's soul completely absorbed this part of the soul essence, which then turned into nothingness and merged into his main body.

"How do you feel?" Hun Miesheng asked softly after seeing that Yao Yan had finished absorbing the medicine.

"Negative emotions are a bit troublesome." Yao Yan opened his eyes, a crimson halo swirling in them, a manifestation of negative emotions that were even affecting his mood at the moment.

"Just refine it slowly. Compared to the rapid increase in soul power, this little trouble is nothing." Hun Xuzi smiled faintly.

"It's not too troublesome~" Yao Yan suddenly thought of something and directly activated the Devouring Spirit Clan bloodline in his body. Instantly, a sinister vertical pupil appeared between his eyebrows, making his handsome appearance even more eerie.

As the vertical pupils opened, a violent and bloodthirsty aura instantly emanated, while the scarlet halo deep in Yao Yan's eyes quickly faded away, disappearing without a trace in just a moment.

Meanwhile, the vertical pupils, which had absorbed a large amount of negative emotions, seemed to be nourished, and the light they emitted became increasingly eerie.

"The power of the Devouring Spirit Clan?!" Soul Extinction was obviously aware of Yao Yan's physique. Seeing this scene, he couldn't help but ask. He really didn't know that the Devouring Spirit Clan could feed on negative emotions.

"I don't know, but I can definitely process negative emotions." Yao Yan licked his lips, revealing a somewhat twisted smile. "The taste is not bad, hehehe~"

It tastes so familiar~

Hearing Yao Yan's laughter, Hun Miesheng was stunned for a moment, and inexplicably felt that Yao Yan was much more approachable. He immediately smiled and said, "Want two more balls?"

"I couldn't ask for more!" Yao Yan nodded in agreement.

Hun Miesheng wasn't stingy either. He raised his hand and pulled out two slightly larger clumps of soul essence, handing them to Yao Yan and saying, "With your current battle qi cultivation, it's best if your soul realm doesn't exceed the mid-stage of the Heavenly Realm, otherwise it will affect your future breakthrough to Dou Sheng."

"Why?" Yao Yan was taken aback. He really didn't know. His cheap master, Hun Xuzi, had never told him about these things, since his cultivation level was too low before.

"To break through from Dou Zun to Dou Sheng requires a massive amount of energy, so it requires Nine Revolutions of Dou Qi, compressing the Dou Qi nine times. Only in this way can one have a slight chance to transform and enter the Half-Saint level. The Half-Saint level is a process of transformation. Only when Dou Qi, physical body, and soul power have all been transformed can one become a true Dou Sheng... If your soul power is too strong, the future transformation process will become extremely difficult!" Hun Miesheng said softly.

Yao Yan nodded, roughly understanding the meaning of Soul Extinction. Simply put, the stronger one's own accumulation, the more energy one will need to break through to the Dou Sheng realm in the future. If Yao Yan's soul power reaches the level of the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm, then his accumulation of Nine Revolutions Dou Qi may not be able to support the transformation of his soul power and physical body.

"Only prodigies like you need to consider such matters. Ordinary people can't possibly possess the soul power of the Heavenly Realm level with such cultivation." Hun Miesheng joked, a hint of emotion in his eyes.

A soul power at the Heavenly Realm level is almost standard for Dou Sheng powerhouses, because during the transformation process, their soul power will increase to the Heavenly Realm level. However, most of them will remain at the low level of the Heavenly Realm. If they want to go higher, it depends on their own opportunities.

As for the Great Perfection of the Heavenly Realm, it is almost unnecessary to consider those below the Dou Sheng level. If someone below the Dou Sheng level possesses such powerful soul force, their physical body may not be able to withstand it. Soul force at that level is almost a physical entity, and it can move freely even after leaving the physical body, just like a living person. How could a mere Dou Zun level physical body accommodate it?

It's impossible to force it in!

It's too big!

It's easy to burst open.

"Absorb it. If you feel your body can't take it, stop," Hun Miesheng said softly.

Yao Yan nodded and swallowed the two spheres of soul essence handed over by Hun Miesheng. This time, he even skipped the tempering process of the strange fire and directly devoured and refined them in an extremely savage manner. With the bloodline of the Devouring Spirit Clan, he didn't need to worry about negative emotions at all, since he had previously devoured people directly!

The mere negative emotions stemming from the very essence of his soul had absolutely no effect on him.

As Yao Yan entered a meditative state, the light within his open vertical pupil grew even more intense, as if he had come to life. His pupil moved slightly as he met Hun Miesheng's gaze, and an indescribable feeling welled up in Hun Miesheng's heart.

"The Devouring Spirit Clan... what a strange race!" Hun Miesheng looked at Yao Yan, and for a moment, he was curious about how far Yao Yan could grow.

Other imperial clans might not be able to tolerate the existence of a different species like Yao Yan, but the Soul Clan doesn't care. As long as Yao Yan has enough value, the Soul Clan can cultivate him.

As for whether the other party will betray us?

Besides the Soul Clan, who else in the world could accept him? The other party is destined to be a member of the Soul Clan, so there is no need to worry about betrayal.

(End of this chapter)

Chapter 255 Soul Clan

"Wow~"

The vast source of soul essence surged into Yao Yan's soul like a raging tide, even creating spatial ripples similar to water. As this source of soul essence merged in, Yao Yan's already greatly increased soul power surged again, advancing towards a higher level.

As for the negative emotions contained in the origin of the soul, they were all devoured by the evil eye between the eyebrows and transformed into the purest evil energy... This extremely unique power of evil energy has a very good appetite and is not picky about food. It seems that everything in this world can be transformed into its source of power.

Furthermore, as Yao Yan's strength increased, the power of the Evil Eye also increased. Even though it did not devour much, it was one with Yao Yan, sharing both glory and fortune!

Yao Yan could even sense the Evil Eye's special abilities, such as its suppression of souls... It seemed to be very effective against souls, and even fed on them!

As for more, Yao Yan had never actually used this part of his power, so he naturally didn't know.

……

Cultivation makes one oblivious to time, and a month has passed in the blink of an eye. During this month, Yao Yan's name has become famous throughout the entire Central Continent, and even the major imperial clans have heard of him. After all, he has attracted the attention of several Dou Sheng, and even the Dan Tower Ancestor and the Soul Palace Master have appeared. It is impossible not to pay attention to him.

In the past, the Battle Saints were extremely restrained, and the number of times they clashed head-on might not be even once in decades.

Many old guys expressed their disdain for this, because the Soul Clan loved to play these underhanded schemes. First there was that old bastard Hun Xuzi, who was clearly a genius of the Soul Clan, but he went into the Pill Tower incognito and relied on his talent to become a disciple of the former tower master. Later, he plotted to kill him. How could such a beast who murdered his master be accepted by the world? Then there was Yao Yan... no, he should be called Hun Yan. He was clearly extremely talented, but he actually disguised himself as a member of the Medicine Clan and hooked up with Yao Chen, an abandoned son of the Medicine Clan.

This whole series of events is enough to fill a book.

With the recent revelation that Hun Yan seems to be a disciple of Hun Xu Zi, Yao Yan's reputation has been utterly ruined!

Yao Yan was completely unaware of this. He was still digesting the origin of his soul. Several more days passed before he slowly opened his eyes. A sharp glint appeared in his eyes, and a terrifying soul pressure was released, even causing the space to shatter. Compared to his terrifying soul power, the evil eye between his brows became more restrained, eventually turning into a wisp of purplish-black pattern that was imprinted on his brow.

"Not bad. With your current soul power, even ordinary seven- or eight-star Dou Zun might not be your match." Hun Miesheng did not leave. He stayed by Yao Yan's side until Yao Yan opened his eyes, then smiled and said with a hint of satisfaction in his tone.

Having consumed three wisps of soul essence to elevate his soul to the peak of the mid-stage of the Heavenly Realm, Yao Yan's efforts were not wasted.

With Yao Yan's current strength, he should be able to put up a fight against that little madman from the Soul Palace.

Yao Yan remained noncommittal. In fact, there was no need for Hun Miesheng to say more. He could feel how much progress he had made. The strength of his soul power had increased more than tenfold. Although it was only a small improvement, the gap between the two was enormous.

It must be said that the further one progresses in cultivation, the more exponentially one's strength increases with each realm.

“Now that you have broken through, make preparations. I will take you back to the Soul Clan… This seems to be your first time returning to the Soul Clan.” Hun Miesheng’s eyes flickered as he looked at Yao Yan and said softly.

"I have always stayed in the Medicine Clan. If I hadn't met you, Master, I wouldn't have known that my father was actually a member of the Soul Clan!" Yao Yan concealed his aura, nodded slightly upon hearing this, and said in a somewhat complicated tone.

"I don't know much about your father's affairs, but you don't need to be nervous. The Soul Clan is different from the Medicine Clan. Our clan doesn't value bloodline level, but only ability. If you are capable enough, you will have plenty of opportunities to improve your bloodline level in the future, and you may even be able to obtain a sub-flame of a strange fire like the Void Devouring Flame!" Soul Extinction said calmly.