High-level martial arts: Long spear with black flames to suppress demons.

"How did the black flames get out of control?!"

The dozen or so spirits in the sky seemed puzzled.

Seeing the raging black flames, Zhou Luotian naturally knew that it was the mysterious woman who had made the move.

The black flames did not go berserk and destroy the Spirit Abyss.

As the black flames plunged into the abyss, they forcefully occupied a full half of the entire Spirit Abyss.

Subsequently, Shen Chang'an's Lingyuan exhibited a peculiar phenomenon of yin and yang dividing day and night.

On the left side, endless golden spiritual energy seawater roared and poured back.

The right half is a black flame that can never be extinguished.

Light and darkness, life and death, achieved a perfect balance in this spiritual abyss!

Standing above this dual-colored divine abyss, Shen Chang'an's soul was half illuminated as if he were a holy immortal, and half rendered as black as a demon!

The spirits above looked at each other in astonishment.

"Such extraordinary phenomena in the Spirit Abyss... are truly unheard of and unseen before!"

In the center of the courtyard, Lingshan Daoist breathed a sigh of relief as Shen Chang'an's breathing gradually calmed down. Then, he turned to look at Zhou Luotian with some confusion.

"Old Zhou, for ordinary people breaking through to the sixth realm, all they need to do is stabilize their spiritual abyss. Why did you suddenly make him go to such great lengths, forcibly condensing his divine soul and even standing above that spiritual abyss to circulate the Dream Technique? Is there any particular reason for this?"

Zhou Luotian stroked his beard and slowly explained, "The Spirit Abyss absorbs the spiritual energy of heaven and earth; it is the source of power within a cultivator's body. By placing one's soul upon it, receiving the cleansing and nourishment of the abyss's energy flowing in day and night, the soul will continuously grow stronger and more solid."

"When he breaks through to the eighth realm of the Spiritual Manifestation Realm in the future, the Dharma Image he condenses will directly skip the floating stage and possess a solidity and height far exceeding that of other Dharma Images of the same level!"

"And the only way to condense one's divine soul at this time is through my unparalleled method. I never tried it back then, but now it seems feasible."

"I call this state... a pseudo-spiritual manifestation!"

Zhou Luotian stared intently at Shen Chang'an.

"A sixth-realm body, manifesting a pseudo-spiritual form! Relying on the abyss-like depths formed by the thousand-mile spiritual sea, and that terrifying black flame, if he were to unleash his full power... he might not be unable to fight those true eighth-realm cultivators head-on!"

Upon hearing this, the Taoist Lingshan's pupils contracted sharply.

Six realms, defying the eighth realm?!

There's a whole seventh realm in between, capable of condensing a domain! Even in the ancient times, a time of dazzling stars, such a thing was a fantastical legend!

But after looking at the two-colored spiritual abyss within Shen Chang'an's body, the old Taoist fell silent.

It seems that... nothing is truly impossible when it comes to this monster that defies all common sense.

Above the sky, the temporary spatial rifts that had appeared were gradually closing.

As the spatial rift slowly closed, the last and largest surge of spiritual energy from heaven and earth poured down like a silver river falling from the heavens!

Shen Chang'an's dual-colored pseudo-spiritual form, like a whale sucking in water, swallowed the purest source of spiritual energy, completely stabilizing the newly opened sixth realm spiritual abyss.

The massive amount of spiritual energy fragments that scattered between his fingers were skillfully collected by the Ling Shan Daoist below, who was already prepared, with a flick of his whisk.

"call."

Shen Chang'an slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air. The pseudo-spiritual image behind him turned into specks of starlight and dissipated. He landed lightly in the small courtyard with blue bricks.

At that moment, he felt an indescribable comfort emanating from every pore of his body.

High in the sky, apart from Zhou Luotian's, the other twelve spiritual entities dispersed contentedly after absorbing the scattered spiritual energy.

As for Du Qiongyu and Qin Xu, their auras were still surging in the distant sky, clearly indicating that they were cleaning up the remaining monsters that had been severely injured and escaped, and tidying up the battlefield.

The Taoist priest from Lingshan approached with a smile.

"Congratulations! You've finally entered the sixth realm!"

"How are you feeling now?"

"Better than ever before."

Shen Chang'an clenched his fist.

"Thank you for protecting me, senior."

"Now that you have entered the Spirit Abyss, I, this old Daoist, will explain to you the intricacies of these six realms."

The Taoist priest of Lingshan cleared his throat.

"The Fifth Realm is about breadth, while the Sixth Realm is about depth. The depth of this Spirit Abyss determines the quality of your spiritual power compression and the upper limit of its burst."

"Ordinary cultivators who open up a Spirit Abyss initially only reach a few feet in size. After years of arduous cultivation, if they can reach a Spirit Abyss of a hundred feet, they are considered to have achieved some success. If they can reach a Spirit Abyss of a thousand feet, they are among the rarest geniuses in the world. As for the legendary Spirit Abyss of ten thousand feet... that is the mark of unparalleled talent; beneath ten thousand feet, the bottom is unfathomable!"

The old Taoist priest earnestly advised, "However, although you possess extraordinary talent, remember that there's no need to relentlessly pursue the 'ten thousand zhang' limit. Throughout history, there have been many exceptionally talented individuals who, in their pursuit of the ten thousand zhang spiritual abyss, were stuck at the sixth realm for hundreds of years, wasting their lives in the process. On the path of cultivation, one must proceed according to one's ability. Once you've reached a certain level, you should begin working towards breaking through to the seventh realm."

Shen Chang'an nodded in agreement: "This junior understands, and will not get stuck on a single point."

"Hmm, this child is teachable."

The Taoist priest stroked his beard and casually asked.

"By the way, you just opened the Spirit Abyss; approximately what's your current depth?"

Shen Chang'an examined himself internally, carefully sensing his surroundings, and honestly replied:

"It's probably... more than two thousand feet deep."

"..."

The old Taoist priest stared wide-eyed at his cloudy eyes. Others, upon entering the sixth realm, would dig down several meters or tens of meters at a time, but this guy, having just opened up the ground, was already digging over two thousand meters deep?!

At this rate of digging, the Ten Thousand Foot Spirit Abyss is nothing to him!

Zhou Luotian floated down and looked at Shen Chang'an, saying, "Now that you have stabilized your Spirit Abyss, you should make plans for the next realm as soon as possible."

"The core of the Seven Realms is to create a domain that is uniquely your own! And this domain is evolved from the spiritual abyss within your body! Within your domain, you are the ruler, capable of suppressing all laws!"

"Your dual-colored spiritual abyss is special. Once it evolves into a domain, its power will be astonishing. But how to construct it, and with what concept, is something no one can help you with. You must ponder and comprehend it yourself."

Shen Chang'an kept Zhou Luotian's words firmly in mind and nodded respectfully: "Thank you for your guidance, Senior Zhou."

He then glanced at the two seniors whose auras seemed somewhat fluctuating and asked with concern, "Seniors, the sudden change in the heavens and earth just now attracted powerful enemies. How is your spiritual body recovering, in order to protect this junior? Were you greatly weakened?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Luotian and the Taoist of Lingshan exchanged a glance.

Zhou Luotian immediately frowned, clutching his chest. His spiritual body began to waver again. He sighed, "Alas... I did indeed use a lot of my essence to protect the Dharma. This spiritual body that I just condensed is about to collapse again."

Ling Shan Daoist also chimed in with a worried expression, "That's right! Just now, I used every ounce of strength I had to protect you. All the spiritual energy I'd accumulated over the past few months was poured in."

The two old men acted convincingly. Then, the Lingshan Daoist rubbed his hands together and looked at Shen Chang'an tentatively: "Little Chang'an, you see... you've just broken through, and your realm still needs a lot of polishing. Besides, Du Qiongyu said before that your third extreme body tempering will take at least a few more months to settle down. How about... you stay in Zhenyuan City for a few more months? It'll be a good opportunity for us old folks to recover a bit?"

Shen Chang'an watched the two perform, his mind perfectly clear. How could he not know that these two seniors were after his refined spiritual energy?

However, the effort that Senior Zhou Luotian put into the dream trial, as well as the techniques that the three seniors have imparted to us over the past few months, cannot be repaid with just a little spiritual energy.

Shen Chang'an nodded without hesitation: "No problem. The seniors have been kind to me, and as long as I can help them, I will stay in Zhenyuan City for a while longer."

"Good! Good lad! I knew I was right about you!"

Upon hearing this, the Taoist Lingshan was overjoyed. His previous weak appearance vanished, and he flicked his whisk with renewed vigor.

"Let's go! There's no time to lose! Qin Xu just killed a ninth-realm white bone earth dragon with a single sword strike. The demonic energy on that corpse is terrifyingly dense. We mustn't let it dissipate! Let's hurry over and burn it; we can't waste a single drop!"