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

Only after they had completely burned and purified the demonic energy left behind by the four ninth-realm demons did Shen Chang'an return to the small courtyard made of blue bricks, bringing back some spiritual energy with him.

As soon as the courtyard gate was pushed open, Zhou Luotian's majestic spirit was seen sitting upright under the withered sycamore tree in the courtyard, resting with his eyes closed.

"Senior Zhou."

Shen Chang'an stepped forward sensibly, formed hand seals, and continuously poured a large amount of pure spiritual energy, which he had just extracted and which was as solid as a substance, into Zhou Luotian's body.

Having absorbed this massive amount of spiritual energy, Zhou Luotian's spiritual body visibly became more solid and substantial, and even the surface of his spiritual body shimmered with a faint, precious light.

"Yes, thank you for your kindness, young friend."

Zhou Luotian slowly opened his eyes, thoroughly enjoying the spiritual energy. Then, his expression turned serious, and he pointed to the stone bench opposite him. "Sit down. Today, I will explain to you in detail the application of this pseudo-spiritual form and divine soul."

Shen Chang'an immediately sat up straight and listened attentively.

"You have now opened up the Spirit Abyss, and your soul stands atop it. You must remember that every day you must use the primordial energy flowing back from the Spirit Abyss to constantly cleanse and nourish your soul; this is called the Abyss Nourishing the Soul."

"The more solid your soul becomes, the more acute your perception of the laws of heaven and earth will be. When you can make your soul materialize and even survive independently of your physical body, you will be able to let your soul directly control the power of that two-colored spiritual abyss, bursting out of your body and transforming into a pseudo-spiritual form to fight against others! At that time, even if your physical body is destroyed, your soul will still be able to unleash earth-shattering combat power."

Shen Chang'an nodded thoughtfully: "As long as the soul remains, the combat power will not diminish."

"good."

Zhou Luotian continued.

"In the path of cultivation, all methods are empty; only the cultivation of body and soul is the true path to heaven! Your physical body has been tempered by that crazy woman Du Qiongyu, and your soul has been refined by my Great Dream Spring and Autumn Technique. This is your greatest foundation."

"In a while, another old fellow will come to the main hall to teach you a domineering art of killing. You shall learn it, but I must remind you, you must not become overly obsessed with the power of the spell!"

Zhou Luotian's tone was stern: "Spells and techniques are ultimately just branches and leaves, unorthodox paths! Cultivating the body and soul are your roots! If you put the cart before the horse, you'll never even touch the threshold of the Great Dao in this lifetime, understand?"

Shen Chang'an's heart skipped a beat, and he solemnly clasped his hands in a fist salute: "This junior will remember your teachings, senior, and will never put the cart before the horse!"

......

Time flies, and the abyss holds no days or months.

In the blink of an eye, another four months have quietly passed.

A full year has passed since Shen Chang'an was brought into this abyssal rift.

In that year, he transformed from a novice cultivator at the fifth realm into a sixth-realm spiritual cultivator.

Since learning the Great Dream Spring and Autumn Technique, Shen Chang'an has entered deep dream realms almost every night. Although he cannot directly absorb external spiritual energy to improve his cultivation level in dreams, the immersion he experiences in dreams for decades or even centuries has a terrifyingly significant boost to the strength of his soul and his proficiency with techniques such as the Golden Light Mantra, the Five Thunder Orthodox Method, and the Sword Formation Talisman.

In addition, his countless life-and-death battles in the abyss have honed his combat instincts to the point of being as primal as a wild beast.

Outside Zhenyuan City, on a vast black wasteland.

Terrifying sonic booms, accompanied by thunder, echoed across the wasteland! Huge swathes of hard, black rock were ripped away by the violent force!

The two sides engaged in battle were none other than Shen Chang'an and Ling Shan Daoist, who had suppressed his cultivation to the peak of the sixth realm of the Spirit Abyss!

"Good lad! Take another palm strike from this old Taoist!"

In mid-air, Ling Shan Dao Ren's beard and hair stood on end. Although he suppressed his cultivation level, his combat experience of living for thousands of years was extremely ruthless. With the blessing of shrinking the earth to an inch, his figure was like a ghost, and he instantly appeared behind Shen Chang'an. With a backhand, a dazzling purple-blue lightning waterfall poured down!

Faced with this unavoidable attack, he made a fist with both hands, and a dazzling golden light spell instantly covered his entire body. Then, violent lightning coiled around the golden light like a dragon, forming a set of lightning-shimmering battle armor!

"Bang!"

The lightning bolt slammed into the armor, unleashing a blinding burst of light.

"Minor Thousand Swords Formation Talisman, a thousand swords return to one!"

With a flick of his wrist, thousands of sword talismans instantly merged at his fingertips into a semi-transparent ancient sword phantom tens of feet long, carrying a sharpness that could tear through space, and slashed down at the Lingshan Taoist!

"Holy crap! You're risking your life, kid!"

The old Taoist priest was startled. He flicked his whisk, and golden light transformed into a large shield that blocked the sword. He was thrown back hundreds of meters by the terrifying force of the sword before he regained his footing.

The smoke of battle has cleared.

Lingshan Daoist shook his slightly numb arm and looked at the figure on the distant horizon.

"That's a fucking pervert..."

The old Taoist priest couldn't help but mutter to himself.

"Back then, I dug the Spirit Abyss to a depth of over six thousand feet before daring to attempt to break through to the seventh realm! Even now, with my realm suppressed, my foundation is still there. How can this kid possibly fight me to a standstill?"

In the distant sky.

Shen Chang'an floated silently in the sky.

Within his body, in that two-colored spiritual abyss, the golden half of the sea of ​​spiritual energy was boiling, maintaining a power output of fifty percent.

Yet, despite his violent state, he remained remarkably calm.

His wisps of hair fluttered slightly in the storm of spiritual pressure, and his body radiated a faint golden light, even his eyes turning a pale gold. He didn't adopt any defensive or offensive stance, but simply stood quietly in the distance, yet the aura that subtly harmonized with heaven and earth made even the Daoist of Lingshan feel a sense of oppression from which he had no way to attack.

"Little Chang'an! Stop hiding it!"

In the distance, Ling Shan Daoist looked at Shen Chang'an, who was radiating golden light, and shouted, "Bring out your divine soul and pseudo-spiritual form! Use your full strength and let this old Daoist see just how far you've come!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Chang'an roared.

"Excuse me!"

In an instant, his translucent soul, standing atop the abyss, opened its eyes, perfectly synchronized with Shen Chang'an's movements!

Shen Chang'an didn't use his spear; instead, he directly clenched his fists with his pseudo-spiritual form. Thunder magic merged with tens of thousands of Lesser Thousand Sword Array runes, transforming into a terrifying purple-gold sword pillar powerful enough to cleave mountains. With the movement of the pseudo-spiritual form, it crashed down relentlessly towards the Spirit Mountain Daoist!

The space itself groaned under the weight of this sword strike, and the heavens and earth paled in shock!

"My goodness..."

Ling Shan Daoist stared at the terrifying sword pillar crashing down upon him. His proud protective golden aura was already cracked and suppressed by the destructive aura even before the sword pillar landed.

It's unstoppable! With only the cultivation of the sixth realm, he would definitely be severely injured by this sword strike!

"The Spirit Realm Opens!"

Ling Shan Daoist gritted his teeth, finally forced to break through the suppression of his realm. The power of his domain rippled out from his body like waves!

boom!!!

The purple-gold sword pillar slammed down on the old Taoist's spiritual domain. The spiritual domain trembled violently, erupting with blinding light, and the black wasteland within a radius of several miles was instantly leveled in the aftershocks of the collision!

After a stalemate lasting for more than a dozen breaths, the terrifying sword pillar finally exhausted its power and slowly dissipated.

Ling Shan Dao Ren stood in the center of the spiritual realm, looking at Shen Chang An in the distance. His cloudy old eyes were filled with undisguised horror. Although the purple-gold sword pillar had not harmed him in the slightest, he could still feel the destructive power, which was similar to the damage he could cause when he was in the seventh realm. Back then, he was also a seventh-realm being who could fight against an eighth-realm being.

"A sixth-realm cultivator defeating an eighth-realm cultivator... perhaps, it's not entirely impossible."