At this moment, the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl in his hands began to heat up. Su Yu instinctively tried to toss it away, but it dug into his palm with a whirr.
A tattoo depicting the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl appeared on his arm, and the space around him dissolved. Those radiant, beautiful mountains had disappeared, replaced by a vast cave made of flesh!
This scene shocked Su Yu. Where were the mountains? He had not stepped out of the cave. Instead, he had retained the same position as when he first noticed the mountains—looking in from outside the cave! It was as though he was dreaming. This made Su Yu wonder if he was hallucinating.
At this moment, something in his brain said, “The Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl is the world of the mountains! You would understand if you used your soul powers to look into the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl.”
Hearing this, Su Yu felt a mixture of caution and curiosity. He released a slight amount of soul powers and looked into the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl. At that moment, the mountains that had vanished appeared once again before him.
“This is…” Su Yu could not mask the shock in his heart.
A gentle voice sounded once again in his head. “There is another world within the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl. Your soul powers took you in.”
Hearing this, Su Yu was shocked. In other words, his soul powers had been absorbed into the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl when he saw the mountains, without him realizing it. Just what kind of abilities must the caster have, for a demonic fox that had passed on for this many years to be able to set up such an ability?
“From now on, all you have to do is infuse a shred of your soul powers to enter the world of the mountains,” said the voice. “You can also place objects there to store them. But you are currently still unable to take out things that originally belonged to the mountains because of the oath. You are not yet the true master. When you fulfill your promise, the mountains shall belong to you completely. You can then do whatever you wish.”
Hearing this, Su Yu creased his brows. The fox had set other criteria. Wouldn’t this mean that Su Yu’s plan—to take out the Supreme Growing Soil in exchange for other treasures—be for naught? Still, Su Yu was satisfied in obtaining such a large storage space. The Cosmos Mirror was a little too narrow. He had obtained many valuable items since entering the Mysterious Heavenly Divine Pavilion. His Cosmos Mirror was full.
With a thought, Su Yu’s soul entered the Nine Jade Spiritual Pearl. It felt so up close and personal; it didn’t feel like his soul that had left its body.
Thinking for a moment, Su Yu dismantled the thatched hut, building a shelf with the wood he had obtained. After which, he put a good portion of the treasures in the Cosmos Mirror on the wooden shelf. He stored most of the middle-grade divine artifacts he had gotten there. As for the Cosmos Thunder Sword, the Nine Yin-Yang Formation, the Ghost Suppressing Golden Ring, and the Frost Moon Dew Pill that could replenish his spirit energy, he opted not to put them within the mountains. He was still too unfamiliar with the Nine Jade Spirit Pearl. If there were any sudden changes and he lost all his items, he would be devastated.
After finishing this, Su Yu could finally stop for a good rest. Aware of his depleted spirit energy, he seized the time to recuperate and take stock of his haul.
The first new item was the Ghost Prison Token of the Ghost Prison Envoy. He took out the item. He had witnessed the amount of power this item contained. The Ghost Prison Envoy had been clearly heavily injured but could still use powers equal to a Fairy Realm after activating this item. Examining it for a moment, Su Yu was a little disappointed. He had long been refined. Unless he found a way to erase the imprints, he could not hope to activate this item.
The second item was the Purple Sun Incredible Umbrella. Su Yu was filled with anticipation. He took it out and immediately infused a drop of his blood essence, refining it. At that moment, his mind was filled with foreign information.
The Purple Sun Incredible Umbrella. High-grade divine artifact. A fire-based artifact that can release powerful flames of the purple sun. The range and power of the attack depend on the cultivation level of the wielder.
Hearing this, Su Yu’s eyes lit up. A high-grade divine artifact! Furthermore, it was an attack-type high-grade divine artifact!
Thinking back to the power of this umbrella, Su Yu was elated. Under the control of the white-haired youth, the fire of the purple sun had been even more powerful than the fire origin. The power of this item was alarming. He had once again obtained a high-grade divine artifact.
Finally, there was the ghost crystal of the Ghost Prison Envoy, as well as a high-grade divine artifact that was the Divine Flying Ship. He thought back to the treasures he got from the secret chamber they had been transported to. He had already checked through the broken scroll and sword. But there was something he had yet to examine!
Whoosh—
A skeleton appeared in Su Yu’s palm. With a glint in his eyes, Su Yu conjured a flame on his fingertips. Under the glow of the fire, the shadow of the skeleton was cast on the floor. As he had witnessed earlier, there were only eleven rib bones on the shadow, as compared to the twelve on the skeleton.
Su Yu fixed his gaze on the third rib bone on the right. Even though light was shining directly on it, it was as though the light passed directly through it. There was a problem with this rib bone.
His gaze wavering, Su Yu reached out to touch the bone. Strangely, he felt feedback radiating on his hand.
Thinking for a moment, Su Yu grabbed the bone and exerted force. But the skeleton was extremely sturdy. Su Yu pulled mightily but was unable to tear the rib bone off. Trying for a moment longer, he gave up on using brute strength. He thought for some time before using his Soul Eyes to examine the rib bone to see if there was anything strange going on with the bone.
But as Su Yu used the Soul Eyes, a startling scene ensued! His soul had just touched the rib bone when a forceful pull appeared from within the rib bone—as if trying to devour his soul.
In the blink of an eye, a tenth of Su Yu’s soul power had been sucked away!
This realization terrified Su Yu. Soul power was the foundation of any living creature. Any injury to the soul would have disastrous consequences. To directly lose a tenth of his soul would cause unimaginable damage to Su Yu! It had the potential to permanently damage his soul, making him unable to find further progress in the Martial Paths.
When Su Yu attempted to retract his Soul Eyes, he realized he was unable to cancel the technique. His soul was still steadily being devoured by the rib bone. The Nine Dragon Cauldron showed no signs of activity, not stopping whatever was going on.
Su Yu’s heart sank. He heard something that sounded like a dull crack. Then his vision turned black, and he slipped into unconsciousness.
******
Deep in slumber, Su Yu had a dream. A warm power was welling into his body. A foreign yet agreeable aura was fusing with his soul. This dream seemed to go on forever.
Su Yu shivered as he woke up. His limbs were numb. He had clearly been out for quite a long time.
“I’m… still alive!” Su Yu said as he gradually regained consciousness.
Remembering the rib bone, he rose to his feet, startled, and was astounded. His cultivation level, which had just reached Heaven Master, had strangely reached the level of Human King!
He now had two spiritual energy crystals within his dantian. His spirit energy had doubled in volume!
Su Yu’s improvement in power made him incredibly excited. But what was surprising was that the severe loss of soul power had been recovered. In fact, it was far more powerful than it had been before!
“The Heaven’s Son Gazing at Air,” Su Yu gasped. “The peak of the Soul Changing Realm!”
Su Yu couldn’t believe it. He had been unable to advance in Heaven’s Son Gazing at Air since reaching the upper class of the first stage. Incredibly, he had broken through to Stage One Peak! This was undoubtedly due to the explosive increase of his soul powers. Only that could possibly allow Su Yu to break through the final barrier and reach the peak of the Soul Changing Realm. According to the Heaven’s Son Gazing at Air, his soul could do battle outside his physical body once he reached this stage!
Su Yu was filled with anticipation just thinking about it. But why had this strange phenomenon occurred?
Su Yu looked at the skeleton beside him. That rib bone had been broken into two halves. His expression turning serious, Su Yu took out a pink scale from within the broken rib bone. Within it was a gentle energy.
He felt a warmth on his palm. Was this the warm aura he’d felt in the dream?
Shreds of energy from the scale entered Su Yu’s body through his palm. This shocked Su Yu, jolting him wide awake. Was this the energy that had allowed him to break through to Human King?
“That’s weird,” he muttered. “Why would there be a scale in a rib bone?”
Su Yu did not understand, but he didn’t have the time to examine this any further. Based on the rigidity of his body, he must have been asleep for at least ten days. He needed to leave this place quickly and meet up with Gang Dalei and the rest to complete the mission. The Heart Oath Scroll was no laughing matter.
For a while, Su Yu searched around without purpose. It was not long before he completely lost his sense of direction, but along the way, he was shocked to see that some parts of the walls of flesh had been violently ravaged, exposing a large area of silver metal. His pupils dilated to see that a portion of the metal was dented!
Could this be done by Xue Ling with the physical body of a Fairy Realm? Su Yu wondered, but he did not know if even Xue Ling could affect this silver metal.
Suddenly, Su Yu detected a ripple in space. With a thought, he concealed his body and aura with his cloak, hiding as he advanced.
He walked out of a fleshy cave into another one, but the walls here were rather weird. The flesh here was white in color. Furthermore, there was a rather bright blood-red orb in the middle of the cave. The orb released a powerful spiritual pressure.
Su Yu was shocked by the energy it harbored. This sort of power was not even present in a Fairy Realm fighter!
His eyes shone with passion. This was definitely a valuable treasure! But Su Yu quickly calmed down. Using his Soul Eyes, he could sense that there was something evil hiding in the orb. A feeling of unease welled up within Su Yu, causing him to take a few steps back in retreat.
He thought for a moment before he gave up on any ideas regarding the orb. He was in the process of retreating when a cold grunt sounded behind him.
“So, here you are!”
