Chapter 1439: The Secrets of the True Earth Domain (Part Four)

They discovered that the Soul Suppression Palace was not the first group of cultivators to arrive here. The jade slips recorded that they had been devoured into the belly of a Body Integration realm Heavenly Beast called the “Dream Return Ant.”

In the end, they were all refined alive by this Heavenly Beast. But every time the “Dream Return Ant” was full, it would fall into a deep sleep.

Some of the cultivators who had not died at that time, on the contrary, had a more painful process of being refined later. Some, in the deep sleep of this Heavenly Beast, needed to be refined for as long as decades or hundreds of years, which made them wish they were dead.

So they had left behind some jade slips and talismans. And among them, most of the jade slips recorded were actually vicious curses similar to witchcraft aimed at this “Dream Return Ant.”

There were also some left for later people, because they had found that the “Dream Return Ant” did not refine jade slip-like things. These people hoped that if someone could finally escape with their life, they would bring their message out.

Of course, these were all just a kind of helpless entrustment of a person before death.

This had scared the cultivators of the Soul Suppression Palace out of their wits. They had not expected that the paradise they had entered was actually the body of a legendary Heavenly Beast.

That is to say, whether this Heavenly Beast was currently in a deep sleep, or had had some other abnormal situation, that had allowed them to temporarily survive. Would they also be refined in the future?

So, they hurriedly reported this matter to the sect.

This matter, in the end, even alerted the Void Refining Realm old Sect Master who had long since abdicated and become a Supreme Great Elder.

And at this time, the Soul Suppression Palace also had a biggest problem. That Supreme Great Elder had always been unable to break through to the Body Integration Realm.

After he learned of this news, he also immediately came out of seclusion. After a secret meeting with everyone, he personally led the Spirit Transformation experts in the sect and began to search everywhere.

He even personally risked entering the remaining few perilous places to find various clues.

After more than ten years of careful investigation, in the end, that Supreme Great Elder gave a conclusion. They were indeed in the body of a Heavenly Beast, but this Heavenly Beast had already perished.

The cause of its death was unknown. It might have perished together with another expert after a great battle. This could be inferred from the fact that its physical body had not been taken away.

A Heavenly Beast corpse of this level was a top-grade artifact refining material.

Or, after a great battle with another expert, this Heavenly Beast was seriously injured. It had perished due to a relapse of its injuries while in seclusion. In the end, its powerful physical body had turned into this secret realm.

In the end, there was another possibility, but the possibility was not too high. It was that this Heavenly Beast had devoured too many cultivators.

And those cultivators had not died immediately, so they had left behind many things.

Among them were many curse ghost talismans. These things were quite vicious. Although this Heavenly Beast was very powerful, if there were too many of these curses, once they erupted, it was also possible for it to perish unexpectedly.

And in these ten-odd years of exploration, that Supreme Great Elder had also accidentally found a place. There, he had actually sensed the opportunity to break through.

It was precisely this place that had finally allowed this old Sect Master to be the first to break through to the Body Integration Realm. And that place had also become the most secret and important place of the Soul Suppression Palace, heavily protected.

But here, one could only break through to the Body Integration Realm. In the endless years that followed, no similar “blessed land” had appeared again.

But it was precisely because they had mastered this only important place that the Soul Suppression Palace had slowly allowed those outsider soul cultivators to establish sects here.

Anyway, no matter how hard they cultivated in the end, they could only cultivate to the Void Refining Realm.

The Soul Suppression Palace itself had eventually formed a situation of three halls and one palace. The Sect Master and the Supreme Great Elder lived in the core of the sect, the Soul Suppression Palace.

Among them, the cultivators in the “Variant Sparrow Hall” were basically composed of outsider soul cultivators, as well as the outstanding disciples of those small sects in the future, who could be selected to join the Soul Suppression Palace.

Later, as the number of various small sects and families increased, some of the disciples who were squeezed out in the sect and clan had to go out, and some rogue cultivators appeared.

And these rogue cultivators would also try to see if they could pass the assessment and enter the Soul Suppression Palace. If not, they would continue to be rogue cultivators and live a carefree life.

After Li Yan had roughly sorted out these situations, he had finally figured out his current situation.

“Even a Body Integration Realm cultivator can’t leave this place. What should I do?”

How could Li Yan be willing to stay in the “True Earth Domain” for a lifetime? He still had his family outside.

“Since there is an entrance, then there is an exit. Either the exit is extremely difficult to appear, and no one has encountered it yet, or it may be that it is unable to appear because of some powerful restriction. But even a Late-stage Body Integration cultivator has no way out here. Does that mean that the restriction suppressing the ‘True Earth Domain’ has already surpassed this realm, but for some reason, one cannot break through to the Tribulation Transcendence Realm…”

For a moment, Li Yan fell into deep thought.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Yan felt a sharp pain in his head, and only then did he wake up.

He didn’t know how long he had been thinking. It had actually caused a sharp pain in his Sea of Consciousness.

He rubbed his brow. While his heart was bitter, it was also filled with a sense of bewilderment.

Li Yan was in a daze for a long time before he slowly came to his senses.

He wanted to leave this space too much, especially when he thought that he might never be able to see his family again in his life. He had already become restless.

He had lost his usual calmness. Although as his cultivation had deepened, his hands had been stained with too much blood, making his heart as hard as ice and stone, those who were familiar with Li Yan all knew that his greatest weakness was still family affection.

Once it involved family affection, he would become crazy and irrational. Otherwise, he would not have dragged a Spirit Transformation cultivator to die with him for the sake of Gong Chenying.

‘I’m really overthinking things. Of all the outsider cultivators who have come here, countless people must have thought about this problem. Although no one has left, at least after living here for a long time, they will have explored more. If I can get this information, maybe I can get or discover something from it. Besides, I haven’t even reached the Spirit Transformation realm yet, but I’m already thinking about Body Integration and Tribulation Transcendence. This is already unrealistic…’

After Li Yan had calmed himself down, he put these matters aside. His eyes narrowed again.

Now this place was the world of soul cultivators, so he was in danger at all times. Thinking about leaving the “True Earth Domain” was a luxury. Saving his life was the most important thing to consider right now…

Li Yan, in his thoughts, was desperately thinking about how he should face the environment here. He could even find a place to hide and not go out, but soul cultivators had ways to find him!

And at a certain moment, Li Yan’s gaze suddenly focused. He had been sorting through the information he had obtained before, but he had overlooked another matter.

That was when the gray-haired old man had silently launched a second attack, he had paused for a moment and had even asked Li Yan with doubt.

‘He asked me if I was a soul cultivator? At that time, my defense, after sensing the palpitation of my soul, had subconsciously appeared a defense…’

A hasty defense was an instinctive defense. It was a subconscious, instinctive defense formed from more than ten years of continuous tempering in the underground long alley, after being constantly attacked by soul cultivators.

And the other party’s two attacks, why did the human soul fluctuate? This was what had made his reaction even faster.

“It’s… because of the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike’s cultivation art! Yes, that’s right. Those two layers of the cultivation art are precisely for attacking the soul. In fact, they are soul-type cultivation arts! Moreover, I have already cultivated it to the second layer, which is the point where it can affect the human soul…”

These thoughts emerged one by one in Li Yan’s mind. Li Yan suddenly had an epiphany.

“Normal cultivators, even if they are born with a strong soul, they cannot use it before they have cultivated a special soul cultivation art, so they cannot be called soul cultivators! But whether it was my experience on the Verdant Continent, or some of the arts in the Gui Water Immortal Sect, they all involved soul-type arts… In that case, I actually already have the potential to become a true soul cultivator. It is even feasible to pretend to be a soul cultivator! Before, the reason why I was discovered by the gray-haired old man was because I had hidden my figure, and my soul power fluctuation was detected by the other party. It really made people feel that I was being sneaky and had a guilty conscience…”

Li Yan suddenly seemed to have opened a window, and his eyes slowly lit up.

After the soul-search, he now had some basic soul cultivation methods in his hands. If he could study them further and understand more about soul cultivation methods, then he should no longer have to hide.

Moreover, soul cultivation methods were powerful. Li Yan, like other cultivators, had always wanted to get their cultivation methods.

He now cultivated both law and body, and also had the Fragmented Poison Body. He was already a rare opponent of the same rank. If he had the strange means of a soul cultivator, then he would have more life-saving means in the future.

Li Yan’s gaze looked at the front. There were two bracelets on the ground. One belonged to the Golden Core black-robed cultivator, and the other belonged to the gray-haired old man.

These two bracelets were precisely the soul cultivators’ storage space magical treasures, called “Void Shadow.” They were refined from other artifact refining materials, plus “Soul Crystal Sprouts.”

However, the “Soul Crystal Sprouts” that could be used to refine a “Void Shadow” had to be five hundred years old or more.

So, this was not something that an ordinary mortal could grow, but had to be cultivated by a cultivator himself.

A mid-grade or higher “Void Shadow” would use a five-hundred-year-old or older “Soul Crystal Sprout” as its body, and a heavenly soul of a Nascent Soul realm or higher as the law of heaven and earth, and then it could be refined.

And the refining of a low-grade “Void Shadow” also required a five-hundred-year-old or older “Soul Crystal Sprout,” plus a hundred Golden Core level or higher heavenly souls to refine it. But the space inside was usually only one to five zhang.

Li Yan raised his hand and took a bracelet into his hand. Now Li Yan already knew clearly that what was left on it was a soul imprint of the other party, so he just needed to remove it.

In Li Yan’s mind, both of them were already dead, and his own soul power was not bad. At most, after spending some time, he could open it…

Half an hour later, a layer of sweat had already appeared on Li Yan’s forehead, and his face had also turned pale due to the overuse of his soul power.

He had spent half a day, but he still had not opened any of the “Void Shadow” bracelets.

“No, not only have I not opened it, but my divine soul has also been shaken quite a bit. Although there is a Golden Core level soul cultivator’s soul imprint here, it still cannot be broken. My soul power should not be inferior to his… I can’t even eliminate his soul imprint. This is because my method of using soul power is wrong! Even if the other party is already dead, a soul imprint is a relatively special existence. Even if the main body is dead, it probably won’t dissipate as quickly as a divine sense imprint. Or it won’t dissipate at all, just like a wisp of a cultivator’s soul can still appear after a number of years…”

Li Yan thought to himself. He felt that his soul power, when dealing with the Nascent Soul heavenly tribulation, was already far superior to other cultivators.

Now, as his cultivation increased, the degree of condensation of his soul was also constantly increasing. The reason he couldn’t open the “Void Shadow” should not be because his soul power was not enough. This might be because his way of using his soul power was too crude.

Not only was the attack power small, but he also wasted a lot of soul power.

After some thought, Li Yan had a plan.

He planned to choose a safer place nearby, set up a formation for protection, and first swallow the basics of some of the crude soul arts he had seen in the gray-haired old man’s memory.

In the gray-haired old man’s memory, apart from some crude soul arts, there were also some basic introductory cultivation arts. They should not be what the old man himself had cultivated, but just some memories he had seen.

If he was discovered by others while cultivating here, he would not hide again, but could try to go out and deal with it.

Anyway, from the memories of these two people, in the “True Earth Domain,” there were also rogue cultivators.

They were either not getting important positions in the sect and were being oppressed and squeezed out, or they were unwilling to be restricted by the sect rules and had gone out to venture on their own. This was a good identity.

Li Yan’s soul power should be very strong and could meet the requirements of using some crude arts. Then, after a simple comprehension, he would see if he could open the two storage bracelets…

The sun sets and the sun rises, morning dew and evening dew. Five days later, a figure shot out from a barren mountain. After a slight pause in the air, it flew away in one direction.

In these five days, perhaps it was the effect of the formation’s concealment, or perhaps the place Li Yan had chosen was more remote, but for the time being, no one had found this place.

In such a short period of time, he had not cultivated a soul cultivation art, but had focused on studying the simple application of some arts. Although he was still very clumsy in using them, Li Yan had the foundation of “Soul-Tugging Execution,” so at least he had understood some of the application methods.

He even tried to open the “Void Shadow” bracelet again, and the soul imprint on it seemed to have loosened a little. Although he still could not open it, this also gave Li Yan a pleasant surprise.

Since he could simply use soul arts, he did not want to delay here any longer. Li Yan planned to test it first and see if he could deceive the soul cultivators outside.

Only after he had passed this test could he carefully consider his future plans and decide whether it was worth doing so. He did not have much time to waste.

But just as Li Yan had just flown out of this mountain peak for a few dozen li, he had met three cultivators head-on. After these three had seen Li Yan’s figure from a distance, they had immediately come up to meet him and had blocked Li Yan’s way.

“This fellow Daoist, where are you from?”