Chapter 1451: Soul Star Transformation
The thought of Strategist Ji brought a flood of long-sealed memories back to Li Yan’s mind.
By now, his hatred for Strategist Ji had faded. Although the man had harmed him, it was also because of him that Li Yan had stepped through the gate of cultivation.
Li Yan’s current feelings toward the Immortal-Seeking Lineage were no longer the aversion of the past, where he tried his best not to even think of them. Now, his feelings were filled with doubt and confusion.
He felt that there were some things for which only these ants, who scoured every continent in search of immortals, might hold the answers.
Originally, Li Yan had planned to return from the Wind God Continent and, with his Late-stage Nascent Soul strength, attempt to delve into the depths of that water pool again to investigate. But then, he had inexplicably ascended, and his plan had turned to dust.
Now, with all these matters intertwined, the only clue Li Yan had was the “underground passage” that had appeared here.
Therefore, Li Yan could only meticulously go over everything related to his past. But even after more than an hour, he was still unable to sort out many clues.
Eventually, Li Yan took out the damaged earthen jar. This object was definitely connected to the Hellsoul Clan.
Though Li Yan could not be considered a true master of soul cultivation, his understanding of Soul Power was on a completely different level compared to before.
After taking out the damaged earthen jar, he first sensed it carefully. There was still that faint trace of Soul Power inside; otherwise, it was like a dead object.
Immediately, Li Yan levitated the damaged earthen jar in the void before him and began to form hand seals, continuously experimenting with various soul arts…
Half a day later, Li Yan’s contemplative expression slowly turned to one of helplessness.
He finally had to give up thinking about this matter. No matter how he tried to command it, the damaged earthen jar remained as lifeless as ever, completely motionless!
Helpless, Li Yan could only temporarily bury all his questions deep in his heart.
After some thought, his Divine Sense entered the Earthen Patch. He soon arrived at the place where he raised his Gu-insects. After first sending a mental message to some of the Gu-insects, he withdrew his Divine Sense.
Then, with a wave of his sleeve, he placed some Gu-insects around himself.
He was about to enter seclusion. This time, he would enter a deep state of meditation. Although a cultivating cultivator still has a rough estimate of the passage of time, Li Yan was afraid of missing the hundred-year deadline. If the five missions were not completed by then, he would be severely punished by the sect.
Therefore, he instructed these Gu-insects to wake him up in the eightieth year. He didn’t know the specific difficulty of the five missions and thought it best to leave some extra time.
After making these preparations, Li Yan took out a Soul Slip, then infused it with Soul Power, inscribing a cultivation method into it.
Although cultivators have extraordinary memories, Li Yan still preferred to inscribe unfamiliar cultivation methods to study them slowly. Once he was familiar with the cultivation process, he would either place the Soul Slip in the Earthen Patch or destroy it directly.
As for the rule that cultivation methods cannot be passed on to outsiders? Within the True Earth Domain, Li Yan would, of course, fully comply and not dare to transgress.
But if he could leave this place, apart from the Gui Water Immortal Sect’s cultivation method and the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, he would naturally give any of the other cultivation methods in his possession to whomever he wished, and that included the Soul Suppression Palace’s techniques. For example, in the future, if Gong Chenying and Zhao Min were willing to cultivate them, Li Yan would surely offer them without reservation. After leaving this place, he couldn’t care less about the Soul Suppression Palace’s damned rules.
Holding the Soul Slip, Li Yan once again extended his Soul Power into it. First, his Soul Power sensed six large characters—”Saintly Soul Transformation: Opening Scroll.”
The cultivation method he ultimately chose was indeed the “Saintly Soul Transformation.” After browsing through numerous methods in the Technique Transmission Pavilion, Li Yan finally settled on this one.
This method shared a similar nature with the True Scripture of Gui Water; one focused on the foundation of magical power cultivation, while the other targeted Soul Power. Moreover, compared to other cultivation methods, the price of this one was not too expensive.
Li Yan planned to spend five years practicing it to see. If there was not the slightest progress after five years, he would immediately abandon this method.
As for the choice of soul arts, although there were many, after some thought, Li Yan felt that his foundation in soul cultivation was still too weak. Therefore, he planned to continue practicing basic soul arts while cultivating the “Saintly Soul Transformation.” After laying a solid foundation, he would then look for suitable soul arts.
With these plans in mind, Li Yan began to carefully study the Soul Slip…
This period of cultivation went on for so long that even Li Yan himself had not anticipated it, as one year passed after another.
Winter gave way to spring, autumn faded, and winter arrived again!
Through the changing seasons, it was as if a person named Li Yan had never appeared in the Soul Suppression Palace. Apart from showing his face on the day he joined the sect, he had subsequently vanished completely. Li Yan’s seclusion lasted for a full thirty years, the doors to his cultivation chamber remaining shut.
However, a situation like this was actually quite normal for cultivators who had just joined the Soul Suppression Palace. Once they entered the sect, they, like Li Yan, were generally eager to buy and practice cultivation methods. This was their main purpose for joining the sect—to quickly improve their cultivation realm. Although there was a hundred-year mission limit, every new disciple would basically choose to accept missions only after a sixty-year cycle had passed.
…
On this day, inside Li Yan’s cultivation chamber, he sat cross-legged, his long hair trailing on the ground, his eyes slightly closed.
At this moment, a pile of gray stones lay before him—Spirit Stones that had been completely depleted of their Spiritual Energy.
Not far away, six or seven black beetles lay quietly. Each was the size of a leopard cat, distributed around Li Yan. These were the “Tiger-Devouring Gu” Zhao Min had given him. These Gu-insects were exceptionally fierce, yet at this moment, they all had their eyes closed, as still as millstones. One couldn’t feel the slightest killing intent from them, but if any living creature approached Li Yan, they would launch the most ferocious of attacks.
The seated Li Yan had no magical power fluctuations on his body, and even his breathing had all but ceased. This was a sign of a cultivator entering deep meditation.
In fact, at this time, Li Yan’s three hun souls seemed to have already flown out of his body, passed through the void, and entered a vast, unknown space.
Li Yan, dressed in black, was slowly flying through a black space. Above his head, however, was a sky full of stars.
Li Yan had no idea how long he had been flying here. There was only night and stars, but he had yet to find a single star that resonated with him.
The him here was formed from the condensation of his three hun souls.
The “Saintly Soul Transformation” cultivation method required one to refine the yang-po and yin-hun, ultimately transforming them into the sun and moon in a cycle of reincarnation. But for the three hun souls to become a cold moon, they must first become a star. Only when the stellar power within this star was full could one begin to comprehend the essence of the moon and start the step-by-step process of transforming the three hun souls into a cold moon.
And to obtain stellar power, one must first cultivate the three hun souls to unite as one. With the Heaven Soul as the head, the Earth Soul as the torso, and the Human Soul as the limbs, this formed what was called the “Nether Essence” body.
After reaching this step in cultivation, one could use this body to enter the meditative space and sense the stars in the unseen world.
Li Yan didn’t know if these stars filling the sky were real, but after thirty years of arduous cultivation, he had finally managed to cultivate his three hun souls to unite and take form. He immediately activated the “Nether Essence” human-shaped body according to the manual. This three-souled person, bearing the same appearance as Li Yan, immediately flew out from the crown of Li Yan’s head.
Then, it merged into a dark space. Although there was no wind in this space, it made Li Yan feel incomparably sinister and cold, as if he had suddenly arrived in the Nine Serenities Underworld. But when he looked around, he found no underworld objects like the Bridge of Helplessness or the Yellow Springs River. Instead, above his head, was a sky full of stars.
These stars were at varying distances, each twinkling with a cold, pale-white light. The large stars were the size of a grown man’s head, while the slightly smaller ones were the size of a baby’s fist. But most of them were as small as fingernails or ants. They filled the entire sky, but the light from these stars was much, much weaker, some even almost invisible.
Li Yan flew towards the stars high in the sky. But every time he tried to approach a star, an invisible force would push him away.
Li Yan knew that these stars were the “Soul Residence Stars” recorded in the cultivation method.
According to the “Saintly Soul Transformation,” every living being in the world corresponds to a “Soul Residence Star.” The stronger a person’s three hun souls, the more brilliant their “Soul Residence Star” would be. Therefore, ninety percent of those bright “Soul Residence Stars” corresponded to cultivators, while those stars that were so faint as to be almost invisible were the natal “Soul Residence Stars” of mortals.
Whether these so-called “Soul Residence Stars” truly existed was not recorded in the cultivation manual, but they were certainly invisible to non-soul cultivators. But even for soul cultivators, depending on their cultivation method, they might not necessarily know about “Soul Residence Stars,” and their cultivation might not even involve stars at all. This was just the terminology of the “Saintly Soul Transformation” method.
However, in some soul cultivation methods, there was also the use of stars, and those stars were also only seen in meditation, but the name and method of use might be different.
Li Yan shuttled through this space, needing to constantly search here to find his own natal “Soul Residence Star.”
This search was said to be extremely difficult. In the regions you pass through, you need to constantly try to sense the stars you think are suitable.
Fortunately, according to the “Saintly Soul Transformation,” when a cultivator can cultivate to the point where their three hun souls unite, it already shows that their soul is quite powerful, and the natal “Soul Residence Star” they sense would also be relatively brilliant. Therefore, those stars smaller than a baby’s fist could be completely disregarded; those were the “Soul Residence Stars” corresponding to mortals.
If a star here was not your natal “Soul Residence Star,” you could never get close to it.
Li Yan understood this as a kind of restriction and protection by the rules of the Heavenly Dao. Otherwise, if you could approach a certain star and extinguish it with a wave of your hand, you might really be able to kill its owner. In that case, wouldn’t you be able to kill people at will here?
Of course, this was just what was recorded in the “Saintly Soul Transformation.” As for whether every person corresponds to a star in other soul cultivation methods, that was not necessarily the case. After all, cultivation methods were created by predecessors. When they created each set of methods, they did so according to their own cultivation and understanding. The path Li Yan was walking now was simply following the path explored by his predecessors, advancing through continuous cultivation.
Li Yan flew under this starry sky, constantly flying, constantly trying to communicate with the stars he thought were suitable. Day after day passed, and eventually, he no longer knew how long he had been flying. Even the body composed of his three hun souls had begun to grow weary. But he was still flying constantly, day and night, constantly approaching each chosen star, only to be pushed away by it, and then continuing his search…
In the cultivation chamber, another three years passed. Li Yan’s body had become emaciated. His once vigorous muscles had withered and lost their luster. Green veins stood out like raised, cyan earthworms.
In these three years, he had not cultivated the “Saintly Soul Transformation” again, and naturally had not absorbed the Spiritual Energy of heaven and earth. At this moment, the man had no breath at all, like a dried corpse. Li Yan’s remaining life force was entirely sustained by the ceaseless circulation of magical power in his body and the constant movement of his seven po souls throughout his body.
Suddenly, Li Yan, who had been sitting motionless, shuddered violently. With this tremor, a new force suddenly appeared in his corpse-like body.
The moment this force appeared, Li Yan’s whole person was like being showered by a spring rain, as winter gave way to spring, like a withered tree rejuvenated.
Li Yan, who had already become extremely thin, began to have streaks of red light appear on his body. Then, a majestic life force emanated from his body in an instant. Li Yan suddenly opened his eyes.
A pair of pitch-black eyes first flashed with red light, which vanished in an instant. Immediately, a bone-chilling coldness erupted towards the surroundings.
“Three souls, return to the body!”
Li Yan shouted in his heart. Just before, he had finally sensed his own “Soul Residence Star.”
The moment he sensed the “Soul Residence Star,” the body formed by the union of his three hun souls was sucked into that star the instant it approached.
The moment his body was sucked in, Li Yan, who was sitting cross-legged in the Cave Residence, also had his three souls return to his body, bringing with them a majestic life force.
As Li Yan shouted, the “Saintly Soul Transformation” also activated at the same time. Instantly, his Soul Power merged again and spread throughout his body.
The “Saintly Soul Transformation” circulated, rushing to every corner of his body, then condensed into a pillar of wind. Li Yan felt a new, clear and cold power appear in his Soul Power. The appearance of this power made his three hun souls seem to be constantly held together by ice, becoming more solid and compact.
A vortex suddenly appeared on the crown of the head of the golden Nascent Soul also sitting cross-legged in his Dantian. Immediately, large patches of pale-white, star-like points of light fell down. These pale-white points of light were formed when the “Saintly Soul Transformation” circulated in his body, creating a rotating pillar of wind that went straight to the crown of Li Yan’s main body and down to the top of the Nascent Soul’s head.
Then, Li Yan felt that the crown of his physical body was constantly absorbing some invisible, cool power from the world.
Afterward, this power continuously poured into the top of the Nascent Soul’s head in the Dantian below along that pillar of wind.
With the infusion of this power, a point of light slowly appeared on the golden Nascent Soul’s forehead, like a star. It was just that the light of this star was extremely faint, flickering as if it could be extinguished at any moment…
Three months later, Li Yan’s eyes, which had been closed in meditation, first trembled slightly, then slowly opened. At this moment, Li Yan’s eyes were even clearer, like a pool of deep water.
His pair of eyes had truly become two deep stars. In the instant his eyes opened and closed, without him making any movement, a loud “boom” suddenly came from a few zhang in front of him.
Accompanied by it, the entire cultivation chamber shook violently. The restriction formation protecting this place suddenly lit up with a blinding white light.
At the same time, on the restriction formation in front of Li Yan, as the white light flashed rapidly, it made a series of crackling sounds, like the jumping of electric arcs.
After a few breaths, the white light slowly dimmed.
The basic soul art—”Soul-Splitting Slash.” Seeing this result, Li Yan couldn’t help but nod with satisfaction.
He had also taken the time to cultivate his soul arts over the years, accumulating his practice. Although he hadn’t reached the major accomplishment stage, he was already very close.
When he used it again just now, although he had only used sixty percent of his power, it had already caused several cracks to appear in the “Mo Kai” formation. This level of power had reached the Mid-stage Nascent Soul level among soul cultivators. If he used his full strength, he could completely reach the power of the Late-stage Nascent Soul.
“Although I haven’t been able to cultivate the yang-po and yin-hun to the point where they can transform into the sun and moon, I have already communicated with my natal ‘Soul Residence Star,’ and my body has begun to continuously accumulate stellar power. The power of my techniques, when cast, has increased by more than double compared to before I sensed the ‘Soul Residence Star.’ And this is just after I have sensed the ‘Soul Residence Star’; I am still far from a state of being full of stellar power. As I absorb more stellar power in the future, my attacks will continue to grow stronger. I just don’t know if I can fully unleash the full power of my soul without breaking through to Spirit Transformation…”
Li Yan measured the effect of his strike just now in his heart. Although the “Saintly Soul Transformation” was an incomplete manual, it could ultimately cultivate the moon’s essence of the yin-hun. Li Yan was even more full of anticipation for this!