There were bones wherever the eye could see.
Not far ahead was a dark red mountain which had already lost all its edges to the winds' constant onslaught. There was a wide stone cave of an unknown origin inside the mountain. Ye Chen was sitting in the center of the cave and on top of a huge rock.
"Parallel space battlefield… There are a lot of Sea of Souls Realm warriors here. With my power now, I might be able to make it out alive in the battles with some rather powerful warriors, but I would die eventually once I encounter a master level warrior. So, I think it would be best for me to improve my cultivation for now."
Letting out a breath, Ye Chen took out the storage ring he got from the man in yellow robes.
Inside the storage ring were countless martial manuals, but there weren't any top rank Earth Realm ones. There were four mid rank weapons, a hundred thousand mid rank spirit stones, and more than eight thousand top rank spirit stones. There were also four Spirit power crystal stones and three Demon stones. As for the top rank blade from the man, Ye Chen had already stored it in his own storage ring.
"With eighteen Spirit power crystal stones, I wonder if I could try to achieve one third of the spirit body." Ye Chen looked down at his left hand, holding eighteen red colored crystal stones: one thumb-sized, one pinky-sized, and sixteen yellow bean-sized. Normally, the stones he found from the Life and Death Realm warriors should have been able to help him train his body into a spirit body easily. But, after millions of years, the power within the stones had decreased drastically, with not much remaining. It could not even compare to stones found in Sea of Souls Realm warriors who died a hundred years ago.
As he flipped his hand, a bean-sized stone was left in his hand. He then closed his eyes slightly, trying his best to extract the energy from the stones.
As the red energy poured into his body, he could not help but groan slightly. It was such a strange yet good feeling, as if his body had been dried out for a long time and now was trying its best to absorb the energy like a thirsty man drinking water in a desert. There seemed to be no need to try and control it.
After absorbing one stone, he started with the second one.
After half an hour, only one remained from amongst the eighteen stones, having absorbed the rest. At the same time, there were slight changes in his physical body. A dim red light covered his body, vibrating at an imperceptible frequency.
Without any hesitation, Ye Chen absorbed the last one of them.
This last crystal stone contained six times more power than the normal ones. Its red energy was like a scrambling ocean as it poured into his body through his arms before spreading throughout his whole body, including his head.
With that, the dim red light on his body brightened by a couple of times, dying his hair and clothes red, looking full of life.
Another half an hour had passed when two beams of dim red light shot out as he mumbled to himself, "It was weaker than I had imagined it to be. The spirit power is almost finished, and the remaining ones are not rich enough."
The most valuable part of the Spirit power crystal stone would be the spirit power essence. Although these all eighteen crystal stones combined contained a huge amount of power, they only had a couple strings of spirit power essence, which was almost equal to nothing.
"But, I can sense that my body has grown much stronger. Added with my old Pure Jade Body Boosting Spell, my body can be considered one third on its way to the spirit body, I guess."
After reaching the peak level Late Astral Reaching Realm, his Pure Jade Body Boosting Spell was no longer that effective anymore, as it only gave him a little bit extra physical strength compared to the others. But, even the slightest advantages would count, especially during this process of him training his body into a spirit body.
"Eh? My Zhen yuan seems to be more active! Does training the spirit body have this effect as well?"
Having an active Zhen yuan would be a good opportunity for him to improve his martial arts. So, he did not waste another second and closed his eyes immediately. The Zhen yuan inside his body followed his thirteenth level of green lotus sword spell's mapping, traveling in circles after circles. He was trying to make a third breakthrough, which would allow him to reach the fourteenth level.
Whooo!
After an unknown amount of time, the whole dark red mountain started to shake.
A sharp qi shot out in all directions with the peak of the mountain being the center, also creating a huge hole in the black qi in the sky which stayed there for a long time.
In the next second, a giant, surreal, green lotus wrapped the mountain within. A green lotus blossomed, with a sword swinging sound heard continuously. It was as if a rare sword was about to come out of its scabbard.
"Such a powerful sword qi! Someone is about to make a breakthrough." Three human figures that were hundreds of miles away stopped whatever they were doing and looked over in Ye Chen's direction.
"Although the sword qi seems to be really powerful, that Zhen yuan did not seem that intense. Let's go check it out!"
Shoo! Shoo! Shoo!
The three of them turned into three beams of light, flying at an extreme speed.
Soon, the three of them arrived a few miles away from the mountain that Ye Chen was in, their eyes staring at that blossoming green lotus image.
"Haha! This is a top rank Earth Realm sword spell. If we can steal it over and train it to the same level as the warrior in there, then my power would increase by another two times!" The sword artist in dark red robes laughed.
The elder in black standing next to him touched his long beard, "There are also ranks within the top rank Earth Realm martial arts. It indeed is the top of the top martial arts. Furthermore, it is a sword spell trained by a sword artist, and is way more powerful than the high rank Earth Realm martial arts you have trained."
The sword artist in green said without a doubt, "I don't mind receiving less of other things. But this sword spell, I will take it for sure. Do you guys have a problem with it?"
The middle-aged man with a balding patch on his head said with his mouth wide open, "It would be useless for us anyways. But, I doubt he would carry the sword spell's manual with him. Perhaps, he has already destroyed it."
The sword artist in green smiled creepily.
"The fourteenth level of the Green Lotus Sword Spell is indeed powerful. I cannot believe that my Zhen yuan is pure to this extent now. Plus, the core of my Zhen yuan has been carved into a green lotus."
Ye Chen inspected internally with his soul power and realized that his Zhen yuan had also improved dramatically compared to before, looking like a floating blue liquid right now. The biggest change was inside his dantian. There was now a blue, crystalline lotus root floating in the center, within which, the true Zhen yuan core was hidden. Meanwhile, the green halo and the nine green lotus sword qi beams spinning around the core started to fuse together, eventually turning into one. Their density increased rapidly as it eventually turned into a small lotus and landed in one of the holes inside the lotus roots.
The fourteenth green lotus sword spell had succeeded!
"I wonder what kind of power this lotus sword qi have…" Ye Chen lifted up his head, seeming to know what was happening around him. He sneered, "I guess…I will be able to find out soon."
Outside the dark red mountain, the sword artist in green held his sword with both of his hands, waving it down heavily.
"Break!"
Crack!
The mountain was cut in half with that attack, leaving behind a very smooth edge.
Just at the instant the mountain was splitting into two, the sword artist saw Ye Chen, who was flying upward while maintaining his sitting position. Ye Chen was smiling at him as he reached out his right hand and flicked his finger once.
Shoo!
The lotus shaped sword qi shot out like a bullet out of a gun.
"Danger!"
The sword artist could feel the hair on his arms standing up. He wanted to escape, but his reaction speed was still slightly slower than Ye Chen. The sword qi went through his eyebrows before he could even think of anything, leaving behind a small hole.
The elder in black and the middle-aged man with a bald patch were still waiting to watch how the sword artist in green was going to kill Ye Chen before realizing the sword artist was already dead. They were shocked beyond words, feeling the coldness rushing down their spines. The sword artist just fell before their eyes. That pinky-sized sword qi was so small and yet so fast that it literally killed their friend on sight.
"You are looking for death!" The elder thought that it was because the sword artist had been reckless and careless, so he did not have the time to protect himself. So, he got furious, instantly throwing out a claw attack toward Ye Chen.
Chin!
Taking out his Destruction sword from its scabbard, Ye Chen activated his Zhen yuan that was way purer now. After one flash, he appeared right in front of the elder. He held his Thunder sword backward in his left hand and slashed it out along with the destruction sword in his right hand.
Before he realized, the elder had been cut into four different pieces.
"No way! He is only at peak level Late Astral Reaching Realm!"
The middle-aged man's face was filled with terror, his expression twisted.
"I've got to run!"
Without any other thoughts, he performed his movement art, trying to use his extreme power to escape.
"Amaranthine Nature!"
As he put back both his Thunder sword and the Destruction sword, his Greenwood sword popped out. He took a deep breath while stabbing out the sword, which brought up a huge wave of sword qi along with it.
Dang!!
The middle-aged man felt the incoming sword qi with his soul power, so he hurried to turn to block it with his weapon. The burning sparks from the clash wrapped him completely.
"No!" All he could feel was his blood traveling in the opposite direction and his internal organs breaking down as blood mixed with flesh was puked out by him continuously.
By the time he managed to rebalance his qi and blood, Ye Chen was already ten steps away, slashing his sword once again at him.
And just like that, the man was also killed.
Reaching over to summon their storage rings, Ye Chen shook his head. These Sea of Souls Realm warriors were just too weak. He still had no idea what kind of level he would be at right now.
Ye Chen had never thought that he could battle with true Sea of Souls Realm warriors, since they would have trained all of their martial arts to completion, along with their profound sense martial arts. Not to mention just Ye Chen alone, if there were five Ye Chens combined together, they would still not be able to compete with a real Sea of Souls Realm warrior, and crossing two levels to battle would be almost impossible.
Of course, after training his green lotus sword spell to the fourteenth level and forming the true lotus sword qi, Ye Chen was already unafraid of most Sea of Souls Realm warriors. Only those of who at the peak level would cause him to be careful, since their power would be truly profound
"It is time for me to find Murong!"
Following his instinct, Ye Chen picked a direction and started flying.
A thousand miles ahead of Ye Chen, Murong Qingcheng was facing a life and death situation inside a concave ground.
Her opponents were two powerful Sea of Souls Realm warriors. The power gap between each level in the Sea of Souls realm was huge, and normal ones would not be able to handle even one attack of hers. However, these two in front of her were indeed extremely powerful ones, both their martial arts and skills trained to completion. Furthermore, their profound sense martial arts had also been trained to fifty percent. Once they managed to understand the last part of the profound, they would reach the true spirit warrior level.
If it were not for her having already trained her bloodline to perfection which increased her power by fifty percent, she might have already been killed.
"Flying Sky Assassinating Cut!"
After receiving a huge attack on her back, she puked out a huge chunk of blood. She then threw out an attack toward the middle-aged man who had a blade mark on his face.
The man did not dare to underestimate her, so he threw out another blade attack.
Boom!
The mountains around the two were shattered completely as a huge light ball exploded.
"Am I going to die here now?" Blood almost sprayed out her mouth as Murong Qingcheng revealed a bad smile.
The short elder who did not really do anything said, "Do not try to fight back now. With the two of us joining forces, none of the spirit warriors would be able to stay alive. Even though your power is no weaker than any of us, you have no chance of fighting back. So, give up now!"
The black light shone on the surface of her skin as she tried her best to heal her wounds while reaching out her right hand and forming a black light ball. It then exploded, shooting out toward her opponents in front of her. The power seemed to continuously grow stronger and stronger as it traveled out.
The two thought that this black light ball would not be anything, but they had not expected it to contain soul attacks as well. As a result, their minds were confused by it.
Luckily for them, the power of the soul attacks was limited, so the short elder came back to reality shortly. His face looked pale as he said threateningly, "We almost lost it. I had not expected you to have already learned to hide soul attacks within your profound martial arts. Too bad that it was just some general understanding…Otherwise, we might have all died in your hands. Blade Mark, let's kill her now before things change."