Time flew. Two weeks passed...
Over the past two weeks, everyone from the Realm of a Hundred Battles had practiced cultivation in silence.
In the colorful area where everyone sat, floating landmasses, boulders, remains of ancient starships, outsider corpses, and all kinds of debris constantly drifted passed them into the thick mist at the end of their segment, passing through to the next segment.
Whenever they saw any interesting objects float by them, they would channel them over and examine them carefully.
However, none of them contained anything noteworthy. All of their efforts turned out to be fruitless.
As time passed, people spent most of their time chatting with each other or wondering where this enormous vortex, which was swirling downwards unceasingly, was going to take them.
After two weeks of recuperation, Nie Tian had already recovered the different types of power he had consumed during his battle against Yang Kan.
Meanwhile, he had expanded his vortexes of flame power, wood power, and star power to their limits. He was now only waiting for his fleshy body to be refined enough to make the breakthrough into the middle Greater Heaven stage.
During the two weeks' time, two among the group successfully entered the late Greater Heaven stage.
They were Dong Baijie from the Dong Clan and Qian Xin from the Pill Pavilion Sect.
A rigid environment and life-threatening battles could usually stimulate people's potential and give them enlightenment about the profundity of the incantations they practiced. Dong Baijie and Qian Xin had just achieved their breakthroughs so smoothly after their fierce battles with Yang Kan and Chang Yuan.
Their breakthroughs motivated the others to practice even harder.
Afterwards, everyone practiced cultivation with spirit stones day and night. They even barely talked to each other anymore.
Nie Tian, however, spent most of his time consuming the spirit beast meat Dong Li had purchased for him to fill the green aura's bottomless appetite.
The efficiency of his digestive system digesting spirit beast meat and generating flesh power was relatively low. Therefore, even though he was eating day in and day out, the amount of flesh power he was receiving was still very limited.
One day, an idea struck him when he was once again stuffed.
He closed his eyes and sent a wisp of flesh power into his ring of holding, where it located the huge pile of spirit beast meat.
Then, he secretly practiced his Life Drain bloodline talent.
Like a greedy snake, as soon as the wisp of flesh power touched a piece of fifth grade spirit beast's meat, it disappeared into it.
That was when he realized that, even though his target objects were within his ring of holding, he was still able to absorb their flesh power with Life Drain.
As the huge chunk of spirit beast meat was rapidly drained of its vigorous life force, the blood red wisp of flesh power, which was originally the size of a little finger, grew larger and larger.
In a very short period of time, the piece of spirit beast meat that seemed to weigh a few tons was drained of all flesh power, and became shriveled like it had been left in the sun for weeks.
Afterwards, the wisp of flesh power, which had already expanded to the size of a baby's arm, flew out of his ring of holding into his arm. As soon as it returned to his meridians, the green aura coiled up in his heart sensed it and grew restless.
He could see with great clarity that the significantly thickened wisp of flesh power was instantly channeled back to his heart, where it split into several wisps that were devoured by the green aura.
Nie Tian felt overjoyed by his new discovery. "I can't believe this actually works!"
Over the following period of time, he secretly halted his cultivation, and frequently unleashed wisps of flesh power into his stock of spirit beast meat in his ring of holding.
With this method, he absorbed the flesh power from the spirit beast meat Dong Li had given him at an unprecedented speed.
However, the green aura in his heart seemed like a bottomless pit. He watched one piece of fifth grade spirit beast meat after another shrink and shrivel, yet the green aura kept yearning for more.
Ten days passed.
Thanks to the Life Drain's terrifying efficiency, every last piece of the spirit beast meat Dong Li had given him had been drained of their flesh power.
He could only stop for now.
He had set aside some spirit beast meat which he had brought with him so that he would still have enough to get him through the operation.
Since he had already realized that it was his inadequate refinement of his body that was stopping him from making a breakthrough, he didn't spend much of his time practicing cultivation.
Meanwhile, since he had overly consumed his stock of spirit beast meat, he no longer dared to consume any more of it. Therefore, he took out the skull Qian Xin had given him and studied it from time to time.
A ferocious discarnate soul was sealed within the skull. When he had attempted to examine it with his psychic awareness earlier, he had nearly suffered an injury.
After pondering for some time, it occurred to him that the mysterious soul power from the nine fragmentary stars in his soul might have a subduing effect on discarnate souls. Thus, he formed a Heaven Eye with both soul power and psychic power.
With great caution, he controlled it to fly into the skull.
The moment it entered, he sensed the existence of a special ward, which seemed to have been established by Chang Yuan, yet it didn't have any isolating effect on the Heaven Eye.
Afterwards, via the Heaven Eye, he saw a cluster of gray mist that was the discarnate soul wriggling about inside the skull.
It instantly detected the entrance of a foreign soul matter, and started roaring madly within the skull. In the next moment, mountains of corpses and seas of blood were reflected in Nie Tian's mind.
He, who had saved Dong Li from a Phantasm's secret soul magics in the Realm of Dark Underworld before, had an epiphany. "It's a Phantasm's soul!"
The skull that was bereft of any flesh and the discarnate soul within it actually belonged to a Phantasm!
It was said that many of the Spirit God Sect's secret soul magics had been derived from their understanding of Phantasms and their souls.
The Realm of Dark Underworld where the Spirit God Sect was founded was originally home to Phantasms.
Therefore, it made sense that Chang Yuan had been able to secure a skull that contained a Phantasm's soul.
Within the skull, Nie Tian's Heaven Eye suddenly unleashed the mysterious soul power from the fragmentary stars.
In the next moment, the reflections of mountains of corpses and seas of blood were eliminated from his mind.
In the presence of the soul power from the fragmentary stars, the originally ferocious Phantasm's soul suddenly quieted down, and cowered into a corner of the skull, not daring to move a bit.
It seemed to be very scared of the soul power from the fragmentary stars.
Nie Tian observed it carefully, but didn't control the Heaven Eye to approach it.
He had a feeling that mere contact with the Heaven Eye would scatter the fragile soul.
However, after a while, his observation turned out fruitless.
Just as he was about to control the Heaven Eye to fly out of the skull, the cowering soul suddenly grew violent, and started repeatedly throwing itself into the ward created by Chang Yuan.
But since it possessed limited residual power, it failed to break through the ward.
The discarnate soul seemed to suddenly have an insuppressible urge to get out, as if it was attracted by something on the outside.
Holding the skull in his hand, Nie Tian opened his eyes, and discovered that a Phantasm's corpse had drifted to the colorful area.
The other Qi warriors from the Realm of a Hundred Battles had also seen it, yet no one showed any interest in channeling it over to examine it.
That was because they had already seen countless other outsiders' corpses float past them into the colorful mist at the end of the segment.
At the beginning, full of hope, the juniors had channeled them over and examined them one by one.
However, the ages had washed away all of their residual power. A mere touch would turn them into flying ashes. Not the slightest value had been found in them.
As time passed, the juniors gradually lost interest in examining the outsider corpses floating by.
That was why no one moved a finger when that Phantasm's corpse appeared.
"That's the corpse of a Phantasm. Can it be what's causing the discarnate soul's unusual movements?" Nie Tian was briefly carried away before he snapped back to reality and unleashed a wisp of spiritual power, which morphed it into a resilient and glowing rope. With the rope, he hooked the Phantasm's corpse and dragged it to him.
It was a male Phantasm dressed in noble garments, whose appearance was elegantly handsome.
As soon as Nie Tian dragged it over, the discarnate soul within the skull grew even more restless, and rammed into the ward created by Chang Yuan even more frequently.
"What's so special about this Phantasm's corpse?" Nie Tian reached out with one hand and pressed his index finger between the Phantasm's eyebrows, where a prismatic crystal seemed to be embedded in its skull.
He remembered that he had seen a similar crystal between the eyebrows of another handsome Phantasm, which he had encountered in the Realm of Dark Underworld.
Back then, the crystal between that Phantasm's eyebrows had suddenly shone blindingly bright in the middle of his fight against Shen Zhong from the Pill Pavilion Sect, which instantly inflicted severe damage on Shen Zhong.
The mysterious prismatic crystal that looked like a third eye seemed to be something only Phantasms had.
As soon as Nie Tian's fingertip touched the crystal between the Phantasm's eyebrows, the Phantasm was reduced to flying ashes.
The prismatic crystal that was the size of a fingernail was the only thing that remained intact.