Chapter 604: Soul Sealing

An extremely long time later, Qin Lie finally finished digesting all of the information that he received from the third space inside of the Soul Suppressing Orb.

Despite how enormous the transmission of information was, all of it amounted to a single middle rank spirit diagram called the “Soul Sealing Diagram.” As one of the components of the enormous spirit diagram within the third space, this spirit diagram was made up of several tens of thousands crisscrossing threads of spirit energy.

The Soul Sealing Diagram had only one use.

—It sealed souls!

It could seal a soul into a spirit diagram and incorporate it as energy. This meant that, if a Soul Sealing Diagram had been included in a compound diagram, a soul could exist within that diagram’s artifact.

As an artificer, Qin Lie understood what this diagram represented. He understood just how important the Soul Sealing Diagram was, how much it would increase the power of a spirit artifact.

“A spirit diagram holds the structure of the world and its laws within its lines. It is the most realistic, straightforward, and in-depth expression of power!”

The words that voice had spoken earlier had yet to fade from his mind. In fact, they continued to echo in his head loud and clear.

Qin Lie opened his eyes, a serious look taking shape within them. He repeated the words to himself as he contemplated what they meant.

“Structure, laws, expression of power…”

As he recited these words, his eyes gradually lit up.

Casually taking a spirit tablet out of his spatial ring, Qin Lie gathered his spirit energy and began making an inscription on it.

He tried to inscribe the Soul Sealing Diagram.

Several minutes later, the spirit tablet suddenly exploded with a loud bang and a thick trail of smoke wafted into the air.

Just like that, Qin Lie’s first attempt had exploded. The complex Soul Sealing Diagram collapsed because, after inscribing only one-tenth of the threads, he made a mistake. Yet he didn’t let this failure dampen his spirits. He took out another spirit tablet and got to work inscribing once more.

In just an hour, ruined spirit tablets surrounded him as he continuously failed to inscribe the the spirit diagram.

In spite of this, Qin Lie remained calm and at peace as he kept inscribing spirit diagrams on more spirit tablets.

A long while later, Qin Lie took a break from inscribing the Soul Sealing Diagram since he had exhausted his soul energy. Spreading his consciousness throughout his body, he examined himself closely.

Since he had worn out his soul energy, his Soul Lake had clearly shrunk a significant amount.

Pure soul energy made up the liquid inside of his Soul Lake. His True Soul, which lay submerged within the Soul Lake, was the culmination of his memories, soul consciousness, soul imprints, and soul origin. The more he used his soul energy, the more his Soul Lake would shrink.

Every time the Soul Suppressing Orb drained his soul energy, Qin Lie’s Soul Lake would decrease to around half its usual size. After replenishing his soul energy using soul crystals, the his Soul Lake would gradually return to normal.

This process was a constant cycle of increasing and decreasing the amount of soul energy inside of Qin Lie’s Soul Lake. The True Soul within a Soul Lake embodied one’s soul consciousness, memories, and soul origin. It needed to be nurtured by a Soul Lake, and when one used up their soul energy, the Soul Lake would run dry. A True Soul that didn’t have the support of a Soul Lake would swiftly grow weaker. If that lack of support persisted for prolonged periods of time, the True Soul would eventually dissipate.

A person’s mind consciousness stemmed from their True Soul. They could use it to from wisps of consciousness to sense life, detect auras, and even attack enemies through the usage of soul energy. In order to form powerful spirit arts and or unleash the magic of spirit artifacts, one needed to imbue them with their mind consciousness.

However, mind consciousness also existed as a part of one’s True Soul. If it were to suffer a terrible attack and be destroyed, the True Soul would be damaged as well. Once a person’s mind consciousness suffered enough damage, their True Soul would gradually become fragile and indistinct.

All of these thoughts flashed through Qin Lie’s mind like lightning. He discovered a deeper understanding about the mysteries behind Soul Lakes and True Souls.

In addition to that, he realized that his True Soul grew stronger even though he failed to inscribe the Soul Sealing Diagram over and over. With each failure, it seemed as if his True Soul were being reinforced.

Qin Lie focused all of his mind consciousness on his Soul Lake and entered his True Soul, intent on examining it. He was surprised to discover that numerous tiny and almost indiscernible cracks lined his True Soul. Furthermore, he hadn’t been able to detect these imperfections at all.

The violent power of thunder filled these cracks. On the surface, they didn’t seem as if they affected his True Soul, and he couldn’t sense whether or not they were harmful either.

Yet he couldn’t shake off the bad feeling they gave him.

After considering this discovery for a long time, realization dawned on Qin Lie’s face and he grew pale.

“This…”

Heavenly Thunder Eradication was a method in which a person cultivated by using thunder and lightning to temper their soul. Although this method did temper one’s soul, it also caused indirect harm.

These tiny cracks that he was only just now noticing had been created when he tempered his True Soul in the Forbidden Land of Thunder and atop the Flowing Gold Fire Phoenix.

Qin Lie’s True Soul could slowly mend these cracks and return to its original condition, but it could only do that if he didn’t recklessly cultivate. If he hadn’t discovered the damage that Heavenly Thunder Eradication was causing to his True Soul, he wouldn’t have learned to restrain himself. He would have forced himself to continue cultivating before his True Soul fully recovered. Such reckless cultivation would lead to his True Soul one day tearing itself apart or exploding on its own.

—That would mean the destruction of his True Soul!

The most frightening thing about all this was that he hadn’t noticed this danger at all. He had no idea that cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication had such a terrifying drawback. Today, as he concentrated on inscribing the Soul Sealing Diagram, he suddenly noticed that these cracks were slowly and inexplicably being healed.

Qin Lie suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

He suddenly realized that, if he had continued cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication without noticing the flaws or abnormalities in his True Soul, disaster would have been inevitable.

At that point, Qin Lie finally remembered about how his grandfather would often talk about knowledge regarding artifact forging and emphasize the amazing properties of spirit diagrams while he cultivated Heavenly Thunder Eradication. His grandfather had also told him to treat the Soul Suppressing Orb as the most important treasure in his life.

The third space within the Soul Suppressing Orb and the spirit diagrams it contained were capable of healing the cracks in his True Soul. Inscribing them made up for the flaws of cultivating Heavenly Thunder Eradication.

Could his grandfather have planned everything for him? Even the path of his cultivation?

Qin Lie pondered this in puzzlement.

He continued to spend the next few days absorbing more soul energy from soul crystals and replenishing his blood using the Demon Sealing Tombstone. Before long, the Soul Suppressing Orb drained them from him once more, and he sent a wisp of soul consciousness to follow them straight to the third space inside of it.

Qin Lie watched as the ribbon of light containing his soul energy and blood slowly flowed into the center of the enormous diagram that enveloped all of the third space like a web. As he did, he suddenly noticed that the Pure Soul Springs, three tiny beings, and even more secrets lay behind that web.

Furthermore, his wisp of soul consciousness had yet to trigger any other reaction in this third space or activate the enormous spirit diagram. That was probably because he hadn’t completely comprehended the secrets of the Soul Sealing Diagram. As a result, he couldn’t obtain any other knowledge about middle rank spirit diagrams.

However, just as Qin Lie was about to have his wisp of soul consciousness leave, the three tiny beings shaped like a Fire Qilin, a Wood Race clansman, and the Thunder Crystal Beast suddenly emerged from the center of the enormous web.

The moment they came out of the area behind the diagram, the three tiny beings instantly headed straight for Qin Lie. They ran toward him happily, constantly shifting between tangible and intangible states.

From Qin Lie’s perspective, they resembled three blazing balls of flame, emerald energy, and violent lightning shooting at him. Although the three tiny beings kept sending him affection through their connection to him, he didn’t dare to interact with them here with a pure wisp of soul consciousness. He had just found out that his mind and soul consciousnesses were parts of his True Soul. If either were destroyed or forced to dissipate, his True Soul would take heavy damage and become indistinct.

—He had no choice but to flee from the Soul Suppressing Orb.

“Whoosh!”

Qin Lie opened his eyes, his wisp of soul consciousness withdrawing to his Soul Lake and merging back into his True Soul.

The three beings emerged from the space between his eyebrows like strange streaks of light, slowly taking on a solid form about the size of a fist. All of them pressed against Qin Lie affectionately and begged for food.

Qin Lie delved into his spatial ring and took out Heavenly Flame Crystals, spirit materials containing tremendous amounts of thunder and lightning energy, and the verdant branches Xie Jingxuan gave him. He threw them to the ground, and the three tiny beings joyfully pounced on them and feasted to their heart’s content.

At this exact moment, three people wrapped in lightning appeared in the distance, descending upon the Setting Sun Islands. This bolt of lightning fell upon a withered island, impacting it with a burst of electricity. It gouged a gigantic hole in the island that was several hundred square meters in area.

In the bottom of that scorched hole, Lei Yan, Chu Li, and a formidable Asura Race clansman stood up.

Oddly enough, the Asura Race clansman wore an expression of shock on his face.

“Eh!?” the Asura Race clansman exclaimed, clearly not blaming Lei Yan for his reckless descent. His eyes, which held cross-shaped pupils, sparkled with extraordinary light. “Spirits of Void and Chaos! Three fledgling spirits of Void and Chaos!”

The Asura Race clansman’s outburst left Chu Li utterly confused.

Lei Yan was initially just as stunned as Chu Li was. However, after processing the situation for a moment, he shuddered as realization washed over him.

“W-why are Spirits of Void and Chaos here!?” he exclaimed.