Austin started cultivating the Soul-transforming Skill when he found it in the jade slip.
The spiritual sense chain which was transformed by his spiritual sense, entangled the souls that floated
around him and dragged them into his Soul Sea.
It seemed that the spiritual sense chain had something special about it. Once it caught souls, they lost
the strength to resist. Then, they could be pulled by the chain to anywhere it wanted to go. The souls
were tethered to the spiritual sense chain.
Austin was buzzing with excitement. He knew the effects of the Soul-transforming Skill filled him with a
spark he had never felt before. He couldn't believe that this skill could really transform the souls in the
spiritual sense.
Following the orders that came from Austin's mind, the chain dragged four more souls into his Soul
Sea, and the spiritual sense rushed over instantly to refine them.
As soon as the spiritual sense was done, the four souls disappeared leaving behind a few ephemeral
shining dots.
The souls naturally had no intention to vanish permanently from the world. However, they had no
choice. They could not resist the powerful force of the Spiritual Chain. Their tearful cries and pleadings
fell on deaf ears.
Within moments, they evaporated into colorful, shining dots of spiritual sense and were immediately
taken in by Austin's Soul Sea.
Then, the spiritual sense chain whipped, caught another four or five souls and pulled them into the Soul
Sea. The refinement continued... ... ...
As the souls transmuted continuously and quickly, Austin found the range of his spiritual sense
increasing.
1000 meters
1100 meters
1200 meters
1300 meters
... ...
After he had integrated several hundred souls, Austin's spiritual sense reached almost 1500 meters
away.
Looking around, Austin noticed that the space around him was empty. The souls that had previously
been there seemed to sense the horrible, unforgiving strength radiated by him. They didn't dare to
attack him. Instead, they resorted to moving as far away from him as possible.
Far away from Austin, these souls huddled together—pushing each other and rolling around. They
constantly looked at Austin, surprised at his strength and afraid to go near him.
"Ha ha. It's good," Austin boasted. 'The Soul-transforming Skill is so powerful that it will help me get out
of trouble while also strengthening my spiritual sense.
It seems that only souls are capable of making a substantial attack in this space. If I refine all of them,
I'll probably find a way out from here, ' Austin thought.
Violet stared at the souls that had gathered away from Austin and were staring at him with fear. She
amazed at the extraordinary strength of Soul-transforming Skill.
Austin had promptly informed Violet of the situation using his mind before he started cultivating the skill.
"All right. I will have to refine these souls first."
Austin, determined as ever, swiftly moved towards these souls and initiated to trap them. He was
extremely quick, and the souls did not have even a moment's time to notice him.
The more souls he absorbed, the faster he refined them. It became all too easy for him. In the
beginning, he could use the chain to drag only a handful of souls to his Sea Soul at a given time.
Gradually, he could pull more, sometimes even eight of them at a time. Finally, at the height of his
powers, he dragged a dozen souls at a time and began refining them.
The situation had drastically changed for the souls. Austin attacked them and they ran. Now being
pursued by Austin, these souls were fleeing. They were chaotically finding a way out pleading to Austin
to spare them. Their whines laced with fear and panic were loud, but Austin didn't pay heeds to them.
These desperate sounds lingered on, as the souls disappeared in numbers.
In this space, Austin moved from one place to another in the blink of an eye. He covered a
considerable distance in an instant. No matter how fast the souls tried to escape, Austin caught up with
them in a split second.
As he absorbed more souls, his spiritual sense kept strengthening.
1500 meters
1600 meters
1700 meters
... ...
After several hours, almost all the souls in the space had been refined by Austin. Only about a dozen
souls remained. They were hidden somewhere in the dark corners shivering with fear.
Now Austin's spiritual sense could reach 3000 meters away!
Finally, he exhaled with exhaustion and a sense of accomplishment.
Austin was satisfied with the power of the spiritual sense he now had.
Glimpsing at the remaining souls, he felt it would not make a substantial difference to his spiritual
sense if he absorbed them.
As most of the souls had disappeared, the space had become significantly weaker, as if it would fall
apart at any moment.
Austin had sensed the frail nature of the space. He also knew that he could break apart this space and
get out. He had ample time and he was powerful enough to have control.
Being clearly aware of that, Austin felt relieved. Meanwhile, he updated Violet on the developments that
had taken place.
It had been about ten hours since Austin and Violet were stuck in this space.
However, Austin didn't destroy this space right away. Instead, he sat down and crossed his legs.
Austin intended to make hay while the sun shone. If he seized the chance to upgrade his level and
collect more spiritual sense flying needles by the virtue of the great spiritual sense he had currently, he
would be more confident to defeat these souls the next time.
Before he started to cultivate, Austin reviewed the cultivation method of the second-level Spiritual
Sense Flying Needle several times in his mind first.
Then he mediated his breath and let it become balanced and rhythmic. He concentrated his mind to go
into the Soul Sea. Next, he began to fortify the spiritual sense flying needles according to the secret
technique book Spiritual Sense Flying Needle.
He first transformed a part of his spiritual sense into a spiritual sense hammer.
Then he extracted another part of the spiritual sense and began hammering it.
"Ding ding ding..."
It sounded like two metals colliding with each other, the noise echoing in his Soul Sea.
Two hours later, a white shining flying needle appeared in his Soul Sea.
Austin was excited about that he could create a flying needle in such a short time!
He remembered that it took him a whole day long to create his first flying needle.
But now with his increased spiritual sense, he could make one within two hours.
After the spiritual sense was shaped into a flying needle, the next step was to steer it so as to make it
fly away from his Soul Sea. This process should have been simple to him because he had used the
spiritual sense flying needles multiple times.
However, it was not as easy as he had assumed. The second level of Spiritual Sense Flying Needle
required him to control more than one needle to fly out of his Soul Sea at a time. On the other hand, he
also needed to control them to move into the outside space. In the first level, he just needed to control
one needle.
Fortunately, Austin's spiritual sense was multiple times stronger than before. He would have no
obstacles in his path this time.
After practicing a little, Austin was proficient in controlling the spiritual sense flying needles. He
controlled two needles to fly quickly in the space around him.
Then he started to hammer more spiritual sense flying needles. A third flying needle appeared. Then a
fourth, then a fifth... He carried on.
After ten hours, five needles were flying in the space under Austin's spiritual control. Gradually and with
enough practice, he could control the speed and direction of these flying needles at will. They were
entirely under his command.
Now that Austin had achieved the second level of Spiritual Sense Flying Needle while also creating five
flying needles in his Soul Sea, Austin was pleased with himself.
... ... ...
At the same time, inside a cave at the center of Ghost Valley...
Four cultivators of Ghost Sect walked in and sat down separately. Each of them sat on one of the sides
of a square, representing the four directions—east, west, north and south.
"It is time to refine the Ghost-devouring Flag," one said thoughtfully. "But before we start, we have to
take out the storing resources from the flag.
If that guy's body disintegrates into nothingness such that only his blood remained, those vital energy
crystals and rare ores will strew around in the space, and all will be for vain.
I'm afraid that they would be eroded by the impure air if we keep them in the Ghost-devouring Flag too
long. It might cause the spiritual energy that flows in them to drain. We definitely do not want that."
One of them said while the other cultivators nodded in agreement.
Then the one who had just spoken waved his hand. A flash of light appeared and then suddenly in the
empty floor between them lay the Ghost-devouring Flag.
Then he opened his palm to give a magical command. A yellow light originated on his palm and shot
into the Ghost-devouring Flag.
Nothing had changed!
What was wrong?
Usually, the souls would carry the constituent things out of the space when the command went into the
Ghost-devouring Flag.
But this time, it didn't work. All the four cultivators frowned in unison.
"Altar Owner, it seems that you are having an off day. What's the matter?"
A cultivator asked.
Altar Owner was the cultivator who had given the orders. He too had a weird feeling about
this.
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