The more powerful the martial spirit, the harder it would be to make progress. But, once one made it through, the power increase would be more obvious as well. Although there was only one rank difference between rank 5 and 6, the power would be couple times stronger, while the gap between rank 6 and 7 would be even bigger than the difference before. If rank 5 martial spirit was a king warrior's martial spirit, then rank 7 would be emperor level martial spirit. Anyone with it could kill a Sea of Souls Realm master level warrior with one stare, and it was the gap between their power which would be impossible to ignore.
The being in the underground crack also had rank 7 peak level demon spirit, but the demon will projection he sent out only possessed rank 5 ones. Even the main Demonic will only had a rank 6 demon spirit, so it would be impossible for them to fight against a rank 7 spirit. Therefore, all of them had been shattered with that one 'he!'.
Meanwhile, the underground being made a deep voice; even though losing one Demonic will would be nothing for it, and losing ten at once would be okay as well, losing hundreds of them along with a main one would be a serious problem. Although the loss of his Demonic will did not make an impact on his demon spirit, because his side effects would appear directly on his soul, his soul that had finally recovered to peak condition had been wounded to the core. Without effective recovering medicines, it would take him at least decades to recover.
"Damn! How could I not think it over before? King warriors that had reached rank 6 could leave a mental will projection in someone else's soul ocean, which would not appear normally, but at the life and death critical moments. It was me underestimating the little brat...all my fault! Damn it!"
The being mumbled to himself, his voiced lowered and full of regret.
"Having wounded my soul, how can I let you leave now? Even if I have to risk more damage to my soul, I will get your body!"
Woo! Woo!
The aggressive evil wind roared as dozens of blurry human shadows appeared from the deeper parts of the underground. The leading one were two main Demonic will projections. Because of the fact that the being was not that far from the lake, the distance between the two parties were decreasing drastically.
With Dragon King's mental will protecting him, Ye Chen had got the chance to swallow a pellet to recover his yuan qi. With enough yuan qi in his body, Ye Chen used his undying martial art immediately. As he did so, his heavily wounded body started to recover at an obvious speed. After a few blinks, the wounds on his body disappeared completely, and his soul started to regain its power as well. He could feel his mind coming back in control.
"Such a powerful explosion!"
Letting out a breath slowly and deeply, Ye Chen was still afraid for what had happened.
Those were Sea of Souls Realm warriors that had exploded. The Sea of Souls Realm Zhen yuan was extremely powerful, as they would have already formed a Zhen yuan ocean in their dantian. Therefore, at a close range, the explosion would definitely be able to wound any Sea of Souls Realm master level warrior. Luckily, there was still a hundred meters of distance between Ye Chen and the explosion. Therefore, even though their exploding power had been combined together, its effective power was actually equal to just one Sea of Souls Realm warrior exploding.
"Ye Chen, this mental will projection can only last fifteen minutes. After that period of time, it will disappear completely." Dragon King's projection said to Ye Chen.
Ye Chen asked, "Senor Dragon King, are you actually talking to me?"
The latter did not answer.
"It turns out to be a sentence he had left with me when he left me the mental power." Seeing that the Dragon King did not answer, Ye Chen knew that it was not really connected to the Dragon King which could have allowed him to actually talk to him.
"I will find the Shadowless Plant first."
His body flashed as he flew deeper into the crack. He needed to find the plant within fifteen minutes. If he did not, then he would have to give up and leave immediately. Compared to his life, one Shadowless Plant would not be worth it at all.
Plenty of blurry human shadow ran into Ye Chen, but they did not throw out any attacks. They seemed to be afraid of Dragon King's will power. They were waiting for it to disappear, since all powers had their limitations, and it would be impossible for it to last forever.
"Not here!"
"None here as well!"
"Where is this Shadowless Plant?"
Ye Chen was a bit stressed. It had been halfway through those fifteen minutes. If he could not find it sooner, then he would have to give up.
"Hm? The extreme Yin qi was very heavy in the other regions, so why is it so light here? It seems quite neutral here."
Arriving at a rather crowded cave, Ye Chen could feel a hint of difference.
'Shadowless Plants can grow in heavy Extreme Yin qi, and the power it contains would be rather neutral, not that easy to sense. It can be used for cultivating medicines and make the medical effects shadowless, shapeless, colorless, and odorless. It is one of the top rank spirit plants, and is priceless.'
Information about the Shadowless Plant flashed past Ye Chen's mind.
"Perhaps there is Shadowless Plant in this area."
Letting out a mouthful of impure qi, he pushed his soul power and started to search inch by inch.
After a long while, he realized that the corner on the left of the cave seemed to have no Yin qi at all. The neutral qi spread out in a circular shape. It would mean that the center of the source would be where the Shadowless Plant was.
Shoo!
He flew over and bent his body to search.
Swoosh!
All of a sudden, his palm felt a couple of leaves. They shook and made a tiny noise, but he could still see nothing with his eyes.
"Shadowless Plant!"
His eyes brightened as his right hand formed into a blade. He plunged I right into the ground and pulled his hand along with the mud in the ground up.
"Now, I can finally leave!"
Although he could not see the Shadowless Plant, he was sure that it was right in his hands. Without other thoughts, he put all of it into his storage ring before turning around to get back where he had come from. His speed had been pushed to its limit.
Back at the lake, he did not decrease his speed and continued flying.
"You want to leave?"
The being could sense the change through his Demonic will, so it made a cold sneer before pushing all of his Demonic will through the rocks and blocked right in front of Ye Chen.
"Demonic will drill!"
Four blurry human shadows had been combined together and turned into a shapeless drill that suddenly started to pierce into Ye Chen's protective layer.
"He!"
The Dragon King's shadow yelled once as he reached out his hand to block out the Demonic will drill.
"I will see how many of these you can block out!"
More Demonic will drills appeared from different directions, attacking toward Ye Chen vehemently.
The Dragon King's will power projection had shattered hundreds of Demonic wills and one main demon will, and then it went back to normal defensive power. Dragon king had said it before as he put in the will power projection that it could only be triggered by attacks, so it did not have any attacking power. Ye Chen did not know why it actually attacked those demon wills before; he thought that perhaps it was because they were trying to get his body, which had alerted Dragon King's will power and made it fight back.
As it blocked out two Demonic will drills with both of his hands, the remaining ones landed onto the Dragon King's body, bringing up circles of patterns on it.
The Dragon King's shadow dimmed down a bit, but it still did not let the Demonic will drills break through the defensive line.
"Damn! If it still does not succeed this time, then it would be a total waste of energy!"
The being underground had made a decision as he fused another dozen of human shadows, forming into a huge, sharp Demonic will drill. It made an air-slicing sound before landing onto the Dragon King's projection.
Crack!
With that, a crack appeared on the projection. Since it was only a rank 7 mental power, it could not last forever as well.
Seeing that only one attack had not sufficed, the remaining normal Demonic wills had been fused together, forming another huge demonic drill that landed onto the shadow again, making the projection full of cracks like a crystal ball that was about to break at any second.
"Not good!"
Ye Chen's eyes squeezed together as he could sense the incoming danger.
Shoo!
At that moment, layers of sword light appeared in front of his body as he gave up on the planned route to shoot out for the top of the crack. It was only dozens of miles away from the surface. Even if he had to travel in-between the rocks, it would only take him dozens of breaths worth of time.
His body was like a beam of sword light as he traveled between the rocks. Even if he encountered a metal rock, he would drill through easily while bringing up a huge amount of sparks.
"You still want to run, huh?"
All of the normal Demonic wills had disappeared, with only two main Demonic will bodies remaining. They ignored the blockage of those rocks while traveling at an extreme speed, which was dozens of times faster than Ye Chen. Hence, they appeared in front of Ye Chen within a fraction of a second.
"Break!"
One of the main Demonic wills turned into a Demonic will drill which shattered Dragon King's mental will projection immediately, pushing it to crawl back into Ye Chens' soul ocean.
"Piss off!"
Ye Chen took out his Thunder Disaster sword the second it happened, carrying the slaughter and destruction sword intent. Although it could not increase his sword intent's power, with the sword in his hand, he could feel his sword intent become denser and sharper.
Swoosh!
Going through one of the Demonic wills, Ye Chen followed behind swiftly.
"It is all useless."
The last Demonic will was quite powerful, reaching peak level rank 6. Although Ye Chen's slaughter and destruction sword intents could cancel out Demonic wills, but in the condition where the rank difference was too huge, the effect would be almost negligible. So, this main Demonic will body followed right behind Ye Chen, trying to devour his body again.
He could feel his soul ocean starting to scramble, about to be controlled again. The whole process of having one's body being stolen would be extremely horrifying. Once it started happening, the person being processed would feel that his or her hands and feet were losing control, and all he or she could do was watch it happen slowly. Once it was done, the person's body would no longer belong to the person anymore. Their soul would be taken and turned into someone else's, and the memories would be owned by someone else as well. Ye Chen could not imagine why that Shadowless Demon was different from the news he got from the pavilion. Even the most normal one was extremely powerful.
"Haha! Once I get this vessel, I can slowly repair what I had lost before. Perhaps this vessel could even reach the Life and Death Realm one day and become a rare sword king. With that, added with my special power, no one would be my opponent in the future."
The being underground was happy.
The main Demonic will body was almost all the way into Ye Chen's body. The powerful mental power started to wipe off Ye Chen's intelligence and his special soul marks.
It was right then when Ye Chen's slaughter sword spirit started to vibrate madly. At the same time, the second sword spirit started to vibrate as well, as if they had both sensed the danger. Meanwhile, the destruction element poured out, infusing itself into the second sword spirit.
Woo!
The second sword spirit's color was changing into black, even dyeing the tip of the sword. Next, a wave of the completed destruction sword intent exploded, combining with the slaughter sword intent and attacking the invader.
"What! No!"
A cry came from the deep end of the underground space.