txolops Chapter 708 Devouring! The remnant soul of a Nascent Soul at the Great Perfection of the Divine Tran
Chapter 708 Devouring! The remnant soul of a Nascent Soul at the Great Perfection of the Divine Tran
The moment Chen Fan stepped into the Land of Dead Souls, the surrounding light suddenly dimmed.
It wasn't the usual dimness, but a chilling, pitch-black darkness that could even devour one's consciousness.
The air was filled with a putrid smell that seeped into the very marrow of the body—not the stench of a corpse, nor the stench of rotting flesh.
Rather, it is an indescribable smell of despair formed by countless souls tormenting each other, tearing at each other, and finally merging together over endless years.
With each breath, the chill seeped into his meridians through his nasal cavity, drilling straight into his consciousness.
Scattered among the rubble and debris on the ground were large amounts of grayish-white powder, the remains of bones weathered over countless years. Occasionally, a few fragments of bones, not yet completely weathered, could be seen half-buried in the sand, covered with fine cracks, within which a faint, eerie green phosphorescence flickered.
The deeper you go, the more broken bones you find. From a few scattered pieces at first, they eventually cover the entire ground in dense clusters, making a crunching sound when you step on them, as if you were walking on a carpet made of bones.
The Black Soul Banner fluttered beside him, and the millions of souls on the banner simultaneously let out deafening howls upon sensing the dense soul power around them.
The howl wasn't filled with fear, but with hunger—a frantic desire that had been suppressed for too long and had finally caught sight of its prey.
Chen Fan could sense that the soul array inside the Black Soul Banner was operating on its own at an unprecedented speed, and the dark red blood light on the banner surface was getting thicker and thicker, dyeing the darkness within several feet around it with a strange scarlet color.
The first wave of remnant souls arrived extremely quickly.
Dozens of translucent gray figures suddenly emerged from the darkness ahead, their outlines still vaguely recognizable as they were in life!
There were cultivators wearing tattered armor, old men wrapped in ragged robes, and several who even looked like some kind of alien race that Chen Fan had never seen before, much taller than ordinary people, with heads shaped like inverted triangles.
Their faces were all blurred, with only two eerie green lights shining in their eye sockets, like dozens of hungry eyes in the darkness.
Upon sensing the presence of the living, these remnant souls simultaneously let out a silent howl. The sound was inaudible, yet it pierced the sea of consciousness like ice spikes, sending chills down one's spine.
They then swarmed forward, baring their teeth and claws as they pounced on Chen Fan.
Chen Fan did not draw his sword, but simply raised his hand and waved it. The blood-red light on the surface of the Black Soul Banner suddenly intensified, and a dark red vortex of soul power spread out from the banner, engulfing all the dozen or so remnant souls that rushed towards him.
Those remnant souls struggled wildly in the vortex, emitting piercing howls, but they only lasted for less than two breaths before being completely crushed by the soul array, turning into the purest soul power that was absorbed into the banner.
The blood-red light on the banner intensified after absorbing the dozen or so remnant souls, and the howls of the million souls grew even louder.
More remnant souls surged in from all directions.
Chen Fan used the Fixed Word Technique to lock onto the trajectory of each remnant soul. The Black Soul Banner in his hand transformed into a dark red ribbon, sweeping and swirling within a few feet around him. Each time the banner unfolded, it could devour dozens of remnant souls; each time the banner closed, it could completely refine those remnant souls.
The damaged soul array on the Black Soul Banner began to repair itself under the continuous nourishment of soul power, and the blood light on the banner surface became increasingly intense, gradually expanding from a few feet to more than ten feet.
These peripheral remnant souls are of low grade, mostly remnants of Nascent Soul stage souls, occasionally mixed with a few early-stage Deity Transformation stage souls.
Although they were numerous, they were powerless against the Black Soul Banner's natural restraint and could only be devoured and refined by the Black Soul Banner one by one.
Chen Fan didn't even need to deliberately control it; the Black Soul Banner's own thirst for soul power was enough to drive it to frantically devour these remnant souls, like a ferocious beast that had been starving for too long finally seeing its prey.
But as he went deeper, the quality of the remnant souls around him gradually increased.
The number of Nascent Soul Great Perfection, Early Deity Transformation Stage, and Middle Deity Transformation Stage has increased from the initial dozens to hundreds.
The Black Soul Banner began to slow down its devouring speed. Those remnant souls of higher rank were able to hold out in the vortex for a few more breaths, and some were even able to briefly break free from the vortex's restraints and attack Chen Fan from the flanks.
Chen Fan pulled out the eleventh.
A grayish-white sword light shone in the darkness, and a profound gray aura, the fusion of the three realms' intents, flowed across the sword. He didn't need to unleash a complete sword technique; he simply swung a few sword arcs around his body. Wherever the sword intent passed, those elusive remnant souls were silently severed in two, like butter cut by a red-hot blade.
Before the severed remnant soul could dissipate, it was swept into the vortex of soul power of the Black Soul Banner and refined along with other remnant souls.
With frequent stops and starts, Chen Fan had already ventured about three miles into this land of dead souls.
The number of remnant souls around finally began to decrease, but their quality increased. Remnant souls at the Nascent Soul stage were almost nowhere to be seen, replaced by remnant souls at the mid-stage and even late-stage of the Divine Transformation stage.
Their forms are more solidified, and their faces are still faintly discernible. Some even retain some of their memories and instincts from their previous lives. They no longer rush forward blindly, but begin to consciously cooperate in the encirclement.
But what truly made Chen Fan stop in his tracks were the three figures that slowly emerged in front of him.
They were more solid than other remnant souls, their semi-transparent bodies were almost tangible, and the soul power emanating from them was clearly at the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage.
The faces of the three people were clearly recognizable!
The man in the center is a middle-aged general wearing tattered armor, with a ghostly green flame burning in his left eye socket!
His right eye socket was empty, and a sword mark remained on half of his cheek, running diagonally from his forehead to his jaw. It was the last mark he left before he died.
On the left was an old woman with white hair, wearing a robe whose original color was no longer discernible. Her ten fingernails were several feet long, curved like hooks, and glowed with a ghostly green poisonous light.
On the right was a very burly man with a naked upper body covered with dense scars. He held a broken giant axe in his hands, with dried dark red bloodstains still remaining on the blade.
The three men's gazes simultaneously fell on Chen Fan. Their gazes were not filled with hunger or madness, but with a cold, murderous intent that had been accumulating for countless millennia.
Surprisingly, their consciousness still retained a portion of the clarity they had possessed in life!
The middle-aged general was the first to make a move.
He raised his hand and pressed down, and a surge of immense soul power transformed into a gigantic gray hand that blotted out the sky, slamming down on Chen Fan's head.
The giant hand was so solid that it was almost impossible to tell that it was formed from soul power. The palm lines were clearly visible, and there was a faint blood light flowing in the palm. Wherever it passed, the air was compressed and burst inch by inch.
The bone fragments on the ground were swept up by the palm wind and shattered into powder in mid-air.
Chen Fan parried with his eleven horizontal swords, while simultaneously forming a hand seal with his left hand, causing the Black Soul Banner to transform into a dark red blood light to meet the giant palm.
The moment the sword light collided with the giant palm, a piercing shriek erupted. The three realms of intent were fully activated on the sword, disintegrating the soul power structure within the giant palm inch by inch.
The Black Soul Banner wrapped around the giant hand from the side, and the millions of souls on the banner frantically tore at the soul power in the giant hand, like ants gnawing on a giant elephant.