Spirit Realm

Chapter 1538: Soul Shell

Inside the fourth layer of the Soul Suppressing Orb, the six Spirits of Void and Chaos were lying quietly in hibernation. It had been a long time since they had last come out to feed.

Many translucent bubbles filled the inside of this space. Every bubble looked like an independent realm that contained a mysterious ancient spirit diagram.

Qin Lie’s soul consciousness took on the shape of a shadow as he appeared inside this space slowly.

Malcolm and Latiff’s souls had been refined into two soul orbs. Right now, they were floating inside this space like two gray stars. They were completely still.

On the other hand, the Curse Progenitor’s soul clearly had thought and consciousness even though it was also gray dark in color.

Bits of soul tendrils was flying out of the ball of light that was the Curse Progenitor’s soul before disappearing into nothing.

The Curse Progenitor was losing soul energy at a rapid pace.

Qin Lie’s soul shadow stared at the Curse Progenitor’s soul. Soon, he discovered that all that was left inside the ball of light was pure memories.

Even the Curse Progenitor’s consciousness seemed to be fading into the space around it as his soul energy grew weaker and weaker.

An idea entered Qin Lie’s mind, and he sent a soul beam into the Curse Progenitor’s soul.

In an instant, countless memories surged towards Qin Lie’s in the form of images.

It was as if his soul was swimming inside the Curse Progenitor’s memories and experiencing everything the Curse Progenitor had experienced…

He saw the Curse Progenitor crouching beneath an ancient tree and studying the patterns of a tree leaf since young. The study would last an entire day.

Sometimes, the Curse Progenitor would draw the patterns of the tree leaves on the ground using a turtle’s shell.

The Curse Progenitor studied the patterns on his palm and carved them carefully inside a book.

The Curse Progenitor loved every pattern of nature since young, and he could often watch them for days and know not a moment’s rest.

One day, the Curse Progenitor obtained an ancient-looking turtle shell and drew its patterns onto his own arm, he suddenly discovered that the mysterious patterns was drawing spirit energy from the world and into his body.

Since then, he had learned how to cultivate and opened a whole new chapter in his life.

The images appeared clearly inside Qin Lie’s head as he surfed through the memories.

The Curse Progenitor was able to master the truth of power and secret curses thanks to this natural pattern. From that point onward, he had embarked on the journey of cultivation.

All of his memories—his arduous journey to become the Curse Progenitor, his experience of becoming one of the Five Progenitors of the human race alongside the Blood Progenitor, the Voodoo Progenitor, and the Corpse Progenitor, his cooperation with the Soul Progenitor to seal the abyss channel at the bottom of the sea of the Land of Chaos—were open to Qin Lie.

Qin Lie felt like he was living the Curse Progenitor’s whole life.

The memories finally stopped at Sky Bearing City.

“Swoosh!”

Qin Lie withdrew the soul thread that was connected to the Curse Progenitor’s soul while feeling surprised.

After reading through all of the Curse Progenitor’s memories, he knew that the Curse Progenitor had purposely led the Thunder Emperor to the Dark Shadow World to trap him there.

However, he couldn’t find any memory that was related to Great Sage Tian Qi of the Spirit Race!

It was almost as if the Curse Progenitor had never known or interacted with Great Sage Tian Qi at all. 

However, the Curse Progenitor himself had revealed that he shared a close relationship with Great Sage Tian Qi. It was why he had decided to abandon the human race in the first place.

“Amazing, he could wipe out all the memories regarding him from the Curse Progenitor’s soul…”

Qin Lie spent some time to ruminate things and slowly came to a conclusion. He knew that Great Sage Tian Qi must’ve used some sort of method he couldn’t fathom to wipe out part of the Curse Progenitor’s memories at an unknown point of time.

The fact that there was not a single record relating to Great Sage Tian Qi in the Curse Progenitor’s memories proved that the former must have been the culprit behind the memory wipe.

After roaming inside the Curse Progenitor’s memories for a moment, he looked at the ball of dark light that was the Curse Progenitor once more.

The only thing left inside the ball of light was the Curse Progenitor’s memories. Even his consciousness and willpower were slowly but surely being refined by the Soul Suppressing Orb.

Qin Lie had a feeling that he could wipe out the Curse Progenitor completely if he was willing to put in a bit of effort.

That way, the Curse Progenitor would be completely dead. Not a single bit of him would be left in this world.

He hesitated for a moment.

“If Great Sage Tian Qi can wipe out part of your soul memories, then he could’ve done something else to your soul as well. Even if I were to find a successor for you, there is still a chance that that successor might become compromised because he inherited your powers. Therefore… the only thing I can do is to eliminate your soul entirely.”

He had made up his mind.

“Bang!”

The Curse Progenitor final imprints of memories exploded inside the Soul Suppressing Orb and vanished into nothing.

From this day onward, the Curse Progenitor was completely dead. Great Sage Tian Qi wouldn’t be able to manipulate him any longer even if he still had the Curse Progenitor’s body.

Qin Lie switched his attention onto Malcolm and Latiff.

The two Soul Race princes’ souls were still floating inside the fourth space of the Soul Suppressing Orb like two darkened stars.

Wisps of soul light were escaping the soul orbs and became absorbed by the Soul Suppressing Orb.

When Qin Lie tried to invade their souls, he discovered that he was blocked by something. Then, he noticed a strange “shell” outside Malcolm and Latiff’s souls…

The gray brown–colored shell was covered in mysterious Soul Race patterns. It completely surrounded Malcolm and Latiff’s soul origins.

This meant that Malcolm and Latiff’s soul energies were absorbed by the Soul Suppressing Orb, but the consciousness, thought and memories that formed the core of their soul origin were completely unaffected.

Right now, Malcolm and Latiff’s souls were like two walnuts. Their thoughts, consciousness and memories sat at the center while a tough shell shielded them from any outside forces.

Thanks to this “shell”, Qin Lie was unable to invade into their souls. Not even the Soul Suppressing Orb had the power to refine and kill them completely.

Qin Lie had refined the Dark Soul Beast and Blood Soul Beast before. He knew that Cadak and Meio were Soul Race clansmen as well.

However, he had not seen that resembled a “shell” inside their souls.

He started sifting through the Soul Beast’s memories for an answer…

A while later, he discovered the truth of the shell from the Soul Progenitor’s fragmented memories.

Malcolm and Latiff were descended from the Imperial Soul Monarch’s soulline. They were different from other Soul Race clansmen.

As the descendants of the Imperial Soul Monarch, they were granted this “shell” since the moment their soul was fully formed. It was the protection the Imperial Soul Monarch had afforded them.

The “shell” protected their soul origin and made them very hard to kill permanently.

While sifting through the Soul Progenitor’s fragmented memories, he also learned that there was only a handful of people or objects that could destroy the soul shell the Imperial Soul Monarch had left inside his descendants’ souls.

The reason the Soul Progenitor, also a descendant of the Imperial Soul Monarch had lost his soul shell was because he had discarded it of his own accord to merge with the ancestor of the Qin Family, Qin Tian.

However, he had failed to wipe out Qin Tian’s consciousness or soul thought completely.

In fact, he had even suffered a rebound because of his failure. In the end, something happened and Qin Tian eventually took him over instead.

“I may not be able to break open their shell, but their soul energy has been completely drained, and they are stuck inside the Soul Suppressing Orb. They shouldn’t be able to cause trouble any longer.”

After hesitating for a moment and discovering that he had no way to end Malcolm and Latiff’s life permanently, Qin Lie had no choice but to leave them in anger and disappointment.

He wondered if the Soul Suppressing Orb could grow powerful enough to break apart that soul shell if it was able to absorb more soul energy.

His soul consciousness returned back to his body.

Qin Lie walked out of the dark hall, and the Ice Emperor, the Flame Emperor, and Qin Lie’s grandfather, Qin Shan, walked up to him immediately after sensing his presence.

“How is the Thunder Emperor?” the Flame Emperor asked urgently.

“The Curse Progenitor had set him up.” Qin Lie let out a sigh before replying, “He was led to the Dark Shadow World.”

The Flame Emperor and the Ice Emperor’s expressions changed immediately.

For thousands of millennia, the legend of the “Dark Shadow World” had been told in Spirit Realm. Countless peak experts who thought themselves to be invincible had tried to explore the ultimate world there was to explore, the “Dark Shadow World”.

However, none of these experts had ever returned from their journey.

In the history of the entire Spirit Realm, there was only one person who had ever went in and out of the “Dark Shadow World” alive—Qin Hao.

“Where is Qin Hao? How long will it take him to return to Sky Bearing City?” the Ice Emperor asked immediately.

“That’s right! Qin Hao has gone to the Dark Shadow World before. He may be able to help the Thunder Emperor!” the Flame Emperor said spiritedly.

But Qin Shan gave them a bitter smile and said, “He won’t be making a return anytime soon.”

“Why’s that?” The Ice Emperor frowned.

Qin Shan answered, “He’s probably refining Despair Devil King’s heart right now.”

“What?” The Flame Emperor was shocked. “He actually killed the Despair Devil King?”

The Ice Emperor’s expression changed a little too. “What about the Terror Devil King then?”

“I’m not sure. I think he had concealed himself after escaping from Qin Hao.” Qin Shan was clearly surprised by this news himself. “Not even I know where Qin Hao is right now. The last news I got from him was that he will be taking some time to refine Despair Devil King’s heart.”