Domain Lord

"This isn't a knife, but this sword... it must be!" Xu Zhengyi's eyes lit up, and his tone became excited. "This must be an extremely powerful Soul Artifact. I can sense that it possesses the authority to grant multiple Martial Form!"

Upon hearing this, Si Ming revealed a thoughtful expression. "I'm starting to understand what Soul Artifact is. The Wheel-Turning King Sword was created less recently than the Moon God's Tear and the Crimson Scorpion Evil Saber, yet it's the only one that's Soul Artifact. If I had to find a difference, it's probably because it carries the wishes of countless monks from the Glazed Temple... By the way, are you willing to accept Martial Form? If I'm not mistaken, this Wheel Wheel-Turning King Sword should also contain Humanoid Martial Form."

"Uh, is that okay?" Xu Zhengyi asked with a look of surprise.

"Of course, Martial Form and the like are useless to us; keeping them is a waste."

Thank you so much!

Xu Zhengyi first bit his finger, then touched the sword with his bleeding finger while reciting an Anomalies Mnemonic.

The next moment, the Wheel King Sword bloomed with golden light, forming a "" seal, which hit Xu Zhengyi's eyebrows and turned into a red dot. Then Si Ming and others felt that Xu Zhengyi's aura was rapidly improving. If he was only at the third or fourth level of internal strength before, now he suddenly reached the eighth level of internal strength.

"I can feel it! A continuous stream of power is surging from within me... This is... the seventh-grade Martial Form, 'Arhat'!"

Xu Zhengyi clenched his fists, and a phantom image appeared behind him. It was a monk dressed in a black robe, with his chest exposed and his breasts exposed. He had a strong and muscular body, and his eyes seemed to hold great wisdom, as if he had seen through the world, purified his six senses, and destroyed all afflictions.

He Qichang sighed, "To obtain such great power so easily, if this were to happen on our side, we would probably be condemned as Evil Dao."

After a while, the phantom dissipated, and Xu Zhengyi's aura returned to normal. His injuries had miraculously healed, and his body seemed to have become even stronger than before.

"Thank you so much, I don't know what to say... You saved my life, and now you've bestowed Martial Form upon me. I will never forget your immense kindness!"

Xu Zhengyi appeared extremely excited, repeatedly thanking Si Ming. If he hadn't been stopped, he probably would have knelt down on the spot.

Of course, from Xu Zhengyi's perspective, it's not incomprehensible, because the Medal Knight Martial Form he risked everything to obtain was only the lowest-level ninth-rank Martial Form, while now he had actually obtained a much more powerful seventh- Martial Form. You can imagine how he felt.

He clenched his fists tightly. "Now I'm one step closer to getting revenge on that guy!"

Si Ming thought for a moment and said, "May I ask where your hatred comes from? Of course, if you don't want to tell me, that's fine too."

Xu Zhengyi hesitated for a moment, then said, "My benefactor is not from the Barbarian Continent, so it doesn't matter if he knows. My enemy is my brother-in-law. In order to gain power, he held a mysterious sacrificial ritual, sacrificing everyone in our village, including my sister..."

Xu Zhengyi paused, first with sadness, then with boundless rage. "This guy thus obtained a unique 'Realm Spirit Root' and an extremely powerful World Attribute Martial Form. He then used the Martial Form to stop the invasion of the Netherworld Insect Princess and sealed half of her power, earning him the title of 'Savior' from the world."

His enemy was seen as a savior by others. Despite being a demon who committed such heinous crimes as human sacrifice, he was praised by the entire Barbarian Continent. The bitterness in Xu Zhengyi's heart can be imagined.

Si Ming and Murong Qing glances, as if they saw Xia Guanxue's shadow in Xu Zhengyi.

Of course, the situation is still different. Si Ming does not believe that his master would do the same thing. Being willing and being forced are two different things.

"I still remember what happened that day vividly; the villagers' screams seem to echo in my ears... It's been exactly one hundred and eight days since then..."

"Wait! How many days did you say?" Si Ming and Murong Qing asked at the same time.

Xu Zhengyi was startled and repeated, "One hundred and eight days."

Seeing the shocked expressions on his two companions' faces, He Qichang couldn't help but ask, "Is there a problem with this number of days?"

Murong Qing voice, "One hundred and eight days ago was exactly the day the Remote Heaven Society severed the Four Heavenly Divine Pillars."

Chapter 516 Domain Lord

Despite the possibility of coincidence, Si Ming and Murong Qing did not believe that such a low-probability event would occur. They were more inclined to believe that there was some kind of connection between them, but they could not find more information for the time being. This was all Xu Zhengyi knew.

A person's vision and status are directly proportional. Although he regarded that "savior" as his lifelong enemy, he was just a commoner without even Martial Form and could not possibly obtain more useful information.

"Alright, remember this. Do you know where to find lots of bad people? They have to be the most heinous villains, preferably gathered together, forming an organization like the Valley of Villains."

Of all the space teleportation arrays Si Ming only knew about the Flesh and Blood Wormhole invented by the Monster Race. Although this thing required living people as sacrifices, which was obviously Evil Dao method, he didn't have a better way. He couldn't bring himself to use innocent people as sacrifices, but it didn't matter if he used villains instead, and he could even act as a righteous person.

Xu Zhengyi said, "There are many such organizations around here. Most of them engage in plundering, similar to bandits. After all, resources are very important here, and it's common for them to risk their lives for a little food and water."

Thinking of the desolate land outside and the cruel fact that more than 90% of the species had become extinct, as mentioned by Xu Zhengyi, Si Ming immediately realized that the other part of the Barbarian Continent was likely the background of the post-apocalyptic wasteland.

From this perspective, the sacrifice of the monks of Glazed Temple was undoubtedly worthwhile. Although the Black Tide did not bring about complete destruction as they had imagined, turning the land into a desolate wasteland would lead to many human tragedies, making life worse than death in a sense.

Just as Si Ming was about to ask Xu Zhengyi for directions, he heard the other say, "Although I don't know what our benefactor wants with these people, it would be best to eliminate the Domain Lord first, otherwise we will remain trapped in the Spirit Domain and unable to leave."

Si Ming rubbed his forehead and sighed, "Spirit Domain? Another new setting. Can't they just stick to the way the Barbarian Continent does with True Qi and Internal Cultivation?"

Murong Qing analyzed, "I think it's very likely that this land was eroded by the Black Tide you mentioned, which led to the destruction of the original civilization system and its transformation into another system that could adapt to the environment. On the other hand, the Barbarian Continent, because it was not eroded, retained its original civilization system. To be honest, I've always felt that the Barbarian Continent might also have been affected by the Eternal Barrier, just not as deeply as the Sea Continent."

Xu Zhengyi nodded repeatedly. "You're absolutely right. According to historical records, before the invasion of the Netherworld Insect Princess, the cultivation methods in our Barbarian Continent were completely different from what they are now. Although Martial Form and Soul Artifact existed before and were called Soul Art, they were always considered unorthodox and unorthodox methods. It wasn't until the apocalypse that all the original cultivation methods became ineffective, leaving only Martial Form and Soul Artifact to maintain their full effectiveness. As a result, people all switched to cultivating Soul Art."

Si Ming pondered, "Soul Art? Judging from the name, it should cultivate the Spirit Essence among essence, qi, and spirit. Generally speaking, refining essence into qi and refining qi into Spirit Transformation is the orthodox cultivation sequence. Only when the body becomes strong can it accommodate enough Primal Qi. Only when the Primal Qi is sufficient can a strong divine soul be nurtured. Conversely, if the divine soul is too powerful, it may become a burden on the body."

The Sea Continent martial arts system does not emphasize the cultivation of Spirit Essence because, in terms of priority, the body is the outermost layer and the soul is the innermost layer. Except for some special methods, under normal circumstances, to attack Spirit Essence, one must penetrate the two layers of defense of Jing Essence Qi Essence. In addition, under the nourishment of True Qi, Spirit Essence will naturally increase even without special cultivation of the soul.

He Qichang reminded them, "Don't forget they also have Martial Form. Judging from what just happened, once they obtain Martial Form, their Jing Essence Qi Essence will increase rapidly, thus keeping pace with the growth of their divine soul. This is similar to getting on the bus first and then buying a ticket. It does have some flaws, but it's not unreasonable."

Murong Qing chimed in, "A cultivation method that can be passed down for hundreds of years must have formed a complete system and wouldn't have any obvious flaws."

Si Ming, "Let's not get off topic. Let's talk about the Spirit Domain and the Domain Lord first."

Xu Zhengyi said, "Because Soul Artifact all harbor powerful spiritual wills, they are very likely to give birth to Artifact Spirit. Artifact Spirit cannot leave the Soul Artifact and are always imprisoned on it. If it is the kind of Artifact Spirit that likes quiet, it will pass the time by sleeping for a long time. This kind of Artifact Spirit will not create Spirit Domain. However, once the Artifact Spirit has the idea of wanting freedom or wants to go out and see the world, it will emit powerful spiritual power and change the surrounding environment. Over time, Spirit Domain will be formed."

Artifact Spirit can roam freely within the Spirit Domain. Once they gain control of the Soul Artifact, they can become the masters of the Spirit Domain, or domain lords. Domain lords possess a portion of the Spirit Domain's control. If they don't want the beings within the Spirit Domain to leave, those beings will be trapped inside. To forcibly leave, they must either defeat the domain lord or use a special treasure called the Realm-Breaking Stone.

"It sounds a bit like the Otherworld Domain of the Monster Race..."

As soon as he finished speaking, Si Ming realized that if objects came to life, wouldn't that be a kind of Anomalies? And if mental power could modify the surrounding environment, wouldn't that be distorting reality?

If one had to find a difference between the two, it would probably be that the Monster Race was born because reality was distorted, while the Artifact Spirit distorted reality after its birth and then became a domain lord.

"Weak Soul Artifact, lacking sufficient spiritual power, cannot form a stable Spirit Domain. Generally, they need to be at least rank six. Conversely, the existence of Spirit Domain means there is at least a rank six Soul Artifact. Therefore, many people specialize in obtaining Soul Artifact by eliminating domain lords. These people are called Soul Artifact hunters. There are also some people who dare not take the risk themselves, so after discovering Spirit Domain, they hire Soul Artifact hunters to eliminate the domain lord. I thought the priest who hired me had this in mind, but I didn't expect him to just treat us as expendable resources," Xu Zhengyi said bitterly.

"Fighting monsters and getting treasures, it sounds like playing a game dungeon."