The Yan World.
After returning to the Flame Clan, Huo Xuan handed over the spoils of his trip: the Pill Beast, the Great Heaven Creation Palm, and the Dou Sheng Skeleton.
The elders took the Pill Beast away to be properly nurtured, the Great Heaven Creation Palm was put into the Battle Technique Pavilion, and Huo Xuan didn't bother to take stock of the miscellaneous items, so he simply handed them all over as well.
Huo Xuan's actions had a bit of an "honesty and integrity" feel to them, but what Huo Xuan didn't expect was that his unintentional act would greatly improve his image among the younger generation of geniuses in the Flame Clan.
He single-handedly obtained a large number of treasures in the Ancient Ruins, but instead of keeping them for himself, he handed them all over to the authorities.
After discussion among the elders, it was decided to distribute the treasures to some of the clan's geniuses. Naturally, they also received a considerable amount of good stuff, which made them think even more highly of Huo Xuan.
However, Huo Xuan did not hand over all of his spoils from this trip. He kept the souls he had taken from Old Ghost Zhai Xing and others, as well as the souls he had hunted himself.
Huo Xuan wouldn't seize these souls for no reason. His reason for forcibly taking these souls was that he wanted to use them to cultivate and improve his soul realm.
His current soul realm is still at the Early Heaven Realm, and there is still a considerable gap between him and the middle stage of the Heavenly Realm.
After resting for several days, Huo Xuan planned to refine and absorb those souls.
A secluded place.
Huo Xuan sat cross-legged on the stone bed. Without the slightest hesitation, he reached into his Storage Ring and took out dozens of jade bottles. These jade bottles contained the soul bodies he had hunted and obtained in the Ancient Ruins.
Looking at the jade bottles in his hand, Huo Xuan casually threw them a short distance away. The jade bottles exploded on the ground, and a pale white mist spread out.
The pale white mist transformed into individual soul entities, Tang Zhen, Wind Venerable, Thunder Venerable, and many other Dou Zong whose names were unknown. Upon seeing Huo Xuan, these soul entities were initially taken aback, but soon they all rushed towards Huo Xuan without prior arrangement.
"You brat! You caused our deaths, we'll make you pay!"
"I'm going to kill you!"
"Kill this brat!"
Seeing this, Huo Xuan released all the powerful Soul Power he possessed from his Heaven Realm Soul. Under the suppression of his Heaven Realm Soul, all the soul bodies were unable to move.
After suppressing these souls, Huo Xuan formed a strange hand seal, slowly calmed his mind, and continuously chanted incantations...
That was the Hun Clan technique I obtained by chance last time, the Soul Refining Art, which could elevate one's soul realm!
He had obtained the Soul Refining Art six or seven years ago. During this time, although he had thoroughly studied it and even used it as a basis to develop the Soul Refining Grand Array with Yao Tian, he had never actually practiced the Soul Refining Art.
Because this can be considered an evil technique, its cultivation is truly contrary to human nature. While the Soul Refining Art can indeed rapidly improve one's soul realm in a short period of time, the price is slaughter! It requires the mass killing of living beings!
Huo Xuan has killed many people over the years. He doesn't consider himself a good person, but he doesn't think of himself as a ruthless killer.
He can guarantee that he has never killed any innocent people over the years; he has only killed those who posed a threat to him and deserved to die.
Huo Xuan is not a serial killer. He would never actually massacre people across the entire continent, taking away hundreds or thousands of lives with a wave of his hand. Huo Xuan is incapable of such a thing. Moreover, their meager Soul Power is like mosquito meat; absorbing it would probably be of little use.
When Huo Xuan met the Old Ghost Zhai Xing, he conceived the idea of seizing the souls that the old ghost had collected over the years. Huo Xuan believed that with these souls, his soul realm would definitely rise to another level.
A series of indistinct incantations slowly echoed within the silent Stone Chamber. Accompanying these eerie chants, the souls of Tang Zhen, Wind Venerable, Thunder Venerable, and the others suddenly rippled strangely. Vast Soul Power were drawn from their bodies and ultimately absorbed by Huo Xuan...
As Huo Xuan continuously absorbed the Soul Power, the soul body, having lost a significant amount of Soul Power, slowly began to fade. Its already transparent body became even more transparent...
There is another way to describe the Soul Power; it can also be called the Soul Origin.
The soul is the foundation of all living beings. All things in heaven and earth possess a soul, and deep within the soul lies a Soul Origin of its original essence. This is the fundamental reason for the birth of the soul, and it can also be said to be the purest and most unique energy in the world.
This Soul Origin is the lifeblood of the soul. If the origin is damaged, it will cause great harm to the soul. If the Soul Origin is completely extracted, the soul will also disappear into nothingness.
As time passed, the Soul Origin of all the souls was completely drained. At this moment, all the souls transformed into tiny white specks of light, drifting away in the air...
The pure Soul Origin flowed continuously into Huo Xuan's soul. With the infusion of the Soul Origin, Huo Xuan felt that his soul realm had taken a small step closer to the mid-stage of the Heavenly Realm.
"Call..."
Slowly exhaling a breath of stale air, Huo Xuan suddenly opened his tightly closed eyes, staring at the tiny white specks of light floating in the air, his expression unchanged, without a trace of pity for them.
After dealing with the souls he had hunted, Huo Xuan took out a gray-white ball of light about half a zhang in size. The ball of light floated in front of Huo Xuan, emitting a soft and pure glow. An extremely terrifying soul fluctuation slowly emanated from the ball of light.
This was precisely the condensed soul light cluster formed from the souls painstakingly collected over many years by Old Ghost Zhai Xing and his companions. Judging from the strength of the Soul Origin contained within, it was composed of at least tens of thousands of souls...
Huo Xuan stared at the ball of soul light, exhaled softly, and then waved his hand, causing the blazing Strange Fire to condense into a magnificent and colorful fire cauldron in front of him.
With a glance at the ball of soul light, Huo Xuan casually tossed it into the fire cauldron. As soon as it entered the cauldron, the raging flames immediately enveloped the ball of soul light. Although these Soul Origin looked quite pure, it was always better to be cautious.
Under the scorching heat of the raging flames, the high temperature gradually penetrated into the soul light cluster. Accompanied by the terrifying heat, the soul light cluster also began to boil slightly. Faintly, wisps of extremely faint black gas rose from it, then turned into nothingness and disappeared.
Upon seeing the black mist, Huo Xuan frowned slightly. Then, with a flick of his sleeve, the flames within the cauldron surged once more, refining all the black mist hidden within the ball of light. As the black mist dissipated, the originally grayish-white soul light ball lost its gray hue, becoming increasingly transparent and crystalline, appearing almost ethereal...
This refining process continued for about half an hour. After confirming that there were no problems, Huo Xuan slowly dissipated the flames, and the fire cauldron vanished, leaving only a transparent and illusory ball of soul light, like crystal.
Within the transparent and illusory ball of soul light, streams of incredibly pure and vast Soul Power surged. Gazing at the crystal-like ball of soul light floating before him, Huo Xuan reached out and summoned it into his hand.
"I wonder, after absorbing these Soul Origin this time, to what extent will my soul realm be improved?"
Huo Xuan slowly closed his eyes, and as his eyes closed, a powerful suction force surged out from within his body...
As soon as this powerful suction appeared, the soul light cluster trembled slightly. Then, an exceptionally pure Soul Origin spread out, surging into Huo Xuan's body and finally continuously merging into his soul...
With the continuous influx of these Soul Origin, Huo Xuan's soul realm began to advance by leaps and bounds. The vast and incomparable Soul Power directly helped Huo Xuan's soul break through the bottleneck between the Early Heaven Realm.
As time passed, the soul aura emanating from Huo Xuan's body gradually increased. Vast Soul Power, like surging waves in the ocean, spread outward from Huo Xuan's body, creating a faint rushing sound.
"Click..."
With a crisp sound, Huo Xuan slowly opened her eyes. Then, the powerful soul fluctuations formed by her vast Soul Power began to gradually weaken and finally dissipate...
"Late stage of the Heavenly Realm!"
Huo Xuan slowly stood up, a look of joy in his eyes. Absorbing these Soul Origin had actually raised his soul realm to the late stage of the Heavenly Realm!