One year later.
Chen Lin sat upright in his cave abode, his entire body radiating strange fluctuations of energy.
Before long, a phantom image emerged before him. Black, gold, and purple intertwined, lending it an extraordinarily mysterious air.
The phantom image looked around, smiled faintly at the seated body, and slipped inside.
Chen Lin immediately opened his eyes, undisguised excitement spreading across his face.
He had never imagined that refining a Source Soul Bead smaller than a bean would take an entire year!
The energy it contained was even more terrifying. It had brought his purple soul directly to a level where it could stand on equal footing with his original golden soul and ink soul.
Chen Lin exhaled a breath of stale air, stretched his somewhat stiff body, and sank into thought.
His soul was now a riot of colors, utterly unique. He had never heard of anyone possessing a three-colored soul and had no idea whether this was good or bad.
Still, the increase in his soul's strength was gratifying. It had already reached the peak of the third rank.
At this stage, he had condensed it to the point where it could advance no further. To improve it again, he would have to break through his current bottleneck and enter the next stage.
Originally, he had believed the next stage would be the "true soul" state, but as he learned more, he had grown less certain.
According to the ancient texts, a true soul was something only a True Immortal could possess. Even Pseudo-Immortals apparently could not achieve it.
In other words, raising one's soul to the true soul level was equivalent to ascending to the True Immortal realm. Clearly, reaching such heights was impossible for him.
Perhaps there was a fifth rank above the fourth, and