All that remained was a gloomy mass of dark clouds that never dispersed.
Look closely, and you would realize they weren't clouds at all!
They were tens of thousands upon tens of thousands of wronged souls, circling through the sky, wailing and tearing at one another!
Gathered together, they formed a sea of souls that blotted out the sky and sun, shrouding the entire canyon in an atmosphere of despairing gloom.
That bone-chilling cold struck straight at the soul. Even through the Sky Screen, it made the viewers across Douluo Continent shiver from the depths of their hearts.
At Shrek Academy, several auxiliary-type students with weaker mental strength felt needle-like pains stabbing through their heads. They clutched their heads, crouched on the ground, and began retching.
Just then.
From deep within the enormous White Bone Canyon came a sudden, deafening snort of derision.
The voice seemed to come from the depths of the Nine Hells, carrying an oppressive force that made one's soul tremble.
"Who dares trespass on the territory of my Soul Refining Sect?"
As the voice rang out,
the cloud of countless wronged souls in the sky suddenly churned.
A gigantic face, pieced together from tens of thousands of anguished faces, slowly took shape in the clouds.
The giant face lowered its gaze. Two icy stares, solid as matter, pierced through layer upon layer of poisonous miasma and fixed on Liu Mei and Gui Mei, standing at the edge of the canyon.
That suffocating pressure came crashing through the screen, thudding heavily against the hearts of everyone on Douluo Continent.
This was the terrifying sect that possessed the Billion Soul Banner!
The gigantic face, pieced together from countless wronged souls, blocked out all the light above the canyon.
As its two icy gazes fell, the surrounding poisonous miasma scattered in every direction as if it had met its natural enemy, clearing a vast stretch of open ground.
Liu Mei stood where she was, her red dress billowing behind her in the sinister wind.
Her pretty, fair face showed little fear.
She had known all along that the Soul Refining Sect was not to be trifled with. She had come this time to carry out her master's orders.
Liu Mei took a small step forward, folded her hands before her chest, and bowed slightly to the enormous face in midair, giving the courtesy due to an elder.
"This junior is Liu Mei. By my master Vermilion Bird Master's command, I have come especially to present a gift to the seniors of the Soul Refining Sect."
Her voice was clear and sweet, sounding especially out of place amid the howling winds outside White Bone Canyon.
"Vermilion Bird Master?"
The giant face of wronged souls opened its mouth and let out a harsh, grating laugh.
The sound was like two rusty sheets of metal scraping against each other, making one's scalp crawl.
"That old fox doesn't dare set foot in our Soul Refining Sect, so he sends a little girl like you to test the waters?"
The giant face's expression suddenly turned vicious.
"Our Soul Refining Sect doesn't accept gifts from the living. We only take the souls of the dead!"
As soon as the words fell, the sea of souls in the sky churned like a storm cloud.
A huge hand, formed entirely of black mist, reached down from midair.
The hand was more than ten zhang wide. Carrying a chill that seemed capable of freezing one's soul, it reached straight for the top of Liu Mei's head.
Liu Mei's expression shifted, but she didn't panic.
This was exactly the moment she had been waiting for.
"Go!"
Liu Mei shouted coldly, formed a hand seal with her right hand, and pointed sharply at Gui Mei, who had been standing woodenly beside her.
The instant he received the command,
a strange black light suddenly shone in Gui Mei's hollow eyes.
His whole body became a bolt of black lightning, hurtling straight toward the enormous black hand in midair.
The viewers across Douluo Continent saw this and felt their hearts rise to their throats.
To them, Gui Mei was rushing to his death.
Countless wailing wronged souls wound around that black hand. If an ordinary person were touched by it, not even scraps of bone would be left.
But something completely unexpected happened.
The instant Gui Mei's body collided with the black hand,
there was no earth-shattering explosion.
The Shadow Spiritual Energy that Liu Mei had infused into the edges of Gui Mei's body with a secret technique was like a shriveled sponge meeting water.
He actually absorbed the layer of wronged-soul mist around the black hand into his own body!
Though he only absorbed a tiny amount, he wasn't smashed to pieces by the hand. Instead, he managed to steady himself within the black mist.
"Oh?"
A surprised murmur came from deep within White Bone Canyon.
The black hand paused. Instead of continuing its downward strike, its five fingers curled together, grabbing Gui Mei in its palm as easily as if he were a chick.
"A born Shadow Constitution... and no spiritual root in his body, yet he can absorb our Soul Refining Sect's soul energy?"
The voice from within the canyon was filled with intense interest.
"Where did that old Vermilion Bird Master find such a strange thing?"
While the other party's attention was drawn to Gui Mei,
a satisfied, cold smile tugged at Liu Mei's lips.
She swiftly took a sheet of talisman paper covered in red runes from her storage bag and crushed it in her hand.
The paper turned into a dazzling ball of red light, instantly enveloping Liu Mei.
"Senior, take your time studying this generous gift. This junior will take her leave!"
Liu Mei's voice echoed through the air, but she had already turned into a streak of light and fled toward Vermilion Bird Mountain without looking back.
The giant face in midair made no move to chase Liu Mei.
To an elder of the Soul Refining Sect, it didn't matter if a little girl escaped. The strange shadow body in his hand was a rare and valuable specimen.
The black hand holding Gui Mei slowly withdrew, eventually disappearing into the mass of clouds.
Following Gui Mei's point of view, the image on the Sky Screen entered a darkness so deep that one couldn't see one's own hand.
Then the screen gradually turned gray-white.
Spirit City, Pope Palace.
Everyone in the hall was dumbfounded.
Bibi Dong leaned weakly against the back of her chair, feeling as if her head were splitting apart.
"So that was their scheme."
Bibi Dong's voice was weary and bitter.
She finally understood.
That woman named Liu Mei had never expected Gui Mei to defeat anyone.
She had only used him as bait.
A lure designed to draw the Soul Refining Sect's attention.
Now that the bait had been swallowed, Gui Mei's life was as good as over. He would be stuck in that demon-ridden sect forever.
Yue Guan stood nearby. His legs gave way, and he dropped straight to his knees, covering his face as he began to sob quietly.
Qian Daoliu tilted his head back to stare at the ceiling, closing his eyes without a word.
This was the Renegade Immortal World.
When you lacked strength, you couldn't even protect yourself. You could be passed around like a piece of cargo.
The Titled Douluo, who had once stood high above everyone on Douluo Continent, ranked lower in this world than an ordinary watchdog.
Just as everyone was sinking into despair over Gui Mei's fate,
the image on the Sky Screen gradually brightened. The scene shifted to the Spirit Beast Pen of the Troll Race.
Night had fallen.
A crescent moon hung in the sky, casting a rather chilly light.
Inside the enormous livestock shed, the Black Wind Pig lay on a pile of hay, snoring rhythmically.
Yu Xiaogang sat on a patch of clean ground he had just cleared.
His hands, covered in blood blisters, were still trembling slightly.
Yet his mind was remarkably clear.
He sat cross-legged on the dirt, leaning against a thick wooden pillar.
He carefully laid the battered Jade Slip across his thighs, closed his eyes, and slowed his breathing until it was steady and measured.
He was attempting to cultivate!
He was trying the Basic Qi Condensation and Breathing recorded in the Jade Slip.
The viewers across Douluo Continent perked up at the sight, not daring to blink.
This was a cultivation technique from the world of immortal cultivation!
Yu Xiaogang looked miserable, covered in stench, with an iron chain around his neck.
But that didn't stop everyone from yearning for this unknown power.
On the training field at Shrek Academy, Tang San clenched his fists and stared nervously at the screen.
He wanted to know whether people from Douluo Continent could absorb something called "spiritual energy."
If they could, then the whole world would be turned upside down.
Inside the shed,
Yu Xiaogang followed the mantra he remembered, struggling to quiet his mind.
"Sense the energy of heaven and earth around you, and guide it into your Baihui acupoint..."
He silently repeated the words to himself.
At first, he felt nothing at all.
Apart from the foul smell of pig manure, there seemed to be nothing in the air.
But he refused to give up.
Through gritted teeth, he focused all his attention on the top of his head.
After the time it took to burn an incense stick,
Yu Xiaogang's body suddenly shuddered.
He felt it!
Mixed into the murky air around him was something faint, yet wonderfully cool.
This sensation was completely different from the Soul Power he had cultivated before.
Soul Power was a force drawn out of one's own Martial Soul, and it carried a certain heaviness.
This cool sensation seemed to be something that had existed in nature all along, imbued with an indescribable liveliness.
"It's coming in..."
Yu Xiaogang screamed inwardly.
He struggled to control that cool wisp, guiding it through the acupoint atop his head and slowly downward.
But the instant that wisp of spiritual energy entered his meridians,
something changed.
The seemingly gentle spiritual energy touched the Soul Power inside Yu Xiaogang's body, and it was like a drop of cold water falling into a pot of boiling oil.
"Boom!"
Yu Xiaogang felt a heart-rending pain erupt inside him.
It felt as though someone had taken a barbed brush and scraped it savagely along the inside of his blood vessels.
His feeble twenty-ninth-level Soul Power was as fragile as tissue paper before that wisp of spiritual energy, and was instantly washed away in tatters.
"Ah!"
Yu Xiaogang couldn't stop himself from screaming. He clutched his stomach, collapsed to the ground, and rolled around in agony.
Luo Sanpao, sleeping nearby, woke with a start. He circled Yu Xiaogang anxiously, crying, "Luo, Luo!"
Yu Xiaogang rolled across the ground several times before his head slammed hard into the wooden pillar.
He opened his mouth and spat out a large mouthful of black, stagnant blood.
After spitting it out, he slumped to the ground like a puddle of mud, gasping for breath.
At the sight of this,
the flames of hope in the hearts of the common folk and low-ranked Soul Masters across Douluo Continent were instantly doused.
"Did he fail?"
Flender frowned and sighed.
"Looks like people from Douluo Continent can't cultivate that technique at all. Our meridians can't take it."
Zhao Wuji shook his head as well, his face full of disappointment.
But Tang San's eyes lit up.
He stared intently at the black blood Yu Xiaogang had spat out on the screen, his breathing growing rapid.
"No, he didn't fail."
Tang San's voice carried a barely concealed excitement.
"Take a good look at Teacher's face!"
At Tang San's words, everyone hurried to take a closer look.
On screen, Yu Xiaogang looked utterly weak, his face drenched in sweat.
But his complexion, which had been somewhat sallow, now held a faint flush.
And as he gasped for breath, he seemed to be breathing more easily than before.
Yu Xiaogang had noticed the change himself.
He lay on the ground and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve.
To his surprise, after spending the whole afternoon doing heavy labor, the exhaustion that had left him feeling as if his bones were coming apart had eased by more than half!
Even the hunger in his stomach wasn't as intense as before.
"Cleansing the marrow and purging the body..."
Yu Xiaogang stared at his hands and murmured to himself, hardly daring to believe it.
"That wisp of spiritual energy forcibly opened my blocked meridians and flushed the impurities out of my body along with the stagnant blood."
"Although the process was agonizing, and it scattered my Soul Power, too..."
"But this proves I can cultivate! I really can absorb spiritual energy!"
A wave of overwhelming joy instantly swept over Yu Xiaogang.
He even forgot about the iron chain around his neck and that he was in a pigsty reeking of filth.
He couldn't help bursting into laughter, laughing until tears streamed down his face.
"I'm a genius... I, Yu Xiaogang, am a true genius!"
He howled wildly in his heart.
"Once I master this cultivation technique, once I find a way back..."
"I'll be the first immortal cultivator on the Douluo Continent!"
"What Titled Douluo? What Spirit Hall? They're all nothing but shit in my eyes!"
Yu Xiaogang could already picture the glorious scene that awaited him when he returned to the continent: all eyes fixed on him, everyone kneeling and calling him their forefather.
He couldn't help straightening his back, and even the way he looked at the Black Wind Pig beside him carried a sense of superiority, as if he were looking down on it from above.
But his sense of superiority didn't last even the time it took to drink a cup of tea.
Outside the shed, the rough curses of the Troll man rang out.
"Why the hell are you yelling in the middle of the night?"
The Troll man came in carrying a wooden bucket full of chopped meat, kicking the gate open.
At a glance, he spotted Yu Xiaogang sitting on the ground, grinning foolishly.
The man furrowed his brow and strode over, then kicked Yu Xiaogang squarely in the stomach.
"Bang!"
Yu Xiaogang went flying like a ball and slammed into the dung heap behind him.
The little strength he'd just gathered scattered instantly. He curled up on the ground in pain, like a boiled shrimp.
"You wake the Black Wind Pig, and I'll skin you alive!"
The Troll man threw the bucket heavily onto the ground. Bloody water splashed across Yu Xiaogang's face.
"Get up and mix this bucket of meat feed for the Black Wind Pig!"
"Do a bad job, and you won't get a single drop of water tomorrow morning!"