The Outsourced Soul Hall Was About to Get to Work

From the appearance of the flames to the destruction of its soul.

It happened in an instant. Before it could even let out a cry of pain, the Anaconda's presence vanished completely. Its body remained unharmed, but its soul was burned to ashes. In its place, a tiny bead condensed three feet above its head.

A tiny Anaconda pattern was etched onto the bead. That was the essence of its soul.

As the true fire continued refining it, a grayish-brown pill with delicate patterns resembling Anaconda scales quietly floated in the air. This was the innate ability contained within the Anaconda's bloodline, extracted and refined.

"This snake's pretty thoughtful. It knew I don't have any methods for cultivating the soul, so it even sent me some supplements."

Xiao Yan nodded with an expression of approval.

Soul Essence could be used as a material or absorbed directly. The other item, which he would call a Beast Blood Pill for now, was the same.

As expected of a third-tier magical beast. It had dropped quite a lot.

But that wasn't all. He could still get some gold out of it!

After cutting off several of the most delicious pieces of meat from the Anaconda, Xiao Yan lightly clenched his five fingers, and the Samadhi True Fire continued refining it.

In mere moments, the enormous corpse vanished. A magical core, purified of impurities and gleaming throughout, an irregular blood-red crystal, the soul essence, and the beast pill were all collected by Xiao Yan.

Although he had not fully tested his current combat strength, he now had a rough idea of it.

In his normal state, he could leapfrog two major realms. If his opponent specialized in the soul, then with the nature of the Samadhi True Fire, he could surpass even more.

"Improving soul power is a problem. Right now, it seems I can only absorb essences...

"If only some villainous alien race that specialized entirely in souls would show up, have a conflict with me, and keep sending the young ones first, then the old ones after I beat them. They could just keep delivering grandpas to me like Calabash Brothers."

Feeling the pure soul power within the essence, Xiao Yan smacked his lips and began daydreaming.

Leaving aside whether such an absurdly specific villain even existed, that sort of piecemeal tactic was utterly unreasonable. If they discovered a formidable enemy, why would they keep sending people one at a time?

Unless they were outsourced, but that was impossible no matter how he thought about it.

Feeling the energy within the Beast Soul Essence that could increase soul power, Xiao Yan shook his head slightly.

He needed a cultivation method dedicated to the soul.

Although his knowledge of the Dou Qi Continent's cultivation system had previously been limited by his horizons, Yao Lao's lessons had given him a certain degree of understanding.

There was no flashy magic here, only battle qi that had developed to the utmost extreme. There were basically none of the special magic treasures found in other worlds; battle qi could accomplish everything they wanted.

With the modified Flame Mantra, Xiao Yan had no need to worry about the path of qi. He only needed to follow that road all the way to the end.

As for the path of essence... Xiao Yan could only sigh that the Shrouding the Heavens Method truly deserved to be the supreme cultivation art created by the Desolate Heavenly Emperor. Even in an incomplete world, it could still be cultivated to the pinnacle.

It did not seek external power, but excavated the divine treasures within oneself, opening the Five Great Secret Realms. Even cultivating just one of those five secret realms could lead one to the pinnacle. Someone-or-other's Sea of Bitterness had even become a forbidden zone.

The Five Great Secret Realms were interconnected, gathering the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit. But for Xiao Yan at this moment, the Shrouding the Heavens Method was more focused on essence and qi.

By the time he cultivated to the Immortal Platform and came into contact with the soul level, it would already be far too late.

After comprehending the Dao through the Immortal Coffin, he had gained a deep understanding of the original Flame Mantra. If he worked backward from it, Xiao Yan felt that a Dou Di was most likely around the level of a Saint.

Therefore, if he wanted to cultivate the soul, then in the next few worlds, it would be best to find a method capable of cultivating the soul, comprehend the Dao through it, and modify it with the Flame Mantra.

Xiao Yan considered his comprehension fairly good, not to mention that he had other things to assist him.

Sensing the Incomplete Immortal Medicine still stored within the Gray Mist Space, Xiao Yan was in an exceptionally good mood.

"Then the next stage will be a period of rapid development. First, I'll try refining the Samadhi True Fire with the Flame Mantra."

Whether it was refining life essence, cultivating the Wheel Sea Secret Realm, or training battle qi, all of it could rapidly increase his strength.

Time was short and the task was heavy. Xiao Yan had originally planned to reach Dou Wang within three years, but now that seemed a little conservative.

His teacher seemed to have a great enemy whose grudge had yet to be avenged. He would strive to help him take revenge within three years.

Thinking this, Xiao Yan headed toward Wutan City. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at the Ancient Ring on his hand and began looking forward to Yao Lao's expression when he awakened and saw Xiao Yan's changes.

Perhaps Yao Lao had poured too much power into him last time, so he would occasionally fall into a light sleep to recover.

What Xiao Yan did not know was that a large part of the reason Yao Lao occasionally slept was because he had been frightened by Xiao Yan's previous antics.

That kid was far too good at stirring things up!

Yao Lao feared that one day Xiao Yan would quietly pull off some earth-shattering stunt, such as a Dou Zhe defeating a third-tier magical beast or even a Dou Ling, or swallowing Heavenly Flames raw without using any pills. More importantly, he knew Xiao Yan was destined to shine brilliantly, and he feared that Soul Hall would notice him before he had fully grown.

There was also a small grudge. Yao Chen quite enjoyed showing off before Xiao Yan, yet in recent encounters, it had always been Xiao Yan showing off before him. Yao Chen had been holding in his frustration and recovering fiercely within the Ancient Ring.

"Hmph, I was a genius in my day too. Having experienced the great terror between life and death, I really did gain some insight."

Yao Chen, who was recovering with his head down inside the Ancient Ring, muttered to himself. The pile of miscellaneous secret arts Xiao Yan had given him had actually allowed him to extract something useful. Combined with the vast knowledge he had accumulated in the first half of his life, he had truly achieved a moment of enlightenment during this recovery period.

It was just a pity that he had no pills or heavenly treasures capable of repairing the origin of his soul, but there was nothing to be done about that.

"Kid, three days east of the river, three days west of the river—do not mock the poverty of the elderly! Once I emerge from seclusion tonight, I'll show you properly what the continent's number one alchemist is!"

Influenced by Xiao Yan, Yao Chen's heart surged with grand ambition.

A certain Soul Hall branch.

"Recently, did a genius appear in a small clan surnamed Xiao within the Jia Ma Empire?"

Long Taoyi, a Dou Emperor-level Soul Envoy, casually looked through the files.

He was the person in charge of this branch. If one insisted on putting it that way, he was the hall master of a branch beneath a branch that did not even count as a sub-hall.

The highest-ranking person he came into contact with was a Dou Zong-level Guardian. This place possessed none of a sub-hall's authority; it was merely a long-used temporary gathering point for handling miscellaneous affairs and regularly submitting souls and intelligence to its supervising Guardian.

It was roughly... like a Soul Hall sub-hall's office stationed in some backwater hole.

"Yes, my lord. However, the strongest person in that clan is a Da Dou Shi. There was a Dou Wang several decades ago, and this genius spent several years as trash before recovering to become a Dou Zhe..." The Soul Envoy reporting the intelligence beside him spoke in a strange tone.

"...A Da Dou Shi." Long Taoyi's eyelid twitched. He was still worrying about the souls he had to submit regularly. Where would he find the time to concern himself with some genius from a Da Dou Shi clan?

After Guardian Wu had appointed him as the manager responsible for overseeing the Soul Envoys under him, Long Taoyi had discovered a strange and ancient message within the restriction placed on his soul. It roughly ordered him to search for information regarding geniuses surnamed Xiao. Once one was discovered, he was to report it, kill them, dig three feet into the ground, and bring back everything obtained.

Although he did not understand the purpose behind this, and this year's quota had not yet been met, he had no choice but to obey Guardian Wu's orders due to the restriction on his soul.

According to procedure, once his subordinate Soul Envoys reported it to him, he should have been the one responsible for handling it.

But with the trip back and forth, plus the complicated and strict review process after exterminating a clan, not only would he suffer terribly himself, but he would also waste a great deal of time.

Long Taoyi fell into thought.

A mere Da Dou Shi clan... no, he only needed to get rid of that Xiao Yan and prevent him from developing further and being noticed by his superiors.

He swept his gaze over the members of the branch, and Long Taoyi's eyes finally stopped on the newly recruited Dou Ling Soul Envoy at the end of the group.

According to the original arrangement, this person was supposed to be sent to the Black-Corner Region to collect souls.

"You there. Yes, you. Go take care of Xiao Yan."

Soul Clan.

"Achoo!"

Why did it feel like something bad was about to happen?

Nihility Devouring Flame glanced suspiciously at Hun Tiandi beside him, then silently continued doing dirty work.