On the dark brown meteorite surface, Shi Yan and Audrey stood at the entrance of the rock cavern, staring intently into the pitch-black opening, a chill suddenly creeping into their hearts.

Audrey composed herself, a serene and ethereal light radiating from her face, her Soul Altar shining like a mirror untouched by dust, perfectly reflecting the clarity within her heart.

To cultivate to the Initial God realm and be able to fuse with the Origin Heavenly Fire of the Divine Splendor Continent, she naturally possessed extraordinary capabilities. When she truly focused her senses and pondered carefully, she indeed perceived that something was amiss.

“You are quite perceptive,” Audrey suddenly whispered, surprise flickering in her beautiful eyes. “As you said, that ubiquitous grass does indeed harbor incredibly subtle soul fluctuations.”

“I said we could try it out first,” Shi Yan said gravely.

“How do we try it?” Audrey quietly stepped back a few paces, temporarily distancing herself from the stone cave, only then feeling a slight sense of ease, as if she had moved a little further away from some hidden danger.

“It’s simple.”

Shi Yan raised his hand, a blood-red gash splitting open on the tip of his left index finger. A single drop of crimson blood, dazzling and brilliant like a ruby, emerged. This blood contained an intensely concentrated life fluctuation, releasing circles of blood-red halo within it.

“Puchi!”

The blood seemed to be burning, wisps of blood-qi spiraling out, resembling the magical brushstrokes of a peerless painter, sketching a rudimentary form of Shi Yan in the void.

Soon, as the surging life fluctuations within the blood were intensely stimulated, the rudimentary form of Shi Yan rapidly filled with flesh, sinew, veins, and bone. In just two minutes, a person identical to him materialized right before Audrey’s eyes.

It was another Shi Yan—bare-chested, muscles finely honed, physique robust, eyes bright and piercing. Only within his body there was no strong life magnetic field, no soul fluctuation capable of causing alarm.

Legend had it that powerful experts of the Undead Demon Race, having reached a certain profound level of cultivation, could still regenerate and resurrect from just a single drop of vital blood, even if their physical body was utterly destroyed.

Audrey had always thought this rumor untrue, merely an exaggeration. But in that moment, she witnessed the truth with her own eyes. Her beautiful eyes shimmered with awe, marveling at Shi Yan’s technique. “Don’t you possess an immortal body? Even if you are killed, you can revive from your blood?” she praised endlessly.

Shi Yan offered no reply.

His gaze held a contemplative expression as he looked deeply at the other self condensed from a single drop of blood, lost in thought.

According to what Blood Demon and Xuan He had told him, powerful experts of the Undead Demon Race reaching high realms activate the Profound Meaning of Life, allowing vital blood to leave a living imprint, transforming into their own likeness.

There were many tales circulated externally about the Undead Demon Race, but “resurrection from blood” was always the most discussed. In reality, the rumors were somewhat exaggerated. Even for an expert of Xuan He’s stature among the Undead Demon Race, an entity condensed from a single drop of vital blood could never possess even one ten-thousandth of the power of the main body.

However, the rumor of “resurrection from blood” did align with certain truths. Take Xuan He himself: if his divine body were shattered, as long as his demon blood hadn't been refined away, he could use that demon blood to reconstruct his physical body and then reinhabit it with his Soul Altar, instantly becoming lively and vigorous again.

The blood of the Undead Demon Race members was the core of their life; as long as the blood remained undestroyed, the physical body could be reassembled.

Of course, after the body was shattered, the newly reassembled divine body would not be as powerful as the original in the short term. It would require a period of time to reabsorb power and re-temper the flesh before it could gradually recover its former state, relying on the imprint within the vital blood.

This process could take a few hundred years at minimum, or even several thousand years, certainly not as simple as the outside world rumored.

At this moment, Shi Yan focused on the clone condensed from a drop of his vital blood, his expression extremely complex.

This clone had not been imbued with a single thread of his conscious thought; it was merely a pure flesh-and-blood puppet, its physical level equivalent to that of a True God realm expert. If his main body were annihilated, and he forcibly seated his Soul Altar into this clone, given the wonder of his Devouring Profound Meaning, it might still take him several decades to recover.

What preoccupied him wasn't this aspect, but the process of condensing the clone from a single drop of blood, which had stirred in him a strange feeling of creating life!

If—if he were willing, at the cost of a sliver of his divine sense, slicing off a strand of his own consciousness and permanently injecting it into the clone’s soul—would this clone possess entirely new life? Would it become another person?

Could it truly become a person?

He knew that at his level of cultivation, he absolutely could not achieve this, yet it sparked a possibility in his mind: perhaps the Desolate One used a similar method to create the Four Great Races, condensing the ancestral blood of the Four Great Races into his main body and somehow bringing forth the Bloodthirsty entity.

That was true creation of life!

What method did the Desolate One employ? Condensing flesh and blood was relatively easy to resolve, but how did the Desolate One achieve the birth of a new soul?

His brow furrowed deeply as he immersed himself in exploring the Profound Meaning of Life, agonizing over the details of the Desolate One's creation of life. He found that no matter how hard he tried, he could not crack the difficult puzzle of newborn soul genesis.

He understood that he still had a long distance to go before reaching that miraculous realm.

Yet, he also knew profoundly that if one day he could crack that profound mystery and truly create an entire species, then his Initial Realm, as vast as a sea of stars, would forever be imbued with vitality. It would, like the world within the Desolate One, erupt with countless races and nurture legions of miraculous and unique beings.

To open up the sea of stars and create life races—what a monumental feat! What spirit and divine power!

His soul soared with yearning, and in this moment, a powerful impetus to move forward into the future surged within him. This shift in his mentality and soul broadened his spirit and vision, naturally breeding a fearlessness and heroism.

“I will condense the physical body, and you contribute a wisp of your spectral soul to allow it to enter the cavern in our stead,” he said, breaking into a brilliant smile toward Audrey.

He knew that Audrey practiced the unique soul magic of the Nether Emperor Race, which could temper the Soul Altar and bind spectral souls and vengeful spirits into peculiar consciousnesses within her Sea of Consciousness, possessing numerous profound mysteries.

Within Audrey’s Soul Altar, a specific area was reserved to bind spectral souls, evil ghosts, turning them into tendrils of her awareness, extensions of her soul. The more spectral souls, evil ghosts, and soul bodies she absorbed and gathered, the more refined her profound meaning became, and the higher her realm would ascend.

This was the unique characteristic of the Nether Emperor Race's profound meaning.

Indeed, Audrey didn't hesitate for a moment. With a flick of her jade finger, a cluster of faint souls flew out, landing directly into the head of the Shi Yan replica condensed from that vital blood.

Instantly, both Shi Yan’s and Audrey’s bodies shook slightly. They looked at each other, astonishment gleaming in their eyes.

A feeling of the most profound mystery quietly settled into their hearts. The body was condensed from Shi Yan’s vital blood, and the spectral soul placed within was refined by Audrey, carrying a trace of Audrey’s soul power. This person, formed from Shi Yan’s flesh and blood and a wisp of Audrey’s soul power, felt as if it linked them with an invisible thread.

Through it, Shi Yan could faintly perceive the changes in Audrey’s mood, and Audrey could sense a sliver of the subtle shifts in Shi Yan’s heart. It was truly arcane, difficult to put into words.

“It’s like our child,” Shi Yan joked after a long pause.

Audrey blushed for the first time, her cool cheeks flushing crimson, her beautiful eyes shimmering with light. She shot Shi Yan a sharp look, flustered. “Stop talking nonsense!”

At this moment, her cheeks were flushed, making her incomparably beautiful, like a blossoming flower displaying her most moving aspect, stirring the heart.

Shi Yan suddenly lost focus, staring blankly at her. After a long moment, he sincerely praised, “You are actually always beautiful; it’s just that you keep a cold face all day, looking unapproachable, which hides your most beautiful side. What a pity.”

“Can you focus your energy on the actual task?” Audrey took several deep breaths, her chest rising and falling as her emotions surged violently. Forcing down the impulse to beat Shi Yan, she said with a cold expression, “It should be you taking action. That spectral soul has been refined by you and bears your soul imprint; it should be under your control, right?”

Audrey huffed and impatiently tugged at a stray lock of hair near her temple. “You’re infuriating me to death!”

With that, she shifted her profound meaning and pointed toward the rock cavern.

The puppet condensed from Shi Yan’s vital blood moved forward on its own, plunging into the depths of the cavern, not stopping for even half an incense stick’s time, continuing deeper and deeper.

“It seems quite deep,” Shi Yan frowned.

At this moment, Audrey ignored him. The fleeting hint of allure on her face had long vanished, replaced by her usual frosty, serious demeanor. A very strange soul fluctuation flowed from her as she concentrated, sensing the changes below.

Through that wisp of spectral soul, she could detect the subtle movements within, knowing if danger lurked deep inside the cavern.

Suddenly, Audrey’s mind jolted fiercely, her Altar trembled slightly, and her beautiful face turned pale. Her eyes flashed with a strange light, and gritting her teeth, she spat out coldly, “Your guess was correct; there is something bizarre inside the cavern. My spectral soul, and the wisp of my mental presence attached to it, suddenly lost contact.”

“What happened?” Shi Yan’s eyes brightened.

“It felt like it was forcibly ripped away, or perhaps refined—I can’t quite describe it. Does the physical body you condensed from vital blood feel anything?” she asked in return.

“Turned to ash,” Shi Yan said grimly. “Not the slightest sensation; it’s completely gone. If I can’t sense it, it means total annihilation.”

“Your guess was right; there is indeed something strange. It seems this place isn't safe,” Audrey admitted, fully convinced by him now.

“Then let’s try a different approach, something a bit more radical, to see what marvels lie within this meteorite,” Shi Yan snorted, sneering coldly. “It dared to swallow a drop of my vital blood; naturally, it must pay the corresponding price. No matter what demon, god, or monster it is, it must leave me a mark!”

As he spoke, bright white blades shot out from his pupils, twisting like gleaming sharp edges.

Subtle fluctuations of warped space spread from his body. The surrounding space suddenly emitted sharp hissing sounds, which grew from faint to loud and piercing.

Audrey was initially confused, then glanced around, suddenly letting out a startled cry, covering her mouth.

She saw the massive, bright spatial blades drifting nearby being pulled and drawn by the fluctuations emanating from within him. They swayed as if to cleave through the void and tear open the heavens.