A strike from the "Cloud Layer Flower Burst" slammed into his left chest, and Nie Kong felt his soul slowly drift out from the top of his head, then he watched, helpless, as muscle fibers exploded, blood splattered, and his heart turned into a pile of mince… This scene was presented before Nie Kong’s soul, captured as if by a high-definition digital camera and then slowed down by hundreds of times for clear viewing. Accompanying this vision was a tearing, soul-shattering pain.

In that instant, Nie Kong felt as if countless dull blades were sawing through his flesh, or perhaps a million ants were gnawing at his very spirit, making him desperately wish to simply pass out. However, the soul could not faint.

Only now did Nie Kong finally understand why the faces of those youths had been so contorted and savage upon their deaths. His body finally slumped over powerlessly, dissolving little by little into the void after only ten seconds, and with it vanished that inhuman torment.

“Finally, release!” That fleeting moment had stretched into what felt like ten thousand years for Nie Kong. Watching his physical form completely dissipate, a sigh of relief escaped his soul.

Once the body was gone, the soul could immediately return to the exterior flesh, escaping this tormenting purgatory! “Huh?” The next moment, as he awaited his return to his physical shell, Nie Kong was suddenly struck with astonishment.

He sensed a strange suction emanating from the white jade wall before him. In his spectral state, Nie Kong easily perceived the peculiarity of the white jade surface.

It resembled human skin; its smooth exterior was actually riddled with countless dense, tiny pores. As the suction intensified, Nie Kong saw his soul being drawn out into wisps of faint, delicate threads, pulled through the myriad pores and into the depths of the jade wall.

Damn it, what in the world is happening? I was absorbing it before, and now it’s absorbing me?

Nie Kong grew agitated. If he failed to leave before the seven-day limit expired, his soul would be eternally dormant, leaving his body in the outside world a living corpse, incapable of ever waking again?

This thought flashed, and Nie Kong struggled with all his might, trying to break free from the binding pull. Unfortunately, compared to the suction, Nie Kong’s strength was pitifully weak.

No matter how hard he strained, his soul continued to thread its way through the tiny apertures in the white jade wall. This struggle, though appearing protracted, was over in the blink of an eye.

“Boom!” Suddenly, Nie Kong heard a violent, resonant shock. Immediately following, the surrounding white jade walls vanished, and his soul plunged into a vortex of blood-red swirling chaos.

With a whoosh, his spirit spiraled down toward the increasingly narrow bottom of the vortex, overcome by intense vertigo. Dazed and unsure how long he drifted, Nie Kong suddenly felt his soul lighten, and then, bizarrely, he felt solid ground beneath his feet.

His consciousness snapped back into clarity. Looking down at himself, Nie Kong was dumbfounded.

He was no longer a mere soul; his spirit was now encased in a body clad only in a pair of shorts! Not only was his body brimming with spiritual power, but every part of his exterior was undamaged; the scars from his fierce battle with the spirit beast had vanished without a trace.

Nie Kong flexed his limbs, sensing every part of this body, which brought on a strange, elusive sense—a feeling both real and unreal, much like when he had entered the Illusionary Realm of Life and Death. Nie Kong was bewildered: Was he still in an illusion, or had he truly escaped?

Standing still for a moment, Nie Kong looked around. In the distance, mountains stretched endlessly; nearby, massive waves crashed fiercely.

Yet, the sky overhead was entirely blood-red, casting a faint crimson hue over the entire landscape. A single glance brought an overwhelming sense of oppression that made it hard for Nie Kong to draw a full breath.

He circulated his spiritual energy rapidly through his meridians, and the discomfort gradually subsided. “This is…” Turning his gaze behind him, he saw a steep cliff face towering before him.

When Nie Kong saw the archway of blood-red stone at the base of the cliff, his expression shifted. Aside from the color, the size and shape of this blood-red jade tablet were identical to the white jade one that had sucked in his soul.

Could the white jade tablet and this blood-red jade tablet be connected? The moment this thought crossed his mind, Nie Kong caught the familiar scent of medicinal herbs.

He sniffed, directing his eyes toward the base of the jade tablet. Between the cliff face and the lake dozens of meters away, the ground was barren, utterly devoid of any vegetation—save for a single, foot-high, blood-red plant growing beneath the jade tablet.

The appearance of this plant was quite peculiar. Its stem, as thick as a pinky finger, spiraled upward in tightening circles, the upper turns becoming smaller until the end supported a single leaf, large and shaped like a basin.

The veins on the leaf’s surface were sharply defined, resembling tiny blood vessels. Nie Kong was certain: this plant emitted the medicinal fragrance that fueled his cultivation, a fact confirmed by the excited chirping of the little one in his Yaochi Acupoint.

Just the aroma alone had helped him reach the first rank of the Spirit Manifestation realm and allowed Xiangxiang to advance to the second tier. If he could acquire the whole herb...

“Luck truly favors the bold!” Nie Kong took a step forward, crouched down, and began digging with both hands charged with spiritual energy around the edges of the herb. Shoveling aside large clumps of soil, the root system of the herb gradually revealed itself.

The part buried underground looked strikingly like a coiled little snake. A snake's head, neck, and body… even the surface of the root section was densely and neatly covered in blood-red, scale-like protrusions.

The source of the medicinal fragrance was this serpentine root. Inhaling the thick, rich scent, Nie Kong could not suppress his excitement, digging faster and faster until only the tapering, pointed tail section remained buried.

“Splash!” A large section of water erupted from the edge of the lake dozens of meters away. A flat, enormous head burst through the waves, shooting straight up ten meters into the air.

Connected beneath that head was a cylindrical body as thick as a water vat, its surface shimmering with a cold, eerie gleam. As soon as it breached the surface, its lantern-like eyes fixed upon the base of the cliff.

“Hiss!” Seeing Nie Kong vigorously digging for the herb, it paused, then its mouth opened wide, releasing a low, furious shriek. Hearing the commotion, Nie Kong instinctively turned his head.

“What a colossal snake!” The giant serpent’s two tangible beams of blood-red gaze seemed imbued with the power to pierce the heart. Nie Kong involuntarily shivered, and in the next instant, he saw the great snake flick its scarlet tongue, its tail whipping up monstrous waves in the lake, its massive body lunging toward him.

Even from dozens of meters away, Nie Kong felt an indescribable pressure, and his expression instantly changed. Forgetting the digging, he grabbed the base of the herb and wrenched it free, tucking it into his pet inventory.

Simultaneously, he slammed his left fist into the area over his own heart. “Cloud Layer Flower Burst!” All the spiritual energy in his acupoints, detonating in nearly overlapping explosions, struck true.

The moment the fist made contact, flesh and blood scattered, leaving a gaping, bloody hole in his chest. At this moment, Nie Kong felt the speed at which his soul was leaving his body was markedly faster than during his previous self-immolation attempt…