Within this altar stood ninety-eight sculptures; eighteen of them, possessing histories spanning over two millennia, likely housed souls whose strength had ascended to the peak of the Ling Shen realm within their stone shells.

Forty sculptures were over a thousand years old, their souls expected to have reached the Ling Shen realm as well. As for those under a thousand years, it was estimated that quite a few had soul strengths that also touched the Ling Shen boundary.

It was fortunate that the bodies of these individuals had long since turned into inanimate sculptures devoid of any vital aura, and their souls were imprisoned within, lacking any independent consciousness, thus posing no threat. Otherwise, such a concentration of terrifying souls would have been enough to obliterate the Tian Ling Continent countless times over.

Even more fortunate was the fact that the Ling Shen who cast the "Soul Sacrifice" resided in the Tai Zun Spirit Realm, and not here on the Tian Ling Continent.

The vast spatial distance meant that the Soul Orb at the center of the altar was not perfectly stable, which provided the slender possibility of rescuing Hua Chen and Jing Rong. Otherwise, before he could even enter the altar, he would have been detected by the vigilant Ling Shen and swiftly eliminated. A powerhouse of that caliber was far beyond what the significantly weakened Da Yan Ling Zun could contend with.

Lou Kong’s eighth-layer "Crimson Star Battle Body" was renowned among the Tian Ling Masters, yet against a peak Ling Shen expert, it likely couldn't withstand even a single strike.

"Heavenly Star Absolute God Formation..."

Suddenly, Lou Kong’s eyes snapped open in surprise.

Back when Pan Hu had heard whispers of the "Soul Sacrifice" in the Tai Zun Spirit Realm, he had spent his leisure moments pondering methods to unravel it.

Pan Hu was indeed worthy of being the Patriarch of the Pan Xing Clan; he had actually discovered a critical flaw in the "Soul Sacrifice" and subsequently devised a formation known as the "Heavenly Star Absolute God," capable of dismantling that "Nine-Nine Soul Heaven Formation" and seizing the crucial "Soul Orb" for himself.

If he could manipulate the Soul Orb, rescuing Hua Chen and Jing Rong would surely be an effortless task.

With this thought, Nie Kong moved with a bent waist, circling the Soul Orb slowly, his eyes unblinking as he scrutinized the object—a sphere smooth as jade, black as ink, large as a washbasin, from which clouds of dark mist, condensed soul power, continuously jetted out and were drawn back in. This intake and exhalation cycle took approximately one second.

Lan Ling noticed Nie Kong's peculiar movements and couldn't help but follow closely behind him, watching intently, yet after a long while, she could discern nothing remarkable.

Just as Lan Ling was utterly bewildered, Nie Kong suddenly straightened up, an unconcealed joy shining in his eyes.

Just as described in Pan Hu's memories, the Ling Shen employing the Soul Sacrifice, after distributing over ninety parts of its own soul to merge with the sacrificial souls, essentially gained over ninety soul avatars...

If all of these avatars were at the Tian Ling realm, the originating Ling Shen could manage them all. But with numerous avatars at the peak Ling Shen level, even the creator, despite possessing peak Ling Shen cultivation himself, would find it straining to oversee so many avatars simultaneously.

Moreover, the Tian Ling Continent and the Tai Zun Spirit Realm were two separate dimensions!

From his recent observation, the black mist ejected from the Soul Orb resembled a saw blade spanning several meters. This saw blade possessed only sixty-four teeth of varying lengths, each tooth connected to one sculpture. The tooth linked to Hua Chen and Jing Rong was the longest, indicating that the Ling Shen’s primary focus was concentrated on them.

For the other sculptures, the further they were from the Soul Orb, the shorter the corresponding tooth within the black mist became.

Especially the thirty-four sculptures located at the very edge of the altar—their connection to the Soul Orb had been completely severed.

Their soul power had likely already reached the peak of the Ling Shen realm, which was why that Ling Shen had temporarily set them aside, focusing instead on those souls that had not yet reached the peak Ling Shen stage, particularly the few still lingering in the Tian Ling realm.

This fact somewhat surprised Nie Kong. He had initially presumed that having around twenty souls reaching peak Ling Shen would be excellent, but finding thirty-four was unexpected.

However, this also completely put Nie Kong at ease.

Pan Hu’s "Heavenly Star Absolute God Formation" was specifically designed for the situation after the "Nine-Nine Soul Heaven Formation" had been fully activated. At that point, the "Soul Sacrifice" would enter its final and most crucial phase, where the Ling Shen would be exerting its utmost effort to simultaneously control ninety-nine powerful souls.

But, at such a critical moment, the Ling Shen’s attention could not be perfectly distributed evenly across every soul; there would inevitably be strengths and weaknesses among them. The "Heavenly Star Absolute God Formation" was intended to locate those souls under the weakest degree of control, using them as convergence points to forcibly sever the "Nine-Nine Soul Heaven Formation."

Such high-level manipulation could only be performed by a powerhouse like Pan Hu. Nie Kong, currently only at the eighth rank of the Tian Ling cultivation, certainly couldn't execute it.

Fortunately, the "Soul Sacrifice" here was only halfway through; the tempering of even the ninety-eight human sacrifices wasn't complete, and crucially, thirty-four of the strongest soul avatars had already disconnected from the Soul Orb, making them incomparable to the state when the "Nine-Nine Soul Heaven Formation" was fully engaged.

This significantly lowered the requirements for activating the "Heavenly Star Absolute God Formation." Even with Nie Kong possessing only Tian Ling cultivation, the chance of success was remarkably high.

"Lan Ling, I will need your assistance shortly," Nie Kong suddenly spoke.

"Tell me!"

Lan Ling nodded reflexively.

"I am about to execute a formation to seize this Soul Orb, and I require you to serve as the formation catalyst."

"What? Ca... Catalyst?"

Before Nie Kong finished speaking, Lan Ling cried out in alarm.

Glancing over, Nie Kong saw that Lan Ling’s face had turned paper-white. Realizing she had misinterpreted his intentions, he hastened to explain, "This catalyst is not like the one used in the 'Nine-Nine Soul Heaven Formation.' Relax, you won't die. I only need to borrow your soul power to guide the formation."

"That's a relief. You scared me half to death."

Lan Ling patted her chest and let out a long sigh of relief. She had been terrified by the phrase "formation catalyst," thinking Nie Kong intended to use her as a sacrifice as well. Subject to his will, if Nie Kong had harbored such a thought, she, currently constrained by the Beast Talisman, wouldn't even have been able to resist.

"Guiding the formation might drain every bit of your soul power," Nie Kong smiled. "You need to be mentally prepared. When you feel your soul power draining, do not panic or resist; otherwise, everything could fail at the last moment. After this is over, I will provide you with sufficient Natural Origin power to allow you to recover as quickly as possible."

"As long as I don't die, that's all I ask." Lan Ling nodded helplessly; that was the extent of her demand right now.

"..."

Nie Kong gave a few more detailed instructions before finally calming his mind completely.

Seconds later, Nie Kong quietly circulated the "War God Star Seal" spiritual art. Palm-sized Nether Stars began to manifest, with the eight golden Nether Stars, having completed their transformation, encircling the "Soul Orb" in an arc, while the ninth Nether Star, only edged in gold, hovered directly above the "Soul Orb."