Lei Dong named the little artifact spirit girl Mei Xiang, a decidedly vulgar handmaiden's name from the mortal human world. After briefly learning the origin of the name, the little girl fiercely protested, but her objections were in vain, and she had no choice but to bite the bullet and accept it. Mei Xiang it was. It was certainly better than being directly wiped from existence by her tyrannical and unreasonable Master.

However, it was from Mei Xiang that Lei Dong came to understand the profound concept behind the Underworld King's design of the Chaos Devouring Soul Pagoda. The Underworld King's origins were not entirely outside Lei Dong's expectations; according to Mei Xiang's explanation, the Underworld King had inherited the legacy of the God of the Underworld, a singular, supreme being who had created an entire race.

Of course, in Lei Dong’s view, the God of the Underworld's initial creation of the Ghost Race wasn't motivated by any overly benevolent compassion or grand vision. Frankly, he simply wanted to create a powerful race whose physical bodies were purely composed of souls, capable of advancing directly by devouring flesh, blood, or divine souls, all for the purpose of contending against those powerful figures.

Yet, the God of the Underworld could be considered both a success and a failure. Indeed, he created the Ghost Race. But it was an unfinished, immature race. The Ghost Race, upon which he pinned such high hopes, was severely limited by the quality of their spiritual roots, making individuals quite weak; managing to produce an occasional Nascent Soul stage expert was considered a great achievement.

In the era of the God of the Underworld, with the abundant supply of innate and acquired spiritual energy, along with all manner of precious celestial treasures, the overall strength of the world was formidable, with experts at the Void Refinement and Integration stages appearing frequently. A single Nascent Soul expert, or even a large contingent of low-level ghosts, offered extremely limited assistance to the God of the Underworld.

Nevertheless, that self-proclaimed God of the Underworld did not give up. He continuously experimented and researched how to resolve the fundamental root quality issues of the Ghost Race. Through extensive trials and studies—the mark of a peerless, eccentric genius—the God of the Underworld actually managed to develop some novel solutions.

Regrettably, before the God of the Underworld could implement his plans to improve the Ghost Race, he met his demise before his work was complete, suffering a joint suppression from the Three Realms' supreme authorities who forcefully eliminated him. Fortunately, the God of the Underworld had left behind a contingency, preserving his work through special means, hoping some destined person would inherit his mantle and will.

That destined inheritor, the Underworld King, arrived after an unknowable number of years, unintentionally inheriting everything from the God of the Underworld and thus embarking on a path of no return against the current supreme rulers of the Three Realms.

Building upon the God of the Underworld’s research, the Underworld King incorporated many of his own concepts and designs, ultimately naming the cornerstone of his planned dependency the Chaos Pagoda. The term "Chaos Pagoda" didn't simply mean that to truly perfect the artifact, one needed to refine a Chaos Origin into it.

What is meant by Chaos is the state of the universe after a full cycle—the moment of re-emergence following annihilation. At that time, there was no Heaven or Earth, no sun, moon, or stars; there was only the endless dust, with the clear Qi and turbid Qi entangled and interwoven in space, indistinguishable from one another.

In other words, Chaos describes the nascent state of the universe, yet it is the very origin of the world. The clear Qi and turbid Qi, in vortex formation, eventually collided and gradually formed a unique Heaven and Earth, along with countless suns, moons, and stars.

The name Chaos Pagoda served two purposes: firstly, the Underworld King believed the object was incredibly potent, and naming it after Chaos made it sound even more impressive. More importantly, this pagoda was the nascent form of a new world he envisioned. He intended to establish a complete world within the tower—a world existing only in his ideal, for which he even had a name: the Ghost Realm.

According to the description from Mei Xiang, the Chaos Pagoda's artifact spirit, the conception of the pagoda primarily designed and refined by the Underworld King was magnificent; it possessed the ability to devour and decompose souls. Souls are what cultivators commonly refer to as divine souls.

Souls are preceded by 'Ling' (Spirit) and then 'Hun' (Soul). The soul-body is the manifestation of the Ling, and its outer shell is also the source energy of the Ling. The birth of the Ling was initially derived from the origin of Chaos. The Chaos Pagoda's strongest function lay in the Devouring Formation contained within it, which refined the soul-body into pure Chaos Spiritual Qi, returning the Ling back to the Chaos Origin.

The refined Chaos Spiritual Qi and the Chaos Origin would be stored inside the Chaos Pagoda for various marvelous uses—perhaps for cultivation, perhaps for constructing and expanding the Ghost Realm. Chaos Spiritual Qi, by definition, is the purest and most effective spiritual energy produced at the very birth of the universe. Because this energy existed before the creation of Heaven and Earth, it is also known as Innate Spiritual Qi.

The Six Domains and Nine Continents previously contained traces of Chaos Spiritual Qi. However, due to the frantic consumption and plunder of this nearly non-renewable energy source, it is now extremely difficult to conjure even a wisp of Chaos Spiritual Qi. Forget Chaos Spiritual Qi; even the acquired spiritual energy is diminishing daily.

It is precisely because of the scarcity of Chaos Spiritual Qi that the cultivation speed of both cultivators and demonic beasts across the Six Domains and Nine Continents has become agonizingly slow. Many demonic beasts with superior bloodlines or cultivators with unparalleled aptitude struggle to reach the Nascent Soul stage even in their entire lifetimes.

As for the Chaos Origin, it is an unparalleled treasure that existed from the moment Chaos was born. Lei Dong had very little understanding of this substance. After all, its level was so high that even figures at the Three Realms Supreme level would fight desperately over it.

It was only through Mei Xiang’s retelling that Lei Dong grasped the general function of the Chaos Origin: it is the critical substance for generating 'Ling' (Spirit). Without the Chaos Origin, even if life were to arise in that world, it would be formless, low-level life lacking true sentience.

And the more a life form relies on the Chaos Origin to generate wisdom, the more powerful it will become. Legends say the Mother of All Spirits was formed from a massive piece of Chaos Origin. While that remains mere hearsay and may not be true, it illustrates the profound preciousness of the Chaos Origin.

In the Underworld King's design, the ability of the Chaos Pagoda to devour spirits and reduce them back to Chaos Origin could certainly be considered heaven-defying.

Of course, these were merely conceptual capabilities. To this day, the Chaos Pagoda has not truly matured or been perfected. Achieving the level the Underworld King anticipated will not be an easy task; based on everything described, there is still much work ahead, as the Chaos Pagoda remains incomplete in many aspects.

As for the function developed by the Demon Emperor, it was merely an expansion and creation built upon the original structure of the Chaos Pagoda. In principle, it still relied on devouring souls within the pagoda, condensing the essence of the soul into a Soul Pill containing a trace of the Chaos Origin.

However, due to certain technical limitations, the trace of Chaos Origin contained in the refined Soul Pills was impure. More often, the resentment within the spirit mutated the Chaos Origin, forming Spirit Fiends. This substance was suitable for the Yin souls, which would not be harmed by the Spirit Fiends but could instead devour them for their own use. Conversely, if consumed by humans or other demonic beasts, they would suffer annihilation by the Spirit Fiends.

This was the primary reason why, when Lei Dong previously experimented with the Soul Pills, the test subjects who ingested them died violently. It was also why Lei Dong never dared to sample the Soul Pills himself.

Of course, Lei Dong is now at the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, meaning even if he were to consume a Soul Pill, he wouldn't be overcome by the Spirit Fiends. But consuming such a substance is ultimately detrimental to the body; humans and ghosts differ significantly in many aspects.

Furthermore, because the Spirit Fiends were impure forms of the Chaos Origin, their efficacy in enhancing a life form's innate strength was very limited—at most, they could elevate a Spirit Ghost to the level of a Supreme-Grade Spirit Ghost. Advancing beyond that point was virtually impossible.

Moreover, in perfecting the Chaos Pagoda, the Demon Emperor lacked the artifact spirit Mei Xiang, preventing him from fully inheriting the Underworld King's insights in this area, which led the Demon Emperor down certain deviations in some aspects.

Yet, despite the detours, the Demon Emperor carved out a distinct path. After all, the Underworld King’s original concept never included refining the spirit of a soul into a Soul Pill to improve the Ghost Race’s quality. The ability to revert to Chaos Origin existed only in the conceptual design; the Underworld King himself was uncertain about it. Even if he could have truly restored even a trace of Chaos Origin, such a vastly useful substance would never have been wasted on the extremely low quality of the Ghost Race to induce fundamental evolution.

The Demon Emperor's approach, in a sense, was a happy accident, hugely expanding the potential efficacy of the Chaos Pagoda. Furthermore, the Demon Emperor’s greatest contribution to the Chaos Pagoda came from a genuine Chaos Origin. This wasn't because the Demon Emperor voluntarily halted his research; rather, integrating the Chaos Origin into the pagoda was an act of last resort, one that ultimately led to tragic consequences.

If that Chaos Origin had not been melted into the Chaos Pagoda, the structure would never have achieved its astonishing functionality. True Chaos Origin is an object of extreme rarity. In fact, throughout his illustrious life, even the God of the Underworld never had the fortune to acquire even half a Chaos Origin.

But now, all of that—the Underworld King and the Demon Emperor—belongs to the past. Both are now relics of history. And the Chaos Origin is entirely possessed by Lei Dong. As the saying goes, learning from past failures, the ultimate, tragic fates of the three supremely powerful figures—the God of the Underworld, the Underworld King, and the Demon Emperor—rang a profound alarm bell in Lei Dong’s mind.

Consequently, Lei Dong resolved to remain low-key until he truly acquired the power capable of utterly overturning the Three Supreme Beings. Fortunately, his current level is still low, and his demeanor is cautious and subdued, meaning he is unlikely to attract the attention of figures like the Three Supreme Beings.

(Things have been very chaotic these past few days due to too many social obligations; tomorrow will also be a full day of chaos too~ There will only be one chapter tomorrow, likely~ I will make up for the missed chapters within this month~ My apologies.)