Six first-tier purple Beast Soul Stones were positioned around the perimeter, each anchoring a cardinal point. Upon the windowsill, no fewer than six bronze mirrors were set up, reflecting slivers of moonlight into the room.

Zong Shou sat in the center of this chamber, which was intricately mapped with cinnabar-inked talismans, surveying his surroundings to check for any oversight.

The inscribed formation was designed to ward off external malevolence, as well as the omnipresent vital winds that permeated the cosmos. When a Spirit Master first forged their Soul Sea, the greatest peril was attracting malevolent spirits, ghastly phantoms, and all manner of external evils. One careless mistake could result in the spirit being seized, leaving the body entirely senseless.

Those purple Beast Soul Stones were crafted from a unique mineral, used to seal the refined essence of spirit beasts.

They were materials typically employed by Spirit Masters for artifact refinement or casting spells, yet Zong Shou was using them now as the very source from which he would draw soul power.

Devouring Heaven Primordial Transformation was not merely applicable to the martial path; it possessed equivalent potency in the art of Spirit Mastery.

The way of Heaven is to diminish the excess and augment the insufficient. So long as an object possessed ‘excess’ strength greater than oneself, the Great Art of Primordial Devouring could skillfully plunder it. This is precisely why later generations deemed it the foremost sinister technique, consigning it to the ranks of the demonic path.

To employ six Soul Stones simultaneously was a measure of Zong Shou’s ambition for himself.

Spirit Masters, too, placed great emphasis on foundations, and the initial quality and scale of the Soul Sea directly determined a Spirit Master's future achievements.

With the cultivation experience of his previous life, coupled with the Devouring Heaven Primordial Transformation technique in hand, Zong Shou possessed the ideal conditions, naturally inspiring great aspirations.

All the talismans were flawless, and Yin Yang Chu Xue would certainly not interrupt at such a juncture. Zong Shou decisively slit his middle finger and sprinkled several dozen drops of blood across the area.

When the entire talisman array began to emanate faint beams of spiritual light, Zong Shou immediately activated the Devouring Heaven Primordial Transformation Art, simultaneously drawing upon the soul power from the six Soul Stones encircling him. This caused the stones to flicker with a subtle purple luminescence. From weak to strong, streams of soul power, augmented by the protective array, poured into the center of Zong Shou’s brow.

However, Zong Shou had only absorbed for a brief moment when the seals upon the Soul Stones began to crackle and break. Six tiger roars sounded sequentially by his ears. At the same instant, the surrounding Beast Soul Stones shattered into dust.

A puff of purple smoke erupted from each fragment, instantaneously condensing into the shape of a tiger. Each beast stood nearly ten feet tall, ferocious and savage, opening their massive, blood-red mouths to roar at Zong Shou, poised as if ready to pounce at any second.

“All are beasts already dead, unwilling to be subjugated, yet you still dare harm a living soul?”

Zong Shou sneered coldly. First-tier beast souls lacked the power to truly injure anyone; they could only posture threateningly or unleash a minor soul shock, their efficacy pitifully small.

Yet, if the practitioner employing this technique today failed to remain calm, if their mind faltered, or if they could not withstand the psychic onslaught of these specters, the danger of death would remain very real.

Zong Shou was fully aware of this and was determined not to make such an error.

In his past life, in order to cultivate martial arts in reality, he had endured countless hardships and torments. In this life, he experienced the agony of bloodline conflict almost every single day. His state of mind was so resolute that it surpassed even that of secluded Celestial Rank experts; a mere handful of external specters held no terror for him.

Soul power continued to be forcibly drawn, drop by drop, from the Beast Soul Stones and channeled into the ‘Shen Xiao Acupoint’ located between his eyebrows. Zong Shou then focused his mind, sinking into the Sea of Consciousness within.

Typically, Spirit Masters began their training by establishing the circulation of their spiritual meridians. Through daily meditation, they accumulated sufficient soul power and spiritual energy within the cerebral Wisdom Wheel before finally forging the Soul Sea in one decisive act.

This entire process, depending on innate aptitude, generally took anywhere from one month to three years.

Unable to pursue the martial path, turning to the Soul Master path was Zong Shou’s alternative. However, the two parallel Wisdom Wheels located in his head remained an insurmountable barrier. After three years of stagnation, he had achieved nothing.

Now, using the six Beast Soul Stones as his power source, Zong Shou was outright bypassing the accumulation phase, choosing to forge the Sea directly.

The spiritual energies from the four directions, along with the forcefully extracted soul power, he channeled directly from the ‘Shen Xiao Acupoint’ into his nascent Divine Soul.

While skillfully and steadily condensing this influx into a single point, Zong Shou simultaneously etched thirty-six distinct talismans within the nexus, concealing them inside.

Yet, vaguely, he sensed a subtle repulsive force emanating from beneath his Qi Sea, interfering with the cohesion of his spiritual thoughts.

This was the inherent conflict between his internal qi and the soul power, something Zong Shou had anticipated. At this moment, it was extremely weak, entirely negligible.

When all the soul power and spiritual energies had been compressed to their utmost limit, they suddenly exploded. Upon re-forming, they solidified into a purplish mass resembling a miniature vortex.

This was the so-called Soul Sea. From this point forward, his Divine Soul possessed a true core—the foundation of all Spirit Master cultivation. However, at this stage, it barely deserved the title of ‘Sea’; it was merely a true Soul Seed, requiring countless efforts to nurture it into robust growth.

Zong Shou let out a long breath and relaxed his mental state. The entire process sounded simple, yet throughout history, countless cultivators of spiritual arts had foundered and failed at this exact step.

But as he continued his meditation, a knot of worry formed in his chest. He wondered if his Soul Sea had somehow absorbed characteristics of the Devouring Heaven Primordial Transformation Art.

The resulting Soul Sea was not the typical pill-shape of ordinary practitioners, but rather a tiny vortex. It was not only consuming ambient spiritual energy but was also absorbing scattered residual thoughts! The rate was minuscule, less than one ten-thousandth of what he could actively achieve using the Primordial Devouring Art, but it was constantly drawing in new soul power and spiritual energy into his Divine Soul, entirely without restraint.

He felt a flicker of regret; this type of mutation, he could not tell if it was beneficial or detrimental.

“To passively devour spiritual energy and lingering thoughts without deliberate direction—doesn’t that equate to constant meditation? However, the most crucial aspect of Spirit Master cultivation is the purity of the original spirit. My choice to pursue the Spirit Master path using the Primordial Devouring Method was already a necessity born of constraint. Never mind; there must be a way to resolve this. It will simply mean enduring a bit more hardship—”

With a heavy sigh, a sharp glint reappeared in Zong Shou’s eyes. With a deep, forceful hum, the six Azure Tigers, having been drained of all vitality, could hold on no longer. They dissipated into wisps of azure smoke, thinning rapidly before vanishing entirely.

Looking toward the window again, he saw that the bright moon hung high in the night sky.

“Time passed without my notice; two hours have already elapsed. Now, as the hour of Zi approaches, it is the perfect time!”

Forging the Soul Sea was merely the precursor; until this very moment, lay the true crucible!

He took out nine sticks of high-grade sandalwood incense, lit them one by one, and placed them before him. Zong Shou closed his eyes once more and began his visualization.

Using the technique of the Twelvefold Pagoda, he envisioned his soul ascending layer by layer. Reaching the final tier, Zong Shou let out another sharp cry.

“Emanate!”

Immediately, a faint wisp of vapor drilled out from the back of Zong Shou’s head. It was ethereal and unstable, barely visible, though slightly denser at its core.

At that very instant, outside the perimeter of the talisman array, countless spirits and specters, varying in size, materialized, all staring menacingly and continually assaulting the barrier. However, dense clusters of purple light held them firmly outside the formation.

Moreover, the cosmic vital winds swept in from beyond, seeping inward in fine threads. Zong Shou’s Divine Soul, upon the slightest contact, shuddered violently, nearly collapsing.

“What sharp vital winds! Even after my formation has almost entirely isolated them, they still retain such formidable power. The world ten thousand years ago—the environment must have been this brutal. No wonder ancient Spirit Masters could only achieve true Emanation after completing the three stages: Solidifying the Spirit, Illuminating the Soul, and Nurturing the Spirit—”

Exerting his utmost effort, Zong Shou managed to gather his Divine Soul, condensing it into a tight sphere hovering half an inch above his physical body, waiting silently.

Just past the stroke of midnight, the moonlight reflected by the six bronze mirrors on the window began to converge upon a single point. And precisely at the convergence of these six moonbeams rested Zong Shou’s nascent spirit.

In the next instant, faint traces of Solar Essence Flame flickered indistinctly within that concentrated light.

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