In the stone hall, the martial artists from the Endless Sea, who were imprisoned, managed to escape and looked upon Shi Yan with expressions of fervent gratitude.

When Gu Linglong and Cui Yanqing learned that Shi Yan was the one who bargained for their freedom from Zha Ji, their impression of him softened slightly.

Shi Yan, however, remained cold-eyed. He instructed Yi Cui Bi to ensure they brought more food next time, before addressing the people in the cages: "I traded for your lives. From this moment on, your lives belong to me. Don't celebrate too soon. Though life might be marginally better under my watch, the ultimate outcome remains the same!"

Upon hearing this, the expressions of the martial artists in the cages changed drastically.

"What do you intend to do?" Gu Linglong gritted her teeth secretly. "We are all fallen comrades. Are you planning to lay a venomous hand upon them?"

"My cultivation requires living subjects. I only want them because I intend to treat them as materials for my practice. In my eyes, they are already dead men," Shi Yan sneered. He then ceased speaking, sitting down amidst the hateful stares of the gathered crowd.

With a flicker of his spiritual sense, Shi Yan immediately fixed his gaze upon a withered martial artist from the Gu family within the cage.

Under Shi Yan's scrutiny, the man trembled and suddenly shrieked, clutching his head. "What did you do to me?"

Shi Yan remained unmoved, continuing to exert the power of his spiritual sense. It burrowed into the man’s cerebral domain, maneuvering within to search for the soul restriction left behind by Zha Ji.

"Shi Yan, what exactly are you doing?" He Qingman couldn't help but cry out either, urgently saying, "We are all in this boat together! Facing the threat of the foreign races, we should be united against the common enemy. Are you still holding grudges at a time like this?" Cui Yanqing and Gu Linglong also spoke up, leveling accusations.

Yet, Shi Yan acted as if he hadn't heard their clamor at all. He focused solely on driving his spiritual sense deep into the man’s mind, moving about forcefully to pinpoint the location of the primary soul and explore the characteristics of the soul, seeking the exact orientation of the soul restriction Zha Ji had placed.

During this period, drawing on the seven Soul Secret Canons of the Yin Mei clan, Shi Yan had gained a profound understanding of the mysteries of the soul. It was precisely this familiarity with the soul that allowed him to purge the Soul Seed planted in his primary soul by Yi Tian Mo, thereby shaking off Yi Tian Mo's spiritual suppression.

Back when he killed Han Long and returned to the ancient city, Yi Tian Mo had secretly tampered with his soul. Yi Tian Mo was exceptionally masterful in soul cultivation, quietly implanting a Soul Seed into Shi Yan's primary soul—a subtle act Shi Yan hadn't noticed at the time. Yi Tian Mo kept him alive because he believed the Soul Seed he planted could control Shi Yan at any moment.

Initially, Shi Yan only vaguely suspected that Yi Tian Mo had played tricks on him but couldn't be certain. However, when he recently obtained the seven Soul Secret Canons of the Yin Mei clan, after a period of frantic, sleepless study, he gained deep insight into the various soul divine abilities of the Yin Mei, realizing that Yi Tian Mo had likely acted long ago.

To prevent being instantly controlled and turned into a puppet at a critical juncture, he diligently studied the profound essence within the Yin Mei Soul Canons. Finally, as he guided his primary soul into the Sea of Consciousness, relying on his renewed understanding of the soul, he located that solitary black Soul Seed. He then used a combination of his spiritual sense and the might of the Celestial Fire Flame to incinerate the black seed completely.

Having cast off the latent threat of Yi Tian Mo’s Soul Seed, he suddenly recognized how bizarre and terrifying the various soul divine abilities of the Yin Mei clan were. To prevent similar incidents from occurring, he needed a deeper comprehension of soul mysteries, thus sparking the idea to delve deeply into this area.

To make further progress in soul mysteries, merely experimenting within his own mind was insufficient. His understanding of soul mysteries was still rudimentary, and many issues remained unclear. Using himself as the experimental subject risked shattering his own soul with a single misstep. Using others' souls as research subjects would avoid personal catastrophe, which is why he conceived the notion of using Pan Zhe and the others as subjects for profound soul research.

As his spiritual sense permeated the man's mind, Shi Yan’s thoughts shifted. His spiritual sense split into thousands, sweeping rapidly through the man’s cerebral domain, beginning with an attempt to grasp the complexity of the brain structure...

After an indeterminate amount of time, just as Shi Yan's spiritual sense within the man’s mind began to wane, on the verge of touching the primary soul, he suddenly felt a wave of spiraling fluctuation emanate from that soul. The ripple exploded directly within the man's primary soul.

"Boom!"

Shi Yan distinctly felt a muffled explosion echo from within the man's mind. Startled by the detonation, Shi Yan swiftly withdrew his spiritual sense.

"Gu Ke!" Gu Linglong cried out sorrowfully, her voice sharp.

Shi Yan opened his eyes and glanced at the gaunt Gu family martial artist. The man was bleeding from all seven orifices, his expression distorted in agony, his pupils a dull grayish-white—he was already dead.

"Shi Yan, look what you’ve done!" Gu Linglong leaped out like a fierce little tiger, baring her teeth and claws as she charged at Shi Yan. "You must pay with your life, you damnable villain! May you never have a good death!"

"Get away," Shi Yan said dismissively, raising a hand and sweeping it through the air. Gu Linglong’s small, exquisite body was pushed by an invisible force, rolling uncontrollably across the floor until she bumped against the corner of the stone hall. When she managed to stand, her face was smeared with grime, her demeanor utterly disheveled, devoid of her usual delicate refinement.

"Shi Yan, what you did is a bit too cruel, isn't it?" Cao Zhilan sighed and shook her head. "You might as well have just killed them outright. Torturing them piece by piece like this, using them as cultivation materials—this method is simply, simply..."

"He wasn't killed by me," Shi Yan scoffed. "There was a restriction set by a Yin Mei tribesman within his soul. The moment my consciousness entered his mind, before I even approached his soul, the restriction within his soul violently activated and instantly shattered his soul. The person who killed him must be the Yin Mei who set the restriction."

Cao Zhilan paused, startled, then hesitated before saying, "If you hadn't sent your spiritual sense into his mind, the restriction wouldn't have triggered, and he wouldn't have died."

"The outcome is the same. As long as the restriction exists, if the other party wishes him dead, he has no power to resist. By using him to study soul mysteries, perhaps I could find a way to break those restrictions. A few more people might die in the process. But I believe that with more familiarity, I can indeed break those restrictions," Shi Yan hummed indifferently. "They are going to die eventually anyway. If they can be of some use before death, it’s a stroke of luck. Frankly, I never viewed them as human. If you could think the same way, you wouldn't be so heartbroken."

With that, Shi Yan paid no further attention to Cao Zhilan and resumed his research.

Over the next two days, four martial artists from the Gu family in the cages became Shi Yan’s subjects for soul cultivation, one after another, each dying as their souls were violently shattered. Gu Linglong constantly tried to fight Shi Yan to the death but was restrained by Cao Zhilan, who kept trying to placate her.

Gu Linglong’s delicate face was contorted with ferocity. She shrieked threats that Shi Yan would meet a terrible end and swore how she would deal with him upon returning to the Endless Sea. Whenever Shi Yan grew impatient with her tirades, he would make a small move to discipline her, tearing off a piece of her clothing. When her snow-white skin began to show, nearly exposing her soft breasts, Gu Linglong finally quieted down temporarily, filled with both hatred and fear. She merely glared at Shi Yan, looking as if she intended to devour him alive.

Shi Yan remained unmoved, continuing his great endeavor of soul exploration.

His spiritual sense entered the mind of another Gu family martial artist. This time, he divided his spiritual sense into three streams, each imbued with his spiritual imprint. The three streams formed a minuscule "Hidden Spirit Soul Array," stealthily creeping toward the location of the man's primary soul in the cerebral domain.

"Hidden Spirit" was a peculiar soul technique of the Yin Mei clan, condensing wisps of spiritual sense to form marvelous soul arrays that completely masked the aura of the spiritual sense, rendering it undetectable to another's soul. This was a novel method Shi Yan devised after much contemplation.

Utilizing this peculiar soul technique of the Yin Mei, Shi Yan's three streams of spiritual sense quietly reached the location of the man's soul.

No anomaly occurred. In the previous attempts, the restrictions within those souls would immediately erupt upon this stage, directly exploding their souls. But this time, the soul power within the restriction clearly hadn't detected Shi Yan's spiritual sense aura; it remained hidden deep within the man's soul, completely still.

Shi Yan continued to guide the three streams of spiritual sense with his consciousness, moving within the man’s soul. Soon, a triangular soul restriction slowly materialized deep within the soul. This restriction was triangular, covered in dense soul threads. These threads were intricate and complex, forming a marvelous soul formation that constantly emitted soul vibrations, meticulously probing every movement of the man’s soul.

Familiar with the soul techniques of the Yin Mei, Shi Yan knew that the creator of this soul restriction could easily trigger it to detonate the man’s soul, or use it to control the soul temporarily.

The three streams of spiritual sense suddenly surged forward, violently enveloping the restriction. The scorching flame power attached to the core of his spiritual sense burst forth instantly.

"Hiss! Hiss!"

The triangular soul restriction released by Zha Ji was swiftly incinerated under Shi Yan's power.

After a long while, Shi Yan suddenly opened his eyes and looked at the Gu family martial artist in the cage, saying faintly, "The restriction on your soul has been removed by me."

The people in the stone hall were momentarily stunned, then their faces flooded with expressions of extreme joy.

"Indeed, only by experimenting on living souls can one truly enhance their understanding..." Shi Yan murmured softly. While everyone was ecstatic, he added calmly, "I have removed the restriction placed on him by others, but I have, in turn, left a soul restriction, condensed by myself, within his mind. His life and death are now under my control."

"You, you bastard!" Gu Linglong cursed furiously.

Shi Yan's expression remained unchanged, cold as ever. "Next, I will remove the soul restrictions on all of them, one by one, and then implant my own soul shackles. Only then can I confidently use them as materials for my soul research. If, after my soul cultivation is complete, some of them manage to survive, perhaps I might spare those exceptionally lucky few."

This declaration caused the despair to resurface in the eyes of the martial artists in the cage who had just found a glimmer of hope.

"You demon!"

Gu Linglong, Cui Yanqing, and even Cao Zhilan couldn't help but shout in anger together, their delicate bodies trembling with profound fury.

PS: A new week begins, asking for recommendation tickets and monthly passes. Starting today, the update schedule will be stable: one chapter at noon, and another around six in the evening. There will often be bursts of extra chapters. I will definitely have three chapters today. Bring on the recommendation tickets and monthly passes; I need some fuel!