Chapter 556: Third Level!
Outside of the stone stele, in the glowing sphere of light, Bai Xiaochun’s eyes opened. A blank look could be seen in them, and before he could react, the glowing sphere became another vortex which sucked him inside. Then the vortex vanished.
At that point, the stone stele finally stopped shaking, although the crack on its surface remained.
Furthermore, the spirit enhancement trial vanished from among the list of available trials....
When the more than 1,000 spectators saw that, their jaws dropped, and their minds began to spin.
“Bai Xiaochun vanished!!”
“Did he really take 1st place!?!? That means he must have just gone to the third level to get the deva soul!!”
“How could it be him!?!? Damn that Devil Bai! Why did it have to be him!?!?”
“Hmph! Actually, it's good that he's getting the deva soul. If a deva won it, none of us would ever have a chance of taking it away. But there’s no way Devil Bai will be able to keep his hands on it!”
“That’s right. Now Bai Xiaochun is worth more than ever. Kill him, and not only will you get a full set of five elements deva beast souls, but you’ll also get a deva soul!”
However, even as the discussion raged, people realized that Mistress Red-Dust’s glowing sphere was still lit up, making it even more eye-catching than before. Not only had she not been ejected from the trial by fire, but she was apparently very close to completing it.
At that point, it became obvious that Bai Xiaochun might not be the one to get the deva soul. If he didn’t move quickly enough in the third level, then not only would he fail to get the deva soul, but he might also lose his life.
After all, he would be stuck alone with a deva who wanted him dead. As for how that scenario would end, few people even needed to wonder.
Zhou Yixing was trembling, his eyes shining with rabid excitement. “Go, Matriarch Red-Dust, go! Get to that third level and slaughter that damned Bai Xiaochun!”
In the third level of the labyrinth, which was the location of the deva soul, there was a huge, octagonal sepulcher. Not only were there brightly shining lamps illuminating the entire area, but there were also eight statues, one in each corner.
The statues were fully 300 meters tall, and yet, compared to the overall size of the sepulcher, seemed insignificant. The floor was made up of overlapping tiles that resembled dragon scales, and in fact, closer examination revealed an inlaid depiction of nine golden dragons!
All nine of those dragons were situated around an altar, as if that altar were their revered leader!
And that was only the floor! The walls of the sepulcher were covered with innumerable openings, from which erupted beams of multicolored light, which swirled together in midair to form the shape of an enormous golden dragon!
It was extremely lifelike, as though it were real and corporeal, coiled about on the ceiling, with its head resting just above the altar, its eyes closed as if sleeping.
The way that everything in the sepulcher seemed to point to the altar truly made it stand out. As for the altar, there was no coffin on top of it, only a green stone stele!
It seemed ancient, as if it had existed for countless years, and was covered with lines of script that had obviously been left behind for later generations to read.
However, anyone who got close enough would instantly realize that the stone stele was actually floating above the surface of the altar!
There was some mysterious power holding the stone stele up, and ensuring that it floated there completely unmoving. Furthermore, floating in the space between the stone stele and the surface of the altar was a blue and white jade bracelet!
Within the jade bracelet was a wisp of green mist that was apparently a distillation of the quintessence of heaven and earth. Occasionally, the swirling mist would form together into a drop of water, which would emanate the soul fluctuations of the Deva Realm!!
This was the deva soul, and a water-type deva soul at that!
Currently, golden light was flickering above the golden floor roughly 3,000 meters to the right of the altar, which was where Bai Xiaochun was materializing.
At first, Bai Xiaochun looked confused, which was no wonder considering how many teleportations he’d just gone through. He had been completely focused on spirit enhancement, only to have his soul whisked back into the glowing sphere. Then, just when he had opened his eyes, he was taken to this place.
He looked around blankly for a moment, then noticed the golden dragon’s head above the altar. At that point, his eyes went wide, and he gasped and took a few steps back. Then he looked around at all the holes in the wall which were projecting the light that formed the dragon.
“Oh, I thought it was a real dragon, but turns out it's fake. Trying to scare Lord Bai, huh?” Even as he breathed a sigh of relief, his thoughts began to clear, and as he recalled everything which had just occurred, he realized that he must be in the third level!
“I took 1st place!” Eyes shining with excitement at the thought of how much he was benefiting from all of this, he looked around and then prepared to fly toward the altar. However, that was when his face suddenly fell.
“My wok....” Unsure of whether or not he had left his wok behind during the sudden teleportation, he quickly attempted to summon it. Thankfully, the black light appeared, and the wok popped out. Sighing in relief, he put it away. Then he remembered his mask, and looked down to find it stuck to his chest. After putting it back on, he hurried toward the altar.
After looking up at the shining dragon, he reached out to see if he could touch it, only to find that his hand passed through it. Finally, he relaxed a bit.
“This place is decorated very nicely. It has a glowing dragon in the air, and even the floor is made of dragons. You know, it actually reminds me of a tomb, except that there isn’t a coffin.” By this point, he was standing right in front of the stone stele, and could see that right beneath it was a white and blue jade bracelet, filled with mist!
Many people would never even have the chance to see a single deva soul in their entire life, and would thus have difficulty identifying one. But Bai Xiaochun already had two in his bag of holding, and therefore, he instantly realized that the mist in the bracelet was a deva soul!
Clearly, the deva soul was being suppressed by the power of the stone stele, which would also make it difficult to take it away. Looking up at the stone stele, Bai Xiaochun began to read the script, whereupon his eyes widened, and he subconsciously took a few steps back, his eyes shining with disbelief.
I am the second generation arch-emperor, and this is one of nine of my sepulchers that do not contain my fleshly remains. My cultivation base came from my father, the emperor before me. In accord with his wishes, upon my death, I did not hesitate to split apart my three spiritual souls and seven physical souls, and send them into the sepulchers for my descendants to acquire as good fortune.
All people in this world are of my blood, and thus, any who reach this point will be one of my descendants....
Located here is my seventh physical soul, which is also a deva soul....
Bai Xiaochun was shaken by what he read, and could only speculate at what further secrets were hidden in this place....
Panting, he continued to read the script, which left him even more shocked, as it described how to use deva souls.
After he finished reading all the text, Bai Xiaochun was shocked to find that, before, he had been completely unaware of how to properly use deva souls. Before, he had been under the impression that all you had to do was collect five deva souls and put them together in much the same way that you would put together a set of five elements deva beast souls, then absorb them internally. At that point, you could break out of Core Formation and step into the Nascent Soul stage!
The truth was that there was much more to it than that!
It was true that five deva souls were needed to reach the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage. However, it wasn’t necessary to wait until collecting a set of five before beginning to absorb them! Each deva soul could be absorbed individually, and then used to produce a clone with exactly the same cultivation base as one’s true self!!!
This was Bai Xiaochun’s first time hearing about such a thing. Perhaps no one had ever told him because... no one else knew about this either! This bit of information was something which had been erased by the passage of countless years of time!
If one could absorb five different deva souls of different types, not only would the five clones give one indescribable battle prowess, but all one had to do was fuse the clones with one’s true self, and then use that incredible power to instantly reach the Nascent Soul stage without any chance of failure!
From the process of reaching the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul stage, it was possible to see how incredibly powerful it was.
Of course, there was a downside. Upon absorbing even a single deva soul, it became impossible to ever again attempt to use deva beast souls to form a Nascent Soul! Once one started down the path of the Heaven-Dao Nascent Soul, one could never go back.