Numerous ancient magical symbols shone dazzlingly within the second fragmentary star mark.
Nie Tian’s soul awareness swam among them as he tried to derive more enlightenment.
As he did, the ancient magical symbols disappeared one after another, to be branded in the depths of his soul and become his indelible memories.
The ancient magical symbols recorded profound knowledge of star souls and Starchain. The magical symbols he learned first were about star souls.
From them, he finally learned that the nine fragmentary stars in his soul were actually called star souls.
Star souls were the souls of stars.
Qi warriors from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace would be able to gather star souls and cultivate with them after entering the Worldly realm.
Star souls only existed in the cores of stars, so they were very difficult to find in the first place.
Then, it was even harder to merge them with oneself and turn them into star souls.
It was hard for many Qi warriors from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace to find a single star soul right after they entered the Worldly realm.
Some couldn’t even collect as many as nine star souls their whole lives.
Apparently, he was different from most Qi warriors from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
He was a Son of the Stars picked by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace through the Heaven Gate trial.
Every Son of the Stars would receive nine star souls from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace immediately after passing the Heaven Gate trials.
This meant that he had obtained these star souls right after he had passed the Heaven Gate trial.
At first, they had hidden in his sea of awareness. Later, seven of them had appeared. Then when he had refined the discarnate souls within the spiritual soul into pure soul power, the other two had come to form.
When star souls became strong enough, they could be viewed as sub-souls.
Once sub-souls were branded with the profound power of one’s true soul, they would be able to exercise the same functions as the true soul. Through them, the cultivator would be able to cast soul magics and derive enlightenment.
The interesting thing was that even if a cultivator’s true soul was destroyed, as long as they still had one sub-soul, they would be able to regather their true soul and return it to life.
Furthermore, his nine star souls would have other incredible uses when he needed to build his inner domain and break through into the Void domain.
The Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had chosen these star souls for him according to his situation. Only in this way was he able to control and use them when his cultivation base was still low.
He also learned that he could not only strengthen his star souls with soul crystals, which were very hard to find, but he could also cultivate them by detecting and collecting soul power from the cores of stars in this universe.
“There’re star souls in each and every star. I can establish a profound connection with them and channel power from them to strengthen my own star souls. When my star souls are strong enough, I’ll be able to brand them with my soul imprints and make them transform.”
As his awareness swam among the numerous ancient magical symbols to derive enlightenment about star souls, he also consumed his soul power at an alarming rate.
Soon, he felt deeply depleted, and had to stop deriving enlightenment of star souls. He didn’t even get to the magical symbols that recorded Starchain.
WHOOSH!
He let out a deep breath and awoke with a much deeper understanding of the nine fragmentary stars in his soul.
However, he also realized that he had consumed a significant amount of soul power after such a short time deriving enlightenment.
His nine star souls had grown noticeably smaller, and the light they emanated had become dimmer.
The soul crystal he had held fast in his hand had disappeared. Apparently, he had already drained it of its soul power.
At this moment, the Phantasm soul that resided in the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows seemed to sense his consumption of soul power.
Therefore, it launched another soul attack.
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he exclaimed, “Here it comes again!”
Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan, who were each holding a soul crystal in their hand, snapped out of their cultivation and opened their eyes simultaneously.
Unlike Nie Tian, they didn’t have star souls in their seas of awareness. Because of this, their efficiency at absorbing soul power was far inferior to Nie Tian’s.
Qiao Yunxi’s soul crystal still had more than half of its soul power left, while Yin Yanan’s had shrunk more much considerably, but was still far from vanishing.
This meant neither of the two girls had managed to drain their soul crystal of its power.
However, the soul crystal Yin Yanan had tossed to the Frost Blood Python was now nowhere to be seen, which meant this hybrid spirit beast had absorbed every last shred of soul power of that soul crystal.
“That Phantasm soul is attacking you again?!” Yin Yanan asked.
“Exactly!” Nie Tian answered with one word before hastily shutting his eyes and focusing on defending his sea of awareness.
Gritting her teeth, Yin Yanan instantly established a profound connection with the Frost Blood Python. “Alright, here we come!”
Her soul awareness quickly blended with the Frost Blood Python’s, forming numerous fine wisps of pure soul power that flew directly into Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.
Qiao Yunxi was also well-aware what would happen if Nie Tian were to be possessed by the Phantasm soul, and thus also sent her soul awareness into Nie Tian’s sea of awareness without any delay.
Nie Tian sensed a peculiar feeling as Yin Yanan and Qiao Yunxi’s soul awareness flew into his sea of awareness.
He felt as if a mysterious soul connection had suddenly formed among him, Yin Yanan, and Qiao Yunxi.
Since the Frost Blood Python was a spirit beast, Nie Tian didn’t have a similar feeling with it.
Eyes tightly shut, Nie Tian tried his best to see what was happening. He saw a large amount of Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan’s auras floating close to the edge of his sea of awareness.
A mysterious layer of starlight was protecting his sea of awareness from the infiltration of any soul power that didn’t belong to him.
The soul awareness of Qiao Yunxi, Yin Yanan, the Frost Blood Python, and the Phantasm soul were like ghosts that floated out of an isolated sea. He could sense their presence and unique features with great clarity.
The Phantasm soul’s unique aura and fluctuations disgusted him as they suddenly morphed into countless needles of soul power, hoping to pierce his sea of awareness.
Immediately afterwards, Qiao Yunxi, Yin Yanan, and the Frost Blood Python acted accordingly.
The Frost Blood Python’s soul awareness split into two different kinds of soul strings: some were crystal-clear, while others were scarlet like blood. They quickly came together and morphed into two spirit beasts: a Frost Python and a Blood Stripe Python.
Yin Yanan’s awareness also split and rode these two spirit beasts as they fought the Phantasm soul’s evil power by the edge of Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.
Compared to her, Qiao Yunxi’s soul awareness was much weaker, but carried the blazing aura of flame crystals that could be found at the hearts of volcanoes.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan’s soul awareness took different forms as they engaged in a fierce battle against the Phantasm soul right outside Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.
Qiao Yunxi’s soul power that carried a blazing aura was ripped apart by the Phantasm soul’s fierce attacks and rapidly disappeared.
However, Yin Yanan and the Frost Blood Python’s mixed soul power managed to contend against the Phantasm soul’s fierce attacks, and took a lot of pressure off of Nie Tian.
Thanks to Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan’s efforts, the Phantasm soul couldn’t focus all of its power on infiltrating Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.
Only a few ghosts that were formed by the Phantasm soul made it to Nie Tian’s sea of awareness, but were soon eliminated.
This battle of souls didn’t last very long. The Phantasm soul’s attacks were frustrated, and it soon retreated to the prismatic crystal between Nie Tian’s eyebrows.
Compared to the previous soul battles, with assistance from Yin Yanan, the Frost Blood Python, and Qiao Yunxi, Nie Tian won this battle much easier.
He had feeling that he might be able to wear out the Phantasm soul’s strength and get rid of it completely before long.
This was mostly thanks to the fact that Yin Yanan and the Frost Blood Python could create great difficulty for the Phantasm soul.
While he let out a sigh of relief and his furrowed eyebrows gradually relaxed, the Phantasm soul that hid inside the prismatic crystal once again attempted to influence him with negative emotions.
Unlike the previous attempts, a new emotion was added to this wave of attack: lust.
The Phantasm soul brought his desire for the opposite sex out from the bottom of his heart and magnified it by countless times.
Nie Tian’s mind stirred as he opened his eyes and fixed them on Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan, who were within arm’s reach.
The two of them had exceptional appearances to start with. Now, in his eyes, their beauty seemed to multiply, which caused his heart to race. His desire to have them right away rapidly took up his heart.
Under the influence of the strong desire, wisps of his soul awareness took it upon themselves to fly out of his sea of awareness.
Since Qiao Yunxi and Yin Yanan hadn’t withdrawn their soul awareness yet at this point, their soul awareness mixed up instantly.
Numerous images of intimacy among the three of them then entered Nie Tian’s mind.
Meanwhile, since their soul awarenesses were tangled up, the same images entered Yin Yanan and Qiao Yunxi’s minds as well.
Even though their eyes were still closed, their cheeks flushed as soon as they realized what Nie Tian was thinking.