132: Holy Soul Sect

Just as the seven stars in the sky shone brightly, the thousand-foot giant gate on the sea surface slowly opened a crack.

At this moment, everything within a hundred miles seemed to freeze; the waves became still like azure crystal, the seabirds in the sky hung suspended, and even the slightly salty sea breeze ceased.

Xiao Zhuo and Zi Ji were also frozen in place like insects in amber.

Their thoughts could still operate, but their Physical Bodies could not move at all.

Soon, Xiao Zhuo discovered that although his body could not move, his soul infant could.

This was an extremely profound and incredible state: all objects within a hundred miles seemed to fall into a time amber, with only the power of the Divine Soul moving unhindered.

Xiao Zhuo hesitated for a moment, then his three-inch soul infant emerged from within him.

Upon reaching the soul infant Realm, the Divine Soul was no longer constrained by the Physical Body; as long as the energy of heaven and earth was inexhaustible, the soul infant would not wither.

As soon as the three-inch soul infant emerged from the body, it suddenly expanded, becoming the same size as his Physical Body. He raised a hand, and a purple-gold orb appeared in it, held by Xiao Zhuo.

Meanwhile, a silver-glowing soul infant also stepped out from Zi Ji’s body. The two soul infants exchanged glances, then the main soul infant tapped its toes and flew towards the ancient giant gate, which was open just a crack.

In the blink of an eye, it vanished into that crevice.

At the same time, many powerful Cultivators near Jing Prefecture also noticed the anomaly here and rushed over.

However, they were frozen at the hundred-mile boundary.

Even though their Divine Souls were unrestricted and could use Divine Sense to explore the thousand-foot giant gate, their Physical Bodies remained confined in place.

Slowly, people began to attempt to let their Divine Souls leave their bodies to explore.

Soon, over a hundred Cultivators who had cultivated their Divine Souls gathered outside the giant gate.

Everyone quickly saw Xiao Zhuo and Zi Ji’s Physical Bodies standing side by side, with a silver-shining soul infant beside them, looking like a Divine Being.

Everyone was already familiar with Thunder Celestial Venerable, and some powerful Cultivators knew Silver Fox Zi Ji, but few knew that Silver Fox Zi Ji had already been refined into a Clone by Xiao Zhuo.

Seeing two Nine-Realm Grand Cultivators here, and the silver-glowing soul infant, which was completely different from the legendary Thunder power, made everyone dare not approach for a time.

They merely observed the two Nine-Realm Grand Cultivators and the giant gate, which exuded an ancient aura, with solemn gazes.

Just then, the seven stars in the sky began to shift.

The power of frozen space-time seemed to loosen.

Everyone was startled and wanted to quickly return to their Physical Bodies.

A sudden change occurred.

The thousand-foot giant gate opened another crack.

A terrifying suction force emerged from the gate; the surrounding seawater, fish, and shrimp, the many Divine Souls floating in mid-air, and even the two Physical Bodies and the second Split Soul’s soul infant left behind by Xiao Zhuo, were all continuously drawn towards the giant gate by this immense force.

The Divine Eye in the second Split Soul’s glabella opened, attempting to analyze this suction force, but it only saw a hazy blur, unable to discern anything clearly.

However, Xiao Zhuo did not want everything to be sucked in. The second Split Soul began to mobilize the Divine Thought in the Sea of Consciousness of both bodies.

A thirty-six-sided Taishi Space, enveloping both bodies, suddenly formed.

The Taishi Space was embedded within the space itself; as long as this suction force had not reached the level of destroying space, it could not harm it.

However, dozens of Divine Souls met with misfortune, and in the blink of an eye, they were all sucked into the giant gate.

This sudden change came and went quickly.

As the seven stars shifted, the light of Star Power descending from the sky slowly disappeared.

The thousand-foot giant gate suddenly closed, the suction force vanished, and at the same time, the giant gate slowly dematerialized, disappearing within ten breaths.

The frozen space-time also unfroze as the giant gate dematerialized.

The second Split Soul immediately burrowed into the main body, raised a hand, and also brought Zi Ji’s body back into its own.

At this Realm, the Physical Body, which had long become an energy body, could be Fused at any time. After Fusion, Xiao Zhuo could use the abilities of either body.

Although the area had returned to calm, Xiao Zhuo landed on a nearby small island, sat cross-legged, and waited patiently.

As the giant gate dematerialized into stardust and dissipated, Xiao Zhuo’s main soul infant was passing through a colorful tunnel.

Vibrant, colorful nebulae, strangely colored colossal trees, blue-purple roots tens of thousands of feet thick, endless darkness and light.

This was a world interwoven with endless profound mysteries and terrors.

But Xiao Zhuo seemed to be just a passerby; a terrifying force continuously dragged him forward at an incredibly fast speed. The vast landscapes he saw were merely scenery along the way.

This made him even more curious about the world behind this mysterious gate.

And although it was mysterious here, his Danger Perception did not trigger any alarms.

Xiao Zhuo was like an insect sealed inside an airplane, watching everything constantly flash past his eyes. Time seemed to lose its effect, and he didn't know how long had passed.

Everything finally came to a standstill.

Xiao Zhuo’s mind was drawn away from the splendid and vast scenes of the past.

He looked at his surroundings.

He seemed to have returned to a normal world; his current location was an endless mountain range.

Faint blue Spiritual Qi mist was visible to the naked eye, appearing and disappearing.

But when his Divine Sense probed, he couldn't perceive anything.

“Senior Brother Qi, you really stole the show on this mountain descent to slay demons! When we return to the Sect this time, you’ll definitely get into the Soul Tempering Pool!” a girl’s voice, like a valley oriole, rang out from behind him.

Xiao Zhuo turned to look, only to see a group of five descending from the sky. The speaker was the only woman among them, with a melon seed face, a slender figure, and a goose-yellow long dress tied with a white gauze bow at the waist, looking innocent and lively.

The leading young man had sword-like eyebrows and starry eyes, dressed in a light yellow tight-fitting suit, clearly a young talent.

The other three men were similarly dressed, evidently all Sect Disciples.

As they chatted and laughed, they walked past Xiao Zhuo. Xiao Zhuo, who was about to cup his fists and ask for directions, immediately noticed an anomaly: none of the five had noticed him.

With some speculation in his heart, he tapped his foot and reached out to pat the shoulder of the person walking last among the five.

The result was as he expected: his palm passed directly through that person’s body.

Logically speaking, having cultivated a soul infant, he had now constructed a body with Divine Thought. Although it wasn’t a Physical Body, it was a quasi-physical state, so he shouldn't have been unable to touch the other person, nor should the other person have been unable to perceive him.

It seemed this place was indeed unusual.

Xiao Zhuo suppressed the doubt in his heart and followed the five forward.

A few hundred meters away, a mountain gate entrance appeared.

At the entrance was a huge archway, with Dragon and Phoenix carved on the jade pillars on both sides, looking extremely grand. It was also imbued with extremely profound Formation patterns, so much so that even with Xiao Zhuo’s current discernment, he couldn’t understand the origins of this Formation.

On the archway, in silver background and gold lacquer, were written the three large characters: Sacred Soul Sect.

In addition to the five people from earlier, many other Disciples landed their figures from the mountain gate, or soared into the sky.

At a glance, there were over a hundred Disciples wearing yellow or blue clothes here.

Xiao Zhuo tapped the Void Realm, and his entire being flew along the intermittent stream of people towards the depths of the mountain range.

After flying less than ten miles, a vast expanse of white buildings, stretching for an unknown number of miles, appeared in Xiao Zhuo’s sight.

Many of these buildings were surrounded by substantial-looking spiritual light, evidently capable of gathering Spiritual Qi.

Xiao Zhuo, possessing the panel, naturally knew what Spiritual Qi was.

Logically, this should be an energy possessed only by the Middle Thousand Worlds.

Did he come to a Middle Thousand Worlds through that great gate?

Xiao Zhuo’s doubts grew.

He began to inspect various places within this massive Sect: the Artifact Refining Hall, the Pill Pavilion, the Scripture Pavilion, and the Outer Sect Disciple Peak.

He walked all the way to the depths of the Sect, found the Inner Sect Dao Discussion Hall, found the Sect Treasury, the Core Scripture Pavilion, and found the Soul Tempering Valley that the girl he first met had mentioned.

He explored many Immortal Caves of the Sect Elders.

Finally, his gaze fell upon the highest peak within the mountain gate.

At the summit of that mountain was a circular tall pagoda. From the conversations of the Disciples at the gate, Xiao Zhuo learned that the pagoda was called the Sacred Soul Pagoda, the place where the Old Ancestor of the Sacred Soul Sect cultivated in seclusion, and also a Forbidden Ground of the Sect.

This tall pagoda reached tens of thousands of feet, piercing into the clouds; at a glance, its end was nowhere to be seen.

Just as Xiao Zhuo looked up at the tall pagoda, the gaze of some magnificent existence seemed to cross the river of time and look towards him.