275: Soul Consciousness Stage

Name: Sealed Soul of Resentment

Type: Soul Body

Grade: Martial Soul Grade

Description: This is a Soul Body carrying immense resentment.

Remarks: The seal can be broken with one's own Soul Power, but it requires a lot of Soul Power. If one does not have enough strength to suppress the evil spirit, one will suffer a backlash from it.

...Name: Nightmare Candle

Type: Fuel

Grade: Martial Soul Grade

Description: Said to be refined from materials from a nightmare. When the candle is lit, everyone within a hundred meters who sees the candlelight will enter a Dream World.

Remark 1: Sometimes, the Dream World may bring death, or it may bring benefits.

Remark 2: In the Dream World, one will encounter many unknown situations, including some great dangers. If one's strength is insufficient, one will die from the Dream World's dangers.

Remark 3: Some have also used the Dream World as a means to improve and temper their Soul Power, but please use it with caution.

Remark 4: Once used, it will continue until the candle burns out.

...Name: Soul Body Containment Box

Type: Box

Grade: Martial Soul Grade

Description: A special box capable of containing Soul Bodies.

Remarks: The contained Soul Body should preferably be one that has been suppressed. If a powerful Soul Body struggles within the box, it will damage the box.

Xiao Shi looked at the three items in his hand.

These were the items he obtained after returning to the Prison City and killing several prisoners.

Originally, there were seven items.

However, apart from these three relatively good items, the other four were very ordinary.

They were not very useful to him.

Therefore, he had already put those four items into the 【Purple Treasure Plate】, intending to exchange them for better treasures at the Myriad Treasure Pagoda once he accumulated enough value.

Only these three items remained.

Among them, the 【Sealed Soul of Resentment】 could serve as a key material for condensing Soul Consciousness.

After some research, Xiao Shi had clearly realized that various different Soul Bodies were the best auxiliary materials for condensing Soul Consciousness.

Currently, besides the 【Sealed Soul of Resentment】 he just obtained, he also had the previously dropped 【Sealed Evil Soul】.

He had a total of two Soul Bodies.

He planned to use both of these Soul Bodies for the upcoming Soul Consciousness condensation.

The 【Nightmare Candle】 was a Dream World-related item.

It could be used against enemies or to enhance one's own Soul Power.

It was considered a decent item.

The 【Soul Body Containment Box】 was for storing Soul Bodies.

Knowing that Soul Bodies were key materials for Soul Consciousness condensation, Xiao Shi now had a greater demand for them.

However, he also knew that he couldn't rely solely on killing to obtain Soul Bodies.

He also needed to acquire Soul Bodies through other means.

After all, he couldn't guarantee that every kill would drop a Soul Body.

Collecting Soul Bodies solely by killing would be too inefficient.

Regarding this, Xiao Shi had already thought of a method.

At this moment, seven corpses lay before him.

These seven corpses were the seven prisoners he had killed earlier.

With Xiang Zizhen's care, even if he didn't go out to earn merits now, he could still be assigned some prisoners from the Prison City every day.

He no longer had to worry about not having prisoners to kill.

He looked at the seven corpses before him.

“Let's begin!”

He immediately unleashed the 【Three Soul Control Methods】!

This powerful Heaven-Rank Secret Technique included secret methods for the three stages of the Martial Soul Realm.

Among them, the Secret Skill for the Soul Awakening Stage was... Soul Extraction!

Buzz!

As Xiao Shi unleashed the Soul Extraction Secret Skill, his entire right hand seemed to turn transparent.

His eyes, scrutinizing the corpses, could penetrate them and see the lingering souls within the cold bodies.

Although the entire soul had died, Xiao Shi's previous kill had not harmed its soul, so the opponent's soul remained intact.

Xiao Shi stretched out his hand and made a grabbing motion towards the corpse before him.

Immediately, a phantom figure was pulled out.

This figure had the same facial features as the corpse before him, but its expression was dull and its eyes were empty.

Normally, after a person dies, their consciousness dissipates, and their soul becomes this dull.

However, Xiao Shi frowned at this.

This was somewhat different from what he had imagined.

In his opinion, both the 【Sealed Soul of Resentment】 and the 【Sealed Evil Soul】 he obtained through killing were created by this kind of Soul Extraction method.

But the Soul Body he extracted... was completely dull, without any emotions retained.

This was completely different from the other two Soul Bodies.

“These two Soul Bodies, one retained immense resentment from life, and the other retained evil thoughts from life…”

“But the Soul Body I extracted has nothing…”

Xiao Shi fell into contemplation.

Given the rank of this 【Three Soul Control Methods】, he was certain that it shouldn't be a problem with this Secret Skill.

After all, this was a Heaven-Rank Secret Technique.

“It feels more like a problem with the corpse…”

Xiao Shi made a guess in his mind.

He was wondering if he should extract the opponent's soul at the moment of killing, instead of waiting for the opponent to die before extracting.

Perhaps extracting at the moment before the opponent's death could preserve the opponent's emotions before death.

“I can try it later.”

Xiao Shi thought to himself as he extracted the Soul Bodies from the remaining six corpses.

These six Soul Bodies were all souls in a dull state.

Immediately, Xiao Shi absorbed all seven Soul Bodies into his brain using the Crimson Tiger Lineage's method of condensing Soul Consciousness.

He transformed them into materials for condensing Soul Consciousness.

Although it successfully provided significant help for Xiao Shi's Soul Consciousness condensation, Xiao Shi felt the effect was only average.

Subsequently, Xiao Shi unsealed the 【Sealed Soul of Resentment】.

Immediately, this Soul Body, filled with monstrous resentment, roared in his mind, wanting to devour his soul.

This was also one of the differences between this Soul Body and the Soul Bodies Xiao Shi extracted.

This Soul Body was extremely aggressive.

It was not completely dull and motionless.

Xiao Shi snorted coldly at this.

He directly used the Soul Power in his mind to form a powerful suppression, instantly shattering the resentful Soul Body into pieces.

All these fragments were gathered by Xiao Shi, condensing into a faint Soul Consciousness.

Xiao Shi could feel that this condensed faint Soul Consciousness also carried a trace of resentment. This way, when he condensed a complete Soul Consciousness, when his Soul Consciousness touched an enemy, it might be able to trigger the enemy's resentful emotions.

At the same time, he could also release a resentment-based attack!

Usually, Soul Consciousness attacks, besides external attacks, also include attacks on emotions, psychology, and other aspects.

The threat of such attacks is equally immense.

Once emotions are affected in battle, it is often difficult to fight calmly.

For example, the Dream Witch Lineage of the Four Symbols Divine Martial Sect is relatively skilled at influencing emotions.

When an enemy's emotions are unstable, they are most likely to fall into the Dream World of the Dream Witch Lineage, and thus be killed within the Dream World.

After transforming the Resentful Soul Body into a faint Soul Consciousness, Xiao Shi continued to release the 【Sealed Evil Soul】 and, in the same manner, condensed an evil thought Soul Consciousness.

It must be said that this type of Soul Body was indeed much faster than ordinary Soul Bodies in terms of Soul Consciousness condensation.

At the same time, it could also yield emotional gains.

“Perhaps I can try to also transform the Evil Blade into a material for condensing Soul Consciousness…”

Xiao Shi's heart stirred.

The function of the Evil Blade was actually similar to the emotional guidance of these resentful and evil thoughts.

Most importantly, the Evil Blade was only a weapon of the Soul Awakening Stage.

Once it reached the Soul Consciousness Stage, its effectiveness would be greatly reduced.

If it could be integrated into the Soul Consciousness and become a part of it, it would be equivalent to elevating the Evil Blade from the Soul Awakening Stage to the Soul Consciousness Stage.

With this idea, Xiao Shi immediately began to implement it.

He directly absorbed the entire Evil Blade into his brain, then used Soul Power to shred it, causing it to condense into a faint Soul Consciousness.

Thus, he successfully possessed three faint emotional Soul Consciousnesses in his mind: resentment, evil thoughts, and… fiendishness!

Although he successfully condensed these three faint Soul Consciousnesses, he was still far from a complete Soul Consciousness.

Two days later, when three more prisoners were sent to the cell managed by Xiao Shi, he immediately followed his previous idea.

At the moment of killing the opponent, he directly used the Soul Extraction Secret Skill of the 【Three Soul Control Methods】 to extract the prisoner's Soul Body directly from his body.

He looked at the phantom Soul Body in his hand.

As expected, the Soul Body extracted at this moment was no longer that dull Soul Body, but one that retained emotions.

“It’s obvious…”

“I need to extract the Soul Body when the opponent's emotions reach a certain level, so that the Soul Body can retain these emotions!”

Xiao Shi realized this.

The Soul Body he had just extracted successfully retained the emotion of fear.

When Xiao Shi condensed this Soul Body into Soul Consciousness, his emotional Soul Consciousness successfully gained another fear Soul Consciousness.

The remaining two prisoners were also quickly killed by Xiao Shi.

The Soul Bodies extracted from their bodies also carried emotions of fear.

When these three fear-emotion Soul Consciousnesses gathered together, Xiao Shi's entire Soul Consciousness immediately became much more enriched.

The regrettable thing was that the items dropped from killing these three prisoners were not very useful to Xiao Shi.

By now, he no longer had much need for items from the Soul Awakening Stage.

After all, he had already begun to assault the Soul Consciousness Stage.

He now needed items from the Soul Consciousness Stage more.

“Once I break through to the Soul Consciousness Stage, I can ask Xiang Zizhen for prisoners of the Soul Consciousness Stage.”

Xiao Shi thought to himself.

During this time, besides condensing Soul Consciousness, he also continued his research on formations.

After deciphering the formation patterns in the underground palace, he had successfully completed the modification of the 【Soul Imprisoning Formation】. It could now not only seal Soul Power but also seal Soul Consciousness.

However, as he delved deeper into the Soul Consciousness Stage, Xiao Shi learned that Soul Consciousness also had many different types and strengths.

If he encountered a powerful and extraordinary Soul Consciousness, even the 【Soul Imprisoning Formation】 might not be able to seal it.

But sealing ordinary Soul Consciousness would not be a problem.

In addition, regarding the Martial Soul Realm's blade techniques, he also began to try to combine this blade technique with his previous staff, axe, and sword techniques.

This was also the key to cultivating the Thousand Weapon Dao Slash.

Not only did one need to master a powerful weapon technique in each realm, but one also needed to combine these weapon techniques.

The more weapon techniques one mastered, the greater the difficulty of combining them.

Now, in the process of combining, Xiao Shi clearly felt that the difficulty of this combination was dozens of times greater than the last time!

Even with his powerful talent, he could not complete the combination in a short time.

However, Xiao Shi was not in a hurry about this.

Currently, his main focus was still on the condensation of Soul Consciousness.

Thus, after more than ten days of continuous effort, he successfully condensed the many Soul Powers in his mind into a complete Soul Consciousness.

His Soul Consciousness still took the form of a Crimson Tiger.

The Soul Consciousness still carried the Blood Art: Crimson Tigers Roar!

However, this Soul Consciousness was currently only in its initial stage for him.

Further enhancements would be needed later.

“I’ve finally stepped into the Soul Consciousness Stage!”

Xiao Shi felt the Soul Consciousness in his mind and tried to spread it out, covering his entire courtyard.

Unfortunately, he couldn't fully spread his Soul Consciousness now, and he didn't know its maximum range.

After all, he was currently in Prison City.

In Prison City, no one dared to casually spread their Soul Consciousness within the city, except for high-ranking Martial Demon Realm Experts like Xiang Zizhen.

Using Soul Consciousness to probe others was inherently an act of malice.

However, Xiao Shi thought of the 【Dark Eye Spy】 that dropped when he killed the Palace Lord of Shadow Flash Palace!

The function of this Soul Consciousness technique allowed his Soul Consciousness to enter an undetectable state. Even those whose cultivation was stronger than his would find it difficult to perceive it.

Xiao Shi pondered that as long as he completed the cultivation of this Soul Consciousness technique, even if he spread his Soul Consciousness within Prison City, he wouldn't have to worry about being detected!

Immediately, after breaking through to the Soul Consciousness Stage, he began to cultivate this Soul Consciousness technique.

In terms of the 【Three Soul Control Methods】, he could also simultaneously cultivate the Secret Skills of the Soul Consciousness Stage.

The Secret Skill for the Soul Consciousness Stage of the 【Three Soul Control Methods】 was called... Soul Refinement!

Through the cultivation of this Secret Skill, Xiao Shi learned that its main function was to allow him to refine the extracted Soul Bodies!

Different refining methods would yield different results!

This was an extremely powerful Secret Skill!

Just as Xiao Shi was immersed in the joy of breaking through to the Soul Consciousness Stage, the emerald green jade stone on him suddenly vibrated.

This emerald green jade stone was what he had obtained from Qin Mo, and it could take him into the Dream World.

Now, after Xiang Zizhen's explanation, everyone had accepted him.

At this moment, the vibration of the jade stone made Xiao Shi realize that someone was summoning them.