361: Control the field

Through the last shred of his sanity.

Xiao Shi thought of an important function of the exclusive items from the Star Era: suppression!

This was the primary power of the Star Era.

However, he had previously sacrificed many exclusive items from the Star Era.

Currently, he no longer had any usable exclusive items from the Star Era.

He could only exchange them using era crystals.

His idea was simple.

That was to use an exclusive item from the Star Era to suppress the murderous contamination he was currently suffering!

Xiao Shi couldn't be sure if this method would definitely work.

But he had no other better choice now.

He could only take this gamble!

After exchanging for and using this exclusive item.

Xiao Shi clearly felt a powerful suppressive force enveloping his body.

He immediately used this powerful suppressive force to suppress the surging and turbulent murderous contamination within him, which was already on the verge of going out of control.

Previously, since the Demonic Body Clone had already taken control of this special area, the effect of the exclusive item would be greatly reduced when it was used on him.

But that was when others used exclusive items to deal with him.

If the Demonic Body Clone itself used an exclusive item, not only would the item's effect not be weakened, it would actually be enhanced to a certain extent on its original basis.

Now, after Xiao Shi integrated the Demonic Body Clone into himself.

His use of exclusive items, just like the Demonic Body Clone, would gain a certain degree of enhancement.

This allowed the exclusive item in his hands to exert a greater effect than under normal circumstances!

Boom!!

This exclusive item from the Star Era possessed extremely powerful suppression!

The moment this suppressive force appeared.

The surging murderous intent within Xiao Shi was instantly suppressed.

This caused Xiao Shi's sanity, which was originally about to be submerged by murderous intent, to recover significantly as the murderous intent was suppressed.

Upon realizing it was effective.

Xiao Shi quickly increased the suppressive force.

And accelerated the integration with the Demonic Body Clone.

Under the continuous integration between them.

Xiao Shi's cultivation, and even his aura, all began to rapidly climb.

Waves of powerful aura fluctuations continuously emanated from him.

He instantly crossed from the first stage of the Martial Demon Realm to the second stage of the Martial Demon Realm, and was still continuously rising.

At the same time, the suppression brought by the exclusive item completely suppressed the Demonic Body Clone's murderous contamination.

Soon.

As Xiao Shi and the Demonic Body Clone merged.

When the Demonic Body Clone completely integrated with Xiao Shi.

Numerous black demonic energies suddenly emanated from Xiao Shi, swirling around his body.

Under the encirclement of these demonic energies, Xiao Shi's body rapidly demonized.

He successfully possessed the Demonic Body of the Demonic Body Clone and gained control over this special area.

Next, he only needed to transform this special area into his own domain to achieve Saint Realm, thereby reaching Saint-Demon Unity!

Xiao Shi carefully felt the enhancement brought by the Demonic Body.

In fact, with his current situation, he already possessed the combat power to contend with an ordinary Saint.

However, he had not yet officially stepped into the Saint Realm.

At most, he was a half-step Saint.

Only by transforming this special area into his own domain could he be considered a true Saint!

But even as a half-step Saint, he already possessed the strength to rival a normal Saint.

Once he stepped into the Saint Realm, he would be the strongest Saint!

However, just at this moment.

Xiao Shi suddenly sensed a huge crisis.

Logically speaking, he had successfully merged with the Demonic Body Clone at this point, resolving the greatest crisis.

He was very surprised by this sudden sense of crisis.

“Could it be that there's still a crisis in this special area that I don't know about?”

This sudden crisis.

It didn't originate from within his body, but from behind him.

Under the increasingly intense crisis warning.

Xiao Shi suddenly turned around.

He was astonished to find that this crisis did not come from this special area, but from... the emperor soul!!

Previously, since the emperor soul was in front of Xiao Shi, he couldn't see its front.

It wasn't until this moment... that he clearly saw the front of the emperor soul.

However, the mianliu (beaded curtain) hanging from the imperial crown obscured the emperor soul's face, preventing him from seeing its appearance clearly.

But he could clearly sense it.

The emperor soul's eyes were tightly closed at this moment, seemingly having been closed ever since its appearance.

Now, there were signs that its eyes were about to open.

And the crisis... originated from this!!

It seemed that as soon as the emperor soul opened its eyes, Xiao Shi would face an immense crisis!

This greatly shook Xiao Shi's mind.

Especially since the sense of crisis in his heart was at its peak at this moment!

So much so that his entire soul trembled uncontrollably.

This gave him a strong premonition that once the emperor soul opened its eyes, he would surely die, and no means could avoid it.

What made Xiao Shi even more terrified.

Was that his body was currently locked by the emperor soul, causing his hands and feet to become stiff and unable to move.

Xiao Shi found it hard to imagine.

He was already a half-step Saint now.

Yet, when facing this emperor soul, he still felt such powerlessness.

At the same time, what he understood even less was... this emperor soul was clearly formed by himself through the Martial Emperor Belt, so why would it bring such a crisis to him?

Soon.

The emperor soul's tightly closed eyes then opened a tiny slit.

Buzz!

In an instant.

An extremely intense golden light burst forth from the emperor soul.

Under this golden light.

Xiao Shi's entire body felt a stinging pain, and his soul within him felt as if it was about to be dragged out of his body by this strong light.

Xiao Shi was anxious inside.

But there was nothing he could do.

Under the emperor soul's lock, he couldn't do anything.

As the emperor soul's eyes continuously opened and closed, the light emanating from it grew more intense, and Xiao Shi's soul had already been largely pulled out of his physical body.

He had a strong premonition.

Once his soul was completely pulled out of his body, his entire soul would completely perish.

At that time... he would surely die!

This made Xiao Shi's heart grow even more anxious.

However, just at this moment.

The entire emperor soul suddenly became blurry, and just as its eyes were about to fully open, the emperor soul directly vanished from Xiao Shi's sight.

Xiao Shi was stunned for a moment.

He suddenly remembered that the emperor soul he formed through the Martial Emperor Belt had a time limit.

Without being paired with the martial emperor mask, the emperor soul could exist for one minute.

And after being paired with the martial emperor mask, the emperor soul's existence time would increase from one minute to five minutes.

It was exactly five minutes now!

As soon as the time was up, the emperor soul directly dissipated.

Whew!

Without the emperor soul's lock, Xiao Shi regained his mobility.

His pulled-out soul quickly returned to his body.

He collapsed to the ground, panting heavily, his face pale, and his entire body soaked in cold sweat.

The crisis brought by the emperor soul.

Was even more astonishing than the previous crisis from the Demonic Body Clone!

After all, the Demonic Body Clone's crisis could be resolved.

But the crisis brought by the emperor soul was unsolvable!

If it hadn't been for the exact timing, even with Xiao Shi's current strength, he would have had no way to deal with it.

In front of the emperor soul... he was still as weak as an ant!

“This isn't right...”

Xiao Shi frowned deeply.

He still couldn't understand why the emperor soul would endanger him.

“Could it be because I integrated the Demonic Body Clone, so the emperor soul's target shifted to me? Thinking I was the Demonic Body Clone?”

Xiao Shi thought seriously for a while, then shook his head, denying this conjecture.

He felt that the truth was not like that.

Because ever since the emperor soul appeared, the pressure it emitted was not only aimed at the Demonic Body Clone but also affected Xiao Shi.

It felt to Xiao Shi... as if the emperor soul didn't lock onto a specific target.

Instead, everyone who appeared within the emperor soul's range would be affected by it.

In other words... the emperor soul didn't distinguish between friend and foe!

Even if it was formed by Xiao Shi, the emperor soul would still regard Xiao Shi as an enemy.

And the emperor soul's opening of its eyes earlier made Xiao Shi clearly sense that the emperor soul would primarily pose a threat to his soul.

Once the emperor soul opened its eyes.

His soul would be pulled out of his body and thus perish.

As for the physical body, it didn't seem to suffer any damage as a result.

“If that's truly the case...”

“Then the emperor soul cannot be easily formed in the future.”

Thinking of the immense crisis he had faced earlier, Xiao Shi still felt a lingering fear.

Although the Martial Emperor Belt was merely an Emperors Armor of the Martial Soul Grade.

The emperor soul it formed, even a Saint couldn't resist.

Xiao Shi did not want to experience the crisis he had encountered before a second time.

After resting for a while.

Xiao Shi began to transform this area into his own domain, thereby breaking through the Martial Demon Realm and stepping into the Saint Realm.

Currently, as he merged with the Demonic Body Clone, he had successfully gained control of this area.

Next was to transform this area into his own domain.

“Let's begin!”

Xiao Shi raised his hands.

He placed both hands on the ground simultaneously.

His soul immediately merged into the ground beneath him through his hands, and spread out at an astonishing speed.

The first step of transformation.

Was to integrate his own soul into this area.

And become one with this area!

This required a sufficiently powerful soul to accomplish.

If one's soul strength was insufficient, even if they successfully controlled this area, they wouldn't be able to transform it into a domain.

Fortunately, with Xiao Shi's soul strength, even though this special area was extremely vast.

It continuously merged as his soul rapidly spread.

Soon.

His soul successfully merged with the Xie Wu Era of the first checkpoint.

Then it successfully integrated into the Mirror Martial Era of the second checkpoint.

The Martial Corpse Era of the third checkpoint, and the Star Era and Youyue Era of the fourth checkpoint, also successively merged with Xiao Shi's soul.

Finally, only the holy land remained.

“Hmm?”

When Xiao Shi's soul successfully merged with the holy land, he noticed something unusual.

He discovered... deep beneath the holy land.

There was actually a mysterious, unknown area.

This area seemed to exist independently.

Xiao Shi's soul couldn't merge with it.

At the same time, he couldn't detect the situation within this area.

This greatly surprised Xiao Shi.

He felt that this area seemed to be in a hidden state.

Even after successfully gaining control of this special area, he couldn't detect or sense it.

Only after his soul merged with the holy land could he discover this hidden mysterious area.

This couldn't help but make Xiao Shi intensely curious about this mysterious area.

However, because this mysterious area existed in the deepest part of the holy land's underground, and Xiao Shi could still sense through his soul that there was a barrier between this mysterious area and the holy land, and even this special area.

Clearly, it did not belong to this special area.

Entering there was not a simple or easy task.

But when Xiao Shi observed carefully.

He suddenly made some unexpected discoveries.

Because at this moment, his soul had completely merged with this special area, and had already begun to transform this special area into his own domain.

Therefore, he could clearly sense everything here.

He discovered... that when the emperor soul appeared earlier, it had caused an extremely violent tremor in this special area.

And this had formed a terrifying, deep, huge crack.

This crack extended directly from Xiao Shi's current location all the way into the holy land.

Xiao Shi hadn't paid much attention to it before.

Now, under his careful observation.

He found that this crack actually extended all the way to the mysterious area beneath the holy land.

This couldn't help but make Xiao Shi's heart stir.

He felt that all of this was by no means a coincidence.

“This special area was built by the Martial Emperor, and he deliberately hid such a mysterious area beneath the holy land, clearly not wanting people to enter...”

“Even if I successfully transform this special area into my own domain, I probably won't be able to enter this mysterious area, because this mysterious area is not within my domain.”

“The appearance of the emperor soul, coincidentally forming a crack leading to this mysterious area, means that... the key to entering this mysterious area lies with the Martial Emperor!”

Xiao Shi's eyes flickered slightly.

Even if the emperor soul was merely a remnant soul of the Martial Emperor.

It could still open a passage to this mysterious area!

And such a mysterious area that required the Martial Emperor to open... must not be simple!

Xiao Shi immediately followed this huge crack, going all the way down, deep into the underground.

After some travel.

He successfully arrived at an unimaginably vast grotto deep underground. The black dome was adorned with countless jewels and luminous pearls, shining with brilliant light, as dazzling as a galaxy, as boundless as the night sky, illuminating the grotto brightly.

Below the grotto, there was a massive, standalone palace, with flying eaves and upturned tiles, majestically standing on a white jade platform.

The entire white marble platform was hundreds of meters high, shaped like a trapezoid, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. White jade steps extended from the front of the palace all the way to the bottom.

In the center of the white marble steps, precious and extraordinary runes were carved.

This was clearly an incredibly vast underground palace!

The moment he saw this underground palace.

Xiao Shi couldn't help but take a deep breath.

From the scale of this underground palace, as well as the numerous expensive and extraordinary building materials, one could see its importance.

The Martial Emperor had hidden such a luxurious underground palace in this special area, which must contain some profound meaning!