257: Soul Search

"All-Encompassing Eye? Can I still only see with my physical eyes?"

Even if physical eyes could see very far, how could they compare to true spirit perception?

However, Lin Chen still spent 5,000 Energy Points to upgrade the All-Encompassing Eye to perfection.

Instantly, a massive flood of memories surged into Lin Chen's mind.

Lin Chen's current Seven-Step Emperor Realm true spirit made it very easy for him to accept these memories.

After more than ten minutes, he had completely mastered this combat skill.

After mastering the All-Encompassing Eye, Lin Chen was overjoyed because he realized his previous assumption was wrong.

Once perfected, the All-Encompassing Eye could be used in conjunction with true spirit perception!

This meant his true spirit perception now possessed the capabilities of the All-Encompassing Eye!

The All-Encompassing Eye was incredibly powerful, capable of seeing through the essence of things from multiple perspectives.

His previous true spirit perception could only see superficial aspects... Immediately, Lin Chen's thoughts stirred, and his true spirit instantly expanded outwards.

At his current Seven-Step Emperor Realm level, his true spirit perception reached an astonishing range of 700,000 light-years in diameter!

With the enhancement of the All-Encompassing Eye, the strange world Lin Chen perceived began to change.

The originally lifeless, strange world now, under his perception, contained many eerie black shadows!

These black shadows had no true spirit aura, nor any life force.

He tried removing the All-Encompassing Eye's enhancement, and these black shadows would vanish into thin air!

And this time, within his true spirit perception range, he finally discovered the presence of other trial participants.

The areas where these trial participants were located were shrouded in a layer of black mist.

Lin Chen guessed that it was these black mists that had previously shielded his true spirit perception.

Among these trial participants, he found Savage Iron.

Savage Iron was in a terrible state; his body was covered in bloody claw marks, half of his torso was gone, and he was being chased by a dozen black shadows.

The leading black shadow had a face very similar to Lin Chen's, but his entire body exuded black energy, making him extremely eerie.

Seeing this, Lin Chen shook his head slightly; Savage Iron's strength was too poor.

After the second layer of the trial, he should still be made to withdraw.

Immediately, a clone of Lin Chen rapidly headed in Savage Iron's direction... "Although I don't know the true nature of these strange things, the Energy Points are real, and there are many of them."

Lin Chen's eyes burned with eagerness.

Compared to the Other World Beasts in the first layer, the number of these black shadows was much smaller, and they were not gathered together.

With the All-Encompassing Eye, he could also discern the strength of the black shadows.

Lin Chen discovered that after they arrived at the second layer, the difficulty of the first wave of strange encounters would be adjusted according to the trial participant's strength.

For example, the fake Savage Iron that attacked Lin Chen earlier had a strength roughly at the Third-Step Emperor Realm level, while the remaining dozens were at the Quasi-Emperor level.

The black shadows currently chasing Savage Iron, the strongest among them were only at the Nine-Calamity Quasi-Emperor level.

A strange black shadow at the Third-Step Emperor Realm level yielded over 110,000 Energy Points after being absorbed by the system.

What about higher realms?

It was even easier to obtain Energy Points here than in the first layer!

Hmm?

Just then, Lin Chen noticed a strange scene.

In a place 360,000 light-years away from him, a familiar figure was refining something.

He looked closely and realized it was Lin Sha!

At this moment, Lin Sha was also extremely disheveled; his massive body was incomplete, and even the dragon horn on his head was only a small stub remaining.

Evidently, he had been through a major battle.

And at this moment, he was restraining a black figure, his eyes filled with excitement as he continuously refined the black shadow.

Soon, the black shadow in front of him transformed into a black bead.

Then, Lin Sha suddenly opened his mouth and absorbed it, swallowing the black bead into his body.

Lin Chen's eyes widened at the sight.

He continued to observe out of curiosity.

After swallowing the black bead, Lin Sha suddenly emitted rolling black energy, and black Gui Markingss began to appear on his body, even his injured body slowly recovering.

In just a few breaths, Lin Sha was fully recovered, and Lin Chen even felt that Lin Sha's aura had strengthened slightly.

This shocked Lin Chen; Lin Sha seemed to have known what these strange black shadows were for a long time, otherwise he wouldn't have refined them this way.

At this moment, Lin Chen noticed that Lin Sha had become somewhat different after swallowing the black bead, but he couldn't pinpoint exactly what it was.

Suddenly, he thought of something and immediately stopped using the All-Encompassing Eye.

The next moment, Lin Sha's figure disappeared from his perception!

All traces of Lin Sha's aura vanished!

Lin Chen's pupils contracted, and an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.

That black bead was so strange?

Or was it that Lin Sha's current body had already transformed into a strange body?

After casting the All-Encompassing Eye again, Lin Sha's figure reappeared.

Seeing this, Lin Chen's lips curved slightly.

"I hope you know a lot more."

Then Lin Chen rapidly flickered through the sixth layer of space-time.

Each flicker covered a distance of more than ten light-years!

This was the incredible aspect of the sixth layer of space-time!

Moving in the sixth layer of space-time, his speed far surpassed that in the material space-time of the first layer... Therefore, beings who could enter the sixth layer of space-time could inherently stand in an invincible position, coming and going as they pleased... Soon, Lin Chen arrived at a realm gate teleportation point; this strange world was too vast, and he also had to rely on realm gate teleportation to travel.

Having locked onto Lin Sha's location, Lin Chen stepped into the realm gate.

Ten minutes later, Lin Chen had already arrived at Lin Sha's position.

At this moment, Lin Sha was in human form, holding two hammers, cautiously exploring the area.

Seeing this, Lin Chen understood; it seemed Lin Sha also couldn't detect the strange beings and could only rely on this most primitive method of exploration... The next moment, Lin Chen slowly emerged from the sixth layer of space-time.

With a single step, he arrived in front of Lin Sha.

Lin Sha, whose mind was highly focused, was startled by Lin Chen's sudden appearance.

However, in an instant, his eyes filled with fervor...

"Finally, I found another one. Once I refine you, my Gui Markings will advance by one stage!"

Lin Sha muttered, then the two hammers in his hands erupted with dazzling red light, smashing towards Lin Chen.

Bang--

The void trembled as Lin Chen blocked the terrifying blow with a single finger.

Then, with a light flick of his fingernail, the two hammers in Lin Sha's hands instantly shattered.

Lin Sha's expression changed drastically at the sight; he retreated abruptly.

After stabilizing himself, he glared at Lin Chen with an angry face.

"It's you?"

"How did you appear here?"

Lin Chen smiled slightly, revealing his white teeth, and said:

"Aren't you trying to kill me? I delivered myself to your doorstep, aren't you happy?"

Lin Sha's face was incredibly grim; black Gui Markingss on his body began to emit faint black energy, and his eyes also started to turn pitch black, looking just like those strange beings.

"Since you're so eager to die, then I'll grant your wish today!"

Lin Sha's voice had become low and deep at this point.

Lin Chen's eyes narrowed slightly, then a terrifying true spirit power directly surged into Lin Sha's mind.

"Ah..."

"You... what are you doing!"

Lin Sha fell to the ground, howling in pain, and the black energy on his body instantly dissipated.

Lin Sha was only at the First-Step Emperor Realm, so how could he resist Lin Chen's true spirit power?

At this moment, Lin Chen was using true spirit power to perform a soul search on Lin Sha!

Half an hour later.

Lin Sha's life force gradually faded... Lin Chen struck with his palm, directly refining Lin Sha's corpse into a creation crystal, then absorbed it directly through the system.

Energy Points: 449,000

Lin Sha, at the First-Step Emperor Realm, contained approximately 20,000 Energy Points.

At this point, Lin Chen had also received the answer he desired.

Lin Sha indeed knew what these strange black shadows were.

Because these black shadows had once appeared in the Endless Realm!