The thick thunder-slurry within the Radiant Thunder Pool churned slowly.

Shen Yi sat upright before the pool.

Using the Cavern-Gloom Soul-Refining Art, he opened a grotto at the point between his brows, and within it thunder likewise rolled and rumbled, scouring his frail spirit-soul.

By rights, one cultivating this art had to choose a place matching one's spiritual root, lest the spirit-soul be damaged.

Fortunately his roots were a mongrel mix, which spared him a good deal of trouble.

The last time he'd tempered his spirit-soul had been back in the Core-Nurturing realm, when he'd fought the path infant's consciousness soul-to-soul.

The cruelty and despair he'd felt then remained vivid to this day — yet set beside the scouring of this thunder-manor, it was a small witch beside a great one.

Even though the Cavern-Gloom Soul-Refining Art was of the orthodox Mysterious Gate, and stressed a slow, gradual progression—

that torture aimed straight at the soul still kept Shen Yi's spirit taut as a bowstring, meeting each scouring as one meets a mortal enemy.

【Year 1,300: You finally completed the first tempering. Your spirit-soul has made substantial progress, but its wilted state requires a long recovery. Opening the manual, you find three pills recorded within; taken in combination, beyond their nurturing effect, they can also help the spirit-soul face the next tempering.】

Shen Yi closed his eyes.

Take the Eighth Den, guarded by the Nether-Gloom Spider Emperor — that was the Nanyang Sect's Technique-Storing Pavilion.

Following that logic, some demon emperor ought likewise to be guarding a treasured site devoted to alchemy.

Unfortunately, his present strength fell short.

No sense dwelling on it for now.

Even without pills to aid him, the technique's gains were plain enough.

"..."

Perfected Master Lingxi lay flat atop the high cliff, blinking again and again.

She thought she was beginning to understand her junior brothers' caution.

Right now, for instance — though she couldn't tell what the lion was doing, her spiritual sense could plainly detect that the creature was in a state of extreme vigilance. It was not asleep at all, as she…