Chapter 497 – The First Divine Soul Realm

“One Black Crow, two Black Crows, one hundred Black Crows, ten thousand Black Crows.”

Within Tianyuan City, Sophia raised both hands in a blooming flower bud gesture.

From between her palms, Black Crows flew out one after another, flapping their wings.

She was updating her crows.

If there was any troublesome matter after this legendary evolution, it was that all the Black Crows she had scattered outside needed to be reforged.

Looking at the Black Crows she had created before, she just wanted to facepalm.

The old version crows were inadequate in every aspect.

Poor endurance, weak combat capability, insufficient concealment ability, slow flight speed…

She had to update every single one in the Black Crow Legion without exception.

“The new Black Crow Legion temporarily has three types of crows.”

“Scout Crows, Combat Crows, and Life-Substitute Crows.”

Sophia planned accordingly.

“Scout Crows only need maxed-out stealth and observation abilities, without wasting too much power on other aspects. Well, some Scout Crows need faster flight speeds, otherwise they might not be able to keep up with targets.”

Thinking this, Sophia lightly tapped her finger.

The wings of a Black Crow before her instantly elongated, transforming from an ordinary crow shape into a large black bird with slender wings and red eyes.

She had never created this type of fast-flying Scout Crow before.

Because there was no need.

Previously, Sophia could partially share her ‘Nightshade Eyes’ talent with her created Black Crows, granting them stealth capabilities and the ability to see through low-level Illusions.

The Black Crows’ hiding methods were extremely powerful—even Legendary Realm users using their Domains couldn’t detect much.

But such concealment was limited to when the Black Crows were stationary. Once a Black Crow flew, it would easily be exposed in the eyes of Legendary Realm experts who constantly monitored their surroundings.

Therefore, Sophia always pre-positioned Black Crows on guard duty, using them as fixed surveillance cameras.

But now,

“Black Crows possess extremely powerful stealth capabilities even while flying, even stronger than when they were stationary before, because…”

She had grasped a trace of concept.

Not the conceptual power temporarily possessed through using Epic Skills, but concepts truly mastered by herself.

One of them was concealment.

Black Crow Constructs couldn’t truly possess the power of the concealment concept, but even a youth edition, beggar edition, incomplete version, fragmentary version of the concealment concept still caused the crows’ hiding abilities to skyrocket dramatically.

It would be quite difficult for Heaven-Earth Realm or even Divine Soul Realm experts to detect Black Crows now.

And moreover…

「Your talent ‘Nightshade Eyes’ has been enhanced through evolution. When you observe a target, your stealth effect relative to that target increases severalfold, even dozens of times.」

Sophia had already verified this ability with Sickle Moon.

When she stared at Sickle Moon, her entire body, her very presence would be erased from Sickle Moon’s world.

Combined with her originally strong night concealment ability, she could completely disappear from the world.

Even Sickle Moon’s intuition was rendered useless on the spot.

“With this super concealment, who can break it ahahahaha!”

“Though the flaw is equally obvious.”

「When you observe a target…」

Through experimentation and verification, she had confirmed this was a single-target skill.When she vanished from Sickle Moon’s sight, her figure remained perfectly clear in the Lord’s eyes—so clear that even her grimacing expression was captured by the Shadow Recording Crystal.

Indeed, unless combined with other stealth techniques, she remained completely visible to anyone other than her ‘target.’

This ability was surprisingly suited for one-on-one combat, or rather… solitary tracking of a single individual.

“If scout crows only perform routine tasks, they can exist almost indefinitely—lasting several years wouldn’t be an issue. However, if high-speed pursuit of a target consumes substantial energy, their lifespan would shorten dramatically.”

“In this regard, combat crows would inevitably have even shorter operational durations.”

But it didn’t matter.

She created a batch of combat Nether Crows merely as a precautionary measure, with no intention of actually engaging enemies.

Sneaking in quietly and extracting intelligence undetected was sufficient.

For this purpose, life-substitution crows were far more crucial than combat crows.

“The strength of life-substitution crows determines how much power remains after my rebirth.”

With this thought, Sophia flipped her wrist and grasped a black dagger.

The blade swept past her face like a shadow.

Thud-thud-thud—three consecutive strikes.

Piercing her forehead, throat, and heart.

Blood gushed out the next instant.

Suppressing her instinct to heal and save herself, Sophia knelt as blood spread around her.

“Hah… hurts a bit…”

“But this is… a necessary experiment…”

Her body grew colder, consciousness fading.

She collapsed with a thud.

On the cold floor, blood pooled, staining the girl’s black dress crimson like a withered red lotus.

Seconds later,

Black feathers sprouted densely from the girl’s wounds and skin, swiftly enveloping her entire body within moments.

The spreading crimson bloodstains had somehow solidified into black substance.

“Poof—”

The corpse and bloodstains vanished in an instant, as if they never existed.

Only scattered black feathers drifted slowly downward in the spacious room.

……

“Huff… huff…”

Gasping like a drowning victim, Sophia jolted awake. As she tried to touch her body, she lost balance and pitched forward.

Thump!

She fell from the tree, face-first into the ground.

Maintaining her face-down position with a twisted neck and inverted posture, Sophia pondered.

“So that’s it. Right after rebirth, my energy remains chaotic, causing loss of balance—hence falling directly from the tree. It has little to do with the life-substitution crow originally perched on the branch.”

“This must be remembered. Perhaps repeated practice could overcome this flaw… but more practice?”

She rolled upright, lost in thought.

Pulling open her collar, she carefully assessed her current body.

“Physically identical to before, just noticeably weaker. Overall strength retained about… 30%.”

“If weakened below 10%, life-substitution rebirth might fail to activate.”

“Still, my power is recovering quite rapidly. Even idle, I’d return to Peak condition within a day or two.”

“And that brutal death earlier…”

She trailed off, remembering.In that state, she no longer possessed clear consciousness or independent thought, only following instinct to seek suitable replacement Black Crows to seize Rebirth.

However, during the search process, she could roughly distinguish which Black Crows were more suitable as her vessels, as well as their approximate locations and distances.

This was sufficient—at least when making tactical retreats, she wouldn’t end up in completely opposite directions.

Other abilities continued to be tested.

From today onward, she too had experienced death once.

“Wait, during the previous evolution, did I see some strange images?”

…

Simultaneously, in the Great Domain of the Dead, at the Undead Holy Mountain.

“It’s about to begin.”

“The breakthrough to the Soul Realm.”

In ancient times, the Soul Realm was referred to as Demigod or Quasi-God, typically describing divine servants or powerful beings who ascended to godhood from Mortal forms.

This was the terminology from the distant past.

During that era, the Legendary Realm represented the peak for humans and other intelligent lifeforms. Beyond that, only by absorbing the Power Of Faith could one Breakthrough—with exceptions for certain higher lifeforms.

In the recent ancient period, the method of ascending to godhood through forging a divine Foundation via Domain and condensing a Divine Soul had been created.

Some claim it was developed by the Holy Radiance Empire by synthesizing the strengths of numerous schools.

Others say it was a new path opened by a certain great legendary lifeform.

In the current era, the paths to Breakthrough the Heaven-Earth Realm, Soul Realm, and Law Realm have become quite clear after generations of refinement by powerful beings.

Relative to ancient times, that is.

These major Realm breakthroughs still carry extremely high failure rates, and once failed, the consequences range from severe injuries to death.

“Breaking through to the Soul Realm isn’t as dangerous as breaking through the Heaven-Earth Realm.”

To Breakthrough the Heaven-Earth Realm, a Peak Fourth Order powerhouse must burn their life force, reaching the ultimate sublimation, leaving no room for retreat.

In comparison, entering the Soul Realm only requires forging a divine Foundation and condensing a Divine Soul.

Failure?

It’s merely ‘minor issues’ like Foundation damage, Soul trauma, and temporary consciousness confusion.

However, compared to the breakthrough from Fourth Order to Heaven-Earth Realm, Taixuan didn’t have many auxiliary means for the breakthrough process from Heaven-Earth Realm to Soul Realm.

Injury from failure is unavoidable.

Therefore, even Legends who have crossed the ‘Peak’ benchmark and possess 5000-meter level or larger Domains dare not attempt the breakthrough lightly.

They must make thorough preparations.

Once failure occurs and the Foundation is damaged, hopes for the next breakthrough become even slimmer.

Deadbone…

Also made extensive preparations.

Due to the limited reference materials on breaking through to the Soul Realm, the preparations made by Mu Yuan and Deadbone were all-purpose measures.

Mu Yuan brought approximately twenty thousand Soul Crystals in total—representing most of Tianyuan City’s currently available resources—along with several large chests of various shadow-element Treasures beneficial for cultivation breakthroughs.

Deadbone’s preparations were simple and direct.

It gathered all undead from the Corpsebone Mountains to assemble near the Holy Mountain on standby.

On the Holy Mountain itself, several ‘Wells of Death’ were all filled to overflowing capacity.

It could draw energy from the Holy Mountain and the undead tide at any time.

With ninety-nine percent of preparations complete, the breakthrough could begin.

…

Deadbone’s breakthrough had few spectators.

Only Mu Yuan, Dolai, and Isloria’s Incarnation were present.

Dolai could also Breakthrough at any time, but Deadbone requested to make the first attempt itself.Originally, Mu Yuan had planned to have more Tianyuan Generals observe this breakthrough process—even though Deadbone’s realm advancement might not offer much reference value.

However…

The Shattered Isle Warzone has seen renewed conflict, and recently there have been signs of legendary monsters possibly crossing domains into the Ten Directions Island Region…

All these matters have consumed Tianyuan City’s attention, forcing many generals to station themselves in specific areas.

“The breakthrough has begun!”

Dolai shouted.

Mu Yuan stood atop a mountain peak tens of thousands of meters away from the Undead Holy Mountain, gazing into the distance.

Wind and clouds suddenly surged.

Dark clouds continuously gathered, and black storms howled.

A vast, cold, silent domain filled with endless death energy abruptly expanded, reaching its maximum limit of 50,000 meters.

The perfect domain merged with heaven and earth.

The undead bathed in the domain’s death energy continuously seethed.

“Rise.”

A faint, low murmur seemed to be heard.

Mu Yuan could see the radiance of will soaring into the clouds.

A blazing will connected spirit and soul, bridging heaven and earth.

In the sea of consciousness, fragments broke through the water and rose into the air, continuously assembling in the sky, gradually constructing a shimmering golden divine foundation.

The entire process was extremely natural, without the slightest hesitation.

Vast amounts of death breath and shadow energy in the world poured like surging rivers into the center of the domain, providing nourishment for the breakthrough.

This spectacle lasted for several minutes…

Ding!

A prompt sounded in Mu Yuan’s ears.

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Deadbone’ is attempting a Soul Realm breakthrough…」

Before this prompt could finish playing, ding, the next prompt immediately followed.

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Deadbone’s’ domain resonates with heaven and earth, communicating with the cosmos, beginning to forge the divine…」

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Deadbone’ has forged a perfect divine foundation during the breakthrough process, greatly enhancing willpower, mental energy, and soul power.」

「Prompt: Your Hero ‘Deadbone’ is attempting to ignite…」

「Prompt: Hero·Deadbone has ignited the divine soul flame, advancing to the Soul Realm, gaining the ability to split the divine soul and descend with it.」

“It’s over, the breakthrough is complete.”

Mu Someone, gazing into the distance, spoke.

Isloria: “…”

That’s it? Already broken through?

In a way, this was also expected.

“But the surrounding cosmic energies are still gathering,” Dolai said.

“That’s because Deadbone is still undergoing transformation.”

Mu Yuan explained.

Just like when one first enters the Legendary Realm, there is a transformation period lasting half a day to a full day.

The Soul Realm transformation might not take as long, but it still occurs.

At this moment, Deadbone was already a genuine Soul Realm powerhouse, possessing all the great powers of that realm. Even if its transformation were interrupted now, its realm would not regress, but such transformation opportunities are rare, akin to a baptism from heaven and earth.

Mu Yuan, along with Dolai, continued to stand guard outside the holy mountain.

Several skeletons clattered over, bringing them some… uh, pitch-black specialty foods from the Corpsebone Mountains.

“Please, enjoy.”

“Thank you, then.”

Mu Yuan patted a skeleton’s skull.

Many years… over a year ago, he was just an ordinary little village chief, and Deadbone was just an ordinary little skeleton with a touch of the extraordinary.

But now, Deadbone is the King of Bones, ruling over these sprawling mountains stretching thousands of miles.He, Mu Someone, was also a powerful Lord who commanded over a thousand epics.

“No, it’s still not strong enough.”

“Powerful forces like the Taixuan Alliance, and even those stronger than the Taixuan Alliance, can still fall. I am merely a minor Lord within the Alliance, far from meeting the standard to survive the Crimson Mist tides and the Filth calamity unscathed.”

“The Soul Realm and legendary beings are still just the beginning.”

“However…”

At least we possess the basic ability to survive.

“Once the war in the Shattered Isle Region concludes, let’s hold a city-wide celebration.”

“Hooray!”

(End of Chapter)