Instead of immediately pursuing the Myriad Nether Incarnation, Han Yi first visited the Heavenly Candle Hall. Using the Immortal Marks he had earned from the Void Tower, he exchanged them for two Sixth-Rank Immortal Swords and five Fifth-Rank Immortal Swords.
He planned to upgrade the Sword Realm's arsenal. Combined with the three existing Fifth-Rank Immortal Swords, this would give him a total of ten Immortal Swords. Even if the Sword Realm remained at the Fifth-Rank, each sword alone would be sufficient to slay a Peak Golden Immortal.
Next, he returned to the Azure Shu Mountain Range.
He delivered a batch of discarded Immortal Swords to the Profound Pill Sect and inquired about the sect's progress. He discovered that, apart from Lian Tingxi and two other Spirit Transformation Elders advancing to Demigod status, there had been no other significant developments.
He Fengdi, the first to ascend to Demigod, remained a Demigod—merely an ordinary one, still far from reaching the True Immortal Realm.
Han Yi wasn't in a hurry. He had calculated that, with the resources he was pouring into the sect, it would take anywhere from one to three thousand years for a True Immortal to emerge.
Once a True Immortal was born, as long as he remained alive or Yuan Hong advanced further, using his unique Immortal Puppet body to ascend to Golden Immortal, the sect would be protected. With this foundation, a steady stream of True Immortals would inevitably follow.
In truth...
One of the key reasons for the Profound Pill Sect's rapid development in recent years was the protection of the Primal Art Dao Field. Han Yi had once ranked first on the Sui Zhu Profound Immortal Ranking, and such prestige had a tremendous, intangible impact on the sect.
Moreover, since Han Yi hailed from the Primal Art Dao Field and maintained a good relationship with Golden Resonance Daoist, the Golden Immortal Elders within the Dao Field tended to show special favor towards the Profound Pill Sect.
After returning from the Azure Shu Mountain Range, Han Yi visited the Jade Lake Immortal Domain. Within the Divine Power World at the bottom of Jade Lake, he replenished his supply of Divine Power Crystals.
Only after thorough preparation did he set out for the Nine Thunder Immortal Domain.
This Immortal Domain lay east of Age Candle and contained two Dao Fields: the Great Radiance Daoist Temple and the Red Cloud Daoist Temple.
Years ago, when Han Yi was still in the Nascent Soul Stage, he had accepted a mission from the Immortal Court and visited the Nine Thunder Immortal Domain. At that time, he had gone to the Azure Dragon Immortal City of the Great Radiance Daoist Temple.
This time, however, he headed for the Cold Cry Immortal City of the Red Cloud Daoist Temple.
The Jade Slip intelligence provided by Immortal Monarch Yuanshu included information about the Soul Tower.
This was one of the three most powerful dark forces in the Great Luo Immortal Realm, its tentacles reaching into every corner of the Immortal Realm. The Soul Tower's primary business was intelligence: gathering, selling, and using information to manipulate various factions and achieve hidden goals.
Many of the Soul Tower's lower-tier organizations have names other than "Soul Tower," such as the Nether Soul Tower, Myriad Souls Pavilion, and Soul Hall.
When Han Yi was at the Nascent Soul Stage, he used intelligence from the Nether Soul Tower to track down the Gu Clan, a subordinate race of the Wisdom Realm, and launched a campaign against them.
The Immortals and cultivators of the Soul Tower are mostly experts in Soul Techniques, skilled in cultivating Soul Transformation, Divided Soul, and Soul Control. This makes them exceptionally powerful in intelligence gathering.
The master of the Soul Tower, the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable, has thousands of Divided Souls, making him virtually immortal.
According to the intelligence, there's a stronghold of the Soul Hall, a lower-tier organization of the Soul Tower, within Cold Cry Immortal City.
Speaking of the Soul Hall, in the Jade Balance Realm, there was a similar organization that was one of the Four Great Sacred Grounds of the Great Qin Immortal Kingdom.
Han Yi's chosen Immortal Path was centered around the Soul Hall's secret transmission, the Ninefold Soul Tower. After becoming a True Immortal, he gradually balanced his cultivation of Divine Soul power with his focus on direct combat strength.
As for Han Yi's current mission to the Soul Hall stronghold, he naturally planned to infiltrate it step by step, gradually approaching the upper organization to obtain clues about the Myriad Nether Incarnation.
This approach had been a successful strategy for other Immortals before him. After all, the Soul Tower organization is vast and diverse, filled with a mix of low-level cultivators and Immortals.
According to legend, all members of the Soul Tower organization are True Immortals or higher, with over half being Avatars of the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable. However, these Avatars remain hidden behind the scenes and rarely appear in person. The actual operation of the Soul Tower relies on the non-Avatar Immortals within the organization.
Furthermore, not just anyone can become an Avatar of the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable. All his Avatars must merge their consciousness with his at the moment of Immortal Ascension. This means that Immortals within the Soul Tower organization need not worry about suddenly becoming one of his Avatars.
The requirements for becoming a Myriad Nether Incarnation are extremely stringent, requiring a perfect match between one's Divine Soul characteristics and the Venerable's. If this weren't the case, and such Avatars were commonplace, the Great Luo would have long been conquered by the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable, allowing him to ascend to the ranks of Dao Ancestor, or even Heavenly Venerable.
Even many low-level cultivators outside the Soul Tower aspire to gain favor and become Myriad Nether Incarnations, but virtually none meet the stringent criteria.
Within the Jade Slip provided by Immortal Monarch Yuanshu, there was a crucial piece of intelligence:
Every member of the Soul Tower and its subordinate organizations, whether formal members or those in the inner or outer peripheries, is required to cultivate a specific Soul Technique upon joining.
This Soul Technique is called the Soul Scripture.
According to the information, the Soul Scripture has ninety-nine layers, and only members of the Soul Tower who have reached the True Immortal Realm can cultivate the tenth layer.
This applies to all members, both core and peripheral, of the Myriad Nether Pavilion, Nether Soul Tower, and Soul Hall.
Moreover, cultivating the Soul Scripture requires a Soul Guide.
The Jade Slip revealed that the form of the Soul Guide is not fixed; it could be a Medicinal Pill, a Spirit Tool, or a Spirit Stone.
Investigation showed that only Immortal Monarch-level Myriad Nether Incarnations can create Soul Guides.
Soul Guides are not uncommon. While the Immortal Court can trace clues related to them, they cannot be traced back to their source, nor can they be used to locate the Myriad Nether Incarnations.
Once a Soul Guide and a Myriad Nether Incarnation are formed, they become independent entities with no causal connection. No current Immortal Art can track them.
This is part of the Soul Tower's trouble, and it's one reason why the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable can move as stealthily as a god or ghost while knowing countless secrets of the Immortal Realm and manipulating its great trends.
The Soul Scripture and Soul Guides can also be found in the Sui Zhu Immortal Court.
However, Han Yi neither retrieved them nor cultivated the Soul Scripture, fearing that doing so would prevent him from infiltrating the Soul Tower.
Moreover, many Immortals had previously cultivated the Soul Scripture using intercepted Soul Guides, but none of them were able to find even the slightest clue through this method.
To Han Yi, this was essentially unauthorized access.
If the Soul Tower were compared to a network, the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable naturally stood at the apex, the mastermind manipulating the entire system. Below him were the official members of the Soul Tower, some of whom were his avatars, while others were independent entities. All, however, occupied crucial nodes within the network.
Further down the hierarchy, these official members controlled lower-tier organizations such as the Myriad Souls Pavilion, Nether Soul Tower, and Soul Hall. These subordinate structures contained a few official Soul Tower members, along with peripheral personnel who relied on these organizations to cultivate resources or pursue their own goals.
This was the structure of the Soul Tower.
This structure possessed an astonishing characteristic: control flowed downward from the top, but tracing connections upward was utterly impossible, even for a Dao Ancestor.
This top-down control was likely based on the Soul Guide and Soul Scripture. Under normal circumstances, cultivators who mastered the Soul Scripture would either join the lower-tier Soul Hall or eventually ascend to become official members of the Soul Tower, all recognized by the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable.
However, intercepting the Soul Guide and cultivating the Soul Scripture independently constituted unauthorized access and would naturally have no effect.
No wonder the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable was feared and restrained by all major powers and Dao Ancestors in the Immortal Realm. Such a system and structure could not be eradicated, yet was impossible to defend against.
After entering Cold Cry Immortal City, Han Yi transformed into a Demigod.
His Immortal Art, Fetal Transformation Disguise, though still a Fourth-Rank technique, was already approaching Fifth-Rank proficiency. When he activated this Heavenly Gang Immortal Art derived from the Panel, it proved no less effective than the Sixth-Tier Heavenly Gang Immortal Arts wielded by Golden Immortals.
With Fetal Transformation Disguise, Han Yi was confident he could deceive even Immortal Monarchs.
Near the Soul Hall stronghold marked in the Jade Slip provided by Immortal Monarch Yuanshu, Han Yi rented an Immortal's Cave and began closely monitoring the location.
The Jade Slip contained intelligence on countless Soul Tower strongholds, and the one in Cold Cry Immortal City was far from notable.
Han Yi chose this location at random.
Unable to discern any patterns from the information provided, he decided to randomly select a stronghold as a potential breakthrough point to infiltrate the Soul Tower. This approach was standard; many Golden Immortals from the Immortal Court who had undertaken this mission did the same.
Of course, most Golden Immortals gained little from this approach. Even if they eradicated a stronghold, the impact on the Soul Tower was negligible. After some time, peripheral members would return with resources to the Immortal City where the stronghold had been exposed and establish a new one.
This wasn't provocation.
This was merely the Soul Tower's strategy for dealing with the encirclement and suppression efforts of the major powers in the Immortal Realm.
Thus, even after tens of thousands of years, despite the Immortal Courts' burning hatred for the Soul Tower, they remained powerless to stop it.
Half a month later.
A Demigod entered the stronghold. Moments later, the Demigod left. Han Yi followed the Demigod and effortlessly pulled him into the Divine Aperture World, extracting the methods and means by which the Demigod purchased intelligence.
Indeed.
If the approach was incorrect, the lower-tier Soul Tower outposts would not sell any intelligence.
!
Han Yi had no intention of resorting to brute force this time. The information from the Jade Slip clearly indicated that even Golden Immortals who attempted to force their way in could only destroy the outposts, not trace them back to the true Soul Tower.
This Soul Hall outpost was likely connected to a Soul Hall branch, which in turn reported to the Soul Hall headquarters. Only at the Soul Hall headquarters would one find a link to the true Soul Tower.
After obtaining the contact information for the Soul Hall outpost in Cold Cry Immortal City, Han Yi waited seven days. Then, disguised as the Demigod, he approached the outpost to retrieve the intelligence.
Last time, the Demigod had submitted his request for information. Today was the agreed-upon day for the intelligence transaction.
The Demigod was a middle-aged man with a weathered appearance, deep-set eyes, and a cold, severe expression.
His name was Yao Zhang.
The real Yao Zhang was temporarily imprisoned by Han Yi within the Divine Aperture World. Han Yi had taken Yao Zhang's Divine Soul aura and, using an Immortal Path secret method, performed a Fetal Transformation Disguise, grafting it onto his own Divine Soul. Simultaneously, he employed techniques from the North Mang Immortal Scripture to temporarily transfer Yao Zhang's Causality onto himself, ensuring that even a Golden Immortal using Causality tracing or divination techniques to probe Fate would find nothing amiss.
At the stronghold, Han Yi, his expression cold and stern, obtained the intelligence he sought and departed without a word.
Half a month later.
Han Yi, disguised as the severely injured Yao Zhang, returned to Cold Cry Immortal City and then to this stronghold. This time, he came to purchase information on how to join the Soul Hall.
This puzzled the Soul Hall steward at the stronghold. He had never encountered anyone seeking to buy information on joining the Soul Hall in this manner.
The steward looked up to ask, and Han Yi replied gravely:
"I have killed Han Ge, but the Patriarch of the Han Clan is a Profound Immortal from the Great Radiance Daoist Temple. To survive, I have only one path: to join the Soul Hall."
"Only by joining the Soul Hall can I hope to advance my strength further and annihilate the Han Clan."
Han Yi's explanation, while not riddled with errors, wasn't particularly flawless.
However, he only needed an excuse to connect with higher-ranking immortals within the Soul Hall, from whom he could gradually seek a method to achieve his goals.
Many cultivators and immortals who joined the Soul Hall did so not out of loyalty to the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable, but each with their own hidden agendas.
From the beginning, Han Yi knew that investigating the Myriad Nether Incarnation wouldn't be a swift process. It would be a long journey, impossible to rush.
Moreover, there was no guarantee of success; they might end up with nothing to show for their efforts. This was precisely why Immortal Monarch Yuanshu had granted him an indefinite deadline.
This Soul Hall stronghold was disguised as a Merchant Pavilion selling spirit tools. Under normal circumstances, cultivators who entered came to buy and sell spirit tools and treasures. Only through specific coded conversation would the shopkeeper reveal himself as a Soul Hall steward.
After listening to Han Yi's request, the steward recorded his demand and replied:
"This information costs 150,000 Semi-Immortal Grade Spirit Stones. As per the old rules, payment upfront."
Han Yi hesitated briefly before pulling out the stones. His hesitation stemmed from imagining Yao Zhang's character and financial situation.
For Han Yi, this sum was a trivial amount, hardly worth considering. But for Yao Zhang, it represented nearly his entire wealth.
The steward of the Soul Hall said to Han Yi, "Come back in seven days."
With that, he put away his notebook.
Just then, a Transformation God entered the shop. The steward immediately greeted him with a smile as warm as spring breeze.
"Honored guest, our shop offers a wide variety of Spirit Treasures. Please tell me what type you're looking for, and I'll ensure your satisfaction."
Han Yi left the immortal shop and returned to the Immortal's Cave Yao Zhang had rented.
On the third day, Han Yi sat in the cave with his eyes closed, his aura faint, appearing severely injured—this was Yao Zhang's normal cultivation state.
In reality, Han Yi was in the Immortal Spirit Realm, using Immortal Power to simulate Immortal Arts, advancing his progress.
But he knew that outside the cave, a True Immortal had appeared, subtly scanning his body with Immortal Sense for several breaths before departing.
After half an hour, the True Immortal returned, lingered for a few breaths, and left again.
Han Yi remained unmoved.
Since he was pretending to be a severely injured Demigod, he wouldn't reveal any anomalies.
Even a Golden Immortal would find it difficult to discern his true nature.
Seven days later.
He returned to the immortal shop. The Soul Hall steward handed him a cultivation jade slip.
"To join the Soul Hall, you must cultivate a Soul Technique. Its name is simple: the Soul Scripture."
"The Soul Scripture has ninety-nine layers."
"Don't overthink it. Cultivators below the Immortal realm can only cultivate up to the ninth layer."
"Your cultivation realm is Demigod. If you can cultivate the Soul Scripture to the third layer, you'll qualify to join the Soul Hall."
"Additionally, cultivating the Soul Scripture requires a Soul Guide."
The Soul Hall steward then took out a white medicinal pill and handed it to Han Yi.
"This pill is the Soul Guide. Take it when you begin cultivating the Soul Scripture."
"Remember, the Soul Scripture's cultivation technique can only be comprehended once. After the first attempt, it will shatter. You only have one chance, so don't attempt it lightly. Make sure you're fully prepared."
"Once you cultivate the Soul Scripture to the third layer, someone will contact you about joining the Soul Hall."
The steward waved, signaling Han Yi to leave.
Although Han Yi had already known about the Soul Scripture and the Soul Guide beforehand, he still feigned hesitation. However, under the steward's subtle prompting, he quickly put on an expression of unwavering determination, as if he was ready to take the risk.
After Han Yi left, the steward shook his head slightly:
"Reaching the third layer of the Soul Scripture is far from easy."