Han Yi returned to the Immortal's Cave Yao Zhang had rented.
He retrieved the Jade Slip cultivation technique and the white medicinal pill given to him by the Soul Hall steward.
He examined the pill. As a First-Tier Immortal-grade Alchemist, Han Yi quickly identified it as an ordinary True Essence Pill.
True Essence Pills are suitable for Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators for cultivation.
He also discovered a faint, living aura coiled within the pill, not a lifeless substance, but something alive.
"So this is the Soul Guide?"
"The legendary Soul Guide, said to be crafted only by the Myriad Nether Incarnation, an Avatar of Immortal Monarch level."
"As expected, the pill itself is merely a medium. The true value lies in the aura coiled within. Replacing it with a Spirit Stone and placing this aura inside would achieve the same effect."
Without hesitation, Han Yi began his cultivation.
He had already reviewed the information from the Jade Slip. Many Immortals from the Immortal Court, who had investigated the Myriad Nether Incarnation, had used the Soul Guide to cultivate the Soul Scripture.
In truth, this technique posed no inherent danger. It was a legitimate Soul Technique, its sole purpose being a heaven-defying enhancement of the Divine Soul. With each breakthrough to a higher level, the Divine Soul's power would double.
This was also one of the reasons why so many cultivators and immortals affiliated with the Soul Tower and its subordinate organizations excelled in soul techniques, specializing in various methods such as Divided Soul and Soul Control.
However, even with a Soul Guide, after reaching the ninth layer, non-affiliated immortals would inevitably fail when attempting to break through to the tenth layer. Mysteriously, their cultivated Soul Scripture would disintegrate, and the enhancements to their Divine Soul gained through cultivation would fade. Moreover, to continue cultivating Immortal Scripture, they would require a new Soul Guide.
The Jade Slip information only described this phenomenon without providing an explanation. The implications were clear: if the cause were discovered, it would undoubtedly be included in the Jade Slip.
Han Yi couldn't immediately grasp this either, ultimately attributing it to the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable's peculiarities.
He picked up the True Essence Pill and swallowed it. The pill's medicinal power dissipated immediately, while the strand of aura coiled within the pill bored into the Immortal Spirit Realm.
Han Yi's thoughts followed the aura, but he made no attempt to stop its flow.
When the aura touched the Immortal Soul within the Immortal Spirit Realm, it vanished completely, leaving no trace.
Han Yi frowned. After waiting several breaths, he began a thorough examination, searching both inside and outside the realm multiple times. He found nothing unusual; the strand of aura had truly vanished as if by magic, leaving him utterly perplexed.
Han Yi composed himself, picked up the Jade Slip containing the cultivation technique, and focused his Immortal Sense on it. The slip immediately released a stream of cultivation instructions, which Han Yi absorbed. After he had reviewed the technique once, the Jade Slip crumbled into dust.
The Soul Hall steward hadn't lied: this Jade Slip was single-use, meant to be comprehended only once and not shared with others.
The scripture flowing through Han Yi's mind was surprisingly concise, only about three thousand characters long.
Strangely, it wasn't written in the script of the Great Luo Immortal Realm, but resembled a set of runes imbued with special meanings.
He could understand the runes' meanings, but he couldn't articulate them aloud, write them down, or even imprint them with his Immortal Sense.
The Jade Slip itself was equally bizarre.
As Han Yi learned more about the Soul Tower, his wariness of this dark organization grew.
Moreover, he was still far from truly engaging with the Soul Tower itself. For now, he was only interacting with an ordinary stronghold at the very periphery of its lower-tier organization.
Next, Han Yi began to cultivate. The Immortal's Cave he occupied had once belonged to Yao Zhang. To maintain his cover and prevent the Soul Hall from detecting any discrepancies, Han Yi remained within this cave, avoiding any outward movement.
This was merely a Demigod's Cave, and the concentration of Immortal Qi it provided was far too low for Han Yi's daily cultivation needs as a Golden Immortal.
However, he had brought ample supplies of Immortal Stones and various cultivation resources from his Divine Aperture World, so he wasn't worried.
After setting up a simplified sword formation with a Sixth-Tier Immortal Sword, he began cultivating with the Immortal Stones.
He spent just one day to directly surpass the introductory stage of the 3,000-character Soul Scripture and advance to the first level.
Whether during cultivation or after advancing to the first level of the Soul Scripture, he no longer sensed that faint aura of the Soul Guide flowing from his True Essence Pill into his Immortal Soul.
The next day.
After advancing to the first level, Han Yi first assessed the strength of his Immortal Soul, finding it had barely changed.
He wasn't disappointed.
According to legend, cultivating each level of the Soul Scripture doubles the strength of one's Divine Soul. However, this assumes the level of the Soul Scripture being cultivated matches the Immortal's Cultivation Realm.
Based on the information he had gathered, the ninth level corresponds to the Peak Demigod realm, the tenth level begins the True Immortal realm, the twenty-first level corresponds to the Profound Immortal realm, and the thirty-first level corresponds to the Golden Immortal realm.
Having just entered the Golden Immortal realm, if he were to cultivate the 32nd layer, his Immortal Soul's strength could indeed double.
However, having only cultivated the first layer, it was normal to barely perceive any changes in his Immortal Soul.
Otherwise, the Soul Guide and Soul Scripture would have become treasures fiercely contested by all Immortals in the Immortal Realm. After all, an Immortal Monarch could casually cultivate up to the ninth layer, multiplying their Immortal Soul ninefold, then halt cultivation to avoid the risks of the tenth layer, where the Divine Soul might regress.
In that case, the Soul Scripture and Soul Guide would be no less than supreme treasures.
After sensing his Immortal Soul's strength, Han Yi called up the Proficiency Panel and glanced at it, slightly startled.
Instead of displaying the Soul Scripture, the panel showed a new line of text.
This line wasn't in the Immortal Realm's script, but rather a series of twisted runes.
As Han Yi focused on the runes, they began to tremble and flicker, each kshana transforming into something entirely different, yet still not resembling any script he recognized from the Immortal Realm.
After three breaths, the runes finally stabilized.
The stabilized runes finally transformed into characters Han Yi could understand from the Immortal Realm:
Myriad Nether Tome (Nether Slave · Half-Immortal Chapter 1/100).
Han Yi was even more astonished.
He could understand the Immortal Realm script, but it only deepened his confusion.
Myriad Nether Tome?
This must be the true name of the cultivation technique, not "Soul Scripture."
Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable?
Logically, this venerable one must know the technique's true name to have adopted such a Daoist title.
Half-Immortal Chapter likely refers to the first through ninth layers. Having advanced to the first layer, my progress is at 1/100, which makes sense.
Most importantly... Nether Slave.
Han Yi frowned deeply. He understood the implications of "slave" well enough. During his cultivation of the Ninefold Soul Tower, he had mastered numerous Soul Techniques that allowed him to enslave others, transforming them into his own Soul Slaves.
So, "Nether Slave" likely meant something similar.
In other words, by cultivating this technique, one would become the "slave" of the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable?
Despite these thoughts, Han Yi felt no real concern. Other Immortals who had cultivated this technique had at worst ended up with a useless technique; no greater harm had been reported.
Moreover, as a Golden Immortal, even if he cultivated the technique to the ninth layer, the enhancement to his Immortal Soul would be negligible.
At that moment...
After the runes materialized on the panel, Han Yi suddenly reconsidered his original plan. He had initially intended to cultivate methodically to the third layer, then join the Soul Hall as a steward, gradually advancing step by step until he could enter the Soul Tower.
The Immortal Court had set no time limit, allowing him to lay his plans slowly.
Moreover, countless immortals, Monarch Venerables, and even Dao Ancestors had tried to destroy the Soul Tower over tens of thousands of years, but they could only kill the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable. This would silence the dark organization for a time, but whenever the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable awakened in a new avatar and cultivated back to the Immortal Venerable Realm, the Soul Tower would inevitably return.
Therefore, Han Yi didn't hold much hope for the mission to find the Myriad Nether Incarnation. He simply investigated methodically, following the clues like searching for a horse based on a picture.
This was his original plan.
But the runes that had materialized on the panel, after countless transformations, settled into the script of the Immortal Realm. This made Han Yi ponder further.
He suspected those runes were the script of another Great World within the Chaos.
If true, then the Myriad Nether Tome must have originated from the Chaos. Its principles would fundamentally differ from those of the Immortal Realm's cultivation techniques, and its exceptionally high quality would explain its various bizarre effects.
He suddenly felt a tremendous interest in cultivating the Myriad Nether Tome to its tenth layer.
Unless they were from the Soul Tower or its subordinate organizations, Immortals from other parts of the Immortal Realm who cultivated the Soul Scripture to the tenth layer would find it mysteriously disintegrate, and the enhancement to their Divine Soul gained through cultivation would fade.
To relearn the Soul Scripture, they would then need to find a new Soul Guide.
However, Han Yi sensed that his experience at the tenth layer would be different.
This was due to the unique nature of the Proficiency Panel.
The Soul Scripture manifested the true form of the Myriad Nether Tome within the panel, indicating that his cultivation of the tome differed fundamentally from that of other Immortals.
This difference had been proven over the past millennium in every Immortal Art he had cultivated. Every technique he mastered evolved to perfection, often surpassing the recorded levels. For example, he could perform Heavenly Gang Immortal Arts even at the Third-Tier level.
Even if his intuition proved wrong, he could abandon the Soul Scripture, establish a new stronghold, and try again according to his original plan.
The cost of this endeavor was minimal: a relatively short period of time and a Semi-Immortal Grade Spirit Stone, which was trivial to him.
His resolve made, Han Yi rose and released Yao Zhang from the Divine Aperture World.
To make his act convincing, Han Yixian had genuinely avenged Yao Zhang.
After releasing Yao Zhang, Han Yixian used his Immortal Sense to erase all of Yao Zhang's memories related to the Soul Hall, then altered his memories of the revenge. Finally, he used the Escape Technique to leave the Immortal's Cave and return to the True Immortal's Cave he had rented.
Since he intended to study the Soul Scripture—the tenth layer of the Myriad Nether Tome: Nether Soul: Half-Immortal Chapter—he couldn't risk staying somewhere the Immortals of the Soul Hall knew about. If something went wrong and they investigated his progress with the scripture, it could lead to unnecessary trouble.
He still possessed this caution.
After Han Yi left,
Yao Zhang materialized in the Immortal's Cave, feeling something was amiss.
He only remembered killing his enemy, though it wasn't a complete revenge, it was the utmost he could achieve at the moment.
After tidying up, he used the Escape Technique to leave the Immortal's Cave and swiftly departed Cold Cry Immortal City.
Once his strength increased and he reached True Immortal status, he would return to annihilate his enemy's entire clan.
Some time later, when the True Immortal from the Soul Hall came to investigate again, he found Yao Zhang had already left. The True Immortal didn't think much of it; such situations were not uncommon. He simply crossed Yao Zhang's name off the register and departed.
Meanwhile, Han Yi returned to his rented True Immortal's Cave and threw himself wholeheartedly into cultivating the Myriad Nether Tome.
The Half-Immortal Chapter he possessed only allowed him to cultivate up to the ninth layer. To obtain the Immortal Technique for the tenth layer, he needed to become an outer member of the Soul Hall and cultivate the ninth layer first.
However, Han Yi didn't intend to acquire the next cultivation technique through the Soul Hall. Instead of using the Soul Scripture to advance even to the second layer, he planned to grind out the second, third, and even the tenth layers directly through his Proficiency Panel.
Compared to the Soul Scripture, he placed far more faith in the Proficiency Panel that had accompanied him for countless years.
This wasn't difficult for him.
His Sword Control Immortal Art originated from the Sword Control Technique he practiced during the Qi Refining Stage in the Jade Balance Realm. Fetal Transformation Disguise initially was just a Disguise Technique, and the Cosmic Light Thought Realm Immortal Art started as a Light Body Technique.
With enough time, all cultivation techniques could be supplemented through the Proficiency Panel.
What puzzled Han Yi was that, contrary to his initial estimate that he would quickly reach the tenth layer of the Myriad Nether Tome, the process took far longer than he anticipated.
Abandoning the Soul Scripture, Han Yi used the Proficiency Panel to grind through the Myriad Nether Tome. Reaching the second layer alone took him half a month.
The third layer took three months.
The fourth layer took a year.
The fifth layer took three years.
The sixth layer took ten years.
After reaching the sixth layer, Han Yi temporarily stopped cultivating. By this time, nearly fifteen years had passed since he first arrived in Cold Cry Immortal City.
This period far exceeded his expectations.
He set aside his cultivation for the moment, hurried back to the Immortal Court, and went to consult Immortal Monarch Yuanshu. He voiced his doubts about the Soul Scripture but didn't reveal that he had been grinding through it using proficiency.
The Immortal Monarch replied, "I too have attempted to cultivate the Soul Scripture from the Soul Tower, and I even obtained the Jade Slip for the tenth layer's cultivation method."
"But this Soul Scripture is profoundly strange. The moment I ascended to the first layer, it completely disintegrated. Even at my Immortal Monarch realm, I couldn't prevent it. Moreover, after the scripture disintegrated, all my memories of its cultivation methods vanished."
"I suspect that this Soul Scripture is the very foundation of the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable's ability to manifest countless incarnations and evade death repeatedly."
"We simply lack the evidence to confirm this."
Immortal Monarch Yuanshu turned to Han Yi and said, "The breakthrough to the tenth layer of the Soul Scripture was highly peculiar. Every Immortal investigating the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable's whereabouts would attempt to cultivate this not particularly obscure scripture."
"Yet, as far as I know, every Immortal has failed, without exception."
"Han Yi, have you cultivated the Soul Scripture and made any discoveries?"
Yuanshu spoke with a hint of anticipation. Numerous inexplicable events had occurred involving Han Yi, and he hoped this question might yield a breakthrough.
But Han Yi merely shook his head. "I'm simply puzzled."
"What kind of Immortal Art could leave all the Immortals of Great Luo utterly helpless?"
"That's why I've come to seek clarification from Immortal Monarch."
"As for discoveries, I've made none. Nothing has surpassed the information provided in the Jade Slip you gave me."
After a moment, Han Yi took his leave, and Immortal Monarch Yuanshu didn't dwell on the matter further.
As Han Yi had said, for countless tens of thousands of years, all the Immortals of the Great Luo Immortal Court had been helpless against the Myriad Nether Immortal Venerable. This included several Heavenly Venerables who had appeared throughout Great Luo's history.