Chapter 882: Chapter 50: Purgatory Refiner
Zhou Yan’s gaze turned cold, and a powerful soul force violently suppressed Fang Tianhao, preparing to forcibly use the Soul Searching Technique. But due to extreme fear, Fang Tianhao’s soul body became unstable and shattered without even enduring a brief moment.
Fang Tianhao’s soul power danced like fireflies in this Soul Sea, eventually transforming into faint, pure soul liquid and falling into the Soul Sea.
In the Soul Sea, Zhou Yan’s soul body was filled with hesitation.
This Soul Searching was merely a test and experiment for Zhou Yan, also to find information about Ping’er and others, a forced necessity.
However, the result was beyond Zhou Yan’s expectations. Although Zhou Yan’s soul was near immortal, despite experiencing Soul Loss, he could still forcibly search souls, utilizing part of True Void Heavenly Prohibition’s abilities and applying Outer Domain’s techniques.
However, this can only be implemented in the Soul Sea and cannot be performed in the external world.
This technique, once applied, brings extreme pain to the person being searched; unable to endure to the limit can lead to the collapse of the Divine Soul, self-ignition of the Divine Soul, akin to spontaneous combustion at extreme temperatures.
As Zhou Yan searched Lan Ji’s soul, he didn’t initially think much, but unexpectedly, he acquired several crucial pieces of information.
This made Zhou Yan’s understanding of the Dark God Domain leap from that of an entirely inexperienced native to the equivalent of an ordinary cultivator of a Great Domain! It almost immediately compensated for the biggest superficial flaw in surveillance.
...
The first piece of information Zhou Yan obtained was naturally about Ping’er and Xiong Ba. It was confirmed that Xiong Ba was captured by the Lan clan. The Lan clan was almost entirely composed of women, but they indulged in carnal desires and liked keeping ’male slaves’.
’Male slaves’ consisted of strong demon beasts and cultivators, with strange poison bugs, poison pills, etc., injected into their bodies. The male slaves’ divine bodies and even divine souls would be consumed, refining these bizarre objects, allowing them to be continually harvested by the Lan clan.
Ping’er, on the other hand, was captured by the Fang Clan.
The Fang Clan is an ordinary tribe among the Wanling Race, but most tribe members inherently possess strong Bloodline Power, with significant strength, born with innate Memory Inheritance.
The Fang Clan was originally a branch of the ’Fang Lin Clan’. Many Wanling Race clans that have disappeared or become extinct have almost entirely preserved their bloodlines in this Dark God Domain.
The Returning True Clan also exists in the Dark God Domain, belonging to a ’Domain’-level force in the Dark God Domain, genuinely a colossal entity.
The Dark God Domain is divided into many subdomains, like here in ’Tianxing Subdomain’s’ Tianxing City, Quicksand Town.
The Returning True Clan, blessed in this region, is almost comparable to the Returning True Clan in Gles’s True God Plane, making Zhou Yan feel incredulous.
Having obtained this information, Zhou Yan immediately pursued the direction where the Fang Clan tribesmen captured Ping’er, and together with Zhou Ying, they steered the Xuanyuan Sword at extreme speed, hoping to rescue them before they were taken into the Fang Clan.
The second piece of information Zhou Yan obtained was about the Xingyi Divine Fist Venerable, clearly referring to Lee Ran.
Lee Ran indeed appeared in the Dark God Domain and even left terrifying battle records but mysteriously vanished again. No one knows his origins, in Lan Ji’s memory, this terror-inducing Great Power figure suddenly appeared and disappeared without trace.
However, this person was as if stabbing fiercely into the heart of every cultivator in the Dark God Domain.
The Lan clan’s people in Quicksand Town obtained a trace of enlightenment from the accidental legacy left by the Xingyi Venerable, leading them to grasp a superficial version of Xingyi transformation.
The third piece of information also drew Zhou Yan’s attention because this memory was about a method of divine soul restoration named ’Heart-soothing Spring’, a Soul Spring effective for both Zhou Yan’s injured soul body and the Holy Daughter.
If the Heart-soothing Spring could be obtained, it could irrigate the Ancient Evil Heart and complete the true fusion with the Nine Apertures Heart, thereby unlocking the transformed version of the Eye of Destruction.
Simultaneously, it could absorb a thread of Soul Slash’s might without sustaining damage and recover Soul Loss.
Zhou Yan needed only a small amount of the Heart-soothing Spring to recover his own condition, using the rest to stabilize the Holy Daughter’s Soul Loss, which was incredibly beneficial.
Zhou Yan almost immediately sought to acquire it, but only partial information appeared, not complete.
The fourth piece of information was about the perception of loose cultivators, the distribution of forces, and the cultivation situation of cultivators.
The cultivators in the Dark God Domain all have complex relationships, sects abound, with various methods of rule modification, evolution, etc.
Large and small sect forces teach the genuine Rule Power and establish Rule Techniques, creating Supreme Dao experiences, etc. However, any sect force’s cultivator must commit to a force named ’Dark God Domain’ and acquire corresponding ’titles’ and ’merits’.
The existence of ’Dark God Domain’ is to counter external threats, to fight terrifying creatures such as ’Yin Spirits’, ’Resentful Spirits’, ’Mechanical Creatures’, and ’Heartless Flame Demons’ from the Void Demon Realm.
The Dark God Domain persists without being eroded by the Void Demon Realm because of the guardianship of the ’Dark God Domain’ force.
The core members of ’Dark God Domain’ bear the title ’Purgatory Refiner’, which is assigned due to contribution and thus corresponding status.
Ordinary loose cultivators, if they do not join sect forces, will not learn comprehensive techniques for creating rules, altering rules, or correcting domain flaws, causing them to fall behind step by step.
If not joining ’Dark God Domain’, they cannot obtain societal status or gain the genuine respect of cultivators.
Moreover, each major sect possesses mainstream powerful resources, but the Dark God Domain holds nearly all top-tier, absolute-grade resources. By contributing enough and obtaining a sufficient status within ’Dark God Domain’, these things can be easily acquired.
The two people Zhou Yan had killed, although they were only cultivators from the two major races in Quicksand Town, were also members of the ’Dark God Domain’ with the title of ’Void-level Six-star Purgatory Refiner’ within this force.
Above Void-level Purgatory Refiner are Divine Level Purgatory Refiner, Venerable Level Purgatory Refiner, and Emperor-level Purgatory Refiner.
Most Purgatory Refiners correspond to their realms, but due to the difficulty in acquiring contributions from the ’Dark God Domain’ and the challenging assignments, often even those with Divine Spirit Nine Transitions are only around Divine Level Six-star Purgatory Refiner.
Similarly, beneath the God Realm, Dark God Domain has the ’Void God’ realm, equivalent to the Saint Realm, but not exactly the same. This is set for young or novice cultivators in the Great Domain since creating Rule Domains is a huge threshold that blocks many ordinary Great Domain beings.
Therefore, Void God corresponds to Void-level Purgatory Refiner. To advance to the title of ’Divine Level Purgatory Refiner,’ Void-level Purgatory Refiners need to accumulate the corresponding contribution points.
Judging from the cases of Lan Ji and Fang Tianhao, advancing titles is probably not that easy.
...
This information all came from Lan Ji’s divine soul memory.
Only after Zhou Yan learned this information did he realize that in this Dark God Domain, it would be almost impossible to make any progress without joining the ’Dark God Domain.’
Moreover, if you do not join those sect forces, it is impossible to learn the methods of ’rules’ creation, modification, and advancement. This is equivalent to these forces controlling the lifeline of all cultivators, halting them at crucial points.
However, it was precisely this that made Zhou Yan feel that the integrity of this Great Domain was extremely astonishing.
Yet, one fortunate aspect of this Dark God Domain is that it is relatively more humane. Although the law of the jungle is almost everywhere, it also allows for unity and cohesion in times of great difficulty.
Zhou Yan sorted through these vast memories and also knew that after rescuing Ping’er and Xiong Ba, it was entirely necessary to join the Dark God Domain, receive the Dark God Domain title badge, and then seek powerful forces to further enhance his strength.
Moreover, many of the resources and materials Zhou Yan needed could perhaps be exchanged in the Dark God Domain for contribution points.
This is an invisible yet tangibly existing ’hidden rule.’
This is not only for Zhou Yan but also a ’hidden rule’ that every cultivator in the Dark God Domain spontaneously abides by.
Zhou Yan was not the rebellious type, so why would he refuse to do these things? Having entered the Dark God Domain, he was already prepared for everything, coupled with his brother’s instructive words — become stronger by any means!
Thus, joining the sect, immersing in the ’combat great forces’ of the Dark God Domain was something Zhou Yan could fully accept.
Zhou Yan fully understood the principle that ’arrogance brings loss, modesty brings profit.’
...
As he flew, Zhou Yan quickly sorted through this information, and at the same time, his sense of soul power detected the direction where Ping’er was, which was exactly the place where the Fang Clan was located.
A group of seventeen Fang Clan members had locked Ping’er with a chain of soul power order, their faces showing excitement and thrill, as if they had made a very rich harvest.
"Brother Zhou Yan, they are about ten thousand meters ahead. My soul power can only detect up to five hundred meters, but with the Heavenly Spirit Eye, I can see some of what’s ahead,"
Zhou Ying suddenly shivered, transmitting to Zhou Yan.
Zhou Yan nodded and conveyed the message, "Twenty-seven thousand three hundred meters, my soul power can sense up to about thirty thousand meters, so I sensed it. However, using the ability to fly in the Dark God Domain does indeed deplete significantly and is slow. If I hadn’t known the Void Rules before, I probably wouldn’t have managed this step. Hmm, let’s head over immediately."
Relieved upon sensing Ping’er, Zhou Yan relaxed.
Yet Zhou Ying heard something different from Zhou Yan’s message, as if after seeing Ping’er, Zhou Yan had formed a completely new plan, or perhaps because of this battle, he saw through something of the Heavenly Mechanism?
Zhou Ying didn’t inquire, but instead transmitted, "What about us?"
"Let’s move, we’ll coordinate and directly — slaughter them,"
Zhou Yan took a deep breath, his eyes revealing endless killing intent.
"Alright—"
Zhou Ying, no longer as weak as before, having received Zhou Yan’s opinion, prepared to strike from afar.
"Sizzle—"
The vast domain rule suddenly rippled out like a furious water wave, and the Xuanyuan Sword abruptly accelerated, causing the powerful Heavenly Spirit Domain to cover everyone below, including the bound Ping’er.
But when Ping’er sensed this rule, her eyes suddenly brightened, showing a look of surprise.
However, the surprise quickly turned to worry, concerned that rescuing her would put Zhou Ying and even Zhou Yan in danger.
Yet, the dangerous scene did not occur. Instead, Zhou Yan charged out almost instantly after this domain, and the Xingyi Dragon Form Sword Soul displayed a devastating destructive power.