I Am Overlord c1-962

by Translator: Pokka; Author: 我本纯洁 (I Am Pure); Licensed From: Migu

  The instant Yun Flame's coating vanished from his body, his head was swarmed by an endless torrent of evil spirits. Even an Emperor would not be able to survive something like this. However, he remained seated with complete calmness. His eyes shut, he allowed the evil spirits to invade his mind, acting like he was completely ignoring them.

  In truth, within his head, the Nether Soul Domain had formed an independent world. The moment the evil spirits entered, they landed in the independent space. Once inside, regardless of what they did, they weren't able to deal any damage to the space.

  When the 8,000 ghostrunes saw the evil spirits, their eyes lit up with excitement as they quickly swarmed and devoured the evil spirits. The evil spirits might be vicious, but the ghostrunes were their nemesis. The evil spirits weren't even able to deal the ghostrunes any damage before they all turned into food.

  Even after devouring so many evil spirits, the ghostrunes still looked hungry. When Xiang Shaoyun sensed that, his lips curved into a smile as he completely removed his defenses, allowing the evil spirits to enter his mind as they wished.

  Unsurprisingly, all the evil spirits turned into ghostrune feed, allowing the 8,000 ghostrunes to undergo a massive growth in strength. One could say that the evil spirits were akin to a tonic that was even more useful than soul medicines to the ghostrunes.

  The ghostrune patriarch grew into a seventh-stage Emperor, and over a dozen new Emperors had appeared among the ghostrunes as well. In total, there were now more than 50 Emperors among them. As for the Kings, their cultivation levels had also advanced greatly.

  This rapid advancement was an accumulation of growth from the time Xiang Shaoyun left the Devil Domain until now. Along with the increase of his strength and the awakening of his devil blood, the Nether Soul Domain had also changed, greatly benefiting the ghostrunes. In fact, just the ghostrunes alone were comparable to a tier-5 organization. And when the unique attacks of the ghostrunes were taken into consideration, they could easily destroy regular tier-5 organizations.

  Chapter 570: A Fine Filthless Soul

  Dragon Phoenix Academy.

  The new disciples had all settled down. Clear cliques had also formed among the regular disciples, core disciples, and personal disciples. A new ranking of strength for them had also been released. Apart from the eight freaks that had been completely hidden by the academy, a few other new disciples had also displayed their talent and shocked the entire academy.

  These people were all personal disciples of the academy elders, becoming a target of admiration for many disciples. Apart from that, some of the academy elders' children, who were also personal disciples and were considered part of the academy's local factions, had started recruiting from the new disciples and became part of the strongest factions in the academy.

  The same would happen during each recruitment. Some would become leaders and some would become followers. Numerous small factions would sprout, and they would then start fighting over the cultivation resources supplied by the academy.

  Xiang Shaoyun, who had shocked the academy with a single brilliant feat, also had a hope of becoming one of the strongest faction leaders. Unfortunately, he had completely vanished after the academy had brought him away.

  Some claimed that he had been hidden, becoming a personal disciple of a previous generation elder. Some claimed that he had become the principal's personal disciple. Some even claimed that he had been placed on house arrest due to his disobedience.

  Initially, many people were inclined to believe the first two rumors, but eventually, someone confirmed that Xiang Shaoyun had indeed been locked somewhere. Moreover, it seemed like he was in serious trouble, as there was a possibility that he wouldn't appear anymore.

  After news of that spread, some were worried while some were happy. People like Di Lin, Di Tong, and Di Shang were celebrating, while people like Tang Longfei and company were anxious.

  Fortunately, the academy had still settled down the Han Clan sisters, whom Xiang Shaoyun had brought. They were both classified as Xiang Shaoyun's followers and were accorded the treatment of regular disciples.

  However, they were somewhat lacking in strength and were having a hard time keeping up with the other disciples. But due to their exceptional looks, they weren't really prejudiced against. Some people were also starting to set their eyes on the two.

  These people knew the sisters had joined with Xiang Shaoyun, but when they learned of Xiang Shaoyun's imprisonment, their courage grew. Naturally, they were beaten off by Tang Longfei and Lady Shura.

  However, they were no pushovers either. They declared that a day would come when Tang Longfei and company were taught a lesson. The Han Clan sisters were greatly saddened, and they vowed to grow their strength as best as they could. Thus, they became two of the most hardworking followers in the academy, eventually advancing from the sixth-stage to the seventh-stage.

  Of course, that was not enough. They would continue working hard. After all, this was a place filled with geniuses, and they were among those with the weakest talents in the academy.

  ...

  Xiang Shaoyun was naturally unaware of all that was happening outside. He was still cultivating steadily. For him, since even the evil spirits that were the biggest danger in the Back Graveyard were no longer a threat to him, he no longer feared anything there.

  Massive numbers of evil spirits were constantly being transformed into ghostrune feed, and he himself was also not idling around. Using these evil spirits, he started tempering himself. His soul had already solidified and was as powerful as the soul of a top Emperor. Thus, he needed to have a good practice of soul battles.

  After all, upon reaching the Soul Foundation Realm, soul battles would no longer be avoidable. In that realm, those with the stronger soul foundation would be the stronger cultivator.

  Thus, it wasn't wrong for him to start practicing early. One could say that he was preparing an umbrella for the rainy day. With the protection of the Nether Dragon Soul Headband, Xiang Shaoyun was considered invincible when facing the evil spirits.

  He slaughtered the evil spirits without stop, exhausting his soul power ceaselessly. The regeneration after exhaustion would usually result in a growth of his soul. Apart from that, he had also used some flame power and lightning power to temper his Imperial Nether Prison, making his chains impervious to flame and lightning.

  While doing so, something beyond Xiang Shaoyun's expectation happened. The Nether Soul Domain had undergone an obvious change after the tempering. When he noticed the change, he started tempering his soul in the same manner as well. The instant the lightning and flame powers touched his soul, he wailed in pain. It was a risky attempt, one where carelessness would result in death.

  The only reason Xiang Shaoyun even dared to make the attempt was due to the protection of the Nether Dragon Soul Headband. The tempering caused him to wail in pain endlessly, and after the tempering, he became severely weakened. Even the three little birds became anxious watching him. Nowadays, the three birds were already capable of walking around. They could already flap their wings as well. Before long, they would be able to fly.

  They were extremely vicious and ferocious, yet they were incredibly intimate with Xiang Shaoyun. Unfortunately, they could do nothing to make his situation better. Xiang Shaoyun did not let them stay worried for long. He quickly swallowed some soul spring liquid and immediately recovered considerably. And by the time he fully recovered, he found that his soul had solidified even further. His soul body looked sparkling and translucent, as if it was completely free of filth.

  Seeing that reminded him of something, causing him to exclaim in shock, "In the legends, when one reaches the Heaven Battling Realm, one's body will transform into a saintly body and one's soul will transform into a filthless soul. With a filthless soul, one can form independent clones that can battle outside of the main body. My current soul feels incredibly pure. Is this a result of tempering using powers of extreme yang?"

  At that
thought, he grew excited. If he could form a filthless soul at his current cultivation level, it would signify a massive increase in not only his soul power but also his intelligence and comprehension.

  Thus, in the coming days, Xiang Shaoyun focused on tempering his soul. He started with a small amount of the powers of extreme yang, and as his soul slowly adapted to it, he increased the amount. Eventually, he even took his Nether Dragon Soul Headband off and enveloped his entire soul in a layer formed of powers of extreme yang.

  Although he had to withstand an unimaginable pain doing so, he gained a lot as well. His soul power rose greatly, reaching a level comparable to a peak Emperor's. He also finally built himself a genuine filthless soul. The so-called filthless soul was a soul with no impurity whatsoever. The difference between such a soul and a regular soul was as clear as a cleansed body and an unwashed body.

  If one could see Xiang Shaoyun's current soul, the sight would be shocking enough to cause eyeballs to pop out of the eye sockets. His soul was akin to a newborn's, resembling nature itself, with no imperfection. It was sparkling and translucent and had an indescribable splendor swirling around it constantly, as if it were the soul of a son of god, pure and ethereal.

  At this sight, anyone would sing a heartfelt praise such as "What a fine filthless soul!"

  Ultimately, some powerful evil spirits at the depths of the Back Graveyard noticed Xiang Shaoyun. And with that, a massive calamity noiselessly approached him.

  Chapter 571: High-Level Evil Spirit

  Within the Dragon Phoenix Academy's Back Graveyard, a sturdy figure slowly walked out from the darkness. The figure was filled with a corrosive aura. Evidently, this was a corpse, one without any life left in it. Occupying this corpse was an evil spirit. It was an evil spirit at the cultivation level of late-stage Sovereign Realm, and it possessed a dreadfully sinister consciousness.

  It had awakened from its slumber after sensing an aura filled with vitality. And without any hesitation, it had rushed straight to the outer fringe of the Back Graveyard. Before long, it appeared not far from Xiang Shaoyun's position. Its eye sockets were empty, with two clumps of radiance pulsing within them, looking incredibly eerie.

  "What a young body. I finally have a chance at rebirth," muttered the evil spirit in joy as it charged Xiang Shaoyun. But before it could even approach Xiang Shaoyun, the nether prison devil puppet attacked mercilessly and stopped it.

  Unwilling to back off, the evil spirit clashed with the puppet. Evidently, the evil spirit was comparable to the puppet in strength. Thus, Xiang Shaoyun stopped cultivating and stood up. Looking at the battle, his face turned slightly solemn as he said, "Is this a Sovereign Realm zombie? No, that doesn't seem to be the case."

  The corpse occupied by the evil spirit was not as sturdy as the puppet. After a short while of close combat, it was destroyed. The evil spirit ignored the corpse and flew out before pouncing at Xiang Shaoyun.

  "Give your body up," said the evil spirit as he charged toward Xiang Shaoyun's head.

  Without any hesitation, Xiang Shaoyun activated Yun Flame's power. The moment the evil spirit approached, Yun Flame's power harmed it, causing it to quickly retreat in pain.

  "Damn it! You actually have a flame of extreme yang? But that is not enough to stop me from taking over your body!" cursed the evil spirit before it fled.

  A slight worry surfaced in Xiang Shaoyun's heart as he looked at the fleeing evil spirit. He did not dare to allow a high-level evil spirit like this into his Nether Soul Domain. Although the ghostrunes were the nemeses of evil spirits, he still feared that a mishap might happen. If the evil spirit ended up taking over his Nether Soul Domain, he would be in deep trouble.

  Although the nether prison devil puppet was sufficiently powerful, it couldn't do anything toward these evil spirits that did not have physical bodies. After leaving, the evil spirit would definitely return prepared. That was the source of Xiang Shaoyun's worry.

  "Forget it. It's not like I have any other options. I'll just have to face whatever it throws at me," said Xiang Shaoyun to himself.

  Before long, he found that a large number of skeletons were advancing toward him. One ought to know that these skeletons were supposed to only stay in their own territories. Now that they had all come here, it was clear this was the handiwork of that evil spirit. Furthermore, some of these skeletons could even fly. Each of the skeletons had traces of the evil spirit's soul power on them.

  "Things are getting troublesome," muttered Xiang Shaoyun, who started getting anxious.

  Without any hesitation, he stored the three birds into his astral cosmos sea. It had been proven that the astral cosmos sea was capable of storing living beings. Money was living proof of that. He also did the same with the nether prison devil puppet.

  "Kid, have you given up? Come, obediently sacrifice your soul to me," said the evil spirit.

  Xiang Shaoyun ignored its words and activated his Nether Shadow Evanescence, vanishing right where he stood. The Nether Shadow Evanescence was one of the three greatest abilities of the Imperial Nether Clan due to the trait of invisibility in the Imperial Nether Clan's bloodline.

  After absorbing the power of the dark heart, Xiang Shaoyun's bloodline had grown considerably due to the combination of his devilish energy and dark energy. Thus, he could now easily hide himself for about an hour in this state. When the evil spirit saw that Xiang Shaoyun had disappeared, it grew anxious.

  "You won't be able to hide from me! I will definitely find you!" roared the evil spirit.

  Generally, as evil spirits existed in an incorporeal form, they could easily detect the existence of illusions. Regular concealment techniques wouldn't work against them. However, the trait of invisibility in the Imperial Nether Clan's bloodline was too powerful. Thus, when Xiang Shaoyun used the Nether Shadow Evanescence, not even the evil spirit could locate him.

  After Xiang Shaoyun confirmed that the evil spirit couldn't sense him, he brazenly approached it. He was sure that a conscious evil spirit couldn't stay floating out in the world for a prolonged period of time because it would result in complete death through the exhaustion of soul power.

  The evil spirit, behaving as if it had gone mad, ordered the skeletons to search everywhere for Xiang Shaoyun. The evil spirit itself also flew everywhere, trying to sense where Xiang Shaoyun was hiding. It was completely oblivious to the fact that Xiang Shaoyun was slowly approaching it. But when Xiang Shaoyun finally got near it, its acute soul perception detected some abnormalities. It was at that time that a beam of flame shot out from Xiang Shaoyun's finger.

  Swish!

  The finger beam attack was his fastest attack. Carrying Yun Flame's power with it, the beam shot forth and struck the evil spirit, which couldn't react in time. The evil spirit wailed as a portion of its soul power was destroyed, causing its body to become even more translucent.

  "I'm going to crush you!" After being injured, the evil spirit's temper worsened, and it bombarded Xiang Shaoyun's location with a flying skeleton.

  However, Xiang Shaoyun had long moved away after releasing his attack. From a different direction, he shot another beam of flame toward the evil spirit. Such flame of extreme yang was the nemesis of the evil spirit, and each time the evil spirit was struck, its soul power greatly decreased. Completely helpless against Xiang Shaoyun, it decided to flee.

  But at this point, Xiang Shaoyun no longer feared it. After the evil spirit left, Xiang Shaoyun did not remain. Instead, he left as well. He decided to return to the place where he had met the vampire bats and see if he could find anything there. In any case, the vampire bats weren't that much of a threat to him. It wouldn't be a bad idea to switch his camp location. Before long, he arrived at the territory of the vampire bats.

  The moment the vampire bats detected Xiang Shaoyun, they attacked. He couldn't even be bothered to fight them. He directly released the nether prison devil puppet to deal with them. These vampire bats were all Emperors, and thus, they couldn't pose any threat
to the puppet.

  Xiang Shaoyun had his guesses that although the academy might be harsh toward him, they would still allow him a chance to live. So long as he stayed away from the depths of the Back Graveyard, he would be fine.

  Chapter 572: Gravekeeper Elder

  The vampire bat territory wasn't much safer than the big-winged vicious bird territory. Xiang Shaoyun hadn't even taken over the territory for long before he was swarmed by a large number of evil spirits. Fortunately, he was practically immune toward these low-level evil spirits. Anyone else would probably not have it as easy as him here.

  For Xiang Shaoyun, this was just another camp. At this kind of desolate land, apart from cultivating, he had nothing else to do. At present, with his filthless soul, his comprehension ability had grown to a brand new level. Thus, he was able to quickly master the dark and earth battle techniques he had been practicing previously. Afterwards, he started refining the 3,000-year-old root essence. The root essence contained the power of wood, and it constantly exuded a rich vitality, a power filled with life.

  After refining the root essence, Xiang Shaoyun's cultivation reached peak eighth-stage Skysoar Realm, and he would be able to enter the ninth-stage at any time. At this point, he decided to go all in and refine the 1,000-year-old congealed liquid ball and the radiant meteorite as well.

  The power of water represented an unending wave of softness, capable of constraining force with softness, containing both strength and gentleness. The power of light represented purity, radiance, holiness, and justice. After refining both powers into his body, an astonishing phenomenon appeared within him.

  All nine of his stars started radiating brilliantly, and strands of energy started swirling about within his body. They connected with the astral cosmos sea, forming a river of stars that was vast and wondrous. His entire person started radiating nine different colors, covering his surroundings with a serene, gorgeous, and beautiful curtain of light.