The Purgatory Calamity
Chapter 362 - 341: Integrating Thunder Pond into the Spiritual Sea_1

Chapter 362: Chapter 341: Integrating Thunder Pond into the Spiritual Sea_1

The Misty Sea was boundless.

In the Ice-thunder Fragment Land, within a spacious cavern inside a glacier, Pang Jian frowned as he looked toward the Thunder Pond.

The silvery-white pool, its material like crystal and jade and a mysterious metal resembling silver, emitted a faint halo on the icy ground.

On the walls and the bottom of the pool, there were Thunderbolt imprints, presented as clusters of twisted and flashing lightning.

This was a profound secret of the Great Tao that Thunder God had contemplated.

As the first powerful God Spirit in the myriad realms to successfully ascend to be a Thunder God, He aimed to use the Thunder Divine Court that He forged to command all the foremost practitioners of this Great Tao across the various realms.

If He did not die, if the Thunder Divine Court still existed,

the Lei Meng Beast God, an ancient being wandering in the depths of the Mysterious Fog, resembling both a lion and a tiger, even... the Old Thunder Dragon in the Purgatory World,

might all be subject to the Thunder Divine Court, enslaved by the first Thunder God among the myriad realms—Thunder God, with the authority of the Thunder Tao He wielded, becoming commanders under His banner.

Although Thunder God had fallen, His name still spread across the heavens, echoing in the endless Star River.

"The status of Thunder God among the God Spirits must be far higher than that of the Ice Demon,"

Pang Jian’s eyes showed determination.

In his prime state, his Spiritual Sea was brimming, his Ice Pool and Flame Pool were abundant in power. A crescent and a full moon shone brightly, the sun above the Spiritual Sea was blazing and dazzling, and the stars sparkled brilliantly—

——these were the results of his recent accumulation.

"It’s time."

With one concentrated thought in his mind, he descended above the silvery-white Thunder Pond and fully channeled the "Pot Heaven Nourishing Qi Spell."

The imagined Spiritual Sea within his dantian suddenly transformed into a gigantic Spirit Pot standing in the chaos of nothingness, seemingly devouring the primordial qi of the vast void.

At the upper end of this pot, it seemed to be connected to his Sea of Consciousness, while the lower part seemed to catch the netherworld and the unknown.

The central waist lay in the vast expanse of the void.

"Gather!"

His golden Spiritual Soul, which outside appeared to be only a hundred-zhang tall, descended from the Sea of Consciousness to the "Spirit Pot," becoming like an ancient deity that created heaven and earth.

His golden Spiritual Soul expanded infinitely, filling the mysterious alien land he had envisioned, with both hands grasping the body of the pot with the force of ten thousand jun!

"Whoosh!"

A sudden surge of suction burst from the mouth of the pot, resembling an abyss swallowing part of the sky. The Thunder Pond, which had already been locked by his Spiritual Soul, was drawn toward it.

In his pot-world, the deep sea manifested by Spiritual Power was drying up at a visible rate.

The stars, the moon, and the sun temporarily darkened, and the boiling flames of the Flame Pool also quietly extinguished.

Only the Ice Pool, enormous beyond belief and situated deep within the Spiritual Sea, remained full with its robust Extreme Cold Alien Power.

The originally unimpressive Thunder Pond in the outside world, within Pang Jian’s imagined pot-world, suddenly expanded tens of times!

Like dragging along a small heaven and earth, he pulled the Thunder Pond toward him, positioning it above the Thunder Vortex.

The tiny Thunder Vortex, merely the size of a palm’s cluster of clouds, was forced to bear a Thunder Pond more than tens of times its size.

Thus, the Thunder Vortex was pressed by this Thunder Pond to fall directly from mid-air into the Spiritual Sea.

"Rumble!"

Another vast and strange pool joined the ranks of the Ice Pool and Flame Pool outside in the expansive Spiritual Sea.

"Huff, huff!"

The small Thunder Vortex, now filled with power, was rapidly diluted and released outward, solidifying into a relatively weaker, massive Thunder Vortex.

The Thunder Vortex did not rotate but merely enveloped the Thunder Pond, acting as a slight barrier from the Spiritual Sea.

With a shift in thought, Pang Jian’s Spiritual Soul, having descended from the Sea of Consciousness, entered the pot-world through the spout and landed above the Thunder Pond he had just collected into his Spiritual Sea.

His Spiritual Soul, trying to sit cross-legged on the Thunder Pond,

struck the imprints in the pool with his body refined by Divine Sense, and suddenly his soul exploded with a "boom" in his head.

He saw streaks of Thunderous Lightning roaming within the vast, boundless void.

A cluster of Thunderbolt imprints, probed and sensed by his Spiritual Soul, instantly displayed a spectacle of eternity engraved onto it.

"Boom! Boom, boom!"

Several vibrant spherical bodies were engulfed by the Thunderous Lightning, which unleashed a rhythm of world-ending violence, completely enveloping the bodies.

Long after, as the Thunderous Lightning twisted away, the bodies turned into burnt black spheres.

All living beings within them were extinguished.

This seemed to be an apocalyptic Great Tao that Thunder God had once comprehended, or perhaps a scene He had personally witnessed, eternally preserved within the imprints for the Spiritual Soul to unlock and contemplate.

"The spherical bodies were similar to the Star of Winter, different from the block-shaped continents like Purgatory."

"They were like stars, like moons, inhabited by the living tribes of the Outer Realm."

"Some stars one day caught the attention of those doomsday thunderbolts wandering in the vast Star River, causing the stars to turn into barren wastelands of scorched earth, and billions of vibrant living tribes to be wiped out in an instant."

"Outside of the heavens, in the endless vastness of the Star River, such terrifying thunderbolts actually exist?"

"Thunder God, did He ascend to be the first Thunder God by contemplating and understanding the Great Tao contained within these thunderbolts?"

Pang Jian’s Spiritual Soul was shaken.

Merely by touching the tip of the iceberg, seeing a cluster of Thunderbolt imprints depicting that scene, he developed a deep sense of awe for the vast cosmos beyond Purgatory.

Those stars, similar to a complete continent in Purgatory, were situated within a vast star river.

The billions of lives residing within might also have seen the twisting Thunderous Lightning approaching, but they were powerless to resist and didn’t know how to avoid it.

In the end, when the stars extinguished, all beings perished.

"Beyond Purgatory, there exist even more terrifying and dangerous entities. The twisting world-ending thunderbolt might just be a form of immense heavenly might; it’s not right!"

"Under such heavenly might, even a True God or a Divine Spirit from the Outer Realm might not necessarily be safe and sound!"

"Utterly terrifying!"

Cold sweat formed on Pang Jian’s forehead and turned into ice crystals.

Afterward, he suddenly felt the weakness of his Spiritual Soul’s power, and he also felt an intense hunger.

"Hungry..."

With a "swoosh," the golden Spiritual Soul that had escaped from the Thunder Pond and entered his Sea of Consciousness began to extract nutrients from his entire body to restore Soul Power.

He silently experienced and carefully observed.

Immediately, he discovered with surprise that the Spiritual Soul, refined with Divine Consciousness, surprisingly drew most from the life vitality within his body, including the vitality of his flesh and the Life Vitality within the eight leaves.

On the contrary, not much Spiritual Power was drained, and it seemed that it didn’t benefit the recovery of his special Spiritual Soul as much.

"The vitality of flesh and life vitality..."

Pang Jian pondered thoughtfully.

He slowly realized that his Spiritual Soul was different from those of other Human Race cultivators and was more like the Alien Gods worshipped by the Alien Tribes.

The true bodies of Alien Gods were all powerful enough to move mountains and overturn seas, and what drove their gigantic divine bodies was blood and flesh power at its peak.

Without the dantian and Spiritual Sea of the Human Race, they naturally extract power from their blood and flesh for the restoration of Soul Power in the Spiritual Soul.

"Like me, like Qi Qingsong, Zhou Qingchen, Dong Tianze, whose Spiritual Souls contain a great amount of divinity. We must focus on crafting strong flesh and blood, and we absolutely cannot neglect Body Refining of our physical bodies!"

He immediately communicated with the others.

A Bee Insect fell into the shattered city of the Thunder Clan where they were located and spoke of his enlightenment and discoveries.

"I’ve felt it too!"

Zhou Qingchen was the first to respond, saying gravely, "When refining my Spiritual Soul using the Red Mountain Secret Skill, every time my Spiritual Soul was weak and powerless, after depleting its Soul Power, I would find that my body gradually became weak."

"It seems that it indeed replenishes the Soul Power of the Spiritual Soul by extracting the vitality of flesh and blood."

"This is somewhat different from the methods recorded before."

Zhou Qingchen took out a Calming Pill, saying, "These don’t work anymore, it seems like the Soul Nourishing Pills from Dong Tianze can still be a bit effective."

"A strong body can strengthen the spirit and thereby benefit the Spiritual Soul." Qi Qingsong nodded lightly, saying, "Since this is the case, starting today, I will also delve into and study the art of Body Refining."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yuan and Zhao Yuanqi also showed thoughtful expressions.

In secret, they pondered whether there were any Body Refining skills related to their Sect’s internal arts.

Dong Tianze remained silent; he had already been using the power within the Phoenix Seal to repetitively cleanse his bones and sinews.

"The opening of Purgatory, the convergence of gazes from the gods of the Outer Realm, the emergence of numerous puppet avatars, have placed us in a special era," Zhuang Yuyan mused aloud, "The creators of the Human Race cultivation system, who forged the Secret Skills to refine Spiritual Souls, perhaps initially intended to gather the divinity of the gods."

"Simply because Purgatory was not open for long, many eras of cultivators couldn’t obtain divinity, which led to the simplification of the cultivation system."

"With Divine Sense without divinity, the forged Spiritual Soul needs only Spiritual Power, Pill, and sleep for gradual restoration, without high demands on the flesh and blood body."

"Therefore, the previously widespread art of Body Refining gradually fell out of the mainstream."

"I feel..."

Zhuang Yuyan’s eyes shone slightly, saying, "Every time, when the art of Body Refining begins to prevail in Purgatory, it is when Purgatory opens, it is when the gods from the Outer Realm descend in the bodies of puppets."

"What you said is very likely the truth," Wu Yuan nodded lightly.

"Hmm, our Sword Tower and their Demon Sect have always kept the Body Refining spells and Secret Skills hidden," Qi Qingsong’s expression brightened, saying, "Creation Sect and many other similar Sects that vanished in the river of history have had their arts preserved intact by various parties, but they just haven’t been taught to the disciples, that’s all."

"Because the time wasn’t right before?" Zhou Qingchen inquired.

"It must be so!"

"Now, starting with us, as long as new cultivators come along who refine their Spiritual Souls with divinity, they should be required to rigorously practice the art of Body Refining!"

"The creators of the Human Race cultivation system had long decided on the path of hunting the puppet bodies of Alien Gods and obtaining divinity to refine Spiritual Souls."

"This special cultivation system is clearly about rising above the gods by stepping on them, pursuing the strongest path by hunting Divine Spirits."

"No wonder the gods regard the Purgatory Human Tribe as Different Kinds, as a target that must be eliminated."

"..."

The group discussed fervently, exploring with intensity.

In the cavern.

Pang Jian, having replenished his Qi and Blood with the flesh of Monster beasts from the Outer Realm, immediately began to challenge the third realm of the Great Creation Sacred Body—Refined Blood Realm.

The rich Qi and Blood vitality converged in the "Creation Divine Pool," enveloping a mass of his own blood that Pang Jian had pulled in.

The globule of blood, like a blood star, was encircled by the pure Qi and Blood essence, repeatedly washed and refined, fusing and expelling impurities from within the blood to then endow it with a hundred times the power of flesh and blood.

It felt like he was refining a flesh and blood star.

...