Chapter 1637: A place that great figures once traversed

　　Peak Sixth Stage defense?

　　Great!

　　Song Shuhang felt at ease when he heard the introduction.

　　The projection of the palace was being limited by his realm, and it could only exert a defense at the peak of the Sixth Stage Realm. In other words, when his realm improved in the future, the defense of the palace would improve alongside him!

　　More importantly, this projection of the ‘Virtuous Palace’ was different from the ‘Impregnable Holy City.’ It would not throw its owner out of its walls, but would instead keep Song Shuhang well-protected within it.

　　Feeling at ease, Song Shuhang’s heart suddenly became particularly stable.

　　Sure enough, accumulating virtue is good.

　　If it had been an ordinary Fifth Stage cultivator who had gotten the virtuous lamia and the Virtuous Palace projection, then when they ascended to the Sixth Stage from the Fifth Stage, they wouldn’t even need a tribulation-transcending formation. As long as they brought out the Virtuous Palace projection, they would be able to fight against the heavenly tribulation of the Sixth Stage!

　　Song Shuhang thought to himself, Wait, I’m also an ordinary Fifth Stage cultivator. Why am I excluding myself from this group?

　　If he was careful, he shouldn’t face any dangers when transcending his next tribulation!

　　As long as he paid attention and avoided getting dragged into a group tribulation, he should be able to transcend a very ordinary heavenly tribulation when the time came.

　　At that time, he would easily get through the heavenly tribulation of the Sixth Stage, and become a True Monarch.

　　Song Shuhang softly said, “Careful and cautious, these are my strong points.”

　　No matter what, his character still belonged to the cautious type.

　　It was only later on, when he began getting affected by the seniors of the ‘Nine Provinces Number One Group’, that he had occasional bouts of death-seeking. But as the saying went, “the rivers and mountains might change, but one’s nature is hard to change.”

　　His nature wasn’t something that could easily be changed, and he was still the same very cautious person.

　　❄️❄️❄️

　　While he was in thought, the virtuous lamia stretched out her hand to cancel the ‘Virtuous Palace’ projection.

　　Then, she returned to Song Shuhang’s body with the ‘variant blood bone’ in hand.

　　As she had just completed her evolution, she needed some time to adapt to the changes in her strength.

　　Upon seeing this, Song Shuhang suddenly thought of something. “Wait, Fairy Waiting for a Promise… If you bring that kidney-stone-blood-bone back with you, won’t the kidney stone end up in my body?”

　　The virtuous lamia tilted her head, smiled, and disappeared with a flash.

　　“…” Song Shuhang.

　　Although he knew that the virtuous lamia had the means to properly store away the blood bone, Song Shuhang got a heart-stifling feeling as he thought of how the senior monk’s kidney stone was now in his body.

　　He kept on getting the feeling that his body was beginning to exude an aura of ‘great compassion, great virtue, and great pain’.

　　Fairy Creation waved her hands, and asked, “Stupid~ *Snore*?”

　　Song Shuhang said, “Just kill the rest and let them turn into black dragon spirit stones.”

　　The virtuous lamia had just evolved, and would no longer be receiving power of virtue for the time being.

　　Fairy Creation nodded. As she brandished the blades, the evil beasts and zombies were continuously beheaded, becoming black dragon spirit stones that fell to the ground.

　　“Right… Wait a minute.” Song Shuhang suddenly signaled for her to stop.

　　Fairy Creation’s arms, which were wielding the twin blades, stopped steadily.

　　The tip of a blade was only one finger away from the last evil beast.

　　“I suddenly remembered something. Let me try it out.” Song Shuhang stretched out his arm, and the Defiant Whale Warrior’s Glove receded from his fingers.

　　He wanted to appraise the evil beast, curious as to why he could obtain such a massive amount of virtue when he used the soul ferrying technique on these evil beasts.

　　Everything had its reasons.

　　There had to be something special about these evil beasts that allowed them to have such high virtue values.

　　Before appraising the evil beast, Song Shuhang made sure to assume his smoky form to avoid any excessive bleeding.

　　His fingers carefully touched the evil beast’s body.

　　If the price is too great, I’ll immediately halt the secret appraisal technique, Song Shuhang said in his mind.

　　He had just woken up after being out cold for three days, and he had no intention of passing out from pain so soon after that.

　　The secret appraisal technique was activated.

　　The price paid was within the range that Song Shuhang could bear, and the pain conveyed to his nerves was also acceptable.

　　The result of the appraisal came back to his mind.

　　[Ancient Nether’s zombie, created from the bodies of humans and wild beasts found in the Black Dragon World. Inside their decaying body, there is a colorless and transparent soul that cannot be detected by ordinary people. This soul is a survivor of the Ancient Nether from an unknown era. Every time its possessed body is killed, the soul will leave behind a ‘black energy crystal’ and return to the Ancient Nether to be resurrected. Ordinary techniques are unable to harm them.]

　　“Survivors of an unknown era? Ordinary techniques are unable to harm them… After dying, they will return to the ‘Ancient Nether’ and revive. Also, they cannot be detected by ordinary people.” Song Shuhang looked at the evil beast in front of him.

　　It really was quite a tricky monster.

　　However, the ‘soul ferrying technique’ appeared to be effective against them. After purifying them with the soul ferrying technique, one would be able to get a huge amount of virtue, but the souls would not leave a black dragon spirit stone behind.

　　However, Song Shuhang couldn’t be certain as to whether the soul ferrying technique could completely purify them… After all, he couldn’t see the ‘colorless soul’ hidden in the zombies.

　　Is it an existence that even the Sage’s eye is unable to see? Song Shuhang reached out to touch his left eye.

　　Eh?

　　“Where is the Sage’s eye?” Song Shuhang said in surprise.

　　The Sage’s eye, which had been installed in his left eye, was now gone. Unknowingly, his own eye had been swapped back.

　　Senior Scarlet Heaven Sword calmly said, “It was taken off by Fairy Creation. While you were unconscious, you were in poor condition. If you had continued to wear the Sage’s eye, it would have possibly caused irreparable damage to your body. As such, Fairy Creation and Fairy ＠#％× swapped your eye back.”

　　“So that’s the case.” Song Shuhang nodded.

　　Fairy Creation returned to his side, reached out, and took out the Sage’s eye again.

　　Song Shuhang nodded, and said, “Please swap it back in. I want to see if I can see them with the Sage’s eye.”

　　Fairy Creation stretched out her left hand toward Song Shuhang’s eye socket and removed his left eye. Then, she pressed the ‘Sage’s eye’ into Song Shuhang’s eye socket with her right hand.

　　Along with that came a healing technique, which allowed Song Shuhang to adapt to the Sage’s eye faster.

　　“After installing it time and time again, my body has already stopped rejecting the Sage’s eye.” Song Shuhang didn’t know whether this was a good or a bad thing.

　　Lady Kunna and the old tribal chief of the Blood Dragon Tribe stared at Song Shuhang dumbfounded.

　　…Was changing eyes so easy? It wasn’t dentures, you know?

　　Song Shuhang said, “Fairy Creation, let’s try out the soul ferrying technique again.”

　　The virtuous lamia had just completed her evolution, so she was still resting.

　　If he continued to use the soul ferrying technique, the power of virtue that he received wouldn’t be absorbed by her, causing it to go to waste.

　　However, what they were doing now was an experiment, and this loss was acceptable.

　　Fairy Creation raised the blades again, and stabbed the evil beast 10 times.

　　Song Shuhang opened the Sage’s eye wide, clasped his palms together, and performed the ‘soul ferrying technique’.

　　Along with the scripture chanting, Buddhist sounds rang out.

　　The body of the evil beast turned into ashes, and a ‘transparent’ soul emerged from it.

　　Song Shuhang said, “I can see it!”

　　With the Scholarly Sage’s eye, he was able to see the soul.

　　It was a formless mass, not having a specific shape nor any elemental attribute. In a sense, it was a truly ‘pure’ soul.

　　There were no selfish desires, no thoughts; it was completely pure.

　　The soul ferrying technique had rid it of its zombie outer shell, but it did not harm the transparent soul in any way.

　　A huge amount of virtue went to Song Shuhang—then, all of it was absorbed by his ‘virtuous finger’, leaving no waste.

　　Song Shuhang stretched out his hand toward this ‘transparent soul’, wanting to use the secret appraisal technique on it.

　　The transparent soul slowly floated about and disappeared.

　　It was how it had ‘returned to the Ancient Nether’.

　　There were no spatial power fluctuations; it was similar to Senior White’s spatial talent, which allowed him to directly disappear.

　　Song Shuhang regretfully said, “It ran away.”

　　The soul ferrying technique had no effect on this ‘pure soul’.

　　However, why would this kind of transparent and pure soul become a zombie and attack the Black Dragon World? They did not have a mind of their own, and they didn’t even have desires. It was completely opposite to a zombie in nature.

　　While in thought, Song Shuhang suddenly felt a tingling pain in his left eye.

　　Is the Sage’s eye being rejected by my body?

　　It can’t be. I wore the Sage’s eye when running around the world before. After wearing it for a few days, not taking it off at any time during that period, there wasn’t any rejection.

　　Just as Song Shuhang was thinking this, his left eye ‘saw’ a picture.

　　He saw a world very similar to the “Netherworld Realm”.

　　There was a lot of evil energy there, and the evil energy flooded the whole world like oil, as if it were a black sea.

　　Inside this ‘black sea’, various evil demons lived.

　　Still in the ‘black sea’, strange pillars stood upright, stretching from the ground to the sky.

　　These pillars were oddly distributed. For example, at point A, there were 10 pillars, and then at a distant point B, another 10 pillars were erected.

　　Every 10 or so pillars were grouped together.

　　Am I seeing something that the Scholarly Sage saw in the past? Song Shuhang guessed in his heart.

　　Could it be that after the Sage’s eye saw the transparent soul, it awakened some memories for him to see?

　　The scene changed.

　　The Scholarly Sage went to a ‘point’. He reached out and took out a bunch of blank bamboo slips. Then, on one of the bamboo slips, he wrote the words ‘Eternal Righteousness’.

　　Song Shuhang recognized these two words as they were also found in the ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯ and the ❮Righteous Body Tempering Poem❯ which he practiced.

　　After writing this, the Sage threw away the bamboo slip.

　　The bamboo slip inserted itself into the ground, and turned into a giant pillar after a rumbling sound, standing side by side with the other pillars.

　　Song Shuhang was surprised. Eh?

　　Weren’t Senior White and Senior White Two doing something similar? The two of them wove their hair together, and inserted it into the ground before the hair turned into pillars that stood upright.

　　It seemed the Scholarly Sage had been there as well.

　　He, like the two Senior Whites, also put pillars everywhere in the ‘Ancient Nether’…

　　If this was the case, could the other pillars in the Ancient Nether also be products of other great figures?

　　Could it be that this was the place where big shots gathered?

　　Song Shuhang felt that he had discovered something important.