1417 Returning to the Shadow Realm
Upon escaping into the Shadow Realm, Yuan took a good minute to breathe after nearly losing his life to the spirit's devastating attack.
"I have never been so close to experiencing death—not even when I actually died inside the Nameless Emperor's Tomb!" Yuan cried out loud as he fell flat on the cold ground.
"That spirit was immensely powerful—perhaps even stronger than Senior Bai."
Xiao Hua came out of his Dantian to comfort him, "Yet you managed to escape unscathed, Brother Yuan."
Yuan looked at his sweaty palms and sighed, "Yes, but at the cost of my last usage of Heaven's Supremacy. Unless I gain its approval, I won't be able to call forth its power again, and we might have to face that spirit again once we leave the Shadow Realm."
Without Heaven's Supremacy, Yuan knew he had no hopes of escaping the spirit a second time. In fact, he believed that even if he had unlimited usage of Heaven's Supremacy, it still wouldn't be close to enough to defeat the spirit at his current strength.
Once he'd rested enough and composed himself again, Yuan examined his surroundings.
Just as when he first entered the Shadow Realm back at the Dragon Essence Temple, he found himself amidst a desolate and dilapidated cityscape that looked like it had been void of life for eras.
However, there were no trials for him to do.
"Is this place located in the same dimension as the Dragon Essence Temple's Shadow Realm?" Yuan voiced his concerns aloud, feeling a twinge of worry at the possibility of them being separated, as it meant he wouldn't be able to search for the God Ascension Realm experts he met before in this Shadow Realm.
However, he quickly recollected one of the God Ascension Realm experts mentioning that the Shadow Realm had multiple entrances. Hence, there was a reasonable likelihood that they existed somewhere within this particular Shadow Realm. The only challenge lay in locating them amidst this vast and unfamiliar terrain.
"Where should I begin…?" he sighed.
Unlike the Vanishing Valley, where he was given instructions on reaching the Shadow Realm, he had no clue where to even begin once he arrived at the destination.
In the end, he could only think of one solution.
"I guess we'll have to wander around until we find something again," he muttered.
His divine sense was strong enough to cover the entire abandoned city and even several miles outside, where the real Shadow Realm was located.
Once Xiao Hua returned to his Dantian, he went into the sky and flew outside the city, entering the Shadow Realm.
Immediately after leaving the city, shadowy entities of various shapes and sizes began appearing around Yuan, their red eyes staring at him with immense bloodlust.
"Human…!"
"Human…!"
"Human!!!"
Their hoarse voices constantly resounded, reminding Yuan of his first encounter with these banished souls.
However, unlike when he was only a Spirit Grandmaster, he was not completely clueless in the Shadow Realm and even had sufficient prowess to wander the place without worrying too much about the banished souls.
The banished souls were also slightly stronger than he remembered, but they weren't nearly strong or fast enough to threaten him as long as he paid attention.
"They were most likely powerful cultivators in the past, but they've been reduced to such a pitiful state after wandering as a trapped soul for countless years. Only someone with a cruel and indifferent heart could do such a thing to them," Xiao Hua voiced her sentiments, expressing sympathy for these banished souls, noting the resemblance of their plight to that of Exiles within the Primordial Realm.
Similar to these banished souls, Exiles themselves are trapped within the Primordial Realm by the Celestial Emperor. However, Exiles, at the very least, retain their physical bodies and possess a glimmer of hope for eventual freedom through the Supreme Heaven's Legacy. Meanwhile, banished souls are forsaken and left to languish in this dark and desolate realm. Though they may harbor a flicker of hope that someone like Yuan might appear to rescue them from the Shadow Realm, such occasions are less likely to occur than an Exile completing the Supreme Heaven's Legacy, as not even immortal cultivators dare to venture into this forbidding domain.
As Yuan ventured deeper into the Shadow Realm, the banished souls grew progressively more powerful, their bloodlust for him intensifying with each passing moment.
'Senior Bai warned me to not attack them since it will aggravate them even further, but they will eventually overwhelm me at this rate…' Yuan sighed inwardly as he contemplated using Dragon's Gaze on these banished souls.
In the end, he decided to scare them a little without actually hurting them.
He activated Dragon's Gaze without directing it at any of the banished souls, serving it as a warning to them.
"Scram if you don't want your soul to perish!" Yuan let out a resounding roar, his voice amplified by soul strength.
When the banished souls perceived the formidable prowess of Yuan's soul strength, they abruptly ceased their pursuit and even fled as if their lives hung in the balance. Though they may not have the intelligence to comprehend it, their instincts, honed through their experiences in life, could sense impending doom and instinctively recoil from it.
'That worked better than I'd anticipated…' Yuan thought to himself as he continued wandering the Shadow Realm without a single banished soul in sight.
However, it was not as though the banished souls vanished entirely. Yuan could still perceive them with his divine sense. They remained present, albeit at a distance, silently observing his every movement, as if they were waiting for him to lower his guard—their moment to strike.
Knowing this, Yuan didn't dare to ease his guard and continued to exude some of his soul strength once in a while as a reminder to these banished souls that he still could erase their existences at will.
Moreover, Yuan's act of releasing his soul strength was not within the purview of just anyone. It was achievable only due to his ample soul strength and the accumulated knowledge from his past lives. Typically, only immortal cultivators who have cultivated their souls for centuries would dare to use their soul strength in such an extravagant manner, as it could potentially inflict harm upon their soul if executed incorrectly or impulsively.
Yet, Yuan executed it with ease, as if it was second nature, akin to the act of breathing.
