My Simulated Road to Immortality

Chapter 318: 297: Soul Tempering in the Sea of Resentful Souls

Translator: 549690339

Time imperceptibly passed as Li Fan continued to familiarise himself with his divine soul.

With the [Ghost Pin] as a rare treasure, his sensitivity towards his divine soul had improved tremendously.

The success rate of his perception had virtually doubled.

It went from one in a thousand to two in a thousand—a giant leap forward!

“Hmm, it’s effective indeed. A pity my original foundation was too weak. To reach the requisite level, I still need to intensify my training.”

While fully immersed in perceiving his divine soul, the amount of golden light in his Soul Gathering Bead rapidly decreased.

Seven days later, when the fifteen trainees who were previously eliminated all returned to the Universal Courtyard, the second phase of confined training officially started.

Some had heard about the so-called “accidental” death of Dan Taitao. Each of their expressions was somewhat subtle. However, everyone understood that this matter was a hot potato and no one publicly talked about it.

Aside from studying the inner array structure of the [Tian Xuan Soul Locking Array] in the second phase of training, they needed to continue enhancing their sensing accuracy of soul contracts. They had to achieve a hundred percent accuracy rate.

For alternate members like Li Fan, who originally did not meet the standard, it was challenging. Fortunately, Ji Hongdao had taken this into consideration and had “considerately” prepared an alternative special training for these stragglers.

“You were originally eliminated, but due to an turn of events, you are all back here.”

“This is your fate. Although your talents fall short compared to others, your luck is better than those geniuses.”

“Luck… is crucial.”

“The reason you were previously eliminated, is mainly due to your subpar sensing of the soul contract marks. The wasted Soul Gathering Bead implies your incompetence in this field.”

“As such, if you want to ensure your qualification, we would have to opt for a different method.”

Ji Hongdao looked at Li Fan and the others expressionlessly, then waved his hand.

Several golden chains appeared from the void, binding their hands and feet.

Ignoring their surprised expressions, Ji Hongdao said coldly, “This method is extremely dangerous. If you can’t persevere, turning into mindless idiots would be the best outcome. Becoming mentally and physically destroyed and seeking a quick death could be a kind of release.”

“We didn’t choose this method before because the death rate is too high for ordinary cultivators.”

“However…”

A strange color flashed in Ji Hongdao’s eyes.

“Considering your luck, it seems that you should be able to withstand it.”

With a soft clap, the surrounding landscape changed.

The sound of surging waves rang out. Li Fan and the others found themselves bound by golden chains to the rocks along the seashore.

Although their limbs were bound, it did not hinder their view.

Li Fan squinted his eyes as he observed the “ocean” in front of him.

The air from the ocean made his skin crawl.

Listening carefully, he could hear countless wailing and agonized sounds in the waves.

“This is…” As if realizing something, Li Fan’s expression changed slightly.

“What you see before you is the infamously renowned [Sea of Resentful Souls] of the Alliance of Thousands of Immortals.”

“For centuries, shattered divine souls of the Five Elders Organization’s monks who died in battle on the Alliance’s territory have been absorbed into this [Sea of Resentful Souls].”

“Accumulated over time, no one knows how many divine souls have gathered in this ocean.”

“Every droplet of seawater could be a combination of several or even a dozen cultivators’ divine souls.”

“Since you individually can’t discern soul contract marks, let’s just go with quantity.”

Ji Hongdao lowered his eyes and spoke coldly.

As he spoke, the [Sea of Resentful Souls] seemed to receive a summons.

Without wind, waves surged.

A wave several feet high suddenly formed, heading towards Li Fan and the others who were chained to the rocks by the seashore.

The moment they made contact with the seawater, countless images and emotions instantly appeared in Li Fan’s mind.

Regardless of whether they could absorb such a vast amount of information in such a short time, the gathered divine souls forcefully and abruptly spread throughout Li Fan’s spirit consciousness.

All the empty spaces in his mind were forcibly occupied.

Hit with a sudden immense shock, Li Fan almost lost his sense of self due to being caught off guard.

Cursing inwardly, Li Fan fought to maintain the existence of his self-consciousness under the onslaught of divine souls.

At the same time, the Huadao Stone in his mind ran at full capacity, rapidly classifying and processing the vast amount of information mixed within the countless divine souls.

As though sensing the danger to its life, the Xuan Huang Heart-Refining Spell unprecedentedly accelerated its operations at that moment.

It absorbed all the negative emotions—like joy, anger, sorrow, and fear—from the divine souls.

With this dual-pronged approach, it was as though a long time had passed before Li Fan barely managed to come to his senses.

From the corner of his eye, he saw one of the cultivators around him dissolve directly under the impact of the Sea of Resentful Souls’ waves, not capable of withstanding it. His divine soul also became part of the seawater.

Most of them had blank eyes.

Only the occasional movement of their black pupils indicated that their consciousness had not completely vanished.

Only two or three people, including Li Fan, had managed to recover from the onslaught of the sea of divine souls.

However, the horrified expressions on their faces showed the pain they were enduring at that moment.

Mimicking their tormented expression, Li Fan had no time to think further when the second wave came.

Submersion, resistance, recovery, and submersion again.

In this cycle, after an unknown amount of time, the sea finally calmed.

The chains disappeared, and everyone slumped to the ground, exhausted.

“Your luck is indeed good, out of the fifteen people, eleven of you managed to hold on,” Ji Hongdao commented, sounding somewhat amazed.

“Fate is a puzzling thing. Although it’s invisible, it truly exists. You should know, based on our previous statistics, among ordinary cultivators, only one percent survive the onslaught of the [Sea of Resentful Souls].”

“Very good!” Ji Hongdao seemed to be delighted.

“Today’s special training session has ended. Go back and rest!”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’ll continue tomorrow.”

Ji Hongdao added.

Upon hearing this, everyone trembled inwardly. Their faces turned pale.

They managed to survive today due to sheer luck.

Who knew if they could withstand it again tomorrow?

As a result, some of them contemplated giving up.

After all, compared to their future in array techniques, their own lives were far more important.

But those people received only a cold reply from Ji Hongdao, “Thinking of quitting at this point? It’s too late.”

“The [Sea of Resentful Souls] is precious. It’s not easy for our Array Strategy Hall to apply for it.”

“Either you persevere, or you turn into a part of it.”

The cultivators whose requests were rejected sat slumped on the ground, their faces as grey as death.

Yet, Li Fan did not feel any fear.