When Chen Yi opened his eyes again, he stood on a ruined platform. The base was made of grayish-white rock, with moss and vines crawling along the edges, clearly long neglected. Lifting his head, Chen Yi saw he was surrounded by dense, primeval forest—towering ancient trees blocked most of the sky, letting only slivers of light through the branches and leaves. The air was rich with the scent of earth and grass, utterly unlike the perpetual blood and sulfur of Slaughter City.
Chen Yi slowly stood, closed his eyes, and carefully sensed his changes. The thunder and lightning soul power swirling inside him was now even firmer and denser than before entering Slaughter City, like a sleeping purple-gold dragon swimming through his meridians. Yet at this moment, his soul power seemed to have encountered an invisible barrier, unable to break through despite repeated impacts—this was the sign of reaching the bottleneck at level sixty. With the right soul ring, he would naturally advance to Soul Emperor.
Chen Yi was unsurprised. Eight months of victories in the Hell Slaughter Arena and countless life-and-death struggles had tempered his soul power and combat skills immensely. Moreover, Slaughter City only suppressed soul power, not banned it—he could still cultivate. The problem of the city's poisonous spirit power was meaningless before ultimate lightning.
What mattered most was his spiritual power—the main reason for his journey to Slaughter City.
With that thought, Chen Yi's eyes snapped open.
"Buzz—!"
Vast, majestic spiritual power erupted from him like a dormant volcano. This time, it was no longer an invisible fluctuation, but instantly condensed and manifested, forming a ten-meter-wide field of purple-gold lightning around him. Within this field, countless tiny arcs sprang from the air, intertwining and flitting about with a faint crackling sound.
These arcs were not transformed by soul power, but pure spiritual essence. They moved with Chen Yi's will—sometimes swaying like fish, sometimes coiling like chains, sometimes sharp as blades.
This—was tangible and substantial!
Chen Yi let out a long sigh of relief, a hint of joy flashing in his eyes.
"At last... I've arrived."
To become tangible and substantial meant his spiritual power had completed the essential transformation from "energy" to "substance."
Even among the strongest Title Douluo on the current Douluo Continent, few could reach this level. In the original story, even Skydream Ice Silkworm, with millions of years of cultivation and the continent's greatest spiritual power, never took this step. If you moved the timeline forward twenty thousand years, tangible spiritual power would be the ticket to becoming an Ultimate Douluo. Only by reaching this stage could one influence the peak soul master world.
"It wasn't in vain."
Chen Yi smiled faintly, and with a thought, the purple-gold spiritual field receded like a tide into his sea of consciousness, transforming from raging waves to a calm spiritual ocean—yet this ocean now had a material texture.
As for the Deathgod Domain needed to pass the Road to Hell—just now, Chen Yi had carefully checked that neither the origin of his martial soul nor his body bore any trace of the Deathgod Domain.
He had always expected this. The Deathgod Domain was essentially the qualification to attempt the Asura God's trial, a mark of power. If perfectly imprinted on the origin of a martial soul, it was tantamount to a breath of Asura's divine power deep in the soul. But as the long-inherited Thunder God, Chen Yi's own divine seat slumbered in the depths of his consciousness; if any other divine power tried to invade his core, the resistance of a true god seat would naturally appear.
No matter how strong the Asura God's power was, it could not forcibly imprint itself on the soul of another god's chosen successor—especially not when Thunder God was a God-King level seat, not subject to the Asura God's rule.
"That's just right," Chen Yi thought. "I never wanted that domain anyway."
As the future Thunder God, Chen Yi had never truly intended to accept this "gift." His main purpose in going to Slaughter City was to hone himself in its extreme environment and use the special energy at the end of the Road to Hell to influence his spiritual power, making it tangible and substantial.
"It seems this journey to Slaughter City has yielded much."
The moment that voice sounded, Chen Yi's muscles tensed, eyes turning cold, every fiber on maximum alert. Eight months of instinct from the Killing Arena made him want to attack the source of the voice by reflex.
But as he saw the person approach, Chen Yi couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The sharp aura around him slowly receded as he bowed his head in salute.
"Grand Elder."
The Grand Elder's gaze swept over Chen Yi, especially the faint "texture" left as his spiritual power withdrew, and nodded slowly.
"Yes, tangible and substantial spiritual power... Even among the Titled Douluo List, few can match you."
The cold murderous intent lingering on Chen Yi's body had not yet fully dissipated, still material-like, but the elder made no mention of it. No matter how tangible one's spiritual power, it could not suppress such killing intent in the body. If it could, Chen Yi's years of spiritual cultivation would have been wasted. But this reaction could be gradually changed.
"Titled Douluo List?" Chen Yi was stunned, doubt on his face. "That name sounds like a list? When did the Douluo Continent start making lists like that?"
He'd never heard of such a thing in the original story. Was it the Heaven Dou Empire? The Spirit Hall? Some intelligence agency?
The elder saw his confusion and smiled wryly. "Just something sensational. Some self-important fools made it up these past two years. When you return to the sect, someone will explain."
Chen Yi nodded, understanding from the elder's tone that this "Titled Douluo List" was clearly not an authoritative and fair list, but rather a tool used by certain factions to stir up trouble and test all parties involved. Still, the fact that it was worth the Grand Elder's attention meant the information had some reference value.
The elder dropped the topic and changed the subject. "Since you're out, you should go wash off the dust."
Hearing "go wash off the dust," Chen Yi's eyes instantly brightened! For eight months in Slaughter City, what kind of life had he lived? The "food" there was rough jerky made from all sorts of unknown meats, or strange-tasting pastes—Chen Yi had never touched them. In that time, he relied on the life energy supplied by the Blue Silver Emperor soul bone in his left leg to maintain his body, and his mouth was nearly forgotten.
"So embarrassing," Chen Yi replied politely, but could no longer restrain himself, stepping eagerly toward the elder, his eyes full of anticipation.
"Then... can I write down every good thing I want?"
The elder saw Chen Yi's unconcealed desire and couldn't help but laugh and shake his head. "Anything you wish. There's a small town not far from here—not too prosperous, but it has everything you need. You can order anything you like."
"Let's go."
As he spoke, the two figures turned into two streaks of gray and black, disappearing toward the edge of the forest. Chen Yi felt the wind howling past his ears, watching the trees blur by, and felt a long-lost sense of relief in his heart.
…