Everlasting Immortal Firmament

Book 6: Chapter 038: The Unlucky Earthly Soul Essence

Ao Shun transformed into a carp and leaped over the dragon’s gate, entering the glowing white ball and initiating the inheritance of the Western Sea’s dragon deity.

Gu Hai inwardly released his bated breath. Then, he turned his head to look at the source of the loud sounds coming from the distant sky.

The noise was growing louder, indicating that Long Shenwu and Di Shitian’s destruction was intensifying.

“Your Reverence, cracks are appearing in the sky. The Western Sea Dragon Palace’s barrier will break soon,” Shangguan Hen said with a frown.

Chang Ming also appeared slightly worried.

At the same time, a nearby wisp of fog goggled at Ao Shun receiving the inheritance.

“How can this be? Transform into a carp? A carp leaping over the dragon’s gate? This is truly problematic. That divine nature has also accumulated for eight hundred thousand years. Initially, I was planning to retrieve it. Humph! Humph! Never mind, I will return for it in the future.” The fog sounded depressed.

Then, the fog revealed two eyes staring at Gu Hai’s group.

“Three people? I will possess one and eat the other two. They will taste better than those crappy prawns and stinky crabs. Of the three, the one in black is an emperor? Humph! It shall be him. His physical body is strong. If I possess him, I will gain great strength.” A cold glint flashed in the fog’s eyes.

After the fog had made its plans, it started moving.

Whoosh!

A vast fog suddenly rose from the feeble-water river’s surroundings, rushing toward the three and surrounding them.

“Something’s not right. Be careful!” Gu Hai’s face sank.

Suddenly, a beam of blue light shot at Gu Hai, arriving before him in the blink of an eye.

“Your Reverence, be careful!” Chang Ming’s expression changed.

Bang!

Gu Hai’s figure flashed, dodging.

“What is that?” Gu Hai’s face sank.

“Hehehehe! To think you managed to dodge? What a quick movement technique! Hah!” A blue light encased the fog as it rushed at Gu Hai again.

Gu Hai extended his hand and swung down the Life Executioner Saber.

Whoosh!

When Gu Hai swung his saber, a large manifested saber appeared and struck the blue light.

However, the blue light seemed immaterial. Even when reaching it, the manifested saber seemed to touch nothing. It instantly arrived before Gu Hai.

“You bastard!” Gu Hai’s expression turned cold as he threw a punch.

Whoosh!

Gu Hai struck nothing. The blue light seemed immaterial. Instantly passing through the manifested fist, it approached and entered his body.

“Your Reverence!” Chang Ming swooped in as his expression changed.

However, Gu Hai waved his hand, stopping the two. Then, he sank his consciousness into his body, as he could hear loud, maniacal laughter coming from within.

“Hehehehehe! Excellent physical body! Excellent physical body! Such a foundation is even better than the Western Sea Dragon King’s. Hahahahahaha!” the blue light guffawed.

Then, the blue light rushed towards Gu Hai’s head.

“How audacious!”

The fire deity, water deity, wood deity, earth deity, metal deity, and even the Spiritual Progenitor deity king in Gu Hai’s body attacked simultaneously—but in vain. It was just an immaterial beam of light.

The fire deity was the closest. It vaguely made out a book within the blue light.

The book had eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Translucent blue energy surrounded its bizarre-looking body.

“There are words on the book? Earthly Soul?” The fire deity stared blankly.

“The Earthly Soul Essence?” Gu Hai felt slightly startled.

Chang Ming sent out countless bats to search for the Earthly Soul Essence. It has been quite some time now, but there is still no news. To think that the Earthly Soul Essence came looking for me?

I need to absorb Essence to use. Yet, the Earth Soul Essence came seeking me and is rushing to my earthly soul in the middle heavenly palace?

Gu Hai found this preposterous.

Did this Earthly Soul Essence suffer a stroke? To think that it came to deliver Essence?

From here on, Gu Hai gave up resistance, no longer trying to block it.

“Hehehehe! After I refine your earthly soul and occupy your middle heavenly palace, I will take my time in refining your mortal soul and heavenly soul. After everything is refined, you will be my puppet. Hahahaha!” the Earthly Soul Essence shouted excitedly.

Whoosh!

The Earthly Soul Essence rushed into Gu Hai’s head.

Gu Hai had already established two layers in there. In one of the layers was a three-hundred-thirty-three-meter-tall palace. The mortal soul in there was not in view.

When the Earthly Soul Essence saw Gu Hai’s lower heavenly palace, it felt startled and fell silent for a while.

“Am I seeing wrong? A three-hundred-thirty-three-meter-tall lower heavenly palace? He reached consummation? I found a treasure? Consummation? Hah! Haha! What a strong foundation! I initially thought that I could only push the lower heavenly palace to consummation in the future. Unexpectedly, this body gave me such a pleasant surprise! Hahaha!” the Earthly Soul Essence said excitedly.

Whoosh!

The Earthly Soul Essence passed through the lower heavenly palace’s layer and headed for the middle heavenly palace.

The moment the Earthly Soul Essence entered, it was dumbfounded.

The Earthly Soul Essence: “…”

Another three-hundred-thirty-three-meter-tall palace? This is the middle heavenly palace?

The Earthly Soul Essence existed as a translucent blue ball one hundred sixty-seven meters tall in the middle heavenly palace’s region.

However, a two-hundred-thirteen-meter-tall earthly soul stood at the three-hundred-thirty-three-meter-tall middle heavenly palace’s entrance.

Gu Hai’s earthly soul stared down at the Earthly Soul Essence.

The Earthly Soul Essence’s eyes widened in stupefaction.

It had expected Gu Hai’s earthly soul to be only thirty-three centimeters tall at best. However, what stood before it was two hundred thirteen meters tall. It is taller than me?

“You…! You…! Aren’t you in the Middle Heavenly Palace Realm? The Middle Heavenly Palace Realm’s first layer? Why-why-why is your earthly soul so large?” The Earthly Soul Essence stared at Gu Hai’s earthly soul, flabbergasted.

Gu Hai’s earthly soul looked at the Earthly Soul Essence with some surprise flashing in its eyes. “If I guess right, aside from the Earthly Soul book in your body, the blue light around it is all Essence, right? Having accumulated for eight hundred thousand years, the Essence has already taken form?”

Whoosh!

The Earthly Soul Essence retreated, as it could make out greed and excitement in the eyes of Gu Hai’s earthly soul, the same look it had earlier.

“Damn! What a big earthly soul! I must be seeing things. You only established two heavenly palaces; why is it so big? How am I going to eat it? No. Big is good. That will save me a lot of trouble. So what if it is big? I’ll still eat it!” The ball-shaped Earthly Soul Essence showed a ferocious expression.

Whoosh!

The Earthly Soul Essence charged at Gu Hai’s earthly soul. Then, it suddenly opened its mouth, and its figure enlarged, its mouth growing proportionately larger. It became three hundred thirty-three meters tall in the blink of an eye, wanting to swallow Gu Hai’s earthly soul.

“Hehehehe! Come on, become one with me! I will properly refine you!” After the horror, intense excitement overwhelmed the Earthly Soul Essence as it tried to swallow Gu Hai’s earthly soul.

Gu Hai’s earthly soul sensed a great threat but did not feel any fear. Instead, its expression changed as he said, “Previously, I had consulted Zhenyuanzi, the ancestor of Earth’s immortals, a powerhouse specializing in the earthly soul, on cultivating the earthly soul. Although I did not manage to learn much, I did learn World in the Sleeve. Although my physical body is not suitable for executing it, there is no problem executing it with my soul body. Let’s give it a try.”

[TL Note: Here is the Wikipedia entry on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zhenyuan_Daxian.]

[TL Note: World in the Sleeve is a classic technique that appears in many novels. There are many explanations for how it works, and they vary with the novel. One explanation is that the user shrinks the targets or items down and stores them in their sleeve. Another explanation is that the user forms a spatial storage within their sleeve.]

Then, Gu Hai flung out a sleeve.

Whoosh!

A strong suction seemed to come from the sleeve of Gu Hai’s earthly soul. At the same time, the opening to the sleeve suddenly enlarged.

The Earthly Soul Essence’s mouth had already enlarged to three hundred thirty-three meters wide. However, the opening to Gu Hai’s right sleeve widened to one thousand six hundred sixty-six meters wide.

The even larger opening tried to swallow the Earthly Soul Essence.

The Earthly Soul Essence was stupefied.

“A monster! A monster! Save me!” the Earthly Soul Essence screamed in horror as it quickly fled.

Boom!

The sleeve shrank, biting off one-thousandth of the Earthly Soul Essence’s blue light.

“How could it be like this?! How could it be like this?! He only just reached the Middle Heavenly Palace Realm’s first layer. How could he have such a ridiculous technique? Had I not run fast, I would have been eaten!” The Earthly Soul Essence was so horrified that it wanted to cry.

The Earthly Soul Essence initially thought Gu Hai was a fat pig ready for the slaughter, so it came to consume him. Unexpectedly, that pig suddenly turned into a ferocious tiger and tried to eat it.

“I’m not eating you anymore! I’m not eating anymore!” The Earthly Soul Essence turned around and fled the way it came.

“Hey! Don’t go! That was my first time executing World in the Sleeve, so I did not do it well. Let me try again! Don’t go!” Gu Hai’s earthly soul called out.

The first time? Did not do it well? Are you trying to scare me?

Rumble…!

The Earthly Soul Essence ran back to the lower heavenly palace’s area.

Creak!

The lower heavenly palace’s doors opened. Then, Gu Hai’s mortal soul walked out. His one-hundred-sixty-three-meter-tall mortal soul immediately blocked the Earthly Soul Essence.

“Scram or I will eat you! I have an absolute suppression over mortal souls!” the Earthly Soul Essence roared.

“Earthly Soul Essence, since you are here, don’t leave,” Gu Hai’s mortal soul said.

“I’ll eat you!” The Earthly Soul Essence suddenly opened its mouth.

This time, the Earthly Soul Essence was not afraid, as it knew that only the earthly soul could execute the earlier World in the Sleeve. Since the mortal soul cultivated divinity, the mortal soul could not execute World in the Sleeve.

“Roar!”

Just when it looked like the Earthly Soul Essence would consume Gu Hai’s mortal soul, Gu Hai’s mortal soul took out a book.

“The Mortal Soul Register? Why do you have it?!” the Earthly Soul Essence exclaimed.

The Mortal Soul Register immediately emitted a beam of resplendent golden light.

Boom!

The beam blasted the Earthly Soul Essence’s mouth, knocking it back into the middle heavenly palace’s layer.

“Why am I back here?” the Earthly Soul Essence cried out of horror.

I can’t leave?

Gu Hai’s mortal soul blocked the way out with the Mortal Soul Register. However, Gu Hai’s earthly soul has World in the Sleeve.

Is it over for me today?

“World in the Sleeve!” Gu Hai’s earthly soul flung out its sleeve again.

“Why am I so unlucky?” the Earthly Soul Essence roared with incredible sorrow and rage.

I waited eight hundred thousand years for an opportunity. Why did I run into such a monster?

The opening of the sleeve enlarged again. The Earthly Soul Essence revealed an expression of despair. Then, it burst out with all the resentment, loneliness, and anger it had felt over the past eight hundred thousand years.

“Bring it on! Come on! All the Essence I accumulated over eight hundred thousand years will end up benefiting you? Dream on! Only in your dreams! I’ll fight to the end. Even if I lose my true body, I will not give it to you! Explode!” the Earthly Soul Essence roared in sorrow and rage.

Boom!

The Earthly Soul Essence self-detonated. The powerful explosion sent Gu Hai’s earthly soul flying. At the same time, the right sleeve of Gu Hai’s earthly soul burst.

A powerful shock wave spread out, and the surging blue light shot out, escaping Gu Hai’s body.

“Oh no!” Gu Hai’s expression changed.

While the Earthly Soul Essence could not flee, it could scatter its Essence. Both Essence and divine nature were formless and intangible, which was why Gu Hai’s earlier attacks did not affect on it. Now, he could not do anything about the scattering Essence.

Only the book titled Earthly Soul remained in his middle heavenly palace.

The Essence shot out of Gu Hai’s body, carrying the Earthly Soul Essence’s consciousness.

“Hehehehe! I’m out! I came out! Unfortunately, all that came out was a portion of my consciousness. Without my true body, it will scatter soon. I need to find an earthly soul quickly. I need to take over an earthly soul,” that consciousness within the boundless Essence said anxiously.

Now, it no longer dared to target Gu Hai. Instead, it set its sights on Chang Ming.

“Give me your earthly soul! I don’t believe you know World in the Sleeve or have the Mortal Soul Register too!”

A loud sound rang out as that consciousness rushed into Chang Ming’s body along with the boundless Essence.

“Huh?” Chang Ming’s expression changed.

Buzz!

A pearl in Chang Ming’s body flared with dazzling black light.

“No! No! The Primal Essence Pearl? Damn you! Why do you have the Primal Essence Pearl? If I had my true body, would I fear you? Ah! Ah! Ah!”

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

A miserable scream and the sound of something being annihilated came from Chang Ming’s body.

Suddenly, Chang Ming’s body shone with golden light. The Primal Essence Pearl had destroyed that consciousness and helped him take in that surging Essence.

“Your Reverence, are you alright?” Shangguan Hen asked worriedly.

“We are fine.” Gu Hai shook his head as he looked at Chang Ming.

“Chang Ming, how are you?” Gu Hai asked worriedly.

“Your Reverence, this subject is fine. The Primal Essence Pearl destroyed that consciousness. Then, it pushed all that Essence into this subject’s earthly soul. Your Reverence, this subject still has not fully refined the Primal Essence Pearl, and I cannot extract this surging Essence to hand over to Your Reverence!” Chang Ming said anxiously.

“Hahahaha!” Gu Hai just laughed, not caring. “Since it is already in you, just absorb it. This Essence will help you break into the Upper Heavenly Palace Realm.”

“Yes, Your Reverence!” Chang Ming nodded. He then sat down cross-legged and focused on absorbing the vast Essence.

Earlier, Gu Hai’s World in the Sleeve had torn off one-thousandth of the Essence. This one-thousandth equaled a talented person’s accumulation of Essence over eight hundred years. Any other person would have already advanced their Middle Heavenly Palace Realm cultivation. However, to Gu Hai, this one-thousandth merely filled the gaps between his teeth. His earthly soul was too big, so he remained in the first layer, not even advancing a single layer.

However, Gu Hai’s earthly soul walked over and picked up the book that had been left behind.

Earthly Soul?

No, there is a small, faint “Register” word under the words “Earthly Soul”!

Earthly Soul Register?

Boom!

Just as Gu Hai felt surprised at seeing the Earthly Soul Register, a loud noise rang out on the horizon.

“Your Reverence, the barrier broke!” Shangguan Hen’s expression changed.

“Gu Hai! Ao Shun! Get out here!” Ao Sheng’s roar came from the distance.