Chapter 290: Cultivating a Soul Skill

Yang Kai's expression shifted slightly. Fortunately, this time he was mentally prepared. Although his soul still felt pain, he was not as panicked as before. He closed his senses, guarding the clarity of his spirit platform, and the Warm Spirit Lotus conveniently took effect. A faint, cool sensation spread through his mind, and the pain abruptly diminished.

Hanging in mid-air, Yang Kai took several deep breaths. Only after he had adapted to the intensity of the attack did he continue to dive deeper.

After descending roughly another hundred zhang, he felt the attacks from the surrounding ferocious qi intensify somewhat, and that unbearable pain returned. Yang Kai then halted his descent.

Like this, intermittently, he descended roughly a thousand zhang, yet still could not see the bottom of the Kunlong Gorge.

Yang Kai's brow furrowed tightly; he was starting to feel he might not endure much longer. The damage this place inflicted on his soul was far more severe than the white mist he had encountered in that foreign land.

In that white mist, the mist only attacked the soul. However, the fierce and malevolent qi here not only attacked the soul, but various evils also penetrated deep into the mind, drawing out the evil factors Yang Kai himself had hidden in the depths of his consciousness.

This was absolutely a treasure trove for tempering the soul and cultivating the power of divine sense! After diving only a thousand zhang, Yang Kai clearly felt his divine sense power grow stronger.

If he could cultivate here for a long time, it might even be possible to develop a sea of consciousness.

But Yang Kai could not endure it for too long. Given enough time, his mind would likely be influenced and assimilated by the surrounding aura.

After a long silence, Yang Kai suddenly spoke to the Earth Demon: "Do you know any soul skills? Preferably defensive ones."

"I do!" the Earth Demon replied readily.

"Then why didn't you say so earlier?" Yang Kai said in exasperation.

"The things this old servant knows, whether martial techniques, cultivation methods, or soul skills, are all extremely evil. Young Master, you have always looked down on them." The Earth Demon felt a bit wronged.

"Is this soul skill also evil?" Yang Kai asked.

"It is considered so, but if cultivated here, there's no need for those cruel methods. The demonic energy here is actually the best place for cultivating that soul skill."

"Then stop talking and teach me that soul skill immediately!"

"Oh..."

The Earth Demon's memories were chaotic. Although it had been over two years since Yang Kai brought him out from the Inheritance Grotto-heaven, this remained the case. After responding to Yang Kai, he pondered for a long while before recalling that soul skill about seventy or eighty percent accurately and passing it on to Yang Kai.

The Maze of the Soul!

According to the Earth Demon, to cultivate this soul skill, one must first capture some living people, torture them until they wished they were dead. Only after they experienced fear, terror, and despair could the soul power generated after their deaths be used to cultivate the Maze of the Soul.

The cultivator would collect the souls of the dead and construct a labyrinth-like structure within their own mind.

Those tortured, resentful spirits served as the bricks and mortar for building this labyrinth. The more evil the resentful spirit, the more powerful the labyrinth.

Once the Maze of the Soul was successfully cultivated, layered, winding, and twisting passages would appear around the cultivator's sea of consciousness. This technique was primarily defensive.

However, it was a soul skill that excelled in both offense and defense. If an enemy dared to use the power of their divine sense to attack the cultivator, once that divine sense entered the labyrinth, it would never find its way out and would gradually be drained of power by the resentful spirits hidden within the Maze of the Soul.

The Maze of the Soul had no stage of perfection because the cultivator could continually add bricks and mortar to this structure dominating the surroundings of their sea of consciousness, consolidating and expanding it. It protected the cultivator's sea of consciousness from external intrusion, making it as solid as a fortress.

And the dense, almost tangible demonic energy in this place was undoubtedly the most suitable material—the bricks and mortar—for cultivating the Maze of the Soul.

This soul skill was exactly to Yang Kai's liking, delighting him greatly. He immediately set about cultivating it.

But before that, Yang Kai first needed to familiarize himself with how to use his divine sense to capture the evil, malevolent qi lingering outside his body and use it as the foundation stones to build the labyrinth.

This was relatively simple, as Yang Kai had already cultivated divine sense. He only needed to attempt using it.

For several consecutive days, Yang Kai focused on mastering the wonderful uses of his divine sense. One by one, strands of pitch-black, evil energy were drawn into his mind, and according to his own design and conception, they were transformed into bricks and mortar, gradually constructing the fortress that protected his divine sense.

A high building starts from the ground up. Building a palace in one's mind was the same, especially a labyrinthine palace. Once he got familiar with the process, his movements became more proficient and swift.

For a full month, Yang Kai cultivated the Maze of the Soul a thousand zhang below the Kunlong Gorge. Strands of demonic energy were captured by his divine sense, sinking deep into his mind and vanishing. The winding, intricate labyrinth gradually took shape and slowly expanded, becoming more complex.

After a month of cultivation, Yang Kai clearly felt his divine sense power had increased significantly. Now, when he extended his divine sense, he could investigate movements within a radius of twenty li.

The power of divine sense was inherently difficult to increase. Even experts of the Shenyou Realm would find it incredibly hard to achieve significant mastery over it. It was much more difficult than cultivating the physical body. The most common methods were to cultivate soul skills or to consume natural treasures that increased divine sense power.