Chapter 149: Soul Path Dao Imprints

As martial practitioners brokethrough the various realms of cultivation, they would slowly deter from using Qi as a source of energy and use Essence. After reaching the Dao Formation realm, martial practitioners would be able to use their Essential Energy.

Essence was a highly concentrated version of Qi that martial practitioners at the Acquisition realm and above used while Essential Energy was a form of energy that represented every dao imprint on the martial practitioner's body.

This meant that Essential Energy could activate every dao imprint a martial practitioner had, boosting their battle strength qualitatively.

Martial practitioners that cultivated a single Dao would not truly understand this change.

Only dual cultivators like Thunder Soul Monarch who cultivated lightning path and soul path would ascend to a brand new realm of battle strength.

However, Essential Energy could not be used casually. Even Immortals would struggle to use it in five techniques.

Devil Lord Edu Shashou was at the second tier of Immortal realm and cultivated the Dao of death and poison. His collective dao imprints had long since crossed seven hundred thousand.

When he used his Essential Energy, his battle strength would momentarily cross the Immortal realm and give him pseudo-Venerable battle strength. That was enough to put him on equal standings with Thunder Soul Monarch.

"Fwoosh!"

Devil Lord Edu Shashou's battle scythe struck Thunder Soul Monarch's barrier, rendering it into millions of pieces. The scythe did not stop as it struck Thunder Soul Monarch's tiny body, sending him over three hundred kilometres from where he stood.

When he steadied himself, he found that a horrible gash had cut him across the left side of his chest. Blood did not flow from the wound but the flesh was already mangled and decomposing like it had been left open for hundreds of years.

The blood inside the wound had already turned an unhealthy tinge of yellow and Thunder Soul Monarch felt his insides corroding.

In pain, Thunder Soul Monarch shook his head as he stared at Devil Lord Edu Shashou. His face was even paler than it usually was.

"Your death path and poison path dao imprints complement each other wells. My already short life will soon fizzle out and fade away" Thunder Soul Monarch's tone was bitter from sadness. "But… as a split soul of Reverend Spectral Demon, I refuse to die a lame death. Edu Shashou, witness my greatest technique!"

Thunder Soul Monarch's aura suddenly exploded as black Essential Energy enveloped his body. The black lightning bolts that enveloped his body were attracted to the space before him as they condensed into a small bird.

Thunder energy boomed from within the bird as soul Qi diffused from its body.

Devil Lord Edu Shashou was stunned beyond his senses. In his entire lifetime, he had never seen lightning and soul energies coexist. Lightning would always destroy the soul, except now…

"You should run" Thunder Soul Monarch's voice was already hoarse.

The threat of death emanating from the black bird was very dense that when it slammed against Devil Lord Edu Shashou, he felt like a small boat being rocked by turbulent waves. He could break apart at any moment.

Devil Lord Edu Shashou tried to escape but his limbs felt like they were filled with lead. Moving became impossible.

The black bird flapped its small wings as it crossed space in an instant, appearing before Devil Lord Edu Shashou. Without much thought, it slammed its tiny body into the Devil's colossal figure.

"Boom!"

…..

Dao imprints were like divine runes that represented a certain dharma of the Heavenly Dao. Each stroke that formed a dao imprint was a dao mark.

The presence of dao imprints on the bodies of martial practitioners gave them a shred of the Heavenly Dao's abilities. This was why the more dao imprint a person had, the stronger they usually got.

This was the same for cultivation materials and beasts.

Dao marks on the other hand were pure manifestations of the Heavenly Dao. When they form together in a certain pattern, they would become dao imprints of certain paths.

After the first dao mark appeared in Lu Zheng's host soul, more appeared before forming a rune which read 'soul'. It was a soul path dao imprint.

Without pause, the process continually repeated itself until exactly ninety two soul path dao imprints appeared in Lu Zheng's host soul.

Immediately after this, the pain that coursed through Lu Zheng's very being subsided till it disappeared completely.

Lu Zheng laid on the solid ground, his entire body twitching involuntarily. He had lost his original calm and cheerful disposition and his handsome face had become a playground for tears and mucus.

He was a shadow of his former self.

The Sea of Nirvana was nowhere to be found. The secluded domain it used to occupy was now bare ground. Instead, inside Lu Zheng's Soul Lake, the pink Nirvana Flames of the Sea of Nirvana burnt wildly.

Inside his Soul Lake, the surroundings were as silent as a graveyard. The Sea of Consciousness that was originally a shiny calm sea had already frozen over.

Deep beneath it was a miniature version of the formation Lu Zheng stood upon and the eight layers of the Sea of Nirvana burnt above it.

At the centre of all these, standing on the frozen sea was Lu Zheng's host soul. The spectral figure looked nothing ethereal.

It was extremely lifelike and multiple divine runes shined within it before dying out. They were his soul path dao imprints.