Everlasting Immortal Firmament

Book 5: Chapter 189: The Animal Path Secret Realm

Bing Ji removed the chains from Gu Hai.

As Gu Hai’s cultivation was sealed, Lu Ya did not care.

When the doors to the Manifold Deity Palace opened, the interior appeared pitch-black like a black hole.

Under Lu Ya’s urging, Gu Hai was the first to enter.

The moment Gu Hai entered, he felt the world spin around him. The pitch-black hall immediately turned bright. After finding a stable footing, Gu Hai discovered himself in an independent world. There was a large black void right behind him; it looked bizarre.

“The Manifold Deity Palace is the entrance into an independent world?” Gu Hai narrowed his eyes.

Indeed, Gu Hai looked up and saw the sky. This was a bizarre world. There was a sun in the sky, but it was not piercing. There were incredibly vast mountain ranges glimmering with a strange light in the distance.

More importantly, Gu Hai’s mortal soul suddenly trembled when he entered as if it was struggling to come out. The sensation was incredibly unbearable.

“What is this world? It’s causing my mortal soul to tremble?” Gu Hai raised his eyebrows.

Boom!

Just as Gu Hai pondered this, the black hole behind him suddenly vanished with a loud sound.

“Huh?” Gu Hai’s expression changed.

The entrance is gone? I can’t get out? Did Lu Ya damage it on purpose?

“Roar!”

Suddenly, a bestial roar came from the distant forest. The roar shook the sky and the ground.

“Humph! Lu Ya!” Gu Hai snorted coldly.

With a loud bang, Gu Hai undid Lu Ya’s seal. Then, he rushed to the forest.

After Gu Hai vanished, a large object landed at his previous location.

Boom!

When the large object landed, the ground shuddered.

Gu Hai stared at a monster in the forest. It was a ten-meter-tall pig spirit. However, this pig spirit looked quite peculiar. It was crimson all over and emanated a crimson aura.

“Negative Karmic Energy? Negative Karmic Energy is coming out of its body?” Gu Hai appeared somewhat shocked.

Gu Hai had the Karmic Energy Mending Heaven pool. The Karmic Energy pool could refine negative Karmic Energy. Negative Karmic Energy had always been invisible, so why did this pig spirit have visible negative Karmic Energy?

“Where’s the human? I smelled the aura of a human earlier! Where is the human?!” The pig spirit searched the surroundings.

Gu Hai looked over cautiously and saw a luminous, white spot on the pig spirit’s forehead. That spot of light allowed the pig spirit to connect to the world, causing strong winds to blow as it walked.

“Here!” The pig spirit suddenly glared in Gu Hai’s direction.

“It found me?” Gu Hai’s face sank.

“Roar!” the pig spirit roared and instantly arrived before Gu Hai. He did not clash with it. Instead, he moved back and carefully observed this pig spirit. This pig spirit was very peculiar—its body seemed both immaterial and material.

“Oh? An expert? Hahahaha! This old pig loves eating experts the most!” The pig spirit’s figure flashed, charging at Gu Hai once more.

Boom!

The pig spirit suddenly knocked over a tall mountain.

“The power of a peak Lower Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator?” Gu Hai narrowed his eyes.

Shing!

Gu Hai took out his Life Ender Saber and looked coldly at the pig spirit.

“Haha! You overestimate yourself. Watch as this old pig eats you!” The pig spirit immediately pounced on Gu Hai.

Gu Hai swung his sword.

“You are in the animal spirit deities’ world, yet you want to rely on your saber?” the pig spirit sneered.

Boom!

A loud sound rang out as the Life Ender Saber struck the skin of the pig spirit and stopped there.

The force was great, forcing the pig spirit back. However, the Life Ender Saber did not pierce its skin.

“What?” Gu Hai’s face sank.

I can’t break its skin? Why? This saber can easily chop down an ordinary Middle Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator outside, yet it can’t even cut the skin of a Lower Heavenly Palace Realm pig spirit here?

“Do you feel that you have become weaker? Hahahaha! Did you just arrive in this world?” the pig spirit sneered as it stalked forward.

Gu Hai’s pupils constricted. Am I weaker?

But I don’t seem to have changed?

The pig spirit looked at Gu Hai with cold eyes as if it had already won; it was even drooling.

“In this world, even if I were the weakest animal spirit deity, I would still be much stronger than you humans. When humans enter, they can only be eaten!” the pig spirit sneered as it pounced on Gu Hai.

Boom!

Gu Hai swung his saber again but failed to penetrate the pig spirit’s skin like before.

Gu Hai moved back. His body felt unwell, like his mortal soul was struggling to leave his body. As he fled, he suppressed his mortal soul from coming out.

“Hahahahahaha! Flee! Flee! Flee! Let’s see where you can flee too. A two-hundred-sixty-centimeter-tall mortal soul? That is enough for me to replenish some Divine Energy! Hahaha!” The pig spirit followed closely, narrowing the distance.

The ten-meter-tall pig spirit looked like a three-story building. Gu Hai could only weave through the forest, feeling fatigued. Fly? If he flew, it would expose him. At least by weaving through the forest, he could prevent the pig spirit from finding him.

After running for some time, Gu Hai got forced into a large valley.

“Hahahahahaha! Come on. You will be the tenth human war deity that I eat this month. After eating you, I will have another portion of Divine Energy. Hahahaha! This world is great. As long as I eat humans, I can refine the humans’ Soul Energy into Divine Energy. One day, I will reach the same level as the Great Loach Deity!” The pig spirit pressed towards Gu Hai.

By now, Gu Hai’s head felt like it would explode. His mortal soul was coming out of his body. As time passed, his mortal soul seemed to swell up, threatening to squish his brain.

“Never mind. Come out, then,” Gu Hai said, feeling depressed.

Buzz!

Gu Hai’s mortal soul instantly emerged from his body.

The moment Gu Hai’s mortal soul came out, he felt like his physical body had changed; his mortal soul had become the physical body instead. When that happened, strange, surging energy from the world suddenly filled his mortal soul.

In the blink of an eye, the surface of Gu Hai’s mortal soul became like the pig spirit’s, crimson and material. His body also gave off surging crimson energy. His physical body merged into the gigantic, material mortal soul.

Gu Hai’s mortal soul was one hundred sixty-three meters tall.

In that instant, the pig spirit saw Gu Hai transform, turning completely crimson and growing from a two-hundred-sixty-centimeter-tall human to one hundred sixty-three meters.

“Huh?” The pig spirit suddenly paused, staring at Gu Hai in horror.

“You weren’t in your mortal soul form earlier? Aren’t you in the Lower Heavenly Palace Realm? Aren’t you a Lower Heavenly Palace Realm cultivator? Why is your mortal soul so big?” the pig spirit suddenly yelled.

Gu Hai looked at his body, and his eyelids twitched wildly. He seemed to have experienced this before.

Back in the Asura Path Secret Realm, his soul body had appeared; then, the surging energy of the Asura Path Secret Realm had poured into his soul body, giving him an asura’s body.

Now, this world likewise changed his body?

One’s body was as big as one’s Soul Energy?

The Life Ender Saber in Gu Hai’s hand grew larger as well. He lowered his head and looked at the pig spirit ferociously baring its tusks.

Earlier, the pig spirit seemed like a giant before Gu Hai. Now, the pig spirit was not even as large as Gu Hai’s foot.

Boom!

Gu Hai stepped on the pig spirit.

“Don’t eat me! I’m innocent! I did not know! Great deity, I did not know you were this powerful!” the pig spirit cried out in horror.

“Where is this place?” Gu Hai asked.

“I-I don’t know, either. I only know that one’s soul body and mortal soul determine one’s size and power here!” the pig spirit answered in horror.

“Mortal soul? Soul body? Deity?” Gu Hai stared at the pig spirit.

“This humble one was previously a pig spirit king based outside the Spirit Mountain Holy Land. I managed to cultivate a deity and had taken in a group of pig spirits. I-I only ate the people of a small town, and the Spirit Mountain Holy Land came to eliminate all of us. Initially, I thought I had died. However, my mortal soul and the deity that I cultivated arrived here for some reason. The deity merged with my mortal soul and reached one hundred sixty-six centimeters tall. After that, the energy of this world reconstructed my animal spirit body. I…I…,” the pig spirit called out.

“Oh? How big was your mortal soul previously?” Gu Hai asked.

“My mortal soul used to be just about sixteen centimeters tall. I ate for three centuries before making my mortal soul one meter tall. My pig deity allowed my body to grow to ten meters tall. However, why are you so big? Aren’t you just in the Lower Heavenly Palace Realm?” the pig spirit said in horror.

“You are still eating humans?” Gu Hai glared at the pig spirit.

“No! It is not my fault! All the animal spirit deities eat humans here. Humans enter this world periodically for some reason. We can grow only by eating humans…humans’ mortal souls!” the pig spirit cried out in horror.

Phish!

Gu Hai swung his saber at the pig spirit.

The pig spirit was as hard as before. However, this time, Gu Hai’s saber cut a wound in the pig spirit.

Suddenly, boundless black energy poured out of the bone saber and consumed the pig spirit.

Nom! Nom! Nom! Nom! Nom!

“Argh! Argh! Argh!” the pig spirit cried out in agony. The skulls in the black energy consumed the pig spirit in the blink of an eye.

However, despite trying to consume the pig spirit for a while, the bone saber did not seem to take anything in.

The Karmic Energy pool consumed the Karmic Energy and the pig spirit’s mortal soul. All the bone saber got to consume was the white spot on the pig spirit’s forehead. That white spot took the form of the pig spirit and tried to flee in fear. However, the bone saber digested it in the blink of an eye. This white spot had a strange energy that seemed to be great nourishment since the bone saber trembled excitedly.

When the bone saber refined the energy in the white spot of light, it sent a thousandth of the energy to Gu Hai.

Buzz!

Gu Hai’s body trembled as a warm flow entered him.

“Divine Energy? Divine-natured energy? That white spot earlier was the pig spirit’s deity. Animal spirits cultivate the deity and can use it to command their race. The deity’s body is full of divine nature? The Life Ender Saber consumed the divine nature and refined it before sending a thousandth of it to my mortal soul, strengthening my mortal soul?” Some surprise flashed in Gu Hai’s eyes.

Gu Hai walked to a lake and looked at his reflection in the water. His body appeared completely crimson, with an azure halo behind his head. This was the result of reaching the Lower Heavenly Palace Realm’s second layer after killing the Azure Emperor.

After Gu Hai killed a pig spirit, the azure halo behind him now had a faint red spot behind it.

“I can raise my cultivation by killing animal spirits and refining their deities?” Gu Hai suddenly narrowed his eyes.

“Roar! Roar!”

Gu Hai stood at a vantage point and surveyed his surroundings. There seemed to be countless animal spirit deities killing each other in the distance. He even saw some humans fleeing.

Whoosh!

Gu Hai rushed over to one of the humans.

Boom!

Gu Hai chopped down a seventeen-meter-tall bull spirit deity with one swing of his saber, saving a group of humans.

“We are saved! We are saved! Elder Brother, we are saved!” That group of humans trembled in lingering fear.

After Gu Hai killed the bull spirit deity, the humans looked at him with excitement and horror.

“You…you are so big! Which tribe’s war deity are you?” One of the humans looked at Gu Hai in shock.

“Why are you here? Where is this?” Gu Hai asked.

“Ah? You don’t know?” This group of people felt startled.

“Senior, are you from the Divine Continent?” the leader, an azure-clad man, asked in pleasant surprise.

“Who are you? Where is this?” Gu Hai countered with a frown.

“We…our ancestors were from the Divine Continent. Legend says that starting from eight hundred thousand years ago, Heaven would randomly capture people from the Divine Continent and send them here every one hundred years to feed the animal spirit deities. We have hidden in this place and formed tribes, which allows us to survive and pass our inheritance down through the generations. Every tribe has a war deity to fight the animal spirit deities and protect us. Did Heaven send you in as well? That should not be the case. One hundred years is not up yet, right?!” the azure-clad man said in shock.

“Eight hundred thousand years ago? The Six Paths Immortal did all this?” Gu Hai said with a frown.

“I heard Grandfather say that the animal spirit deities kill each other to strengthen their own deities. The Great Loach Deity’s deity is the most powerful and rules one-third of the animal spirit deities here!” another person called out.

“Animal spirit deities? This place is one of the Six Paths Immortal’s farms? Rearing these animal spirit deities? Furthermore, the food for these animal spirit deities are the humans? The animal spirit deities eat humans; then, they eat each other?” Gu Hai said with a frown.

“Uh…perhaps?” The humans all showed bleak and sorrowful expressions.

“Does this place not have a name?” Gu Hai stared at the humans.

“I heard one of the tribes’ war deities say this place was called the Animal Path Secret Realm!” the azure-clad leader said with a frown.

“The Animal Path Secret Realm?” Gu Hai’s pupils constricted.