It didn't take long for Austin to conclude that it was a special space into which he and Violet had been sucked in by a secret weapon.
They had gained a lot of rewards during their journey of the Ghost Valley. But, being stuck in this strange place and not being able to get out of it, would be a big loss. It was not just about wealth now; it was their lives that matter.
'Those vital energy crystals, mineral resources and the sacred weapons that we have found in the cave must be the treasures of the Ghost Sect. The four men had stopped me from leaving. Are they serving the Ghost Sect? Yes, they surely are. I had met men like them once in the outer range of the Grand Desolation Mountain. The four of them are the same as the cultivators of the Ghost Sect whom I had met earlier. I could identify them with their scents and dresses. That means, those dry corpses were also made by the Ghost Sect. And now I'm stuck in this weird space. It must be the four cultivators of the Ghost Sect who did this. But how did they do it? And how will we escape from here? The Ghost Sect seems to deal exclusively with ghosts and monsters. It's really evil. They must have come after me because I took away the vital energy crystals and precious minerals which they had stored in that cave for so long. And of course! There is that book of martial art that I took. Since the Ghost Sect especially deals with ghosts and monsters, maybe the book records various kinds of formulas and skills. They can help me deal with this situation. Why don't I take out that book and check out if there are any skills recorded about it! Let me look for some skills that can deal with these ghosts, in order to cope with the present predicament!'
Thinking this, Austin pulled out the jade slip immediately. He had taken it from the cave earlier. He took it out from his Space Ring and placed it over his forehead.
Suddenly, streams of information about several skills rose from the jade slip like radiations and penetrated through Austin's forehead into his mind.
Good lord! There were so many of them! The Soul-capturing Secret Skill...
The Primary Corpse-refining Formula...
The Intermediate Corpse-refining Formula...
The Primary Corpse-controlling Formula...
The Intermediate Corpse-controlling Formula...
The Venomous Corpse Palm...
The Corpse Miasma Releasing Secret Skill...
The Soul-transforming Skill... . . .
The long list of weird skills flowed into Austin's mind. There were more than a dozen skills in that jade slip. These were all heretical skills of refining souls or corpses.
Austin raised his eyebrows as he took in the information pouring into his head. He had heard that many years ago the Ghost Sect was once attacked by all the sects of Violet Orchid Empire. Was it because all the weird skills which they cultivated were heretical and evil?
Of course the cultivators of the orthodox path would detest and reject it. It was much beyond their thought.
Austin kept looking over and over again at more than a dozen skills which were written on the jade sl
ionally cultivate the power of spiritual sense. He thought it was an uncharacteristic power, because he always put the vital energy cultivation base as a priority, as well as physical strength.
'It guesses, in the future, I have to take out time to improve the power of spiritual sense and practice it more often.
Well, I should stop thinking about it anymore.
Now, it's time to start the cultivation of the fourth level of the Soul-transforming Skill with the nourishment of the souls.'
Before he started, he reviewed and studied the fourth level of the Soul-transforming Skill once and once again in detail. Then, the cultivation started.
Austin followed the method that was mentioned at the fourth level. After a while, he was able to make a long spiritual sense chain in his Soul Sea. It was dark with cool light emitting on its surface and with loud noise echoing in his Soul Sea.
Suddenly a thought came in his mind, and he made the spiritual sense chain rush out of his Soul Sea with sound of jingles. The spiritual sense chain passed through his body. It hovered around. In a short time, it captured three souls which were nearby and dragged them back to his Soul Sea.
Although the three souls that had been captured were struggling fiercely, the spiritual sense chain that Austin made with the instructions of the Soul-transforming Skill seemed to be equipped with special powers. The spiritual sense chain was like the devil's chain with curses on it. The three souls immediately became weak and lost their energies once they got entangled by the spiritual sense chain.
After easily capturing the three souls and dragging them into his Soul Sea, Austin refined them immediately. Screaming aloud, the three souls broke into pieces of light and finally integrated into Austin's Soul Sea.
It wasn't as difficult as the jade slip had described. It seemed quite easy to Austin.
He was overjoyed. The spiritual sense chain got hold of four other souls that were near him and dragged them too into his Soul Sea to refine.