Within the pitch-black demon god barrier, thunderous booms and feral roars erupted from all directions. The place had descended into utter chaos. Endless yaos poured out from the space-time rifts, flooding into this world teeming with life, unable to hold back their excited howls. In an inconspicuous corner of a small river formed by a black, viscous fluid, Lin Zheyu sat with his eyes closed as his body underwent a tremendous transformation.

Vast and mysterious energy surged from Lin Zheyu's body, drawing power from the demon river through his legs. Once the energy entered his physique, it transformed into nourishment for his spirit and spiritual soul, driving a rapid transformation. Within his sea of consciousness, the orb representing his spirit and soul grew increasingly condensed, its gentle glow spreading across the entire sea.

At last, when his spirit and spiritual soul reached a certain threshold, the orb trembled. It began to boil violently like water at a rolling boil. Soon, a human face appeared upon its surface, followed by a torso, limbs, hands, and feet. In an instant, the once ordinary orb transformed into a miniature human figure.

The tiny figure bore some resemblance to Lin Zheyu, but only faintly. If he could clearly see the form his soul had taken, he would likely be stunned. After transforming into a human shape, his soul looked almost identical to his appearance in his previous life, though it had begun to subtly resemble his current body as well.

A few breaths later, Lin Zheyu slowly opened his eyes in the darkness. A sharp gleam flashed briefly within them.

"Is this... spiritual sense?" Lin Zheyu's eyes widened, his face filled with undisguised delight.

Within the consciousness space, he had been unable to stop cultivating, yet he could perceive every step and insight of the process as if he were doing it himself. The moment the orb representing his spirit and spiritual soul transformed into a human form, Lin Zheyu fully sensed the existence of his sea of consciousness.

"No, this is not spiritual sense. This is merely a spiritual form condensed after the spirit and spiritual soul reached a certain level of strength."

Lin Zheyu quickly understood the nature of the humanoid soul within his sea of consciousness. Although he had never cultivated the Origin Returning Art, he had skimmed through its sections concerning divine sense. The formation of divine sense did not require condensing a spiritual form.

"What a remarkable sensation..."

Lin Zheyu closed his eyes, and his consciousness entered the sea of consciousness. His perspective shifted with his thoughts, and no detail within the sea of consciousness escaped his perception. He noticed that his soul closely resembled his appearance from his previous life. The realization surprised him briefly, but he soon accepted it. After all, his soul had carried over from his past life, so it was only natural for it to retain that appearance.

However, upon closer inspection, he discovered that not only was his soul gradually shifting toward the appearance of his current body, but his physical features were also becoming increasingly similar to those of his past life as he grew. It was as though the versions of himself from two different worlds were slowly merging into one.

"Interesting..." Lin Zheyu murmured softly.

After condensing a spiritual form, his control over his physique grew significantly stronger. What he had once been unable to achieve, instantly transforming all the true origin within his body, was now possible. With a single thought, the gray true origin shifted color in an instant.

A deep rumble echoed. Thick true origin surged rapidly through his body. With a thought, the gray true origin shifted into the pale blue unique to Azure Tide Pavilion disciples. Moments later, it turned gold, then fiery red, then silver-white threaded with arcs of lightning. Lin Zheyu could even exert such fine control that his true origin displayed multiple colors at once, like a radiant rainbow.

Another rumble resounded. Suddenly, Lin Zheyu's body trembled, and his blood qi surged violently within him. His face flushed deep red in an instant.

"Uh... I overdid it." Lin Zheyu opened his eyes and spoke with a wry expression.

Just now, he had tried to split his true origin into seven distinct streams, each aligned with a different true intent. Under his control, his true origin took on the colors of a rainbow. However, his satisfaction did not last long. The streams began to clash, nearly causing him to fall into deviation. Fortunately, his soul was strong enough to suppress it by force.

After taking a moment to recover, Lin Zheyu closed his eyes again and immersed himself in sensing the changes his strengthened soul brought. By now, he had completely forgotten about the two immortal cultivators who had been fighting earlier.

"Now that my spirit and spiritual soul have grown stronger, I realize these true intents are actually quite weak!"

Within the sea of consciousness, Lin Zheyu casually beckoned, and forty-two spheres of true intent appeared in his palm. The powerful true intents that once felt difficult to control now seemed insignificant.

Now that my soul is stronger, if I condense more true intents and merge them into my true origin, how much would it enhance its fundamental nature...

His ability to transform his energy into true origin was not only due to the solid foundation laid by his golden blood qi. These forty-two powerful true intents had also played a crucial role. If increasing the number of true intents could significantly enhance the quality of his true origin, Lin Zheyu would not mind condensing dozens more. With the strength of his current spirit and soul, he felt that even a hundred true intents would not shake his core mind.

Once I return to the sect, I will test how much true intent affects the nature of true origin. If the results are promising, I can give it a try.

With a casual wave, the forty-two true intents dispersed and began to orbit around him on their own.

"Interesting..." Lin Zheyu smiled as he watched the true intents circle around him.

He glanced across the hazy sea of consciousness. "After strengthening my soul, it seems I can perceive the outside world even without forming a spiritual sense."

Let me try...

This was Lin Zheyu's first attempt to perceive the outside world using only his spirit and spiritual soul, rather than his body. At first, he could not grasp the method. After some thought, he drew on the technique for condensing divine sense described in the Origin Returning Art and quickly found a way.

With a thought, a faint ripple of spirit energy seeped out of his sea of consciousness and left his body. This was already the limit of what he could achieve. He had originally wanted to test whether he could perform the legendary out-of-body soul projection, but the restraints of the sea of consciousness on the soul were too strong.

"It worked!" Lin Zheyu felt a surge of joy.

As soon as his spirit left his body, Lin Zheyu guided it outward, trying to see how far it could extend.

"Shit..."

Very quickly, however, Lin Zheyu drew in a sharp breath. The moment his spirit left his physique, it rapidly shrank back into the sea of consciousness. Inside, he saw strands of black energy clinging to his soul, and his brows furrowed. These black traces were what his spirit had picked up outside his body.

What is going on? Aren't those immortal cultivators able to use spiritual sense here? Could it be that ordinary spirit power cannot resist the erosion of Baleful Yin force, and only true spiritual sense can?

After his spirit returned to the sea of consciousness, the black traces were quickly expelled by his vast soul energy and caused no real harm. However, the bone-piercing cold he had felt when his spirit extended outside, as if it could freeze his very soul, left a deep impression on him.

No, I know nothing about the methods immortal cultivators use. Everything I assumed was just speculation. Perhaps they cannot freely use spiritual sense within the demon god barrier either and must rely on dharma artifacts or other secret techniques.

Earlier, he had assumed that the distant immortal cultivator's ability to detect him was due to spiritual sense, but that had been nothing more than an unfounded guess.

"It seems I can only test the use of spirit power after leaving the demon god barrier," Lin Zheyu said, shaking his head.

He had wanted to test whether pure spirit power could manipulate objects or if divine sense was required, but the current environment made it impossible. Shifting his focus, Lin Zheyu turned his attention to his Perception Domain. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Damn, it's expanded to 1,100 meters... and nearly 1,200," Lin Zheyu said with surprise. "I didn't expect condensing a spiritual form would enhance the Perception Domain this much."

When he pushed his Perception Domain to its limit, everything within roughly eleven hundred meters appeared within his awareness, forming a colorless three-dimensional image.

"The Perception Domain is growing stronger. The virtual image it forms in my mind is becoming more refined. It can even simulate the disturbance of the wind..." Lin Zheyu sensed changes in his Perception Domain and felt awed.