Cultivation through Skin Making

But once you enter the Crimson Palace Realm, your Divine Soul becomes stronger and more substantial, as if transitioning from a gaseous to a liquid state—it can be disturbed but not easily dispersed. If you wish to use the Soul-Searching Skill on a cultivator in the Crimson Palace Realm, you must be prepared for their counterattack with the determination of the dying.

Cultivators in the Crimson Palace Realm can mobilize their Divine Soul to fiercely retaliate, causing you severe mental confusion at worst, or at least leaving a soul wound.

Therefore, unless something unforeseen happens, in battles in the Crimson Palace Realm, this series of spells based on the Soul-Searching Skill is mostly ineffective...

...

Next is the body.

The powerful blood and flesh bring about a fearsome, burning Qi Blood.

Song Yan mobilizes his Essence Blood, gathering it in the palm of his hand, which instantly turns crimson, like a furnace of molten iron.

His gaze shifts to a small copper brazier in the inn's guest room.

He swiftly picks it up, gripping it with his five fingers.

Instantly, a hissing sound fills the air, and waves of high temperature rise, accompanied by a piercing odor that fortunately is confined within the array.

The patterns on the surface of the copper quickly blur, and its hard copper body melts like ice meeting a hot iron, forming several viscous, thread-like imprints.

Subsequently, a drop of the molten copper rolled from Song Yan's finger onto the back of his hand.

Song Yan clasped his hands together and kneaded.

Between his ten fingers, the copper brazier transformed into a lump of molten metal.

Casually shaping it, then reclaiming his Qi Blood, the copper brazier morphed into the shape of a flying saber like one made by a "newbie blacksmith."

Song Yan gazed at the flying saber he had crafted and immediately understood.

'A being in the Crimson Palace Realm, once it mobilizes Qi Blood, can heat part of its body like a furnace, allowing it to forge weapons with bare hands, but those in the early stage can only summon Mortal Fire, thus crafting only Mortal Soldiers.'

Casually retrieving the flying saber, Song Yan begins to test the other powers of his body.

He recalls that different "foreign blood" brings a variety of effects.

So what effect does the "Changwang Tiger Race Blood" have?

Although he has not yet mastered any techniques of the Crimson Palace Realm, he can feel the basic effects of the "Changwang Tiger Race Blood."

As he wills it, his Essence Blood moves with Profound Qi, gathering in his arms, where black patterns abruptly appear, interspersed across his skin like the stripes of a White Tiger or chains of bizarre curses.

This reminds him of the mysterious mottled black shadow he saw in the Fox Grandmother's "Treasure Vault" that day.

The black patterns on him now resemble the markings on that black shadow.

But unlike the black shadow's seemingly cursed, crawling ghost-like patterns...

His remain static.

Song Yan can't help but ponder.

The new level of life gives him the feeling of a "newborn stumbling to walk, understanding what he can do."

...

...

Bang!

Bang!

Bang Bang!

As Song Yan ponders, he realizes these patterns must be "Soul-Capturing oriented," having a terrifying restriction on unsheltered Divine Souls, especially ghostly beings.

The demons of the "Changwang Tiger Race," even in their infancy, must be a natural enemy to Divine Souls.

But his contemplation is interrupted by an indescribable sense of danger.

His heart suddenly skips a beat.

Though he isn't wearing the "Cold Prison Floating Life Bracelet," he feels an extreme cold.

The cold feels like a dead hand clenching his wrist, tightening.

'Indeed, strengthening the flesh stimulates the 'Cold Prison Floating Life Bracelet,' bringing backlash.'

Although Song Yan's heartbeat quickens, he remains calm because he expected this all along.

He must face it!

In the next instant, a cold, icy Yin Qi swirls up from below, blooming before his eyes.

In the cage beneath him, men and women, young and old, each stretch out in twisted agony, reaching up in imploring torment.

The surrounding environment is covered in an overwhelmingly uncomfortable gray fog.

The surge of his blood and Qi enters this gloomy, misted ice fog like a darting flame, and for a moment, the ice fog condenses, and visibility clears...

Song Yan sees the environment around him.

The men and women under his feet, now visible due to the dispersing mist, gape in bewilderment, then filled with malice, scream hysterically before rising into the air, as if the hindering mist and iron bars have lost their effect.

The ghostly spirits stare intently at Song Yan, seeming intent on shredding him to pieces!

Around him, thick iron bars form a perfectly square cage, binding him within. Looking up, he locks eyes with a face glaring at him in greedy malevolence.

...

...

Gu Huangzi rushes back toward the Cold Pool Valley Market.

He has already informed the sect's high-ranking members still in the Cold Pool Valley to promptly activate the array and secure it.

Along the way, he sees many corpses—cultivators, ordinary people—and many more people trembling but clinging to life.

Stopping to inspect, Gu Huangzi is taken aback.

Fox Grandmother's surprise attack was unexpected, but as time goes on, her purpose becomes slowly apparent to all.

"Dig three feet if you must, find Song Yan!"

"Where is Song Yan?!"

"Song Yan!!!"

"Cunning little thief!"

Gu Huangzi, absorbing each bit of soul-searched information, is truly shocked.

Why did Fox Grandmother kill Stone Seat Elder first and then urgently seek Song Yan?

And why in such haste?

What's truly happening here?

Gu Huangzi doesn't understand, but he increasingly realizes Song Yan's importance. Fortunately, he had already ordered Yin Wutai to keep an eye on the boy and withdraw in advance. Meanwhile, Fox Grandmother would be distracted by the activation of the Cold Pool Valley Market's grand array.