Zhang Xuan hurriedly grabbed the compiled book and flipped it open.

The content swiftly flowed into his head and imprinted into his mind.

It has indeed reached the level of Heaven's Path! Hahahaha! Zhang Xuan nearly leaped up from joy.

He had wanted to practice Soul Traverse for a very long time now, and he had been searching for books relating to souls in order to perfect the technique. However, who would have thought that what he was lacking was not soul-related manuals but space-related manuals!

I'll temper my soul first before cultivating Soul Traverse! Zhang Xuan decided.

Thus, he crossed his leg and sat down. With a thought, he drew his soul out from his glabella.

Tzzzzzzzzz!

Without the protection of the physical body, the pressure that pressed down on Zhang Xuan's soul immediately intensified. In an instant, he felt as if he was standing amid a raging hurricane that was trying to tear him apart.

Heavy like a boulder, firm like a mountain!

Knowing that if he would lose his life if he could not withstand this ordeal, Zhang Xuan focused on the imagery of a massive mountain, the White Creek Mountain.

There was a type of soul training that was known as conceptualization training. Through focusing one's thoughts on a single conceptualization, it would help to refine one's soul energy in the form of the conceptualization. For example, if one thought of flames, one's soul energy could become scorching like the raging inferno, and if one thought of ice, one's soul energy would become chilling like the heartless winter.

Zhang Xuan had done conceptualization training back when he had just started cultivating, but with the Heaven's Path Soul Art to raise his soul cultivation, he had found that there was not much need for him to do it, so he had not paid much attention to it. However, in this very moment, he knew that he had to do it or risk having his soul torn into shreds.

Weng!

Focusing on the conceptualization of a mountain, Zhang Xuan's wavering soul swiftly stabilized in place. As if an imposing mountain towering in the midst of a storm, no matter how the gale huffed and puffed, it remained completely unfazed, unable to be blown down.

After stabilizing his figure, Zhang Xuan took a deep breath and drew the crushing pressure into his soul, tempering the weaker parts of his soul.

Geji! Geji!

Under the tempering of the crushing pressure, his massive soul grew more and more concentrated and powerful.

The pressure isn't as unbearable anymore. Advance!

A few minutes later, when Zhang Xuan had finally adapted to the pressure, he took a few steps forward before sitting down to continue the tempering process.

In the atrium, the motionless adolescent boy sculpture opened his eyes once more.

"Let's see how that fellow is faring! Even if that fellow inside doesn't make a move, just the pressure that it exerts should be able to stop that young man in his tracks or even crush his soul entirely!"

Muttering beneath his breath, the adolescent boy sculpture raised his finger and tapped the space before him.

A screen of light appeared in the air, and a display of Zhang Xuan's plight within the door came into appearance.

"Heh, the young man should have Ah? W-what's going on?"

The adolescent boy sculpture was still uttering smug words when he noticed that something was amiss with the displayed scene before him. His eyes swiftly widened to the brim, seemingly ready to pop out from their sockets.

In the screen of light, the young man had his hands on his hips, and he howled indignantly with an infuriated look on his face. "Where the hell is the pressure? You coward, I dare you to come out and face me straight on! I haven't absorbed enough of it yet! If that's all you've got, how dare you call yourself a trial? If you don't come out now, don't blame me if I tear this entire place down!"

"He's actually provoking the it?" The adolescent boy sculpture nearly blacked out.

He had thought that with that person making a move, just the aura that the fellow emanated would be enough to crush the young man. Who would have thought that not only would the young man be perfectly fine, he was even mocking it for being too weak!

Just where did this monster come from?

This was too ridiculous!

"Forget it. Since there isn't any pressure anymore, I'll just head in" After hurling provocations one after another without the pressure returning, Zhang Xuan could only shake his head in resignation.

To be honest, it was not that he wanted to brag but the pressure had simply disappeared too abruptly.

He had just barely gotten into the mood of training, and the results had just started showing on his soul when the pressure suddenly vanished without a trace. Anyone would have been infuriated in such a situation!

After all, if he could just cultivate a little more, there was a good chance that he would reach the prerequisites to carrying out Soul Traverse, thus raising his fighting prowess by a notch!

Let's see where the source of the pressure comes from first. I might just be able to do something about it Zhang Xuan thought as he advanced forward.

Hula!

Barely after taking a few steps, as he was turning a corner, he suddenly felt a chilling sensation consuming his body. Following which, he sensed a powerful might rushing in his direction.

He quickly pressed himself tightly against the wall by the side.

Pu!

A small hole appeared in the wall of the passageway.

"What the" Zhang Xuan's eyebrows shot up in alarm.

What had just shot over was not a hidden weapon, sword qi, or anything of the sort. It was an ordinary droplet of water!

Just a droplet of water had succeeded in breaching his defenses and piercing the wall of the passageway. Without a doubt, the person who had made a move on him had to be at the Great Sage realm at the very minimum!

I'll wait and see who the person is before deciding whether I should use Kong shi's blood droplet or not.

Placing his finger right above the droplet mark in his hand, ready to come into contact with it and activate the power at any moment, Zhang Xuan hesitated for a moment before taking another step forward warily.

He only had two more uses of Kong shi's blood droplets, so he could not afford to waste it.

Huala!

Barely after walking around the bend, he saw dozens of water droplets of varying sizes flying over rapidly, sealing all his paths of escape.

These water droplets were not really infused with tremendously powerful zhenqi, but the speed of their movements was simply frightening. Given his current cultivation, if they got a clean strike on him, he would definitely sustain severe wounds or even lose his life!

"Bloodline activate!" Knowing that there was no time for him to escape, Zhang Xuan immediately activated the Zhang Clan bloodline, which Sword Saint Xing had given him previously.

Hu!

In an instant, time seemed to have slowed down. The water droplets that had been surging in his direction furiously a moment ago seemed to have become mired in a swamp, such that he could perceive them clearly even with his plain eyes.

He raised his finger and tapped the closest water droplet to him lightly.

Po!

The water droplet immediately scattered apart, moistening his finger.

He moved on to tap the remaining dozens of water droplets, and they scattered into the surroundings, too.

Knowing that he was finally out of danger, Zhang Xuan heaved a sigh of relief as he nodded in awe.

As expected of the Zhang Clan bloodline! Its prowess was even more fearsome than the Luo Clan bloodline, displaying astounding might upon activation.

If he had not utilized this ability, there was no doubt that he would have sustained severe injuries from the barrage of water droplets. However, through the acceleration of his time, the water droplets were slowed to the speed of a snail's crawl, thus posing no threat toward him anymore.

Unfortunately, the rate of depletion of the blood essence is simply too great

As excited as Zhang Xuan was, he could not help but shake his head helplessly after seeing the amount of power that he had left from the droplet of Zhang Clan blood essence.

Just to pop a couple of water droplets, he had actually expended more than half of a droplet of Zhang Clan blood essence In other words, he could only repeat what he had done six more times before completely depleting the Zhang Clan blood essence that he had.

This was simply too wasteful!

Hu!

With another thought, he returned from his state of time acceleration, and the scenery before him reverted to its original state.

It was then that he realized that he was standing in the midst of a vast hall.

At the very center of the hall was a lake of a radius of several hundred meters. The water in the lake were bubbling furiously, as if it was being boiled.

Just as Zhang Xuan was perplexed as to how the lake could conjure such swift bullets of water, he heard an intense rumbling from beneath the water. Following which, a bizarre entity spurted forth from the lake of water, surging upward.

Huala!

More water droplets whizzed into the surroundings.