The ground and clear streams were dyed a lurid red by the fresh blood from the genetic lifeforms that lay all around Zhang Lie.

Invisible energy filled the air, floating out of sight—spiritual essence. 

All lifeforms had souls. Upon their death, spiritual essence would dissipate into their environment. Under ordinary circumstances, such spiritual essence would disappear rapidly. However, the mud in this valley was very special, and it could bind the spiritual essence and prevent it from dissipating.

Zhang Lie killed lifeforms in the valley for three whole days, finding quite a large number of superior-grade lifeforms, but never the special peak-grade one that was his goal.

Nothing in the valley could stop his massacre, not even a group of peak-grade lifeforms.

Zhang Lie was certain that the spiritual density in the valley was nearing the required threshold. He retrieved all the mutated- and superior-grade soulshards from his soulspace and smashed them all to pieces, causing spiritual essence to burst out in a thick fog. The spiritual essence in the air began to froth, as though Zhang Lie had poured gasoline over a burning fire.

Pinpricks of light appeared in the air like fireflies, dyeing the entire valley an extraordinary blue. The light began to revolve and whirl violently, causing the entire valley to do the same. Spiritual essence condensed into a pale blue whirlwind, forming a large shape in the very middle.

As more and more spiritual essence condensed, the shape's features became clearer and clearer, resolving into a translucent pale-blue lifeform with many eyes dotted all over its body, a round head, and eight feelers much like an octopus.

"It's finally appeared!" In his last life, Zhang Lie had learned a little of the lifeform before him, but even so, he found it very difficult to believe that the creature in front of him was a genetic lifeform.

In truth, it couldn't be considered one such. It was a lifeform made out of spiritual essence, and could even be considered a mutated soulshard of sorts. Its attack power was likely on par with that of a peak-grade lifeform.

In Zhang Lie's past life, the monarch of dragon's eye had gone alone to this valley of souls, where he slaughtered the lifeforms within for days on end.

This was where he discovered the unusual qualities of the valley, and when he killed a sufficient amount of genetic lifeforms and reached a critical density of spiritual essence in the valley, a spiritual lifeform appeared. Upon killing that lifeform, he obtained a special soulshard—the only one in the second realm that was able to enhance his eyes.

The spiritual lifeform's eyes all looked toward Zhang Lie. Each pupil was slitted; white rays of light shot out from those eyes toward Zhang Lie.

Zhang Lie dodged the white rays of light with a flap of his wings.

"[Rune: Control]!" The image of a dragonturtle appeared before him as Zhang Lie raised his hand. Ripples spread out from the two tablets, sealing the lifeform's will and power.

The two tablets were particularly effective against a spiritual lifeform—the squid's body turned pale, and its eyes listless.

Zhang Lie flapped his wings and shot toward it.

"[The Boundless Blade: Expulsion]!" Zhang Lie's sword energy gathered into a tall wave that crashed down on his opponent, causing the squid's body to break apart like an egg. From within rushed out a translucent pale blue dragon, its body covered not with scales, but countless pairs of eyes.

Somehow, it looked simultaneously pretty and frightening.

The moment it emerged, its eyes glowed with bright light, and spiritual essence circled around it.

"[First Form: Parting the River]!" Gleaming light honed the edge of Zhang Lie's sword, and a beam of sword energy rose into the air. The light pierced the very heavens and formed an arc in mid-air, slicing apart the currents of spiritual essence that drifted toward the creature.

The spiritual dragon opened its maw wide, revealing a gigantic eye within. It had pretended to be weak to trick Zhang Lie; Zhang Lie's momentum meant that he wouldn't be able to dodge whatever attack came his way, but he didn't intend to dodge regardless.

The sword in his hand grew as bright as the sun. With frightening strength, he thrust it into the dragon's throat.

"[The Boundless Blade: Requiem of the End]!" Sword energy speared the dragon from the inside out.

[Ninesoul Dragonblade—Second Form: Piercing the Soul]!" Zhang Lie's spiritual attack severed its soul with a blinding burst of light. 

As the pale blue apparition vanished, the will of the world announced, [You successfully killed a peak-grade dragon soul and obtained its soulshard.]

A pale blue orb appeared in front of Zhang Lie. Unlike other soulshards he had seen to date, what rested within this soulshard wasn't a weapon or armor, but rather a curious eye.

Put differently, the soulshard itself looked like a dragon's eye—this was the dragon's eye soulshard.

Even Zhang Lie couldn't hide his exhilaration. The monarch of dragon's eye had grown into his power and his name almost entirely because of this soulshard.

Zhang Lie immediately materialized the soulshard. His eyes turned slitted, and everything he saw seemed to slow down.

Upon flying up into the air, he found that his vision had improved to a frightening extent. He was able to see even beyond the valley, to penetrate the bodies of the lifeforms outside the valley and sense their souls directly, to attack them with just his eyes...

For this soulshard alone, the trip was completely worth it.

After acquiring the soulshard, he immediately left the valley and returned to Renhuang. By that time, the raiding party had returned as well. Everyone had partaken in the spoils of war except the wood spirits, who hadn't participated in the raid.

Just the fact that the kingdom of Xuechi was destroyed and that the citizens of Renhuang had avenged themselves was worthy of a celebration—with Zhang Lie as governor, the citizens felt as though they would never have to suffer injustice.

Not long after Zhang Lie returned, so too did the members of Team Zenith, who had gone out hunting the peak-grade lifeforms described in Xuechi's diary. 

They had managed to defeat all the peak-grade lifeforms without any injury at all— the leader of the rock spirits served as tank and vanguard while the hunters of Team Zenith struck down one peak-grade lifeform after another.