Chapter 531: A Huge Profit

After some observation, Ye Feng realized that this place was actually a secret chamber. It was unguarded and specifically used by those bloodthirsty snowmen to store their loot.

The entire chamber was made of ice and snow, with only one thick ice door. Ye Feng tried to probe it, but even his soul power couldn’t penetrate through that door. This made him even more confident. Although he didn’t know how those snowmen managed it, it was clear that to protect this chamber for storing loot, external soul probes couldn’t detect what was inside.

Ye Feng waited for three full days without a single snowman entering or leaving. Apparently, they only came in to store their loot and wouldn’t enter casually at other times.

It took him just over an hour to thaw the area, but he didn’t break through the ice surrounding his body. During the remaining three days, he thoroughly explored the place.

There were a total of 2,327 corpses in this chamber. Although they were already dead and it was impossible to determine their strength in life, Ye Feng believed that those stored here by the bloodthirsty snowmen must have been quite powerful.

Of these 2,300+ corpses, over 2,000 were humans, while the remaining 300 were strange beasts. Though puzzled, Ye Feng didn’t rule out the possibility that the snowmen had gone to other layers to hunt.

What excited Ye Feng the most was that the weapons, armor, and even space rings on those human corpses were all well-preserved. Moreover, almost every person wore a space ring on their finger, which made his heart race.

After waiting another two days to confirm that the snowmen wouldn’t come in for a while, Ye Feng took action.

He bought a metal puppet in the Void Realm, transformed it to resemble himself, then posed it in his original stance before freezing it and placing it back in its original location. Only then did he begin his scheme.

First, he thawed the fingers of all the humans wearing storage rings, collected all the space rings, and then re-froze them.

This process took Ye Feng two days and two nights.

After confirming that no one had entered yet, Ye Feng moved on to his second plan.

He simply used the metal puppet to mimic the appearance of all the corpses, equipped those puppets with similarly shaped but completely different gear, then froze them. Finally, he put all the corpses into the storage rings.

After going through all this, Ye Feng spent nearly a month, as he had to constantly divide his attention between keeping an eye on the entrance and avoiding making too much noise, which wasted a lot of time. However, in Ye Feng’s view, it was all worth it. Although he hadn’t checked each of the more than two thousand storage rings, just looking at one or two of them gave him a rough idea of these people’s strength—most were at the peak of the Holy Emperor level, or even at the Holy Venerable level. Such soul attacks were no joke; Ye Feng wasn’t surprised at all to see someone at the Holy Venerable level killed by those attacks, as these snowmen attacked in groups, with hundreds of soul attacks piled together—likely forcing even a beginner at the Supreme Saint level to flee in panic. As for why there were so many corpses, Ye Feng thought about it for a moment before understanding—after all, the emergence of such secret realms was random. It might appear here or elsewhere as well. If such a realm had appeared in the Holy Realm before, Ye Feng thought it was quite possible. Ye Feng didn’t rush to leave but instead entered the Refining Domain. The soul energy gathered outside that huge bell made his heart tingle—each attack was a full-powered strike from the peak of a Holy Emperor’s mental strength. During those three minutes, he was attacked at least ten times, resulting in thousands of soul attack energies in total. To speed up absorption, Ye Feng immersed his entire soul into the huge bell, urging it to refine the energy with all his might. His soul, which was already over 590 meters tall, grew even taller. Although the growth rate wasn’t as fast as when he took the Clear Spring Pill, it was still visible to the naked eye. Almost every three days, the height of his soul increased by one meter. As time passed, the soul energy outside the huge bell dwindled, and the refining speed accelerated. On the 910th day in the Refining Domain, all the soul energy was finally absorbed. At the initial absorption rate, it would have taken at least a thousand days. By then, Ye Feng’s soul height had reached over 900 meters, just short of breaking through to 1,000 meters and reaching the strength of a Holy Venerable. Ye Feng felt somewhat frustrated—had he only been able to hold on a little longer. But he quickly thought of another method to help him break through. “This method might be crude, but it should be effective.” With that, Ye Feng left the Refining Domain and returned to that storage room, kicking the thick ice door. Although the ice door could block soul detection, it didn’t seem very sturdy and was blown away with just one kick from Ye Feng.

The two snowmen guarding the entrance immediately attacked Ye Feng, throwing snowballs at him. Ye Feng ignored their attacks and rushed outside. The two snowmen let out strange noises, and soon a group of snowmen chased after him. Unfazed, Ye Feng circled the palace built by the snowmen. Once thousands of snowmen gathered, a cold smile appeared on his lips. The snowballs kept hitting him, and he felt his body growing heavier, making it difficult to move. He counted and realized he had accumulated tens of thousands of attacks—knowing he couldn’t hold on any longer, he activated the Refinement Realm and disappeared into it. Seeing Ye Feng vanish suddenly, the snowmen were stunned. After searching, they refused to give up easily and stayed near where he had disappeared. Meanwhile, Ye Feng, now inside the Refinement Realm, turned into an ice statue once again. It took him another half an hour to break free. After resting briefly and returning to normal, he began to examine his mental sea. Tens of thousands of attacks kept battering the giant black bell, but with almost no effect—instead, they were absorbed. Ye Feng immersed his mind in it, accelerating the absorption process. Days passed, and after an unknown amount of time, he pulled his soul energy out of the giant bell. His soul had reached 999 meters for some time now. But no matter how much he tried to absorb those soul attacks, his growth slowed down. At first, it was a few centimeters per day, then less than a millimeter per day—this frustrated Ye Feng greatly. “A soul at the peak of the Holy Emperor level, just one step away from becoming a Holy Sovereign, yet stuck here.” He grew more and more distressed. “Is this method ineffective? The growth rate is slowing down…” “Ten thousand attacks aren’t enough—what about one hundred thousand, or one million? Even if it only grows by one millimeter per ten days, it will eventually exceed a thousand. If one attempt isn’t enough, I’ll try again.” Ye Feng resolved to seize this opportunity to break through his soul cultivation. With this determination, he took drastic action, provoking those snowmen over and over. Whenever his body couldn’t take it anymore, he hid in the Refinement Realm, thawed out, and provoked them again. More and more snowmen joined the attacks, delivering even more intense assaults. After tens of thousands of provocations, the number of attacks accumulated in his body finally exceeded 100 million.

To his surprise, his physical strength increased by nearly ten times through this almost self-destructive method, reaching the strength of a mid-tier sacred artifact.
“Hundreds of millions of attack energies— I can’t believe I still can’t break through!” Ye Feng gritted his teeth and immersed his soul back into the Great Bell to accelerate the refinement process.
As days passed, Ye Feng’s refinement speed grew faster and faster, though the growth of his soul became increasingly subtle.
After absorbing over 90 million soul attacks, Ye Feng sensed the presence of a barrier. He knew that breaking through this barrier would elevate his soul to the level of a Saint Lord. He accelerated the refinement process even further.
Hundreds of years passed, and Ye Feng finally managed to create a crack in that barrier.
Crack, crack… Under his continuous assaults, the crack slowly widened.
“Break!” Ye Feng struck the barrier above him time and again. There were now less than ten soul attacks left. He had to break through before they were all used up, or all his efforts would be in vain—after all, he had already discovered that the barrier could repair itself automatically.
“Boom!” Once.
“Boom!” Twice.
“Boom!” Three times…
…
With each transition to an attack, Ye Feng immediately converted it into force and hurled it at the barrier. Each attack made the crack larger, but Ye Feng still felt it wasn’t enough.
“Bigger!”
“Just collapse already!” Ye Feng’s voice was hysterical, though no one heard his cries.
“Ninth time! Break open, you bastard!”
“Tenth time!”
“Boom…” With the final attack, a loud roar came from above the barrier. The crack finally widened, and the barrier slowly collapsed into fragments and disappeared.
Ye Feng’s soul began to grow rapidly—1,000 meters, 1,100 meters, 1,200 meters…
2,000 meters, 2,100 meters, 2,200 meters…
The growth continued without stopping, even shocking Ye Feng himself.
It stopped only after reaching 2,999 meters—a change he hadn’t anticipated at all. “I’m just a little short of reaching the mid-stage of Saint Lord…”
Ye Feng also knew that exceeding 3,000 meters would mean reaching the mid-stage of Saint Lord, while he was still in the early stage. But he knew that with the help of his soul weapon, it wouldn’t be difficult for him to defeat a mid-stage Saint Lord.

“Hehe, I originally planned to stop at the fifth layer since I didn’t have enough strength to go down to the sixth. It would be a shame not to go now, hehe…” Ye Feng slowly appeared in the fifth layer of the abyss. Before those snowmen could react, he concealed his soul energy and fled. With a soul strength at the early stage of the Saint Venerable level and perfect skills for hiding his aura, Ye Feng was completely beyond their detection. Ye Feng glanced back at the furious snowmen with a slight smile. “As a thank you, I won’t kill you. I’m going to the next layer…”