Chapter 760: Surging Combat Power

Sitting cross-legged with a calm expression, Ye Feng held one of the most powerful treasures lent to him by Immortal—one that controlled the flow of time. Luo Yan took out the Eye of Divine Punishment, wrapped in Blood Emperor Essence, from his storage ring. The blood-red color gradually faded, revealing a ball-shaped object resembling an eyeball.

“What should I do?” Ye Feng asked Luo Yan, somewhat uncertain.
“While he can’t attack yet, reach out and use your life essence as bait to lure him into your body,” Luo Yan instructed.
Ye Feng placed his palm over the exposed part of the Eye of Divine Punishment and forced some life essence out of his body, allowing it to seep through his palm. As soon as the life essence appeared, the Eye of Divine Punishment began absorbing it frantically. Ye Feng then started drawing back his life essence as instructed. The Eye of Divine Punishment slowly writhed, as if extending tentacles that climbed up Ye Feng’s palm, while its outer volume grew smaller and smaller. In just two or three breaths, it completely disappeared into Ye Feng’s body.

“The Eye of Divine Punishment thrives on devouring life essence and souls,” Luo Yan continued. “If you pull back your life essence, it will invade your mind sea and attempt to consume your soul. But similarly, your soul can also devour it. It’s a race to see whether it devours you first or you devour it first. I’m confident you’ll succeed because your soul is indestructible—even if destroyed, it can regenerate.”

No sooner had Luo Yan finished speaking than the Eye of Divine Punishment rushed toward Ye Feng’s mind sea. Outside the mind sea, the immensely powerful Great Foolish Bell trembled violently under the impact. Ye Feng immediately removed the Bell’s defenses, allowing the Eye of Divine Punishment to enter his mind sea. Once inside, the Eye of Divine Punishment darted around wildly, trying to locate Ye Feng’s soul. Unfazed, Ye Feng pulled his soul out from deep within the mind sea and lunged at the Eye of Divine Punishment, biting down hard. The Eye of Divine Punishment responded by extending tentacles to tear at Ye Feng’s soul.

The battle between souls involved no fancy techniques—just biting and striking back. Fortunately, Ye Feng’s soul had remarkable healing abilities, recovering quickly after each attack by the Eye of Divine Punishment. Meanwhile, with every bite from Ye Feng, the Eye of Divine Punishment couldn’t recover at all.

Time passed by moment by moment, and the mutual consumption between the two lasted for three days and three nights. Enduring the pain of each soul severing, Ye Feng finally used his soul to completely swallow the Eye of Heavenly Punishment into his abdomen.

A moment later, severe pain arose on his forehead, as if something was trying to break through. With each impact, Ye Feng writhed in pain on the ground. After dozens of impacts, a sound of something shattering came, followed by three more impacts, and finally, a vertical crack appeared on his forehead.

Ye Feng explored it, and the crack suddenly widened, revealing a white crystal. It emitted a black beam that pierced through the constraints of his sea of consciousness. Moments later, the white crystal gradually disappeared, leaving no trace on Ye Feng’s forehead. Yet, he felt a special energy flowing into his eyes. Everything reflected in his left eye turned into various lines, while his right eye automatically created a dazzlingly colorful world. But this lasted only for a short while before returning to normal.

Subsequently, a vast amount of information flooded into his memories. After organizing these memories somewhat, Ye Feng immersed his soul back and shifted his focus from his sea of consciousness to the outside world.

“Did it work?” The two looked at Ye Feng expectantly.

“Mm. No wonder so many people failed. This thing consumes soul power at an terrifying speed. With my soul’s strength, it would basically devour me in just three bites. Fortunately, my healing ability is strong, allowing me to recover instantly after each bite.” Ye Feng also gathered some information from those memories, learning how to use the Eye of Heavenly Punishment and gaining a basic understanding of its history. “This is indeed a great item—even comparable to your Blood Emperor Essence Crystal.”

After completing the fusion, Ye Feng calmed down and prepared to construct a higher-level main plane within his internal universe. All the prerequisites for advancement had been met, but without the acceleration from the Blessing Power and Epiphany Privileges, constructing the plane would be an extremely long process. Thus, Ye Feng waited for the interval to pass. Every ten days, he had three opportunities to use the Blessing Power and Epiphany Privileges, allowing him to grant blessings and achieve epiphanies for nine days, with one day of interval in between. Since it took him four days to fuse the Eye of Heavenly Punishment this time, he could use those privileges again.

Once he reactivated the Blessing Power and Epiphany Privileges, Ye Feng began constructing the higher-level main plane within his internal universe.

Three days passed in no time. Using the Blessing of Power and the Epiphany Privilege just once, Ye Feng successfully constructed a higher primary plane and became a level 7 powerhouse. During the construction process, slight discrepancies between the strength of his body and soul caused some damage, but it was quickly repaired each time. Though painful, Ye Feng endured it until the higher primary plane was completed. After becoming a level 7 powerhouse, he used the Blessing of Power twice more. Over six days, he raised both his physical and spiritual strength to the level of a level 9 powerhouse using the energy from those blessings. Then he began migrating species to his ten internal universes. This time, it took nearly a hundred years for Ye Feng to fill his internal universes completely, making him a true level 9 powerhouse. In fact, with the Virtual Realm, Ye Feng’s progress in cultivation was countless times easier than others’, as no one else could find so many beings to migrate to their internal universes. Once a higher primary plane was established, the gap between a level 7 and a level 9 powerhouse lay in three aspects: physical strength, spiritual strength, and the variety and number of lifeforms within. Normally, improving in these three areas required long-term cultivation. Especially for the variety and number of lifeforms, it would take at least dozens of eras for a level 7 to reach level 9, but Ye Feng could achieve this simply by bringing in large numbers of immigrants from the Virtual Realm. Under time acceleration, a hundred years equaled less than two hours in the outside world. With a sweep of his spiritual power, Ye Feng immediately located the whereabouts of Immortal and the others. When he reappeared before them, even Immortal narrowed his eyes slightly and whispered, “How did your cultivation level rise so quickly to that of a level 9 powerhouse?” “I had some special circumstances…” Ye Feng didn’t elaborate and simply joined the group without hesitation. When he was still a level 6 powerhouse, he could fight against those level 10 powerhouses. Now that he had reached level 9, there were very few in their camp who could defeat him. So, Ye Feng decided to just blend in with Immortal’s group instead of returning to the level 9 powerhouse group he had originally followed. Even the Heavenly Dao was puzzled by Ye Feng’s cultivation level but didn’t ask any questions.

But the one who was most concerned about Ye Feng was the Soul Devourer from the opposing camp; his gaze held a dangerous glint. Ye Feng faintly sensed a chilling intent to kill. The Soul Devourer, who had originally planned to attack Ye Feng only after he reached the level of a strong warrior, seemed to be wary of the speed at which his strength was growing…