Immortal Reincarnation Tribulation

Chapter 279 The Immortal Soul

"The amount of spirit stones wasn't too surprising, but it's better than nothing. After purchasing a large number of deep yellow demon cores, my net worth shrank to less than 20,000 spirit stones..."

"Having these spirit stones as a supplement is certainly a good thing." Du Fan sighed and muttered to himself.

From his expression and tone, it was clear that he wasn't entirely satisfied with the astonishing amount of twelve thousand spirit stones on the ground. If other Golden Core cultivators on Crescent Island were to witness this, they would surely be so angry that they would slap him to death.

With a single gesture, Du Fan gathered all the low- to mid-grade spirit stones on the ground and neatly placed them in a corner of his blue Qiankun Ring.

Then his gaze shifted, and he looked again at the small hill on the ground in front of him, which had shrunk by more than half. After the spirit stones were removed, the most abundant thing on the hill now was a bunch of demon cores of different colors.

Among them, the green demon cores, representing the inner cores of mid-level demon beasts, are the most numerous, numbering around two hundred. There are also more than ten cyan demon cores of high-level demon beasts. Apart from these, there are only low-level demon cores, numbering around thirty or forty.

Du Fan naturally understood the value of green and cyan demon cores, but what excited him most were the eighteen deep yellow demon cores among the thirty-odd low-grade demon cores. These were what he needed most at the moment.

"Haha, if these demon cores were converted into spirit stones, their value would far exceed the amount of spirit stones I had previously collected. Now it seems that this Golden Core cultivator at the Great Perfection stage is finally worth my money." Du Fan couldn't help but burst into laughter, looking quite pleased with himself.

Du Fan took a deep breath to calm himself down, and then, using his Level 2 Object Control Technique, he collected the nearly three hundred demon cores in front of him and sorted them into his Qiankun Ring.

After all the spirit stones and demon cores were taken away, there weren't many things left in front of Du Fan. Most of them were materials from demon beasts, the most numerous being incredibly hard beast bones. In addition, there were also quite a few animal hides, horns, and other items.

Du Fan only glanced at these items and then ignored them. Regardless of their value, Du Fan was clearly not very interested and planned to find a suitable opportunity to sell them for spirit stones.

Du Fan's gaze swept past the monster materials and landed on three dazzling treasures: a silver trident about ten feet long, a small white sail a few inches in size, and a brilliant ancient lamp emitting a pale purple glow.

With a sweep of his divine sense, he sensed an astonishing spiritual pressure emanating from the three treasures. Just then, Du Fan's expression suddenly changed drastically, and he hurriedly severed the wisp of divine sense that had already permeated them.

Just as his divine sense briefly touched the three treasures, an extremely powerful, chilling aura surged out from them, enveloping his entire body along with his divine sense. He felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, and even his heart seemed to stop for a moment.

After a long while, Du Fan's expression improved somewhat, but the shock from before still lingered in his eyes.

"These three treasures must be the legendary magical artifacts."

Neither magic weapons nor talismanic weapons can compare to these three items, not even Du Fan's talismanic wood. Therefore, he immediately judged that these three treasures were most likely the magic weapons that only Golden Core cultivators could control!

Du Fan dared not examine these three magical treasures any further and began to inspect the remaining items.

Of the remaining items, besides the Earth Source Pearl which he had already been eyeing, only a piece of black deadwood was worth his attention.

The piece of wood was about the size of half an arm, and its entire body was as black as ink, giving people an unusually cold feeling. However, it was warm and smooth to the touch, like jade. When Du Fan swept his divine sense over it, he felt a pleasant sensation as if he were bathing in a hot spring, and his divine sense power was also subtly enhanced.

His eyes lit up, and he immediately understood. Since this wood could nourish the mind or consciousness, it must also have a certain nourishing effect on the soul.

Therefore, the soul orb of the Guo family's ancestor was most likely residing in this object.

After a short while, the small mountain in front of Du Fan was completely cleared away. In his hand, he was playing with a fist-sized, earth-yellow crystal bead, which was the Earth Source Bead that Du Fan cared about.

"This is truly like a pillow being delivered to someone who's just wanting to sleep. With the help of this bead, I should be able to master the earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique for escaping/traveling) that Old Monster Huang has been practicing. Combined with the lightness technique that Tian Wu taught me, the two together will truly be able to do anything, from ascending to the heavens to descending to the earth, hahaha..."

Du Fan burst into laughter again.

This time, it took a full half-cup of tea time for Du Fan to stop smiling and fall silent.

After an unknown amount of time, a sharp glint suddenly flashed in Du Fan's eyes. He then frowned slightly, his expression solemn, and he looked very serious.

Suddenly, he flicked his sleeve, and with a flick of his wrist, a streak of white light flew out from the storage bag at his waist. After the light faded, it transformed into a white skeleton and landed on the ground in front of him.

"Spirit Transfer Technique! That old guy used this technique to control this skeleton back then." Du Fan's eyes flashed wildly as he muttered to himself.

While still in the secret chamber at the bottom of Ten Mile Lake, within Du Fan's primordial spirit space, he had devoured eight or nine tenths of the soul of that Guo family ancestor, which contained many of the other party's mixed memories.

Although the final Golden Core cultivator suddenly self-destructed, leaving Du Fan with mostly incomplete memories and fragmented supernatural abilities and techniques, the Soul Transfer Technique, a secret technique of the soul, was preserved intact, whether due to the cultivator's negligence or divine intervention.

"The essence of the Spirit Transfer Technique lies in forcing one's own soul out and possessing other spiritual objects to achieve control or other purposes..." Du Fan closed his eyes and pondered for a while, and the relevant information about the Spirit Transfer Technique was understood by him and became a part of his own memory.

"Besides controlling this skeleton to fight, the Guo family ancestor did this for an even more important reason: the Spirit Transfer Technique... could grant him immortality!" A moment later, Du Fan's pupils suddenly contracted, his breathing became rapid, and he murmured in a trembling voice.

"No, immortality is a bit of an exaggeration, but it can definitely extend lifespan..." After a long while, he let out a long breath and shook his head.

Du Fan narrowed his eyes slightly. Whether it was his scientific knowledge from his previous life or his cultivation concept in this life, there was a striking similarity in his understanding of the physical body and the soul: the physical body dies, but the soul does not perish!

If a cultivator is about to die, before his soul dissipates, he can temporarily possess an object. Once he finds a body that matches his soul, he can begin to possess it. In theory, this can lead to immortality.

However, this is not the case. The immortality of the soul is only relative. If the soul orb exists forever in the original body, then it can naturally be immortal.

However, when the soul orb is transplanted into another body, no matter how well the physical body matches the previous one, it is impossible for them to be completely identical. Therefore, at this time, the soul orb's soul power will be weakened due to the incompatibility of the primordial spirit space.

Of course, the idea that the soul is immortal has its own logic. Whether it is possession or parasitism, the power of the soul weakens only the elements such as consciousness and memories in the soul sphere; the soul itself does not disappear.

As time goes by endlessly, new memories and emotions will be born again in the soul.

However, the soul that contains new memories and emotions is no longer the same person as before.

This is what Du Fan understands as the immortality of the soul... what is immortal is merely the soul's physical form.

"This skeleton must be extraordinary, otherwise the soul orb would never be able to reside in it. The Spirit Transfer Technique... I can cultivate it." Du Fan took a deep breath, and soon, a resolute look appeared in his eyes.

In Du Fan's view, this technique was truly tailor-made for him. He possessed two soul orbs in his primordial spirit space, which allowed him to use the "Spirit Transfer Technique" to fight two against one when battling others.

Putting aside the profound nature of the Spirit Transfer Technique itself, the sheer toughness of this skeletal body is already terrifying, far surpassing Du Fan's current physical body and bones. Even without the skeletal body actively launching an attack, its defensive capabilities are exceptionally formidable.

Du Fan understood, of course, that this secret technique must have hidden dangers. His soul could not remain parasitically on this skeleton for long. Otherwise, the Guo family ancestor could have easily controlled the skeleton to leave the cave and find a suitable body. Why would he have to wait here in this dark place? The damage to the soul caused by the spirit parasitism technique must be considerable!

However, in critical moments when one's life is in danger, it is still necessary to use this technique as a trump card. As for ordinary-level battles, he doesn't need to use it.

In conclusion, it was ultimately not wrong for him to practice this kind of soul-related secret technique.

In the coming days, Du Fan's cultivation goals became very clear. He wasn't in a hurry to break through his cultivation level; first, he needed to master the "Spirit Transfer Technique" and the "Earth Escape Technique" in the shortest possible time.