After Evan Yang obtained the text linking written characters to spoken language, he memorized it in his room and finally understood the meaning of each symbol.
About a day later, Evan stepped out and returned to the place where cultivation manuals and ancient records were kept. The elderly gatekeeper smiled when he saw Evan arrive; Evan smiled back and went inside.
"He still came back?" the old man muttered to himself.
Evan had no idea what the old man was thinking. He walked in and found the place empty—perfect, he could focus on searching for what he wanted.
"Soul‑World." Evan’s mind was filled with searching for Soul‑World. Anything related to Soul‑World, he checked through one by one, and if he didn’t find what he wanted, he’d move on to the next book.
Of course, the old man noticed Evan’s actions. "Strange, is he flipping through books or actually reading them?"
Evan didn’t notice the old man watching him. All he wanted was to quickly find something about Soul‑World, so he ended up staying here for several days.
During these days, people often came by and noticed Evan. At first, seeing he was a newcomer, they didn’t pay much attention—after all, many who came here had been coming for a long time.
Everyone minded their own business, reading separately. Evan did the same, not interacting much with others. But what puzzled everyone was that, normally, you’d study a technique and then go back to cultivate, but Evan seemed to be searching for something every day.
Gradually, people here started to recognize Evan, since every time they came, they’d see this odd newcomer standing there, always searching for something.
Bella had come several times, and seeing Evan ignore her made her both angry and frustrated. She wanted to teach him a lesson more than once, but every time she remembered that doing so would ruin her own goals, so she had to hold back and just accompany Evan in reading.
But her ability to sit still was poor; after a short while she couldn’t take it and left. Evan remained alone, continuing his search. After half a month, he had flipped through everything on the first floor, but still found no way to leave the Soul‑World.
Evan could only helplessly turn his attention to the second floor. When no one was around, he prepared to head upstairs. Just then, a voice sounded from outside: "The second floor requires a certain level of strength. Otherwise, you’ll come out seriously injured. Are you sure you want to go up?"
It was the old man at the door. Evan smiled and said, "Yeah, I’d like to try."
After speaking, Evan walked toward the second floor. Passing through, he felt a force trying to push him out, but he quickly crossed the barrier and made it upstairs.
"He made it up." Evan smiled, then looked around the second floor, which was even smaller than the first, and had fewer books.
"Are these premium books?" Evan wondered to himself, and began searching.
At the entrance downstairs, the old man’s expression turned strange. "So he was hiding his strength. No wonder."
The second floor was much quieter; sometimes you wouldn’t see a single person for a month. Evan also noticed that the ancient texts here were much more complex than those on the first floor. If a book downstairs could be skimmed in a few hours, a second‑floor book might take several days.
Although there were fewer books on the second floor, the time spent reading increased.
Later, when Bella couldn’t find Evan, she felt strange and started coming by often, but still didn’t see him. She had no idea Evan was already on the second floor.
On the second floor, Evan continued searching for Soul‑World at first, but didn’t find anything. Instead, he discovered something that caught his interest.
"Soul Fortification Method." Evan was immediately drawn to this cultivation manual. It described how to strengthen the soul, making it tougher than ordinary people’s and harder to destroy.
The method was divided into ten levels. According to the book, if you mastered the tenth level, your soul would become undying—even if your physical body perished from old age, your soul would persist.
Seeing this, Evan was deeply attracted. As long as the soul was undying, reincarnation wouldn’t be a problem. So, Evan started studying it right there.
Day after day passed, and Evan didn’t even realize how deeply he was absorbed in the method.
A full half‑year went by before Evan closed the book.
He sighed, "Too bad, only nine levels—the tenth is missing."
On the last page, Evan saw that the tenth level had vanished. Legend said that, long ago, the Soul‑World changed, causing the final sections of some advanced books to disappear.
"Still, with these nine levels, my soul is already much stronger than most." Evan felt his soul was now very tough, but not yet undying—after all, he lacked the tenth level.
Evan wasn’t fully proficient in the first nine levels yet, so he needed to spend more time refining his soul.
Only when his soul could emit a black radiance would he achieve the optimal effect of the ninth level—like having armor wrapped around his soul, protecting it.
After calming down, Evan remembered the purpose of his visit and resumed searching for books related to Soul‑World.
But after several more months, he had gone through the entire second floor and still found nothing.
"Could it be on the third floor?" Evan could hardly believe it, but decided to try. As he moved from the second to the third floor, the repelling force grew even stronger.
At this point, Evan was basically wrestling with a powerful force. His whole body was changing. "Looks like my body’s recovery ability is still fast," he thought.
He noticed his Chaotic Soul‑Force was slowly draining away, and since he couldn’t replenish it in time, he grew frustrated, so he retreated to recover. Once his Chaotic Soul‑Force was restored, he tried again.
Repeating this cycle over and over, Evan finally made it to the third floor one day.
"Looks like the fourth floor is out of reach for now. I’ll leave it for the future and focus on the third floor." Evan knew there was still a fourth floor, but it wasn’t something he could just walk up to—the third floor had nearly stopped him already.
Evan wandered around the third floor and found the books even harder and more complex than those on the second.
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"Looks like it’ll take at least another half year." Evan sighed, then got to work.
About a month later, Evan found something he’d been searching for—a book with some information about the origin of Soul‑World.
"An independent space created by a super powerful soul cultivator whose soul never perished—Soul‑World." Evan was shocked. That meant the founder was incredibly strong, since this space wasn’t ordinary, but a realm for souls to live in. Everyone here was a solid soul entity.
Evan kept reading and found that, although the people of Soul‑World were souls, their personalities were very similar to living humans. After all, they had solid forms and could be straightforward, and so on.
"Why doesn’t it say how to open Soul‑World and leave?" Evan muttered after finishing the material.
He now knew the origin of Soul‑World, but not how to leave it. Evan was frustrated, but saw there were still some books he hadn’t read, so he continued.
A few months later, Evan closed the last book. He still hadn’t found a way to leave Soul‑World, but had learned a lot about it.
"Looks like I’ll have to ask some powerful experts. Searching on my own is just aimless." Evan sighed, and headed downstairs. The fourth floor was out of his reach for now.
Soon Evan arrived downstairs. The old man at the door saw him and said with a smile, "Not bad, not bad."
Evan felt a bit puzzled—the old man’s words sounded odd—but he smiled and greeted, "Senior."
"I thought you were new, but your Chaotic Soul‑Force is already equivalent to a fifth‑bar rank in Soul‑Heaven Palace." The old man smiled.
Evan realized he’d been seen through, but since the old man wasn’t blaming him, he smiled and said, "Senior, I have something I’d like to ask you."
"Oh? Go ahead." The old man was curious.
"Senior, how much do you know about Soul‑World?" Evan asked, smiling.
"Soul‑World? I was born here, so I know a lot. Why do you ask?" The old man didn’t understand why Evan was asking, thinking maybe the books had confused him.
Evan smiled, "I’m very interested in Soul‑World. What’s outside Soul‑World?" Actually, Evan wanted to say he came from outside, but held back since this was Soul‑Heaven Palace and he didn’t know what the consequences might be.
"Outside Soul‑World? Supposedly it’s another world, not something we can understand." The old man smiled.
Evan smiled, "Is there any way to get out?"
"Get out? That’s impossible." The old man smiled.
"Why?" Evan was shocked to hear it was impossible.
"Because we’re souls, and there’s a special zone between Soul‑World and the outside. To leave, you have to pass through that zone. Unless your soul cultivates to the legendary Undying Mirror, or you have a body—one that can supply energy." The old man explained.
Evan understood: to leave, you needed a body; to enter, you had to be an undying soul or a native soul.
That special zone must have been created by the founder to keep outsiders from coming in and to prevent insiders from leaving.
Thinking that he had a body gave Evan hope, but the tricky part was how to return to it.
"Senior, if you have a body, how do you get back into it?" Evan asked curiously.
"Why are you suddenly asking such strange questions?" The old man was curious.
"It’s nothing, I just want to know how a soul enters a body." Evan replied awkwardly.
"Well, you’d need to learn the Body‑Entry Art—a soul technique for entering a body. But the prerequisite is that the body must be empty of any soul, or else there could be backlash." the old man answered.
"Body‑Entry Art? Where can I find it?" Evan exclaimed.
"It’s a Soul‑Heaven Palace secret. Unless you reach the fourth floor, it’s only open there." The old man smiled.
Evan replied awkwardly, "That’s way too difficult."
"You made it to the second floor and spent so much time. When you can reach the third floor, then think about it." The old man smiled.