Chapter 169: The Transformation of an Elite Soul

When Gunei regained consciousness again, he was in a dazed and confused state.

Struggling to prop himself up, Gunei sat up on the meditation seat, then looked around blankly.

He raised his hands to look at them, then glanced at the dim secret chamber around him.

Gunei was stunned.

The luster of the night pearls in the corner was soft and not glaring.

That wasn't the point.

The point was that Gunei found he could see nothing else except the faint glow of the night pearls; everything else was pitch black.

His "dark vision" and "source power vision" had both disappeared entirely.

Moreover, Gunei felt an unusually poor control over his physical body; he couldn't even sense, let alone control, the source power and transcendent blood within him.

At this moment, Gunei was like an ordinary person who had completely lost his power.

"What... happened to me?" Gunei murmured groggily, his head feeling heavy.

For a spellcaster with a powerful soul,

he would normally become alert quickly after waking up, but today's state was far too strange.

Gunei felt as if he had lost his soul.

Soon, Gunei gradually calmed down; panic was not his habit.

Even in the face of major变故, Gunei still maintained inner composure.

Steadying his mind, he rubbed his face.

Gunei sat cross-legged in meditation.

With a settled mind, Gunei began to communicate with his soul.

As he communicated, he gradually felt a dormant power deep within his brain slowly reviving.

Then, his spiritual power began to emerge.

His perception became clear and sharp.

The pure source power, comparable to that of a fourth-rank caster, returned to his perception range.

The savage, domineering, bloodthirsty blood of the Death God Beast and the powerful feeling of a leader-level physical body once again manifested on Gunei's body.

Gunei clearly felt his powerful soul bursting forth at that moment.

Profound, vast, strong, and even a hint of an invincible aura burst forth from the depths of Gunei's soul, giving him an imposing soul deterrent that commanded respect without anger.

The powerful soul characteristics of a spellcaster were perfectly displayed on Gunei at this moment.

"My soul..." Gunei carefully sensed his awakening soul, and a smile gradually appeared on his face.

"It has finally ascended to 'elite level.'"

At this moment, in Gunei's meticulous observation,

the soul's intensity and capacity had not increased much.

But the soul's defense and load-bearing capacity had greatly enhanced. Super-sense and soul perception had both improved significantly.

If it were only that, Gunei would still find it hard to judge whether his soul had advanced to elite level.

But the unique "soul deterrent" made it clear to Gunei:

his soul had transformed to elite level.

Although this slight "soul deterrent" was not strong and had no practical effect in battle,

it was the hallmark of an elevated soul rank.

"When I woke up just now, my soul must have still been asleep."

"When a soul ascends from ordinary to elite, it falls into soul sleep. But this sleep is not caused by potions; it is caused by soul transformation. Once the transformation is complete, it naturally awakens."

"Let's see how much my load-bearing capacity has reached."

Gunei could feel that his soul had made significant progress with its transformation to elite rank.

But how much it had grown needed concrete testing.

The testing method was simple: condense the "Secret Crossing Rune."

"Previously, when I was in the middle of the second transcendent rank, I had already condensed ten Secret Crossing Runes."

"During that time, I advanced to the late second rank, then reincarnated back to the middle of the second transcendent rank."

"This single reincarnation alone could bring me the condensation of one or two Secret Crossing Runes."

"Secondly, the soul transcendent characteristics of us humans are inherently weak."

"With continuous consumption, I should have gone from ordinary to ordinary+1, then ordinary+2, and finally from ordinary+2 to elite level."

"This improvement is not small; it should at least increase the load-bearing capacity for two or even three 'Secret Crossing Runes.'"

With a calm and focused mind, Gunei began condensing Secret Crossing Runes within his body.

Having extensive experience in condensing Secret Crossing Runes, Gunei did so with ease.

The eleventh, succeeded.

...

The twelfth, succeeded.

...

The thirteenth, succeeded.

...

The fourteenth, succeeded.

Three or four hours later.

Gunei stopped condensing Secret Crossing Runes.

"The fourteenth was just right; the fifteenth is out of the question."

"Fourteen Secret Crossing Runes is already very good. This number is exactly the maximum for conventional high-level spells; even without a staff, I can instantly cast high-level spells."

"Instant high-level spells—the elite-level soul is truly formidable."

Feeling the Secret Crossing Runes in his mind, Gunei sighed softly.

Then Gunei began testing his soul's thought speed and single-second overlap.

After a moment, a very satisfying result emerged.

With the successful transformation to an elite-level soul, Gunei's single-second overlap increased from the previous 22 spells/second to 25 spells/second.

The further one goes, the harder it is to improve soul thought speed. This improvement was already quite considerable.

After testing and verifying his soul in many aspects, Gunei stopped exploring it.

"This time, after my soul transformation, every aspect has improved greatly."

"'Soul Dawn' is indeed a very satisfactory answer."

"Currently, it seems the upper limit of Soul Dawn is entering elite level."

"But for many transcendent spellcasters, that is a transformation of an entire tier."

"Previously, when human spellcasters faced snake demon spellcasters of the same rank, they would likely lose."

"But once a human spellcaster with an elite-level soul faces a snake demon spellcaster of the same rank, the snake demon will likely be the one to lose."

"After all, although the snake demon's soul transcendent characteristics are strong, they haven't reached the level of elite transformation."

"And for human spellcasters, if they are talented enough and backed by a major force, they can likely obtain enough secret pattern potions to advance to elite-level spellcasters."

"At the same time, other aspects of the soul's abilities can also be extended."

"Previously, my soul capacity had long reached saturation, but I could never take the step to become a domain caster."

"But after this transformation to elite level, I clearly felt that my soul seemed to have a sense of 'soul out-of-body.'"

"Obviously, the solid foundation of soul transcendent characteristics makes the birth of domain casters more likely."

"No wonder there are so few domain casters. On the other hand, when soul secret pattern potions become widespread, there should be some domain casters with peculiar souls born!"

"Also..."

Gunei slightly sensed his fourteen Secret Crossing Runes.

"My Secret Crossing Runes have unknowingly become so many."

"Then... I should prepare to condense the Repeating Rune and construct my secondary soul."

"Using my own soul to construct a secondary soul, although stable and without compatibility issues, this secondary soul will be as ordinary as my main soul—no soul talent, no special soul defense ability, and no special soul detection ability."

"But using the souls of powerful creatures to construct a 'secondary soul' is different."

"Absorbing the soul of a powerful soul creature as a secondary soul will grant my secondary soul many peculiar soul abilities of that powerful soul creature."

"The only downside is that a secondary soul constructed from another creature's soul may not perfectly align with my soul, and when it grows strong, it might even rebel against the main soul."

"But for me, one reincarnation should eliminate this side effect."

"So... what kind of peculiar creature's soul should I use as my secondary soul?"