“Virtual Soul Battlefield,” Qin Ruqing murmured as she read the words.

So, this is the true Void Realm?

At the same time, the map made from four Celestial-level tokens, stored in her storage ring, seemed to twitch suddenly.

Qin Ruqing’s gaze shifted to a particular spot, and she squinted.

Before she could ponder the source of this pulling sensation, Qin Ruqing suddenly felt something like a membrane around her body dissipate.

She had the distinct feeling of being “exposed,” as if only now had she truly stepped into the Virtual Soul Battlefield.

A hot wind, mixed with an unknown stench, blew towards her.

It felt like bodies in a morgue, clustered together, being heated and baked.

The air was thick, damp, and foul, and then the door of the morgue suddenly opened.

Standing at the door, one would feel as though their head was enveloped by all the smells.

Qin Ruqing’s temples throbbed uncontrollably.

If it were just this, it would be manageable since cultivators could block their senses.

But the next moment, Qin Ruqing sensed a surge of chaotic malevolent intent.

The malevolent intent rose like towering waves, crashing over her head, instantly causing dizziness and suffocation.

Qin Ruqing bent forward, her temples bulging, her face losing color in an instant.

Taking a deep breath, Qin Ruqing calmly pressed her two fingers together.

Golden light emerged from her fingertips as she drew a talismanic seal on her forehead to stabilize her spirit.

At the same time, golden flames erupted around her, forming a protective barrier.

The suffocating feeling from the malevolent intent began to ease.

With a chance to catch her breath, Qin Ruqing immediately sat down cross-legged to expel the invading malice from her body.

After a while, she opened her eyes and frowned as she assessed the situation:

“No wonder the Hundred Clans Conference had a test in the Heart Soul Cave, and that test accounted for a significant portion of the score.”

From her recent experience, the Virtual Soul Battlefield was essentially an enhanced version of the Heart Soul Cave!

No, saying it’s just enhanced is an understatement; it’s more than ten times stronger!

If she had come here in her previous state, just that one moment could have risked her losing her mental control, or even slipping into madness.

“I don’t know if Third Sister and Qi Rong can handle this stage… No, they definitely can. Not only have I become stronger, but we all have. I can’t just make others believe in me; I have to believe in them too.” Qin Ruqing murmured as she stood up.

Suddenly, her brow twitched, and her gaze shifted to behind her.

She spun around and dodged an attack.

To her surprise, the skeletal figures that had previously appeared were now accompanied by two soul entities!

One of the souls was obviously humanoid, with a hollow chest, clearly pierced through before death, causing it to become a soul, and the wind was swirling through its heart.

The other soul was larger, on all fours, and was clearly beast-like.

Seeing the humanoid figure, Qin Ruqing recognized it as a human cultivator who had fought against demon beasts in the Virtual Soul Battlefield.

Just as she was about to clasp her hands in greeting and call out “Senior,” the “Senior” had already attacked her along with the demon soul.

Qin Ruqing’s eyelids twitched.

It turned out that this “senior” was not the one she expected!

She raised her hand and threw a small Golden Lotus out.

The beast’s soul body was large and was directly hit.

Qin Ruqing glanced at the elder with the leaking chest and, with her other hand, created a golden lotus to send him off in a friendly manner.

With the soul body disappearing, Qin Ruqing breathed a sigh of relief.

However, she didn’t let her guard down completely.

She examined her surroundings and placed two small lotus lanterns, one on each side of her head.

Feeling completely covered by the lanterns and with the negative thoughts fading away, Qin Ruqing relaxed her shoulders.

After the recent fight, she had sharply noticed the differences between the soul battlefield and the outside world.

It seemed that the “Gui Xu” (Return to Nothingness) space had a certain enhancing and consolidating effect on soul bodies.

It was similar to the heart-soul cave from the Hundred Clans Conference, where a love-struck soul body remained persistent due to some special means.

Oh, right, it was the Soul Source Stone. Qin Ruqing recalled that.

The love-struck soul was removed from the Void because it had a Soul Source Stone inside it, allowing the soul body to remain intact and not dissipate.

But for the recent man and beast, she didn’t sense the presence of any Soul Source Stones, indicating it was an unusual aspect of the Void space itself.

“Hm?” While still exploring the virtual soul battlefield, Qin Ruqing suddenly sensed something.

Her spiritual sense picked up two special threads.

She raised her hand, and the threads floated into her palm.

“This is… the power of rules?” Qin Ruqing exclaimed with surprise.

She had seen such threads before in the Hungry Ghost Path.

At that time, she had manipulated the power of rules in the Sin City and, with the help of her Dao Physique, saw a networked world.

Later, she learned that the threads forming the network were a visible form of the power of rules.

Now, in this Void Realm, she could see these rule threads directly without using her Dao Physique or manipulating the rules.

Qin Ruqing recalled Elder Song’s words, “Void Realm is probably the only place in the world where you can directly obtain the power of rules,” and understood what it meant to obtain them directly.

—Defeating the remaining soul bodies in the virtual soul battlefield grants a trace of rule power to the victor after the soul bodies dissipate.

Moreover… the rule power obtained in Vois Realm didn’t seem to require digestion or comprehension; it could be stored within the body like spiritual power and used at any time.

Qin Ruqing absentmindedly rubbed her stomach and marveled, “The rule power seems to dissolve immediately upon entry.”

The only drawback was that the rule power from Void Realm seemed somewhat mixed and not very pure, especially the part related to the beast, which gave Qin Ruqing an odd feeling after absorption.

It wasn’t uncomfortable or dangerous… just strange.

“Rules shouldn’t discriminate between people and beasts, right? Oh, I just absorbed it directly…” Qin Ruqing regretted a bit, but after sensing carefully, she found no issues.

“It should be fine. I’ll just be more cautious later.”

Qin Ruqing nodded to herself and looked at the dark red virtual soul battlefield with a completely different mindset now.

This was no ordinary sheep pen provided by the officials!

A place where one can openly harvest resources!

There’s no need to worry about excessive harvesting leading to a fatal consequence; whether it’s the sheep being over-sheared leading to danger, or the wool being held in hand causing trouble…

In summary, it’s effortless and carefree.

With this in mind, the battlefield’s air didn’t smell so bad, and the malevolent intent no longer felt so bothersome.

Qin Ruqing’s spirits instantly lifted as she activated her resource-harvesting mode.

“The rules of the Wasteland City are nowhere near enough. We’re also carrying the mission of rescuing the residents of the Sin City. To compete with those ancient powers, we need to gather more rules!”

Qin Ruqing declared confidently as she lifted her skirt and walked deeper into the battlefield.

In the dim, dark red world, her vibrant presence and light served as her source of illumination.

….

To the east of the Virtual Soul Battlefield, Tang Zifeng had summoned numerous scattered souls.

His figure darted rapidly among the souls, and a large clock-like artifact followed his movements.

It would occasionally rumble and snap shut, trapping several souls inside each time it fell.

Soon, the clock was filled with the screams of souls as they dissipated, and the power of the rules was automatically absorbed into Tang Zifeng’s body.

Naturally, some souls with better preservation of intelligence realized that the terrifying clock-shaped artifact was controlled by the black-haired youth floating in the air.

They attacked him but were blocked by the exceptionally hard clock walls.

The giant clock could merge and split flexibly.

The young man with indifferent eyes manipulated it with ease.

When the number of souls had been reduced by more than half, the young man’s calm eyes finally showed some fluctuation.

His lips slightly parted as he said, “It’s time.”

His fingers, marked with clear lines of an artificer, quickly formed a seal, causing the giant clock to expand rapidly.

It could actually grow larger!

The expansion was like a mountain collapsing, overshadowing the remaining souls.

The engravings on the clock’s surface began to glow with golden light, forming lotus flowers that either closed or bloomed.

When the last lotus pattern was outlined in golden light, the commotion inside the giant clock ceased entirely.

The youth, whose brows and eyes remained calm throughout, now held a mass of the power of the rules in his palm.