When choosing a Soul Suppressing Secret Technique, in the end you have to consider an issue of proficiency, because once you choose a certain soul skill as the foundation, your future cultivation is nothing but constantly reenacting that soul skill, casting it again and again, stacking it endlessly, so that the Soul Suppressing Secret Technique grows stronger and stronger.

If you’re not proficient enough, if just using a single soul skill takes a long time and might even fail, then there’s naturally no point talking about cultivation efficiency.

Just from this reason alone, Lu Ye could only choose the divine runes on the Talent Tree, because he could construct those divine runes in a single thought, which would be of enormous help to cultivating the Soul Suppressing Secret Technique.

But Xuyuan kindly suggested he take a trip to the Hero Souls Forest; he certainly couldn’t refuse, and just treated it as going to broaden his horizons.

He had only just agreed when Xuyuan suddenly flashed to stand in front of him, raised a finger and tapped toward his forehead, while his voice sounded by Lu Ye’s ear: "Don’t move!"

Lu Ye stayed perfectly still.

With that tap, Lu Ye suddenly felt his whole being float, retreating a few steps backward; when he lifted his eyes again, he saw in front of him a figure sitting cross‑legged, dressed in a way that looked extremely familiar, with a familiar long saber hanging at its waist.

That was actually his own physical body.

Only now did Lu Ye belatedly realize that his psyche had already left his body; the one standing here was his soul body.

"The Hero Souls Forest can only be entered by the soul body; a body of flesh and blood cannot enter." Xuyuan added an explanation, then reminded him: "You’ve just advanced to Sun Blaze, so outside you mustn’t casually let your psyche leave your body."

"I understand." Lu Ye nodded. He certainly knew this taboo. He had never tried letting his psyche leave his body before, because it was far too risky: during that time, his body would have no protection at all, and the soul body itself might encounter various dangers.

Compared to the physical body, the soul body was incomparably fragile in many situations.

But this was the Soul Race ancestral land, so there was no problem.

Moreover, at this moment, perceiving the surrounding environment purely with his soul body, Lu Ye even felt like a fish in water; by comparison, the sensations from his physical body earlier now felt like taking a bath in water while still wearing clothes.

Lu Ye really had never noticed these differences before...

Xuyuan raised his hand and pointed again; a wisp of spirit light appeared and floated off into the distance. "Follow it, go."

Lu Ye glanced at it and hurriedly chased after.

The spirit light was very fast, shuttling through the ancestral land space, passing one Lotus Land after another. Not until half a day later did a vast area of towering stone pillars appear ahead.

Those stone pillars of varying heights clustered together to form a massive stone forest. When the spirit light reached this place, it suddenly vanished. Lu Ye understood in his heart that this should be the Hero Souls Forest, the burial ground of the Soul Race Sun Blaze cultivators.

Lu Ye didn’t hesitate and dove straight in.

The Hero Souls Forest was shrouded in extremely dense Mist. Entering it was like falling into a thick cloud layer. The Mist wasn’t real Mist, but condensed, pure Soul Power that Lu Ye could easily absorb and refine.

This place was truly a holy land for cultivating the psyche, far better than the environment of an ordinary Lotus Land. Even the seven‑color Lotus Land where the stellar space pond was located was far inferior.

Lu Ye curiously looked around, when a sudden change occurred. Not far away, light flashed and a surge of Soul Power erupted, vast and overwhelming.

Lu Ye hastily turned his head to look, only to see a huge hammer appear out of thin air over there, smashing straight down at him.

This caught him completely off guard. Lu Ye hurriedly tried to dodge, but as that great hammer descended, it actually had the effect of sealing his psyche. His entire soul body felt like it had encountered its nemesis and couldn’t move at all.

Lu Ye was greatly shocked. Feeling the power of this blow, he knew he couldn’t resist it, and in his haste he tried to construct Sacred Guard to protect himself, yet not only was his Soul Power circulating extremely sluggishly, he couldn’t construct the Sacred Guard Spirit Runes at all.

His face darkened as he belatedly realized that he had come here with his soul body, while his physical body was still back with Xuyuan. The Talent Tree hadn’t come along, so how could he construct any Sacred Guard?

Watching helplessly as that huge hammer slammed down, Lu Ye’s head immediately spun and his vision went dark.

It took quite a while before he recovered, and to his surprise, after that blow he actually hadn’t suffered much damage. His psyche hurt somewhat, but his soul body was already refining the surrounding Mist to mend itself; it wouldn’t take long to fully recover.

Xuyuan... hadn’t told him everything!

The power of that hammer just now was entirely a strike from a Peak Sun Blaze expert. A blow like that was something he absolutely couldn’t withstand. Taking it head‑on should at least have left his psyche heavily wounded, if not shattered his soul body outright.

Yet now it was only a minor injury...

Lu Ye slowly caught on. The soul skills preserved in this Hero Souls Forest wouldn’t truly kill the Soul Race juniors, otherwise every new Sun Blaze of the Soul Race who came here would die one after another.

The Soul Race Sun Blaze who had passed away had left the soul skills they cultivated here to benefit their juniors, not to create a slaughter.

Once he understood this, Lu Ye’s heart settled slightly, and he turned to look to the side.

Not far away there was a point of light, floating up and down in the Mist. The hammer‑like soul skill from just now had burst forth from that light point.

And after taking that hit, Lu Ye even had a faint realization, sensing some of the subtleties of that soul skill. He even had a feeling that if he could come into direct contact with that light point, he should be able to grasp the cultivation technique of this soul skill through Insight!

Just as he was thinking this, the light point flickered slightly. Soul Power surged, and an identical huge hammer once again smashed down on his head!

Again?

Lu Ye was startled. This time he had been on guard and finally felt he had some room to dodge—that was how it felt to him, but in reality he still couldn’t avoid it.

His soul body was injured once more, pain coursing through him. Lu Ye bared his teeth in a grimace and quickly distanced himself from that light point. That hammer-like soul skill was powerful, but it wasn’t suitable for him.

He had barely gone far when, in the Mist to the side, another speck of light appeared.

Lu Ye suddenly felt something was wrong.

Sure enough, almost the instant he noticed this light point, a soul skill erupted from within it, turning into a gigantic spear-like arrow that tore through the void, shot into Lu Ye’s soul body, then flew back again.

This strike was in no way weaker than the hammer from before; it was fully capable of piercing straight through Lu Ye’s soul body. Yet it merely wounded him...

That same feeling from before rose again in Lu Ye’s heart: if he could touch that light point, he could glimpse the cultivation secrets of this soul skill.

Time passed as Lu Ye roamed ceaselessly through this Hero Souls Forest, his soul body cycling between injury and recovery.

He’d discovered a pattern: as long as he stood atop a stone pillar, those light points would not erupt with soul skills to attack him; but once he left the pillar, if there was a light point nearby, he would inevitably be attacked.

In just half a day, Lu Ye’s horizons were broadened. He finally witnessed what kind of treasures the Soul Race forebears of all past generations had left behind in this Hero Souls Forest.

Those myriad wondrous soul skills were all the proud masterpieces of each departed Sun Blaze. Most of the attacks were ones Lu Ye simply could not withstand—this was clearly a gap in cultivation. A small portion he could barely block, but in the end he still couldn’t avoid being knocked back.

Any one soul skill erupting in this entire Hero Souls Forest possessed unimaginable might.

After suffering quite a bit, Lu Ye examined himself to see if there was any power he could borrow. Relying solely on his current attainments in psyche cultivation, touching these light points would be extremely difficult.

Right now his soul body had entered this Hero Souls Forest, so the Talent Tree could not be used. What he could rely on was only his own psyche and things related to his psyche.

In the previous battle, the Soul Suppressing Pagoda had shattered, and the Soul-calming Bell had been damaged. Aside from these two soul treasures, what he could rely on was the seven-color Divine Lotus.

When the psyche leaves the body, everything in the Divine Sea merges into the soul body, and the seven-color Divine Lotus was no exception.

But the seven-color Divine Lotus didn’t seem to be of much help in the current situation—or rather, its help was passive. The reason those soul skills only caused him minor injuries instead of killing him was precisely because of the protection of the seven-color Divine Lotus. The soul skills left behind by the Soul Race forebears sensed the aura of the seven-color Divine Lotus and judged him to be a descendant of the Soul Race.

Other than that, there seemed to be nothing else...

No, that’s not right!

Lu Ye suddenly remembered something he had long forgotten. Because that thing usually did not show itself and only existed as a mark within his Divine Sea, Lu Ye had almost forgotten about it.

It wasn’t until he carefully examined his soul body at this moment that he suddenly discovered it.

The Ghost Ship’s imprint!

This was the benefit he had obtained back when he had just entered Constellation, when he explored the Ghost Ship and passed the Ghost Ship’s trial, and it had played a crucial role several times.

But ever since he obtained the seven-color Divine Lotus to guard his psyche, this imprint had gradually faded from his sight, because when it came to protecting his psyche, the radiance of the seven-color Divine Lotus seemed far more powerful.

It was indeed an imprint, but strictly speaking, it was also a soul skill, a soul skill the Ghost Ship had bestowed upon him.

Realizing this, Lu Ye’s expression began to change.

With his current breadth of knowledge and experience, he was far from the ignorant youth he had been back then. He certainly understood now how terrifying the Ghost Ship was; if he had known the Ghost Ship’s true nature at the time, he would never have barged into it so rashly.

Because that thing is a stellar space supreme treasure!

An imprint bestowed by a stellar space supreme treasure was, in a sense, an affiliated treasure. It’s just that this affiliated treasure was somewhat different from ordinary ones: the strength it could display was directly tied to Lu Ye’s psyche cultivation.

If he were to... take the Ghost Ship’s imprint as the foundation and forge his own Soul Suppressing Secret Technique?

There weren’t many options on the Talent Tree. The Fire Phoenix Divine Runes was the best choice, but it was purely offensive and lacked defense—that was its one flaw.

But the Ghost Ship was different; that thing was both offense and defense in one. Back when he first met Lih Shang, in order to break free of his control, Lih Shang had launched a soul battle against him, only to be ruthlessly taught a lesson when Lu Ye drove the Ghost Ship.

Lu Ye remembered that vividly...

As for its cultivation difficulty, although the Ghost Ship’s imprint wasn’t a spirit runes from the Talent Tree, Lu Ye didn’t find it hard to activate this soul skill—it merely required a huge expenditure of Soul Power.

But once he succeeded in cultivating it, this would definitely be the most top-tier Soul Suppressing Secret Technique.

Lu Ye’s eyes gradually brightened. He finally knew what choice he should make.