Chapter 18

Nie Li looks at the markings on the Nightmare Demon pot and redraws then on a paper. Usually, while writing any array, runes or inscriptions, the most important thing is the ink used to write them.

People use the blood of demon beasts to improve the inscriptions and to bear the power we supply to it.

Nie Li uses his own blood to draw any inscriptions or runes as his blood is better than any other demon beast.

He draws it and then studies the runes. Nie Li says to Asura "I don't feel any changes in the array after I drew it. I guess we have to test it out with a soul fragment." and pulls out another demon spirit.

Nie Li puts in the demon spirit and observed the spirit.

After it disintegrated, Nie Li says "This thing is interesting. It used the soul force of the demon spirit to break down the soul fragment."

"Then it is not a useful discovery." Asura said.

"That's why you should listen completely to what a person is saying." Nie Li said.

"Continue then." Asura said.

"The pot used the soul force to decompose the soul fragment. But, the soul fragment decomposed into a new energy." Nie Li said.

"Oh! Now that's a good thing to know. Now, how do you plan on using this?" Asura asked.

"I can't even see the color of the new energy. The only way I figured out that it's energy is by using soul force to detect what is happening.

The runes is also changing that energy into that golden fog. This pot will be useful in the future. I will use this runes too." Nie Li said.

"Are you going to refine demon spirits now?" Asura asked.

"It is similar to that. Remember when I told you that I would get you a friend. I am going to use this pot in a different way.

Instead of using it to defeat each other and survive, we can merge them and create a new demon spirit. Since we are also going to merge them, even their soul fragments are going to merge and turn into a new soul." Nie Li said.

"I still don't understand the concept of this soul and soul fragments. It is a mysterious concept." Asura says.

"it is something that is difficult to understand until you become a god or an angel. The only thing I know is that soul fragments are part of a soul and can adapt to the changes of the body and the surroundings." Nie Li said.

"So, are you sure that you will be able to create a new soul?" Asura asked.

"All we can do is try and rectify the mistakes we made in the previous trial till we get the result." Nie Li said and added two demon spirits into the pot.

He made some hand signs and channeled his soul force into the pot. The runes in the pot activated and instead of absorbing the soul force of the demon spirit, it used the unknown energy it got from the decomposed soul and tried to merge the soul forces together with their soul fragments.

The soul force of the demon spirits had different colors. The soul forces of the two demon spirits tried to merge but were immediately separated again.

The soul force of the spirits tried to merge several times and then at the end, the soul fragment disintegrated and the energy was absorbed by the pot.

Nie Li experimented with many demon spirits and after repeated trials, he managed to merge a fanged panda with a horned sheep, which were both bronze rank and don't have any special types.

He continued his experiments and got another 5 demon spirits. Nie Li gets tired and lies down on the floor. "I finally managed to learn about this pot after wasting 600 demon spirits and now I feel this pot is amazing now." Nie Li said.

"What did you figure out?" Asura asked.

"What work do you have other than reading my memories and observing the outside world?" Nie LI replied with a question.

"I also have things to think about. Explain if you want to or else, shut up." Asura said.

"Then listen to the discovery of this expert. I first discovered that the level of the soul forces should be equal. Only the demon spirits of the same rank can merge.

The second thing I discovered is that the demon spirits have soul forces with each a different properties. The demon spirits with fire abilities have red soul force and the lightning ones have yellow soul force.

The third thing is that the properties of the demon spirits need to cooperate with each other. Demon spirits should have same properties or opposite. For example, if one demon spirit has fire properties, the other one should have either fire or water abilities.

The fourth discovery is that the number of demon spirits matters. When I tried to merge two demon spirits, it happened. You can increase the number till 10 but, as the number increases, the amount of soul force I need to provide also increases exponentially.

The last thing is that, with a little more soul force provided, I can alter the shape of the soul fragment. With this, the resulting demon spirit doesn't need to have the same looks as the existing ones." Nie Li explained.

"Good good. Continue refining." Asura said.

"Can't even appreciate me a little." Nie Li said and rested for a while to recover his soul force.

After one hour, Nie Li got up again and made a small cut on his finger. He collected the blood and made some hand signs.

His blood turned into some letters and patterns on the ground and started crawling on his skin.

They covered his whole body. Nie Li's body now had those weird patterns and letters all over his body.

Nie Li made some other hand signs and the patterns disappeared.

"What was that?" Asura asked.

"I used the runes from that coffin in the Ancient Orchid city and drew them in my body. I wanted to do this long back and was working on the changes needed to use the collected energy. I need extra energy to refine properly." Nie Li replied.

Asura didn't say anything else and became quiet. Nie Li also decided to ignore him and get back to refining demon spirits.

The bag Nie Li received from the God provided him with endless supply of demon spirits.

Nie Li stayed in the room for 3 days and nights continuously, resting and refining all the time.

The third night, Nie Li shouts "I finally did it. This took longer than expected."

Asura asked "Took you long enough. What does the demon spirit look like?"

Nie Li smirks and said "This guy is the strongest demon spirit to ever exist. I struggled and fused all the properties of every demon spirit in existence.

I doubt I can draw out its full potential anytime soon. Look at its appearance yourself."

Asura focused at the demon crystal and was astonished. "Just the power emanating from it is beyond any being we met till now.You sure are a crazy bastard."

Asura looked at the demon spirit. It was a golden Dragon with golden scales and the body was black with white, red and blue dots on the black part, looking similar to a galaxy. The color of its soul force is white.

"The dragon bloodline is strong and it managed to dominate the others. That's why it has the features of a dragon." Nie Li said.

"Then what are you waiting for? Absorb it into your soul realm." Asura said.

"Let me rest for sometime. I used all my soul force to refine this. I need a lot of soul force to absorb it and subdue it." Nie Li said.

"Ok. Will you refine more and absorb more demon spirits?" Asura asked.

"No. At first I thought that more demon spirits would be beneficial so I designed my technique to allow multiple demon spirits but, I changed my mind after I managed to refine this guy.

I think that this guy is more than enough to grow stronger." Nie Li said.

"But, don't the demon spirits increase the cultivator's strength? So, wouldn't it be better to have more?" Asura asked.

"This demon spirit has a growth rate beyond the God level growth rate. That means, it can improve my cultivation all by itself. It alone is equal to 10 demon spirits of God level growth rate.

Sure, it would be better to have more like these but, the demon spirits help by growing stronger. I can't train two demon spirits at a time. If I train one and move to another, it will take years as this has abilities even I don't know.

I will think of another demon spirit only after I learn all of his abilities." Nie Li explained.

"You have recovered now right? Start absorbing it. I am waiting to see how you struggle with it." Asura said.

"We will see whether I suffer or not." Nie Li said and placed the soul crystal in front of him and formed some signs with his hands.

The demon spirit came out of the crystal and entered the soul realm of Nie Li. The soul crystal immediately broke. It was barely able to hold the demon spirit till then.

The demon spirit entered the soul realm of Nie Li.

Nie Li had a pained expression as he was trying to supress the pressure of the demon spirit.

The pressure from the demon spirit was too much even for Nie Li. He used his own pressure and also all his soul force to resist it.

After struggling for a while, both their pressure were equal and cancelled out each other. Nie Li was already tired at that point. He didn't expect the demon spirit to oppose this much.

The dragon opened its mouth and started sucking the soul force inside his soul realm. In just a few moments, all the soul force in the soul realm was sucked dry.

The dragon didn't stop there. It kept sucking more and the energy from Nie Li's source was also being absorbed.

"Shit! This is bad. If all the energy if my soul is taken, then my soul will be very vulnerable and even a little energy from any being can disintegrate my soul." Nie Li said.

"What were you thinking when you were refining this thing? It has the same presense as that of an angel." Asura said.

"Don't just talk. Come help me here." Nie Li said.

Asura also appeared in Nie Li's soul realm. Asura's bodybis similar to that of a demon spirit. It is composed of a soul fragment of Nie Li and his energy.

Asura opens its mouth and sucks in the demon spirit.