Chapter 539 - Expansion All of the people from the five-kilometer-wide area were absorbed into the tribe inside the valley. Even the grey-robed old man accepted this and didn’t raise any thoughts of resisting. Even more people began to study the soul refining spell, and the grey-robed old man was very interested it. The tribe’s size increased greatly. Adding on the people that were just captured, the number of males in the tribe had increased to over 500. This could be considered a mid-sized tribe among the tribes around here. With so many people gathered in one spot, it became rather cramped inside and outside the valley, so Wang Lin placed down a new formation. This formation had restrictions as its base and included the power of the valley and the five kilometer formation. This new formation’s protection area was about 10 kilometers wide and thus solved the problem of space. Every new tribe needed a name. After Ouyang Hua asked many times, Wang Lin named it the Soul Refining Tribe. The center of the this new 10-kilometer-wide area was the valley. Everyone had moved out of the valley, and the valley was made into a restricted area that only Wang Lin could center. Unless they were called by Wang Lin, no one was allowed to enter. In addition to this, there were members of the Soul Refining Tribe standing at the entrance like guards. This valley became the symbol of the highest power in the tribe. Wang Lin, the one who lived there, was revered by everyone in the Soul Refining Tribe. Wang Lin’s rules still hadn’t changed. There were still only three methods to obtaining the chants after stage three. Everyone in the Soul Refining Tribe was spending all their time cultivating. Aside from the people on patrol, there was almost no one outside because everyone was cultivating inside their houses. The Soul Refining Tribe was completely different from all the other tribes in Demon Spirit Land; it looked more like a newly born cultivation sect. Wang Lin’s life became very peaceful, as he was the only person living inside the valley. All of the houses that were here before were removed by Wang Lin, and now this place was almost like the Celestial Realm. In this Celestial-Realm-like place, Wang Lin personally built a wooden house. This wooden house was very simple, but there was great dao within this simplicity. If a cultivator were to pass by, they would notice that although the size of each piece of wood was different, there was no difference in their weight. This wooden house was where Wang Lin lived. He sat in the lotus position inside the wooden house and silently cultivated. What he absorbed wasn’t celestial spiritual energy but demonic spiritual energy! Time slowly passed, and in the blink of an eye, winter came. The winter here wasn’t any different from outside. White snowflakes fell from the sky and the entire world became white. Wang Lin opened his eyes from his cultivation. When he walked out from the wooden house, he saw snow falling from the sky. He silently watched the snow fall and was completely immersed in it. Shortly after, Wang Lin raised his head and muttered to himself, “Two years now…” He had been in the Demon Spirit Land for almost two years. Once winter passes, it will be exactly two years. He raised his right hand and caught a snowflake. As the snowflake landed on his hand, a hint of coldness came from the snow before it melted in his hand and a sliver of demonic spiritual energy entered his palm. “Everything in the Demon Spirit Land contains demonic spiritual energy…” Wang Lin took a deep breath before sitting down and closing his eyes. Snowflakes slowly fell and landed on his body. The amount of snow falling gradually increased, and several hours later, Wang Lin turned into a snowman. He didn’t move at all as he absorbed the demonic spiritual energy inside the snowflakes. The demon crystal in his body had risen from rank 5 to rank 34! The higher the rank, the harder it is level it up. Rank 3 is the same as Foundation Establishment, and ten times that is Core Formation, and the next step is ten times more. The reason Wang Lin decided to absorb demonic spiritual energy was because it could be fused with celestial spiritual energy, meaning it could increase celestial spiritual energy. Although he had the 100 years worth of celestial jades, those were barely enough to get him to the late stage of Soul Transformation, and the amount needed to reach the Ascendant stage was beyond imagination. Therefore, if he wanted to raise his cultivation level, he would have to find other shortcuts. Changing demonic spiritual energy into celestial spiritual energy was one of the methods Wang Lin thought of. If Wang Lin could think of this, then others could think of it as well. Right now it all depended on who could absorb more demonic spiritual energy. In Wang Lin’s eyes, demonic spiritual energy was an alternative to celestial jades because it could help increase his cultivation level! In these two years of time, the Soul Refining Tribe continued to rise. As the need for the next chant increased more and more, people left the valley to train themselves. In addition to this, every month there would be teams that returned from attacking a smaller tribe. They would come back with captives and varying amounts of demon crystals. It is worth mentioning that the formations used to defend against the foreigners had almost no effect on the natives. The formations seemed to be built for defending against the Night of Demon Spirits and keeping foreigners outside. As time passed, the Soul Refining Tribe’s population continued to increase, and even the 10-kilometer-wide area seemed to not be enough. As a result, there was a need to expand the formation once more. Wang Lin used three days of time to study it and then increased the formation by another 10 kilometers. Now that the tribe had 20 kilometers of territory, it could be considered one of the most powerful tribes within several tens of thousands of kilometers! The increase in tribe members caused an increase in the amount of people that cultivated the soul refining spell. Wang Lin knew that the soul fragments in the soul flags needed to be nurtured many times for them to reach their full power. Instead of teaching these people how to nurture them, he opted to use the one-billion-soul soul flag to nurture the soul fragments. The soul flag expanded and then surrounded the sky of the 20-kilometer-wide area in black clouds. The moment the black clouds appeared, they immediately shocked everyone in the Soul Refining Tribe. Many tribe members rushed outside, and some of the more powerful people surrounded themselves in their soul flags in an attempt to fly up to see what was going on. “Release your soul fragments into the black clouds for a fixed amount of time every day. Doing so will make the soul fragments even stronger!” Wang Lin’s voice echoed in the 20-kilometer-wide area. The moment his voice was heard, every single tribe member knelt down on the ground. Their faces were filled with respect, and they were kneeling toward the valley Wang Lin was in. After the black cloud appeared, the soul fragments from the tribesmen were howling and moving within the black cloud all day long. The people of the Soul Refining Tribe got used to releasing their soul fragments to be nurtured inside the black cloud, and the black cloud became the unique symbol of the Soul Refining Tribe. Inside the Soul Refining Tribe, not everyone was cultivating the soul refining spell. Some of them couldn’t cultivate at all, so they could only be hunters to provide food for everyone. Thirteen was one of the hunters. After his cultivation was wasted, he never said another word; it was like he was mute. There was no longer any spirit in his body; it was as if he was just a moving corpse. Only late at night during his countless attempts to cultivate was there an emotion on his face. However, that emotion was endless pain and unwillingness. He refused to accept this. There were many people in the tribe that were at the fourth stage now, and there were many people with more than 10 soul flags. Many new geniuses had popped up and replaced Thirteen as the most powerful people under Ouyang Hua. All of this was constantly stabbing at his heart. It was because of this that whenever he went out to hunt, he would fight without a care for his life. As a result, he almost died many times. If it wasn’t for having his tribe members there to help, he would have already died. Some of the people that looked out for him knew of Thirteen’s original position in the tribe. When they saw him like this, they could only sigh in their hearts. On this day, Wang Lin was looking at a piece of wood in his hand. The piece of wood was completely black and gave off waves of demonic light. When one of the tribe members attacked a small tribe, they didn’t find any demon crystals. However, one tribe member found this piece of wood at the worship location of the enemy tribe, so he brought it back and gave it to Wang Lin. As he looked at it, he suddenly raised his head to look outside the valley, where he saw Ouyang Hua’s old figure. “Junior has a matter to discuss and wishes to speak with Ancestor!” The title of Ancestor came from everyone in the tribe. Since Wang Lin didn’t refuse, it could be said that he silently agreed. “Come in!” Wang Lin lowered his head to look at the piece of wood. Ouyang Hua entered the valley. He was holding someone in his arms. This person was covered in blood and his face was extremely pale. After quickly arriving next to Wang Lin, Ouyang Hua put the body to the side, knelt on the ground, and said, “Ancestor, when Thirteen was hunting, he met a rare demonic beast. By the time this old man noticed and rushed over, it was too late…” For all living things inside the Demon Spirit Land, once they gather enough demonic spiritual energy, they undergo a demonic change and their strength increases greatly. Wang Lin put down the piece of wood in his hand and raised his head to look at Thirteen. Thirteen looked a lot older than he did one year ago. Looking at him now, he didn’t look like a young man but an old man in his dying years. Wang Lin said, in a serious tone, “You can leave!” Ouyang Hua got up and respectfully left. After leaving the valley, he let out a sigh as he looked back at the valley and muttered, “Thirteen, it will all depend on your luck…” Wang Lin looked at Thirteen and began to ponder.