678 Nascent Sword Soul, Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm!

Feeling the pain spreading throughout his soul as his two domains were getting closer and closer to merging together into a single domain, Xuan Hao focused all his attention on trying to stabilize his soul to make sure it didn't end getting damaged by the pressure brought along by his two domains merging together.

Opening his eyes after having momentarily stabilizing his situation, Xuan Hao looked around himself with a thoughtful expression on his face.

How do I increase the strength of my soul enough for it to be able to handle the merger between my two domains in such a short period of time...? Perhaps...

Glancing around at the swords stuck in the ground all around him and the sword qi floating around in the air, Xuan Hao suddenly narrowed his eyes as he remembered that the next level of sword intent was related to the soul.

Even though he did not know much about the realm that came after reaching the True Sword Intent Realm other than the fact that it was named the Sword Soul Realm, he was currently located inside the enlightenment space for the Dao of the Sword...

I should give it a try...

Not seeing any other way out that could possibly increase the strength of his soul, Xuan Hao adjusted his sitting position before closing his eyes to try and see if he could truly gain any insights regarding the Sword Soul Realm that he had never come in contact with before...

Like this, time slowly passed with Xuan Hao trying his utmost to understand the Sword Soul Realm that came after the True Sword Intent Realm.

Even if he had no clue about what the Sword Soul Realm was before, the enlightenment space created by the system was after all for the Dao of the Sword and although the sword intent and sword domain belonged to two different branches of the Dao of the Sword, they were ultimately still a part of it... And because of this, Xuan Hao did not take long to gain a rudimentary understanding of the Sword Soul Realm!

...

To understand the Sword Soul Realm in full is really impossible in such a short period of time ...

Shaking his head as he thought about this to himself, Xuan Hao looked up towards the screen from the system to see how much time he had left before he would be sent out from the enlightenment space related to the Dao of the Sword.

[Dao of the Sword, Enlightenment Space: 4 Minutes Left]

"Although not a lot of time, I should be able to condense a nascent sword soul and increase the strength of my soul!" Muttering this to himself, Xuan Hao didn't waste any time as he directly closed his eyes before starting the process of condensing a nascent sword soul.

Condensing the nascent sword soul would increase the strength of the soul and could be considered to be the first step towards reaching the Sword Soul Realm.

Given that he didn't really have any more time left and was in rather urgent need of increasing the strength of his soul to be capable of fully merging with his new domain without getting destroyed, Xuan Hao didn't have time to deduce any more information on the Sword Soul Realm outside of how to condense the nascent sword soul.

Whoosh-!

Not wasting any time and knowing what to do, Xuan Hao forcefully pulled out the sword intent that was merged together with his sword domain before condensing it into a small sword shaped object inside his dantian.

If not for the fact that both his ice domain and sword domain were currently in a chaotic state due to them merging together with each other. Extracting the sword intent that had already merged together with his sword domain would have been close to impossible before this without forcefully destroying his own domain.

Luckily, given the current state of things, extracting his sword intent from his sword domain did not cause any damage to sword domain outside of weakening it.

WHOOSH-!

However, in the end, this weakening of his sword domain only ended up bringing it back on the same level as the ice domain. Making the two domains start merging together even faster than before...

"..."

Not paying any attention to the chaotic situation caused inside his dantian as his two domains merged together with each other at an even faster speed compared to before, Xuan Hao carefully connected the nascent sword soul formed from the condensation of his sword intent to his soul.

Bang!

The moment the connect between the nascent sword soul and his soul was officially established, Xuan Hao instantly felt a wave of power rushing through him as the strength of his soul rapidly started improving to a level far beyond what he had thought possible for the Domain Lord Realm.

Not only this, but the pain to his soul brought along by his new domain slowly forming as the sword and ice domain got closer and closer to perfectly merging together also disappeared.

At this point in time, Xuan Hao could be considered to have reached the Nascent Sword Soul Realm.

Not truly having reached the Sword Soul Realm, but already having surpassed the True Sword Intent Realm... A transitional realm between the True Sword Intent Realm and the Sword Soul Realm.

"This is... The situation inside my dantian is really... Bad..."

Having strengthened his soul and dealt with the problem brought along by his two domains merging together, Xuan Hao could not help frowning upon discovering the current state of his dantian.

If not for the fact that he had already reached the Eighth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm and his survivability had reached a far higher level compared to other Domain Lords, Xuan Hao did not doubt that the damage caused by his two domains merging together would have ended up killing him!

Even considering the fact that he had survived so far, Xuan Hao was certain that it would at least take him a few weeks if not months to recover from the damage done to his dantian.

And... Given that he required his dantian when it came to fighting, it would be quite impossible for him to fight anyone above the Nascent Soul Realm during this period of time...

On the positive side of things, the damage caused by the two domains merging together had forcefully made it expand and at the same time forced him to breakthrough to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

Even if it was not the kind of breakthrough Xuan Hao had expected, he was more than satisfied upon realizing that he had actually unknowingly broken through to the Ninth Stage of the Domain Lord Realm.

BOOOOOOM-!

Just at this moment, Xuan Hao suddenly felt like a violent explosion went off inside his dantian, further damaging it...

"They finally finished merging together!"

However, Xuan Hao did not care about the extra damage to his dantian, as he was instead far more focused on the origin of the violent eruption of energy inside his dantian... His two domains successfully merging together to form a brand-new domain!

Whoosh~

Using the limited space available to him inside the enlightenment space, Xuan Hao excitedly used the last bit of energy left inside his half destroyed dantian to try out his new domain.

"So... This is my new domain...?"

Seeing an almost completely transparent domain unfurling around him, Xuan Hao could not help smiling wryly for a short moment before a happy expression replaced it.

Outside of the fact that he could not fully use his domain due to the current abysmal state of his dantian, he could clearly feel the ice-cold qi belonging to his ice domain and at the same time he could also very clearly feel the sharp sword qi belonging to his sword domain.

If he wanted to use the Descend of the Ice God's Sword that he had used to kill the demonic cultivator, it would only take a single thought to merge the two different powers together with each other.

Although... The energy consumption from using the Descend of the Ice God's Sword would still limit its usage. Unless absolutely necessary, it was definitely not a good idea to use such a powerful attack that would drain almost all of his strength...

Whish~

"Hah... Indeed... I can't fully use my domain now due to the current state of my dantian..."

Feeling the domain around him fading as he was reminded about the current state of his dantian, Xuan Hao could not help shaking his head before catching sight of the screen floating in the air indicating the time, he had left inside the enlightenment space.

Although condensing his nascent sword soul and the merger between his two domains felt like they took hours, they didn't take more than a few minutes in total.

[Dao of the Sword, Enlightenment Space: 19 Seconds Left]

Hm? Now that I think about it... I spent 20 minutes inside the enlightenment space for the Dao of Ice and 20 minutes inside the enlightenment space for the Dao of the Sword... I should still have 20 minutes left!

I wonder... What would the last enlightenment space b-

Whoosh-!

Not having a chance to finish his train of thought, Xuan Hao suddenly felt the familiar sensation of everything around him changing as he was moved to a new enlightenment space...