Nightmare's Call

Chapter 403: Breakthrough: Part 2

In reality, the Palatinates of the Darkside Realm had not much choice. The only Rimtide they could choose was the Eventide.

The Eventide was, in fact, a sea of dark power, and was only suitable for those who practiced dark powers. That led to only those wielding dark powers to ascend to the level of the Palatinates in this world.

It was not that other systems were beyond reach, rather, humans only mastered the location of one, the Eventide.

However, Lin Sheng was different.

The Rimtide that he had identified and mastered, was a much more powerful Soultide.

At that moment, he had accelerated to a terrifying limit. This was the very limit of the soul, and any faster, his soul would collapse upon itself due to the pressure.

He maintained that extreme speed for a good ten minutes, and finally Lin Sheng felt like he had just blasted out of midsummer straight into a cool sea.

His body was parched, and just as he felt like he was about to ignite in flames, he suddenly crashed into a vast, cool, and clear ocean.

The sensation was beyond words.

He tried to activate his spiritual senses to see what his surrounding was like. How would a Rimtide like the Soultide look like?

There were no records of this by the dark spirits, and that piqued Lin Sheng’s interest.

Not long after, the holy power within Lin Sheng started to roil. The moment the three powers burnt out, the holy powers within him still had power and kept on burning, generating a faint strength that held Lin Sheng on.

At the same time, it also allowed him to ‘see’ his surroundings. He was floating in the middle of a vast, azure sea.

Beneath him were countless densely packed vents not unlike a honeycomb, and white smoke was vented out from time to time.

All around him, be it his direct front, back, left or right, all four sides each had an elliptical channel glowing in silver light. A massive amount of the seawater was being gorged upon the channels.

“No... this is not seawater!” Lin Sheng suddenly realized. “This seawater-like liquid... These are actually souls!”

“To have this amount of souls... Unbelievable!” Seems like I have succeeded in opening the Tidal Gate and connected to the Soultide??!”

Lin Sheng was elated.

The so-called opening of the Tidal Gate was actually a test if one’s life could withstand the extreme speed and persist until they find a Rimtide.

Most lives would never be able to withstand such a large consumption of lifeforce.

They would simply disintegrate along the path as their souls turned to dust and completely disappeared.

It was only due to Lin Sheng having consumed so much soul, and had trained his holy powers to condense the pure power of souls that he survived this harrowing experience.

“Then, after entering the Soultide, and based on the steps on the dark spirit tome, I need to create a permanent, personal Tidal Gate of my own to connect with the Tidal Gate deep in my soul.

“Both of the Tidal Gates will communicate with one another to form a permanent channel, only then I could call upon the support of the Soultide, and truly step into the ranks of the Palatinates.

The method on how to establish the connection quickly flashed through Lin Sheng’s mind.

He pondered for a bit as he slowly moved toward the edge, changed into a different position before holding his hand out.

At that moment, he was shapeless, but he had imagined himself to still bear the human form, and so that’s why he took on said form.

At the same time, a piece of flesh automatically detached from the back of his hand, and under Lin Sheng’s control floated into the sea of souls.

“First I need to leave a marker, and choose a part of my soul as part of the necessary price.”

Lin Sheng was calm.

“Next it was to use my inner strength to establish the revolving ritual.”

The Revolving Ritual was a necessary step to step into the realm of the Palatinates.

It was a special ritual used to stabilize the communication between the Tidal Gates after entering the Rimtide.

Lin Sheng relied upon the burning holy power within his body as he controlled his finger and drew a faint red line around that detached spirit flesh.

These thin red lines constantly floated around the small piece of spirit flesh and formed into a simple elliptical ritual matrix. But this was only the first one as Lin Sheng continued to outline more and more thin lines. Soon, a second matrix was constructed on the opposite side of the first spirit flesh. Then came the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth...

The more connecting Tidal Gate ritual was construction, the bigger and stronger the Tidal Gate was.

Simultaneously, the amount of support he could get from the Soultide was more and more powerful.

Lin Sheng’s advantage in the titanic amount of souls he had was made manifest. As soon as the holy powers within him were exhausted, his own soul was used to sustain the ritual.

His soul was so tremendous that it was at least ten times larger than an ordinary Palatinate.

Most could only draw out one or two Tidal Gate rituals, but Lin Sheng drew fifty in a single go, and only rest after he had made it a round number, as he preserved some power to deal with any unexpected situations.

Fifty ritual matrixes surrounded the small spirit flesh and looked it they were wrapping it into a ball of light.

However, the surface of this ball of light was composed out of small red ritual matrixes.

“It’s time to go back now...” Lin Sheng heaved a sigh of relief as he looked around.

He had no idea if he could have a second chance to return to this mysterious Soultide.

This was the place were all souls dwelled, a veritable ocean of souls.

He had no idea what those four channels were as well. Perhaps he would look into it in the future if the opportunity presented itself.

As he thought of those, Lin Sheng relaxed the strength of the burning of his soul and allowed the power beneath him to draw him toward a channel that had been temporarily constructed.

There was a web of vast and wide honeycomb beneath him, and this was the various channels that connected to the Soultide.

Lin Sheng’s soul fell rapidly, seemingly descending without end.

The moment Lin Sheng’s soul was about to leave the Soultide and enter the channel, a strange impulse suddenly surged into Lin Sheng’s mind, and the impulse seemed to be asking something to the very core of his soul.

“Your wish...

“My wish?” Lin Sheng paused for a moment. “Safety, absolute safety!”

All of a sudden, that impulse disappeared as everything returned to calm.

Lin Sheng’s soul had been half-spent, as he started to accelerate downwards under the traction force as he made his way back.

The distance he had traveled was just too great, and if not for the strength of his soul, he probably would not have enough left to return.

It was difficult to go there, but returning was extremely easy. With a ritual matrix as a guide and a large number of subordinates as markers, Lin Sheng only took one-third of the time to return.

*Hah!*

Within the isolation chamber, Lin Sheng who was sitting inside a ritual matrix with a faint red light suddenly shuddered as a silver scar suddenly appeared at the back of his right hand.

The entire ritual slowly came to a stop, before shaking suddenly and ceased completely.

*Hiss...*

Green smoke was emitted from some points of the matrix as it was clearly at its last legs as the black orb above Lin Sheng’s head had already been exhausted who knows when ago.

Tenko Kasumi walked in from the isolation room door, as her crimson eyes looked at Lin Sheng in a burning gaze.

“Congratulations, you’ve made it!”

“Thank you.” Lin Sheng stood up and felt a little weak. “I’ve just had a breakthrough, and I need more time to reinforce it. I’ll only be able to make contact with the Tidal Gate after recovering.”

While he had already established stable Tidal Gates on both sides, but to open a channel between two Tidal Gates required a large amount of power in reserve.

With two points connected, though, Lin Sheng only needed to use a small amount of soul thread to cross over and link the two sides together.

The moment the two sides were linked, the Tidal Gate over on the Soultide would open for the first time, and the endless surge of soul power would flow down under the guidance of the soul thread and permanently open up the lengthy channel.

“Go and get some rest. We’ll test it out later.” Tenko Kasumi’s lips did not move as she spoke using soullink.

“Okay!”

Lin Sheng agreed readily.