The pursuit by the other souls lasted for about two days.

During that time Yin Na lost his pursuers by directing them into the path of other massive souls, or simply tiring them out until they lost interest.

After 48 hours, Yin Na finally relaxed as he saw only one remaining 10 li Soul orb still on his trail.

Yin Na stopped, hovering in empty space. The other Soul orb also stopped, almost within contact.

Yin Na began moving in a strangely erratic movement.

It was a pity that the common language was monosyllabic and written in pictographic and ideographic strokes. It made the movement much harder and longer to follow.

Yin Na had to keep constant awareness of the other 10 li Soul Orbs reaction, as well as the distance he was “writing” through his movement to maintain the language.

Through his movements, Yin Na conveyed appreciation and wisdom accumulated through centuries of devouring in this realm. Gratitude and appreciation that one Soul orb was his one single audience after having lost all his foundation.

“I know you are curious,” Yin Na thought. “Now I hope we can establish… communication!”

It took Yin Na about an hour to finish his message.

His dance read:

“You have questions, let us answer them. I am Yin Na, what’s your name?”

Yin Na awaited in anticipation for the Soul Orb to react. It had been patiently waiting, inert in space.

The Soul Orb began to move. With great joy, Yin Na saw that the Soul Orb was attempting his own dance!

Another hour passed for the Soul Orb to finish his message:

“I am Ouyang Fang. Why did you throw away your kingdom?”

If Yin Na’s soul had a mouth, it would be grinning from ear to ear.

“‘Kingdom?’ I like this man’s style.”

Yin Na danced another message:

“To meet like-minded people!”

The Soul Orb was motionless. But it was taken aback. A few breaths allotted before it began its dance in response:

“What do you mean?”

Yin Na danced back:

“Did you play Mahjong, too?”

The Soul Orb waited, before dancing a single character.

“Yes.”

Yin Na responded with excitement: “How many?”

The Soul Orb: “800. And you?”

Because they had no corporeal bodies, they felt no bodily fatigue. Their attention span was only limited by their willpower, and Yin Na and the other Soul orb danced nearly a whole day in banter.

“I was ten years old when father died. I’ve cultivated until Golden Core before death, the year was the 48th of Mu Dynasty.”

“I, too, cultivated until Core Formation, Dynasty of Yue 65th year. How did you get the brick?”

Yin Na lied: “By sheer chance, found stuck in the bottom of a river bed.”

“Who helped you?”

“Demon Lord Mao.”

“I do not know him.”

Yin Na thought, “Of course he wouldn’t. If I’m to believe that he was really from the legendary Yue dynasty, which is even more ancient than the Immemorial period when Demon Lord Mao lived, he wouldn’t have met him in the Mahjong area.”

Yin Na conversed with Ouyang Fang for the length of five days.

During these five days, Yin Na and Ouyang Fang danced back and forth, trading thousands of messages to learn about each other. They barely consumed the small light orbs left behind by the larger Soul orbs, because they knew that consuming them would increase their size and will lower their speed.

Through trading back messages in this lonely, brutal realm Ouyang Fang was beginning to feel a genuine appreciation and gratitude for Yin Na’s company.

Of course there were previous attempts to communicate within this realm, but none have ever lasted this long. Ouyang Feng’s character was also too trusting, back when he was alive, so he had little reason to doubt Yin Na’s fabricated words about his history and values.

Yin Na made Ouyang Fang feel like a fellow confidant, as well as a bond that was beginning to feel like a Dao brother.

It was pretty similar to how Yin Na won over Deng Ping, the cultivator he befriended and then backstabbed for the Jade Brick in the first place.

They’ve debated and talked about famous events in history, those that happened during and before the Legendary Yue dynasty as well as those that happened after his death up until Yin Na’s time period.

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In between sharing personal stories and opinions, Yin Na and Ouyang Feng also discussed strategies.

After Yin Na danced a particularly long dance describing the slow, but titanic Godlike nature of the Three Suns, Ouyang Fang’s mind was blown.

“So that’s what the world of 50,000 li souls are like!” Ouyang Fang thought, but instead he danced in response: “Beyond a mountain are other mountains.”

“Yes, therefore conventional means will never be able to allow one to take the place of one of the three Suns.”

“What can be done?”

Even though their dances took time and therefore forced every “sentence” they constructed to be concise, Yin Na still had to make sure that his intent was clear and free of doubt and suspicion

Yin Na had a solid grasp of Ouyang Fang’s values as well as his personality through the few weeks of interpreting his dances. He obtained the general feel of Ouyang Fang’s conviction as a Righteous cultivator, that of a simple soul who cherished benevolence and loyalty above all others. This was why he was forgiving and open-minded even to someone like him who openly declared himself as a Demonic cultivator.

Yin Na wanted to breed absolute loyalty into Ouyang Fang. The planned “narrow escape” adventures he underwent with Ouyang Fang successfully convinced him that Yin Na would sacrifice himself for Ouyang Fang’s life.

After two weeks of dancing back and forth, Yin Na and Ouyang Fang agreed upon absorbing light souls and consuming foes together. However, Yin Na would not devote his full skills or focus to these endeavors, as he was carefully maneuvering to actively put them in danger, such as in the path of 100 li-sized souls much bigger and threatening than them.

Yin Na saved Ouyang Fang’s life by making it seem like he let a split half of his 50 li soul be devoured in Ouyang Fang’s stead.

Ouyang Fang was thus converted into Yin Na’s loyal brother. They swore Dao brotherhood in this strange realm afterwards.

Yin Na then used Ouyang Fang to surround a smaller 50 li soul when they both reached 100 li-sized souls again.

Yin Na took this opportunity to split himself, having Ouyang Fang guard the other half while using his 50 li soul to dance to the other 50 li Soul orb on an equal level.

After a breath’s time, the other 50 li soul orb understood the method of communication, and began dancing back:

“You are working together?”

Both Yin Na and Ouyang Fang danced the single character: “Yes.”

They learned that this Soul Orb belonged to the cultivator named Zhou Fei. Zhou was a loner cultivator from the Chang dynasty, another ancient dynasty that was only two dynasties ahead of the Yue where Ouyang Feng was from.

But because of this small fact, Zhou Fei was wont to refer to Ouyang Feng as his “big brother.”

However, despite being from the latest dynasty and also the ‘youngest’ of them all, Yin Na was considered their leader and therefore the “Eldest brother.”

They spent many more months casually absorbing other light orbs and Soul orbs, but mostly prioritized sharing their life stories and opinions.

The bond between them, and most importantly, their trust and love for Yin Na deepened considerably.

After nearly a full year of consuming and devouring other souls, they observed a strange phenomenon within their Soul orbs.

Soul identification acquired!

Strangely, throughout the first three hundred years of accumulating souls, Yin Na had never obtained this ability. He was not even aware that Soul Orbs could acquire any unique abilities other than splitting themselves; it was truly unexpected.

In the past it was virtually impossible to identify one Soul orb from another. Yin Na and Ouyang Fang would have lost each other forever in the realm if they had separated, or lost track of each other if they were attacked by a swarm of other identically-sized Soul orbs.

Thus their only way of identification was to use their infinite attention span and concentration on each other at all times, by keeping the other at close quarters and within their awareness of all times.

However, this new ability mysteriously manifested in all three of their Soul orbs. They could now mentally “see” that the golden, white color that all other Soul orbs shared was different between them.

Ouyang Fang was a shiny green-colored soul.

Zhou Fei was a light red-colored soul.

Yin Na’s was a brightly-burning purple soul.

Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei were overjoyed. This method made it so much easier for them to identify each other. Even better, it allowed them to relax or even completely focus and attention of each other’s location, and yet still allow them to easily identify one another once separated.

Yin Na was also quite pleased at this development. This ability for them to retain their soul identities meant that not only that they would form an emotionally deeper bond from being able to recognize each other by color, but also that he could change his plan accordingly.

Yin Na never planned to leave his allies out of his sight, but now that Soul Identification was available to them both, he could send them away far from sight, and attempt difficult entrapping maneuvers to capture particularly alluring or evasive Soul orbs.

Another month passed.

Yin Na, Ouyang Fang, and Zhou Fei used their unfairly coordinated surrounding attack to grow in size, taking turns as to who would be absorbing the utterly helpless Soul orb.

Sometimes, Yin Na would signal for them to stop, then begin a dance to attempt communication.

This did not always work, but when it did, Yin Na worked relentlessly to persuade the Soul Orb to join their army and work together.

With patience, Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei acquired a following of about fifty 100-li smaller orbs each. All of these retainers agreed to not attack each other, and protect each other from the attacks of other Soul orbs.

Yin Na himself had a following of three-hundred 100-li Soul orbs.

Yin Na was teaching Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei his concept of a “culture” orbiting around their larger masses as they accumulated in size, by having the smaller ants depend on them for nourishment as well as protection. But most importantly, was the trust and love formed from them periodically splitting themselves to a manageable size, just to be able to dance messages and communicate with the ants.

When the Green, Red, or Purple soul split themselves down from their massive sizes to their level, the ants were absolutely delighted and fascinated.

It felt like mortals meeting their worshiped God, who had protected, nourished and suppressed them all at the same time, suddenly exposing himself before them!

To prevent opportunists, Ouyang Fang, Zhou Fei, or Yin Na himself would protect each other from being devoured by their own followers once they split.

The larger the size of a Soul Orb, the longer it would take for the split parts of a soul to come back together.

Yin Na would sometimes wait an entire year for Ouyang Fang or Zhou Fei’s body to fully come back together at the size of 10,000 li in diameter.

Of course, Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei were expected to do the same for him.

Another important tenet that Yin Na preached through Ouyang Fang and Zhou Fei, and down to the 100-li souls was the idea that one could not leave their orbit.

Stragglers and people seeking to take away their knowledge, as well as the secret of communication, were to be immediately absorbed.

Rebellion was mostly in the form of a few courageous Soul Orbs who valued their independence or understood the subtle brainwashing that was occurring.

However, they were quickly eaten.