The pond was teeming with fish that seed never to have been hunted before, appearing quite naive as they didn’t dodge and were easily skewered by Lin Xin, who managed to spear several large fish over half a ter in length.
He brought them back to the fire, and just like that, he set them on the grill to roast, scales and all.
After hastily eating a few fish, he felt sowhat stronger and began to explore the surrounding environnt.
However, he hadn’t gone far, not even reaching the dense black forest near the pond, when he sensed several malicious gazes falling upon him.
A black panther with a snake-headed tail slowly erged from the woods. It was as tall as half a man, and its green, oily eyes gleaming with a bloody ferocity fixedly stared at Lin Xin.
Lin Xin looked toward its tail and saw at the tip a black snake head that opened its mouth to reveal its fangs and core, its green eyes just as greedily fixed on him.
He noticed that every place the panther passed left behind footprints emitting white smoke—a clear sign it was no ordinary beast.
Slowly, he retreated back.
He dared not take another step forward; the panther was evidently no ordinary creature. At that mont, he had no Spiritual Energy, nor did he carry any protective charms on him. He had co out too hastily and was now unable to use his Spiritual Energy. He could only rely on his physical condition, which was still injured and not fully functional—indeed, he was at his most vulnerable ever.
Gently retreating, Lin Xin faintly noticed the panther also did not advance; it rely stood there. Although its gaze was full of ferocity and greed, it stayed put.
Upon retreating back to the pond’s edge where the fire was, he glanced at the Red Leaf Sword Master, who continued to steadily drink. Perhaps it was because of this man that they remained unhard.
Unable to do anything, he simply sat by the fire and carefully contemplated all the scriptures and materials he had seen so far, seeking a way to cure the illusions afflicting him.
The next day, the Red Leaf Sword Master had once again left, and upon waking and not seeing him, Lin Xin knew the man must have gone back again.
He looked at the scattered Demon Talisman Seeds on the ground around him, sitting by the fire with no intention of acting rashly, and instead drew out two Demon Talisman Seeds from his possession.
Over these days, he had accumulated a total of five Demon Talisman Seeds. The consumption for summoning the carriage, the number of entries, and the duration—all these were balanced with the Demon Talisman Seeds he had acquired, so he had only five by now.
Taking out three, he threw them all into the fire.
The Demon Talisman Seeds quickly lted in the fire, transforming into wisps of light red essence that entered his nostrils.
He breathed deeply, drawing all the essence into his body.
Instantly, three more attribute points appeared on his status bar. He did not hesitate to allocate all the points to his constitution.
His constitution increased from seven points to ten.
He lifted his hand to see the fine wounds there slowly closing at a visible rate.
A new strength also surged within his body, noticeably better than before. His spirits had improved greatly as well.
"The Underworld resides deep within the Underworld realm, and according to a vast array of docunts, illusions are primarily caused by a force that is half-real and half-false that interferes and attacks intermittently. This force, I initially judge, is related to the Underworld."
"Slaughter, from that Asura’s analysis, may indeed need to continually hunt and consu new nourishnt for the Underworld, in exchange for more cultivation energy. However, this could also an being controlled by the Underworld forces due to not having a foundation entirely of one’s own, thus facing stronger and stronger illusions."
He preliminarily analyzed the situation. His mind began to confirm various conditions, and this hypothesis seed most reasonable.
"If that’s the case, to counter the threat of illusions, I must either completely abandon the power of the Underworld or change its nature."
At this juncture, to ask him to give up his cultivation—and if he still had to enter the Underworld, that would be akin to sending himself to death—he did not believe that giving up cultivation would certainly make the Underworld spare him.
If his conjecture held true, then perhaps the only way left was to transform the nature of his cultivation energy."
"Transforming the nature of cultivation energy should be key, after all, my illusions started with the wrong color of Spiritual Energy."
He carefully reflected, and it indeed seed so.
The thods to transform cultivation were plentiful in his rembered scriptures. Each True Secret Decree had its own attributes, and switching to cultivate another True Secret should enable him to change attributes.
"The cultivation from the Underworld belongs to the Demon Path, deriving from plundering others’ Essence Qi and souls, which should be a Yin-type force. To completely sever my link with the Underworld, I should aim primarily for Yang-type cultivation energy."
He sat by the fire slowly contemplating, occasionally stretching out a hand to write and draw on the ground.
Ti slowly passed.
A day went by.
He imrsed himself in calculations, unable to use his Spiritual Energy, but able to observe through Inner Vision, continuously observing and analyzing the subtle changes ticulously, he began to establish a model of properties with modern thinking, summarizing all the varying properties.
Days went by.
The Red Leaf Sword Master appeared from ti to ti, then disappeared.
Lin Xin would catch fish from the pond and roast them when hungry, occasionally picking so grass to add to his al, and drank from the pond’s water when thirsty.
He decoded the mutating properties of his internal Spiritual Energy, gradually entering a state of complete focus, sleeping whenever he was tired and continuing his analyses after waking up, with nothing else to consider.
It seed due to the Red Leaf Sword Master’s influence that no creature dared approach within a hundred ters of their location. Even the birds in the sky took detours, not daring to fly directly overhead.
Lin Xin thus analyzed with peace of mind.
No one knew how much ti had passed.
One day, Lin Xin suddenly ca to a realization; the ground was covered with various conjectures he’d written about the nuances of Spiritual Energy. He had used three-digit numbers to minutely define and calculate them, later creating a three-dinsional coordinate system to carefully observe the frequency fluctuations, never ceasing in his calculations.
The Red Leaf Sword Master was squatting beside him at so unknown ti, looking down at the things on the ground.
For the first ti, Lin Xin saw him in a third deanor, other than drinking and staring vacantly.
"Bai Que is dead."
Red Leaf Sword Master suddenly whispered sothing.
Lin Xin didn’t catch it.
"Bai Que? Who?"
Red Leaf Sword Master ignored him, stood up, walked to a nearby rock, and sat down against it.
Only then did Lin Xin notice a deep, bone-visible wound on his arm, from which blood continuously flowed.
He thought carefully, since this guy ntioned it, it might be soone they both knew and had seen.
And the only one they both had encountered was that woman who had once told him to go to Lion’s Origin, that woman dressed in a white robe, a neurotic madwoman.
If she’s dead, she’s dead, I can barely keep myself alive, why should I care about others.
He gave a bitter smile and continued to be imrsed in the analysis of his own Spiritual Energy.
"You’ll soon follow."
It hadn’t been long before he heard Red Leaf Sword Master’s voice again.
Lin Xin almost spit out his drink.
Cursing soone’s death in broad daylight, what was this guy trying to do? Was he also a madman like that Bai Que?
Ignoring him, Lin Xin continued with his analysis.
The biggest issue with Spiritual Energy of the Demon Path was its impurity. It contained too many foreign entities’ Essence Qi and Soul Seal, making initial progress quick but dangerously difficult when it ca to qualitative improvent.
The characteristic of the Underworld Spiritual Energy was slightly different from that of the Demon Path; its substance was very pure. There were no miscellaneous Essence Qi or Soul Seal, only its own Seal and a single type of energy—a greedy, violent Spiritual Energy.
How to transform this type of Spiritual Energy had beco the key issue.
Before he knew it, more than ten days had passed. Lin Xin’s body had completely recovered to normal, allowing him to use a small amount of Spiritual Energy.
He began to try using this bit of Spiritual Energy to guide and integrate with other external forces.
There were nurous types of forces between heaven and earth, which could generally be categorized into Yin and Yang forces. He was drawing upon the Yang forces recorded in various ancient books from his mory.
Power of Earth Fire, drawing it into his body using a seal from one of the ancient books for a mont before it was repelled and pushed out by the Power of the Underworld.
Power of the Sun lasted a bit longer; it managed to resist the Power of the Underworld for a while when it was drawn into his body, but it was eventually easily squeezed out.
Life Smoke Power, a force within the human body ford from the burning of Essence Qi, was even quicker; this ti it was devoured instead of being repelled.
Power of Yang Wind, a special violent force discovered by accident by the ancients, had an invisible and traceless nature like the wind...
Lin Xin continued to draw various Yang forces over using a Decree. He was a top expert infinitely close to being a Formation Master, specializing in the Fire Formation path of Formation Talismans. Over the years in the Manor, not only had he collected and mastered all the Fire Formation docunts within the Sect, but he had also acquired many from other places.
He had hundreds of different Fire Formations for various Attributes stored in his chest. Now, he experinted with them one by one; after being able to use Spiritual Energy for Formation setting, he could rapidly activate different Fire Formations to attract different energies.
And fire was the most direct manifestation of Yang force.
Red Leaf Sword Master seed to notice what he was experinting with and did not interfere. He just continued to drink, occasionally glancing over.
For so reason, so much ti had passed, yet he hadn’t been expelled by the Underworld.
Lin Xin faintly felt that his analysis might be correct.
The nature of the force within his body had already assimilated with the Underworld, so he was no longer being expelled, but instead, he was becoming more recognized as a part of it.
"Are you looking for a way to break free?"
Red Leaf Sword Master suddenly spoke up from the side.
Lin Xin thought for a mont, seeing that the other was relatively sober for once, and hurriedly asked.
"Any suggestions?"
Red Leaf Sword Master stared at him strangely and then stopped talking.
Lin Xin felt uneasy under his gaze, unsure of what he was really up to.
The two eyed each other for a mont.
"Why are you looking at ?"
Red Leaf Sword Master looked at him strangely for a long ti.
"I am seeing why you still aren’t dead yet."
Lin Xin was stunned.
"Why should I definitely die?"
Red Leaf Sword Master thought for a while, seemingly slow-thinking, his gaze and pupils scattering and refocusing repeatedly, making his look very eerie. It was as if two brown rings were continuously expanding and contracting in his eyes.
After a long ti, he finally squeezed out another sentence.
"Having experienced the illusion and still not dead... you really are tenacious..." Red Leaf Sword Master’s look beca even more bizarre...(To be continued. If you like this work, welco to qidan to vote for recomndation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian to read.)
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