Two n hurriedly moved toward the depths of the cave, turning left and right, passing through a courtyard full of various types of mushrooms, when suddenly a massive fox statue appeared in front of them.
This statue was over ten ters tall, and oddly, it had two fox heads. One on the left and one on the right, one smiling cheerfully and the other with a furrowed brow and sad expression. They ford a stark contrast.
This reminded Lin Xin of the Two-Faced Kingdom in the ghostly mansion.
The two-headed fox’s front legs ford an arch-like door, set into the stone wall. It was made of a kind of pale yellow tal, the surface engraved with many complex symbols and patterns that resembled the alternating sun and moon, and the evolving process of mountains and rivers.
The Black Fox youth stepped forward and pushed on the tal door. The massive tal door, over five ters tall, was effortlessly pushed open by him. It seed not just a simple door, but as if so formation chanism was assisting its movent.
Inside was a small, enclosed stone chamber. Four large bookshelves were placed inside, densely packed with thick scrolls wrapped in black outer tubes.
Each scroll exuded a musty, dust-covered scent.
"This place was all where my father lived before he died. Those scrolls were all personally recorded by him."
The Black Fox youth went forward, took one, and a trace of sorrow appeared in his eyes.
"Back then I was young and do not rember much, but I rember him sitting here alone, holding a pen like he was mad, continuously writing. He kept writing, nonstop. Eventually, when soone realized sothing was amiss, he had already gone mad...."
He handed the scroll to Lin Xin.
Lin Xin gently took it, slid the scroll out of its tube, and slowly unfurled it.
The paper was stark white except for two small characters in the center, written in ghost script.
"Misleading Truth..."
Although he had anticipated it, he was still stunned by the intense madness that these two characters seed to emit.
The characters were written with an ink that resembled blood.
"It’s my father’s blood," the Black Fox youth explained.
"It is indeed ’Misleading Truth’...." Lin Xin gently stretched out his index finger and touched the characters.
"This is the secret technique I promised to give to you, sir. The range is about a hundred li or so," the Black Fox youth said, handing another scroll to Lin Xin.
Taking it, Lin Xin unfurled and examined it. It recorded a seemingly inexplicable ditation thod, contemplating a twisted formation much like a Ghost Talisman.
The formation was divided into an inner and outer circle, each engraved with nurous demons and ghosts in various distorted postures.
"As long as you successfully contemplate this pattern once, rember this drawing, you can sense the whereabouts of the Demon Talisman Seeds within a certain range," the Black Fox youth explained.
Lin Xin nodded.
He then sat down cross-legged right in the cave.
"Do you mind if I ditate and test this here?"
"Please, sir, if you need to enter seclusion to practice, let prepare in advance," the Black Fox youth hurriedly replied.
"There’s no need for anything special, just maintain quiet," Lin Xin said, sitting down and carefully studying the pattern on the scroll.
Being able to sense Demon Talisman Seeds within a hundred li range seed too simple to him. With his mory, he had no problem morizing this drawing and could test it imdiately.
In just monts, he had completely morized it.
Setting down the scroll, he closed his eyes.
He started to slowly contemplate the thod recorded on the scroll.
Then sothing strange happened!
The previously clear content of the drawing suddenly beca exceptionally blurry, the details he had just seen blurring at an alarming rate.
"Sothing’s wrong."
He abruptly opened his eyes and looked back at the scroll in his hand.
The entire scroll, rather than displaying any formation, was inexplicably showing a human face!
A face with eyes wide open, staring straight at him as if it were alive!
The eyes of the face slowly moved, staring intently at him, as if they were truly alive!
Lin Xin’s expression changed slightly, and in the blink of an eye, the image reverted to the original formation pattern.
"This thing is sowhat eerie...."
When he closed his eyes again, he suddenly found that the previously blurry formation image had beco exceptionally clear, even more detailed than a direct photograph.
After pondering for a mont,
Lin Xin slowly got up. He could feel five objects inside him pulsating like a heart, each emanating a completely different bizarre wave.
He slowly took out a Demon Talisman Seed from his chest.
He could clearly see it pulsating in his palm, like a living thing, though to the eye, it appeared utterly still.
"I can sense it."
He placed one Demon Talisman Seed in a corner of the stone chamber. Walking away, he could still clearly feel the distinct heartbeat of the Talisman Seed.
"It really works."
Satisfied, although he didn’t understand the underlying principles, achieving his goal was what mattered, as long as he mastered the secret technique to locate Demon Talisman Seeds. The process wasn’t important.
He put away the Demon Talisman Seed.
He had the black fox youth start a fire in a ventilated area inside the cave, then sent him away for a while, and tossed the Demon Talisman Seeds into the fire himself, watching as they slowly lted away.
Threadlike wisps of red mist were inhaled through his nostrils.
A cool, thread-like liquid flowed into his body.
Lin Xin, however, closed his eyes, focusing on the attribute bar below his field of vision.
’Damage—18, Defense—17, Evasion—3, Constitution—20, Free Attributes 4.’
He had just thrown the four newly acquired Demon Talisman Seeds into the fire and directly absorbed them. He kept the two he already had in his hand for backup purposes.
This ti, without any hesitation, he allocated all the attribute points to damage.
Damage governed both strength and speed.
Once increased, it could enhance both attributes simultaneously.
After adding four points, his damage score imdiately jumped from 18 to 22.
Lin Xin distinctly felt as if sothing subtle in his body had changed from before, but he couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was.
Hisss!
Suddenly, he flicked his finger, and a red Sword Qi shot through the air, flying half a ter before slowly dissipating under his deliberate control.
"The speed certainly has increased from before, and as for the strength,"
He clenched his fist, touched his palm with his fingers, and kept increasing the pressure until he could feel a slight stinging sensation on his skin.
"The increase in strength is also quite noticeable. There should be more changes to follow."
While the initial boost from the attribute points was effective, the body needs ti to adapt, and the real effects would beco more apparent later on.
He then checked his current ’Return to Origin’ cultivation technique.
The enhancent he had received from defeating the ’Heaven’s Will Saber’ seed to have only now started to plateau.
The Foundation Establishnt Third Layer had silently been breached, progressing into the Fourth Layer, which had already reached 31%.
Now, following the burst of spiritual energy, the effect was Damage 22, Constitution 22.
This was the result of the ’Return to Origin’ at the Fourth Layer of Foundation Establishnt.
Adding in the 22 points of constitution his physical body had reached, his actual power was equivalent to twice the burst strength of a monk in the Fourth Layer of Foundation Establishnt.
This was the sole result of a burst in cultivation level.
To reach twice the strength of a Fourth Layer Foundation Establishnt monk was only possible at Perfection. The subsequent Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Layers were really just accumulative enhancents, and only upon achieving Perfection, rging into the Primordial, would there be a substantial qualitative leap.
"Still, increasing the attribute points is quicker."
Feeling the changes in his body, Lin Xin touched the Taoist Lotus that had been on the back of his head. This Lotus had been there since he perfectly mastered the first layer of the Bell Sound Technique and he had never used it up.
But now, with the boost from the attribute points, he planned to finally break through the long-stagnant layer of the Fire Life of ’Morning Chorus’.
This place was secluded and deep, making it a very suitable spot for focused cultivation and retreat.
His spiritual power slowly settled on a point on the Lotus.
The white Lotus had forty-nine petals, each with a tiny hole edged with jagged, differently patterned margins. The Lotus stigma shimred with a faint rainbow-like brilliance, its luminosity unstable.
As it was touched, the whole Lotus trembled fiercely. Countless white light dots burst forth rapidly from all the holes on the petals, spreading and penetrating into Lin Xin’s brainstem.
A feeling of unprecedented clarity of thought suddenly surged from the depths of his heart. Lin Xin instantly knew it was the effect of the Lotus and imdiately began to recall all the circumstances and information related to why he initially couldn’t progress further in the Fire Life layer.
Scenarios, details of recorded cultivation techniques—one by one, out of Lin Xin’s expectations, answers bizarrely erged for the problems, and these answers gave him an unusually correct sensation.
Casually tracing an answer back, Lin Xin actually discovered that it might indeed be possible to make a breakthrough in this way.
"Is this the utility of the Taoist Lotus? Rather than saying it’s my own deduction, it’s more like the Taoist rules are using my brain to give answers."
His expression a bit dazed, he watched as previously unnoticed details were highlighted, and one threshold after another was quickly reasoned through.
Previously, he had no confidence at all in advancing the Fire Life layer, but now, as problems were resolved one by one, Fire Life was closer than ever before.
The effect of the Lotus faded quickly, leaving only a slight remnant of its clarifying power, keeping his mind clear, although without the assistance of the Taoist rules for calculation, it was still significantly stronger than usual.
Taking this opportunity, Lin Xin roughly sorted out the conditions required for breaking through the ’Morning Chorus.’
He finally understood why he had been unable to progress before—although he had contacted the Life Fire, he just couldn’t break through.
Now it seed, according to the deduced reasons, there were still a few conditions to be t before truly entering a new level.
First, he needed to withstand extre heat in the Land of Scorching Heat.
Second, he needed to endure extre cold with Mysterious Ice.
Third, it was intense pressure. Enter the deep sea and withstand omnidirectional pressure challenges.
Fire Life inherently required extrely rigorous external challenges coupled with touching the Life Fire, only then achieving true perfection and advancent.
"It looks like I won’t progress anyti soon, so I should focus on searching for Demon Talisman Seeds!"
Having mastered the secret technique, Lin Xin had already decided to cause a major stir during these five years.
Based on the Radiance Society, he would continuously hunt masters and acquire Demon Talisman Seeds. By advancing on both fronts, he aid to achieve the fastest rate of cultivation progression.
His other identity as a challenger in the Demon Path could totally engage in seeking battles with masters everywhere like a mad challenger, and as long as he survived, he would naturally receive ample rewards. (To be continued. If you like this novel, you are welco to vote for it on Qidian (qidian), vote for the monthly ticket, and your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile users, please read on m.qidian.)
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