Chapter 129 – Homemade Devil
Wang Lin looked at the talkative Xu Liguo. He was about to reply when his expression changed slightly as Zhou Gangsan’s storage bag floated into his hand. At the same time, he waved his hand, and several fireballs flew out. The fireballs landed on the bodies of the Corpse Sect disciples and their corpse puppets, turning them to dust.
Shortly after, he reached out and grabbed Xu Liguo, who didn’t dare to resist. Then, he disappeared into the sky, leaving behind a trail of rainbow-colored light.
At this point, the disciples of the other three sects had finished harvesting the Burning Golden Fruit and left.
Wang Lin returned to the cave and placed the Burning Golden Fruit plant on the ground. He also threw Xu Liguo forward, causing Xu Liguo to panic and say, “Fellow cultivator, if there’s a problem, we can talk it out! We can talk it out! As long as you don’t kill me, I can agree to any request. I was wrong before. Please don’t be angry.”
Xu Liguo felt extremely wronged. He was a Nascent Soul expert, but he had lost his body, and his Nascent Soul was injured to the point of collapse, causing his cultivation level to plummet. Furthermore, he couldn’t afford the high price of a Nascent Soul cultivator’s body, so he considered possessing a disciple of a sect. However, if he were discovered, it would cause endless trouble. In the end, he decided to pay the Corpse Sect so he could possess a body without worry.
However, possessing the body of a Foundation Establishment cultivator meant it would take a long time for him to recover his cultivation, almost as long as starting over. Currently, he only possessed the cultivation of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. His Nascent Soul was merely for show, lacking any real power.
Furthermore, with Wang Lin’s dominant Ji Realm, Xu Liguo was currently just a paper tiger. However, if Xu Liguo could recover his strength to the Core Formation stage, the outcome would be completely different.
Wang Lin completely ignored Xu Liguo’s pleas for mercy as his eyes flickered and he moved the pillar to lock the cave. Xu Liguo silently groaned as he slowly drifted back against the wall.
Wang Lin didn’t stop him. He sent out his Ji Realm Divine Sense, and red lightning roared. As the red lightning shot toward him, Xu Liguo could feel a destructive force filling him.
Wang Lin’s right hand reached out and grabbed Xu Liguo’s trembling Nascent Soul. Wang Lin stared at the Nascent Soul, then his eyes suddenly lit up.
When he first saw Xu Liguo’s Nascent Soul, he felt something familiar. He thought about it during the flight here, but couldn’t remember where this feeling came from.
This time, when he saw Xu Liguo’s Nascent Soul, he suddenly remembered. This Nascent Soul was similar to the souls that wandered in the World of Decay.
Wang Lin rubbed his chin and a thought came to his mind.
If he could devour souls like he had in the Decaying World, his Ji Realm Divine Sense would become much stronger. Furthermore, wandering souls were also extremely powerful. They were capable of devouring people’s lives, regardless of their cultivation level. Once he gathered enough wandering souls in the living world, taking revenge on Teng Huayuan wouldn’t be a problem.
More importantly, Wang Lin knew that if he encountered a Core Formation cultivator, all he could do was run, but if he had a wandering soul, then he would have the power to protect himself.
If there were enough wandering souls, then he would even be willing to fight Nascent Soul cultivators.
He knew that his own techniques were too simple. He only knew a few minor techniques. And as for magical treasures, all he had was a flying sword.
After experiencing the events in Zhao, Wang Lin’s mindset underwent a profound change. Everything he did now was to strengthen himself so that his destiny would no longer be in the control of others.
Xu Liguo’s New Soul made Wang Lin’s heart pound as he thought of an idea.
“Since I can’t bring the wandering souls out of the Decaying Realm, can I bring them here?” Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. He patted his bag of holding, and a piece of metal appeared. He pointed at the wall, and the piece of metal carved out a cave.
While doing this, Wang Lin used this moment to send out his Ji Realm to erase Xu Liguo’s memories. After all, Xu Liguo was a Nascent Soul cultivator, and even with his low cultivation level, Wang Lin had to use his entire Ji Realm to succeed.
Xu Liguo’s New Soul became a semi-transparent object without consciousness.
After the cave was finished, the metal piece flew back into Wang Lin’s storage bag. Wang Lin waved his right hand and threw the Nascent Soul into the cave. He left a little of his Ji Realm Divine Sense to guard the Nascent Soul before leaving the cave again.
He searched the surrounding mountains, catching small animals while Xu Liguo’s Nascent Soul just floated motionless inside the cave.
After returning, Wang Lin stared at the soul for a while, then threw a small animal at it. The animal screamed before running to a corner, completely unaware of the soul’s presence in the center of the cave.
Wang Lin frowned as he looked at the two. He strengthened the Ji Realm guarding the cave before digging another cave next to it and throwing the remaining small animals into it.
After finishing all that, he slapped his forehead and the Heaven Defying Bead flew out. It circled him once before diving straight into the Burning Gold Fruit plant next to him.
All the fruit on the vine shrank and disappeared at a visible rate, and all the wood elements were absorbed by the stone beads.
A third leaf slowly emerged from the stone bead. After the vine had completely withered, the third leaf solidified.
A glimmer of joy appeared on Wang Lin’s face as he reached out and grabbed it. The stone bead flew into his hand. He examined it carefully before placing it on his forehead. The bead quickly entered his body upon contact.
Wang Lin took a deep breath. After pondering for a moment, he left the cave and ran toward the volcano. It took him three days to harvest all the Burning Gold Fruit plants in the area, thus rendering them extinct in this region.
The Heaven Defying Bead now has five leaves.
Three days later, Wang Lin looked into the small cave again and saw some feces and urine on the ground. The little animal was trembling in a corner. After digesting all the food it had eaten three days ago, it was now extremely weak.
Xu Liguo’s Nascent Soul was still floating in the air. Upon closer inspection, his Nascent Soul was even more transparent than before. It seemed as if it could disappear at any moment.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment. He sent out his divine senses and directed the Newborn Soul towards the small animal. After a while, the Newborn Soul was on top of the small animal.
Finally, the Nascent Soul had nowhere to hide and jumped toward the little beast. Wang Lin suddenly became extremely focused when he saw the little beast tremble violently. It rose from the ground, its eyes emitting a golden light, but the light soon dimmed, and the beast fell to the ground.
Just then, Xu Liguo’s Nascent Soul swiftly flew out of the little beast’s head and charged toward the wall. When it hit the wall, it screamed in pain. Then, it slammed into the other walls several times, finally drifting back and forth within the room.
Wang Lin wasn’t surprised. Instead, he was delighted. He could clearly see that the Nascent Soul was no longer transparent and was filled with a hint of madness. He quickly threw all the small beasts he had captured three days ago into the cave and observed them carefully.
As the few little animals fell to the ground, they ran to the corner of the room with fear in their eyes and screamed non-stop.
However, what made Wang Lin frown was that the Nascent Soul ignored the little animals. The trace of madness disappeared and his soul became confused again.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then used his Ji Realm Divine Sense to force the Nascent Soul into another small animal. The moment the small animal died, the Nascent Soul attacked. Its eyes once again filled with madness.
However, the Nascent Soul still ignored the other small animals. Wang Lin snorted and used his Ji Realm Divine Sense to force the Nascent Soul to devour the other small animals. The madness in the Nascent Soul’s eyes was now even stronger.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment, then went out. He had captured many wild beasts in the nearby mountains. He had deliberately captured wild beasts. There was even one with a strange aura.
After returning to the cave, he created several more rooms to separate the beasts. Then, he brought a beast with red eyes that kept roaring at him and threw it into the room along with the Nascent Soul.
After being forced by the Ji Realm to devour the beast again, the madness within Nascent Soul became even stronger.
Wang Lin watched from outside the room for a long time. He didn’t know if the Nascent Soul would turn into a wandering soul, a so-called demon, if he continued this.
The best way to test this would have been to capture cultivators as guinea pigs, but he was afraid that the Nascent Soul’s cultivation level would increase after devouring a cultivator. If the Nascent Soul’s strength exceeded the Ji Realm, Wang Lin would be in danger. Therefore, unless he absolutely had to, he didn’t want to risk using cultivators.
Four days later, except for the beast with the strange aura, all the other beasts he had captured had been devoured. This day, Wang Lin held the beast and threw it into the stone chamber.
The Nascent Soul was slowly forced by the Ji Realm to move towards the beast with the strange aura. Just as it was about to touch the beast, the Nascent Soul suddenly stopped jumping on it and revealed a hesitant expression.
Wang Lin’s Ji Realm moved, forming a red bolt of lightning that pressed down on the Nascent Soul. The Nascent Soul finally entered the beast. For a long time, the beast trembled.
Half an hour later, the beast exploded as a red soul burst out of its body and let out a roar.
Nascent Soul’s form had completely changed and was glowing red. It emitted a powerful aura that even Wang Lin could feel through the confines of his Ji Realm. As of now, it was no longer a soul, but a demon.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. After pondering for a moment, he opened the cave and walked in.
The demon suddenly turned and leaped toward Wang Lin. Wang Lin’s gaze was cold as he stared at the demon. A red flash shot from his eyes, pushing the demon away and causing it to let out a miserable groan.
A ferocious expression appeared on the demon’s face as it charged at Wang Lin again, but Wang Lin waved his hand and caught the demon.
“You’re courting death!” Wang Lin’s voice was cold, and his eyes flashed red. Every time his eyes flashed, the demon would tremble. After a moment, the cruel expression was replaced by one of fear.
In the end, the demon revealed a miserable expression. Wang Lin carried the demon and exited the stone room. After arriving at the room he used for cultivation, he threw the demon into the air.
Cruelty appeared on the demon’s face again as it ran toward the ceiling to escape. Wang Lin sneered inwardly as his Ji Realm Divine Sense quickly captured and punished it. The demon let out a miserable groan as thin lines of smoke appeared on its body, and it seemed to weaken.
Wang Lin patted his bag and took out a piece of metal. Then, he said flatly to the demon, “Hide inside here. You’re not to come out unless I give you permission.”
The devil looked at Wang Lin in fear as he turned into a ray of red light and entered the piece of metal.
After putting the metal piece away, he looked at the cave with regret. He stepped out of the cave, waved his hand, and the cave collapsed on itself.
Wang Lin did not look back as he flew eastward.
According to Mai Lang’s memories, the War God Temple was located to the east. Wang Lin had already made up his mind. Since he couldn’t find Zhao’s location in Mai Lang’s memories, he would have to check the map in the War God Temple’s treasure vault.
Despite everything that had happened so far, his blood-refined green sword was now just a piece of metal, and its power had been greatly weakened. If he were fighting Foundation Establishment cultivators, he wouldn’t need to use it. However, if he were fighting a Core Formation cultivator, this piece of metal would be enough to save his life.
So he had to learn how to refine treasures. That was another reason why he had to return to the War God Temple, because they had a refining house there.
And in addition to all that, he had to find the place of extreme Ying, or he would be stuck in the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. Only with extreme Ying could he form the 3rd cold core and reach the late stage of Foundation Establishment and then form his core.
Wang Lin decided not to give up on cultivating the Underworld Ascension Method. After all, Situ Nan had told him that once he formed three cold cores and merged them, he would have a great chance of entering the Core Formation stage.
When he recovered his cultivation, because he lacked the Ying spirit fluid, he could only cultivate the War God Temple techniques from Mai Lang’s memories, but what interested him was the Divine Path. Although the spiritual energy from cultivating the Divine Path had no attributes, objectively, it was inferior to the previous Ying spiritual energy.
However, the Divine Path of the War God Temple was not without its advantages. If Ying’s spiritual energy was like an invincible sword, then this cultivation was as flexible as silk.
The War God Temple is located on a towering mountain in the eastern part of Hou Fen. The mountain is shrouded in clouds and teeming with ferocious beasts. There are four submountains that house the four subsects of the War God Temple.
As one of the four major sects of Hou Fen, the War God Temple had over 3,000 followers. Even if you exclude the random followers of the outer sects, there were still around 2,300 followers.
On this day, on a low snowy peak a kilometer from the War God Temple, Zhou Zihong, Yang Xiong, and Lin Tao were waiting. Three days ago, the three of them suddenly felt their souls tremble as Wang Lin sent them a message through their soul blood essence. He told them to bring some things. The appointed time had long passed, but the three of them did not dare to leave.
Among the three of them, Lin Tao was the most afraid and searched for words to say.
Zhou Zihong appeared dazed as she bit her red lips. Her mind was blank. Mai Lang had been gone for over a year. She initially thought he would never appear again. However, when she received his message three days ago, her face immediately paled.
Yang Xiong’s expression was the calmest. Except for the occasional flash of light in his eyes, he appeared completely normal. However, upon closer inspection, his right hand was tightly clenched.
Time passed slowly and night fell, but Wang Lin still hadn’t appeared. The three of them looked at each other in confusion.
On a mountain peak two kilometers away, Wang Lin stared coldly at the three of them. Ever since the upheaval in Zhao, Wang Lin had become extremely cautious. Even though he possessed their soul blood essence, the three of them were probably determined enough to fight to the death.
Therefore, Wang Lin waited. If anything unusual happened, he would destroy their soul blood essence and escape.
At the same time, Wang Lin was also gauging their reactions. It had to be said that even if they were pretending, they couldn’t keep it up for long. Among the three of them, Lin Tao’s expression was the most normal. From the beginning, he had been afraid and uneasy.
Zhou Zihong was in a daze the entire time. The confusion was visible on her face, even though she tried hard to hide it.
After observing the two of them, Wang Lin focused his attention on Yang Xiong. This person’s expression was initially calm, but as time passed, his expression became increasingly unsettled.
Wang Lin stared at Yang Xiong’s right hand, his gaze turning cold. He pondered for a moment before quickly moving toward the three of them. In the blink of an eye, he suddenly appeared before them. A cold aura spread out.
After they saw Wang Lin, the three of them’s hearts trembled and all their tiredness disappeared.
In the past year, the events that happened on foreign battlefields echoed in their dreams every night.
They weren’t really sure how strong Wang Lin was, but Mai Lang in front of them made their hearts tremble.
They had a feeling that even though Wang Lin didn’t have their soul blood essence, he could still kill them in an instant without them being able to protect themselves at all.
This feeling reached its peak after Wang Lin gave them a cold stare. Lin Tao was the first to reach his limit as he knelt on the ground and said, “Lin Tao greets the lord!”
Yang Xiong and Zhou Zihong weren’t much better. They only held back the aura with sheer strength.
Wang Lin withdrew his Ji Realm Divine Sense. Only then did the sense of danger disappear. The three of them let out a sigh of relief. Then, Yang Xiong and Zhou Zihong bowed to Wang Lin.
As they bowed, a trace of bitterness flashed across Yang Xiong’s face as he clenched the jade in his right hand. He had come here with two thoughts in mind. The first was to trick Wang Lin into returning to the War God Shrine and ask the elders to help him steal back his soul blood essence. The second was that if Wang Lin wouldn’t leave, then he would secretly transmit his current location with the jade. Back in the War God Shrine, his junior apprentice brother held another piece of jade. If he injected spiritual energy into this piece of jade, the jade his junior apprentice brother held would light up and his junior apprentice brother would summon their master.
However, he now realized how foolish his idea was. If he actually did it, he would be the first to die.
The senior possessing Mai Lang’s body must be a cultivator from a high-level cultivation country. Otherwise, how could this senior, who was only at the Foundation Establishment stage, possess such a divine sense that made his heart tremble.
Yang Xiong silently sighed and gave up on resisting. He took a deep breath and quickly patted his storage bag with his left hand. He then took out a jade slip and respectfully said to Wang Lin, “Sir, I’ve obtained what you asked of me three days ago. This is the jade slip from the refining house.”
After Wang Lin received the jade, he scanned it with his divine sense. Without showing any expression, he nodded. His gaze then fell on Lin Tao.
Lin Tao’s heart beat faster and he whispered, “Master, the map is placed at the top of the treasure pavilion. I… I can’t go up there because my cultivation level isn’t high enough.”
Seeing Wang Lin’s expressionless face, Lin Tao gritted his teeth and said, “Ten days! Master, just give me ten days. By then, it will be my cousin’s turn to patrol. I can at least get him to make me a copy!”
Wang Lin looked at him, nodded, and then said flatly, “If you really manage to obtain it, then when I leave Hou Fen, I will return your soul blood essence to you.” After that, he looked at Yang Xiong. His gaze became cold as he said, “Normally, I would return your soul blood essence to you, but the thing in your hand nullified your achievement. This time, I won’t kill you, but whether I return your soul blood essence to you or not will depend on next time.”
Yang Xiong’s body trembled, and his face immediately turned pale. When he saw Wang Lin earlier, especially the look in Wang Lin’s eyes, he felt a strong sense of fear. He knelt on the ground and handed over the jade in his right hand. His face was extremely tense.
Wang Lin no longer looked at him. He now looked at Zhou Zihong. Zhou Zihong gritted her teeth, raised her beautiful face, and said, “Senior, that Divine Path is very strange. Although I saw it six months ago, I can’t remember anything afterward, so I couldn’t make a jade copy containing the technique. Actually, Senior doesn’t have to go through such a detour. With Mai Lang’s contributions in the Foreign Battlefield, once you return to the sect, you will naturally be allowed to learn it.”
The Divine Path was the thing that most interested Wang Lin in Mai Lang’s memories. Mai Lang dreamed of learning it. For some reason, the War God Temple was very strict about their disciples learning the Divine Path, but those outside the sect only had to pay spirit stones at a specified time in exchange for learning it.
However, for disciples of the War God Temple, they must have reached the Core Formation stage or have made significant contributions to the sect. Only after reaching either of these stages can they study it under the tutelage of an elder.
According to Wang Lin’s analysis, this Divine Path must have something special. It’s possible that if someone in the Foundation were to learn it, it would be dangerous without someone to protect it.
When he asked Zhou Zihong to make a copy, he hadn’t planned on succeeding, so he wasn’t disappointed. He carefully looked at the three of them and said softly, “You three don’t need to be so cautious around me. As long as you don’t disturb me, then when I leave Hou Fen, I will return your soul blood essence. However, if you dare to plot against me, then don’t blame me for being ruthless.”