77 Problems and Solutions

The snake couldn't but gulp in astonishment while probing his Devil Core.

If his Natural Heart could have been considered like a puddle of water, this new energy container of his was instead like an endless ocean!

Darkscale could see countless waves of Ghost Energy that splashed all around the rough edges of his Devil Core. In that confusion of silver streams, the snake had some difficulties on finding the Blood Energy he had accumulated before inside his Natural Heart.

It was still there, a crimson mass drowning in silver light. The Ghost Energy seemed almost furious at its existence, stretching out towards that little crimson island with countless blows.

"What is happening?"

Before entering these strange complex of caves, although there was some degree of difference between the quantity of Ghost and Blood energy that he stored inside him, it wasn't anything like this. The two energies didn't react to each other in this way.

Now, it almost seemed that one was trying to chase out the other from the Core. Furthermore, the Crimson power didn't respond to his commands as well as the silver one. In effect, even the silver Ghost Energy seemed a little more clumsy than usual.

Suddenly the serpent remembered the words of Spike. The Bronze Trader did warn him about this. What did he say specifically? The serpent thought about it for a few seconds. 'The Devil doesn't follow a path of enlightenment...' or something similar.

"Enlightenment" Darkscale pronounced the world slowly. His eyes moved back towards his lucent black body.

Beneath the shining dark scales, his flesh felt more powerful than ever before. He could tell that his physical strength and vitality had become dozens of times greater. His energy resources were also absurdly high.

However, everything had a price. There was no such thing as a free lunch in the world.

This was a truth that the black snake discovered when he was only a lowly black collar snake, with no intelligence whatsoever, fighting against a blue mouse to steal his lair. To gain something you must be ready to sacrifice something else.

In the past, to gain that lair, he had sacrificed his security. He had put his life on the line. Today, to follow the path of the Devil, he had sacrificed his ability to achieve enlightenment.

Enlightenment was first of all control, and now he lacked control.

'However, Spike told me that the Devil Path was the only one that allowed a cultivator to grow several types of energies in the same Container. Why would he lie on something so meaningless?'

Darkscale couldn't understand that. That was truly a very stupid thing to lie about. Plus, he remembered how proud Spike had been in saying that, almost as it was the greatest thing in the way of the Devil. Why lie about something like that?

No, wait. He didn't lie about it, didn't he? The black serpent's eye shined with sudden understanding.

"He said nothing about the difficulty of doing so... in fact he did say something about losing control and become an irrational beast with no ability to think"

He recalled the beast that he absorbed to help himself reach Rank 1. Stupid creatures, so strong but with no ability to avoid even the most basic and overused trap. They were like him once, but they tripped while walking on the steps of the Devil. He almost tripped himself, before miraculously gaining his sanity back before it was too much late. A very close call that should teach him to not so fret in absorbing things he didn't understand in the future.

The snake silently giggled, amused: becoming stronger but slowly losing control of yourself. Was this Devil Path he had chosen really a good way for someone like him? Was he sure that this was the way he should follow? A way marked by the menace of madness at every step of the way?

Yes, he very much enjoyed the robbing and stealing part of the Devil Path. He loved the fact that he could become a stronger cultivator stealing the power of other creatures, instead of silently pondering and slowly gaining strenght in closed cultivation sessions, but what was the point of becoming a powerful cultivator if the only thing that remained about you was a mindless voracious shell?

"There should be something that I don't know... there is no way that someone like Spike is following the Devil Path without a plan to avoid this loss of control... why would anyone that has a mind do it? even if it easier, it will eventually kill you anyway! I will need to talk to..."

The snake was slowly talking to himself, ignoring the countless sensation his new powerful sense of smell communicated to him, when his blood began to boil and a series of flashed appeared inside his mind.

Ancestral Memories. New ones, the types that were caused by thinking about something. The best type if he could say so.

"Of course..." murmured the reptile in silver sparks of ghost energy.

"Of course! That's why they are all Devils!" he continued, looking around seemingly with a new understanding of the world.

In the memories evoked by the Bloodline Power, he saw the solution to this problem that cursed the Devil Path: Bloodline Power itself!

This was why the grotto was full of crazy spirits: they were all Devil Cultivators that lost their minds!

'I should have thought of this... does the Devil Path also affect my intelligence?' The place was an inheritance ground for Bloodline Users of some kind, and it was full of Devil Cultivators!

The connection was there, evident for anyone who had a half brain functioning but he missed it completely.

Even the bodies scattered around were mostly of Devils. It was evident now that he thought about it! This place looked so ancient, he and the group that he came with were probably the first visitors in a long time. However many of the corpses were still intact or at least recognizable.

The Devil Path seemed to be very bound with the idea of physical strength and resistance. Even after dozens of years, many corpses stood as they were slain only a couple of day before. This could be possible only if they had incredibly sturdy bodies: the bodies of a Devil!

"Devil Path, Bloodline Power... I have both!"

The snake almost couldn't contain a thundering laughter when he realized that he had already solved the greatest obstacle in his cultivation path.

"By the Mother, this is destiny!" excitedly roared the small black serpent with a sparkle fo silver light coming out from his open fangs.

A flash passed through his eyes in the exact same moment he ended his phrase. Darkscale couldn't almost believe what he just said. 'By the Mother?... what I'm turning into? A silly human?'

The Mother was the name that The Forest Will Tribe gave to the Will of the Forest they venerated.

He had heard those words thousands of times, coming from the mouths of exited members of the Outpost where he and Star Leaf lived for more than a year. They tended to use them when something very great and happy happened.

He never used it before, but he never was so excited during that time either. It seemed that with his time in that Outpost he was contaminated by some of the humans' way of speaking.

His eyes, abandoned the last traces of happiness for the progress he just went through and turned back into the same old violet neutral mirrors of before.

Darkscale titled his head slightly towards a particular direction, taking a large breath. A very familiar scent filled his nostril.