156-163

Chapter 156 - I'll Fight Him to the Death

Inside the secret room inside the dragon's head, a rainbow-colored light appeared. More and more lights suddenly gathered until Wang Lin's figure finally came into view.

The moment he appeared, Shang Guanmo's heart started beating rapidly. He wondered what kind of technique this fiend was cultivating that would allow him to hide his presence completely. Before, he was wondering if he could use this time to escape Wang Lin's control, but now he didn't dare to have those ideas anymore.

Li Muwan touched the dragon's scale as if she was calculating something. The current her looked very graceful and focused as she touched the dragon scale.

Even the fluctuations of her soul essence blood didn't affect her. Gradually, a look of understanding appeared in her eyes as she looked at the piece of dragon scale before her.

Wang Lin appeared inside the room and sat down in the lotus position before taking out his bag of holding. After killing all those cultivators, there were hundreds of golden cores inside his bag of holding.

In addition to this, almost all of the bags of holding of the dead cultivators were taken by Wang Lin. He quickly sorted them all and found that there were a lot of treasures and flying swords. However, besides a scroll, none of them were good enough to catch Wang Lin's eyes.

This scroll was about two feet long and as thick as his arm. It also emitted a hint of spiritual energy. Wang Lin remembered that it came from a Core Formation cultivator who had already opened it half-way. There were currently waves of roars coming from the scroll.

However, Wang Lin's Ji Realm Divine Sense's power wasn't affected by the amount of people. Whether it was one person or a group, once it swept past them, as long as they were below the Nascent Soul stage, they would die. Toward the Ji Realm, Wang Lin still had an indescribable feeling. Under the pressure of the transfer array at the Foreign Battleground, he clearly felt its existence for the first time and gained a hint of understanding. The following years of use and fighting allowed him to understand the Ji Realm's terrifying power.

However, he didn't know that the Ji Realm's limit was late stage Nascent Soul. If he wished to enter the Soul Formation stage with it, the chances were very low.

The original owner of the scroll was already dead, so the divine sense imprinted on it had long since disappeared. Wang Lin had imprinted his divine sense on the scroll, but the weird thing was that there was nothing different about the scroll. It felt the same as before he imprinted his divine sense.

Wang Lin quickly revealed a look of interest. If it was a normal treasure, he would have been able to use it freely after wiping out the previous owner's divine sense and imprinting his own. As long as it was not a Nascent Soul level treasure, this would always be true.

Judging by the spiritual energy fluctuations coming from the scroll, it didn't feel like a Nascent Soul level treasure. Wang Lin had a few Nascent Soul level treasures himself, one of them being the protective jade given to him by Hou Fen's Nascent Soul cultivator, Zhou Jin.

The most notable feature of Nascent Soul level treasures was the powerful spiritual energy fluctuations that they emitted. A Core Formation treasure could never compare to it.

In addition to the jade, there was the flying sword that could teleport. According to his guesses, it was also a Nascent Soul level treasure. If he hadn't blood refined it, there was no way he would be able to use it without refining it for a very long time.

Thinking about this, he couldn't help but be reminded of the ancient sword sheath. When combined with the flying sword, it could increase the flying sword's power. Even Situ Nan couldn't see through its true nature. It must be at least beyond Nascent Soul level, maybe a Soul Formation, or even Soul Transformation treasure. After all, there wasn't much Situ Nan couldn't see through.

Wang Lin let out a sigh. It was destroyed when Teng Huayuan destroyed his bag of holding. Then Wang Lin suddenly realized that something was off. If that treasure was indeed that high quality, then Teng Huayuan shouldn't have been able to destroy it.

If it wasn't destroyed, then where could the sword sheath have gone?

Wang Lin's eyes lit up as he put down the scroll and suddenly stood up. He walked back and forth for a bit before putting some low quality materials into a bag of holding. Then he gathered a bit of spiritual energy on his finger and turned the bag to dust.

Wang Lin's eyes focused on the bag of holding as it turned to dust. Then he tried it out a few more times before a hint of understanding appeared in his eyes.

Although the bag of holding was destroyed, the items inside it were not. The space inside the bag was like a boundless vault with the bag itself as the lock. Even though the lock was broken, the vault would forever be shut with the items still inside.

If he could find a way to open it up again, then it wouldn't be impossible to take back what was inside.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit. He then sat down in the lotus position again. Looking at the scroll, it didn't seem to be a Nascent Soul level treasure, but Wang Lin couldn't guess why he didn't get the feeling he could control it as he wished after he imprinted his divine sense into it. After thinking for a bit, he suddenly opened the scroll. His expression became serious.

The entire scroll was completely black without any pictures on it.

Looking at it, Wang Lin suddenly felt a sense of danger coming from the scroll. A pair of triangular eyes on the black paper suddenly opened up. Then a loud roar came from inside the scroll, causing it to shake.

Wang Lin didn't hesitate to quickly close the scroll. The roar slowly became softer and softer until it completely disappeared.

Sweat covered Wang Lin's forehead. The moment the roar came out, Wang Lin could feel that its power was no less than the dragon's that had died in the 14th valley. The only difference was that the spiritual energy was trapped inside the scroll.

At this moment, he finally understood why he still couldn't use this scroll even after imprinting his divine sense into it. This scroll was only a seal. The real power of this treasure came from the spirit beast trapped inside.

After carefully putting away the scroll, Wang Lin began to ponder. After a long time, he took out a golden core from his bag of holding. Its color had already darkened. He pondered for a bit before taking out more than 100 golden cores. All of them were dim, emanating a feeling of death.

If it was in the past, Wang Lin would immediately devour them as he got them, but on the way here, Li Muwan told him that although devouring golden cores would increase his cultivation level, it would also cause his spiritual energy to become tainted, as well as cause the spiritual energy in his body to become a mess. Also, golden cores had different properties. If too much of the opposite was absorbed, it would make his spiritual energy go crazy, making him lose control and go mad half the time.

After hearing this, although Wang Lin was unwilling, he dismissed the idea of consuming them directly. According to Li Muwan, eating them would inflict no negative effects if they were first refined through the five element method.

It was just that this type of refining skill was considered a demonic method, so she had only ever heard of it. Wang Lin pondered a bit before putting all of them into one bag of holding for when he finds the five element refining method.

Then Wang Lin took out the dragon tendon. With a gentle flick, the devil flew out. The devil flew around the room once before looking at Wang Lin with an aggrieved expression.

The red light on the devil was much richer than last time. Wang Lin looked at him with a cold expression and said, "To what degree has your cultivation level recovered?"

The devil carefully backed up and said, "I have only recovered to the late stage of Foundation Establishment. If it wasn't for that sword stealing from me, I could have recovered to Core Formation!"

Wang Lin sneered and stared at the devil. The devil felt his hairs stand up from the stare. He backed up some more and then muttered, "I am at the peak of late stage Foundation Establishment, only one step from the Core Formation stage." With that, he secretly cursed and thought that if Wang Lin kept pushing him, then he would just go and fight him with all his might. But this was only an idea. The devil believed that even if he gave it his all, he wouldn't get anything good out of it.

Wang Lin's eyes became cold and his hand reach out. The devil let out a scream. He wanted to dodge, but he found formations around him. He could only watch himself be caught and brought toward Wang Lin.

Wang Lin searched through the devil's body. Little by little, slivers of red kept appearing until a golden core appeared in the devil's gas-like body.

The devil's anger quickly disappeared. He embarrassingly said, ""What is this? When did I form my core? I must have devoured too much and formed it without realizing…" As he spoke, he saw Wang Lin's cold gaze and stopped talking.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit before suddenly asking, "You recovered your memory?"

The devil immediately trembled. This was his biggest secret. When he reached the Core Formation stage, something extra suddenly appeared in his mind, but he didn't dare to tell Wang Lin. Now that he was seen through by Wang Lin, he immediately became scared.

He kept thinking inside his heart, "Should I go out all against him? Fight? No, I don't think I can beat him… I have decided, I'm going all out!"

He just had finally made up its mind and was ready to act when he raised his head and saw a red light inside Wang Lin's eyes. He immediately realized that things were getting bad when he suddenly let out a miserable scream from the pain. Green smoke came out of his body and even his golden core shrank.

Wang Lin's Ji Realm Divine Sense originally wouldn't be this powerful, but he used to be a soul devourer. The pressure and the abilities of a soul devourer were still there.

This made Wang Lin the devil's biggest weakness. After the devil screamed for a while, Wang Lin withdrew his Ji Realm Divine Sense. The devil stood there shaking. All traces of resistance were gone. Instead, he revealed an obedient expression.

He wasn't afraid of anyone but Wang Lin. If Wang Lin had kept it up for half an hour, then his newly formed golden core would have shattered.

Wang Lin calmly said, "Spit out all the souls you devoured."

Chapter 157 - A Sad and Beautiful Complexion

The devil's face immediately became very grim as he slowly spat out one soul after another. After spitting out more than 40 souls, his golden core was on the brink of shattering.

Wang Lin waved his hand and all 43 souls flew into his forehead. They entered his consciousness and floated next to the soul of the Core Formation cultivator from Xuan Wu.

The Ji Realm red lightning flew through each of the souls. As they disappeared, Wang Lin could feel his own soul become a bit stronger.

The devil secretly relaxed a bit as he stared at Wang Lin but complained in his heart, "This is too much! These are all souls I managed to steal back from the damn sword! Sooner or later, I'll have my revenge! Just wait until my cultivation recovers to the Nascent Soul stage!"

Just as he was thinking about how he was going to deal with Wang Lin once he recovers to the Nascent Soul stage, his body was grabbed by Wang Lin and was thrown back into the dragon tendon. The devil let out a few frustrated sighs. The urge to go all out against Wang Lin appeared again. However, the urge died down again when he thought about how he wouldn't get a good result even if he were to shatter his golden core.

After taking a gulp of spirit liquid, Wang Lin sat down to cultivate. After thinking about the power of Jie Donglei's sword cultivation method, he took out several hundred spirit stones. He was going to use these to place several hundred layers of the turtle shell's defensive formation on himself.

After completing all of this, he took a deep breath and hit the side of the wall. The dragon's mouth slowly opened up. He got up and walked out.

Just as he walked out of the dragon's mouth, he saw a charming and delicate figure standing near the tail of the dragon. Li Muwan's expression looked haggard, but her eyes were shining as she stared at one of the scales on the dragon's tail.

Shang Guanmo stood next to her with a glowing pearl, providing light for her.

Wang Lin remained silent. This time, his closed door cultivation didn't take long, but from the looks of Li Muwan, she hadn't left at all. He sighed in his heart as he jumped down. His body glided down along the dragon and landed behind her.

When Shang Guanmo saw Wang Lin, he immediately put even more spiritual energy into the pearl to make it shine brighter. He also forced sweat to appear on his forehead to make it look like he was focused.

Wang Lin watched her delicate face making a serious expression. Her eyebrows, which were as beautiful as a painting, were furrowed, and she was biting her lower lip as she carefully examined the scales. A gentle wind blew by, moving a few strands of her hair.

Wang Lin's voice was gentle as he slowly said, "Let us go, I'll take you home…"

Li Muwan's fingers trembled. She raised her head toward Wang Lin and stared at him for a long time before whispering, "Are you really going to send me back?"

Wang Lin dodged Li Muwan's gaze and nodded.

Li Muwan chuckled, but this chuckle contained a trace of helplessness. She stood up, tidied up her clothes, and said, "Give me three days of time, okay?"

Wang Lin looked at her once before floating back to the dragon's head and sat down in the lotus position.

Li Muwan took out a piece of jade from her bag of holding and placed it on her forehead. After recording the pattern of the scales she had memorized, she turned to Shang Guanmo and calmly said, "Prepare a room for me."

Shang Guanmo quickly agreed. He felt like he was wrong about what he saw back then. This fiend and this little girl's relationship wasn't what he originally thought it was.

Inside the room, Li Muwan calmly sat on the ground as scenes from these past few years flashed through her eyes. From when she was being chased by that Core Formation cultivator from Xuan Wu, to being saved by Wang Lin, and the two of them escaping together. Then to being chased by the fire beasts and charging through the fire beasts into the Sea of Devils. Creating the cave where she focused on alchemy and he focused on cultivation… until he left for three years and brought her back the pill furnace. When he returned, he was being chased by Core Formation cultivators. He was then able to reach the Core Formation stage and carved up a path of blood.

When Wang Lin was reaching the Core Formation stage, a weak girl like herself went out to face those Core Formation demonic cultivators herself. Just as she was about to kill herself, Wang Lin suddenly appeared and saved her. She wasn't able to comprehend this sudden change. It caused her body to weaken and she was about to fall over when he caught her.

"Don't move. I'm taking you to kill people." This phrase kept echoing inside Li Muwan's ears. Thinking about that phrase made many complicated feelings appear in her heart and her face turned red. Along the way, she thought about it many times and couldn't help but bitterly smile about it. However, as Wang Lin killed his way here, that phrase weighted heavily in her heart.

Li Muwan muttered, "I'm taking you to kill people…" Her lips curled up into a faint smile as she took a breath. "Other people would take me to watch a beautiful moon or the setting sun, and yet he takes me to kill people…"

Shortly after, she exhaled and muttered, "Over these years, he never asked for my name and I still don't know what his is either. Perhaps in his eyes, my name is not important. What's important is that I know alchemy… Now that the pills have been refined, I guess I have lost my value…" Thinking about this, the complicated feelings in her heart became even stronger until they became a heart piercing pain. A stream of blood leaked out from the corner of her mouth. This line of blood in contrast with her immaculate beauty was a very shocking.

The term sad beauty was very fitting for her right now.

After a long time, she bit her lower lip and took out pieces of jade scales from her bag of holding. There was a total of 18,874, the same as the number of scales on the dragon.

Earlier, Jie Donglei didn't have enough disciples to stand on every single scale.

These pieces of jade scales were the fruits of her last half a month of sleepless effort. She spent all that time recording each scale. The amount of mental stress she had accumulated cost her at least five years of her life…

It was just that Li Muwan didn't care about any of that anymore. She took up the scales one by one and linked them together. Sometimes she would even change what was inside them.

First she fused the almost 20,000 pieces of jade into 10,000 pieces, then 5,000 pieces, and so on.

Three days later, Li Muwan's face was pale and her body was very weak. She felt like she would fall over if the wind were to blow on her. She walked out of the cave leaning against the wall.

Wang Lin was holding an object that he had been studying for the last three days in his hand. When Li Muwan came out, he put the object away before jumping down before her. When he saw her even more worn out face, he frowned and asked, "What were you doing in the the last three days? Drink this." He took out a jade bottle that contained 300 drops of spiritual liquid and placed it in Li Muwan's hand.

Li Muwan put away the jade bottle like a treasure and whispered, "Thank you, senior brother. I am fine. Let us… go…" With that, her face regained some color as she leaned on Wang Lin's shoulder and said, "Come on… let's go home…"

Wang Lin pondered for a very long time before wrapping his left hand around Li Muwan's waist. His body immediately flew into the air and cut open a path in the fog before them, then the two quickly disappeared into the sky.

The plum blossom is an elegant thing. If there it had a hint of gold, it would look too grand. However, that red in the center changes the entire feel of the flower; from plain to awe-inspiring, from elegant to something strange.

There were many cultivators talking to each other at the inn, but when the old man entered, the talking stopped. A few gazes turned toward the old man before they were withdrawn.

After the old man entered the inn, he didn't even look around and sat down on a seat near the window. After ordering some light wine, he sat there and drank by himself. His brow sometimes furrowed and sometimes loosened. His heart was clearly very heavy.

At this moment, the talking in the inn returned.

At one of the tables, a few cultivators revealed worried expressions and whispered, "That fiend killed his way here and then fought with the Fighting Evil Sect's Jie Donglei for three days and three nights. Finally, he used a mysterious magic treasure to kill Jie Donglei in an instant and then whipped his body for seven days and seven nights. Hehe, I think Nan Dou City will have a new owner."

The old man's expression changed when he heard the words "mysterious magic treasure".

A round-faced cultivator revealed a reminiscent look and sighed. "Hehe, so what about it? I personally saw that fiend myself. At that moment, the sky was filled with bodies he had trapped. There were at least 1000 bodies being dragged behind him. That fiend really knows how to enjoy himself. He was even holding a beautiful girl in his arms as he flew across the sky. That scene is something I will never forget in my life.

The old man slightly frowned and muttered to himself.

A cold-faced young man took a drink and sneered, "You guys should be quiet. I heard that that person cultivates the very vicious death spell and hates it when people talk about him. Be careful, if words reaches his ears, you guys will die without a grave."

The moment the old man heard the words "death spell," his eyes immediately lit up.

The young man sneered as he took another gulp. "In my opinion, since that person has the kill order on him, if he is still within Nan Dou City, then he won't live for much longer. Right now there are no Nascent Soul cultivators near Nan Dou City, but once the news spreads, Nascent Soul cultivators might make their way here. If I were him, I would find a place to hide out these 100 days."

"Hundred day kill order!?" The old man's eyes immediately lit up even more. His right hand reached out and the young man's face immediately turned red as his neck was grabbed by an invisible forced and pulled over.

"Boy, this old man is very interested in the person you talked about. Could you tell me about him in detail?"

Chapter 158 - The Fog Turns to Sea

The inn suddenly became silent. Everyone's eyes were on the green-robed old man. The old man held the young man in his hand and coldly looked at everyone else.

"Eyes like lightning" These three words came to the minds of the surrounding cultivators. They felt like their entire beings were being seen through and a bucket of cold water was being poured over their heads at the same time.

An early stage Core Formation cultivator's cup immediately fell to the ground as he quickly lowered his head, his eyes filled with terror. He secretly groaned, "This feeling, it should be a Nascent Soul…"

The old man withdrew his gaze and loosened his hand. The young man's neck was covered in a black bruise.

The old man poured a cup for him, took a drink, and slowly said, "Speak, how did all of this happen?"

The young man didn't even dare to breath too loudly. With his late stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, he wasn't able to see through this old man at all. However, with his many years of experience, he knew that this old man was at least a mid stage Core Formation, or even late stage Core Formation cultivator.

"That person suddenly appeared half a month ago, killed ten of the Fighting Evil Sect's elders, and for some reason got tagged with the kill order…" The young man explained everything he knew in detail.

The old man closed his eyes and casually waved his hand. The young man's eyes widened as his entire body was turned into a mist of blood and then a strange wind came and carried the blood mist away.

The cultivators in the inn were all terrified. They wanted to leave, but no one dared to move first.

The old man pondered a bit. He opened his eyes as he locked on to the early stage Core Formation cultivator and said, "You, come over here."

The Core Formation cultivator's body trembled as he quickly stood up and arrived one foot away from the old man. With a trembling voice, he respectfully said, "Junior Xu Mu greets senior. Whatever senior needs, please ask. Junior swears on my own golden core that everything I say is true, just please have mercy."

The old man poured a cup of wine. After he drank it, he said, "Since I entered the inn, every time that person was brought up, the spiritual energy in your body went out of control. I guess you must have seen him in person."

Xu Mu took a deep breath. Fear lingered in his eyes as he whispered, "Junior has indeed seen that fiend in person."

"What is his cultivation level?" A mysterious light appeared in the old man's eyes as he asked the question. He wanted to know this the most. This was also why he killed the young man. The young man had said a lot of useless things but never said what cultivation level that person was at.

"Early stage Core Formation!" Xu Mu felt a bit uneasy, so he quickly added, "Senior, the person looks like he is just at the early stage of Core Formation, but he has two treasures…"

Hearing the words "two treasures," although the old man's expression remained the same, he became alert.

"One of them is a flying sword that can teleport…"

The old man felt a bit disappointed as he poured a cup of wine and drank it.

Xu Mu carefully observed the old man as he nervously said, "There is another one. It is… junior really doesn't understand what it is either. I only see a red light and there is something inside the red light. However, whoever gets touched by the red light dies and their body gets turned into a skeleton."

The old man pondered for a bit, then stood up, dropped a piece of low quality spirit stone, and grabbed Xu Mu. Both of them instantly traveled more than 1000 kilometers.

The moment he left, all of the cultivators in the inn were filled with terror. The three words in everyone's minds were "Nascent Soul cultivator!"

Under Xu Mu's guidance, the old man teleported to the Fighting Evil Sect in just half an hour. He spread out his powerful divine sense and found Shang Guanmo.

To Shang Guanmo's shock, the old man was able to take another drop of his soul essence blood to use the connection between the two drops to track Wang Lin. He then threw Xu Mu down and quickly left.

As for Wang Lin, he moved very fast while carrying Li Muwan. The flying sword made an opening through the thick fog of the Sea of Devils.

The Sea of Devils is surrounded by fog all year round, but for only one month out of every year, the fog turns into water. In all the years that Wang Lin had stayed in the Sea of Devils, due to him being in closed door cultivation, he hadn't encountered this phenomenon.

One month after he entered the 14th valley, the fog turned into sea. This happened every year for the three years he had spent there, and now it was about to happen again.

Li Muwan was different. She had personally experienced it every single year. With the protection of the formation, the seawater couldn't enter the cave, but she could clearly see the deep blue ocean outside, along with some of the rare spirit beasts that would swim by.

Close to four years of time meant the fog had turned into sea four times. Every time, Li Muwan would personally manage the formation and only relax after it was over.

The fog was even denser now than when they first arrived in the Sea of Devils. Some parts of the fog had already turned into water.

As the two flew higher, the fog got denser and denser, until it felt like they were swimming in water.

Li Muwan whispered, "It's about to turn into a sea…"

Wang Lin didn't answer. He suddenly stopped to look behind and started to observe the surrounding fog. He could see that the slowly moving fog was moving faster than before. It was as if it were being pushed forward. Even some of the surrounding creatures were moving in every direction but forward.

Li Muwan saw Wang Lin's expression and whispered, "What is it, senior brother?"

"Nothing." After Wang Lin finished speaking, he flew forward even faster. He felt very uneasy. From the movement of the fog, it was clear that someone was flying in this direction at a very fast pace. The person chasing from behind had to be a very powerful cultivator; it would be impossible to produce this pushing effect on the fog otherwise.

Also, the surrounding creatures were scattering in all directions except for forward. This made Wang Lin even more sure that someone was closing in from behind.

In fact, this is very easy to explain. If there is a school of small fish swimming in the water and then a very fast sword flies through them, they would immediately scatter in all directions but forward.

Wang Lin played a lot in the rivers near the village with the other kids when he was a boy. After seeing this happen, he was able to make the connection and detect the abnormality.

Wang Lin's eyes became cold as he took out the spirit liquid and took a big gulp. The golden core in his body quickly spun as it absorbed the spiritual energy in the liquid, allowing him to release even more spiritual energy. This resulted in his speed increasing.

Li Muwan was able to feel Wang Lin's nervousness. She quickly took out some materials and made some simple formations to throw behind them.

Wang Lin looked behind him and revealed a look of admiration. Li Muwan felt a sense of sweetness in her heart, but she had used too much energy before, so now felt like she had no strength left. When she saw Wang Lin's speed increase after drinking the spirit liquid, she hesitated a bit before taking out the bottle of spirit liquid that Wang Lin had given her. She drank a few drops and was immediately shocked. She carefully put it away and continued to make those small formations.

As the two flew higher, an invisible force eventually appeared. This was the pressure of the sea that was unique to the Sea of Devils. Anyone that tried to leave would have to face this pressure.

70,000 kilometers behind Wang Lin, the old man slapped his bag of holding and took out a green gourd. The gourd immediately grew to 100 times its original size. The old man casually sat on the gourd as it flew forward. Thanks to the gourd, his speed was at least doubled.

As Wang Lin moved, he could feel the pushing force of the fog getting stronger. Although some of it was due to his own speed, it was obvious that the person chasing him had increased their speed through some unknown method.

The fog in the Sea of Devils had thinned down a lot as water began to appear. If one were to look from above the Sea of Devils, then they would see that the fog was thin enough to see through.

Under the moonlight, the Sea of Devils sparkled. It was as if a layer of water had already formed. The water quickly spread as time passed and waves roared as they hit the land.

The old man frowned from his seat on the gourd. Before him were well-placed, active formations. Although the formations were weak and he didn't mind them, if he continued to ram into them one by one, they would still hinder him.

The old man let out a snort as he waved his hand and slapped the gourd. The seal on the gourd opened up and a powerful force pushed out.

A ripple began to spread out from the mouth of the gourd. All of the formations that the ripples touched were instantly destroyed. Even the fog and sea water were pushed aside, creating a tunnel forward.

The old man sat on top of the gourd as he quickly charged into the tunnel.

Wang Lin's body had already been soaked by the water. He took another gulp of spirit liquid and quickly charged forward into the descending sea.

He hugged Li Muwan and pushed his body forward. His body moved through the water like a fish. Soon, he could see the surface. His eyes became cold as he pointed forward and the flying sword suddenly disappeared.

Then Wang Lin dragged Li Muwan out of the water like a sword piercing the heavens. The moment the two came out of the water, they disappeared in a trail of light.

The crystal sword moved in rhythm with the waves, waiting for the right moment to attack.

Half an hour later, a large swirl appeared in the sea. The swirl was about 100 meters wide and it moved in one direction.

There was a black tunnel connected to the bottom of the Sea of Devils at the center of the swirl. A green gourd slowly rose from within the tunnel.

Chapter 159 - The Green Robed Old Man

The green-robed old man sat on top of the gourd and looked up at the sky. He slapped the gourd and was just about to fly upward when his expression changed. He raised two fingers and pinched down on a crystal light that suddenly appeared in front of his face. He sneered, but that sneer immediately changed.

The crystal light in between his fingers slowly disappeared. It was an afterimage.

The old man suddenly moved his head as the crystal light brushed by his face. The crystal light flashed a few times before disappearing.

The old man didn't stop, but his face was gloomy. He wiped the blood from his cheek with his finger, then he placed this finger next to his mouth and licked the blood off before closing his eyes to think.

"This little guy is very bold!" After a long time, he opened his eyes and slapped the gourd. The gourd shrank back to its original size. He opened up the gourd and took a drink. The liquid inside released the sweet scent of wine.

Hou Fen

Although the disaster of the fire beasts was resolved by the rank 4 cultivation country, the spiritual energy there was filled with fire element, making it impossible to cultivate. Adding on the fact that the ground was too hot, the country was mostly covered in lava and volcanos kept on erupting, turning the mortal kingdoms into patches of wasteland.

The former imperial city was covered in lava and all of the buildings were gone. There was no living creatures left in Hou Fen; the entire country was like a silent grave.

Wang Lin and Li Muwan quickly flew over the country. They both silently pondered as they saw what had become of Hou Fen. Although Wang Lin had some mixed feelings about all of this, if it wasn't for the heaven defying bead absorbing the fire spirit, then he would have already been devoured by it.

All of this could only be considered a coincidence; there was no right or wrong. If he was given a choice at that moment, even knowing the result, he would have still done the same thing.

The two of them flew across the sky like a shooting star. Soon, they passed by the place where they first met. Li Muwan looked at Wang Lin but didn't say a word.

As for Wang Lin, he was thinking about the person chasing them and had no time to think about anything else. Wang Lin suddenly stretched his arm out behind him and the crystal flying sword landed in his hand.

Wang Lin suddenly stopped as he stared at the trace of blood on the flying sword. He smeared the blood onto his hand and then, after staring at it for a while, his expression became very unsettled. He could feel dense spiritual energy from this blood. There was this much spiritual energy in this small amount of blood. Just what kind of cultivation level had this person reached?

He took out a jade bottle and placed the blood inside. Right now, he felt like there was a mountain weighing down his heart. He looked at the giant "Punish" above his head and sneered, then he flew even faster while holding Li Muwan.

After quickly crossing the border of Hou Fen, they could see the mountain where the Hou Fen Union had originally built their base. The four flags of Hou Fen were hung high on the top of the mountain, signifying that this area belonged to the Hou Fen Union.

After they arrived here, Wang Lin stopped. He pondered for a bit and then said, "I'll be sending you off."

Li Muwan bit her lower lip as she looked behind them and said, "How about you follow me back to Lou He Sect to hide for a bit?"

Wang Lin calmly said, "No need." With that, he hesitated for a bit while looking at Li Muwan. He slapped his forehead and Li Muwan's soul essence blood flew out.

Wang Lin didn't immediately return it but left a trace of his Ji Realm inside it before returning it.

Wang Lin slowly said, "Thank you for these past four years. I have left a sliver of my divine sense in your soul essence blood. Anyone below the Nascent Soul stage will no longer be able to harm you."

Li Muwan revealed a complicated look and asked, "Will we have a chance to meet in the future?"

Wang Lin pondered for a bit before letting out a sigh. He didn't answer the question but took something out from his bag of holding and handed it to Li Muwan. It was the hundred beast pill furnace. He had gotten it back after killing Kun Sang.

Li Muwan took the hundred beast pill furnace. After looking at it for a while, she raised her head and said, "These are pills I have made in the past few years. The jade has an explanation of all of them." With that, she took out more than 10 small bottles and passed them to Wang Lin, along with a piece of jade.

After Wang Lin received them, he put them into his bag of holding. He then looked at Li Muwan and clasped his hands. "Four years ago, I promised to bring you back here safely. Now that I have, we no longer owe each other anything. Goodbye!"

Wang Lin was about to leave when Li Muwan suddenly shouted, "Senior brother, this is my gift to you!" With that, she took out a white jade and threw it at Wang Lin. Then, without looking back, she flew toward the Hou Fen Union.

Wang Lin caught the jade and scanned it. The message Li Muwan left inside echoed in his ears.

"Senior brother, Wan Er doesn't know what your name is because you've never told me in these past four years. I believe you don't know mine either… Wan Er thanks you for the countless times you have saved me in these past four years. The time I spent in the Sea of Devils is something I'll never forget… Since our separation is inevitable, and Wan Er knows that senior brother goes into closed door cultivation a lot, Wan Er is gifting you this jade. This jade is the epitome of Wan Er's formation skills. It contains the Fighting Evil Sect's battle dragon formation with improvements."

"This formation is a fusion of attack and defense, but compared to attack, defense is the true purpose of his formation. If it can protect senior brother for a while when you encounter danger, then Wan Er is satisfied…"

Holding the jade, listening to Li Muwan's words, and watching her figure disappear into the distance, Wang Lin began to ponder. He put away the jade, then his body suddenly landed on the ground. After taking one step, he disappeared. After moving far away, he touched his forehead and his body disappeared in a flash of light.

He entered the heaven defying bead, and at this moment, his presence disappeared. Wang Lin had already decided that he would enter the heaven defying bead after bringing Li Muwan back. The kill order was going to last 100 days. For him, it was just a few extra days of cultivation inside the heaven defying bead.

This was also why, even though he knew of the danger of the kill order, he still killed Qian Kun.

The old man chasing Wang Lin quickly arrived in Hou Fen. He arrived at the spot where Wang Lin disappeared shortly after he entered the heaven defying bead. The old man's face was filled with doubt as his body descended further into the ground. After searching for a while, he came out of the ground with an even stronger look of doubt than before. "Gone… even the connection between the soul blood essence is gone. It seems that that little guy has quite a few secrets."

Just at this moment, he suddenly raised his head and looked without any expression at the three rays of light flying at him. Soon, the three rays of light arrived, revealing one woman and two men.

The woman was wearing a formal dress. She looked very high statured. To her left was a very handsome man in black robes. He had an overall very elegant presence.

To the woman's right was a tall, red-faced old man. The old man's face was different from normal people's. His eyes were like two large bells and his pupils were like two burning flames.

The old man looked at the three and calmly asked, "Why are you three here?"

That woman was Feng Luan, and as for the elegant, scholarly-looking man, it was without a doubt her cultivation partner, Yang Sen. As for the old man, he was one of the Nascent Soul ancestors from the War God Shrine. His cultivation level was the same as Yang Sen's.

Yang Sen looked at the old man with dread because he couldn't see through the old man's cultivation. He clasped his hands and asked, "Is fellow cultivator from Xuan Wu?"

The old man rolled his eyes and said, "Who is your follow cultivator? Scram, or else I'm going to take your Nascent Soul and use it to refine treasures."

Yang Sen's expression changed. He sneered and was about to speak when the red-faced man stopped him. His bell-like eyes stared at the seven golden plum flowers on the old man's clothes and asked, "Is your excellency from the Sea of Devils?"

Yang Sen and Feng Luan looked at each other before looking at the golden plum flower on the old man's shirt.

The old man frowned and became impatient. He waved his hand and the three of them were pushed back. A powerful wind pushed them far away. Even the Nascent Souls in their bodies felt like they were going to be blown out.

After they were finally able to stop themselves, the three's expressions became gloomy and Yang Sen asked, "What cultivation level?"

The red-faced old man bitterly replied, "At least late stage Nascent Soul…"

Feng Luan frowned and whispered, "Zou Bin, what was that golden plum flower?"

"I believe the two of you have heard about this before. 300 years ago, before I entered the War God Shrine, I traveled through the Sea of Devils. My early stage Nascent Soul cultivation was enough to keep myself safe as long as I didn't enter any dangerous areas."

"The Sea of Devils has a total of 999 cities, and a bit more than 300 of them are in the inner sea. Among those 300 or so cities, seven of them are called the Land of Seven Plums."

"The seven cities connected form the petal of a plum flower. If you look from a distance, it does resemble it. There are a total of seven city lords who's cultivation levels are unfathomable. Rumor has it that they have already reached the Soul Formation stage, but those rumors are not confirmed."

Fang Luan's frown tightened as he asked, "That person just now…"

The old man's expression became serious as he said, "If I'm not wrong, then that person just now was one of the city lords of one of the seven cities! However, the demonic cultivators of the Sea of Devils, especially ones from inner sea, don't leave the Sea of Devils so easily. I don't believe he will stay here for long."

The three of them looked at each other. Each of them could feel the weight on each other's hearts. They went around the old man as they returned to the Hou Fen Union's mountain.

The three of them sensed the aura of a foreign Nascent Soul cultivator earlier, so they came to check; however, they didn't expect the result to be someone so difficult to deal with.

The old man wandered around the area for a bit before letting out a snort and spreading out his divine sense. This time he wasn't going to miss a thing. He carefully scanned the area from the ground to the sky.

The old man's divine sense slowly swept the area. He gradually began to spread out further and further, until it even affected the Hou Fen Union. However, the old man didn't care; he swept the area several times but was still unable to find anything.

Chapter 160 - Cultivating the Core

The doubt in his heart became even stronger. He pondered for a bit before disappearing and crossing Hou Fen at a frightening pace. He went into one of its bordering nations, Tian Mao.

His goal was the Heaven's Tower at the center of Tian Mo. The person inside it was a messenger from an upper cultivation country.

Not all rank 3 cultivation countries have a Heaven's Tower. Hou Fen and Xuan Wu don't have one. This is also why Hou Fen decided to invade Xuan Wu rather than Tian Mo.

Time slowly passed as Wang Lin cultivated inside the the heaven defying bead. Soon, 100 days had passed.

On this day, Wang Lin suddenly opened his eyes. The "Punish" above his head became less and less red, until it went from blood-red to grey.

An invisible wave appeared and began to slowly push outwards. The heaven defying bead originally released gentle light, but at this moment, it began to shine brightly. As the wave spread out, more and more of the lights began to shine brightly. Eventually, every light in the area was shining brightly.

Wang Lin stared at the scene before him. He was shocked.

Shortly after the "Punish" above his head shrank, Wang Lin could sense powerful spiritual energy fluctuations. The fluctuations grew more intense until a grey, spherical pill appeared in the air.

A bit of flame floated above the pill. Wang Lin reached out toward it and it descended toward Wang Lin's hand until it was one inch from his palm.

He scanned it with his divine sense and found that the spiritual energy contained in this pill matched exactly the full cultivation of someone at the mid stage of Core Formation. Wang Lin recalled the information that Li Muwan had given him about the kill order. After pondering for a bit, he put it away instead of using it immediately.

Wang Lin decided to save this pill for when he attempt to form his Nascent Soul. It should make the success rate will be higher. The chances of forming a Nascent Soul were much lower than forming his golden core. The main reason he was able to form his core was due to the underworld ascension cultivation method and Li Muwan's pill.

If either of these were missing, he might not have been able to succeed in forming his core and might have been forever stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage. There was an even harder hurdle in the future though: the Nascent Soul stage.

Forming a Nascent Soul was simply too hard. Wang Lin believed that even with Ma Liang's body's talent, there was almost no hope unless he could find those legendary pills that could increase the chance of forming a Nascent Soul that Li Muwan talked about. However, almost all of those pills were in rank 5 or higher cultivation countries, and they rarely ever leaked out.

Wang Lin muttered to himself, "Nascent Soul… Nascent Soul… even with the heaven defying bead, I'm afraid I will need hundreds of years to succeed… what's most important now is to find a new cultivation method. The underworld ascension cultivation method has reached its peak and Situ Nan is still asleep, so I have to rely on myself." The first thing he needed to find was a cultivation method for the Core Formation stage.

But the choosing this cultivation method was very difficult. Right now, all of the cultivation methods he had were from people he had killed. Although there were some that were fitting for a Core Formation cultivator to use, they were all too different, making it hard to choose one.

These were not the key points though. The key point was he wanted to pick a cultivation method that would increase his chance of forming his Nascent Soul. Thinking about this, his eyes lit up. From Ma Liang's memories, the War God Shrine's Divine Path seemed to have this effect.

However, what confused Wang Lin was that if the War God Shrine really had a cultivation method like this, on top of people within their own country being greedy, even rank 4 or rank 5 cultivation countries wouldn't just leave it be.

However, according to Ma Liang's memories, the War God Shrine's Divine Path never peaked the interest of the higher ranked cultivation countries. This confused Wang Lin.

However, the only clue he had was this Divine Path. Wang Lin decided that he had to get his hands on the Divine Path no matter what. The Divine Path that Ma Liang knew about was something derived from a senior who had gained insight to the original Divine Path, so it was actually a fake. What Wang Lin wanted was the original Divine Path.

Everything Wang Lin had done was to ensure that he would successfully form his Nascent Soul in the future. Only by preparing now could he increase the success rate as much as possible

But a mere cultivation method wasn't enough to make Wang Lin confident. Forming a Nascent Soul was very difficult. It has to be said that the qualification for a rank 2 cultivation country to reach rank 3 is someone reaching the Nascent Soul stage. This alone showed how difficult it was.

Wang Lin secretly sighed and went back to cultivating. After staying inside the heaven defying bead for a few more days, he prepared to leave.

Before he left, he went to visit Situ Nan and his parents' souls. After silently standing there for a bit, he left the heaven defying bead.

At some location underground, there was a flash of rainbow-colored light as Wang Lin appeared. Right after he appeared, he quickly dashed off into the distance.

At the same time, he spread out his divine sense and carefully observed the outside. It was the dead of night and everything was quiet. Wang Lin pondered for a bit before quickly moving toward the Hou Fen Union.

But before he moved much, he suddenly felt a sense of danger coming from his divine sense. He used his earth escape technique to its limit to quickly go further underground. From 300 feet to 1000 feet, he continued to go down and his speed only increased.

An old voice echoed throughout Wang Lin's divine sense. "This old man has waited 97 days for you, little guy!"

Wang Lin's skull tingled, his hair stood up, and his face was gloomy. Without a word, he continued to descend. 1000 feet, 2000 feet, 3000 feet, 4000 feet… 10,000 feet. Wang Lin descended straight down, and as he got deeper, he felt a force resisting him, causing him to immediately change directions into a diagonal descent.

"Hehe, good thing I borrowed this earth boat from someone. It would be really hard to catch you when you escape past the earth's crust thanks to the force there." The voice continued to echo in Wang Lin's divine sense.

Wang Lin remained silent as he suddenly changed directions and started heading up. From 1000 feet underground to 100 feet, and he charged out to the surface with the Hou Fen Union mountain range right before him.

The moment he appeared, he charged toward the mountain. A screen of light appeared around the mountain. The moment he touched the light, he took out the identification jade he was given. He effortlessly passed through the light and then looked back.

At this moment, a large, black, wooden boat came up from the ground. The old man stood on top of the boat and looked at Wang Lin on the other side of the light screen. He nodded and said, "Not bad. Your divine sense is very strange. Although you have adjusted it to your body, it is still a bit off. It seems you've stolen that body. Little guy, come with me. This place can't protect you."

Wang Lin's face was gloomy as he silently sneered.

The old man's lips moved, revealing a strange smile. His right hand gently pressed against the light screen, making a few cracks appear before the entire light screen completely shattered. The entire mountain shook, kicking up a lot of dirt and dust.

The Hou Fen Union's Nascent Soul cultivators flew out one by one, terrified.

Wang Lin's pupils shrank. He turned around and sunk back into the ground to escape again.

The old man sneered and was about to chase when one of the Evil Devil Sect's Nascent Soul cultivators bit the bullet and asked, "Fellow cultivator, why did you destroy our sect's protective formation?"

This person had been around for three months. He didn't do much most of the time besides scan past the area with his divine sense. His divine sense was very strong and it shocked all of the Nascent Soul cultivators present.

Secretly, the cultivators of Hou Fen were keeping a tab on the old man. Today they saw a disciple of the Hou Fen Union coming, but before they could take a closer look, they were all dumbfounded by the old man destroying their sect's protective formation with one press of his palm.

If they were to let this go, the Hou Fen Union would lose all face. It was the Evil Demon Sect's turn to guard the mountain today, which was why this Nascent Soul cultivator was the one to bite the bullet and ask the question. This way, their attitude on this matter was voiced. Whether or not the old man answered, the Nascent Soul cultivator wasn't going to force the subject either way.

The old man stared at the cultivators of Hou Fen and said one word: "Scram!"

This one word sent out a powerful shockwave that rang inside the cultivators' ears.

After the sound wave passed, the old man had already disappeared without a trace. The cultivators all looked at each other. Some of them are bleeding out of their mouths and noses. None of them were able to utter a word.

But the old man soon returned. His face was very gloomy as he stared at the mountain. His eyes closed and then suddenly opened as his powerful divine sense spread out. He scanned every single person in the mountain and even searched up to 1000 feet underground. The more he scanned, the more he burrowed his brow. Finally, his body moved and from one he became two, then from two he became four.

Four identical-looking old men spread out in four directions, each scanning with their own divine sense, but they still found nothing. The old man stomped the ground as he and his three avatars each went to the four corners of Xuan Wu. Their divine senses connected and encircled the entire country.

"There are only three years left. Little guy, in these three years, I, the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord, will refine Xuan Wu to find you. Ah, if it wasn't for that place needing the death spell to pass through, I wouldn't spend all this time trying to capture you!"

Chapter 161 - Eight Clawed Divine Sense

One main body and three avatars. Their divine senses linked together and completely locked down Xuan Wu.

Any cultivator entering or leaving Xuan Wu would have to go through this line of divine sense. This way, the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord would have full control.

This old man was forced to do this. He chased Wang Lin all the way from the Sea of Devils, through Hou Fen, and pushed his way to Xuan Wu, but then Wang Lin's presence just completely disappeared.

Despite his power, he still couldn't find Wang Lin. He thought that Wang Lin was hiding deep underground, but even after scanning there, he still found nothing.

But he didn't give up. After he heard that Wang Lin could use the death spell in Nan Dou, he was tempted. In his grand plan, one part would be very easy if he had someone who could use the death spell.

This was the only reason he had expended all this effort chasing Wang Lin. Normally, with his abilities, catching Wang Lin should've been easy, but Wang Lin was elusive like a worm and disappeared without a trace. He waited for 97 days the first time, but when Wang Lin finally came out and he was just about to have his way, the little brat went underground using an earth escape technique.

Fortunately, he had borrowed the earth boat. This treasure contained a powerful earth escape technique, so using it would make things a lot easier. Although he couldn't use a lot of his techniques underground, he thought that it would be fine as long as he got close. However, he didn't think that the little brat's destination was the Hou Fen Union's mountain.

Although he was able to destroy the sect's protection formation with one palm, he once against lost track of the little brat. This was why he risked angering the rank 4 cultivation country behind Xuan Wu and Hou Fen to lock down the country with his divine sense.

In truth, he hadn't killed a single person from either of the two countries. This was largely due to the rank 4 cultivation country behind them. The higher someone's cultivation level, the more they know about the inner workings of Suzaku. Both Xuan Wu and Hou Fen had the backing of the same rank 4 cultivation country, so no matter how much they fought each other, it would be fine. However, if someone from the outside came in, then they would act.

If it was before, it would have been fine to just kill as needed, but since that place was going to open up soon, he didn't want to cause too many problems here.

This lockdown lasted two years.

During these two years of time, both Xuan Wu and the Hou Fen Union had become used to being scanned by the old man's divine sense. This could occur several times throughout the day.

Almost everyone knew the source of all of this. The elders had all warned them that they were not allowed to go the four directions from which the divine senses were coming from…

The Eighth Extreme Demon Lord became more and more nervous because that place was going to open up in only one year, and if he were late, the consequences would be unimaginable. In the heat of the moment, he decided that he would wait for half a year more. If he still wasn't able to find that brat in half a year, then he would risk angering the rank 4 cultivation country and would refine the entire country to find that little brat.

Time slowly passed. One month, two months… until five months had passed. As time passed, the complexion of the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord darkened, and the hostility on his face gradually increased.

Wang Lin sat in the lotus position inside the heaven defying bead's space. His face was even more ugly than the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord's. He had checked everything on his body and found something different about Shang Guanmo's soul essence blood. It seemed the reason the old man was able to chase him this far was due to Shang Guanmo's soul essence blood.

On this day, the limit of the heaven defying bead's space was drawing near. He could feel that if he didn't leave soon, he would never be able to leave again.

He had to leave and go out for three days before he could return again. However, if the person that was chasing him was still out there, then it would be very difficult to stay safe for three days.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit. The light in the heaven defying bead was gradually dimming. The moment they completely went out, he came out of the heaven defying bead.

The moment he appeared, the Eighth Extreme Demon Lord suddenly opened his eyes and disappeared from where he was.

Wang Lin's body slowly condensed. He suddenly felt very dizzy, but he forced himself to take out Shang Guanmo's soul essence blood from his brow. Without a word, he quickly flicked it up and shot it far away.

At the same time, he suddenly felt a sense of danger. Wang Lin sneered as he quickly flew toward the opposite direction.

The old man followed the soul essence blood's connection and arrived in the air above its location. He let out as smile as he hit the ground, causing it to tremble. His body entered the ground using the earth boat. However, he soon came out of the ground holding Shang Guanmo's soul essence blood. In a fit of anger, he crushed it.

"You can't run away!" The old man shouted as he spread out his divine sense. It covered all of Xuan Mo, then he let out a snort before quickly chasing after Wang Lin.

As Wang Lin traveled through the earth, he suddenly sensed that the surrounding earth was filled with spiritual energy fluctuations. He knew that the old man was already chasing after him and that he wouldn't be able to get away for three days. After thinking about it, he quickly flew up and out of the ground.

The moment he stepped aboveground, four identical figures appeared around him.

The old man coldly stared at Wang Lin as his four clones slowly fused back into one. He loudly shouted, "Including the 97 days at the start, I have waited for you for almost three years."

Wang Lin's expression was gloomy as he coldly stared at the old man. He didn't say a word.

The old man snorted and asked, "What is your name?"

Wang Lin said "Ma Liang!" The old man's cultivation was like a calm sea to Wang Lin, too deep to see through.

The old man's eyes stared at Wang Lin as he said, word for word, "Ma Liang, I'm going to ask you this: do you know the death spell?" There was killing intent hidden in his eyes. If Wang Lin's response was no, the old man would immediately kill his brat in his anger. He would then go back to Nan Dou to kill everyone for lying to him and use their souls to refine treasures.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit and then nodded. He could feel the killing intent from the old man. If he took one wrong step, he would die without a grave.

The old man's eyes narrowed. Without a word, he slapped his bag of holding and a three-foot-long green python appeared in his hand.

The green python stuck out its tongue as its black eyes stared at Wang Lin.

The old man threw the green python on the ground and coldly said, "Use your death spell. The target is this python!"

The moment the python landed on the ground, it curled up before jumping toward Wang Lin with its mouth open. Wang Lin looked down at the python. Red lightning flashed across his eyes as he muttered, "Die!"

Wang Lin's target wasn't the python, but the old man. This time, he used his ji realm to its limit.

The moment he said the word "die," Wang Lin immediately backed up. The old man felt his mind shake as a ray of red lightning drilled into his sea of consciousness. His consciousness was completely empty except for an octopus laying on its stomach. The moment the red lightning entered, the octopus opened its mouth, creating a powerful suction force. The red lightning was immediately sucked into its mouth.

But the ji realm was powerful beyond imagination. Although the old man's cultivation level was very high, the octopus still shivered after sucking in the red lightning.

This shiver caused a chain reaction in which even his consciousness shivered, forcing his body to pause for a moment.

As Wang Lin backed up, he opened his mouth and spat out the crystal sword. The sword cut the snake in half and moved like lightning to stab the old man's brow.

However, rings of white light came out, preventing the flying sword from getting any closer. Wang Lin waved his right hand to call back the flying sword before quickly escaping underground.

Soon, the old man recovered from the shock as he looked at the python on the ground and touched his brow. He was filled with rage as his hand formed seal. He shouted, "Go!"

A knife emitting a rainbow-colored light appeared before him. The knife was made entirely of a clear crystal and light traveled within it. Following the order of the old man, the knife flew out with rings of rainbow-colored light. It pierced into the ground and quickly chased after Wang Lin.

Along the way, as the knife traveled the dirt around, it just disappeared and soon was within 100 feet of Wang Lin. Wang Lin felt his head go numb. Without any hesitation, he took out the charm Yang Sen had given him.

This charm could block the attack of a Nascent Soul cultivator. The moment he threw the charm, the knife arrived.

The charm immediately expanded and protected Wang Lin from behind. It collided with the knife and, after a series of crackling sounds, it shattered. The knife was also pushed back a few feet. From where they collided, a shock wave spread, causing the dirt on the surface to kick up.

If one were look from aboveground, they would see a small circle expand as the earth was kicked up. It was as if there was an earth dragon moving underground.

Wang Lin was hit by the shock wave and coughed out a mouthful of blood. He quickly came out from underground and barely dodged the main shock wave.

After he came out of the ground, he didn't pause at all and quickly continued to escape.

Feeling the shock wave underground, the old man's anger lessened as he muttered to himself, "That attack just now was even able to stop me for a moment. Rumor has it that the death spell focuses on training one's divine sense and using it to attack. Following that logic, that little brat really does control the death spell."

Thinking about this, his body disappeared from the spot. Wang Lin felt pain in his chest as he quickly took out one of the pills Li Muwan had given him to heal his wounds. Suddenly, he sensed fluctuations of spiritual energy before him. He had dealt with Nascent Soul cultivators a lot, so he knew that this was sign of teleportation. Without any hesitation, he turned around and began to fly the other way.

At this moment, the old man walked out from where the spiritual energy fluctuation was.

"Little friend, this old man doesn't want to hurt you. How about you listen to me first?"

Chapter 162 - Reaching an Agreement

As the old man said this, he waved his hand and lightning came from all directions. Soon, there was cage of lightning trapping Wang Lin.

Wang Lin's face was gloomy. He stopped moving, turned to the old man, and coldly asked, "What does senior want?"

The old man stared at Wang Lin. After a long time, he said, "I want to borrow your death spell."

Wang Lin pondered for a bit, then looked at the surrounding lightning cage. The sounds of crackling from the lightning came in from all around him.

"I want to know why."

The old man pondered for a bit before shaking his head. "It is not yet time to talk about this matter, but don't worry; this old man won't ask you to go for nothing. If you come with me, I'll gift you an earth transformation pill!"

Wang Lin's expression remained calm, but he was very tempted. He had heard of the earth transformation pill from Li Muwan and how it was very rare. It was a pill that was used to help increase cultivation by one level during the Core Formation stage. It had a high chance to elevate an early stage Core Formation cultivator to the mid stage. While the chances to increase from mid stage to late stage weren't as high, it would still increase his spiritual energy and lay the foundation for the future.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit before raising his head to look at the old man, but he didn't say a word. He was very confused. Although he couldn't see through the old man's cultivation, he was able to destroy the Hou Fen Union's sect protection formation with one palm and was able to scare away Nascent Soul cultivators with one roar. He either had to be at the peak of the late stage of Nascent Soul or already stepped into the Soul Formation stage.

With the old man's cultivation, he could easily put a few restrictions on Wang Lin to threaten him, or even just refine Wang Lin into a puppet that would listen to his every command. There didn't seem to be a need for the old man to talk to Wang Lin with a bargaining tone.

Wang Lin secretly thought, "There must be a problem here." However, he didn't reveal anything abnormal on the surface. He pondered for a bit before staring back at the old man and shaking his head.

The old man calmly said, "You're looking for death." He closed his right hand and the lightning cage that was surrounding Wang Lin began to shrink. Wang Lin stared at the old man, revealing a mocking expression.

The lightning cage got closer and closer until it was almost touching him. The edges of his hair and clothes touched the cage when the wind blew and turned to dust.

As the cage was about to come into contact with Wang Lin, the old man stopped and looked at Wang Lin. "Your mental strength is good, but you don't know your place. Do you really think I won't kill you?"

The mocking expression on Wang Lin's face intensified as he calmly said, "One earth transformation pill is not enough."

The old man stared at Wang Lin and secretly cursed. If it wasn't for that fact that people going to that place couldn't have any restrictions placed on them, he would have already placed restrictions on this brat and avoided all this trouble.

Even if he were to use any restrictions, all of them would be destroyed once they enter that place. Also, at the stage where they would need the death spell, if the brat had any resentment, he could easily lead everyone to death.

This was the exact reason why he almost died the first time he had entered 1000 years ago. It had taken him 1000 years to recover his cultivation, and although it was now a bit higher than it was before, he couldn't help but shiver every time he thought of that place.

Therefore, he couldn't place restrictions or anything of the sort on Wang Lin. After hearing Wang Lin's words, he relaxed a bit as he waved his hand and the lightning cage loosened.

Wang Lin didn't even blink or look at the lightning cage. He only calmly looked at the old man.

The old man firmly said, "What do you want? Just speak your mind."

"I want to know how dangerous the place I'll be going is," Wang Lin said, with a calm but determined voice.

The old man laughed. "This old man won't lie to you about how dangerous it is. Early stage Nascent Soul cultivators have a 90% chance of dying. As for mid stage Nascent Soul cultivators, with luck, they can survive. Only late stage Nascent Soul cultivators who have reached pseudo Soul Formation can safely move around there, but if they aren't careful, they will still die."

"However, although that place is dangerous, the harvest is also great. Magic treasures, pills, cultivation methods… it can be said that anything you want is there. There is also the rumored Soul Transformation Pill. With just one pill, there is a chance for you to become a Soul Transformation cultivator."

"As for the dangers, you don't have to worry too much. Your death spell has a great use in one of the trials there. At the least until then, you won't encounter any danger. After that, as long as you aren't too greedy and wait, then once the time has passed, you will naturally be teleported outside."

Wang Lin heard this and began to ponder. After hearing the old man's words, he only believed 30% of it.

"I see that you have just reached the Core Formation stage. Forget it; I have a Nascent Forming Pill that I will give you if you agree to come with me. Also, I promise to give you one magic treasure that I get from that place. How about it?"

He had heard of this Nascent Forming Pill from Li Muwan before. It could increase the chance of forming a Nascent Soul by a little. It was very scarce in rank 3 cultivation countries and still rare in rank 4 countries. As for the recipe, it was controlled by rank 5 cultivation countries.

Wang Lin pondered for a while. He was a bit tempted by the mysterious place the old man was talking about. He didn't really think about obtaining the Soul Transformation pill, but hoped to find some pill and cultivation method to help him reach the Nascent Soul stage. Otherwise, without any external help, he didn't know how long he would have to cultivate for to reach the Nascent Soul stage.

And if he continued to reject the deal, the old man would kill him in a fit of anger. There was only one path before him right now.

Wang Lin nodded and calmly said, "Okay, I agree!"

The old man stared at Wang Lin for a while before suddenly asking, "Those last two times where you completely disappeared, how did you do it?"

Wang Lin stared at the old man and didn't say a word. The two of them just looked at each other for a while. The old man withdrew his gaze and no longer questioned Wang Lin. He coldly said, "Let's go. There is less than half a year of time before that place opens up. If you attempt to escape along the way, then you won't get another chance. I'll simply refine you." Then the old man quickly drew a symbol in the air that flew into Wang Lin's body.

"This is a divine sense marker. It will do you no harm as it is only used to track you. Once we have arrived at that place, I'll release it for you."

Wang Lin was already prepared for this as he would have done the same if it was him. Also, if the old man wanted to place any harmful restrictions, there was no need to wait until now.

Wang Lin didn't move. He looked toward Hou Fen and said, "Junior still has one more thing to do. I hope senior can wait a few more days."

The old man frowned as he stared at Wang Lin and asked, "What is it?"

Wang Lin suddenly thought of something and asked, "Has senior heard of the War God Shrine's Divine Path?"

The old man sneered. "The cultivation method that can increase one's chance of forming their Nascent Soul. Back then, that little brat who found it caused such an uproar with it. However, even if you go, you won't find the original Divine Path unless you go a rank 4 cultivation country called Tian Gang."

Wang Lin's expression remained the same on the outside, but his heart skipped a beat. As he originally thought, the War God Shrine indeed no longer had the original Divine Path.

However, he wasn't going to let this go before going and checking it out himself. As a result, he flew toward the Hou Fen Union. The old man's eyes lit up before casually following behind Wang Lin.

Not long after, the Hou Fen Union's mountain appeared before him. He waited until the old man caught up before shouting, "Ma Liang greets War God Shrine senior Feng Luan!"

His voice spread out like thunder across the mountain. Soon, a few people flew out from the mountain. There was a beautiful lady leading the group. It was Feng Luan.

The first thing she noticed was the old man behind Wang Lin, which caused her pupils to shrink, before her gaze settled on Wang Lin. She was secretly shocked. In a few short years, he had already formed his core. However, thinking about how he had taken over the body, he must have already been at the Core Formation stage. This was why he was able to reach it again so quickly. She pondered for a bit before coldly asking, "The person he was searching for in the past three years was you?"

Wang Lin's expression remained calm as he dodged the question and said, "Senior Feng Luan, junior has one request that I hope you can agree to."

Feng Luan looked at the old man with dread before she calmly said, "Speak."

Wang Lin calmly and slowly said, "Junior would like to look at the Divine Path."

Feng Luan pondered for a bit before looking at the old man to find that he was looking at the sky. In these past three days, they had gained an idea of what the old man's cultivation level was. Seeing that he had come to their doorstep, they couldn't help but be secretly shocked.

At this moment, a red-faced old man walked out from behind Feng Luan. He looked at Wang Lin with a serious gaze and said, "Since you are a disciple of my War God Shrine, there is no problem for you to see it. Follow me." With that, he looked at the old man in his peripheral vision.

Without a word, Wang Lin flew behind him.

The old man's expression remained indifferent. He wasn't an idiot, so it was obvious to him that Wang Lin was using him to see the Divine Path. However, he really couldn't be bothered to get mad at such a little thing. Since he was going to help the brat, he might as well help to the end. This way, he would be doing the brat a favor to mend their relationship.

Thinking of this, he said, "Little friend, I'll wait for you out here. If you are harmed in any way, I'll make sure every living thing on this mountain is buried with you."

The red-faced old man's body shivered slightly, but he quickly recovered. Along with Wang Lin, the two of them went into the back mountain and stopped before a slab of stone.

The red-faced old man decided to break the silence as he turned around toward Wang Lin and said, word for word, "Should I call you Wang Lin?"

Wang Lin silently nodded.

The old man took a deep breath and said, with a heavy tone, "Wang Lin, let everything in the past be wiped clean. I don't care what trouble you have gotten yourself into, but don't drag the War God Shrine into it. If you can promise me that, then I'll open up the temple to let you see the Divine Path!"

Chapter 163 - The Divine Path

Wang Lin raised his head toward the old man and said, "Senior, don't worry; once I finish reading the Divine Path, I will leave this place. After that, I shouldn't ever have to come back here again."

The old man stared at Wang Lin. After a long time, he waved his right hand and a piece of jade appeared in his palm. He slammed the jade into the slab of stone and white light spread across the stone slab. Then a clear light spread across the stone slab until its entire surface was like a mirror.

The old man didn't turn around; he stepped into the mirror. The surface rippled as if he were walking into water. Wang Lin followed behind.

A cool and refreshing feeling entered his body the moment he walked through the stone slab. It was as if his face had been wiped with a cool, moist towel. After that, Wang Lin found that he had walked through the stone slab. He turned around to find that the surface of the slab on this side was the same as it was outside. The surface rippled like water.

Wang Lin put his hand inside and the cool feeling appeared again.

The red-faced old man calmly said, "This is the water mirror door created by my War God Shrine's refining method. Without the jade to open, it's impossible to enter unless you have reached the Soul Formation stage."

After Wang Lin heard the words "refining method," something stirred in his heart before he followed the red-faced old man.

The space inside this stone temple was very large. It had a main hall in the middle and hundreds of stone rooms on the sides. Outside of each stone room was a stone wall. After carefully inspecting them, Wang Lin believed that each of them was also a water mirror door.

The old man saw Wang Lin stare at the doors and said, "There is a total of 365 stone rooms here. Every one those stones are water mirror doors. Making a water mirror door is a symbol that a disciple is no longer a novice in treasure refining."

Wang Lin looked for a while before withdrawing his gaze. They had arrived in the hall in the middle. Before them was a shelf with four layers. There were some tokens on each layer.

Aside from the top layer, which only had one token, the other layers had quite a few tokens on them.

Wang Lin's gaze fell on the token at the top. It read: "War God Shrine Founder ---- Gong Mo"

"Ancestor Gong is the founder of my War God Shrine and is also the person who found the Divine Path." The red-faced elder bowed toward the token before turning toward Wang Lin.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit and then bowed.

The red-faced elder turned and walked forward. He stopped before a green wall that was covered in countless small words. These words had all been carved on this wall. At the top of the wall, Wang Lin could clearly see the two words "Divine Path".

However, after looking down, his heart sank as it read: "Disciple Chen Chong carved this from memory. Future disciples need to cultivate with caution."

"Disappointed?" The red-faced elder looked at Wang Lin and sighed. "The second year after my ancestor found the Divine Path, there was a traitor, so the news of the Divine Path suddenly spread far and wide. Soon after, the rank 4 cultivation country, Tian Gang, arrived. After secretly talking to ancestor Gong, they took it away. Ancestor Gong then left the War God Shrine and never came back."

"This Divine Path is the most strange cultivation method I have ever seen in my life. Anyone that sees it can comprehend it, but they cannot remember it. It is as if there is a mysterious force preventing them."

"Ancestor Chen Chong's talent was very ordinary, and he was the weakest of ancestor Gong's disciples. But he was able to use his memory to do something no one thought was possible: carve the Divine Path. After he finished carving, he died. Just before his death, he said that this cultivation method is very powerful. His own life span wasn't enough and he could only carve down 10% of it, so future disciples have to cultivate with caution."

"In truth, ancestor Chen Chong was worrying too much. How could this Divine Path be so easily comprehended? Since then, only about 30 people have managed to comprehend it at all, and only half of them successfully entered the Nascent Soul stage."

"As for the Divine Path the other sects of Hou Fen saw, it was fake, so the number of outsiders that have comprehended it is even lower."

As Wang Lin heard the red-faced old man's words, he looked at the green stone wall. He could picture a weak, young man using his life to carve on it.

"You can look at it yourself. I'll wait for you outside. Don't trespass into any of the water mirror door rooms." After the red-faced old man finished speaking, he turned around to leave.

Wang Lin looked at the stone wall and read every word on it. The words were difficult to understand, and some parts seemed to contradict each other. As he read it, he slowly began to frown.

After a long time, he sat down in the lotus position with an unsettling expression on his face. However, he didn't blink even once as he stared at the stone wall. The words written on it slowly appeared in his mind.

The more he looked at it, the more confused he became. This Divine Path was completely incomprehensible. He frowned even harder until he finally finished reading it all. Then he just closed his eyes and recalled everything on the stone wall.

Time slowly passed. Wang Lin still didn't understand anything. He slowly opened his eyes and let out a sigh before looking back toward the stone wall. However, at that moment, his pupils shrank as he muttered, "Something is wrong!"

When he looked toward the wall again, all of the words he had memorized suddenly disappeared from his memory as if they had never been there. Wang Lin looked at the familiar words he had memorized earlier, but now it was as if there was something missing in his memory. All of it had disappeared.

Wang Lin took a deep breath and became focused. This Divine Path was simply too strange. No wonder no one was able to make a copy of it. Back then, he asked Zhou Zihong to make a copy for him, but she said that whenever she tried, she would forget. He didn't take it too seriously back then, but now that he had experienced it himself, he immediately became very serious.

Wang Lin again looked at the words "Disciple Chen Chong carved this from memory. Future disciples need to cultivate with caution." He was even more shocked than before. Although he had heard it from others, this was the first time he had experienced for himself how difficult recording down the Divine Path was. He memorized the name Chen Chong in his heart.

Wang Lin took a deep breath as his eyes went past those words and back onto the Divine Path. After one hour, Wang Lin memorized all of it again, but what happened before occurred again after a little while.

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After repeating it a few times, Wang Lin's face darkened. This time, he stared at the wall and didn't attempt to memorize it but continue to read it over and over again.

The first time Wang Lin read through the Divine Path, it took him three hours, but now it only took him one hour. His eyes became faster and faster. Now it only took him half an hour to read it all.

Time slowly passed and Wang Lin's reading speed became faster and faster. From reading it one time in half an hour to three times in half a hour. His eyes moved faster and faster. At some point, he began to feel pain pulsating from his eyes.

After an unknown amount of time, Wang Lin unconsciously closed his eyes, but the stone wall still seemed to be darting past his view.

Those words began to move even faster, and even after Wang Lin closed his eyes, they still hurt. Soon, two streams of blood flowed down from his eyes, but just at that moment, Wang Lin opened them. His eyes were completely bloodshot and filled with shock.

Wang Lin clearly saw the words on the wall slowly disappear and a figure wearing white suddenly appeared. His face was blurred, so Wang Lin could only clearly see his hands form several seals. The figure then became two figures, and then three.

The difference between the original and the avatars in most cases was that the avatars were a bit dull. Every movement they made would only be a mimicry of the original's movements.

But the avatars of the white-robed figure were all very smart and nimble. Wang Lin felt like he couldn't tell which one was the original body.

In truth, what Wang Lin didn't know was that the old man's avatars were created from a powerful magic treasure by force and not a powerful avatar technique.

After some time, the white-robed figure began to slowly dim until it dissipated.

Wang Lin closed his eyes again. His face was pale and he began to ponder. A few chants mysteriously appeared in his mind. After analysing them for a bit, Wang Lin opened his eyes and let out a bitter smile. He finally understood a bit about the Divine Path.

This was a technique to cultivate an avatar. As for how it could increase the chances of reaching the Nascent Soul stage, it was to use the avatar. One could cultivate with the main body along with the avatar and then fuse back into one to help increase the success rate of reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

However, this technique was incomplete and contained fatal flaws. The avatar created would have no cultivation and had a lifespan of less than 30 years. As a result, this technique was more like a burden.

Along with the chants, Chen Chong also left some messages. Along with the fact that the technique was incomplete and he didn't have a long enough lifespan to carve it all down, he also left a solution.

The solution was to use the technique to create an avatar and use its 30 year life span to consume pills. Stockpile as many pills as possible and push the avatar's cultivation to the highest level possible. No matter what, when you fuse back together, it would increase your chance of breaking into the Nascent Soul stage by a bit.

If enough pills were saved up, then it would be possible to reach the Core Formation stage on the avatar, thus increasing the chance of forming one's Nascent Soul by a lot.

Wang Lin pondered for a bit before bitterly putting away the thought of using the Divine Path. He didn't have that many pills to give to his avatar. Even if he were to obtain pills, he didn't even have enough to use on himself, so how could he be willing to give them to his avatar?

Instead of using this technique, it would be more reliable to find some pills that could increase his chance of forming his Nascent Soul.