Chapter 11 - Second Spirit Ring, Purifying the Curse

Mo Xie walked slowly into the cave. On the walls, some luminous stones illuminated the path.

Before long he came to a large space inside the cave. This space was filled with pieces of bamboo and a small crystal lake to the left. In the center was a nest made of leaves where two panda-like spirit beasts lay. An adult panda that looked 12,000 years old and a panda cub that looked to have been born recently. Both had black and white fur and their eyes glowed a dark black color.

Mo Xie noticed that the cub did not seem to move and his breath was dissipating as his mother released energy towards his body.

'Was he injured?' Mo Xie thought, before realizing that the cub's mother looked at him and started to growl.

Mo Xie let out a sigh. This scene reminded him of when he was little and his mother protected him when he was nearly killed in a car accident when he was little and he couldn't help but feel a little sympathy.

"A mother's love is the most precious thing you can have…" muttering, he walked towards the little cub.

"I won't hurt him, so let me help you." Mo Xie spoke calmly as he urged his absolute life element. Although he doesn't have any special abilities related to this element, only the element itself had great healing effects if used correctly.

Feeling that aura of life and no malicious intent, the mother panda calmed down as she allowed Mo Xie to approach.

Mo Xie approached the puppy and examined its body before realizing the problem. Looks like the mother panda was poisoned before giving birth and the poison got into the cub and it was eating away at his life now.

Mo Xie began to transfer small amounts of the life element into the puppy's body as he tried to cleanse the poison from his body. He had to be extremely careful not to release more than the puppy could handle so as not to do any damage to his body.

Time passed and soon an hour passed. At that moment Mo Xie was sweating profusely, but a gentle smile was on his face. He had finally completely healed the cub, but this poison had completely exhausted him.

The mother panda came close to the cub and rubbed her face against its little body as its body staggered from time to time. When Mo Xie realized this problem he soon approached her and examined her body, only for a grim expression to hang over her face.

The poison in her body had already fully spread and was beyond Mo Xie's current capabilities. He could only watch as her life was slowly ending. The mother panda turned to Mo Xie again after stroking her cub for the last time as if telling her something.

"Fine, I'll take care of him, so don't worry." Mo Xie spoke gently and sighed.

The panda mother nodded as if she understood Mo Xie and her body approached Mo Xie before releasing an extremely strong glow that enveloped her and Mo Xie.

Mo Xie understood what was happening and closed his eyes, accepting her decision. Mo Xie felt a spiritual power enter his body as he was purified by his cultivation method as his body strengthened along with his mental power. An image of a panda appeared in its spiritual sea before it dispersed and a purple and black ring rose from his feet.

With the sacrifice of the mother panda, Mo Xie finally got his second spiritual ring and started to feel his rank increasing.

Rank 21… Rank 22… Rank 23… When his power peaked at Rank 23 it stabilized.

At the same time, the mother panda's body began to disappear and a black and white earring formed in Mo Xie's right ear. It formed a Yin-Yang pattern and released a mysterious glow. Mo Xie could feel the elements of Light and Dark in that earring.

"I never thought she would give me an external spiritual bone in the shape of an earring…" Mo Xie whispered as he felt sad for her death.

He nodded and sat down next to the panda cub and began to cultivate cross-legged. Now he had to get acquainted with his new realm and get some rest so he might as well spend the rest of the day in the cave and leave the next day. He placed the puppy in his lap and began to meditate.

As he attracted the natural energy of the surroundings, a strange scene appeared. The puppy in his lap began to unconsciously absorb the natural energy and release a faint opaque glow into his body. It's a shame that Mo Xie didn't realize this as he was focused on his cultivation.

The next day, Mo Xie woke up from his cultivation and noticed the cub in his lap awake and looking at him innocently. Finding this cute little pup, he started stroking its head as the pup snuggled even closer to him.

Now that he was familiar with his realm, he could finally see the abilities he gained from his second ring and from his spiritual bone.

With a thought, two rings rose from his feet, one purple and one black. The information of his second spiritual ability popped into his mind and he couldn't help but smile.

His second spirit ring's ability is called Spiritual Cancellation. It's an ability that can cancel out any spiritual abilities of spiritual masters as long as they don't exceed his mental power.

'Really a broken skill!' Mo Xie thought inwardly with a smile on his face.

"Now let's see the skill of my earring." Mo Xie used his earring ability and felt that his light and dark elements had become stronger by at least 40% and his control also seemed to have increased.

"So it appears to be a support skill…" Mo Xie deduced. He really got really lucky this time. Not only did the mother panda have a strong mental attribute, she also had a very strong affinity for the elements of light and darkness. And since Mo Xie's elements were at the absolute level, his abilities were even stronger than they normally would be.

Mo Xie was very happy with his harvest from this trip and began to prepare to return.

"Little boy, you will follow me from now on. Hmm, I need a name for you… Alright, I'll call you Xiao Hei." Mo Xie spoke to the cub, now named Xiao Hei.

Xiao Hei just rubbed his face against his hand in response. Mo Xie smiled and covered himself with a cloak from his storage ring and then placed Xiao Hei inside it, leaving only his head outside.

Mo Xie then began his journey back to the orphanage.

It took only 5 days to leave Star Dou Forest and reach Star Luo City.

Mo Xie made sure to hide Xiao Hei's presence inside his cloak to keep him out of greedy eyes. When he arrived at the orphanage he found Bai Chen who had arrived the day before him. He was farming in the yard and greeted Mo Xie when he spotted him.

"Brother Xie, were you successful?" Bai Chen asked.

"Yes, it looks like my luck is still good and it didn't take me long to find a suitable ring." Mo Xie stated.

"Brother Chen, after I finalize some deals this next month, I plan to leave Star Luo City." Mo Xie suddenly commented.

"Brother Xie, are you really leaving?" Bai Chen had a sad expression on his face.

"Yes, I will travel across the continent to gain a broader experience of it. If I just stay in Star Luo City, even though it's the capital of the empire, I'll end up stagnating." Mo Xie explained carefully.

"Can I go with you, Brother Xie?" Bai Chen hoped to travel with Mo Xie and get stronger.

"It will not be possible! Brother Chen, you better go to Star Luo National Academy and learn more about the mainland and the Spiritual Masters there. Your strength can also be developed further there. Register in the battle arena and gain combat experience there and enroll in the academy and one day we can meet again when your strength improves." Mo Xie shook his head. That day came earlier than he expected, so he was a little sad too, but he knew he could meet Bai Chen again in the future, so he threw those emotions in the back of his mind.

"I understand, so when are you going?" Bai Chen asked after a sigh.

"Maybe in two weeks, I still need to do some things on Uncle Liu and cultivate a little more to fully stabilize my rank." Mo Xie replied.

After talking a little longer, Mo Xie went upstairs to his room and locked it. He put Xiao Hei on the bed and went to take a shower. When he was done freshening up, he checked his secret compartment and found his knife still there and heaved a sigh of relief. He put it away again and decided to clean it up later.

Mo Xie gave Xiao Hei something to eat and then went to rest.

When night came and he finished cultivating his Heavenly Eyes, he decided to start purifying the knife's curse. His plan was to make it at least as far as Rank 26 before dispelling the curse, but now, with the support of his earring, he could put his plan into action.

He took the wooden box to his desk and took a deep breath before shielding his mind with his mental power and releasing a powerful element of light from his body.

The only reason he was sure he could succeed in clearing the curse was because of a method of dealing with curses that Old Du left in his memory. Otherwise, he would only try to fight the curse when he reached the peak of the Rank Soul Elder.

He took another deep breath and opened the box, causing the curse to attack his mind. He nodded to himself for choosing to protect his spiritual sea before opening the box.

Mo Xie started using his absolute light element and activated his earring's ability, strengthening his element by 40%. He began to chant some incantations that were in his memory and his light element swallowed the knife as some screams began to echo from it. Mo Xie didn't know how the spells the Old Du left him are compared to those of Electrolux who spent his life developing his necromancy skills, but his spells should be at least at the same level, although they were essentially different, as his spells didn't they involved necromancy and only the pure element of absolute light.

Mo Xie could feel his spiritual power steadily depleting, but he gritted his teeth and continued the process.

When two hours had passed, the screams of the curse ceased and a thick green light permeated Mo Xie's room as a black face emerged from the knife roaring and dispersing into the air.

All the aggressive aura of the knife had dispersed, and only a crystalline knife without any aura was left inside the open wooden box.

Mo Xie sat down exhausted on the floor and began to regain his strength. All his hard work had finally paid off and he could finally open his third eye after he ranked up a little more.