Vital Source Deprivation

That black cloud should indeed have arrived at White Grass Market long ago.

Yet it stopped above a stretch of marshland, slowly descending until it hovered over the water's surface.

In war, speed was everything. The same was true for the transmission of news, and for tracking down its source.

To follow the vine to the melon, one had to get there before someone cut the vine clean through.

In Bai Shuilán's view, the sooner they reached White Grass Market, the better.

He could not understand what was so interesting about repeatedly examining a broken umbrella.

Though he knew that umbrella was the Yin Thunder Umbrella, a rare Spirit Treasure.

But the point was, since the umbrella had fallen into the hands of these two mysterious black-robed cultivators, they could inspect it whenever they pleased. Why stop in this desolate marsh at such a time, looking it over from left and right, above and below?

With the power and status of these two mysterious cultivators, a Spirit Treasure like this should not have been enough to make them act so secretively.

He could not figure it out.

Nor did he dare ask.

But there had to be something wrong with the Yin Thunder Umbrella.

The black-robed female cultivator and the white-haired cultivator she called Qing Xu had been studying the Yin Thunder Umbrella with focused attention for the time it took an incense stick to burn.

Bai Shuilán could not help secretly glancing at Kong Mengzhu beside him.

Kong Mengzhu had always been rather dull-witted.

Now, Kong Mengzhu's face was even more blank and vacant.

Bai Shuilán sighed inwardly. No one knew how these two mysterious cultivators would deal with him and Kong Mengzhu after they brought them to White Grass Market. The longer this delay lasted, the more unbearable it became.

After roughly another cup of tea's time, the black-robed female cultivator finally seemed to withdraw her divine sense from the Yin Thunder Umbrella, which was supported by black qi before her.

The slight furrow between her brows did not ease. Instead, it deepened.

She looked at Qing Xu, whose expression was equally grave, and said slowly, "Vital Source Deprivation?"

As usual, Qing Xu wasted not a single word. "It should be."

"Vital Source Deprivation?" Bai Shuilán was instantly shocked.

As he looked at the broken umbrella he had previously found so uninteresting, his gaze changed completely.

Vital Source Deprivation was recorded in many ancient texts. Its principle was simple and easy to understand.

The reason a Spirit Treasure could become a Spirit Treasure was that its spiritual materials were inherently extraordinary—spiritual objects that seized the creations of heaven and earth, impossible to replicate through human effort.

And the greatest reason they could not be replicated by human effort was that the materials naturally contained unique laws of Vital Energy within them.

These laws of Vital Energy, naturally formed over countless years, were like both an innate, profound formation and the soul of that piece of spiritual material.

The texts of the Cultivation World called it a Spirit Treasure's vital source.

A person could not live without a soul. The same was true of a Spirit Treasure.

If the Spirit Treasure's physical vessel suffered damage too severe, it was like a cultivator being gravely injured beyond healing; the dissipation of its vital source would be perfectly normal.

But Vital Source Deprivation was an entirely different concept.

It was not the violent destruction of the Spirit Treasure's foundation through brute force. Rather, some heaven-defying method had been used, as though the source of the Spirit Treasure's vessel had been forcibly stripped away alive.

It was practically the same as using some heaven-defying means to forcibly tear the Nascent Soul from a Nascent Soul Cultivator and make it one's own.

Bai Shuilán was already a first-level Golden Core cultivator.

Yet as a Golden Core stage cultivator, when he looked at this damaged Yin Thunder Umbrella, he could still sense spirituality within it. To his perception, the Yin Thunder Umbrella was clearly still breathing in and out Vital Energy.

Therefore, if he had been asked to judge it, he would have believed that the Yin Thunder Umbrella was still repairing itself. He would never have sensed that the Yin Thunder Umbrella had already suffered Vital Source Deprivation.

From this alone, these two mysterious black-robed cultivators were truly far beyond him.

But the key question was: who could deprive the Yin Thunder Umbrella of its vital source?

The black-robed female cultivator slowly raised her head.

At first, she had not believed this fact either.

But after spending so much time confirming it, she had no choice but to accept it.

The Yin Thunder Umbrella's vital source was gone. In several dozen days, all of its spirituality would completely dissipate.

The crucial question was who could strip away the Yin Thunder Umbrella's vital source so silently. The deprivation had been so clean and decisive, as though it were an overwhelming crush from an entirely different level, yet also so gentle that the Yin Thunder Umbrella had been unable to resist.

It was only when the Yin Thunder Umbrella stopped absorbing spiritual energy within her spirit-nurturing sand that she and Qing Xu noticed something was wrong.

Who was it?

Old Ancestor Tong Hui, the pair of disciples from the Profound Heaven Sect, Meng Xiqiong—before and after, it seemed that only these people had come into contact with the Yin Thunder Umbrella.

Among them, the one with the highest cultivation was only Old Ancestor Tong Hui, who had just condensed a Nascent Soul. By all reason, even if Old Ancestor Tong Hui had perfected his Nascent Soul and then successfully passed tribulation to reach the Spirit Transformation stage, he might not have been able to deprive it of its vital source so silently.

It was impossible even to imagine, yet this had happened right under her nose.

"This is truly getting interesting."

The black-robed female cultivator looked at the Yin Thunder Umbrella, which was already of little use, narrowed her eyes, and smiled. She truly did not feel much anger. Instead, she found it interesting.

Of all those people, the two from the Profound Heaven Sect seemed least capable of depriving the Yin Thunder Umbrella of its vital source, yet they also seemed the most suspicious.

"Let's go! It seems our trip to the Lesser Jade Continent was not wasted after all."

She put away the Yin Thunder Umbrella, and the black cloud rose into the air once more.

For some reason, she had also developed a keen interest in the coming trip to White Grass Market.

The people of White Grass Market did not feel that there was anything different about today.

Even when an unusual black cloud appeared in the sky, only a very small number of people noticed it after it drew near.

The flying treasures used by cultivators came in every strange and bizarre variety. Besides, this black cloud did not appear particularly remarkable.

Before a shop that specialized in talisman paper for low-grade dao talismans, a cultivator was bargaining with the shop's owner.

Though this low-grade talisman paper was extremely cheap, it was consumed in vast quantities. As long as the price was negotiated well enough, there was still considerable profit to be made.

The shop owner happened to be facing the direction from which the black cloud came. He raised his head and glanced at it, and his face suddenly turned black.

Not the kind of black that came from looking upset, but his skin actually turned black, as though thick black oil were about to seep out from within it.

The cultivator bargaining with him was startled. He turned around and saw the black cloud as well.

He could not see his own face.

Nor did he notice that his own complexion was rapidly turning black.

At that moment, horrified cries began ringing out continuously throughout White Grass Market.

The cultivator bargaining with the shop owner immediately let out a horrified cry as well.

Because he had only turned to glance at the black cloud. In the instant he turned back, the shop owner's entire body collapsed downward.

Thick black water surged unrealistically from the shop owner's seven apertures, while clothing touched by the black water rapidly dissolved.

The shop owner, who had been haggling with him only one breath ago, became nothing more than a sheet of human skin floating in black water.

The cultivator's horrified cry lasted only a brief instant.

Because thick black water burst from his throat.

Black water also surged from his seven apertures.

His entire body likewise became a sheet of human skin that fell into the black water.

Throughout White Grass Market, amid the continuously ringing short cries of terror, everyone sank lower and lower to the ground, floating in black water.