Digesting the Gains

Under the night sky, beside a campfire, Lin Le slowly ate roasted meat.

After killing that petty official and taking the opportunity to kill several Evil Wolf Gang members, Lin Le left the city at dusk, slipping out just before the final deadline.

Whether it was that petty official, Hu Zigui, or Zhao Lang, all their identities were rather troublesome.

The petty official belonged to the authorities, while Hu Zigui was likely someone's dirty glove from the Wo Hu Martial Arts School, and Zhao Lang was probably the dirty glove of some great Lineage as well.

After killing them, the people behind them would likely bear a grudge against him.

To avoid martial artists of the second limit or even third limit coming after him, naturally, the sooner he left Baishan County, the better.

Plans truly could not keep up with changes. He had wanted to remain in Baishan County for another month, but fortunately, his gains had been quite good.

Lin Le turned his Inner Vision Divine Ability inward. Within the lotus, seven lotus seeds shone with golden light, while two sections of lotus root lay beneath the lotus whip.

He had killed eighteen people in total. Zhao Lang and Hu Zigui had each provided two points of killing karma, bringing the total to exactly twenty points.

From this, he could conclude that the higher a person's cultivation realm, the greater the killing karma they provided.

The ordinary thugs had provided fifteen points of merit, exactly one point each. Zhao Lang had provided fifteen points by himself. As expected of a gang leader, one man was worth a whole crowd.

That petty official had provided twelve points. He must have committed quite a few filthy deeds.

The most impressive was Hu Zigui, who had provided a full thirty points. Who knew how many dirty deeds he had done?

After finishing the roasted meat, Lin Le flipped through several booklets. They were all martial arts manuals, looted from the corpses beneath his hand.

There were four in total: Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber, Eagle Claw Technique, Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training, and the Great Devourer Art.

The first three were common martial arts, containing only training methods and no nourishing methods. The final one was somewhat interesting, having been found on Hu Zigui's body.

Lin Le studied it carefully, and a flicker of delight appeared in his eyes. Though the Great Devourer Art was simple, mastering it would grant a rare form called the Viper Belly.

The viper was a gigantic serpent capable of swallowing an elephant. A form named after it would naturally be able to greatly increase one's appetite.

It suited Lin Le perfectly. After all, if he wanted to increase the output of Blood Essence Treasure Liquid, aside from eating better food, eating more was also one path.

I'll train this first! Lin Le made his decision.

But before that, he would eat some lotus root first.

With a thought from Lin Le, the two sections of lotus root turned into red threads and dispersed. At the same time, a thread of warmth rose through his spine once more.

The warmth grew hotter and hotter, like flames heating a block of iron.

This time lasted slightly longer than last time, but it still faded quickly enough.

I should have two sections of spiritual root now, right? Lin Le rubbed his spine.

Next came the lotus seeds.

A lotus seed transformed into golden mist and dispersed. One thought, one year. Over that year, Lin Le trained the Great Devourer Art without pause until he achieved mastery.

Lin Le returned to his senses and patted his stomach, surprise flashing through his eyes. The Great Devourer Art reaching mastery directly was beyond his expectations.

But when he considered the environment of enlightenment, it was not so surprising. After all, a year of practice with limitless vitality and endless energy—for a martial art like the Great Devourer Art, which relied heavily on vitality—a year was worth ten.

Next came the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber and Eagle Claw Technique. Lin Le used two lotus seeds on each before pushing them to mastery.

As for Thirteen Taibao Horizontal Training, Lin Le had no intention of accelerating it with lotus seeds. This martial art purely consumed resources. With sufficient resources, even an ordinary person could master it within a year.

It was simply that the expense would make even wealthy households wince.

So there was no need to seek enlightenment for it.

Finally came the White Ape Spear. With one lotus seed spent, it too reached mastery.

Looking at the final lotus seed, Lin Le considered whether to use it.

Thanks to the White Ape Arm Bone Structure, he had trained the White Ape Spear to mastery in half a year. But if he wanted to climb to the peak and reach grand mastery, even two or three lotus seeds might not be enough.

In the end, Lin Le chose to use it. He was going home, and the stronger his combat power, the better.

The final lotus seed dispersed, but it was not one thought, one year. Instead, his senses increased severalfold, and his mind became far clearer.

Watching the campfire before him, Lin Le's gaze could not help following the endlessly leaping flames. The longer he watched, the more entranced he became.

But the feeling came swiftly and vanished swiftly as well. In only ten breaths, Lin Le felt his mind grow muddled.

As though aided by the gods, Lin Le suddenly seized the long spear beside him and began practicing the White Ape Spear, pursuing the sensation he had felt while watching the fire.

He trained for an entire hour. As Lin Le brought down his final strike, the vitality throughout his body poured into the long spear. Then a spear radiance tore through the air, striking a tree trunk three zhang away and gouging out a crack three inches deep and three feet long, its surroundings scorched black.

Gripping the spear, Lin Le's heart surged with emotion. The White Ape Spear had reached grand mastery.

"This move shall be called White Ape Cleaves the Sun." Lin Le named the move.

Sitting down again, Lin Le could not help looking toward the lotus. He had never expected the lotus seeds to have such a use: temporarily and vastly enhancing his comprehension, allowing him to enter a state of sudden enlightenment.

This divine ability really knows how to cater to its master.

Lin Le could not help sighing.

But next time I need to seek enlightenment after mastering a martial art, I need to find an appropriate reference object beforehand, Lin Le thought.

This time had been luck as well. The White Ape Spear had always followed a domineering style, which happened to pair well with fire, allowing him to break through so easily.

If it had been the moon or trees, he feared that even two or three lotus seeds would not have yielded anything.

Glancing at the sky, Lin Le entered meditation. While meditating, his senses would become extremely sharp, so he need not worry about being unable to react when danger arrived.

Dark clouds filled the sky, and thunder rumbled. Suddenly, lightning serpents danced wildly, jolting Lin Le awake.

"Second Zen?" Lin Le's tone held both delight and uncertainty.

Wildly dancing lightning serpents were a phenomenon that only appeared in the third stage of the Fire Refining Soul Refining Diagram.

This also meant that Lin Le's meditation had entered Second Zen.

Was it because of that one thought, one year?

Lin Le guessed that although the divine ability had prevented him from practicing for a year until he fainted from exhaustion, his divine soul and temperament should still have been tempered to some degree over time.

Or perhaps that sudden enlightenment allowed my divine soul to merge with heaven and earth, granting it some improvement?

Lin Le shook his head and stopped dwelling on it. It was enough to know that using more lotus seeds would aid divine soul cultivation.

This made Lin Le subconsciously look toward the lotus leaf that had yet to produce a third drop of flowing nectar. The moment he looked, he froze. Specks of starlight were drifting across the lotus leaf.

Perhaps because they were too thin and sparse, they could only float upon the leaf.

Concentrated Divine Dew, formed by gathering scattered soul qi.

Lin Le received this information. After considering it briefly, he understood why it had formed: he had briefly entered Third Zen just now.

If body refinement was a staircase, where one could stop on every step, then soul refinement was a slippery slope. One could only charge from the bottom to the top; otherwise, one would slide back down.

Thus, every time Lin Le entered meditation, he had to progress from Initial Zen to Second Zen, and just now, he had reached Third Zen again.

Third Zen was also the sign that soul refinement had formally begun. In Third Zen, a person's soul and flesh resonated, actively refining essence into soul qi to strengthen the divine soul.

But Lin Le had been kicked out the instant he entered, so very little soul qi had escaped. There was not even enough to condense into a single drop of dew; it could only drift about as mist.

To verify this conclusion, Lin Le entered meditation once again. When he was kicked out upon reaching Third Zen, he looked at the third lotus leaf and saw that those specks of starlight had indeed increased somewhat.