"Barely passable."
Lin Le looked at Liao Dong's corpse. As his words fell, his blood qi ignited, red light seeping from his body and becoming almost tangible. From afar, it looked like a round pill furnace enveloping Lin Le.
His blood qi burned his flesh without cease, like iron being forged, slowly stripping away impurities.
Lin Le could feel his strength continuously climbing.
Moreover, he could clearly sense his limit: twelve thousand eight hundred jin.
He turned to the great snake emerging from the well. "What is the limit of the Body Refining Realm?"
"Use a furnace to refine your blood qi and condense it into a false core. Once that core is formed, your physical strength can reach twelve thousand eight hundred jin," the great snake said. "Not the supposed maximum of twelve thousand jin."
"What if my physical strength reaches twelve thousand eight hundred jin first?" Lin Le asked.
"Hmm." The great snake considered it. "Then you would condense the false core on your own. But the innate bodily limit is twelve thousand eight hundred jin. This situation seems to occur only among Dao bodies and treasure bodies of your human race."
As they spoke, the essence within the corpses on the ground transformed into billowing white smoke and streamed into the great snake's mouth. Then it exhaled, gathering all the valuables from everyone's bodies.
Lin Le picked through them as before, then gave the rest to the great snake. "I'm going somewhere else. Can you come with me?"
"Tell me where first," the great snake said.
"Not far. Qinghu Town," Lin Le said.
"That can be done." The great snake nodded. "But what are you going there for?"
"To lie low for a while." Lin Le tapped the floor tiles with his spear. "This is the Xiang family's territory. I don't have the ability to fight their whole household for now, so I can only go somewhere smaller and cultivate in seclusion for a while."
"Do you have some great enmity with the Xiang family?" the great snake asked curiously.
"They killed my father and mother," Lin Le said calmly.
"Oh." The great snake nodded and did not ask further. "Qinghu Town will do. Do you have anything to pack? I can take you away right now. Also, cultivators are already approaching us."
"Let's leave now," Lin Le said with a nod.
"Then off we go!" The great snake spat out a bubble that enveloped Lin Le, then gave it a pull.
Lin Le's vision immediately shifted at dizzying speed. By the time he came back to himself, he was already underwater.
Not long after Lin Le left, a cultivator flew into the Concentric Society's base.
Looking at the dried corpses scattered across the ground, he frowned deeply and picked up a jade pendant. "Elder, the situation is somewhat unexpected."
"What happened?" A voice came from the jade pendant.
"The Concentric Society has been wiped out. It seems that demons or demonic cultivators were involved," the cultivator said.
"Hm!" Elder sounded startled and doubtful. "Are you certain?"
"I am. The corpses have all had their essence extracted. Aside from demonic cultivators, only demons use such methods," the cultivator confirmed.
"I'll ask Lord Tu Shan first and see whether one of his descendants has broken the agreement again." Elder's tone was displeased. "A pack of beasts—their appetites are growing larger and larger. They even dare lay hands on our people!"
"Keep searching over there and see if there are any more clues."
"Yes."
In Qinghu Town, a figure suddenly sprang out of a well within an abandoned courtyard.
After taking several deep breaths to ease the dizziness, Lin Le looked toward the mouth of the well. The great snake within spoke as well. "If you need to contact me, knock on the well nine times."
"Got it." Lin Le nodded.
The great snake immediately sank back into the well, seemingly busy digesting.
Lin Le began taking stock of his gains: over three thousand taels of silver, three bottles of Spirit Blood Pills, and one bottle of unknown pills. Lin Le sniffed them and felt that they should be better than Spirit Blood Pills.
Just from smelling their aura, he felt his blood qi grow a little more active.
Then there was merit and killing karma: a total of 345 points of merit and 112 points of killing karma.
Incidentally, Liao Dong alone had provided 10 points of killing karma.
What a pity I didn't have time to raid Liao Dong's household. Lin Le thought with some regret.
If he had raided the household, he should have been able to scrape together 160 points of killing karma.
The moment he heard cultivators were coming, Lin Le knew they were likely people from the Xiang family.
Compared with Liao Dong, a cultivator who had only just broken through, Lin Le remained cautious toward other cultivators.
Cultivators differed from cultivators, just like him and Liao Dong. Even with a whole major realm between them, Liao Dong had still been easily defeated across realms.
But it won't be too late to make a move tonight.
Lin Le calculated silently.
He had deliberately chosen Qinghu Town. He remembered that the Xiang family had a medicinal garden in this town.
As it happened, he was in urgent need of resources as well.
Looking at his merit, Lin Le pondered what to improve. All his skills had already reached Great Perfection. It seemed that only soul refinement remained.
But could soul refinement work?
Lin Le decided to give it a try, though he could sense that it was extremely unlikely to work.
With one thought, a year passed. Right from the start, Lin Le entered the Fourth Zen in a single go. This also told him that ordinary Human Dao lotus seeds had no effect on soul refinement.
Still, he could not let the lotus seed go to waste. As Lin Le pondered other things, he gained an unexpected harvest.
After coming back to himself, Lin Le picked up his spear and thrust forward once, then thrust again.
Lin Le could clearly feel that the second thrust was a little faster.
"Momentum?" Lin Le muttered.
Within the Fourth Zen, because he had kept facing lightning, Lin Le seemed to have gained a different insight. The feeling resembled when he had comprehended a Limit-Breaking Technique.
This strange insight was profoundly mystical. Looking at it through the lens of his past life's wild imagination, calling it Momentum seemed more fitting.
He would try another moment of enlightenment.
A lotus seed was consumed. Lin Le recalled the lightning radiance he had seen while meditating, and soon found himself immersed in it.
Yet after only ten breaths, Lin Le withdrew from the state.
Gripping his spear, Lin Le followed that mysterious, indescribable sensation and thrust again. He did not know whether it was an illusion, but he seemed to see a flicker of lightning rise from the spearpoint.
With a thought, three golden lotus seeds in the lotus gradually developed a ring of auspicious cloud patterns.
Lin Le cultivated three one-pattern lotus seeds, then chose one and used it, once again entering enlightenment.
His mind seemed to draw close to heaven and earth, and Lin Le seemed to truly see the composition of lightning.
At some unknown point, his mind retreated, but Lin Le remained immersed in that state of comprehension. Only after quite a while did he come back to himself.
Lin Le gripped his spear and thrust again. This time, he truly grasped that mysterious, indescribable feeling, rather than that elusive sensation which seemed ready to slip away at any moment.
Lightning flared from the spear, tearing through the air. Lin Le even caught a faint burnt smell.
Another one-pattern lotus seed was consumed. Lin Le wanted to continue comprehending lightning, but a warning suddenly rose in his heart. If he continued this deep enlightenment, he seemed as though he would merge with heaven and earth.
That would absolutely not be a good thing for him.
Lin Le shifted his focus and wanted to comprehend the spear. Swords had sword momentum, so spears should have spear momentum too.
But on second thought, what were spears and swords? They were weapons! And what were weapons? Things used to kill people!
And why did he want to kill people? Because he wanted them dead!
At that thought, scenes of his past enemies dying surged into his mind. Those corpses crawled to their feet as though vicious ghosts had returned to life, roaring savagely at Lin Le.
Lin Le ignored them. With every step he took forward, they were crushed into powder beneath his feet.
When he came back to himself, Lin Le subconsciously threw out a punch.
Several meters away, a powder moth fluttering through the air suddenly fell.
It was dead.
"Lightning Flash Momentum, Slaughter of Death Momentum." Lin Le said softly, "Then let's add a Hearthfire Momentum."
The final one-pattern lotus seed was consumed.
Lin Le's memories returned to that moment when he had watched the bonfire.
The hearthfire passed on from generation to generation, life continuing without end.
When he came back to himself, Lin Le punched toward the ground, and a faint scorch mark immediately appeared on the earth.
Before you continue