When his gaze fell once more on the Yang Sha Scripture and Yin Sha Scripture, a trace of hesitation appeared in Lin Xiao's eyes.
He now had two choices. One was to fuse only the Yang Sha Internal Energy and Yin Sha Internal Energy. The other was to fuse the Yang Sha Technique and Yin Sha Technique, the two internal cultivation methods.
The former was the method he had originally envisioned: directly merging the two types of internal energy within his body, yin and yang, into one. The latter meant using the deduction function of the Attribute Ability Panel to combine the strengths of the two techniques into a single, even more powerful internal cultivation method that gathered the advantages of both.
Normally speaking, directly fusing and deducing the two internal cultivation methods into a new one would suit him better. In the future, he could even incorporate more internal cultivation methods to increase its power, perhaps deducing it all the way to Two-Star Peerless Grade or even higher.
But what made Lin Xiao hesitate was that he had only 74 Potential Points remaining. That was enough to fuse the internal energy, but it might not be enough to deduce a stronger technique.
Success would naturally be ideal. But if the deduction failed because he lacked Potential Points, those Potential Points would not be refunded. In other words, it would be like drawing water with a bamboo basket—he would end up with nothing. The technique would not be deduced, and he would have wasted so many Potential Points for nothing.
He struggled with it for quite a while. In the end, his desire for caution won out. He decided to fuse his cultivation first, then wait until he had accumulated more Potential Points before attempting the deduction.
Potential Points were difficult to accumulate. Watching more than seventy points go down the drain would make his heart ache to death.
With a thought, fifty full Potential Points rapidly burned away, transforming into an invisible force that seeped into his body. His consciousness quickly followed that invisible force as it sank into his Dantian. At that moment, the internal energy in his Dantian was separately occupied by the Yang Sha and Yin Sha Internal Energy, resembling a Taiji diagram of yin and yang. The Yang Sha Internal Energy was somewhat stronger than the Yin Sha Internal Energy.
As the invisible force surged in, this internal energy, which had previously kept strictly to its own side, began to stir.
Dark clouds filled the sky and covered the moon. Black Cloud Village lay in darkness. Several hundred meters from the stronghold, five or six figures hid behind a clump of bushes, watching the stronghold in the darkness as it squatted there like a fierce tiger. The leader of the five glanced at the distant stronghold and whispered to his companions behind him:
"I've scouted this place three times recently. This stronghold has around a hundred people, including the three leaders. Their cultivation isn't anything special, but they have numbers. We'll sneak over from the right side of the stronghold later. There's a cliff over a hundred meters high there, and very few guards at the top. Third Brother, your Lightness Skill is the best. Sneak up later, take out the patrolling guards, and then we'll climb up."
After a pause, he continued:
"Once everyone's gathered, don't make a sound. Assassinate as many guards as possible, then set fire to the stronghold. Burn as many of them to death as you can. Our mission today isn't to take the stronghold, but to greatly weaken their strength first. We'll return and capture it once we're fully prepared."
He then discussed things with his underlings for a while. With a wave of his hand, the group quietly crept toward the stronghold under cover of night.
After bypassing the main entrance and reaching the foot of the mountain wall on the other side of the stronghold, one of them suddenly whispered:
"Boss, why do I feel like something's wrong?"
"What's wrong?"
"It's too quiet. Don't you think this stronghold is far too quiet? Could there be an ambush?"
Everyone fell silent and carefully sensed their surroundings. The boss nodded.
"There is indeed something strange. Let's stop for a moment and see what happens."
Just then, one of them felt that the cliff wall beneath his hand was wet and sticky. He subconsciously pinched it, then held it beneath his nose and sniffed. He was instantly shocked.
"Boss, it's blood. There's blood on the stone wall."
As it happened, the moon shone through a gap in the clouds, casting down a sliver of light and revealing fresh blood flowing everywhere across the stone wall before them. Everyone looked at one another.
"Something happened."
The boss hesitated for a moment, then waved his hand.
"Go up and take a look."
The group climbed to the top of the cliff along a vine rope they had prepared earlier. The first thing they saw was a corpse lying nearby. The boss, who had come up first, glanced at the body and said grimly:
"What astonishing internal energy. His internal organs were shattered by a single palm strike."
"There's another body here. Its internal organs were shattered by a single palm strike too."
"There are several over there."
"There are even more here."
The five quickly entered the stronghold and saw corpses covering the ground. From the front of the stronghold to the back, there were eighty or ninety corpses in total. Nearly everyone in the stronghold had been killed.
The boss stood in the Gathering Hall and gave a bitter laugh.
"Looks like Black Cloud Village crossed some Great Hero, and the whole place was wiped out in one fell swoop."
"Then..."
One of his men asked:
"Then, I wonder if that big shot has left. What about the stronghold's valuables..."
"Look around."
In the basement, Lin Xiao sat cross-legged on the floor. A cloud of gray vapor circled above his head.
The Yang Sha and Yin Sha cultivation, which should have required painstaking effort to fuse bit by bit, merged rapidly under the influence of the invisible force formed from fifty Potential Points, as if it had been sped up dozens or even hundreds of times. It transformed into this grayish-white Primordial Chaos Internal Energy.
The so-called Primordial Chaos Internal Energy was internal energy formed by mixing yin and yang. The fierce power of the original Yang Sha Technique and the soft, yielding nature of the Yin Sha Technique had both vanished, replaced by this balanced and peaceful Primordial Chaos Internal Energy. Its advantages had disappeared, and in their place came a tremendous surge in cultivation.
Previously, because the yin and yang internal energy could not be fused, he could only unleash one type of internal energy at a time when circulating his cultivation. If he forcibly activated both types, their conflict would reduce his power to roughly one type plus half of the other. That amounted to about one hundred and twenty years of Yang Sha Internal Energy plus forty or fifty years of Yin Sha Internal Energy. Moreover, because the two conflicted, even the effects of the internal energy itself could not be brought out.
This had severely affected Lin Xiao's ability to display his strength. Though he possessed more than three centuries of cultivation, he could only unleash the power of two centuries.
But things were different now. Once the Yang Sha and Yin Sha Internal Energy perfectly fused under the power of the Potential Points, his internal energy no longer needed to be divided into Yang Sha and Yin Sha. In their place stood two hundred and twenty full years of Primordial Chaos Internal Energy.
"Whew!"
He opened his eyes. Two streams of white vapor shot from his nostrils like arrows, striking the basement's stone wall two meters away and producing a muffled bang.
"Not bad!"
Lin Xiao rose in satisfaction and stretched his entire body. His bones cracked with a series of pops. With the two types of internal energy fused into one, his internal cultivation had firmly reached the level of a top-tier expert in this world. His Lightness Skill was also no inferior to that of any top-tier martial artist in the martial world thanks to his mastery of the Flying Heaven Steps. The only thing he lacked now was martial techniques.
He had been away from the sect for only two or three months, yet the problem with his internal cultivation had basically been resolved. After accumulating another wave of Potential Points and cultivating the several martial arts he had exchanged for before leaving the gang to mastery, he could then fuse the martial techniques he had learned and deduce a martial art of at least Two-Star Mid-Grade. His goal for this journey would essentially be achieved.
By then, whether he continued traveling the martial world or returned directly to the sect for revenge, there would be no problem.
After all, the Great River Gang was only a prefecture-level gang. In the martial world, it could be considered merely a local power. There were not many experts throughout Linjiang Prefecture, and with his current strength, he could completely sweep through the entire region.
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