After following Lin Xiao to Flame City once more and purchasing a batch of Spirit Medicines, Lin Yi returned to the Lin Family, brought Little Yan along, and went back to Ironwood Manor.
Compared to the Lin Family, Ironwood Manor was clearly more suitable for his cultivation.
To keep the family from living apart in two places, after obtaining Lin Zhentian's approval, Lin Yi brought Liu Yan, Qing Tan, and Lin Dong to live at Ironwood Manor.
The mining of Ironwood Manor's ore vein also began under strict secrecy.
Everyone involved in the mining had been carefully selected. The Lin Family offered these workers extremely generous wages and even allowed them to bring their families to Ironwood Manor.
This way, they were not only provided with lodging, but it also served as an invisible warning to prevent anyone from leaking the secret.
Lin Yi naturally could not help with the mining, but during most of the day, he cultivated at the Yang Yuan Stone vein, because it contained dense Yang Gang Qi.
When darkness fell, Lin Yi returned to his room to cultivate his Spiritual Energy.
During this trip to Flame City to purchase Spirit Medicines, Lin Yi had also bought several medicines that could increase his Spiritual Energy.
Unfortunately, Spirit Medicines related to Spiritual Energy were relatively scarce. He had only managed to buy three, and only one of them was a Fourth-Grade Spirit Medicine.
With Lin Yi devoting himself fully to cultivation, both his Yuan Power and Spiritual Energy continued to improve.
One night, Lin Yi discovered that his Spiritual Energy cultivation seemed to have reached a bottleneck. His Mud Pill Palace seemed to have been completely filled with Spiritual Energy.
Instead of becoming nervous, Lin Yi felt delighted. "It seems it's time to condense a rune seal!"
The Spirit Refining Art was a complete Spiritual Energy cultivation manual. It contained not only ordinary methods for cultivating Spiritual Energy, but also a method for condensing a seal called the Black Hole Rune Seal, which could condense a Life Spirit Rune.
Lin Yi took out the Spirit Refining Art scroll and carefully read through the detailed records concerning the Black Hole Rune Seal once again.
After savoring it carefully, Lin Yi put away the scroll, sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and mobilized the Spiritual Energy in his Mud Pill Palace.
Very soon, the Spiritual Energy in Lin Yi's mind began to spin.
Gradually, the swirling Spiritual Energy transformed into the shape of a funnel within his Mud Pill Palace.
At the center of the funnel was a deep black hole that exuded boundless mystery!
The spiritual funnel rotated at varying speeds, as if concealing an extremely unusual rhythm.
As for the black hole at its center, it was impossible to tell whether it was rotating as well.
Suddenly, Lin Yi sensed a force of attraction from the black hole. At first, the force was faint, but it gradually seemed to grow stronger.
"Condense!"
Lin Yi gave a soft shout and controlled the spiritual funnel, compressing it viciously. The black hole at the funnel's center was also gradually compressed until it became smaller, finally seeming to turn into a black dot.
"Bang!"
When the spiritual funnel was compressed to its limit, a sudden explosion rang out in Lin Yi's Mud Pill Palace, and the spiritual funnel abruptly burst apart.
As the spiritual funnel exploded, a glimmer of light seemed to shine from Lin Yi's eyes, piercing through his tightly closed eyelids.
"Pssh, pssh!"
At the center of the explosion, countless tiny rays of light suddenly shot out. In an instant, they connected some of the scattered fragments of Spiritual Energy.
Then, they rapidly retracted in a unique manner, finally forming a miraculous rune about the size of two fingers.
This rune was outlined by countless fragments of Spiritual Energy. At a glance, it gave off an extraordinarily profound feeling, as if even the heavens and earth were encompassed within that seemingly simple rune.
When the rune first formed, it appeared especially dim and blurry. But upon closer inspection, one could discover a mysterious black dot at its center.
Under scrutiny, the flat rune seemed to transform into a sunken funnel, while the black dot became the small hole at the bottom of the funnel. Boundless attractive force continuously flowed from it!
"Hiss, hiss!"
A force of attraction radiated from the strange rune, and the fragments of Spiritual Energy floating within the Mud Pill Palace were drawn into it.
The originally dim rune seemed to become slightly brighter.
"Whew..."
When the Mud Pill Palace had completely returned to calm, Lin Yi slowly opened his eyes.
At that moment, he could clearly sense every movement within the entire Ironwood Manor. Even the sound of breathing could not escape his perception.
"After cultivating for about half a year, I've finally become a true Rune Master!"
Lin Yi stood up and stretched, a faint smile appearing on his face.
[ Ding! The host has been detected becoming a One-Seal Rune Master and has officially stepped through the gate of the Rune Master path. Reward: Qi-grade Spiritual Secret Skill, Spiritual Illusion Realm! ]
Hmm? Another reward?
In high spirits, Lin Yi took the newly obtained reward out of his Universe Ring. It was an ancient-looking scroll, and the introduction to the Spiritual Illusion Realm was recorded upon it.
Using Spiritual Energy to influence the mind, one could construct a Spiritual Illusion Realm within the other person's mind and trap them inside, making it difficult to escape!
Once the opponent was trapped within it, they could only be left at his mercy!
If the opponent possessed an exceptionally firm spiritual will, or if there was a difference of more than one major realm between their cultivation levels, the effect would be reduced.
Even so, this Spiritual Secret Technique could still be called a divine skill for assisting in killing!
After reading the introduction to the Spiritual Illusion Realm, Lin Yi was quite satisfied.
"My Spiritual Energy won't improve much in the short term. Next, aside from mastering this Spiritual Secret Technique, I'll devote myself to breaking through to the Heaven Origin Realm!"
After a while, Lin Yi put away the scroll and set a new cultivation goal.
During this new stage of cultivation, aside from quietly circulating his power, Lin Yi had not forgotten to conduct some actual combat training.
The targets Lin Yi chose for his actual combat training were the vicious demonic beasts in the mountain forests deeper beyond Ironwood Manor.
"Roar!"
A furious roar suddenly rang out in the quiet forest, shaking the leaves from the trees in a rustling cascade.
Following the direction of the roar, one could see a huge lion covered entirely in green fur lunging fiercely at a youth in blue robes.
As the giant lion pounced at the youth, the youth's hands also moved rapidly, forming profound seals that shifted constantly between his fingers.
When the giant lion's savage jaws were about to bite into the youth's throat, the seal art formed by the youth's hands suddenly stopped.
Then, while maintaining a strange hand seal, he unleashed an exceptionally powerful surge of Yuan Power and slammed it viciously into the giant lion's forehead.
"Bang!"
A dull impact rang out. Immediately afterward, the enormous body of the giant lion was blasted backward, breaking seven or eight large trees in succession before crashing heavily to the ground.
Even the giant lion's forehead had been directly caved in!
"Roar!"
The giant lion let out a pained growl and struggled several times to rise, but all its efforts were futile. It soon lost its vitality.
"The Third Layer of the Mysterious Gate Seal is pretty powerful." The youth glanced at the dead green lion, a smile appearing on his face as he felt rather pleased with his results.
This youth was Lin Yi.
The Green-Faced Lion was a demonic beast comparable to the Early Heaven Origin Realm. Since successfully breaking through to the Early Heaven Origin Realm a month ago, Lin Yi had slain more than one Heaven Origin Realm demonic beast in the depths of the mountain forest, but this one had been the easiest.
"Whoosh!"
Just then, a fiery-red shadow suddenly shot out from the forest, swift as thunder!
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