Lu Yuan raised his head, a strange smile appearing on his face. "A cultivation technique? I stopped using that inefficient nonsense a long time ago."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm using a cultivation system I created myself," Lu Yuan said. "It's based on an in-depth analysis of the essence of life. I grow stronger by directly manipulating killing intent and death energy."
He stood up and extended his right hand. A blood-red orb of light slowly gathered in his palm.
The orb was tiny, no bigger than a marble, but the pressure it gave off left Yun Chan feeling suffocated.
"Traditional cultivation is far too complicated. You absorb spiritual energy from heaven and earth, convert it into your own Spiritual Power, and then slowly temper your dantian." Lu Yuan shook his head. "It's too inefficient."
"Then what's your method?"
"Devouring." Lu Yuan uttered two bone-chilling words. "Devouring the essence of life from other living beings and turning it into my own power."
Yun Chan felt as though her entire worldview had been overturned.
Devouring the essence of life from other living beings? Wasn't that a forbidden method used only by evil cultivators?
And as far as she knew, although those evil cultivators grew stronger quickly, they were all punished by the heavens and met miserable ends.
"Aren't you afraid of retribution?" she asked, her voice trembling.
Lu Yuan smiled, his expression so cold it sent a chill through her. "Retribution? I've already stripped away fear, too. I'm no longer afraid of anything."
He put away the blood-red orb in his hand and looked back at Ghostface's corpse.
"And besides, do you think I can still be considered human?" Yun Chan looked at the once-kind alchemist before her and felt as though she were looking at a stranger.
No, he was