Some time ago, Li Ling had consumed incense to refine his soul, opening the door to a whole new world.
Today, he had stepped farther into its inner chambers and successfully found a path that truly suited him.
His advantage lay in consuming incense to refine his soul. Cultivating his soul, Dharma manifestation, and Dharma body was far easier for him than refining qi through his Spirit Root.
All paths of the Great Dao led to the same destination. Once advanced cultivators reached Nascent Soul or higher, they had to engage with the Primordial Spirit. Even the Spirit Transformation realm itself was inseparably linked to it. In effect, he had set foot on that broad, open road ahead of time.
Having clarified his choice, Li Ling gradually gathered his thoughts and continued honing his Incense Baleful Force according to the methods in the Baleful Refining Chapter of the Three Treasures Demon-Refining Art.
His earlier strike had already shown a little power, but it was still far from its limit. There was room for further improvement.
This might have something to do with how condensed his mental power was.
The key to Divine Abilities and spells was, in fact, transformation.
As Li Ling understood it, brute force could strike someone directly. A cleverer approach could exploit gravitational potential energy or leverage, but that was still insufficient to induce chemical recombination, let alone reactions such as fusion.
Thus, he needed to grasp the essence of power.
The same two-odd taels of Divine Sense power were fundamentally different in the hands of a Spirit Transformation powerhouse and a Qi Refining cultivator.
Without his noticing, the night deepened.
Li Ling glanced at the moon hanging overhead. Feeling that midnight must already have passed, he started back.
Now he flew as swiftly as a galloping horse, the scenery streaming backward around him.
Suddenly, a rotten stench reached him, mingled with the bloody, rusty tang of fresh blood.
Li Ling stopped and carefully distinguished the scents, a little surprised. "Someone's fighting nearby? I'll go have a look!"
After changing course, however, he grew even more surprised. A vaguely familiar bamboo fragrance appeared ahead-it was Zuo Zhongliang of the Unusual Events Bureau!
"Who's he fighting? Could it be the mastermind behind the Huangkou Town incident?"
Soon, Li Ling reached a patch of wasteland beside an official road. Zuo Zhongliang stood there with a saber in hand, slashing fiercely at a hulking, giantlike figure before him.
The moonlight was bright, and nothing obstructed the surroundings. Li Ling's Spiritual Consciousness was clear, and he quickly saw that the figure was actually an ape.
Clang!
A crisp metallic sound rang from the ape's body. It was actually wearing scale armor similar to military protective gear.
Zuo Zhongliang shifted his saber and checked his step, spinning into another slash that cut the creature's calf. Then, while the ape's movements faltered, he rolled aside and slashed at its neck.
Zuo Zhongliang's martial skills were formidable, his leaps and evasions exceptionally nimble. Though the ape was massive and strong, it was no match for him and seemed about to lose its head.
A cold gleam suddenly shot toward him from ahead on the left. Zuo Zhongliang redirected his blade and struck it with a bang. Sharp Gang force scattered outward, sending dust swirling around them.
Zuo Zhongliang barely managed to hunch over and dissipate the force before the ape sent him flying with a leaping kick.
Using the terrain to roll several times, Zuo Zhongliang quickly sprang up and stood nearer Li Ling, saber raised in readiness.
A figure slowly emerged from the darkness, revealing his face beneath the moonlight. He was a middle-aged man.
"Someone from the Unusual Events Bureau? I didn't expect you to catch up so quickly..."
Zuo Zhongliang said, "Demonic scum! You lead beasts to devour people, committing atrocities against heaven and reason. Heaven, earth, ghosts, and gods all know your crimes. Sooner or later, you won't escape your reckoning. If you know what's good for you, surrender at once!"
The middle-aged man gave a cold chuckle. "What shameless boasting!"
"Roar!" The ape beside him bellowed, yin baleful intent pouring from its entire body. Its blood and vital energy rose like blazing flames, and it lunged forward again.
Zuo Zhongliang flicked his sleeve and swept his hand out, scattering a great cloud of purplish-red powder.
"No! Come back!" the middle-aged man hurriedly commanded.
"Too late!" Zuo Zhongliang pressed his index and middle fingers together and shouted. Flames rose, and all the strength in his body seemed to gather in his lungs as he blew forward with everything he had.
Boom!
A fireball the size of a water vat appeared, its blazing radiance carrying astonishing energy. Even more than ten feet away, its heat was oppressive.
"Is that flame powder?" Li Ling hurriedly retreated.
Flame powder was a crystalline substance refined from heavenfire stone, a spiritual material below the ranked grades. It burned with extraordinary ferocity and would not go out even in water.
Just one small jar could eat through bone and destroy flesh. It was terrifying.
Its power was no less impressive than that of modern incendiary bombs. Ancient alchemy and chemistry shared common ground, and through practice, cultivators of the immortal sects had discovered many unusual materials and natural treasures containing spiritual energy. This was one of them.
Cultivators normally used the spiritual energy of the five elements directly, which was far more convenient than such external substances. After Foundation Establishment, they could borrow power from heaven and earth, drawing upon Heaven-and-Earth Origin Energy for a vast, boundless force. What use would they have for something like this?
Even so, certain forms of Gang Baleful Energy, divine sands, and Strange Flame remained extremely valuable, indispensable for cultivating particular Divine Abilities.
Zuo Zhongliang was no cultivator, so he had to use it to imitate fire spells among the five-element arts. Its power, however, was considerable.
The ape failed to evade it and took the blast head-on. Much of the powder stuck to its fur, instantly splitting skin and flesh. Its entire body burned violently like a man made of fire as it howled and flailed.
Zuo Zhongliang stepped forward and killed it with one clean stroke.
Furious, the middle-aged man beckoned with his hand. A flying sword emerged from his pouch and thrust through the air toward him.
Instead of retreating, Zuo Zhongliang advanced, brushing past it in the blink of an eye.
Momentum carried the flying sword several dozen feet away. The middle-aged man hurriedly recalled it with an object-controlling technique, but he was still slower than Zuo Zhongliang's descending saber.
The blade flashed coldly, like water splashed into his face. Forced to leap backward, the middle-aged man saw Zuo Zhongliang whip his left arm hard, launching a Dart Shuttle as swift as an arrow.
The middle-aged man hurriedly dodged sideways, never expecting a steel cable to trail behind the Dart Shuttle. Pulled by the cable, it swung in an arc like a steel whip.
Slash!
The sound of a blade slicing flesh rang out. The middle-aged man was nearly disemboweled.
His face drained with terror. Without even a parting threat, he silently recited an incantation, flung himself into a leap, and burrowed into the ground.
Thud!
Zuo Zhongliang drove his saber fiercely into the earth, only to see a mound rise elsewhere and flee rapidly away.
"Stop, you villain!"
Zuo Zhongliang sprinted after him.
Impressive! Li Ling silently cheered.
Facing a cultivator with a mortal body, remaining composed in danger, and displaying unmatched valor-Zuo Zhongliang's performance had practically overturned his whole worldview.
The ordinary people of this world, too, struggled tenaciously to grow, seeking to defy heaven and change their fate.
This was by no means easy. From what Li Ling had just witnessed, several critical moments would have killed Zuo Zhongliang, a man of mortal flesh, had he responded incorrectly. Yet his martial skills and wits had carried him safely through them all. Such ability had been forged through untold hours of bitter training and deadly combat.
By contrast, the middle-aged man had shown little worth praising. Without his Spirit Root aptitude, he probably would not even have been qualified to last three exchanges against Zuo Zhongliang.
Yet as Li Ling thought this, he suddenly realized that the reverse was equally true.
No matter how mediocre and unremarkable someone had been before, as long as he possessed the requisite Spirit Roots and a foundation in the Immortal Dao, becoming a Qi Refining cultivator would instantly elevate him beyond the mundane.
Sure enough, after sprinting for a while, Zuo Zhongliang discovered to his frustration that he had lost the man.
The earth-escape technique of the Qi Refining realm was crude and shallow, far inferior to that of Foundation Establishment or higher, but it was still not something a mortal could easily counter.
Once his opponent burrowed underground, no matter how keen Zuo Zhongliang's senses or how sharp his wits, he could do nothing.
That technique alone was enough to place the man beyond defeat.
But Li Ling could clearly smell that the middle-aged man had not gone far. The faint stench of rotting corpses still lingered nearby.
After lying hidden for a while, the man actually circled around and returned from another direction.
Trying a sneak attack? Li Ling activated his Divine Sense and swept it hard across the ground a short distance behind Zuo Zhongliang. Zuo Zhongliang reacted at once, turning with a slash.
Slash!
Blood spurted out like a gushing spring.
Before the unlucky middle-aged man even understood what had happened, he retreated with a grievous wound, scrambling backward as though he had seen a ghost.
This time, he finally abandoned all hope and wanted only to flee the scene as quickly as possible.
Zuo Zhongliang lost him again and stayed where he was, keeping a vigilant guard. Only Li Ling quietly departed, following the underground movements his Spiritual Consciousness detected.
The man's earth escape did not last long. After traveling a little over a li underground, he surfaced beneath a hillside elsewhere.
Trembling, the middle-aged man pulled a small bottle from his robe, poured out pills, and swallowed them with his saliva. He gasped for breath, his face as white as snow.
Li Ling saw that his left shoulder had been pierced through, nearly severing his entire arm. He was truly in a wretched state, yet he dared not stay to rest and tend his wounds. Once he caught his breath, he slunk into the deep mountain woods like a homeless dog with its tail between its legs.
Stumbling all the way, the middle-aged man ran more than ten li before finally stopping.
With wounds that severe, he should stop to treat them now, shouldn't he?
Once his attention shifts, I'll ambush him. I must succeed in a single strike.
From his scent alone, Li Ling knew this man was no decent soul, so he had no intention of letting him go.
What truly stirred Li Ling's interest was the man's status as a cultivator. Judging by his exchange with Zuo Zhongliang, he was very likely connected to the case in Huangkou Town.
Leading beasts to devour people-did that refer to the ape spirit that had just been killed?
There had been a faint trace of beast-refining methods about it, exactly like Huang De's water monster.
The difference was that this ape spirit had clearly been much easier to use. Controlled at close quarters, it obeyed as readily as fingers obeyed an arm, nothing like Huang De's half-baked handling.
Just then, a powerful animal musk swept toward him, faintly mixed with the rusty smell of blood.
Li Ling whipped his head around and saw a figure gliding through the air, stepping upon branches before descending with the wind beneath the moon.
He could only make out a man in a long robe wearing a veiled hat. An aura surrounded him, concealing his true features. Li Ling was greatly surprised.
He actually has an accomplice nearby?
The middle-aged man noticed the newcomer as well. He narrowed his eyes, and once he recognized him, hurriedly struggled to his feet. "Special Envoy Mu," he said in a trembling voice.
"How did you get wounded like this? Did the Unusual Events Bureau ambush you?" A male voice sounded, somewhat younger than the middle-aged man's, yet carrying the composure and steadiness of someone accustomed to authority.
The middle-aged man looked ashamed. "N-no..."
Special Envoy Mu asked, "Then what happened?"
The middle-aged man said, "A company commander from the Unusual Events Bureau hounded me..."
Distinct puzzlement entered Special Envoy Mu's voice. "Cultivators don't hold posts in the Unusual Events Bureau. They serve as Attendants and the like. This company commander you speak of was only a mortal, wasn't he?"
The middle-aged man said, "Yes, he..."
Special Envoy Mu's voice turned cold. He snorted. "Useless trash!"
At these words, sweat that had already stopped began beading on the middle-aged man's forehead again. "Please forgive me, Special Envoy."
Special Envoy Mu said, "If we weren't short of hands right now, a wretch like you would have deserved death beneath my palm long ago! Hurry and clean up your own loose ends. Reach Xuansin Royal City within three days!"
The middle-aged man hurriedly cupped his hands. "Yes!"
Li Ling was astonished to hear this. Head to Xuansin Royal City? Who are these people, and what are they planning to do in the royal city?
After his brief visit, Special Envoy Mu soon left.
Li Ling considered the matter and did not follow him. Instead, he remained where he was, patiently waiting for the middle-aged man to treat his injuries.
He did not know what spiritual pills the man had taken earlier. In any case, the bleeding had stopped, but the wounds remained open. Left with no choice, the man tore his outer brocade robe into strips, then took out a pottery bottle, poured some white medicinal powder onto his wound, and bandaged it.
He treated his abdominal wound in the same way, trembling as he poured out the powder. His entire body was already soaked in cold sweat.
Just then, Li Ling suddenly struck.
He manifested a tangible form and turned Incense Baleful Force into an arrow, all in one seamless motion.
With a sudden attack that gave no warning, he drove all his power into the abdominal wound the middle-aged man had yet to bandage. The man's eyes instantly widened, his body arched, and he fell stiffly to the ground, trembling.
As death approached, his pupils dilated, his face filled with bewilderment.
Wh-what...
What happened?
This was Li Ling's first time slaying evil, yet he was as calm and composed as a born hunter. Immediately after attacking, he retreated into the woods behind him and patiently waited until the man had bled out before emerging again.
He was unsure whether the man had any last-resort tricks, so he avoided a direct confrontation as much as possible.
Even after the man was dead, he sank back into the intangible state of a pure Spirit Body and used his Divine Sense power to search the corpse, guarding against any surprises.
As it turned out, all this caution amounted to matching wits and courage with empty air. Nothing happened throughout the search.
Li Ling simply used his Divine Sense to empty the man's pack. Aside from assorted odds and ends, it actually contained five unranked, single-use talisman artifacts, a silk scroll, and various medicines, including fasting pills, antidote pills, and wound medicine.
He unrolled the silk scroll. Sure enough, it was the Three Treasures Demon-Refining Art he had seen before.
After a brief look, Li Ling immediately discovered that it differed from the version confiscated by the Unusual Events Bureau.
"The vast majority is identical, but this really does include an additional Demon-Taming Method."
The missing portion had been supplied here.
"This man actually had the complete, authentic cultivation art. Just what was his background?"
Li Ling swept his Spiritual Consciousness over the assorted belongings, then suddenly focused his attention on one particular object.
It was a token made of ebony, its face engraved with recessed characters in an archaic script of the ancient immortals.
Eager to pursue the Dao, Li Ling had studied a good deal of related knowledge and actually recognized these characters. Somewhat surprised, he silently read them.
May I sleep forever and never wake, remaining a Netherworld Immortal of the Grave...