Although Xing Yan murmured his agreement and chimed in from time to time as Chen Ziping passionately denounced the evil "Soul Devouring," a little attention would have revealed that his obedient listener was, in fact, rather distracted.
After a little more idle conversation, the Four Seas Hall Master, harboring a guilty secret, finally found an opportunity to rise and take his leave.
Only when he stood once more on the mountain path leading to Thousand Birds Cliff did Xing Yan suddenly realize how much cold sweat he had broken into. As the mountain breeze blew over him, his sweat-soaked clothes clung to his body, making him indescribably uncomfortable. Still, that cool breeze cleared his head considerably.
As the dispirited boy trudged hesitantly onward, an inadvertent glance at the lush mountain grasses and flowers beside the path suddenly stirred something in his heart:
No! My Refining Spirit into Void technique absolutely cannot be the utterly evil Soul Devouring that Brother Chen just described!
All these days, bathing in the Immortal Spirit Qi of Luofu Grotto-Heaven on Thousand Birds Cliff, what a pure and wondrous realm he had experienced. And whenever he wielded Refining Spirit into Void, whenever his Great Splendor Dao Power flowed, how clear and ethereal his entire being became!
How could such a marvelous Daoist art possibly be some unforgivably wicked demonic incantation?
With the cool mountain breeze blowing over him, the boy, who had been left reeling by Chen Ziping's words, recovered his quick wits. He continued to think:
If Refining Spirit into Void really is the evil art Chen Ziping described, why does little Qiong Rong remain perfectly unharmed beside me whenever I practice it at night?
Once he understood this, the boy felt greatly relieved.
Still, since his Refining Spirit into Void could be mistaken for