Spirit Rhinoceros Horn

[That stupid cat can store things in her belly?]

[And what is this thing? Some animal's horn?]

He watched the dainty rhinoceros horn land on him.

While Li Boyang was still wondering what Xiluo was doing, he suddenly heard a childish voice.

[Huh?]

[What was that sound?]

[Why did it sound... like me talking?]

His eyes widened instinctively. As though realizing something, Li Boyang immediately turned his gaze toward the tabby cat on the cradle.

Sure enough, Li Boyang saw Xiluo baring her teeth, looking thoroughly belligerent.

"Who are you calling a stupid cat?"

"You're the stupid one, baby!"

"Mind your inner voice. I don't want to tell you again!"

"This is a Spirit Rhinoceros Horn. It lets its holder voice their thoughts without opening their mouth."

"The only drawback is that if you can't control your thoughts, all sorts of nonsense will come spilling out!"

Li Boyang blinked and instantly understood what was happening.

But controlling the thoughts in his heart was easy to say and far from easy to do.

[Wait... I need to focus... I can't let this stupid...]

[No, mountain god... but she is a stupid...]

[Damn it... don't think...]

[With a heart like ice, remain unshaken even if the sky falls. With a heart like ice, remain unshaken even if the sky falls.]

As the fragmented thoughts in his mind became an actual, audible inner voice,

Li Boyang could only choose to silently recite the "Ice Heart Instruction," barely managing to control his inner voice.

During this process, Li Boyang clearly felt his Life Primordial Qi pouring into the Spirit Rhinoceros Horn without pause.

If the Sha Qi outside had not been constantly replenishing it,

Li Boyang felt that this Spirit Rhinoceros Horn could drain all the Life Primordial Qi in his body within a quarter of an hour.

In fact, only when Li Boyang consciously cut off the supply of Life Primordial Qi did the thoughts in his mind stop sounding aloud as his inner voice.

Only then did Li Boyang have time to lower his head and examine this Spirit Rhinoceros Horn.

It was a small, exquisite horn, pure white throughout, looking like carved balustrades and jade masonry.

Inside this little horn, a barely visible fine thread ran its entire length, almost dividing it in two.

"You... you..."

When Li Boyang raised his head again, Xiluo was staring at him in shock, as though looking at some kind of monster.

"You can actually control the flow of Primordial Qi at will?!"

For mountain gods and spirits like Xiluo, "Primordial Qi" was actually a very abstract concept.

Heavenly Gang and Earthly Sha, the essence of the sun and moon, and Life Primordial Qi could all be considered types and branches of "Primordial Qi."

It was not as though this world lacked living beings capable of breathing "Primordial Qi" in and out-Xiluo herself possessed a similar ability.

The problem was that Xiluo had never seen anyone cut off the flow of Primordial Qi as precisely as Li Boyang.

[Is that difficult?]

Hearing this, Li Boyang deliberately fed a wisp of Primordial Qi into the Spirit Rhinoceros Horn while also controlling his mind to bring forth this thought.

Doing both things at once was somewhat difficult, but fortunately, it did not stump Li Boyang.

"It's not a question of whether it's difficult..."

"For example, can you humans freely control the direction your blood flows inside your bodies?"

Deliberately lowering her voice, Xiluo vividly described just how heaven-defying Li Boyang's feat was.

Then, still in shock, Xiluo noticed his skin color, which was clearly unlike an ordinary person's.

"Wait, what's going on?"

Under the bright moonlight, Li Boyang's skin had a scarlet hue, as striking as an evil ghost.

"You're actually using Ruifu's curse to absorb Sha Qi?"

Seeing at a glance what Li Boyang had done, Xiluo's mouth fell open in shock again.

Not only had Li Boyang perfectly endured the Sha Qi curse that ordinary people could not flee fast enough, he had even made his body absorb some of the Sha Qi.

That scarlet skin was precisely the proof that it had been tempered by fierce Sha Qi.

[What's there to make such a fuss about...]

Vaguely realizing that he seemed to have accomplished something astonishing, Li Boyang nevertheless did not understand what there was to make such a fuss about.

"You really are a freak!"

Seeing this, Xiluo knew there was nothing to say to a "layman" like him and could only roll her eyes helplessly.

"Forget it. Since you can make good use of this Spirit Rhinoceros Horn, I'll lend it to you for now..."

Unfortunately, before Xiluo could finish, Li Boyang's inner voice rang out again.

[Only lend it? What a stingy fellow after all...]

Under the threat of Xiluo's furious glare,

Li Boyang reined in his wandering thoughts in time, then grinned somewhat awkwardly.

Li Boyang swore that he absolutely had not broadcast that last thought on purpose-he had merely failed to rein in his thoughts for a moment.

"What do you mean, a stingy fellow!"

"Do you know how precious this Spirit Rhinoceros Horn is?"

Giving Li Boyang's little head a fierce smack, Xiluo bared her claws and threatened him.

"This is the horn of a Heaven-Reaching Rhinoceros! Across the Nine Provinces and Four Seas, the Eight Wildernesses and the farthest reaches, it's a very precious treasure!"

"If it hadn't been to teach me to speak back then, my sister would never have entrusted this thing to me!"

At the mention of her sister, the previously belligerent Xiluo wilted at once, and even her voice became listless.

"Forget it. Why am I arguing with a baby?"

"Just remember, I can lend this thing to you for now, but I'm not giving it to you!"

Li Boyang nodded obediently. He was not the sort to take advantage and then act coy about it, so naturally, he would not contradict Xiluo.

He was merely a little curious about just who this tabby cat's sister was.

Was she the Goddess of War enshrined in that mountain god temple on Flying Peak?

[What happened outside?]

[What were you fighting just now?]

[During the day today, a Deception Rabbit came near the village...]

[It said that the spirits in the mountains had been affected by disturbances in the earth veins lately and were all planning to migrate out. Is that true?]

Reining in his extraneous thoughts, Li Boyang finally grew serious and asked.

These were all questions Li Boyang most urgently wanted answered, and they were also his original reason for seeking Xiluo out.

"Actually, this matter has something to do with you."

Gazing at Li Boyang with a complicated expression, Xiluo remained silent for quite a while before speaking.

"I don't know whether you still remember what happened in your previous incarnation..."

"But before you became a human cub, you killed someone, a shaman who seemed to have mastered some unusual techniques?"

"His soul now lingers in Black Cloud Marsh, and it has become an evil ghost."

"No one knows exactly what happened in there."

"The only thing we know for certain is that a Yin God went in and never came out."

"Even Ruifu's earlier escape seems to have had something to do with that evil ghost..."