Unexpected Gain

The bull demon captain glared furiously and swept his great axe through the head of a dog that had leapt into the air. A foul gust carried brains across the faces of the lesser demons in the rear.

As Lin Xu controlled a paper figure to observe the battlefield, he released another and sent it slipping quietly toward the demon soldiers' cave camp.

The paper figure flitted through the forest and swiftly reached the cave entrance.

Firelight flickered inside the cave. The guards were lax, with only two or three lesser demons curled up beside the campfire, dozing.

The paper figure slid in along the ground and quietly made its way around to the supply pile. It gently lifted the beast hide covering it, revealing the dry rations stacked in a wooden chest.

And right beside the chest holding the food, dozens of irregular stones shimmering with a gentle light were piled in another chest.

In the paper figure's ink-painting-like vision, the energy radiance flowing over the stones' surfaces resembled a rainbow with clearly distinct colors.

Spirit Stones! Lin Xu's heart stirred. He controlled the paper figure to slowly replace the beast hide, then silently toured the entire cave.

On the battlefield, the lesser demons had been almost entirely wiped out, their broken bodies mingled with the remains of Human-Faced Dogs in the bloody mud.

The bull demon captain was drenched in blood. Holding his axe aloft with his one remaining arm, he still stubbornly blocked the attacks of the last few Human-Faced Dogs.

Watching the bull demon fight the bloody battle, Lin Xu felt quietly relieved.

Judging by their attributes alone, Human-Faced Dogs' head-on combat strength was average for their tier. Their most unpleasant trait, however, was their mental erosion effect: every injury they suffered and every howl they let out weakened their enemies' will and souls. When they were wounded repeatedly, the weakening effect became especially pronounced.

The bull demon, for instance, was still valiant, but his eyes had begun to lose focus and his great axe swung sluggishly. He looked as exhausted as a spent crossbow bolt, the result of his soul being eroded again and again.

"Roar!"

Seemingly aware of his fate, the bull demon let out a mournful roar of rage and brought his great axe crashing down, chopping an attacking Human-Faced Dog in half at the waist. Its innards spilled out amid a wail of agony.

But he, too, staggered and fell to his knees from exhaustion, his back arching like the gnarled branch of a dead tree. The last two Human-Faced Dogs seized the chance to pounce, their fangs biting straight for his throat.

"Attack!"

Lin Xu decisively led his troops into battle. The moment the bull demon fell, the Yin soldiers and militia closed in.

The elite vengeful spirit he had only recently subdued quietly appeared, its invisible mental power disrupting the targets' perception.

The three remaining Human-Faced Dogs were already covered in wounds. They immediately lost themselves in the illusion, flailing their claws and snapping their jaws in vain.

With the elite vengeful spirit's help, the militia killed the last Human-Faced Dogs almost as soon as they engaged.

Across the battlefield, specks of source fire fragments rose from among the broken bodies and vanished into Lin Xu in an instant.

He swept his gaze across the battlefield and saw an iron treasure chest appear over the bull demon's remains.

"A treasure chest actually dropped." Delighted, Lin Xu opened it.

Three translucent stones glimmering faintly and a crimson pill emitting a dim glow lay quietly inside.

Item: Low-Grade Spirit Stone

Grade: Cyan, rare

Type: Energy crystal

Effect: Can quickly restore mana, or be used to power puppets and formations

Spiritual Qi: 100/100

Description: The most basic spiritual energy crystal in heaven and earth, containing pure Spiritual Qi

The three stones contained 300 points of Spiritual Qi in total. At a maximum conversion rate of ten Dharma Coins per point of Spiritual Qi, that came to 3,000 Dharma Coins.

At the thought of the dozens of Spirit Stones piled up in the demon cave, Lin Xu's heart burned with excitement.

Item: Crimson Soul Pill

Grade: Cyan, rare

Type: Pill

Effect: After consumption, speeds up the opening of the sea of consciousness, increasing its expansion speed by 100% for one hour; increases mana by 100

Description: Refined from a variety of rare medicinal ingredients, it is of tremendous benefit to soul-cultivating cultivators

"What a treasure!" Lin Xu's eyes lit up. He took out the Crimson Soul Pill and put it away.

The pill was perfectly suited to his current stage. By his original estimate, he would have needed at least another three to five days of arduous cultivation to reach the Night Wandering Realm, but with this Crimson Soul Pill, he might break through in a day or two.

Having put away the spoils, Lin Xu was in an excellent mood. He directed the militia to gather the demons' weapons, then swiftly advanced toward the demon cave camp.

With the paper figure providing vision, the Yin soldiers launched a quiet surprise attack. The two or three lesser demons guarding the cave were cut down beside the campfire before they could react.

Lin Xu confiscated the valuable weapons and dry rations in the cave and counted the Spirit Stones in the wooden chest. There were sixteen Low-Grade Spirit Stones in all; with the bull demon's contribution, that made nineteen Spirit Stones, equivalent to 19,000 Dharma Coins.

I won't have to worry about resources for the next week! he thought with secret delight. Yet after gathering the spoils, he led the patrol in a swift retreat toward the outpost without stopping.

The battle on the wolf demon's side had already ended. Presumably, he would soon send someone to check on the situation behind the mountain.

Although Spiritual Qi was abundant in this cave, it did not produce Spirit Stones—the easily mined Spirit Stones had long since been dug out by the demons who came before.

The group made it down the mountain without incident and hurried across the wilderness toward the outpost.

"Huh?" Just then, Lin Xu suddenly stopped and looked into the depths of the mist ahead and to one side.

There, through the paper figure's vision, he saw the badly wounded Evil Eye writhing with difficulty in the mist. Mucus from its ruptures corroded the surrounding vegetation, sending up wisps of white smoke.

Lin Xu's gaze sharpened, and he quietly approached the dying Evil Eye.

The Evil Eye sensed the threat and struggled to get up. Its limp tentacles tried to unleash a mental shock, but produced only faint ripples.

The Bright Light Lamp in his hand suddenly flared. Its candlelight, like a concentrated flashlight beam, shone straight onto the Evil Eye's festering rupture.

The Evil Eye let out a piercing wail. Dark blue arcs of mental electricity coiled around its tentacles, which reflexively lashed the ground, leaving a scorched black mark.

Lin Xu's expression remained unchanged. The lamp flame turned slightly, piercing the Evil Eye's mental barrier, which was on the verge of collapse, and entering its sea of consciousness.

Within the sea of consciousness, a pitch-black vortex churned with fragments of broken memories, and a gloomy underground city faintly emerged.

This was the troop type's consciousness lock, which bound its loyalty to the faction it belonged to. In the supernatural realm, once branded by a faction, there was almost no possibility of breaking free.

The candlelight illuminated the consciousness lock completely. The underground city's imprint, which had remained unmoved even under the onslaught of chaotic consciousness, began to tremble slightly under the Bright Light Lamp's glow.

Like ice and snow melting under intense heat, the edges of the imprint began to peel away and dissolve.

The consciousness lock instinctively drew on the mental power in the sea of consciousness, attempting to rebuild the structure eroded by the candlelight. But the Evil Eye was now on the verge of death, and its sea of consciousness was in complete disarray. It simply could not draw enough mental power to repair the imprint.

A few breaths later, the imprint collapsed with a crash, dissolving into specks of light that scattered through the sea of consciousness.

A point of candlelight pierced the darkness, illuminating what remained of the Evil Eye's consciousness. Out of an instinct to survive, it surged toward the candlelight like a drowning person clutching at a piece of driftwood.