Persuading the Dark Mage to Surrender

As captives, they had been stripped of all their weapons and equipment. Even the Dark Ladies' enchanted leather armor, which resembled leather coats, had been taken off and replaced with coarse hemp garments to cover their bodies.

Lin Xu looked around, then turned his gaze to the two Dark Mages.

Unlike the Dark Ladies and Dark Warriors, who had fought to the bitter end, the two mages had surrendered of their own accord when they saw things turning against them. They were the most likely to be persuaded to submit.

The spirit lamp in his hand flickered, and a beam of candlelight passed through the window and enveloped one of the Dark Mages.

It was meditating. Compared with the warriors' silence and the Dark Ladies' agitation, the mages seemed much calmer about their current predicament, spending most of the day immersed in meditation.

As the candlelight touched the mage's mental defenses, its calm mental fluctuations began to tremble.

Lin Xu's gaze sharpened, and his consciousness followed the candlelight to make contact with the mage.

Cold and slimy, like the tentacle of some deep-sea monster—this was his most immediate impression upon touching the Dark Mage's mental power.

Clearly, these mages cultivated some kind of dark-attribute meditation method, and their mental power carried a gloomy, sinister quality.

Lin Xu frowned slightly. The candlelight shone, pulling the mage's consciousness into an illusion he had woven.

Burning on a heated pillar, death by a thousand cuts, dismemberment by five horses...

In the illusion, he showed the Dark Mage all manner of cruel punishments from human history, until he was satisfied to sense it trembling with fear. "Surrender, or choose how you want to die?"

"I surrender, I surrender!" the mage replied at once.

This did not surprise Lin Xu. In the previous battle, not even the goblins had surrendered, though perhaps they had not had the chance. As soon as these two mages saw that their side was doomed and they had no chance to escape, they had surrendered decisively.

Smart people always treasured their lives.

"Lower your mental defenses. Don't resist!" Lin Xu warned it. "You have only one chance!"

The Dark Mage obediently lowered its mental defenses. Following the candlelight, the Dharma Seed easily passed through its consciousness barrier and entered its mental sea.

"Rumble~"

As though some defense mechanism had been triggered, the mage's sea of consciousness erupted into turmoil the moment the Dharma Seed entered.

Dark, sinister mental power surged toward the Dharma Seed like a tide, trying to extinguish the only light in this mental world. Yet the instant it drew near, it was burned and purified by the light.

"Ugh~" The Dark Mage's body shook violently, and cold sweat dripped from its forehead. The turmoil in its mental power subjected it to immense pain, but fear of death forced it to maintain its current state.

Lin Xu frowned slightly. The spirit lamp in his hand flickered, and the candlelight pierced the mage's mental barrier like a sharp arrow. In an instant, it was as though a sun had been lit in the dark sea of consciousness.

"Ahh~" the mage screamed, light and flame practically bursting from its mouth and eyes.

"Hold on!" He used the Evil Eye's mental shock technique to shake the Dark Mage's consciousness, rousing it from the pain that had brought it to the brink of collapse. Out of an instinct for survival, it subconsciously stabilized its mental sea.

The moment the projection of candlelight illuminated the Dark Mage's consciousness, Lin Xu finally saw what lay deep within it:

Deep beneath the tide formed by gloomy mental power, a giant deep-sea octopus flickered in and out of sight, waving its tentacles. Its limbs twitched unconsciously, whipping up monstrous waves in the mental world.

"Deep Sea Demonic Abyss." Lin Xu saw the name of the meditation method in an instant. Under Thought Overclocking, that originally fleeting instant stretched out, and he recorded every detail of the entire sea of consciousness.

"Tell me the meditation method you learned, quickly!" Lin Xu called out loudly in the mental world.

The projection of candlelight had clearly damaged the mage's consciousness. Its mental sea raged, nearly tearing its entire mental world apart.

Seemingly realizing that this was a critical moment, the wailing mage struggled to recall the contents of the Deep Sea Demonic Abyss meditation method in its mental sea. Lin Xu recorded each part and matched it to the panorama of its mental world.

Unlike every meditation method he had seen before, Deep Sea Demonic Abyss was closer to visualization. Through visualization, one steadily drew closer to a certain source of power and obtained the trace amounts of power it released, slowly transforming one's own mental world and thereby gaining formidable power.

Deep Sea Demonic Abyss was written throughout in strange, complex characters he had never seen before. Fortunately, information was exchanged more directly in the mental world. Lin Xu only had to see these unfamiliar characters to understand their meaning naturally.

Under Thought Overclocking, the entire meditation method was translated into seal script, then interpreted, broken down, and reconstructed. Finally, using the Lamp Kindling Spirit Transformation Chapter as a foundation, he formed a completely new cultivation method that incorporated Deep Sea Demonic Abyss.

By now, the Dark Mage's mental sea was in turmoil and on the verge of collapse. Lin Xu did not dare delay. With a thought, the Dharma Seed descended deep into the sea of consciousness, above the giant dark octopus.

This special entity, condensed from the meditation method, had likewise fallen into chaos because of the Dark Mage's mental turmoil. Its tentacles twitched unconsciously, continuously churning up the entire mental sea.

At that moment, seemingly sensing something, chains hidden within the mental world slowly emerged and bound the giant dark octopus fast.

This was the Troop Type Consciousness Lock, which locked in the loyalty of recruited troop types. It had emerged because of the mental turmoil.

"It's finally appeared!" Lin Xu's eyes lit up. The spirit lamp in his hand shone, and a brighter beam of candlelight pierced through the air like an arrow, striking the Consciousness Lock in an instant.

Scorching light and flame burned the chains without affecting the raging mental sea around them. In the space of a few breaths, the Consciousness Lock, which seemed rooted deep in the mind, was melted through by the candlelight and disintegrated.

With the trickiest Consciousness Lock dealt with, Lin Xu felt a weight lift from his heart.

With the final obstacle gone, the Dharma Seed shot through the darkness like a sharp arrow and lodged itself in the giant dark octopus's forehead. The chaotic beast immediately froze. The Dharma Seed came to rest atop its head, illuminating the sea of consciousness like a lamp.

"Hum~"

The instant the Dharma Seed fused with the giant dark octopus, the chaotic sea of consciousness paused briefly. Then, like a hundred rivers converging into one, the raging mental power rushed toward that point of spiritual light.

Lin Xu watched the Dharma Seed at work. Like the eye of the sea, it rapidly absorbed the Dark Mage's mental power and magic power, then transformed them into an entirely new kind of mana that carried a glimmer of light.

During this process, the foreign power drawn in by the visualization method from the source of Deep Sea Demonic Abyss was purified by the lamp-kindling mana and converted into pure mana.

As time passed, a point of light was kindled in the gloomy sea of consciousness, like a lighthouse guiding the way forward.

The Dark Mage calmed down again and subconsciously immersed itself in meditation, sensing the new mana, utterly different from magic power, circulating and nourishing the cells of its body, which had mutated slightly under the radiation of the foreign power.