A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

Aksai’s Spirit Sense carefully separated the emotional fluctuations belonging to each woman.

He didn’t intend to overwhelm their minds all at once with a massive amount of negative emotion essence. That would be too obvious. If they took precautions, it would affect his plans.

Instead, he planned to make small changes that wouldn’t arouse their suspicion, allowing them to continue believing that they were simply trapped inside a difficult formation that would take some time to crack. He didn’t want them to realize that the Devil’s Den had its own way of using Intent-based techniques.

A slight increase in suspicion.

A little more irritation.

A subtle distortion in their perception of danger.

Nothing strong enough to make them realize that their minds were being manipulated.

Aksai closed his eyes.

The negative emotions stored inside the Demon Tree began moving at a slightly faster pace than before, yet they still remained below a certain critical level.

The essence of these negative emotions flowed through the formation’s countless runes before reaching the two isolated layers.

Hummm...

The invisible fog of negative energy mixed with the ever-present grayish-white fog of the formation, which induced Spirit Sense dissonance, permeating the air.

Inside Saelyr’s isolation layer, the crimson-robed woman suddenly paused.

She frowned.

For some reason, she felt as though someone was watching her.

She immediately turned around. A part of her also felt that something had changed within the isolation layer, but she couldn’t pinpoint what it was.

It was merely a feeling that had appeared deep within her soul.

"Am I becoming paranoid?"

Saelyr muttered.

In the other isolation layer, Neshara also suddenly stopped.

Her eyes narrowed beneath her veil.

She had sensed something unusual as well.

But unlike Saelyr, she didn’t dismiss the feeling.

Her finger slowly traced the storage ring on her other hand.

’Something is wrong. But... should I make use of those pills?’

Although Neshara had sensed an anomaly, she couldn’t pinpoint its source or determine the proper solution. She had some early-stage 3rd Order soul-soothing pills that could help her recover from soul-based attacks, but taking them preemptively came at a slight cost.

Moreover, these alchemy pills were far more expensive than common late-stage 3rd Order pills because they affected the souls of cultivators. They were also extremely difficult to refine in a short period of time. Unless she had a way to end the battle quickly, using them now wasn’t ideal.

However, the main reason behind Neshara’s hesitation was the fact that she still looked down on the formation, even though it had managed to trap her and her companions. She still believed that, given enough time and effort, she and her companions could break the formation and loot the island for all it was worth.

Even if she herself couldn’t do anything to the formation herself, she could simply wait and bide her time until the sword cultivator Varesh managed to break the formation and neutralize all the threats.

Neither woman knew that their emotions had already become part of the formation. Neither realized that the formation master had finally begun taking them seriously.

Aksai opened his eyes after a brief mental pause to analyze a few things. Even though it felt much longer because of the sheer intensity of the situation, only a few moments had passed since the four imperial cultivators entered the formation.

Aksai still had a lot of Spirit Essence reserves left. Moreover, the Devil’s Den formation siphoned most of its energy from the island’s Spirit Vein and the ambient Spirit Essence. Even with its current astonishing rate of Spirit Essence expenditure, it was still far from expending more energy than it could funnel in.

As such, Aksai briefly considered playing it safe.

’Should I wait for some time before making my final move?’

He asked himself and decided to gauge the situation first.

In the next moment, he used his Spirit Sense to check the conditions of the other two imperial Lords, and all of a sudden, his gaze became cold.

’No. That bastard, the Sun Ocean Lord, can still hold off the big guy for a while, but that sword cultivator is on another level. I have to wrap this up quickly. These two ladies need to be dealt with as quickly as possible.

’Maybe the remaining three cultivators have also guessed that the sword cultivator is bound to break the formation. So they are also trying to prolong the battle. I can’t let them succeed in their schemes.’

He looked toward the two isolation layers.

’Anyway, I can’t underestimate the remaining three either. Even though they are weaker than the sword cultivator, it seems these women have some special means they haven’t used yet.

’If they become desperate, break through the isolation layers, and reunite, dealing with them will become much more troublesome.’

His lips curled into a faint smile.

’So, before that happens... I might as well make them fight the battle in their minds first. Or an even better scenario would be if they ended up fighting each other.’

Thinking like this, Aksai maintained the steady release of negative emotion essence.

The invisible essence continued to seep through the formation’s countless runes, mixing with the grayish-white fog and slowly accumulating around the two female cultivators.

At the same time, Aksai reached into his storage treasure.

His fingers closed around a familiar object.

Bansi.

It was his one and only flute-type Soul Artifact.

The moment the flute appeared in his hand, Aksai’s expression became solemn. He took a deep breath and activated his druidic transformation.

Hummm...

A peculiar Spirit Pulse spread from his body.

His black hair gradually turned crimson-red.

His ears elongated, taking on an almost elven appearance. His pupils narrowed slightly, while his eyes transformed into a brilliant golden color. His aura also changed. It became more wild, heretic, and poisonously ancient. And yet, somehow, more natural.

Aksai slowly raised Bansi toward his lips.

Before he could play the first note, the surrounding Demon Vines began moving.

Two thick vines beside Aksai twisted upward.

Their tips slowly changed shape.

Flesh-like material formed over the wooden surface.

Then—

Two enormous human-shaped ears appeared.

The ears were several meters tall, their wooden surfaces covered in intricate veins and faint formation runes. They were connected directly to the two isolation layers.

They acted as extensions of Aksai’s senses.

But that wasn’t all.

Inside the two isolated battlefields, the Demon Vines began undergoing an even stranger transformation. Countless mouths appeared across their surfaces.

Some were enormous. Others were barely larger than a human palm.

Some appeared on the ground. Others emerged from the walls of the isolation layers.

A few even opened on the Demon Vines hanging from above.

One after another, the mouths slowly parted their lips.

They smiled.

Some grinned widely.

Others twisted into strange expressions.

A few mouths silently mouthed words that had no sound.

The sight was grotesque and haunting. Almost nightmarish.

Saelyr immediately stopped moving. Her crimson robes fluttered around her as she stared at the countless mouths surrounding her.

"What...? What the fuc*k is this? Is the island master a demonic Lord?"

A chill ran down her spine. Goosebumps covered her skin. She instinctively tightened her grip on her artifact.

Neshara’s reaction was even more restrained.

She didn’t move and simply stared at the mouths beneath her veil. Her eyes narrowed.

Something is coming.

She could feel it.

The formation was changing once again.

The Demon Vines that had previously been nothing more than annoying obstacles had suddenly transformed into something far more sinister.

Yet the main attack had not even arrived.

Aksai slowly placed Bansi against his lips and closed his golden eyes.

Then he took a deep breath.

The surrounding air became unnaturally quiet.

Humm...

A single note escaped the flute.

Then another.

Aksai began playing the first tune.

Melody of Panic.

The moment the first sequence of notes was played, the two giant woodland ears reacted. And as they trembled, the special soul-based sound energy released by Bansi flowed into them.

Instead of dispersing into the surrounding space, the woodland ears captured the sound completely.

The two ears acted like enormous special microphones. And because they were manifested using the negative emotion essence, they looked hideous and frightening.

However, Aksai didn’t care how the two ears looked in front of him and simply played the melody with his eyes closed. The woodland ears received every note produced by Bansi and transferred the soul-based sound energy directly into the two isolated layers.

Nothing was wasted.

Not a single note escaped.

Inside the isolation layers, the countless woodland mouths suddenly opened.

Haa...

Although they produced no ordinary sound, the formation itself began vibrating.

The mouths acted no different from speakers and amplifiers from Aksai’s previous homeworld. The negative emotional essence accumulated within the Devil’s Den flowed into them.

Apart from the essence provided by the Demon Tree, every negative emotion harvested from the two female cultivators was fed into the mouths.

The mouths absorbed it before releasing the transformed energy back into the isolation layers.