Chapter 194 - 189: Tier 1 Middle Grade Yin Soul
Li Yuan walked back the way he came, heading toward the wall of mist.
After walking for about a hundred zhang, his pace slowed.
Before, he had been constantly rushing and harvesting Evil Qi, so his practice of the Ice Cone Skill had been intermittent.
The Ghost Mist Forest was the perfect place for it. No one was around, the thick fog obscured vision, and any Magic cast wouldn’t attract attention.
With a thought, he unequipped the Evil Stone and equipped the Ice Cone Talisman.
Li Yuan stopped, raised his right hand, and held his palm forward.
Spiritual Power surged from his Dantian, rushing through his meridians and into his right arm.
’Ice Cone Skill.’
A finger-thick ice cone formed in front of his palm, its surface gleaming with a cold, bluish-white light.
Li Yuan sent the ice cone into the thick fog ahead. It cut through the mist, flew for a dozen or so zhang, and embedded itself in the trunk of a dead tree with a dull THUD, a patch of white frost exploding across the bark.
A second, a third, a fourth.
Li Yuan practiced as he walked outward. He fired an ice cone every few steps, his pace unhurried but his rhythm steady.
The Ice Cone Skill wasn’t very powerful after reaching the entry level, but its advantages were its fast formation speed and low Spiritual Power consumption.
Amidst the thick fog of the Ghost Mist Forest, the bluish-white glow of the Ice Cone Skill was extremely conspicuous, like a series of cold light needles stabbing into the gray-white wall of mist.
By his thirtieth-or-so shot, Li Yuan’s feel for the skill had become much more stable. The cone’s formation speed was considerably faster than when he started, and the loss from converting Spiritual Power into the Water Element was also decreasing.
He kept firing.
The fiftieth shot, the seventieth, the one hundredth.
The Spiritual Power consumption wasn’t high. The permanent entries for Spiritual Power Tide and Spiritual Power Surge were constantly active, slowly replenishing the Spiritual Power he expended in the intervals.
The Ice Cone Skill itself had low consumption; after a hundred shots, the Spiritual Power in his Dantian had decreased by less than twenty percent.
[Ice Cone Skill: Proficient (233/400)]
His Ice Cone Skill was now proficient.
Li Yuan continued walking outward, and continued firing.
Upon the two hundredth shot, Li Yuan fired his last ice cone, embedding it in the branch of a shrub. White frost spread out in all directions from the point of impact.
A panel popped up.
[Permanence Condition Met for Cold Snap Augmentation (White)]
[Make Permanent?]
Yes.
[Permanence Successful]
[Cold Snap Augmentation (White) has become a permanent entry]
[Equipment Consumed]
The casting speed and power of his Water Attribute Magic were both permanently increased by ten percent.
Li Yuan raised his hand and fired another ice cone to test it.
The cone’s formation speed was a hair faster than before, and it was also slightly larger.
The increase in power wasn’t particularly obvious with a single shot, but every little bit counted. The difference would become apparent, especially during continuous casting.
He continued walking toward the wall of mist.
After walking for another hundred zhang, the fog ahead suddenly thickened.
It didn’t gradually thicken, it thickened abruptly. It was like walking from behind a gauze curtain into a solid wall; he couldn’t see anything beyond three zhang.
The range of his augmented Spiritual Sense was compressed to within twenty zhang.
Li Yuan’s pace slowed.
’Something’s wrong.’
’I’m walking outward, so the fog should be getting thinner, not thicker. Why is it getting denser instead?’
Suddenly, his Concealed Presence, Keen Perception ability reacted.
It wasn’t malice. It was an extremely sinister and cold aura, coming from directly ahead.
It was dense, heavy, and carried a cloyingly sweet, putrid smell.
It was completely different from the Tier One Low Grade yin souls he had encountered before.
The auras of those Tier One Low Grade yin souls were weak and erratic, like a lamp about to be extinguished.
This aura was heavy, like a piece of iron soaking in ice water.
’Tier One Middle Grade.’
From the depths of the thick fog, a mass of dark gray light was slowly approaching.
It wasn’t the fist-sized, gray-white ball of light of a Tier One Low Grade entity, but a head-sized, dark gray sphere of mist.
A distorted face could be vaguely seen inside the sphere of mist. Its features were much clearer than those of a Tier One Low Grade one, its mouth open to reveal a black, gaping abyss.
A Tier One Middle Grade yin soul.
’Perfect.’
Li Yuan didn’t use the Fireball Technique.
The permanence condition for the God Refining Talisman was "to kill a Tier One Middle Grade yin soul using a pure Divine Soul power attack."
The Fireball Technique was a Spiritual Power-based Magic, not a Divine Soul attack.
The Soul Stabbing Skill, however, was.
With a thought, Li Yuan unequipped the Bloodthirsty Stone, took out a God Refining Talisman from his storage bag, and equipped it.
[Equip Successful]
[Entry Acquired: Divine Soul Tempering (Green)]
Li Yuan then focused his attention on the spot between his eyebrows.
A wisp of Divine Soul power surged from the depths of his consciousness, following the path of the Soul Stabbing Skill to converge at the Divine Soul node between his eyebrows.
With the Soul Tempering of the Soul Mirror’s light, the insights from Alchemy, and the Divine Soul Tempering from the God Refining Talisman, these three stacked Divine Soul enhancements made the density of his condensed Divine Soul Spirit Needle far exceed that of an ordinary Late-stage Qi Refining Cultivator.
The Spirit Needle took form between his eyebrows.
It was extremely fine and sharp, like an invisible ice needle hovering at the edge of his consciousness.
The yin soul had already drifted to within ten zhang.
The surface of the dark gray sphere of mist roiled, and the distorted face turned in Li Yuan’s direction.
Its mouth opened wider, and a powerful wave of Divine Soul corrosion surged from it, lunging toward Li Yuan’s Divine Soul.
Li Yuan’s Divine Soul remained completely unmoved.
The strength of his triple-enhanced Divine Soul was far beyond what the corrosion of a Tier One Middle Grade yin soul could shake.
That sinister, cold power struck the outer wall of Li Yuan’s Divine Soul and slid off like water on a stone.
’Soul Stabbing Skill.’
The Divine Soul Spirit Needle shot out from between his eyebrows.
Formless and colorless, with no Spiritual Power fluctuations or flashes of light. It was a needle formed of pure Divine Soul power, piercing through the thick fog, through the roiling dark gray mist on the yin soul’s surface, and straight into its core.
The yin soul’s core was in the very center of its distorted face—between its two empty eye sockets.
The instant the Divine Soul Spirit Needle pierced it, the yin soul’s entire sphere of mist shuddered violently.
The mouth on the face closed, then opened again, letting out a silent scream. The dark gray mist rapidly dispersed from the sphere’s surface, like a punctured balloon leaking air.
But it wasn’t dead.
A Tier One Middle Grade yin soul was more than a single level stronger than a Tier One Low Grade one. One Soul Stabbing Skill had pierced its outer layer but failed to hit the core.
The yin soul’s sphere of mist contracted rapidly, shrinking from the size of a human head to the size of a fist, its density soaring. The face became even more twisted and ferocious, its mouth stretched to its limit as a more powerful Divine Soul shockwave lunged at Li Yuan.
The shockwave struck the outer wall of Li Yuan’s Divine Soul, causing it to tremble slightly, but it did not break.
A second Soul Stabbing Skill.
This time, Li Yuan didn’t fire it immediately. Instead, he condensed the Divine Soul Spirit Needle between his eyebrows for two more breaths, increasing its density by nearly thirty percent compared to the first.
The Spirit Needle shot out.
It passed through the surface of the now denser, contracted sphere and pierced directly into the yin soul’s core.
This time, it hit.
The yin soul’s sphere of mist exploded from the center.
The dark gray mist scattered in all directions. The distorted face flickered for an instant as it disintegrated, then shattered into countless tiny, gray-white specks of light that dispersed into the thick fog.
The yin soul perished.
A panel popped up.
[Permanence Condition Met for Divine Soul Tempering (Green)]
[Make Permanent?]
Yes.
[Permanence Successful]
[Divine Soul Tempering (Green) has become a permanent entry]
[Equipment Consumed]
Deep in his consciousness, the God Refining Talisman transformed into a faint golden light and merged with his Divine Soul.
The refinement level of his Divine Soul was permanently increased by twenty percent, and the damage he took from Divine Soul attacks was permanently reduced by twenty percent.
Combined with the effects of the Soul Mirror’s soul light tempering and his insights from Alchemy, the strength of his Divine Soul had reached a new level.
After the yin soul perished, the surrounding fog slowly thinned a little, no longer as dense as before. The yin soul’s effect of intensifying the ghost mist had vanished.
Li Yuan continued walking outward.
An hour later, the gray-white wall of mist appeared ahead.
He passed through the wall of mist and walked out of the Ghost Mist Forest.
The sunlight shone down from above, a bit dazzling.
There was almost no one left in the clearing outside the wall of mist. Most of the Loose Cultivators and demon-hunting teams he had seen earlier were gone.
Li Yuan traveled along the main road toward Yunyang Market.
After traveling for the better part of a day, the grayish-brown city walls of Yunyang Market appeared in his view.
As he entered the city, Li Yuan noticed that the gate was much livelier than usual.
The line of Loose Cultivators waiting to enter the city was nearly twice as long as usual, stretching for dozens of zhang from the city gate. On either side of the gate, two additional Primordial Yang Sect disciples stood guard, making a total of six—double the usual number.
The Loose Cultivators in line were whispering to each other, their voices a low buzz.
"...The Primordial Yang Sect’s disciple recruitment has officially begun. Haven’t you heard?"
"They put up the notice this morning. I saw it first thing."
"Loose Cultivators can participate too?"
"Yes. It’s written clearly on the notice."
"You know the Primordial Yang Sect has two recruitment channels. The first is to discover children with Spirit Roots at a young age and send them to the Sect for training."
"The second is this one: recruiting Loose Cultivators, no restrictions on age or background. As long as you pass the assessment, you can become a Primordial Yang Sect disciple."
"What’s in the assessment?"
"I don’t know, the notice didn’t give any specifics. It just said the registration is at the Market Administration Office, and the assessment is in ten days."
"Ten days? We’d better get ready, then."
"Get ready for what? What do you think you can pass as a Qi Refining Third Level?"
"What if I get lucky!"
The queuing Loose Cultivators chattered amongst themselves—some excited, some dismissive, some lost in thought.
Li Yuan paid the entrance fee and went through the city gate.
The main street was much more crowded than usual, and the atmosphere was different.
Normally, Loose Cultivators would be rushing along with their heads down or busy at their stalls. Today, however, many were standing on the roadside chatting in groups of three or five, all talking about the Primordial Yang Sect’s disciple recruitment.
A large crowd had gathered at the entrance of the Market Administration Office. A new notice with neat handwriting and the red seal of the Primordial Yang Sect was posted on the stone wall.
Li Yuan didn’t push through the crowd to look, simply walking past them.
The Primordial Yang Sect’s disciple recruitment had little to do with him. Joining a Sect meant being bound by its rules, and having just been released from his contract with the Wang family, Li Yuan had no interest in such things.
He returned to his courtyard and closed the gate.
Li Yuan took the last Iron Wall Pill from his storage bag.
He put the pill in his mouth, and a searing heat exploded from the pit of his stomach. The dual boons of Marrow Tempering and Spirit Liquid Nourishment fully amplified the medicinal effects.
He began to circulate the Iron Wall Body Refining Skill.
Spiritual Power poured deep into his muscles along the path of the Cultivation Technique, while the spirit-blood dual cultivation from the Blood Coagulation Pill made his Qi and Blood circulate in sync.
One cycle, two cycles, three cycles.
The proficiency of his Iron Wall Body Refining Skill continued to increase.
Outside the courtyard walls, Yunyang Market was much noisier than usual. The news of the Primordial Yang Sect’s disciple recruitment had stirred up the Loose Cultivators, and the sounds of conversation were everywhere.
Li Yuan’s eyes were closed, his breathing even, as Spiritual Power and Qi Blood circulated endlessly through his body.