Chapter 358: Tempering Will (2)
Chapter 358: Tempering Will (2)
Translator: Swammped Editor: Hitesh_
The blood colored stone was precisely the blood evil stone. It immediately transformed when it made contact with the intent, emitting a blood colored haze which enveloped Ye Chen.
Sha...sha...sha…
Large amounts of evil qi emerged, pounding against Ye Chen's sea of soul, setting off enormous waves inside. Soon, it condensed into all kinds of bizarre demons. These demons lacked any substance and were illusory like mist, occasionally producing powerful roars like wails of ghosts and howls of wolves.
"Suppress for me!"
The mist longsword hovering over the sea of soul emitted rings of light that swept away the demons, completely vanquishing them. Following that, strands of silver colored mist pervaded the sea of soul, identical to the mist surrounding the longsword.
"Silver mist, will?"
If Ye Chen's guess was not wrong, this mist was nothing but the illusory will. The will was incorporeal and relied on soul. In theory, the stronger the soul was, the more powerful would the will be. However, even if one sat atop a treasure mountain, it would be useless if they had no means of digging out the treasures. But, Blood Evil Stones should be able to refine will to some extent.
"My soul power is several folds above that of others. Thus, my will's potential should also exceed others by several folds. I wonder if four stones would be enough."
Adding the blood evil stone of quasi blood evil beast, Ye Chen's altogether had four blood evil stones. The first he had obtained from killing a blood evil beast with his own hands, the second and third from White Bones storage ring, and the last by taking advantage of the situation when Shen Tujue had attacked the quasi blood evil beast. The evil qi contained in the fourth stone was equivalent to the combined amount contained in the former three, with a purity several folds above. That one evil stone was equivalent to five normal ones. Therefore, even though Ye Chen only had four blood evil stones, they could be considered as eight normal blood evil stones.
Three days passed by in flash.
The first blood evil stone had turned dull, devoid of evil qi.
Previously, there were only a few strands of silver mist beside the longsword in his sea of soul. However, at this moment, the mist had become ten folds, spreading like a soft layer of silk.
"For will to transform into sword intent and merge with the longsword, an endlessly long process is required. Currently, I need to lay a solid foundation and gain sufficient will. Later on, when comprehending sword intent, I won't need to worry about lack of reserves."
Taking out the second blood evil stone, Ye Chen continued to absorb its evil qi.
In the course of refining will, Ye Chen discovered that stronger the will became, the speed of absorbing evil Qi also increased. To consume the first stone, he had to spend three days. However, the second only needed two and a half days, and the third only two. Meanwhile, the silver mist inside the sea of soul had turned into a dim haze from a thin layer, thirty folds compared to the beginning. So far, there had been no signs of saturation, seeming as if will and soul power reciprocated each other, and the amount of will hadn't reached the limits of what soul could sustain.
"Before, my soul power was quite powerful. Its direct application was to scan surroundings and indirect application was to increase comprehension, allowing me to quickly learn anything. Currently, the soul power has reflected another application- to increase the bearing capacity. Will is basically a method of Sea of Soul realm. The potential of my will and soul undoubtedly exceeds that of Sea of Soul experts, just that it has not been dug out."
Without much hesitation, Ye Chen took out the fourth stone.
This was the stone from half-formed evil beast's body- scarlet and glistening. Strands of extremely pure evil qi spread out, dyeing the surroundings red.
"The magnitude and quality both far surpass ordinary blood evil stones!"
With a thought, Ye Chen urged his sword Qi at the stone.
Buzz!
Large amount of evil Qi burst forth, creating ripples in the surroundings.
As the evil Qi entered his brain, Ye Chen's mind gradually blurred. A blood-thirsty, slaughtering impulse pervaded his heart, 'This is bad! Its purity is too high."
Ye Chen immediately bit his tongue, urging the mist longsword to suppress the evil Qi.
The mist longsword was the amalgamation of sword intent. It immediately emitted a frightening sword light, confronting the exceptionally pure evil qi demon.
Clatter!
The demon disintegrated into pieces, and the sword light also turned dim. However, Ye Chen's sword intent was not ordinary. It had an immortal character. Regardless of how powerful evil qi demon's assault became, it never showed signs of going down and continued to whittle down the former's power.
Time flew by like water.
By the time Ye Chen's opened his eyes, six days had passed.
"The sword intent contained in the longsword is not that much. After all, my sword intent has only recently reached larger success. Although it surpasses the perfect sword intent in terms of might, it's inferior overall, not to mention the realm above that."
Disregarding the immortal character, Ye Chen knew he was somewhat lacking. Above larger success was the perfect sword intent, the realm Shen Tujue resided in. Of course, Shen Tujue trod the path of a martial artist, while Ye Chen treaded the path of a sword artist. The manifestation of their wills would be quite different even if their realm was the same.
Huff!
Ye Chen forced out a mouthful of slaughtering qi and slowly stood up. After absorbing the four blood evil stones, his will had increased by ninety folds compared to before, ten folds more than he had expected. This will would allow Ye Chen's future path to broaden incomparably, innately providing him with an absolute superiority. More importantly, even this much will had still not reached the limits of his soul.
"This powerful will has sharpened my mind a lot. The longsword is also gaining its nourishment. Unfortunately, my sword intent hasn't reached the perfect realm. The speed of absorbing the will is quite slow. I need to make sufficient preparations and take my sword intent straight to the perfect realm."
The realm couldn't be neglected. If one's realm was lacking, they would have to exert twice the effort for half the result. This was the difference of realm.
Suddenly, Ye Chen discovered the True Yuan Core in his Dantian regain a trace of vitality, circulating the Yuan Qi of heaven and earth and refining it into little amounts of Zhen Yuan.
"This will do. Without Zhen Yuan, recovering from these injuries would be exceptionally hard."
…
One day passed after another, as Ye Chen's injury slowly started to improve. One couldn't help but admit that Heavenly Demonic Flower's efficacy was too high. As long as one absorbed its medicinal power through Zhen Yuan, it could heal almost any injury of the body. It had an all-round application.
Unfortunately, recovering the meridians was extremely hard in comparison. After all, they were an imperative part of providing circulation route to Zhen Yuan.
Therefore, by the time his physical injuries had almost healed, his damaged meridians had only healed by less than forty percent, causing a huge shortage of Zhen Yuan.
Swallowing a Seven Star Pill, Ye Chen continued to meditate.
Bang!
After an unknown time, a splash of water struck Ye Chen's face.
Opening his eyes, Ye Chen saw the lake water that had pervaded everywhere outside the crack. Waves after waves crashed against the rock.
"The island is going to drown!"
Ye Chen frowned, then smiled bitterly. Now, he would have to look another place to heal his injuries. He had no desire to soak in the lake water the whole day.
Ye Chen stood up and walked out of the crack, then jumped atop the rock.
The thick fog stretched as far as eye could see, making visibility extremely low. Even if he employed his eyesight to the fullest, he could only see the scenery within a perimeter of ten meters.
Bang!
A dozens of meters long wave approached, cleaving the fog into two.
Ye Chen neither retreated nor dodged, simply vanquishing the wave, which would be a nightmare for a normal person, with a punch. Although his battle power had been reduced a lot, it was still equivalent to that of a beginner Astral Reaching expert. The threat from natural gales and waves was almost non-existent for him.
Spreading out his soul power, Ye Chen chose a small path cleared by the waves, relying on his intuition.
To save Zhen Yuan, Ye Chen didn't fly. Instead, he gathered strands of Zhen Yuan on his feet and ran on the lake water.
The lake seemed boundless, with no end in sight.
A human figure flickered on the lake water, randomly appearing and disappearing.
"What a chaotic gravitation! My road clearly isn't a straight line."
The gravity in the Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone was extremely chaotic. Sometimes it was high, and sometimes low; sometimes it was distorted, sometimes straight up, and sometimes straight down. A slight difference might have caused a deviation of thousands of li in direction. If he had not guessed wrong, this should be the frightening aspect of Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone, not allowing people to travel in a straight line. It made them go in circles inside, forever trapping them inside.
…
Standing atop the rapidly flowing water, Ye Chen took out a big water hourglass. Its scale pointed at the number seven.
"Another seven days have passed, and I still have no idea about my position inside the Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone."
As the time passed, Ye Chen thoroughly felt the terror of this forbidden zone. Once one was inside, all sense of direction was lost. Over time, one would lose his spirit and become increasingly fidgety.
Clatter!
In the perception of his soul power, there were water-cleaving sounds over twenty li to his left.
"Hm, something big is sailing."
His eyebrows raised before he advanced towards the direction of the sound.
The fog in this direction was evidently much thinner compared to other regions. He could see over a hundred meters ahead. In his vision came a dozens of meters long and several meters wide boat that had just halted. Several people pounced into the lake water. When they returned, they had all kinds of big and small demonic beast in their hands.
"Haha, this water is full of demonic beasts. We even found a fourth rank demonic beast." On the deck, an old man smiled while smoking his pipe.
"Grandpa, why don't we stay here for a while and collect lots of demonic beast cores before returning?"
Beside the old man was a young woman wearing a green skirt. The girl's appearance couldn't be regarded as extremely beautiful, but she looked delicate and charming, with a well-proportioned stature.
The old man shook his head, "Out of question. If we spend too much time, it's very easy to get lost. Bewilderment Fog Forbidden Zone's gravity is ever-changing with time. After a period of time, even the Perceptive Light Ball would lose its effect."
The girl let out a sigh, "You're right. But, every time we go to the city, we have to hand over a rank third demonic beast core. The leftover cores are not enough for our use." Lifting her depressed face, the girl suddenly spotted a human figure more than a hundred meters away, "Grandpa, there is someone over there."
"Someone over there?" The old man looked into distance following the girl's gaze.