Chapter 351 - 339: Lead the Way
Chapter 351: Chapter 339: Lead the Way
"You know where to find Yinfeng Grass?"
Zhao Lin asked in a deep voice. The Yin Soul must have seen cultivators gathering Yinfeng Grass before and knew he needed it too, so it came up with this method to save its own life.
"Yes, I’ve... I’ve seen it."
The Yin Soul, terrified that Zhao Lin’s iron ruler would come crashing down, said, trembling.
"How much is there?"
Zhao Lin had originally planned to stay in the Yinfeng Realm for five to seven days, ten at the most. The yin energy was harmful to the body, and even with the Three Yang Pills to expel it, staying too long would be detrimental to his cultivation.
However, Yinfeng Grass was not easy to find. He had spent the better part of a day finding just a single stalk. At this rate, it was hard to say what kind of harvest he could expect.
The Yin Soul had survived in this world for a thousand years. If it knew where to find Yinfeng Grass, it would save him a great deal of effort.
"I know a place... with... a lot of it."
The Yin Soul knew its life and death rested on Zhao Lin’s whim. It had to make itself useful to survive.
Zhao Lin thought for a moment, then said, "There’s another kind of Spirit Grass..."
"Is it this one? There’s some of that too, just not a lot."
The Yin Soul’s two tentacles moved, forming the image of a pale blue Spirit Grass.
The Spirit Grass had a slender stem with bamboo-like segments at its base, and its broad leaves were dotted with star-like specks.
It was the other type of Spirit Grass produced in the Yinfeng Realm: Star Peony Grass.
"Where is the exact location?"
Zhao Lin did not retract his iron ruler, signaling for the Yin Soul to continue.
As he asked, his eyes were fixed on it. Although the Yin Soul had no facial features, the movement of its tentacles was like body language, from which he could glean some clues.
"Over there."
The Yin Soul raised a tentacle, pointing toward a direction in the distance.
Zhao Lin glanced in the direction its tentacle was pointing. He saw rolling mountains and thick yin fog, making it difficult to see clearly.
"I’ll spare you for now. Take me there. If you dare to deceive me..."
"This lowly one... wouldn’t dare!"
The Yin Soul’s tentacles all trembled, as if it had breathed a sigh of relief.
Zhao Lin’s brow furrowed slightly, a trace of doubt rising in his mind.
’Calling itself ’this lowly one’?’
’Could it be that this Yin Soul devoured a cultivator’s soul and now truly thinks of itself as human?’
’In that case, who really devoured whom?’
"Get up."
Zhao Lin put away his iron ruler.
"This lowly one will lead the way."
The Yin Soul began to float again.
"Hold on. Eat this."
Zhao Lin took out a Three Yang Pill.
’This Yin Soul not only has profound Illusion Techniques, but it also understands how to read people. I have to cripple it first to prevent it from trying any tricks.’
"Ah, I can’t..."
The moment the Yin Soul saw the pill in Zhao Lin’s hand, it shrank into a ball in terror.
The Three Yang Pill was scorching and full of yang energy. For a cultivator, it was excellent medicine for dispelling yin cold, but for a Yin Soul, it was no different from a potent poison.
"If you eat it, I’ll be able to rest easy."
Zhao Lin casually swung his iron ruler twice, his tone perfectly calm.
"I... I’ll eat it!"
The Yin Soul tremblingly extended a tentacle and took the Three Yang Pill.
Like a jellyfish, the Yin Soul had no mouth. It used the suckers and cilia on its tentacles to eat.
Under Zhao Lin’s watchful gaze, it crushed the Three Yang Pill and sucked it in with force.
"HISS HISS HISS..."
As if it were being roasted by fire, white smoke billowed from the Yin Soul’s body, and it began to convulse in agony.
After a long while, the Yin Soul stopped convulsing. Many brown spots had appeared on its bell, its color had faded significantly, and it looked extremely weak.
This was exactly the effect Zhao Lin had wanted.
’Looks like it’s going to be a sleepless night.’
Zhao Lin had the Yin Soul follow him back to the spot where he had prepared to camp. He packed up his tent and then retrieved the Drum Bells from the ground one by one.
He then sat cross-legged on the ground and placed a Spirit Stone against his lower abdomen.
After the recent fight, more than half of the Spiritual Qi in his body had been consumed. He first had to circulate his energy to recover his Spiritual Power.
Having just consumed the Three Yang Pill, the Yin Soul was also in great discomfort and waited quietly to the side.
An hour later, Zhao Lin stood up. Another question occurred to him, and he asked, "How far can you detect things?"
"Let’s go. Lead the way."
Both times he had encountered Yin Souls, they had been the ones to attack first. Zhao Lin guessed their detection range was surely much greater than his own.
Yin Souls were born in this world; they naturally possessed extraordinary Innate talents.
"A thousand zhang."
As it floated forward, the Yin Soul raised a tentacle and pointed at a distant mountain peak shrouded in the night. "Roughly to there."
’That far!’
Zhao Lin was secretly astonished. Not even a Foundation Establishment cultivator would have such powerful Divine Sense.
After a moment’s thought, he said, "If we encounter any human cultivators like me along the way, let me know in advance so I can avoid them. Understand?"
"I understand. I’ve seen... you human cultivators... fight."
The Yin Soul had recovered some of its vitality and became more talkative.
"How long ago did you gain sentience?"
Zhao Lin hoped to use this question to probe the Yin Soul’s true nature.
"Let me think... A long time ago. Probably about the age of fourteen Canghuan Bamboos."
The Yin Soul pondered for a while before answering.
The Yinfeng Realm never saw the sun, so it had no concept of a "year."
Canghuan Bamboo was a unique type of bamboo in the Yinfeng Realm. According to the observations of cultivators who had entered the realm, this bamboo had a lifespan of about fifty to sixty years.
Fourteen Canghuan Bamboos meant the Yin Soul had been sentient for seven to eight hundred years.
"You dared to attack me because you thought I was an easy target?"
"Yes. This lowly one has never seen a Qi Refining Third Layer cultivator come in this deep."
"You don’t have a mouth. How do you speak?"
"With Magic. As long as it’s a sound I’ve heard before, I can replicate it with Magic..."
As the conversation continued, the Yin Soul spoke more and more fluently, no longer stuttering as it had at first.
The Yin Soul had been hit by a Flame Stream Arrow and had eaten a Three Yang Pill. It was floating slower and slower, so Zhao Lin simply grabbed its bell and dashed forward.
Unlike what he had expected, the bell on top of the Yin Soul was quite hard, like a layer of tortoise shell.
"Hide to the right, someone’s coming!"
After they had traveled for a while, the Yin Soul warned Zhao Lin.
Zhao Lin quickly leaped up a large tree with it, concealing his aura.
Sure enough, a moment later, a cultivator hurried past not far away.
After rushing for nearly four hours, the Yin Soul suddenly raised a tentacle and pointed ahead. "We’re here. It’s over there."
Zhao Lin gathered Spiritual Power in his eyes and looked into the distance, where he saw a winding river.
The terrain around the river was very peculiar. There were clusters of stone-bud-like peaks, ravines of varying depths crisscrossing the land, many caves of all sizes, and large depressions.
It looked very much like the karst landscapes from his previous life.
Zhao Lin did not rush forward. He asked in a low voice, "Is anyone in there?"
The Yin Soul extended two tentacles and replied, "Yes, two of them."
"Will they find the place you mentioned?"
"No, it’s very well-hidden."
Zhao Lin glanced at the Yin Soul and saw that it was still very weak, so he decided against feeding it another Three Yang Pill.
’In its current state, one more pill would probably kill it.’
"Alright, take me there! Avoid the cultivators. As long as I find the Yinfeng Grass and Star Peony Grass, I’ll let you live."