Chapter 296 - Cen Shuyin’s Disappearance
His Mind Palace seemed to have burst open. Explosion after explosion sounded for hours and hours. Finally, everything was quiet. A few minutes passed after the explosions stopped, before Mo Wuji’s mind finally calmed down from the confusion.
Mo Wuji sat quietly, sensing the vast space in his Mind Palace.
This was the sea of consciousness? Even though he was not yet at the Nihility God Stage, he had heard that only people in Nihility God Stage could take on the form of a primordial spirit, and expand their sea of consciousness. The bigger their sea of consciousness, the stronger their spiritual will.
The sea of consciousness was used to communicate with the dao. Its size was dependent on the strength of one’s dao. The stronger the dao, and the better one’s dao techniques, the wider the sea of consciousness. This was an invisible, yet very real concept. Only the dao could explain it.
At the same time, only the cultivators who possessed a sea of consciousness could make true progress.
Since he had formed his own sea of consciousness upon entering True Lake Stage, and his sea of consciousness was so huge, how could it be that his spiritual will had weakened? Could it be that, now that he was in True Lake Stage, he could finally make progress faster?
That wasn’t right. Wasn’t it true that when one reached True Lake Stage, the yuan dan would burst open and form an elemental lake? He didn’t have any yuan dan in Yuan Dan Stage, so what formed was a ball of violet energy instead.
Now, the violet energy in his body had dissipated, and rushed into his Mind Palace to form the sea of consciousness. So now that he was in True Lake Stage, where was his elemental lake?
In his sea of consciousness, Mo Wuji quickly spotted a violet energy lake. After his violet energy had dissipated, it formed this violet energy lake in his sea of consciousness. There was a clear lake, of a few square metres, that contained a steady flow of violet energy. It also contained a great deal of strength and mysterious dao. All of these were dao that he had obtained after training. There was also a blur silhouette.
Such a formidable True Lake Stage? Mo Wuji immediately knew that he had created his own unique True Lake, by allowing mortals to use the meridian cultivation, and inventing the reverse circulation technique.
A huge burst of energy overwhelmed his entire body. Mo Wuji struggled to get to his feet, but felt elemental energy overflowing in every part of his body. If not for the fact that he was using all his strength to control himself, the boulders on either side of him would have exploded from the sheer power of his elemental energy.
Mo Wuji was overcome with emotions. The power that he now had was a thousand times more than before.
He was only at True Lake Stage Level 1, yet he was confident of defeating the man was who had been chasing him earlier on, who was at True Lake Stage Level 9. What was even harder to believe was the fact that his violet energy lake was much stronger than an ordinary cultivator’s elemental lake. He believed that no ordinary cultivator on the same level as him could match up to him.
Heaven and earth indeed had its way of working things out. He had invented the method of cultivation with meridians and the reverse circulation technique, and ultimately formed a violet energy lake that was unique only to him, and obtained a sea of consciousness in True Lake Stage. Mo Wuji did not know how big the sea of consciousness was for someone in Nihility God Stage, but he believed that his was of comparable size.
His body, which was covered in battle wounds just moments earlier, was now completely unharmed. This new bout of strength replaced the melancholy in Mo Wuji’s heart. He couldn’t wait to test his new abilities on a Nihility God Stage cultivator.
Mo Wuji did not step out to test how strong he was. Instead, all his attention was focused on the 103rd meridian that had just formed. He could clearly sense that this 103rd meridian was not an elemental storage channel.
He closed his eyes, trying to sense the purpose of this 103rd meridian. If he didn’t discover the purpose of this meridian, he would not have been able to sleep at night.
In a blink of an eye, Mo Wuji’s eyes flew open. He hurriedly slipped a Bone Corroding Pill in his mouth.
The Bone Corroding Pill was a Tier 4 poison pill. It was capable of poisoning a cultivator’s bone marrows. Other than by using a special detoxification pill, no ordinarily-skilled cultivator would be able to fight the poison. Mo Wuji had never tried this pill after refining it. If not for the fact that he had obtained a spiritual herb component of the Bone Corroding Pill, he would never have refined it.
The only reason he was swallowing the pill now was because he had sensed that this 103rd meridian was a detoxification meridian. In other words, with this meridian, he would no longer have to fear any poison. Other than this special function, this meridian would work no different from the others when Mo Wuji cultivated or fought.
As the Bone Corroding Pill entered Mo Wuji’s mouth, its poison began to work its way through his body. Usually, the poison would go straight toward every bone marrow in his body. He prepared himself to perform the Spiritual Energy Circulation Technique in order to direct the poison to the 103rd meridian.
However, before he could even try, the poison was swallowed up by the detoxification meridian. In an instant, the poison dissipated, and turned into spiritual energy that could be used for training. The remaining waste from the pill was removed from his body through the reverse circulation technique.
Such a reversal? Mo Wuji felt the effects of the Bone Corroding Pill gradually disappear. This was hard to believe, even for him.
He quickly calmed himself down. The good things always came to those who never give up. It was precisely because he didn’t give up, that he continued training, and moved on to invent the reversal circulation technique, and ultimately gained a 103rd meridian which acted as a detoxification meridian. From that day on, he would no longer have to fear being poisoned.
Mo Wuji’s spiritual will made a sweep of the area. He could not decide between staying to train, or going out to search for Cen Shuyin. Even though he was almost certain she was dead by now, he couldn’t rest until he had tried to search for her.
Mo Wuji was stunned. Before, his spiritual will could not go far. Each time he tried, the Fierce Wind Beasts would block his path. Yet now, his spiritual will was travelling hundreds of metres with ease. Not even the Fierce Wind Beasts were bothering him. One could only imagine how strong his spiritual will would be in a place where there were no obstacles.
After forming his own sea of consciousness, his spiritual will had gotten much stronger. It was steady in the face of the fiercest of winds.
"Boom!" Another gust of fierce wind blew over. It had hit the boulder where Mo Wuji was. It shook. His heart stopped. These two boulders were like mountains. But if the wind were just a little stronger, they would have been blown away.
While he was hesitant before, Mo Wuji was sure now. He rushed toward the fierce wind. He had come here with the intention of looking for Cen Shuyin. It wouldn’t be right if he hid behind these boulders to train on his own.
The moment he rushed toward the fierce wind, a few thorny whips of wind began to tear apart the skin on Mo Wuji’s body. The only difference between his earlier situation and his current situation was that his body-protecting elemental energy was slightly stronger now. The whips of wind were thus doing slightly less damage than before.
Mo Wuji retrieved the last defensive shield. He wanted to test how well the defensive shield worked now that his spiritual will had increased in power.
Indeed, when the Fierce Wind Beasts carrying the thorny whips of wind hit the shield, the shield only shook violently. With the support of Mo Wuji’s spiritual will, the wind did not snatch it away.
Even though he remained in possession of the shield, Mo Wuji was sure of one thing. While he did have an additional meridian, it would not help him to withstand the fierce wind’s continuous lashing. Once his elemental energy and spiritual will were exhausted, he would once again become a helpless lamb in the face of these fierce winds.
Taking advantage of his power now, he used his spiritual will to search the surrounding area.
Now that his spiritual will was stronger, he could sense a much larger area. Except, he could sense nothing more than fierce winds, rocks, and the occasional mountain-like boulders.
"Whoo… Boom…" The fierce wind carried up a rock, several square metres big. While Mo Wuji was not paying attention, the wind threw it at his shield.
The raging wind’s elemental energy fought back, and Mo Wuji was thrown across the air once again, just like a kite.
While he was in the air, he was cut by countless rocks that flew by him. He understood that the dangers of Thorny Wind Gate were far more than the fierce winds or the whips of wind with hooks.
Even the countless rocks that the fierce winds picked up were life-threatening. One could lose their lives, or at least their physical bodies, if the wind were to pick up a piece of rock and push it through one’s head. If one lost his body here, Mo Wuji could think of no other consequence apart from death.
If immortals could lose their bodies here, then could primordial spirits survive?
"Bang!" At just the right time, Mo Wuji fell through a crack in the ground. If the fierce winds could roll into the crack, Mo Wuji, who was in True Lake Stages, would not be threatened.
Looking out at the still raging wind, Mo Wuji felt incredibly frustrated. Here he was, in True Lake Stage, with formidable power, and yet still living like an ant in this place.
If there was anything good about this place, it was that he could cultivate his spiritual will here. He had heard that there were martial artists who were solely dedicated to cultivating themselves. The strongest martial artists would thrive in a place like this.
A whole hour had passed before the fierce wind calmed down slightly. Mo Wuji was just about to step out and continue his search, when he caught a glimpse of a piece of light green cloth. The cloth was clinging onto a dead branch, just further down from the opening he was in. One would not have noticed it if they hadn’t paid close attention.
Mo Wuji immediately moved downward, and stretched his arm out to retrieve that piece of cloth.
This was the colour of the robe Cen Shuyin was wearing. He had seen her in it before. Cen Shuyin was always in the same, plain colours – light green or light yellow.
But it would be too much of a coincidence to say that this piece of cloth came from her clothing, wouldn’t it? Given her skill, she wouldn’t have much skin left on her by the time she reached this place, much less any clothes.
Even so, Mo Wuji decided to follow the path through the opening to take a look.
His spiritual will couldn’t search inside the opening. He had no clue where the path led to.
At some parts of the path, the space was so narrow that he had to walk sideways in order to get through.
He walked inward for close to an hour before he came to a stop once again. He picked up a rock in his hand. The rock looked completely normal, save for a few cracks on it. Around the cracks were marks left by lightning bolts. Lightning Flash was originally invented by Mo Wuji. With one look, Mo Wuji could tell that these lightning bolt marks were caused by the Lightning Flash.