Before he had been able to completely eliminate Wind Spirit for good, Zhenyuan had hated "it" to the bone. This energy being was a manifestation of his inner demon; it had the same memories, the same abilities and even the same appearance after it had taken shape.
Wind Spirit was like a mirror which reflected the deepest, darkest parts of Immortal Zhenyuan's heart.
Everyone had a dark side; even those supreme cultivation masters and those righteous men who relied on their swords as they traveled the world had them.
Where there was light, there was darkness.
And there were places where even the light couldn't reach.
Deep in their hearts, the first reaction which people always had to dark things was to flee them. This was both the truest and least true versions of themselves... Thus, after the primordial qi had taken over Immortal Zhenyuan's system, his inner demon had evolved into Wind Spirit, and he had always been thinking of ways to get rid of it.
But now that Wind Spirit had truly been turned to ash, Immortal Zhenyuan was struck by a slight sense of loneliness.
It was a very bizarre feeling which was hard to describe.
But in the split second that he had destroyed Wind Spirit, the red-haired young man had felt a twinge of pain in his heart.
Invisible, Wang Ling pondered this scene at the same time.
While the inner demon had been eliminated, did this mean it had disappeared for good?
This was naturally impossible...
Inner demons would always exist, and there was no way to completely get rid of them.
There were many times when powerful cultivators who occupied high positions would choose to go into long-term seclusion, not so much to increase their realms but largely to actually stabilize their frame of mind and suppress their inner demons.
There was no end to what one desired; once a person stepped onto a new level, they would always want to break through to a higher one.
As a person matured on the path of cultivation, they would certainly encounter all kinds of things that could trigger the creation of "inner demons."
Immortal Zhenyuan's inner demon had been created by happenstance; it wasn't just because of the primordial qi system which Immortal Zhenyuan had incorporated into his body, thereby cleansing his thoughts - this was only one reason, while exactly why it had taken shape was as yet unknown.
But this was a warning for Wang Ling.
Did he have an inner demon?
He did...
It was just that the primordial qi currently controlled his mood.
If the primordial qi actually reached the limits of its control one day, Wang Ling's inner demon would come into being.
When that happened, the strongest act of courage a person could perform was to face their own darkness.
The most difficult thing to overcome was your limits.
If something like this inner demon "Wind Spirit" broke away from him in the future, Wang Ling wondered how he would deal with it...
...
After Wind Spirit's destruction, it actually wasn't just Immortal Zhenyuan, but Wang Ling and Loopy Toad were also lost in melancholy for a long time.
This was a very real and profound lesson; there were times when a battle could teach far deeper lessons than any textbook or classroom could.
There was a saying that experience was the best teacher.
This was also true of cultivation.
In today's society which was ruled by laws, the younger generation of cultivators like Wang Ling basically learned most of their knowledge from books. Apart from the compulsory "agricultural program," "military training" and "combat course" that schools had every year, there were very few opportunities for students to undergo genuine combat training.
Furthermore, in officially organized combat training, the biggest prerequisite was "safety."
But this was precisely the most head-scratching bit.
Not so long ago, the world of cultivators had been one in which heroes were birthed during troubled times. At the National Cultivators Congress every year, many delegates would propose increasing opportunities for combat training with tighter rules: as long as it didn't result in death, it would be fine even if there were serious injuries. This was because no matter how severe an injury was, modern cultivation technology and all kinds of elixirs could heal injuries without leaving any scars behind.
A lot of people felt that most of today's generation of cultivators were like flowers being grown in greenhouses.
While it was good that it was currently a peaceful era, who could guarantee that this would last forever?
Floating in the air, the red-haired young man had yet to drop his hand after killing Wind Spirit. Instead, he stared at the spot where Wind Spirit had disappeared, lost in deep thought.
During that time, Wang Ling had already used the energy collector to harvest the energy on Drought Star based on the coordinates specified previously, but he wasn't sure whether this abnormal energy was actually the primordial qi or some other unusual energy.
The air here, moreover, was too thin, and contained a mix of many other gases, so Wang Ling was unable to make a precise judgement; he could only wait for Wang Ming to do the comparison with his equipment to know for sure.
After Wang Ling was done harvesting, he noticed that the red-haired young man hovering in contemplation had plucked a red diamond-shaped crystal from the air.
Lost for words, the red-haired young man showed Loopy Toad the crystal and asked, "Senior Dog... do you have any idea what this is?"
It was not long after eliminating Wind Spirit that the red-haired young man had suddenly seen it; he had noticed glittering particles in the air gather together to gradually form this crystal.
The corners of Loopy Toad's mouth twitched. "Sage... Sage Stone?"
Wang Ling: "..." What damn Sage Stone!
This crystal looked a little familiar to him, and after searching his memory bank based on the crystal's structure, he found something called the "heart demon stone" which was very similar to this crystal.
He communicated telepathically with Loopy Toad, who in turn was responsible for conveying the message to Immortal Zhenyuan. "Do you know the heart demon stone?"
"Heart demon stone?" Immortal Zhenyuan was blank; previously, when he had been looking for a way to restrain Wind Spirit, he had looked up a lot of information on inner demons, and he felt like he had seen something about the "heart demon stone."
It was a pity that all the ancient texts he had flipped through didn't have any pictures at all!
He was now reminded of it.
Very quickly, the red-haired young man remembered something. "So this is the heart demon stone..."
This was the energy crystal obtained from destroying an inner demon; ninety percent of it was solid primordial qi and ten percent rare metal elements.
According to ancient texts, the heart demon stone could be used in cultivation! After defeating an inner demon, one could cultivate with the help of the stone. If you placed this stone in your mouth in battle, you could even directly increase the concentration of your primordial qi and in turn increase the strength of your spells.
The stone was very rare.
Furthermore, a lot of the things recorded in the ancient texts from the olden days, on the whole, couldn't be brought into the modern cultivation circle.
Immortal Zhenyuan heaved a sigh. This was his prize for getting rid of Wind Spirit, but for some reason he couldn't be happy.
At that moment, the red-haired young man suddenly turned to Loopy Toad. "By the way, Senior Dog, how did you get here?"
Loopy Toad avoided his gaze and didn't dare look the red-haired young man in the eye. "I was just passing by..." Bullshit! What was it going to say, that a toilet had flushed it out here?