Chapter 366: Early Onset
Moments later, Han Li swept a sleeve through the air to remove the surrounding restrictions, then flew out of the sea toward his cave abode.
On the way back, he suddenly felt a dull and heavy sensation in his head.
What's going on? Could it be that I still haven't fully recovered?
He closed his eyes, planning to inspect his own internal condition, yet right as he activated his Spirit Refinement Technique, the enormous spiritual sense in his mind suddenly began to churn and surge violently without any warning.
It was as if there were countless tiny blades slashing through his mind with reckless abandon, and the onset of pain was so severe and abrupt that he couldn't help but let loose an agonized yell.
He threw his hands onto his own head, and his face instantly became as pale as a sheet.
Immediately thereafter, he stopped cold in his tracks, then plummeted straight out of the heavens, plunging into the sea down below like a dead weight.
His entire body was inundated by the cool seawater, yet it did nothing to relieve his pain, which was only worsening by the second. His sanity was gradually eroded by the agony, and a layer of faint crimson light had appeared over his eyes.
……
Han Li reflexively tried to open his eyes, but he was feeling extremely groggy. He forced his own eyes open with great difficulty, but everything in front of him was an indistinct blur, and all he could hear were animalistic howls and roars ringing out around him.
These sound seemed to be able to penetrate directly into his mind, setting his blood alight. It was as if some long-repressed fury in his heart had finally risen to the fore, striking him with a sense of asphyxiation, and only by releasing all of this pent-up fury could he restore his own sanity.
His hands were swinging wildly through the air, throwing erratic punches and palm strikes in a frantic effort to release his unbridled frustration and fury.
He wanted to roar with all his might, but he couldn't hear anything over the chaotic commotion ringing out around him. As he continued to lash out aimlessly at his surroundings, the surrounding commotion was becoming louder and louder, and he seemed to have finally found an outlet through which he could vent his fury.
At this moment, hsi mind was completely blank.
As the commotion grew louder and louder, the fury in his heart slowly subsided, and he began to detect a strong bloody odor in the air.
Right at this moment, his vision began to slowly recover, andt he first sight that he was greeted by was a vast expanse of bright red.
It was as if he had fallen into a boundless sea of blood.
On top of that, there were countless mangled carcasses of all types of different creatures strewn all around him, and it seemed that a horrific slaughter had just taken place here.
Right at this moment, a burst of sharp pain speared through Han Li's mind, and the clarity of his vision was finally completely restored.
He shook his head vigorously, slowly recovering from his stupor, and the clarity in his mind also returned.
In this instant, he felt completely feeble and powerless, and his entire body was throbbing with intense pain, as if he had just endured an extremely fierce battle.
However, as he raised his head once again to inspect his surroundings, he discovered that he was standing on an island, facing the turbulent sea up ahead.
He felt as if his memories were a little jumbled, and he couldn't recall anything from the time after he left the small island on which he had been engaging in dao pill refinement. Thus, he had no idea how he had ended up here.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, attempting to recollect what had happened up to this point, yet as soon as he attempted to do so, a burst of agony instantly shot through his mind once again.
He hurriedly abandoned this train of thought before shaking his head once again, and only then did the pain subside a little.
All of a sudden, a thought seemed to have occurred to him, and he turned around to look behind him, upon which he discovered that he was standing on quite a large island that was several dozen kilometers in size, but it was severely ravaged and on the verge of collapse.
At the center of the island was what was once a large mountain range, but it had been split in half down the center, and a huge lake had appeared over the entire island, with seawater gushing in to fill it.
All of the other mountains in the mountain range had also been destroyed, as had all of the vegetation on the island, and it was truly a horrific sight to behold.
A stunned look appeared in Han Li's eyes upon seeing this.
At this point, most of the pain in his mind had already subsided, and he was able to release his enormous spiritual sense as normal to inspect his surroundings.
In doing so, he was shocked once again to discover that just like the island, the seabed down below had also been severely ravaged, riddled with many deep craters and trenches, as if it were a field that had been plowed.
There were some spots where the rifts were so deep that the magma beneath the earth had come gushing out, but at this point, it had already solidified.
Through his spiritual sense, Han Li was able to detect that this destruction had been wrought over an enormous area.
All of the islands within a radius of thousand of kilometers had been completely destroyed, with some having sunk down to the seabed, while others resembled tattered old rags, just like the one that Han Li was situated on.
Interspersed throughout the remnants of the islands on the seabed were many demon beast carcasses, all of which had been quite formidable, with no lack of Body Integration and even Grand Ascension Stage demon beasts among them.
All of them had been killed in extremely horrific fashion. A Grand Ascension Stage wyrm that was over 1,000 feet in length had been torn into seven or eight pieces, and its blood had stained a massive area of the sea red. Even in death, there was still a look of horror deep in its eyes.
Right at this moment, a bolt of golden lightning descended out of the sky, landing not far away from Han Li to reveal none other than Daoist Xie.
"What happened here, Brother Xie?" Han Li asked.
Daoist Xie was silent for a moment, then asked, "Do you not remember what just happened, Fellow Daoist? You're personally responsible for all of this destruction."
"Me?"
Han Li faltered slightly upon hearing this, following which a hint of foreboding welled up in his heart.
"On the way back to your cave abode, it was as if you had suddenly gone insane. You went on a spree of destruction as if you had been possessed, and you completely lost your sanity. No matter how I tried to call out to you, you displayed no reaction," Daoist Xie explained.
Han Li was silent for a moment upon hearing this, then asked, "How long was I in that... deranged state?"
"About 15 minutes," Daoist Xie replied after a brief moment of contemplation.
A grim look appeared on Han Li's face as he fell silent.
Thanks to this reminder from Daoist Xie, he was able to recall what had happened prior to this short bout of amnesia.
During his flight, he had suddenly been struck by a burst of sharp pain in the head, and after that, he had quickly lost consciousness, and the only thing that he could recall was that hsi heart had been overwhelmed by intense killing intent.
How did this happen? Could it be that I fell prey to some kind of sneak attack?
All of a sudden, a thought occurred to him, and he raised his head as he murmured to himself, "It's the Spirit Refinement Technique..."
At his current level of power, even a Golden Immortal wouldn't have been able to manipulate his mind like this without his detection.
Thinking back to what had just happened, the Spirit Refinement Technique was the only possible explanation.
After a brief moment of hesitation, he tried to activate his Spirit Refinement Technique, and he was instantly struck by a burst of intense agony in his mind that caused him to give an involuntary groan.
He hurriedly stopped what he was doing, and only then did the pain in his mind slowly subside.
That confirmed his suspicions that all of this had been caused by the Spirit Refinement Technique, and his expression darkened even further as he arrived at this verdict.
According to that immortal by the name of He Kang, [1] mastering the third level of the Spirit Refinement Technique should've ensured that he would be fine for the next 30,000 to 40,000 years. However, only less than 20,000 years had passed since he mastered the third level of the spiritual sense, so why had this spiritual sense crisis already arisen?
Had He Kang lied to him, or had some other factor resulted in this early onset of the spiritual sense crisis?
Han Li slowly exhaled as he composed himself.
In any case, seeing as the problem had already arisen, the most important thing for him to do now was to find a solution. Otherwise, he was going to be doomed to the fate of becoming a mindless barbarian who only knew slaughter and nothing else.
It was very fortunate that all of this had taken place in a very secluded area, and the duration of his deranged rampage had been quite short, perhaps due to the fact that this was only the first onset. Otherwise, he could've easily attracted a great deal of attention and landed himself in a huge amount of trouble.
Even though the crisis had been averted for now, there was no telling when he was going to enter that deranged state again, and that was clearly a very dangerous state to be in. Furthermore, according to what he had learned about the Spirit Refinement Technique in the past, these onsets of insanity were only going to become more prolonged with shorter intervals between each successive onset.
According to He Kang, the only way to resolve this issue was to cultivate the fourth level of the Spirit Refinement Technique.
Back in the Blaze Dragon Dao, Han Li had conducted some research into the Spirit Refinement Technique, but he had thought that he would have at least 20,000 to 30,000 years before the onset of the spiritual sense crisis, and he had many other matters to attend to at the time, so he hadn't been very diligent in his research.
According to what he had learned, there were very few records pertaining to the Spirit Refinement Technique in the Northern Glacial Immortal Region, and it had been a very long time since the last crisis that had arisen from the Spirit Refinement Technique, so very few people even knew about the forbidden technique.
The Blaze Dragon Dao's Merit Conveyance Palace did carry the Spirit Refinement Technique, but it was listed as a forbidden scripture that couldn't be accessed by anyone other than the dao lords. On top of that, the Merit Conveyance Palace only carried the first three levels of the cultivation art, so that wouldn't have helped Han Li anyway.
A grim look appeared on Han Li's face as his brows became tightly furrowed.
Even a major sect like the Blaze Dragon Dao didn't have the second half of the Spirit Refinement Technique, so where was he supposed to find it in the Black Wind Sea?
1. For more information on He Kang, please refer to RMJI Chapter 2247: Spiritual Sense Chains and Punishment Lightning
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