Chapter 410: Chapter 409: Eye of True Vision, The Origin of the Beast Tide
Upon closer inspection, the black barrier vaguely exuded a breath that seemed to be related to spiritual objects.
What on earth is this?
Hovering close to the barrier, Li Jing’s brows furrowed tightly.
Initially, he thought that this black barrier was some sort of method related to space.
Well, that made sense.
But now, the barrier before his eyes seemed to be related to spiritual objects.
If it were indeed a spiritual object, how vast would it have to be to form an infinite barrier here?
After pondering for a while, Li Jing quickly gave up thinking.
Although he didn’t know what this black barrier was exactly.
But one thing was certain: there must be something hidden behind the barrier.
After a brief hesitation, Li Jing raised his hand and tried to touch the barrier.
The moment he touched it, he immediately furrowed his brows.
The barrier felt different from what he saw; it wasn’t acting as a barrier at all.
It was incredibly soft all over, without the slightest hardness.
Without using much force, just a light press would leave a palm print behind.
Its flexibility was excellent, too; once he withdrew his hand, it immediately returned to its original state.
After a moment of contemplation, Li Jing stepped back a bit and planned to summon Flying Sword Blue Edge to try to slice open the barrier.
Just as he was about to take action, a twisted human face suddenly appeared at the spot where he had just touched, pushing the barrier out a bit as if it was trying to break free from within the barrier, its expression full of agony.
The change came very abruptly.
The sudden occurrence before his eyes was horrifying.
Caught off guard by the sudden emergence of the face, even the well-experienced Li Jing felt a jolt in his heart.
The appearance of the face did not last long.
It quickly receded back in, and the barrier returned to its calm state.
Watching this scene, Li Jing’s brows furrowed tightly.
The sudden appearance of the face earlier was more than a little disturbing.
But it wasn’t difficult for Li Jing to guess what it was.
Ghostly Evil Beasts.
After exterminating a large number of Ghostly Evil Beasts that hadn’t had the chance to join the Beast Tide in the Eastern Continent, Li Jing had delved deep into the Northern Polar Region, primarily to figure out how the Ghostly Evil Beasts appeared.
He didn’t expect to find the phantom woman who could have made him ascend a level on the spot.
When the phantom woman attacked him, his Heavenly Tribulation had been brewing for a while.
Even if she were blind, it was apparent that he was about to cross the Tribulation.
The space rules the phantom woman relied on couldn’t do anything to him before he crossed the Tribulation.
Once he had passed the Tribulation, how could she be his match?
As long as she wasn’t a fool, there was no reason for her to expose herself again or hide somewhere in the Northern Polar Region.
Looking back.
Li Jing had a rough idea where the phantom woman came from.
Having an actual cultivation level that reached the Ninth Realm, she couldn’t simply be a Ghostly Evil Beast.
The rules that the phantom woman controlled were precisely the rules of space.
Her identity was almost obvious.
While that woman couldn’t be considered the mastermind behind everything, she was not far off. She was the hidden instigator behind the disturbances in the Earth Realm of Da Xia.
More importantly.
That woman should have a human body, especially since she had just opened the passage from the Heavenly Saint Land to the real world as the National Master of the Da Xia not long ago.
The fact that she appeared in the form of a Ghostly Evil Beast suggested that her main body was not in the Northern Polar Region. The phantom that Li Jing encountered was likely a clone or a part of her power achieved through some method.
If he wanted to encounter her again, he probably needed to find her in person.
Setting all this aside.
At this moment, Li Jing had a feeling.
The object before his eyes, which he initially thought was a barrier, seemed to be the origin of the Ghostly Evil Beasts that he was seeking.
To be precise, this should be a breeding ground.
A breeding ground that transformed the Da Xia people, who cultivated the Heavenly Demon Great Technique, into Ghostly Evil Beasts devoid of any rationality...
Thinking about it.
Simply cultivating the Heavenly Demon Great Technique wouldn’t result in loss of rationality. Such a situation would only occur after absorbing an excessive amount of Netherstone.
The transformation of Da Xia people who cultivated the Heavenly Demon Great Technique into Ghostly Evil Beasts required a process.
And this process certainly involved the use of some special methods by the behind-the-scenes mastermind.
If cultivating the Heavenly Demon Great technique naturally turned one into a Ghostly Evil Beast, the Beast Tide wouldn’t have appeared gradually in the Northern Polar Region, far away from the Eastern Continent, in a cycle of hundreds of years. It should have appeared directly in every corner of the Eastern Continent.
Narrowing his eyes slightly, Li Jing summoned Flying Sword Blue Edge and, with a reverse grip, swung it out.
"Pfft."
The sword light flashed.
Flying Sword Blue Edge which had reached the seventh level of Immortal Items, easily tore a gap in the black barrier. But the barrier, although not exactly hard, was very resilient.
The gap only stayed for an instant.
In the blink of an eye, the torn black barrier healed naturally and returned to its original state, as if nothing had happened.
However, Li Jing’s strike was not without gain.
In the instant when the black barrier cracked, he vaguely saw through the opening that there was a piece of black land behind the barrier and that some sort of large structure stood on the land.
Shi Miaoying’s lair in the Northern Polar Region?
It didn’t seem like it.
Firstly, the location was a bit too coincidental.
Secondly, in his fleeting glance, the structure Li Jing saw looked more like an altar than a dwelling.
Without further thought, Li Jing raised his hand and swung his sword forward.
"Heavenly Sword."
"Clang!"
With a crisp screech of his sword, the Flying Sword Blue Edge carried him straight into the sky with an upward momentum.
Heavenly Sword, the ultimate secret technique of the Heavenly Sword Art, Li Jing had not used alone for a long time.
But this doesn’t mean that the essence of the Heavenly Sword, which drains everything, is not appealing anymore.
From a certain point of view.
Accomplished by Ten Thousand Remnants Absolute Shadow, not only does the Heavenly Sword have limitations when it’s used in the dark, but essentially, it doesn’t have a soul.
Why is that?
The secret of the Heavenly Sword.
The essence is the Unity of Man and Sword, advancing fearlessly.
Integrating the secret of the Heavenly Sword into the Ten Thousand Remnants Absolute Shadow has no practical significance for Li Jing himself, without the power of the Unity of Man and Sword, it’s naturally inferior to casting it himself.
Soaring into the sky, Li Jing went into the long-forgotten Unity of Man and Sword state.
With his late stage of the Eighth Realm cultivation level, combined with the achieved Seventh level of the Flying Sword Blue Edge, it ultimately presented a giant green sword shadow over three thousand meters long.
The sword shadow hung in the sky.
Suddenly, it shifted.
With the power to destroy the world, it tore through space and slashed down on the black barrier.
Just in an instant.
The black barrier was torn, creating a huge opening.
But that’s not all.
The violent force of wind spread out, the hole in the black barrier ripped open at the starting point and ravaged its surroundings, tore apart the resilient barrier with remarkable recovery ability inch by inch, creating a hole over ten thousand meters in diameter.
However, even so, the black barrier was not fundamentally destroyed in local areas.
The torn hole was quickly drawn together and healed.
But Li Jing didn’t mind these details.
Because by now, he had already left the Unity of Man and Sword state and was standing on the black land behind the barrier, wielding his sword.
Looking up.
In front of him, there indeed was a sacrificial altar filled with a wicked aura.
Not only was there an altar, but there were also some figures resembling the Ghostly Evil Beasts - a kind of invisible alien species transformed from the will of the Da Xia people who practiced the Sky Demon Great Method but had not yet fully completed the metamorphosis. They were howling and wandering around.
They were not wandering aimlessly, but would occasionally enter the altar as if attracted to something.
Each time they entered and left the altar, their ethereal forms would fade a little and become more like Ghostly Evil Beasts.
Looking left and right.
The sacrificial altar in front of Li Jing is not the only one in the black landscape.
Far away, and all around, there were more altars.
Gazing at the scenery, a great number of invisible alien species were wandering around.
Witnessing such a scene, Li Jing lifted his eyebrows slightly.
In front of him, there is another handsome income of experience.
Although he can’t wipe out all the invisible alien species on the extensive black landscape at once, maintaining one-time income of tens of millions of experience isn’t too hard with his conversion threshold.
Without rushing to reap, Li Jing raised his hand, forming seals with his fingers to activate his Heavenly Eye.
Inside the altar that gradually turned the invisible alien species into Ghostly Evil Beasts, there was not only a certain evil force at work, but also a force of space according to the special spatial cognition brought by Reverse Space and the rules of space. He needed to understand what that was.
If nothing unexpected happened.
This power of space should be the root cause of the Da Xia people becoming "feed" after being abandoned by the Sky Demon for being underqualified, and appearing in the Northern Polar Region as "fodder".
The third eye opened on his forehead.
Before Li Jing had a chance to scrutinize the altar, a prompt box suddenly popped out in front of his eyes.
"Acquired Limit Breakthrough Skill, Eye of True Vision."
?
Upon seeing the prompt, Li Jing slowly typed a question mark.
Without waiting for him to understand what was going on, the third eye on his forehead disappeared instantly and correspondingly, a layer of golden light surfaced in his eyes.
As the change came.
What he saw was no longer a world reflecting only black and white, expressed solely by various ways of presenting Spiritual Qi, but rather, a world that was far more colorful than what his physical eyes could see.
Such a situation rendered Li Jing slightly dazed.
However, he quickly recovered.
The Sky Eye Technique had its own growth property.
Having reached Great Perfection, stepping into the eighth realm caused the growth height of his Sky Eye Technique to reach a certain threshold and undergo transformation.
Limit Breakthrough Skills aren’t necessarily obtained through fusion.
Like Liu Shi’s Silent Shadow, it was a Limit Breakthrough technique that Li Jing learned.
He then checked his panel.
Sure enough.
The Sky Eye Technique, which had been languishing alone in the Active Skills column for ages and only recently had Zhou Tian Talisman for company, disappeared from the Active Skills column, and the Eye of True Vision was added to the Active Limit Breakthrough Skills column.
Looking at its level display, 5/25.
Requires points.
Add!
Add up to the full!
Having surplus skill points is so capricious!
Of course.
This time, Li Jing was not being entirely willful with his skills.
Nowadays, leveling up is quite challenging, and as a principle, he prefers to conserve where possible, planning to spend his skill points where they’re most impactful.
However, as far as he is concerned, the Eye of True Vision, evolved from the Sky Eye Technique, is a skill that must be maxed out.
Ever since he had acquired the Sky Eye Technique, this eye technique had brought him a lot of conveniences. Now, it has even evolved into a Boundary Breakthrough skill!
Limit breakthrough, shouldn’t it be maxed out?
Once the skill was maxed out, Li Jing’s eyes were no longer obscured with a layer of brilliance, but became radiant gold instead.
With that, the colorful world displayed under the Eye of True Vision became even more vibrant, bringing to him an extremely wonderful sensation.
Everything which fell within his sight, no matter what its purpose was or in what form it existed, will no longer remain a secret to him.
This Eye of True Vision was remarkably powerful.
But Li Jing already has enough of such skills. Having one more didn’t cause any particularly unique thoughts in him.
He looked up at the nearby altar.
The first thing that came into view was the familiar Seven-Star Formation.
The moment he saw the Seven-Star Formation, he instantly knit his brows together.
With the knowledge brought by the Reverse Space and his own mastery of space rules, the mystery of the Eye of True Vision enabled him to easily discern that this Seven-Star Formation was the root cause of the invisible Alien Species that had not yet metamorphosed into Ghostly Evil Beasts appearing here.
But that’s not the point.
The key was that this Seven-Star Formation was not connected to a certain place in the Eastern Continent, Da Xia, and it was not even the Heavenly Saint Land.
Its direction pointed to the Big World.
Yes.
The Big World.
Why...
Why would it be the Big World?
Li Jing was somewhat confused.
But then he realized something wasn’t right.
The Seven-Star Formation concealed within the altar indeed connected to the Big World, but behind it may not necessarily be the familiar Blue Star he knew.
It should be directed at the place where the Sky Demon, the instigator of Da Xia’s secret plot, resides.
The Outer Realm Sky?
Li Jing found it hard to believe.
Legends and myths, he had never believed in any of them.
But after stepping into the path of cultivation himself, he came to understand one principle.
Legends and myths might not be completely unfounded.
The Seven-Star Formation hidden within the altar connecting the Big World was a clear indication: the Outer Realm Sky portrayed in legends and myths does exist, and indeed resides within the Big World.
God dammit...
It seemed he had stumbled upon something extraordinary...
Inhaling deeply, repressing the shock in his heart, Li Jing narrowed his eyes slightly.
Looking past the direction of the Seven-Star Formation, its arrangement was far more intricate than anything he had mastered.
Undoubtedly.
This couldn’t have been Shi Miaoying’s work.
Similarly.
It couldn’t have been the work of Shi Miaoying’s master either.
Perhaps because he hadn’t yet reached the threshold of truly mastering the rules of the Ninth Realm, Li Jing, despite having a full level of Reverse Space knowledge along with space rules, couldn’t set up formations to open a Spatial Passage.
But that doesn’t mean he is inferior to Shi Miaoying and her master now.
When it comes to achievement in space alone, he is undoubtedly more advanced than the two of them.
Shi Miaoying is not as good as him, same with her master.
There is no doubt about it.
Because Li Jing is the one who maxed out the Reverse Space skill.
Compared to him, Shi Miaoying’s master didn’t reach the deepest level of cultivating the Reverse Space.
If she had reached the deepest level of Reverse Space cultivation, how could she be killed by a sneak attack from Shi Miaoying?
Take note here.
The current Shi Miaoying has only just entered the Ninth Realm and just begun to understand the rules of space.
When she killed her master years ago, she definitely did not have the abilities she has now.
Not to mention that Shi Miaoying’s formation was less exquisite than her master’s, who was killed by Li Jing himself. Her practice of Reverse Space was probably just at a mediocre level.
This is becoming quite intriguing.
The Seven-Star Formation present within the altar is obviously the source converting the "nourishment" that the Sky Demon doesn’t need into Ghostly Evil Beasts in the Northern Polar Region.
That’s obvious.
At the beginning of Sky Demon Great Method’s havoc in Da Xia, the altar had already existed.
During that time.
It wasn’t just Shi Miaoying and Shi Miaoxue, not even their master existed.
The origin of their mentor’s legacy...
It is truly intriguing!
If there are no surprises.
This is a legacy from the Sky Demon.
And the inheritance of Shi Miaoying and Shi Miaoxue probably stems from the original accomplice of the Sky Demon.
However, with the passage of time, this sect that was supposed to be the secret culprit poisoning Da Xia had some issues, producing several disciples who were morally upright.
Why does Li Jing think so?
The reason is simple.
He doesn’t believe that Shi Miaoxue had lied to him.
And more importantly.
The two’s masters had preserved all the "seeds" needed to restart Da Xia.
Considering this.
It suddenly made sense that Shi Miaoying, after learning the Sky Demon Great Method, would betray her master and ancestors.
Letting out a gentle sigh, Li Jing shifted his attention from the background of Shi Miaoying and Shi Miaoxue to the malevolent power present in the altar.
His Eye of True Vision informed him that this power belonged to a lower level Sky Demon.
It was this power that gradually turned the invisible alien species into Ghostly Evil Beasts.
Li Jing shifted his gaze away from the altar and looked towards the black barrier behind him.
Before he’d realized, the gap in the barrier had completely healed itself. The Eye of True Vision informed him that the black barrier was actually a kind of water-borne spiritual object with a jelly-like texture.
Not only can it block spaces, but it also is extremely durable.
This substance grows very slowly and cannot be completely destroyed by any physical means.
At most, it merely disperses and regrows from its seeds, while the destroyed sections will reconnect without much delay, provided they weren’t entirely shredded.
This thing is really weird.
But it’s not without its uses.
It has high medicinal value and can be used to create flexible tools.
Normally, this substance grows in desolate lands and requires Yin energy as nourishment.
This glimpse into its nature, provided by the Eye of True Vision, let Li Jing know of its worth, and clarified that this barrier occurred naturally due to the black soil of countless altars rather than being set deliberately by anyone.
The power yielded from the cultivation of the Sky Demon Great Method is not Yin energy, but the transformation into Ghostly Evil Beasts does emit some Yin energy.
After all, the Ghostly Evil Beasts are inherently Yin entities.
Although the power within them isn’t purely Yin energy nor a product of the Sky Demon Great Method, they naturally emit Yin energy simply by existing, the only variable is the degree.
With a better understanding of the altar and the barrier, provided by the Eye of True Vision, Li Jing once again started performing his techniques.
Now that he had a clear understanding of what was going on, it was time to harvest the experience.
By the way, he intended to completely destroy this place.
Li Jing had no intentions to save Da Xia or the Heavenly Saint Land.
However, upon discovering such a plot, he didn’t mind doing a good deed in passing.
The Forbidden Skill begins.
The wind and clouds change.
...
The black mainland, where countless black altars stood, was neither small nor too large.
Li Jing made a round and confirmed that this mainland was more or less the size of half of Longyu Country.
By relying on Robbery Thunder Nine Break, he managed to harvest experience and clear the altars with ease.
It just took some time to make a full circle.
Li Jing only managed to completely clear the black mainland after almost three hours.
Of course.
The reason it took so long was because Li Jing was focused on maximizing his gains, controlling the harvested experience to be within the tens of millions range.
The ultimate yield was very satisfactory.
Li Jing received 74982 units of Heavenly and Earthly Essence. He leveled up on the spot, bringing him one step closer to the Ninth Realm.
After everything was done, Li Jing used another full day, wielding his Flying Sword Blue Edge, to completely uproot and collect the jelly-like spiritual object encapsulating the black mainland.
You shouldn’t pass by...
cough!
Don’t miss it if you pass by, this has always been Li Jing’s unwavering principle.
Although he was unsure what this substance is called, he was already aware of its purpose.
Even though it might not be very valuable, its volume makes up for it.
What needs to be collected, should be collected.
When he returns to the world to exchange these for merit, wouldn’t that be great?
Furthermore, even if he left the items here, all the altars on the black mainland had already been destroyed by him.
The Sky Demons wouldn’t need this nourishment, they shouldn’t be coming to this world for a while.
There would no longer be any Ghostly Evil Beasts either.
Without the nourishment of Yin energy, this jelly-like spiritual object wouldn’t survive for very long.
This time, he was actually the one to save Da Xia.
Although the current people of Da Xia might not be too thrilled, he was just collecting some interest for saving the world, that wasn’t overdoing it, was it?
What made Li Jing somewhat dissatisfied was.
The jelly-like spiritual object encapsulating the black mainland seemed endless, but after being uprooted its size visibly shrank, looking like a retracting sea anemone, and in the end, he estimated his harvest to be only a few hundred thousand tons.
This amount was not negligible.
But compared to what he had anticipated, it was quite different.
Having settled everything, Li Jing transformed into a thunderbolt and began his journey back to Da Xia.
By the time he left, six days had already passed.
He had figured out quite a lot and also solved a fundamental problem troubling Da Xia, so it was time for him to return.
He was not sure how long the Secret Realm Passage would remain open, so he didn’t want to dally outside.
Given the time.
Tomorrow should be the birthday of Da Xia’s Emperor, Xia Zhengyang.
In two more days, it would be the once in a hundred years day for the people of Da Xia to fight against the Beast Tide.
To tell the truth.
He was quite looking forward to the people of Da Xia’s faces by then...
The Beast Tide had already been "eaten" by him alone and would not be appearing anymore...
...
