Xu Lu slowly walked out of the pool and reached into her storage ring for a spare set of robes, undergarments, and a towel.
She did manage to get a simple white robe but unfortunately all she could find was a handcloth towel to dry off her body.
The former saintess let out a light sigh and proceeded to gently rub the water droplets from her skin while using her qi to raise the temperature of her body.
Soon she was completely dry.
Xu Lu put on her undergarments and then put on the white robe.
She ran her fingers through her messy hair before tying in into a simple ponytail that hung just below her shoulders.
It was time.
Xu Lu would be lying if she said that she was not nervous about practising an unknown demonic cultivation technique.
She needed to trust that the leader of the Crimson Demon sect gave her this technique in good faith and there were no traps hidden inside.
Trust that was not yet earned considering that Xu Lu had only met her today.
But the reality of the situation was… she had no other choice.
If she wanted to stay in this sect, then she would need to become a demon cultivator it was that simple.
And this was supposedly the most powerful technique that could only be practised by the head of the sect and their successor.
She would be able to accomplish the request of the original Xu Lu and then only need to work on getting revenge of Lei Ying and those in the Holy Sword Sect who had wronged her.
Xu Lu took in a few deep breaths and then sat down in a cross-legged position. She was completely alone in the cave.
There were no sounds except for the constant bubbling of water coming from the pool and her own breathing.
The former saintess grabbed the tattered robe that she had worn just before taking a bath and pulled out the sheets of parchment paper that were hidden inside one of the pockets.
The Heavenly Reversal Technique.
Before starting to practise, Xu Lu read the entire pages from top to bottom and made sure to make mental notes about each section.
This technique to put it lightly… was not for the fainthearted.
It involved shattering all the meridians in your body and reconnecting them using demonic qi.
Xu Lu shuddered as she imagined just how painful the process would be.
And that was just step one.
The next steps were illustrated by circulatory diagrams which displayed the multiple directions that the demonic qi was supposed to travel around her body.
This was a technique that required a strong will and the ability to endure a great amount of pain and agony.
Xu Lu continued to read and saw supplementary techniques to aid in the practice of the Heavenly Reversal Technique.
Some involved bathing in blood, others required the absorption of monster cores and there were even a few that mentioned 'dual cultivation'.
Yeah… she was definitely going to cross out that last one as an option. There was no one that Xu Lu wanted to 'dual cultivate' with except for Camilla and…
And….
A face flashed across Xu Lu's mind for the briefest moment.
The face belonged to a mortal woman with piercing grey eyes, olive coloured skin, gentle facial features, sharp cheekbones…
A delicate figure that was barely visible underneath the simple rough outfit made of hemp that she wore.
Xu Lu quickly shook her head and tried to drive those thoughts to the back of her mind. She had made the decision to leave Jiang Xin and they would never see each other again.
The former saintess felt a tinge of sadness in her heart as she thought about never seeing the pretty woman who made her heart skip a beat.
Xu Lu let out another sigh and turned her attention back to the technique in front of her. She could not afford any distractions.
She finished reading all the words written down on the sheets of parchment paper and then slowly got up from the ground.
She required a catalyst to begin the process.
Demon qi was a foreign spiritual energy and needed to be introduced to the human body in order to multiple.
Xu Lu looked around the cave and finally noticed a small bag tucked away in the corner of the space that was almost hidden behind a pillar.
Clearly this was a gift for her that had been left behind by the sect leader of the Crimson Demon Sect.
She walked over to the bag and untied the string holding it together. The bag easily opened to reveal a massive black rock that was pulsating with reddish veins.
She could sense… wrongness.
Spiritual qi and demonic qi were not complete opposites, but they were not complementary. As Xu Lu held the strange rock… she felt hesitant.
There was a common misconception that demonic qi turned one 'evil' that could not be further from the truth.
What demonic qi did was lower one's inhibitions. Good people would turn into saintess, and selfish people would turn into monsters.
Of course, there was no one who was fully good or fully bad before practising demonic techniques, so the reality was that one's characteristics were enhanced.
Xu Lu did not know how her personality would shift once she practised the demon technique.
She never hurt the innocent so it was unlikely that she would go on unprovoked murderous rampages but…
How she reacted when using her weird state that wasn't cultivation that caused her to see golden threads was concerning.
She had felt a strong urge at that time to be judge, jury and executor for those who had committed sins.
What would happen if the urge got so strong that she was not able to exercise any form of self-control?
Xu Lu looked at the rock and the offer that the sect leader of the Crimson Demon Sect had spoken about earlier suddenly seemed a lot more attractive.
There was a part of her that was tempted to just leave this place and settle down somewhere else to slowly cultivate until she was strong enough to take down her former sect.
But how long could that take?
And was even possible to catch up with Lei Ying?
The former saintess held the rock in her palm and furrowed her brows. She closed her eyes for a few seconds and then when she opened them, they shone with determination.
There was no going back now.
She had made her choice.
No matter what happened… she chose this path of her own free will.
Xu Lu curled her fingers around the strange rock and then applied a tremendous amount of force until it shattered into dozens of pieces.
A strange blackish dust stained her fingers and the underside of her palm.
A much smaller object was now in her hand and the reddish veins on the rock glowed with an eerie brightness.
The former saintess slowly inhaled and exhaled as she circulated her qi in the pattern that she had seen on the first sheet of paper.
The black dust on her palm trembled and then under Xu Lu's astonished eyes, it began to be absorbed into her skin.
The much smaller rock shook violently and then burrowed into her palm causing a large wound that leaked out a dull grey ooze.
Xu Lu winced as she felt pain like she had never felt before. The demon qi was travelling around her body and there was a sense of disharmony.
It was like hot needles travelling inside her and penetrating soft bits of her tissues, flesh, muscles, and organs.
The former saintess collapsed on the ground and barely held on to her consciousness as her vision darkened along the edges of her eyes.
But the worse was yet to come.
Xu Lu screamed as she used the demonic qi to shatter her meridians one by one. Each delicate spiritual pulse inside her body was broken and torn apart.
She screamed and screamed until her voice was hoarse. Until the only sound that left her mouth was a faint dull moan of pain.
This was madness!
It hurt… it hurt so much…
Xu Lu coughed out blood as her body violently rejected the foreign spiritual energy that was invading every cell.
Still… she kept going.
She couldn't stop… she needed get stronger…
No matter the cost.
This chapter is updat𝓮d by fre(e)webnov(l).com