Chapter 105: A Thorny Black Ball?
Hearing Jiang Yuebai's question made Chu Liang laugh.
He felt like a well-behaved child who had suddenly earned a huge sum of money one day. Yet, when he brought it home, his parents' first reaction wasn't delight.
Instead, they asked him, "You didn't break the law, did you?"
Jiang Yuebai's concern wasn't ungrounded though.
There had indeed been such a precedent in the past. A disciple of the proper cultivation path had seized diabolical cultivation techniques from a diabolical cultivator and then secretly used them to cultivate. Cultivators advanced much faster with diabolical cultivation techniques than with those of the righteous path, so that disciple went on to gain prominence in the sect as a very talented disciple.
Unfortunately, the use of diabolical cultivation techniques was accompanied by a high level of risk. That disciple later went berserk when they lost focus during cultivation, causing a significant number of casualties within the sect.
If Chu Liang were truly such a brilliant genius, then why had there been no sign of his brilliance all these years? His rapid advancement in cultivation had only been a recent development. It just didn't make sense.
"Senior Sister, you can rest assured that I am full of righteous qi," Chu Liang said with a smile. It didn't take him long to figure out what Jiang Yuebai was thinking. "I didn't have anyone to guide my cultivation when I was younger, so perhaps that's why my progress was a bit slow. Now, I'm working hard to catch up. I absolutely won't take the wrong path."
Upon hearing Chu Liang's explanation, Jiang Yuebai finally felt at ease.
She thought that what Chu Liang said made sense. It was true that such a peerless genius couldn't have been overlooked, but Chu Liang's teacher was Di Nufeng, who wasn't exactly a normal teacher... That could explain even the most absurd things about Chu Liang's cultivation.
In any case, Chu Liang couldn't tell Jiang Yuebai the true reason behind his rapid advancement in cultivation...
You think I'm advancing too quickly? That's because you didn't see the Large-Headed Doll in my White Pagoda working so hard that it's emitting smoke!
As for his mediocre performance during all his years in the sect, Chu Liang could only let his teacher take the blame for that.
The sky was getting dark; evening was approaching. The pair parted ways.
...
When Chu Liang returned to his cabin, he took out the spirit beast egg again and poured his foundational qi into it to incubate it. Meanwhile, he proceeded to organize all the items currently in his possession.
Recently, Chu Liang had taken many things from his defeated opponents, and he'd also received rewards from the White Pagoda. Consequently, the number of enchanted tools and treasures he now possessed far exceeded that of his peers, and he felt that his inventory had become rather messy.
The first ones he reassessed were his offensive enchanted tools: the Demon-Revealing Brick, Demon-Binding Rope, Crimson Executioner, and Razor Leaf. They were the enchanted tools he was more dependent on in battles and thus used them the most often.
The strongest among them was, of course, the Crimson Executioner. However, its activation conditions were quite tough to fulfill, so it couldn't be used all the time.
Chu Liang's personal favorite was actually the Demon-Revealing Brick. The feeling of striking someone with a brick felt way more satisfying than doing it with a flying sword, but he didn't always have the opportunity to use this brick either.
As for the Demon-Binding Rope, Chu Liang had been feeling lately that the rope was rather weak. The rope was quite a powerful tool for restraining a target, but it was only effective against those with lower cultivation levels. It was useless against stronger opponents.
This was a common issue for cultivators. Enchanted tools couldn't be constantly improved to keep up with the speed of a cultivator's advancement in cultivation. This meant a cultivator could not continually use every enchanted tool they possessed.
Cultivators would eventually remove some enchanted tools from their inventory. They usually gave those enchanted tools to junior disciples or sold the enchanted tools to acquire other items.
After reassessing his enchanted tools, Chu Liang realized that his only constantly usable offensive enchanted tool was surprisingly the Razor Leaf. However, it was also constantly inaccurate.
There seems to be something that's not quite right...
It appeared that Chu Liang was rather lacking in offensive enchanted tools.
Next in his inventory was the Hundred-Flower Antidote, Honey Syrup Tea, and Essence-Concealing Pills... These were single-use consumables.
Chu Liang still had quite a lot of the Honey Syrup Tea, as the last batch had been a huge one. There were even different flavors. Nevertheless, it was unlikely that he could acquire the Honey Syrup Tea again, so Chu Liang wasn't in a rush to sell off his stock.
The Hundred-Flower Antidote was very useful because it could neutralize a wide range of moderate-severity poisons. He only had a few doses left, but he could always buy something with similar effects from the Hall of Alchemy if he ran out later.
As for the Essence-Concealing Pills, those were amazing things that would come in handy in the future, so he was certainly keeping them.
The next items in Chu Liang's inventory were things that he had yet to find a purpose for, but he had no intention of getting rid of them for the time being.
For example, there was that bronze mask he had taken from the demon divine envoy. Chu Liang still kept it.
There was that precious Nethersea Golden Lotus too. Chu Liang could sell it for a considerable sum of money, but he might need it in the future, so he decided to keep it.
The thought of the Nethersea Golden Lotus reminded him of the Soul Subjugator's token. It had been silent for a long time now, which suggested that everyone in the Dark King Sect was probably doing fine.
The rest of Chu Liang's inventory consisted of his cultivation advancement aid—the Large-Headed Doll inside the White Pagoda—and the spirit beast egg that he was currently holding...
Oh, that's right. There's that one-fourth of a scroll I found too.
After assessing his inventory, Chu Liang realized he had a wide variety of items, but there weren't many that he could use at any given moment. The reason for that was probably that he'd either picked up these items from his defeated opponents or received them as rewards; he hadn't purchased them for specific purposes.
Of course, everything that he purchased would be good, but there was one major drawback to buying items... It required him to spend money.
Ultimately, increasing his power instead was the most sensible thing to do.
...
At daybreak, Chu Liang flew down Mount Shu along a mountain ridge that led to somewhere remote outside the mountain. He soon found a forest so dense and secluded that there was no way anyone would be in it.
Upon landing, he started his practice session. Chu Liang took out the Razor Leaf and locked his aim on the third tree to the left. Then he activated his foundational qi and launched the Razor Leaf toward the right.
Whoosh—
There was a flash of a green crescent-shaped light. It was moving too fast to be seen by the naked eye.
In the next moment, the Razor Leaf cut through the fourth tree on Chu Liang's left. Then it cut through a few more trees before coming to a stop in the distance.
"Haaa..." Chu Liang sighed softly.
He felt that using this thing was a bit like trying to shoot a basketball into the basket.
Even if you've perfected your technique, you can't guarantee you'll make the shot every time.
After spending the last two days sensing and analyzing the power of the Razor Leaf, Chu Liang had roughly deduced the pattern of its flight trajectory. However, when it came to putting the Razor Leaf in action, there were inevitably still deviations in its flight trajectory.
How could he ensure a hundred-percent rate of accuracy?
Chu Liang thought of Liu Xiaoyu'er again...
Guess it's impossible unless I have a koi fish launch it for me.
While Chu Liang was still slightly stunned by his failed attempt, he suddenly sensed a golden imprint merging with him.
Huh?
He quickly walked over to examine the Razor Leaf.
Chu Liang looked under the tree in which the Razor Leaf was embedded and found something black that had been split in half. The thing was the size of an adult human's head and had the shape of a ball and sharp thorns all over.
Despite having been split open, it appeared to contain nothing inside. There was no flesh or blood, but there was residual yin qi[1] in the air.
This thing... Why does it seem a little like a combined yin-yang constitution?
The thing in question had a physical body, but it seemed to have a soul made of yin qi.
If it were simply a ghost, it definitely wouldn't have been able to appear in the world of the living during the day. A ghost wouldn't feel comfortable appearing even in this dense forest where the sunlight was largely blocked out by the trees. However, this ghost had a physical body, so it could move about freely.
This ghost was very similar to lantern monsters. They were both lonely wandering ghosts that had lost their rationality and attached themselves to objects in the world of the living. Nevertheless, this thorny black ball seemed a bit stronger than the weak lantern monster.
Chu Liang wondered where the ghost had come from. The whole situation was rather unexpected. He had been very careful in avoiding places with traces of people, yet he still managed to accidentally kill something. Fortunately, it was just a ghost, so he could think of it as having helped a wandering soul find peace.
While he was pondering about the ghost, Chu Liang heard a buzzing sound and felt the yin qi around him gradually become more intense. A group of thorny black balls had gathered and encircled him...
Oh. Was this thing part of a group consciousness?
That was quite rare among ghosts. Wandering souls like these had a low level of rationality and were usually unable to cross over to the other side due to their negative emotions, such as unacceptance, anger, resentment, and the like. So, they lingered on in the mortal world with an extremely cold and emotionless disposition. Naturally, that meant they wouldn't have companions they cared about either.
Yet, it appeared that these thorny black balls had come as a group to seek revenge against Chu Liang because he'd killed one of their companions. He could tell from just looking that if one of those thorny black balls were to hit him, it would surely be very painful.
Chu Liang swiftly retreated, but the group of thorny black balls chased after him. With a swing of his hand, Chu Liang threw the Razor Leaf at the thorny ball closest to him.
Whoosh.
The thorny ball at the rear of the group and the furthest away from Chu Liang was sliced in half, and it fell to the ground.
Chu Liang raised his finger and summoned the enchanted tool back to him. He shook his head helplessly.
This saber technique is truly determined by fate.
Then Chu Liang made a hand seal, activating his Flying-Sword Bracelet. In an instant, a dense troop of a hundred swordlights rose from the forest.
Hundred Swords Seal!
Upon seeing a hundred swords soar into the sky, those thorny black balls that apparently had eyes somewhere on their bodies collectively paused. Then they turned around like a singular entity with one thought in mind.
Run!
No, to be precise, they didn't even need to turn around; they didn't have a front or back. So, they just changed from chasing in the forward direction to fleeing in the backward direction.
Chu Liang pointed at the thorny balls up ahead.
Go!
The troop of swordlights whizzed down toward their targets.
The thorny black balls fled. Chu Liang pursued.
It was impossible for the thorny black balls to escape!
1. Yin is often associated with concepts related to death, as it symbolizes darkness, stillness, and the passive or receptive aspects of life. ☜
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