Xie Linlang had once said that the Nine Spirits Sect’s most famous secret art was the Nine Spirits Totem Method.
Xu Zhen, as a Nascent Soul Cultivator of the Nine Spirits Sect, claimed that the Nine Spirits Totem Method had a fatal flaw.
When cultivators absorbed a demon beast’s bloodline power, stole its inheritance, and seized its divine abilities, they simultaneously bore the dead demon beast’s hatred and resentment.
This caused a probability of the cultivator going berserk when using the Nine Spirits Totem.
Of course, the Nine Spirits Sect also had secret methods to suppress the berserk state, supplemented by feeds and pills that made the demon beasts euphoric.
For low-rank Nine Spirits Sect cultivators, this berserk backlash was not obvious.
But as their cultivation deepened day by day, the backlash grew increasingly severe, to the point where they could no longer distinguish themselves from the beasts, ultimately turning into mindless demon beasts.
The only solution was to continuously absorb new bloodline powers, using the newly seized demon beast bloodline to suppress the previously berserk one.
However, the demon race revered the strong. Once the absorbed bloodlines reached nine or more, the berserk and backlash aftereffects could be completely resolved.
Moreover, truly mastering the Nine Spirits Totem Secret Art to its pinnacle allowed one to emit a powerful deterrent against the demon race, while also gaining the demon race’s tenacious and enduring vitality.
For example, an ordinary Nascent Soul Cultivator had only three hundred years of lifespan, but a Nine Spirits Sect Nascent Soul Cultivator could live up to five hundred years.
The longer the lifespan, the higher the chance of breakthrough.
Thus, weighing the pros and cons horizontally, the Nine Spirits Sect’s Nine Spirits Totem Secret Art was still very powerful and attractive.
Shen He combined the jade slip of the first stage secret method for extracting bloodline power from before and carefully reread Xu Zhen’s desperate jade slip. He roughly pieced together what had happened in that small secret chamber.
This Nine Spirits Sect cultivator Xu Zhen had failed to withstand the secret art’s backlash and went berserk in the chamber, transforming into a half-human, half-demon Demon Beast Spirit.
The Demon Beast Spirit guarded its own corpse for decades without leaving until Zhang Size somehow learned of the meditation chamber’s information and brought Shen He to explore it.
Shen He pondered deeply for a moment.
He recalled how the Black Spirit Sword could clearly have killed him yet had skimmed past his cheek.
He thought of how even in death, the Demon Beast Spirit stubbornly guarded its own corpse…
“If there’s a chance to send him to reincarnation…”
Shen He made up his mind. Although the Demon Beast Spirit had Nascent Soul cultivation in life, the secret realm suppressed its strength to at most the peak of the late Foundation Establishment Stage.
Since the Demon Beast Spirit hadn’t killed him, in other words, Shen He would gain a big shot sparring partner at the actual Nascent Soul level who wouldn’t kill him.
If he failed, after this sparring session, he could improve his strength.
If he succeeded, he could help Cultivator Xu Zhen return to reincarnation, which would also be a good deed.
At that moment, the whiskers on the cheek of the comatose Azure Flame Leopard twitched, and then it opened its dazed yellow eyes and looked over.
Shen He instinctively smiled and reached out to stroke the leopard’s head. He said lightly, “It’s a bit abrupt, but you’ve changed owners.”
…
After Xie Linlang entered the Divine Tree’s bird’s nest-like interior, he discovered that it was filled everywhere with gaps formed by tree branches.
There were no suitable passages in the gaps, only large and small holes.
The entire Divine Tree was hollowed out, and he could even see Le Qingping and Senior Ying through the gaps, who had entered a quarter of an hour ahead.
The two were about fifty meters away diagonally upward from Xie Linlang. Their figures flashed rapidly, as if dodging some attack, but from Xie Linlang’s perspective, there were no other creatures there.
An illusion? A special space? Or divine sense shielding?
Xie Linlang frowned slightly. Le Qingping was a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and from the conversation earlier, Senior Ying was a Soul Transformation Cultivator. Both were trapped in the Divine Tree’s nest, so why was he unaffected and able to see them directly?
He was only at the Qi Refining Stage now.
Xie Linlang’s expression grew strange. Ah, could it be one of those spirit artifacts or treasures fated to belong to him?
Would the heavens be so kind?
But Xie Linlang then thought of the peculiar attractive feeling. Even knowing that heavenly will was as sharp as a blade and the heavens wouldn’t deliver benefits for free, he couldn’t help but feel a surge of anticipation.
Trouble was for later; benefits were now. He would grab it first.
Xie Linlang chose to follow that sensation and headed straight toward the source of the attraction.
Sure enough, as he approached, the tree branches in front of him automatically parted, revealing a gap large enough for one person to pass.
He didn’t know how much time passed; it felt like crossing layers of forest. Finally, Xie Linlang poked his head out from countless branches and saw the thing before him.
It was a point of light.
The light was very small, like a baby’s fist, emitting a soft golden glow.
Xie Linlang stared at this wisp of light, and suddenly, visions of vast snowstorms, the sound of wings displacing air, and a cry piercing the nine heavens flashed in his mind.
He knew what it was.
Xie Linlang sighed with some emotion, some sentiment, and some helplessness.
This was an ancient demon god’s Soul Lamp.
Normal cultivators and heavenly beings returned their souls to the Underworld upon death, crossed the Bridge of Helplessness, and reincarnated anew.
But for some great powers who had comprehended the heavenly dao, even after falling, they had the ability to keep their remnant souls in the mortal world.
However, with the shifting of times, changes of seas into mulberry fields, and the evolution of the heavenly dao, these ancient remnant souls had long lost their true spirits and consciousness under the merciless grinding of the great dao.
Yet their initial belief in remaining in the world still sustained their divine soul’s power, like the Soul Lamp before him.
This Soul Lamp emitted a warm, reassuring, comforting power.
It seemed the ancient demon god feared that future demon race members would lose their way home and find no refuge, so it specially condensed its divine soul power into a Soul Lamp to guard the mind.
