Blind Spot
Chapter 539 - 495 was first established as 1.

Chapter 539: 495 was first established as 1.

Inside the Faceless Great Hall.

The Holy Spirit Taoist, the leader of the sect, slowly stood up, retrieved a bundle of new incense sticks from a hidden compartment in the corner, lit them, and inserted them into the censer in front of the statue.

The mysterious inlays on the surface of the censer lit up with a faint silver glow.

A breeze-like cool breath wafted from the censer, spreading out to the surroundings.

This breath, seemingly alive, was quickly absorbed through the mouth and nose by the human faces on the walls.

All was calm once again.

The Holy Spirit Taoist turned, as if he had foreseen the future, and looked toward the door.

The grand doors were slowly pushed open once more.

A tall and handsome young man with a slender figure walked in slowly, looking up at him.

"Teacher," the young man said, carrying a long sword on his back, not having placed his natal Chi Yuan Sword into the Sword Nurturing Pouch.

"What’s the matter? Is the sword damaged?" The Holy Spirit Taoist’s face softened considerably when he saw the young man.

"Yes. It needs some repair after exerting too much force while cutting down the next two Six Seal Demon Kings." The young man was Huo Qingkong, who had just returned from the border mine station.

"Just put it down, I’ll fix it for you in a moment," the Holy Spirit Taoist said with a smile.

He paused, about to remind his disciple about the matters concerning the Demon Race, when his eyes suddenly fixed.

"You... you’ve made another breakthrough!?"

There was an unrestrainable joy in his voice.

"Yes," Huo Qingkong nodded slightly, smiling. "I have lived up to your expectations, and I have now officially crossed over the first layer of the Thousand Face Sword Canon. The Primordial Spirit Sword has also been constructed."

The core of the Thousand Face Sword Canon is actually about using all of one’s own enlightenment, realm, and knowledge to fictitiously congeal a sword-type primordial spirit unique to oneself, and then meticulously complete it.

For the Faceless Sword Sect, whose consciousness power can directly materialize to interfere with reality, the sword-type primordial spirit constructed by their consciousness will have far greater power than the Sword of Wisdom at lower levels.

"Good... Truly, the heavens bless the Faceless!" the Holy Spirit Taoist exclaimed, spreading his arms, feeling refreshed and rejuvenated, and the backlash from his technique seemed to lessen significantly.

Among the disciples of the Four Sects, those who practice the Thousand Face Sword Canon are unrivaled in combat.

And Huo Qingkong’s talents are also of the extreme combat sort. At this rate, the century catastrophe will surely be easily overcome!

"The backlash I suffer gets heavier by the day... Nowadays, I must spend most of my time in the temple, cultivating to suppress the backlash of the primordial spirit.

The other elders, six in number, have mostly reached their own limits. To dissolve the increasingly strong miasma of calamity, one must reach above the fifth layer of the Thousand Face Sword Canon. It looks like you will be able to enter this realm within twenty years, and by then, during the century catastrophe, we will be able to extend another thousand years!" The Holy Spirit Taoist said spiritedly.

"The disciple will certainly live up to your trust!" Huo Qingkong saluted with a fist and bowed, speaking loudly.

"Remember, be careful when you are out. The future hopes of our sect all rest on you! Whatever resources or medicine you need, as long as the secret storehouse has it, you can take it as you wish," the Holy Spirit Taoist said earnestly.

"Yes..." Huo Qingkong nodded.

He set down the Chi Yuan Sword, chatted with his teacher for a while, then turned around and left the great hall.

As he walked slowly back, all the sect disciples he met along the way respectfully stepped aside and bowed their heads in greeting.

"Look over there; it’s the Senior Brother!"

"Senior Brother is the strongest!!"

"Those guys from the Demon Race aren’t a match for Senior Brother at all! Truly the strongest genius the Faceless Sword Sect has seen in a thousand years!"

One by one, the immature voices from afar covertly reached Huo Qingkong’s ears. Even though his junior brothers and sisters spoke very softly, his cultivation was so high that he could easily hear them.

Huo Qingkong kept a gentle smile on his face as he continued on his way, occasionally offering some tips to the junior brothers and sisters who came up to seek guidance.

"Senior Brother!"

Suddenly, a girl about twelve or thirteen years old, her face white and tender with baby fat, approached him.

"It’s me, Zhao Yuan!"

Zhao Yuan, one of the Four Junior Swords, had actually been under his care since she was very young. When she was just a baby and her master didn’t have time to take care of her, he would sometimes take her to the master’s pavilion.

Since the master spent most of his time in the temple, only Huo Qingkong and a few attendants lived in the pavilion.

So naturally, Zhao Yuan often spent time with him.

"What’s the matter, Yuan Yuan?" Huo Qingkong stretched out his hand and rubbed Zhao Yuan’s chubby face.

"Nothing serious, just that someone keeps saying bad things about you, Senior Brother. I couldn’t argue with her, so we ended up fighting... and I lost in two moves," Zhao Yuan pouted, looking unhappy.

"It’s okay. After dinner tonight, we’ll practice some swordsmanship in the courtyard, and I’ll teach you a special move. Next time you’ll definitely win," Huo Qingkong said as he gently ruffled her hair.

"Really? Won’t it delay you?" Zhao Yuan’s eyes lit up with eagerness and concern.

"It’s okay... It’s just a very simple move. It won’t take much time," Huo Qingkong had just finished speaking when suddenly, he felt a pain in his chest.

He could suppress and resolve the backlash from his technique, but... as the Demon Emperor had said, the technique itself was in harmony with Ancestor Chi Yuan, and anyone else, no matter who, as they continued to cultivate further and as their cultivation grew higher, the more contradictions and conflict points would arise, and the more the discord would intensify.

Walking and talking with Zhao Yuan, his expression still carried a smile, but the pain in his chest was getting worse.

’I must find a way to solve and suppress the backlash.’

The so-called backlash was actually the seven kinds of malice that he had not released through the Holy Infant.

Long ago, he had realized that extruding malice through the Holy Infant was not a complete solution to the technique’s backlash.

On the contrary, it might even lead to changes in the Holy Infant, causing it to slip out of his control.

Therefore, he chose to forcibly suppress the malice within himself, condensing it into the Seven Evil Swords.

Normal consciousness power solidifies into the regular Sword of Wisdom.

But the malice solidifies into seven sinister swords that contain all his accumulated Evil Thoughts.

He had originally thought that he could keep suppressing them until the Primordial Spirit Sword was fully accomplished, and then use the Primordial Spirit Sword to counter-cut the Seven Swords, thus perfecting himself.

Unfortunately... he had barely reached the first layer of the Thousand Face Sword Canon before he began to lose control.

The pain grew stronger and nonstop, causing Huo Qingkong’s brow to furrow tighter and tighter.

The chirpy voice of Zhao Yuan by his side seemed to drift away, becoming somewhat unclear.

Returning to his residence, bidding farewell to the little girl, the special effects of the wooden house helped him suppress the restlessness of the Seven Swords within him once more.

Sitting in front of the window, he picked up a brush and dipped it lightly into the ink.

Huo Qingkong gazed at the spread of white paper before him, his mind replaying the words previously spoken by the Demon Emperor.

The pain in his chest began again, with seven peculiar auras constantly moving within his chest, unlike before, where they only caused pain, they even started deliberately slashing at his newly condensed Primordial Spirit Sword.

Ding ding ding...

Faint sounds, audible only to him, rang in Huo Qingkong’s ears.

His newly broken through Thousand Facets Sword Tome Primordial Spirit Technique, which had been stable, began to reveal faint cracks under the collision and slashes of the Seven Evil Swords, and his cultivation started to regress.

’Qingkong, you are the hope of our sect for the future!’ his teacher’s voice rang out again in his ears.

"Originally, your teacher thought he couldn’t escape his doom, but unexpectedly, he met you... I hope that within twenty years, you can reach the fifth level..."

"Big Brother Qingkong, Mother Consort has recently been rewarded by Father Emperor again. It’s all because you are doing better and better in the Sword Sect." That was the voice of the Imperial Sister.

"In the upcoming competition between the Four Sects, this time the first prize is the Heavenly Silk Cocoon, a treasure that can help the teacher weaken the backlash. Teacher’s condition is quite grim now, please make sure you obtain it, Senior Brother!" That was the voice of his junior disciple.

Multitudes of voices overlapped, causing the pen in Huo Qingkong’s hand to tremble slightly.

"Does it hurt?" Suddenly, a sinister voice arose beside his ear.

"!?" Huo Qingkong dashed off the pen, placing a heavy black dot on the paper.

This was the voice of the Demon Emperor!!

How could he be here!??

"A mere distraction, no need for such alarm... So, what do you think? The biggest mistake of that old fool Chi Yuan was to forcibly split out Evil Thoughts to purify himself. Little did he know, good and evil have no boundaries; evil is just as much a part of his nature."

The Demon Emperor chuckled, "I have a technique here called the Seven-Faced Primordial Body Technique, which can absorb all Evil Thoughts into oneself. With your insight, you should be able to quickly reach the state where yin yields to yang, thus stepping into the great perfection, blending good and evil as one... achieving a grand transcendence even more perfect than Chi Yuan..."

"Get lost!" Huo Qingkong snorted coldly. Expelling the Demon Emperor’s intrusive thoughts from his mind, he once again immersed himself in focused meditation and cultivation.

His Thousand Facet Primordial Spirit quickly recovered from the cracks at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming more stable than before.

Such speed of cultivation was usually only achieved by direct disciples of the same level after months of hard work.

And he had expended just a few breaths...

*

*

*

Inside Kui Ling Pavilion.

In the room where Li Chengyi lived.

"This is my brother!"

Volcano the Black Squirrel pointed at the larger black squirrel next to him, with even more robust and powerful muscles, and introduced him loudly.

"Its name is Huo Huo!"

"Hmm...." Li Chengyi stroked his chin, assessing the Huo Huo that Volcano had called over.

Both belonged to the same species. If Volcano’s cultivation were to be classified according to Demon Beasts, it would be at the Four Seals level, which is to say, four instances of sublimation.

Demon Beasts are different from humans; their sublimation seals are fixed. In other words, the advancement of Demon Beasts is referred to as evolution.

They cannot switch their Imprint paths at will like humans, but their strength lies in the fact that each evolutionary seal grants them more benefits than humans.

Huo Huo’s cultivation is at the Third Seal level, somewhat inferior, but considering they are from the same species and easy to communicate with, this is an advantage.

Though Volcano appears fierce, he is actually quite honest. The time they have spent together has been quite agreeable.

"Okay, he’ll do." Li Chengyi couldn’t be bothered to switch to another Demon Beast.

Each Demon Beast requires a different period and method of adaptation. Instead of looking for other Demon Beasts, it would be better to choose these two brothers.

"Thank you, Master!" Volcano immediately rejoiced.

It was only after following Li Chengyi that he realized how different his master was from others.

He didn’t truly treat them as slaves, nor did he have the innate discrimination others had. Instead, he naturally regarded them, members of different species, as his equals.

He not only provided food and drink but also cultivation techniques and resources!

Compared to other cultivators, who only remembered to use Demon Beasts as sacrificial tools when faced with adverse side effects, the difference was like heaven and earth.

Indeed, Volcano’s feeling was correct.

Li Chengyi indeed wasn’t accustomed to viewing them as slaves. He simply saw himself as a boss and treated them with the attitude he had towards his former team members.

Even though he frequently demanded a lot from them.

But that was enough to fill Volcano with gratitude.

Having decided on the candidate, Li Chengyi stood up and, with a motion seemingly slow yet fast, swiftly touched Huo Huo’s forehead.

Sss!

Invisible consciousness power surged into Huo Huo’s mind.

Mingled within the consciousness power were numerous simplified methods of the Holy Spirit Technique.