Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 117 - 113: The Approach

Chapter 117: Chapter 113: The Approach

After killing a few noodle men, Lin Xin wandered around the area but didn’t find any other traces of people.

Most of the entire town was engulfed in a sea of flames, while outside, there were some enormous yellow-furred beasts resembling deer, each with what looked like saddles on their backs, apparently the mounts of those noodle men from the town.

Lin Xin approached and searched the packages on these mounts, finding some dry rations resembling cakes, then water bags, with nothing else within them.

He walked some distance outside of the town where there lay a barren black grassland, and the sky was dim without much light. The grassland was eerily dark and devoid of visibility.

Having thoroughly found no other gains, he finally pinched the Demon Talisman Seed and channeled his Inner Qi into it.

Hiss...

The black carriage appeared behind him in an instant, its door opening.

Lin Xin turned around, entered the carriage, and sat down. As the door closed, darkness engulfed him once more.

After meditating briefly with his eyes closed, the carriage door opened again. Outside was the courtyard of his own manor.

He stepped out of the carriage at a leisurely pace, and the carriage behind him disappeared.

"This time there’s only one Demon Talisman Seed, but I’ve figured out the method to improve my cultivation." He entered the bedroom, took out all the previously acquired Demon Talisman Seeds—four in total—and then sat quietly on the bed, waiting to awaken.

"The time I spend here doesn’t seem to be under my control," Lin Xin suspected, "From the very beginning when I first entered this place, I woke up not long after, but now, the more Demon Talisman Seeds I obtain, the longer I stay here. Perhaps there’s a correlation."

He fiddled with the Demon Talisman Seeds in hand and continued to wait, but still didn’t wake up.

He simply stood up and walked into the courtyard where the large tree indicative of Xiao Lingling’s vitality was still lush and verdant, though some leaves were subtly yellowing.

He looked up at the tree for a while, then gathered some dry leaves and branches from around the flower beds in the courtyard, piling them all in the center.

Bringing a flint, he struck it and a fire sparked in the middle of the courtyard.

The pile slowly emitted blue smoke, then gradually ignited into a glowing ember of yellow and red flames.

Lin Xin smeared three of the Demon Talisman Seeds with fresh blood as part of the ritual sacrifice, then threw them all into the fire, leaving only one to use for the return trip.

The Demon Talisman Seeds slowly melted in the flames, emitting wisps of red aura.

Lin Xin opened his mouth, slowly inhaling the red smoke through his nose and mouth.

This lasted for a little over a minute.

He inhaled all the red smoke completely.

His gaze shifted straight to the status bar.

’Offense—8, Defense—10, Evasion—1, Constitution—1. Free Attributes 3.’

"Max out defense first!" Lin Xin didn’t hesitate to allocate all three free attributes to defense.

Thus, his attributes became Defense 13. A gentle warmth emerged between his abdomen and internal organs, seemingly reinforcing the insides of his body.

"13 points... According to the comparative data I’ve gathered, normal people are all below 3 points, and even a practitioner like Sanyuan Zen Master who practiced External Skills to the highest level only had defense around what I had at 5 points. My defense is more than twice that of a Zen Master."

Lin Xin drew the Red Flower Sword from its sheath.

The Red Flower Sword was forged from lava iron and should be considered Second Grade Magic Artifact material.

The grades of Magic Artifacts correspond to the five major realms of Qi Cultivators: Innate for First Grade, Qi Cultivation for Second Grade, Foundation Establishment for Third Grade, Golden Core for Fourth Grade, Nascent Soul for Fifth Grade.

However, each grade has subtle level distinctions. Originally, there was a relatively complex naming system, but Lin Xin simply simplified it to Arabic numerals.

He divided each grade into five levels for easy identification and memorization.

Over the years in the manor, he had classified all the materials and magic artifacts he could access into his system.

"The Red Flower Sword, upon refined classification, is a Second Grade, First Level Magic Artifact, which is a low-level artifact for Qi Cultivation. Although the material is decent, the power of the Formation on it isn’t strong, and the summoned Man-Eating Flower is relatively weak. If only I could break through to the Qi Cultivation level, then I could use Spirit Jade to arrange better Formations without any restrictions... pity..."

He stroked the Red Flower Sword, feeling a slight regret.

"I wonder what an effect a 13-point defense would have."

He touched the sharp edge of the sword with his finger, which made a grating scratching sound.

The razor-sharp edge, like a dull blade, couldn’t injure his skin at all.

He applied a bit more force, but still couldn’t cut himself.

He decisively raised the Red Flower Sword and slashed fiercely at his own palm.

Swish!

A white line appeared on the palm of his hand, still without a wound.

Lin Xin pondered for a moment, then summoned a trace of Postnatal Inner Qi, barely at the level of the First Layer of Return to Origin. He channeled it into the sword and slashed at his palm once more.

After the hissing sound, the palm of his hand only had a slightly whiter line, still unharmed.

Lin Xin’s interest was piqued as he began channeling the equivalent of Second Layer Cultivation strength into the sword. After one strike, the palm remained uninjured.

Third Layer, no injury.

Fourth Layer, skin faintly broken. Finally, a hint of blood appeared, seeping out very slowly.

But Lin Xin had achieved his purpose.

"An ordinary Divine Weapon from the Mortal World, a Second Grade, First Level Magic Artifact augmented with Four Layers of Innate level power, would barely break my defense when striking me directly. Impressive!"

Having tested the limit of his defense, he had even greater expectations for future defense improvements.

"My Spiritual Light Shield has a defensive power of 16 and can withstand a full-force strike from an Eighth Layer expert. That is to say, the full-force strike of Sword Qi, thus it seems, when my defense reaches 16, I should also be able to withstand a strike from an Eighth Layer high-level expert."

After some thought, he slowly infused Inner Qi into the Red Flower Sword.

"Yin Mantuo, come out."

The blade radiated a red glow as a dark brown plant vine slowly arched out of the soil behind him, ascended, and then split open at its tentacle-like tip, revealing a small red flower.

The flower’s petals were full of wet and sticky mucus, quite disgusting, and made a gluey, sticking sound.

"Since my defense can cover the biological body refined by Heart Blood Sacrificial Refinement, then you should also have the same level of defense. Let me test your body’s defense."

Lin Xin stood up and turned around.

"You should have a certain level of defensive power yourself. Let me try it out."

He lifted the Red Flower Sword, and began to test from low to high, just as he had done to himself.

First Layer, no effect, the Man-Eating Flower was unharmed.

Second Layer, likewise, no effect.

At the Third Layer, the Man-Eating Flower showed signs of injury, and Lin Xin calculated its own defense to be around nine points.

"If I add my own current defense, I wonder how it would be..." Lin Xin felt a faint anticipation. The recent addition of three defense points had caused internal changes in his body. It seemed like a qualitative change that improved the defense of his internal organs.

What if it was done on the originally high defense Man-Eating Flower?

He reached out and gently placed his hand on the Man-Eating Flower.

Hiss...

A layer of yellow halo flashed briefly on the surface of the Man-Eating Flower.

The Man-Eating Flower, towering three meters high, shook its vine fiercely.

Then, to Lin Xin’s surprise, something unexpected happened.

The pistil of the Man-Eating Flower suddenly shrank inward, retracting, while dozens of roots bulged from the surrounding soil, all waving wildly around Lin Xin.

Hiss...

In an instant, the Man-Eating Flower’s pistil reopened, and to his surprise, an extra pale eyeball now appeared inside. The large eyeball rolled around before finally fixing its gaze on Lin Xin.

At the same time, all the waving vines around the Man-Eating Flower began to show traces of silver, turning their color and texture into a mix of black with entwined silver threads.

"What is this...?" Lin Xin quickly snapped out of his astonishment, "Could this be the long-extinct Cyclops Man-Eating Flower?!"

Over the years, he had seen and collected so much miscellaneous information about rare and strange species and materials that he recognized it immediately from some illustrations, an ancient creature.

Cyclops Man-Eating Flower: Vine is as tough as Vajra, the progenitor of Man-Eating Flowers, the single eye on the top has the function of observing and alerting to dangers around. Its branches are harder and moves faster than regular Man-Eating Flowers. Special ability: Warning Eye.

Information he had once seen flashed quickly through his mind.

Lin Xin was both startled and delighted.

"I didn’t expect my attribute points to bring about such a change."

He hesitated for a moment, then stretched out his hand again, touching the Cyclops Man-Eating Flower and drawing out a soft breath.

The effects of the attribute points immediately flowed back into his body.

The Man-Eating Flower convulsed and struggled for a while, then quickly devolved back into its original, ordinary Man-Eating Flower form,

"Indeed, it was the attribute points that caused it to get an upgrade and evolve," Lin Xin realized. After trying twice more, the transformation of the Man-Eating Flower was exactly as he had predicted, with the attribute effects in place, it evolved into the Cyclops Man-Eating Flower,

"Truly magical."

He withdrew Yin Mantuo, this creature, unlike records of the past due to the attribute effects, seemed very obedient to him. It didn’t demand sacrificial blood meals for many summons, proving to be ready at each call, seemingly determined to follow him.

"Looking at this, my attribute points also have an effect that causes creatures to evolve. I’ve put them all in defense, leading to the Man-Eating Flower evolving into the Cyclops Man-Eating Flower; but what if I piled them into offensive power? Would it still be the Cyclops Man-Eating Flower? No, in the boost of my attributes, there is already an eight-point increase in offense. So it seems to be an overall combination of eight points in offense, thirteen points in defense, and one point each in constitution and agility that augmented and evolved the Man-Eating Flower."

The more he thought about it, the clearer it became.

"Theoretically, the genetics of living organisms have infinite evolutionary potential, and diversity and adaptability know no bounds. So, by changing the combination of attribute points, can I cause the Man-Eating Flower to undergo different types of biased variant evolution?"

The idea became more and more fascinating to him.

Standings by the bonfire in the yard, wandering back and forth, his thoughts multiplied.

All at once, drowsiness overtook him and his mind felt heavy.

When he opened his eyes, it was broad daylight outside, with white light faintly filtering through the gaps in the doors and windows.

Xiao Lingling was sitting in front of the dressing table, applying makeup, and doing her hair.

"Husband, you’ve slept in quite a bit today," said Xiao Lingling with a smile as she turned her head.

Lin Xin had just woken up, still feeling a slight excitement in his heart; the infinite evolutionary potential driven by attribute points made him even more interested in hunting for them.

"If I had a few more Sacrificial Fire Sword Charms, then I could summon new creatures, and with that, couldn’t I attempt various evolutionary paths for different creatures?"

"It’s a pity that my attribute combination can only be like this for now and can’t be changed at will."

He slowly got up, pondering in his mind.

"Otherwise, maybe I could try to see what the Man-Eating Flower would look like if it evolved primarily for offense, or centered around constitution, and other such combinations..."

He was full of wild ideas for a moment but then he remembered that the Heart Blood Sacrificially Refined magic artifacts could only be chosen once. Other magic artifacts, the low-level ones could be casually refined for use, but starting from a slightly higher level, insufficient refinement meant they could only be used to a minor extent, and some might even be inferior to low-level ones.

"Currently, First Grade innate magic artifacts are still usable without issues, but looking towards higher grades, things get tricky..." Lin Xin’s thoughts hit a snag. "You can’t use multiple Second Grade magic artifacts simultaneously."

That was also the reason his Red Flower Sword had remained singular for many years; he could afford Second Level materials, but making them into artifacts he couldn’t use was pointless.

"Is Big Brother Xin worrying about something?" Xiao Lingling came over at this time and sat in front of him. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendation tickets and monthly tickets at Qidian (qidian.com). Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)

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