Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 260 - 253: The Great Achievement of Ju Yao Wan Sha - Part 2

Chapter 260: Chapter 253: The Great Achievement of Ju Yao Wan Sha - Part 2

"Talisman Seed... If it really is a Talisman Seed, then what’s the difference between it and the Demon Talisman Seed in my hand?"

Suddenly, Lin Xin thought of the Demon Talisman Seed he held; both were Talisman Seeds, but why was the Demon Talisman Seed referred to as a Talisman Seed in the ghostly script? Perhaps there was a deeper secret hidden within.

However, there was no time to think about it now.

He quietly guarded the Talisman Seed as it continuously absorbed a vast amount of blood essence from his body.

This essence had placed a great burden on his body, and had it not been for the fact that his physical strength was much greater than that of an average cultivator of the same level, together with the tremendous recovery power of the Dragon King foundation, he might have already collapsed and fallen unconscious by now.

It would even be normal to die unknowingly.

He tried hard to control the flow of the Talisman Seed and his own blood essence to prevent his flesh from being absorbed by the Talisman Seed as well.

Time slowly passed, and he did not know how long it had been.

Eventually, Lin Xin closed his eyes unknowingly and fell asleep.

When he opened his eyes, a pristine white sky stretched above him, with clouds drifting slowly and the bright sunshine falling on his body and face, feeling warm.

"This place...?" He slowly moved his body and found that every bone in his body ached, and every inch of his muscles felt as if they had been torn apart and then mended again; any movement caused intense pain.

He discovered that he was lying in a lush green forest, where the chaotic remains of blood and flesh and various creature corpses were scattered all around.

Many of the creatures were so shattered that even their general shapes were indiscernible, with only scattered bones and fragments everywhere. The most eerie fact was that all the remains didn’t have a trace of liquid; the blood within seemed to have been sucked dry, turning into dried flesh.

"You’re awake?"

The voice of the Red Leaf Sword Master sounded in his ear.

"I am," Lin Xin replied as he got up and turned around. He saw the Red Leaf Sword Master lying on a branch of a big tree, drinking from a gourd.

"How long have I been asleep?" he asked, feeling that the Red Leaf Sword Master seemed approachable enough to converse with now.

"Fifteen days," the Red Leaf casually replied without even looking at him.

"Fifteen days?!" Lin Xin exclaimed, but then he remembered that under the previous condition, the perception of time might have been completely disordered.

"In fifteen days, you’ve killed nine thousand three hundred twenty-five different creatures," the Red Leaf added, making his heart tremble.

"But I was sleeping!"

"Of course, if you weren’t asleep, you might not have killed that many," the Red Leaf said indifferently.

"......"

Taking a deep breath, Lin Xin looked again at the remains around him, and suddenly, the more he looked, the more familiar they seemed.

He walked over to a bone spike that had broken into several segments and gently picked it up to inspect it.

"This... Did I chop it?"

The broken edge clearly bore marks of his own style. He was all too familiar with it.

"Don’t you already have the answer?" the Red Leaf said lightly. "Have you practiced any Cultivation Technique that enhances lifespan and premonition?"

"Why do you ask?" Lin Xin frowned, still not having recovered from the surprise that he could wander around while asleep.

"Normally, with such a prolonged effort, you would have exhausted your strength and died. Even if not, during extensive hunting, you would encounter insurmountably powerful opponents and perish," the Red Leaf explained. It was the first time he had spoken such a long sentence in front of Lin Xin.

"But you are different."

"I am different?" Lin Xin narrowed his eyes. "How am I different? Aren’t all of you living just fine?"

The Red Leaf shook his head.

"We use other methods, but you, you’re resisting it hard."

"Is the difference significant?"

"Of course."

The Red Leaf lightly stood up on the trunk of the tree, stepping on a branch no thicker than a child’s arm, swaying gently up and down, yet never falling.

"During extensive hunting, the Underworld will grant you a great amount of cultivation essence, but the transformation of this essence requires lifespan and physical strength as a price, consuming lifespan in order to rapidly enhance cultivation. The more you kill, the quicker you die."

Lin Xin felt a chill in his heart; no wonder he had white hair in his forties, unlike other cultivators. He had always thought it was an isolated phenomenon and had not delved into it. But now it seemed it was not isolated; his lifespan was quickly being consumed.

"Additionally," the Red Leaf continued, "your premonition is very strong! It seems you possess an instinctual advantage in seeking benefits and avoiding harm. In territories of creatures far more powerful than you, you would naturally evade them. This is the biggest danger for us, but for you, it’s much easier."

"Evade?" Lin Xin pondered thoughtfully.

"Yes, you seem to have an instinctual tendency to seek benefits and avoid harm. Even at a distance where you haven’t entered their range of perception, you unconsciously move in a direction that is advantageous to you," the Red Leaf revealed with a hint of appreciation. "Perhaps the greatest danger in your confusion lies not in the external, but in the inner sanctum of the fire of life."

Lin Xin couldn’t help but recall his Evasion Attribute, the specific effects of which he had never understood.

From the beginning, he had not known what effect the Evasion among the four attributes had. Perhaps this was its effect?

But now was not the time to start delving into this. While the Red Leaf Sword Master was lucid, he had to ask more about the Underworld.

"So what exactly are we to the Underworld, and what is the Underworld to the Underworld?"

The Red Leaf Sword Master didn’t immediately respond, lifting his wine gourd to take a sip.

He looked up at the sun in the sky.

"We are but tools to the Underworld... Tools that need not emotions. Thus they use various methods to numb us, to strip away most of our own will, until finally we succumb and become pure devourers," he said.

"However, tools completely devoid of their own volition are far weaker than tools that possess it, and lack the ability to blend in, making it impossible for them to be accepted by other worlds. That’s why we retain a bit of our selfhood."

He explained casually.

"Tools? You seem quite lucid, don’t you? How..." Lin Xin countered.

"Just two hours." The Red Leaf Sword Master interrupted him. "Only two hours a day, I can be lucid."

Lin Xin took a deep breath and pondered for a moment.

"Then, my second question, what is the Underworld to us, to the Two-Faced Kingdom?"

He had always lacked a systematic understanding of the Underworld. Now, facing an expert who was levels beyond him and harbored no ill will towards him, he took the opportunity to ask the questions he had in mind.

"That question, you can ask the me from other kingdoms when you visit other lands," the Red Leaf deflected.

"Moving on." He suddenly tossed a bundle over. Wrapped in black cloth, it landed on the ground in front of Lin Xin. "Eat this, and in the upcoming period, the Underworld will feedback great strength to you. If you’re not careful and your body begins to deteriorate, then head to the Western Extreme Land. That artifact on you seems to have some connection there, it will guide you to what you need, and eating these items can temporarily help suppress the Underworld power inside you."

"What is this?" Lin Xin looked at the bundle.

"Something that will help you."

As the words faded, the Red Leaf gently leapt up, astonishingly floating up towards the sky and shooting straight up. In no time, he pierced through the clouds, disappearing amidst the vast white, never to be seen again.

Lin Xin stood amidst the wreckage, picking up the bundle on the ground. The other’s cultivation far surpassed his; had he wished to harm him, he would have done so long ago rather than wait until now.

So he tentatively deemed it trustworthy.

Picking up the bundle, he looked at his body, covered with dense, healing scars—like countless centipedes crawling all over him.

"Is this bout of bewilderment over now?" He looked around and sighed inwardly.

If what the Red Leaf said was true, he could have slain countless lives this time. In just fifteen days, he had killed over ten thousand beings. The horrifying rate was such that one would need to be in a constant state of unceasing killing to achieve it.

Thinking of this, he didn’t want to stay here another moment.

He quickly left, heading for a distant wilderness. Beyond the forest sea lay an endless golden desert.

He rushed out of the forest sea and across the vast Gobi, quickly entering deep into the desert.

The sand dunes rolled on with random small patches of various oases in between.

He randomly picked an oasis, squatted by the small lake intending to drink.

Suddenly, a party of two-faced people with white headscarves and wrapped in long robes walked through the desert.

The moment the group saw Lin Xin squatting by the lake, terror flashed across their faces.

"It’s a foreigner! Run for your lives!" They shouted in the language of the Two-Faced Kingdom, dropping the camels that resembled sheep they were leading and turning to flee.

Lin Xin stood up, slightly frowning. Just as he was about to go and investigate, unexpectedly, two cultivator-attired men and women emerged from deep within the oasis, neither two-faced people, and they too, like him, were regarded as foreigners by the locals.

"You guys?"

Just as Lin Xin was about to speak, the two’s eyes widened with a look of sheer terror, staring at him.

"It’s that demon!"

Before he could continue, the two turned and ran as if seeing a ghost.

Reluctantly sitting down, Lin Xin casually sipped some water. The desert water here wasn’t supposed to be drunk directly as it was usually poisonous, but given his constitution, he couldn’t fuss about such things—poison was only an issue for ordinary people.

After guzzling some water, he found a spot by the lake.

"Yin Mantuo," he commanded.

The Red Flower Sword glittered with a red light, and then, a slight movement came from beneath his feet as the Black Poison Vine silently burrowed underground.

"Dig out a cave for me," Lin Xin ordered.

But after waiting for a while, the ground remained still and he became puzzled.

"Yin Mantuo?"

He called out again.

Plop.

An eyeball the size of a palm emerged from the ground, and soon, a little octopus-like vine crawled out of the hole.

The white vine tentacle, topped with a large white eyeball, blinked as it clambered onto Lin Xin’s boots, hugging them insistently with its big head.

"How did you end up like this?" Lin Xin was astonished. Where was his previously imposing giant vine?

He shook his boot vigorously. But the creature clung to it like a stubborn plaster.

(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, you are welcome to vote for it on Qidian (qidian.com) with your recommendation tickets or monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to continue reading.)