Eternal Swordmaster
Chapter 675 - 670 Message 2

Chapter 675: Chapter 670 Message 2

With a physical attribute of 27,000 points, Lin Xin’s body began to rapidly recover from the residual internal injuries, despite being suppressed by the curse of the Heavenly Demon Army Master.

Lin Xin felt as if he was soaking in warm water, extremely comfortable within his chest and abdomen.

"Next is Evasion." He shifted his gaze to the Evasion Attribute.

The same 17,102 attribute of Evasion rapidly soared as well.

17,400.

18,100.

19,300.

20,000.

23,000... all the way to 27,000 points.

Then Defense, which also quickly increased to a round 27,000.

Lastly was Damage, rising from 23,500 to 27,000, even more swiftly.

After a round of allocation, half of the Free Attributes were used up, leaving 32,883 points remaining.

By then, Lin Xin already began to feel his spiritual power throughout his body being enhanced again.

Generally, after an even distribution of points, the sudden increase in spiritual power due to the attribute surge was a substantial shock to him.

Thus, he usually chose to evenly increase his attributes in small amounts, first allowing himself to adapt to the magnitude.

Boosting attributes too much in one go could lead to an overwhelming increase in spiritual power, which could potentially be detrimental to his mental state.

But this time, the increase was somewhat too much at once.

After adapting for a while, Lin Xin finally felt the dizziness caused by the significant increase in spiritual power begin to dissipate slowly.

"There’s still so much left, each attribute can evenly get eight thousand points."

Lin Xin was now clearly feeling his physical body transforming into some unknown and wondrous structure.

It was no longer the original cellular structure of the Human Race but evolving towards a denser, more optimized exotic direction.

The power of his bloodline in this body was also faintly boiling, as if the significant increase in attributes was again hinting at evolution.

"The Purifying Force is already a Fifth Rank bloodline, if it evolves further, could it reach Sixth Rank?" Lin Xin’s heart leaped with joy as he speculated.

"This is the temptation of attribute points..." he suddenly felt a touch of emotion.

Attributes could enhance the physical body, making oneself comparable or even far exceeding his peers among Body Refiners.

Attributes could cause one’s own bloodline to be exploited and continuously evolved and elevated.

Attributes could make one’s aura so refined that not even a great power surpassing one’s own cultivation could detect it.

Attributes could also make one’s recovery power comparable to the Undying Body of someone who had practiced Undying Secret Techniques....

"Then what’s the point of practicing Cultivation Techniques?" Lin Xin suddenly thought. "Just hunting for attribute points would be enough. With enough attribute points, I’ll eventually be invincible."

Once this thought took hold of his heart, it would not let go.

"No!"

Suddenly, he snapped awake, his body covered in cold sweat.

"It was the Heart Demon at play! My resolve was nearly shaken."

The path of cultivation isn’t just about strength. Although attribute points do bring countless advantages, cultivation is more about achieving a realm.

Strength is indeed precious, but the realm determines one’s skill, optimization, and essence.

The same ore, in the hands of different people, becomes either a blunt instrument or a finely crafted tool able to produce a variety of derived products.

The same stone, lying by a riverbank, picked up by one is worthless, fit only for skimming. Picked up by another, carved into a sculpture, it becomes worth a fortune.

That is the difference that realm brings.

Lin Xin’s mind cleared all at once, and his entire body was drenched in sweat.

If he truly became someone who only relied on attribute points, a hundredfold strength without realm would only exert a fraction of its potential. Against other cultivators of the same rank, talking about victory would be far-fetched, even basic resistance would be difficult.

Reaching the Fifth Rank, battles are no longer determined by speed or brute strength.

Without realm, one’s Polar Region could lock oneself down.

Having understood these thoughts, Lin Xin stabilized his state of mind, feeling somewhat frightened by the prospect.

"I have increased my attributes too much, causing my realm to lag behind, leading me to slip up," he noted.

He glanced at the remaining Free Attributes.

"Forget it, I’ll even out the remaining attributes to 30,000 and then stabilize my realm first."

He acted swiftly, and it didn’t take long for him to spend another 12,000 points to get all four attributes to an even 30,000 points.

The slight sense of dizziness emerged again, this time even more pronounced.

Lin Xin grew concerned, recognizing that the gap in realm was too great and he was now somewhat unable to control his body’s instincts.

A powerful body leads to various emotions and desires due to the secretion of hormones or other chemical changes, and these effects can be intensified.

If there’s not enough willpower and realm to suppress and resolve this, one could well be completely dominated by the physical influence and become an impulsive, irritable creature guided solely by desire.

Desire comes from the body, and while willpower and realm also originate from the body, they evolve and advance through cultivation, enhancing quality.

If one is swayed back by the desires of the flesh, the realm might collapse completely, reverting back to the most primitive level.

This could mean that hundreds of years of cultivation might be destroyed in an instant.

"I need to find a cultivation technique especially for refining the mind," Lin Xin concluded, realizing that the downside of attribute points—which wasn’t really a downside—had finally come to the fore. This was a common issue with all Body Cultivation Techniques, just that the rapid increase in attribute points made it especially prominent.

Quickly evening his attribute points to 30,000, leaving 20,883 points, he dared not increase them further. He would wait until he had completely assimilated and adapted to his current physical state before continuing.

With an even distribution of 30,000 points in his attributes, Lin Xin distinctly felt that his entire body had reached a subtle state of perfection.

"I wonder how strong I’ve become...."

He suddenly remembered the previous fight with the Black Fire Lion.

"Let’s go test my strength at the Yin Fire Pillar again."

As soon as he thought about it, he acted. Many disciples of the Dragon Serpent Sect also often went to the Yin Fire Pillar to test their strength.

Leaving the stone house, Lin Xin flew straight toward the direction of the Yin Fire Pillar.

After several hours, the massive and towering fire pillar gradually appeared before him.

The entire area around the fire pillar was bathed in golden-red, illuminating everything with a golden-red hue, as if the surroundings had entirely become a golden world.

Lin Xin, riding on his Escape Light, flashed into the heart of the colossal fire pillar.

His physical Defense attributes had increased to thirty thousand, and his wounds had mostly healed by now. He entered the fire pillar without hesitation, and his Protective Aura directly isolated all the flames on the outside.

The Yin Fire Pillar was divided into many levels. Lin Xin passed through several layers, casually killing more than a dozen Undying Fire Lizards that pounced at him.

He quickly arrived at the area where he had encountered the Black Fire Lion before.

"Roar!!"

A similar Black Fire Lion suddenly sprang out, slamming a claw down from behind Lin Xin.

Boom!

Lin Xin turned and threw a punch, his Damage Attribute now increased by over six thousand points, which was a quarter of his original attributes.

With a one-quarter increase in strength and speed, Lin Xin’s punch with pure power hit the Black Fire Lion’s forepaw.

The Black Fire Lion let out a miserable howl and retreated in midair, landing and wildly shaking its paw, which was covered in sparkling embers, clearly indicating it was injured.

Lin Xin noticed that it was the same Black Fire Lion he had fought before, its head still bearing several wounds from their previous encounter.

No wonder this Black Fire Lion attacked as soon as it arrived, foregoing the usual intimidation and expulsion routines and directly going for a sneak attack. It seems that enemies truly are enraged at the sight of one another.

"Come again!"

Lin Xin smiled, feeling quite relaxed. Compared to the last time, when he barely suppressed the opponent in a fight to the death, this time with the added attributes, he was significantly stronger.

He lunged forward, a palm strike cleaving towards the Black Fire Lion’s head, the tremendous power and speed instantly tearing apart the golden flames of the Yin Fire Pillar and creating a black void that flew toward the Black Fire Lion.

The lion roared defiantly and surged forward with a powerful head butt, aiming its small horn directly at Lin Xin and ramming viciously.

Clang!!

The palm strike hit the horn, and both beast and man shuddered, retreating several steps.

"Not bad, not bad!" Lin Xin laughed out loud and charged again.

The Black Fire Lion, with magma-like blood oozing from its nose and mouth, remained in place shaking its head, seemingly dizzy from the blow.

As Lin Xin pounced toward it, the area around the lion exploded with Polar Region power, turning everything to ash and immediately inhibiting Lin Xin’s speed.

There was still a gap between full mastery of the Polar Region and the Fourth Realm. Lin Xin struggled to break free but to no avail. Although not completely immobilized, his speed was greatly reduced within the Polar Region.

This pounce became extremely slow and was easily avoided by the Black Fire Lion.

"Last time you didn’t manage to suppress me, but this time you succeeded," Lin Xin said without any urgency. It was natural for his Realm to be lower than that of his opponent. He could nullify it by also activating his Polar Region, but he specifically wanted to try dealing with it using only his physical attributes, without using his Realm, to see what the result would be.

This Black Fire Lion, being capable of comprehending the Polar Region—even if it was through bloodline memory inheritance—must be an intelligent creature; otherwise, it couldn’t possibly manipulate changes in the Polar Region.

Thus, it should be able to understand language. If it could be subdued...

"Roar!!"

The Black Fire Lion growled lowly, and this time its speed increased tremendously. In comparison to Lin Xin, who was slow as a snail due to the restriction of the Polar Region, the lion’s speed was unaffected.

Circling Lin Xin a few times, it suddenly lunged, its tail whipping fiercely.

Boom!

Lin Xin, without activating the Polar Region, could barely move within the grey flames based on his own Realm, but his speed was very slow, much like that of an ordinary person.

So, he couldn’t resist this attack at all.

He was violently struck in the back.

Protective Aura appeared, but was instantly shattered by the black tail, followed by his flesh taking the hit.

Bang!

With a muffled sound, the tail was repelled by Lin Xin’s back and, apart from ripping a hole in his clothes, the exposed skin underneath remained completely unharmed.

The Black Fire Lion was momentarily dumbfounded, standing with its tail dangling, not understanding what had happened.

Lin Xin, however, burst into hearty laughter.

"Again."

He felt a tingling sensation on his back, much like being brushed by a light and fluffy rope, hardly noticeable.

Yet, this was the full-force strike of a Fifth Rank Black Fire Lion.

A Defense of thirty thousand combined with an Evasion Attribute of the same level, the resulting effect was truly terrifying.

Boom!

The Black Fire Lion roared in anger, seemingly in disbelief, and its tail lashed out again.

The outcome was the same, unscathed.

It was completely perplexed, looking at its own tail and then at Lin Xin’s back.

Whimpering!

It turned and fled like a wisp of smoke.

"Not bad, not bad!!" Lin Xin laughed loudly, successfully testing the strength of his flesh at this time.