Chapter 58: Protection

Translator: Asuka

Editor: Dhael Ligerkeys

After a full two hours passed, Lu Ye finally stopped. He walked into the shadows, took out the water bag, and quickly cleaned himself up. When he finished putting his clothes back on, he returned to the cliff.

The tiger was already sound asleep, snoring loud enough to shake the Heavens. On the other hand, Yi Yi was still sitting there as though she had been waiting for him.

She felt a little curious when she saw the expression on his face. He seemed to have made a difficult decision at this moment. He had a look on his face that seemed to say he was determined to bravely forge forward regardless of the difficulties in his path. Thus, she couldn’t help tilting her head to the side in confusion…

Meanwhile, he sat down cross-legged with a distressed expression. Pondering over something for a moment, he gave her a quick warning. “Don’t be too bothered if I suddenly fall unconscious.”

“Huh?” She was utterly bewildered.

However, he did not give a further explanation. He closed his eyes and immersed himself into his mind. Then, he once again ‘saw’ the Skill Tree entrenched in his Source Spiritual Point. There were three leaves burning among the leaves of the huge canopy. The fourth leaf was glowing slightly but had not caught on fire yet.

The first burning leaf on his Skill Tree had appeared inside the mines of the Evil Moon Valley. That leaf carried the Spiritual Pattern known as Sharp Edge. If not for the Sharp Edge Spiritual Pattern, he could not have killed the seriously injured Zhou Cheng so easily, pierced through the fair-skinned man’s defensive layer of Spiritual Power, or even inflicted heavy damage on the Snake Demon to obtain victory in the end.

It could be said that this Spiritual Pattern had been of great help to him during several critical moments. Now that two more leaves on the Skill Tree had caught fire, he was both feeling anxious and looking forward to what other kind of Spiritual Pattern he was going to get.

As his concentration slowly focused, he looked at one of the burning leaves. Just like the first time, that small leaf quickly enlarged until it completely filled his vision and his mind in the blink of an eye. A large amount of information came pouring uncontrollably into his mind at the same time. He once again experienced the feeling as though somebody was smashing his head with a sledgehammer.

He had fainted the last time. This time around, he did not lose consciousness even though he felt as though the world was spinning around him and the pain was unbearable. He would rather have fainted. The entire process almost made him wish that he was dead. It was a living Hell. It felt like somebody was tearing his brains apart, forcibly stuffing something he did not understand into his brain, and vigorously mixing them up…

All of a sudden, he jerked his eyes open. A suppressed scream came out of his throat and his eyes became completely bloodshot.

Yi Yi, who had been watching him all this while, jumped in fright. Her shock was so great that even the sleeping tiger woke up with a start. The tiger roared and looked around its surroundings vigilantly, mistakenly thinking that they were being attacked.

A short while later, Lu Ye gradually calmed down. His vision was bloody and his body was drenched in sweat. Yi Yi and the tiger stood beside him in a panic, at a loss for what to do.

His appearance at this moment was extremely ferocious. It was one thing that both his eyes were blood red, but even the veins in his temples were bulging as though he was enduring great torture. He panted heavily for a while before he managed to recover somewhat. Then, he directed his words at the nervous duo, “I’m okay now.”

Afterward, he closed his eyes again. The pain and agony were over. It was time to harvest the fruits of his victory.

Yi Yi and the tiger exchanged a glance with each other. Both of them were clueless about what was going on, but this matter seemed to be related to Lu Ye’s cultivation. It was not her place to ask if he did not want to speak about it. Therefore, she could only wait by the side with the tiger.

At this moment, Lu Ye was investigating the characteristics of the second Spiritual Pattern. Protection! That was the word written on the second Spiritual Pattern. Judging from the name alone, it seemed to be a Spiritual Pattern for defence.

In the past, he had made some conjectures that since the first Spiritual Pattern was offensive-based, the second Spiritual Pattern might be defensive-based. It would seem that his guess had been correct.

He opened his eyes. After a moment of deliberation, a layer of aura that was visible to the naked eye suddenly flashed into existence on the palm of his hand. That aura took on the appearance of a triangular shield. The shield was engraved with complicated and intricate patterns.

“Is that… a Spiritual Pattern?” Yi Yi, who had been observing him in silence, was shocked. Although she had lost many of her memories, she still retained her memories regarding common sense in the Cultivation World. In this regard, she knew much more than Lu Ye. Therefore, she found it absolutely absurd that he could actually use his Spiritual Power to construct a Spiritual Pattern.

It had to be said that low-level cultivators like Lu Ye generally focused only on improving their cultivation. They did not even have the time to study up on Spell Techniques, much less the complicated Spiritual Patterns. Naturally, there were some Spell Techniques that could be regarded as the manifestation of Spiritual Patterns. It could even be said the Spiritual Pattern he was currently operating could be regarded as a defensive Spell Technique.

Spell Techniques and Spiritual Patterns were closely related. They often had similarities between them, but they were not exactly the same. It was hard to explain the nuances in just a few words. Nevertheless, it was hard to believe that a low-level cultivator could construct a Spiritual Pattern.

Yi Yi was becoming more and more certain that Lu Ye was most likely a disciple of a top Sect. Moreover, his status in the Sect was definitely not a lowly one. He might even be the illegitimate son of a Sect Master or something similar. Due to some unavoidable reasons, he had no choice but to leave his Sect and gain experience in the world all on his own…

In just a few short seconds, she had already concocted a story full of grievances and revenge in her head.

On the other hand, Lu Ye ignored her gaze. He was currently trying to gauge the durability of the Protection. Purely from a defensive point of view, the Protection’s defensive abilities completely surpassed his Spiritual Power protection. If he were to compare between the two, there would be a difference of several times in terms of defensive abilities alone. That meant that he would have a better means of defence if he had to deal with any more attacks in the future.

While the defensive abilities might be extraordinary, the consumption rate was nothing to sniff at either. This palm-sized Protection Spiritual Pattern had already used up one of the spiritual power reserves of his Spiritual points. It had an even greater consumption rate than the Sharp Edge.

In other words, he would run out of Spiritual Power if he activated this Spiritual Pattern 20 times in a row. Furthermore, the consumption would increase if the range of the protection was expanded. He was only activating a palm-sized Protection Spiritual Pattern, but that did not mean that the Protection Spiritual Pattern was limited to this size. If he wished, he could control it so that it became bigger than this.

In any case, this was not a bad Spiritual Pattern. He might have something like the Golden Body Talisman Paper, but there would come a day when he ran out of Spirit Talisman Papers. On the contrary, this Protection Spiritual Pattern was something that belonged to him.

Comparing between the two, the Protection Spiritual Pattern could be activated with just a single thought. In contrast, it was much more troublesome to activate a Spirit Talisman Paper. First, a person had to take the Spirit Talisman Paper out of their Storage Bag and pour their Spiritual Power into the Spirit Talisman Paper. During a fierce battle, there was often not enough time for him to take any of those steps.

If he had a Spiritual Pattern like this before he met the fair-skinned man, he could have faced the opponent’s attack head-on and slaughtered the other man without resorting to tricks. This Spiritual Pattern might not have increased his cultivation, but it greatly increased his repertoire of combat skills.

There was one more to go…

Recalling the previous experience, he involuntarily gave a shudder at the thought. He had no plans to investigate the other Spiritual Pattern yet. At the very least, it would not be within the next two days. His mind was currently a mess. If he tried to investigate the Spiritual Pattern in this condition, he might end up losing his life instead. Hence, there was no other choice but to rest for a few more days at home. ????????????ℯ????????????xt.????????????

Taking out a Spirit Restoring Pill, he ate it and then prepared to investigate the other question that had puzzled him all this while. [Why do I not experience any side effects from cultivating through the use of Spirits Pills? Does that have anything to do with the Skill Tree?]

Thus, he continued to quietly perceive the situation and soon ‘glimpsed’ the Skill Tree that was hiding inside his Source Spiritual Point.