Chapter 41: Dark Soul

Chapter 41: Dark Soul

41

Dark Soul

I

Another useless one, Hao Zhen murmured, setting aside the jade slip he was holding. In front of him was a pile of jade slips.

Not too far away from him, Lan Yue sat in front of the pile of pill flasks, currently holding a pill to her eye. Tian Jin sat a little further to the side, in front of the piles of magical artifacts and talismans, currently gazing intensely at the talisman he was holding.

Hao Zhen reached forward with his spiritual power, using it to float another jade slip from the pile into his hand. He then channelled spiritual power into the jade slip, and its contents appeared in his minds eyea pill formula.

Useful, Hao Zhen murmured, cutting off the flow of spiritual power, before storing the jade slip in his spatial ringor rather, his second spatial ring. Du Jian, the inner disciple, and the inner elder each had possessed one spatial ring, so they decided to split them evenly between themselves.

There was also a spatial ring on Protector Nas corpse, but they had decided to leave it alone. Since they were already planning on turning in the corpse, theyd definitely come under suspicion if it didnt have a spatial ring, considering Protector Na had been an eleventh-order redsoul. Moreover, it wasnt as if they needed another spatial ring, in any case.

Hao Zhen picked up another jade slip, and upon visualizing its contents, blurry words and images appeared in his minds eye.

Finallya cultivation method. Instead of moving on to the next jade slip, Hao Zhen spent some time trying to read the words, concentrating on them. Gradually, they started to become clearer.

That wasnt happening fast enough, however. Shaking his head, Hao Zhen stored the jade slip in his new spatial ring, just in case Tian Jin and Lan Yue might be interested in the cultivation method it contained.

Although Hao Zhens affinity with the Drifting Moonlight Method was far from perfect, it was still much better than his affinity with the Blazing Light Method, so he no longer needed Tian Jins help to determine whether a cultivation method was suitable for him or not.

This was already the seventh cultivation method he had found in the pile, and so far, none of them had seemed more compatible with him than the Drifting Moonlight Method. Hao Zhen had also tried the cultivation methods in Protector Nas spatial ring, but he didnt find any of them suitable, either.

Hao Zhen wasnt sure if he had gotten really lucky with the Drifting Moonlight, or if he was being really unlucky right now. He was leaning more towards the latter, considering his compatibility with the Drifting Moonlight Method wasnt even that good. Then again, there was a chance his magical insight was so poor that he couldnt find a method that suited him more than the Drifting Moonlight Method because he already had the highest affinity he could have with it.

Just like there were cultivators who had a high affinity with all cultivation methods, there were also cultivators on the opposite end of the spectrum, who had a low affinity with all cultivation methods. What this boiled down to was magical insighta cultivators natural ability to comprehend magical things, such as cultivation methods and heavenly laws.

Magical insight was what determined a cultivators talent, though depending on what a cultivator wished to specialize in, other aspects were also taken into consideration. To alchemists, artificists, and inscriptists, general insighta cultivators natural ability to learn things as a whole, magical or notwas just as important as magical insight. On the other hand, to cultivators who wanted to specialize in combat, combat aptitude was of utmost importance.

Tian Jin and Lan Yue, as far as he could tell, had extremely high magical and general insight and combat aptitude. On the other hand, Hao Zhen was pretty sure he was lacking in all three areas.

And that meant hed have to do his best to keep up with them.

Without stopping, Hao Zhen floated another jade slip over to his hand.

One by one, he went through the pile in front of him until all the jade slips were either inside his second spatial ring or beside him.

Storing the last jade slip awayit contained a matrix formula, which Tian Jin would check laterHao Zhen frowned. It hadnt been nearly as fruitful a search as he had hoped. Although he had found dozens of pill, matrix, and schema formulas, none of the cultivation methods had resonated with him more than the Drifting Moonlight Method. He didnt find any proof of Du Qings involvement, either.

Sighing, he glanced over at Lan Yue and Tian Jin and saw that they were both almost over with their own piles.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

He hoped they had had better luck than him.

III

Hao Zhen held the sword in his hand, looking it over. It was heavymuch heavier than the swords he had used so far, which had belonged to Ke Libut not enough to stop him from being able to freely swing it around. If anything, the extra weight gave him the feeling that it was more solid, more durablewhich was exactly the case, considering it was a fourth-order red-grade sword, whereas his other ones were all of the first order.

What do you think? Tian Jin asked. If you dont like it, you can take this one, he said, holding up the sword he was holdinganother fourth-order sword.

In the pile of magical weapons, Tian Jin had found two fourth-order swords and a single fifth-order one. As Tian Jin already had the Radiant Light Sword and Hao Zhen was still only a beginner at swordsmanship, the fifth-order one had gone to Lan Yue, whereas Tian Jin and Hao Zhen picked a sword each.

A named eleventh-order red-grade weapon would draw a lot of attention, so Hao Zhen figured itd be better if Tian Jin only used it in emergencies. Tian Jin had agreed with him, so they decided that most of the time, Tian Jin would be using one of the two fourth-order swords instead.

No, I like this one more, Hao Zhen said, shaking his head. He had actually tested the sword Tian Jin was holding first. There wasnt too much of a difference between themthey were both common magical artifacts, after allbut the one currently in Hao Zhens hand was slightly smaller than the one Tian Jin was holding, so he found it easier to use.

If youre sure, Tian Jin said, shrugging, before storing his sword away in his spatial ring. Hao Zhen did the same.

Over the last few minutes, his new spatial ring had become considerably fuller. After Tian Jin had determined what each talisman did, they had split them equally between themselves, before doing the same thing with the magical artifacts. Unfortunately, they hadnt found either a named talisman or a named artifact, but like with the pills, rank and quantity made up for it.

Well, this should be about it, then, Hao Zhen said, looking around. There werent any items left in the caveno jade slips, magical artifacts, talismans, pills, or spiritual stones. They had finished dividing everything up between the three of them. He glanced at the waterfall, taking note of the absence of light passing through it. It should already be dark outside, so should we just rest for today?

The lack of visibility made hunting at night more dangerous, though he didnt think thatd be much of a problem with Lan Yues illuminating jade strip. He just really didnt feel like doing any more hunting or exploration today, after everything that had happened. He was pretty certain that today was the most eventful day he had ever had, taking into consideration both of his lives.

Lan Yue shrugged. I dont mind, she said. Her spatial ring then flashed, and a cushion appeared behind her, on which she promptly sat down. Within moments, she had her eyes closed, her breathing becoming even as she immersed herself in meditation.

Hao Zhen glanced at Tian Jin, expecting the other boy to also be sitting down. Instead, he ended up locking gazes with Tian Jin, whom Hao Zhen now realized had been staring straight at him, his brow furrowed.

Hao Zhen raised an eyebrow, and Tian Jin glanced in Lan Yues direction and subtly shook his head. The other boy then produced a cushion of his own and sat down, before nodding at Hao Zhen, as if telling him to do the same.

Confused, Hao Zhen similarly sat down. Once he was sitting, Tian Jin closed his eyes without another word.

Theres something I thought you should know, Tian Jins voice suddenly rang right beside his ear. Hao Zhen started, glancing at Tian Jins hand, and caught the edge of a sound-transmission token.

Just as Hao Zhen was about to summon his own sound-transmission token to ask Tian Jin what was going on, the other boys lips started moving, and Hao Zhen paused, waiting. The next moment, he heard the sound transmission, You mentioned that you were from another world, so I thought that maybe your soul was different, somehow.

Hao Zhen went still.

And it wasnt clear at first, but Across him, he saw the other boy slightly frowning. Your soul is slightly darker than mine. And Lan Yues. And that of everyone else Ive ever seen. Its still red, but its a shade darker. The same goes for your spiritual power. Its very subtleif I wasnt looking for something different, I wouldnt have noticed it. Tian Jin paused, then continued. I dont know what exactly that means, but Well, I thought it might be important, but wasnt sure if youd want Lan Yue to know too.

With that, Tian Jin stopped speaking, and the sound-transmission token he had been holding disappeared.

My soul is darker? Hao Zhen frowned. But He activated Spiritual Sight, then glanced at his armsat the spiritual aura coating them. He then turned to Tian Jin and Lan Yue and checked both of their spiritual auras, before glancing back at his arm. He repeated this a couple more times, his frown growing deeper and deeper.

It was subtlevery subtlebut Tian Jin was right. His spiritual auraand, by extension, his soulwas indeed darker than theirs.

Hao Zhen wasnt quite sure what to think of that. It didnt seem like Tian Jin knew what to make of it, either. And that wasnt good, considering Tian Jin was pretty much his primary source of knowledge about everything related to cultivation and the magical side of the world.

What Hao Zhen did know was that now, he had yet another thing to look into.