Chapter 105: A Thorny Black Ball?

Chapter 105: A Thorny Black Ball?

Hearing Jiang Yuebai's question made Chu Liang laugh.

He felt like a well-behaved child who had suddenly earned a huge sum of money one day. Yet, when he brought it home, his parents' first reaction wasn't delight.

Instead, they asked him, "You didn't break the law, did you?"

Jiang Yuebai's concern wasn't ungrounded though.

There had indeed been such a precedent in the past. A disciple of the proper cultivation path had seized diabolical cultivation techniques from a diabolical cultivator and then secretly used them to cultivate. Cultivators advanced much faster with diabolical cultivation techniques than with those of the righteous path, so that disciple went on to gain prominence in the sect as a very talented disciple.

Unfortunately, the use of diabolical cultivation techniques was accompanied by a high level of risk. That disciple later went berserk when they lost focus during cultivation, causing a significant number of casualties within the sect.

If Chu Liang were truly such a brilliant genius, then why had there been no sign of his brilliance all these years? His rapid advancement in cultivation had only been a recent development. It just didn't make sense.

"Senior Sister, you can rest assured that I am full of righteous qi," Chu Liang said with a smile. It didn't take him long to figure out what Jiang Yuebai was thinking. "I didn't have anyone to guide my cultivation when I was younger, so perhaps that's why my progress was a bit slow. Now, I'm working hard to catch up. I absolutely won't take the wrong path."

Upon hearing Chu Liang's explanation, Jiang Yuebai finally felt at ease.

She thought that what Chu Liang said made sense. It was true that such a peerless genius couldn't have been overlooked, but Chu Liang's teacher was Di Nufeng, who wasn't exactly a normal teacher... That could explain even the most absurd things about Chu Liang's cultivation.

In any case, Chu Liang couldn't tell Jiang Yuebai the true reason behind his rapid advancement in cultivation...

You think I'm advancing too quickly? That's because you didn't see the Large-Headed Doll in my White Pagoda working so hard that it's emitting smoke!

As for his mediocre performance during all his years in the sect, Chu Liang could only let his teacher take the blame for that.

The sky was getting dark; evening was approaching. The pair parted ways.

...

When Chu Liang returned to his cabin, he took out the spirit beast egg again and poured his foundational qi into it to incubate it. Meanwhile, he proceeded to organize all the items currently in his possession.

Recently, Chu Liang had taken many things from his defeated opponents, and he'd also received rewards from the White Pagoda. Consequently, the number of enchanted tools and treasures he now possessed far exceeded that of his peers, and he felt that his inventory had become rather messy.

The first ones he reassessed were his offensive enchanted tools: the Demon-Revealing Brick, Demon-Binding Rope, Crimson Executioner, and Razor Leaf. They were the enchanted tools he was more dependent on in battles and thus used them the most often.

The strongest among them was, of course, the Crimson Executioner. However, its activation conditions were quite tough to fulfill, so it couldn't be used all the time.

Chu Liang's personal favorite was actually the Demon-Revealing Brick. The feeling of striking someone with a brick felt way more satisfying than doing it with a flying sword, but he didn't always have the opportunity to use this brick either.

As for the Demon-Binding Rope, Chu Liang had been feeling lately that the rope was rather weak. The rope was quite a powerful tool for restraining a target, but it was only effective against those with lower cultivation levels. It was useless against stronger opponents.

This was a common issue for cultivators. Enchanted tools couldn't be constantly improved to keep up with the speed of a cultivator's advancement in cultivation. This meant a cultivator could not continually use every enchanted tool they possessed.

Cultivators would eventually remove some enchanted tools from their inventory. They usually gave those enchanted tools to junior disciples or sold the enchanted tools to acquire other items.

After reassessing his enchanted tools, Chu Liang realized that his only constantly usable offensive enchanted tool was surprisingly the Razor Leaf. However, it was also constantly inaccurate.

There seems to be something that's not quite right...

It appeared that Chu Liang was rather lacking in offensive enchanted tools.

Next in his inventory was the Hundred-Flower Antidote, Honey Syrup Tea, and Essence-Concealing Pills... These were single-use consumables.

Chu Liang looked under the tree in which the Razor Leaf was embedded and found something black that had been split in half. The thing was the size of an adult human's head and had the shape of a ball and sharp thorns all over.

Despite having been split open, it appeared to contain nothing inside. There was no flesh or blood, but there was residual yin qi[1] in the air.

This thing... Why does it seem a little like a combined yin-yang constitution?

The thing in question had a physical body, but it seemed to have a soul made of yin qi.

If it were simply a ghost, it definitely wouldn't have been able to appear in the world of the living during the day. A ghost wouldn't feel comfortable appearing even in this dense forest where the sunlight was largely blocked out by the trees. However, this ghost had a physical body, so it could move about freely.

This ghost was very similar to lantern monsters. They were both lonely wandering ghosts that had lost their rationality and attached themselves to objects in the world of the living. Nevertheless, this thorny black ball seemed a bit stronger than the weak lantern monster.

Chu Liang wondered where the ghost had come from. The whole situation was rather unexpected. He had been very careful in avoiding places with traces of people, yet he still managed to accidentally kill something. Fortunately, it was just a ghost, so he could think of it as having helped a wandering soul find peace.

While he was pondering about the ghost, Chu Liang heard a buzzing sound and felt the yin qi around him gradually become more intense. A group of thorny black balls had gathered and encircled him...

Oh. Was this thing part of a group consciousness?

That was quite rare among ghosts. Wandering souls like these had a low level of rationality and were usually unable to cross over to the other side due to their negative emotions, such as unacceptance, anger, resentment, and the like. So, they lingered on in the mortal world with an extremely cold and emotionless disposition. Naturally, that meant they wouldn't have companions they cared about either.

Yet, it appeared that these thorny black balls had come as a group to seek revenge against Chu Liang because he'd killed one of their companions. He could tell from just looking that if one of those thorny black balls were to hit him, it would surely be very painful.

Chu Liang swiftly retreated, but the group of thorny black balls chased after him. With a swing of his hand, Chu Liang threw the Razor Leaf at the thorny ball closest to him.

Whoosh.

The thorny ball at the rear of the group and the furthest away from Chu Liang was sliced in half, and it fell to the ground.

Chu Liang raised his finger and summoned the enchanted tool back to him. He shook his head helplessly.

This saber technique is truly determined by fate.

Then Chu Liang made a hand seal, activating his Flying-Sword Bracelet. In an instant, a dense troop of a hundred swordlights rose from the forest.

Hundred Swords Seal!

Upon seeing a hundred swords soar into the sky, those thorny black balls that apparently had eyes somewhere on their bodies collectively paused. Then they turned around like a singular entity with one thought in mind.

Run!

No, to be precise, they didn't even need to turn around; they didn't have a front or back. So, they just changed from chasing in the forward direction to fleeing in the backward direction.

Chu Liang pointed at the thorny balls up ahead.

Go!

The troop of swordlights whizzed down toward their targets.

The thorny black balls fled. Chu Liang pursued.

It was impossible for the thorny black balls to escape!

1. Yin is often associated with concepts related to death, as it symbolizes darkness, stillness, and the passive or receptive aspects of life. ☜