Chapter 134 – National Migration
However, when he was chasing Sun Youcai and met the fire beasts, the devil managed to run away. After Wang Lin came out of the volcano, he used his divine sense to chase after the devil.
After devouring so many mortals, the devil had recovered its cultivation level to the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage and entered the pseudo Core Formation stage. He believed that he was already stronger than Wang Lin, so he attacked.
Wang Lin’s gaze became cold as red lightning surged from his eyes. The devil suddenly let out a scream as the lightning struck him. He quickly stopped his attack and retreated. How could Wang Lin let him get away? He took one step forward and grabbed the air with his hand. The attraction force technique activated and caught the devil.
The devil begged for mercy, but Wang Lin didn’t pay any attention as his Ji Realm Divine sense repeatedly pierced through the devil. His control was very good; he always stopped just before the devil was about to collapse. This cycle continued until smoke came from the devil’s body. His scream became softer and softer until they stopped altogether.
The fear in the devil’s eyes deepened even more. After this incident, he truly begun to fear Wang Lin from the bottom of his heart.
Wang Lin’s cold eyes revealed a ruthless emotion. He stared at the devil and said, “If this happens again, you’re dead!”
The devil trembled in fear as he meekly nodded.
Wang Lin slapped his bag of holding and the piece of metal appeared. The devil didn’t even need Wang Lin’s order, he entered the piece of metal of metal on his own. The piece of metal flashed red a few times before returning to the bag of holding.
Wang Lin looked at the bodies of the people the devil devoured and pondered for a while. His current mentality was night and day compared to how it was back in Zhao. Before, the simple nature of a village boy was still ingrained in Wang Lin’s personality, but after the death of his family, that simple nature had disappeared.
The cultivation world was where the strong ruled. If he couldn’t even protect himself and his family, then what right did he have to show compassion?
Situ Nan had always wanted to him to walk the demonic path, but Wang Lin always refused it. However, after dying once, he had discarded every reason to refuse it.
“So what if I become a demon?” He let out a cold laugh as he waved his hand and jumped into the air.
Wang Lin circled around a volcano in a deserted area of Hou Fen. After selecting a place, he landed and carved out a cave in the mountain with the piece of metal.
After one hour, the cave was completed, and Wang Lin walked into it. He used the rubble to place a few confusion formations before sealing the cave entrance.
After finishing all of that, he sat down on the ground, pulled out the bags of holding he got from the middle aged man and Sun Youcai, and searched through them for a while. He took out three pieces of jade from them.
He placed the first piece of jade on his forehead. After viewing it for a while, he placed it to the side. This one contained a cultivation method from the Evil Demon sect called No Restraint Cultivation Method.
The Evil Demon Sect was one of the demonic sects in Hou Fen and their cultivation method would make one’s skin crawl. This No Restraint Cultivation Method had six level and focused on ruthlessness.
The jade’s instructions were: Kill someone, then refine their heart. As you refine their heart, use this experience to transform your own heart into the heart of a killer and walk down the path of ruthlessness. Immerse yourself in the path of ruthlessness to form a Shura soul to replace your Nascent Soul, then this cultivation method is complete.
There was a strict requirement to cultivating this method at the start and that was to kill one person a day. He guessed that the middle aged man was cultivating this method and that this jade came from his bag of holding.
Wang Lin didn’t have any interest in this cultivation method, but was interested in some of the techniques. Although these demonic techniques were cruel, they were also very practical.
He picked up a second jade. Its contents made him smile. There was only one technique recorded on this jade. It was named Earth Escape Technique.
This Earth Escape Technique was one of the Five Elements Escape Techniques. Speaking of the Five Elements Escape Techniques, they were extremely famous techniques even back in the ancient cultivation world. After the Cultivation Enion appeared, this technique became extremely rare.
But the Five Element Escape Techniques were too famous and thus countless branches appeared from it. Most of these branches used the name, but they really weren’t that much different from any other type of escape techniques.
The jade in Wang Lin’s hand didn’t contain the real Five Element Escape Technique either. It was slightly more refined than the other imitations. However, just that little refinement created a world of difference.
Time slowly passed as he immersed himself in studying the Earth Escape Technique. It wasn’t until the morning of the next day that Wang Lin opened his eyes and revealed a look of understanding. Instead of standing up, he hit the ground with both of his hands. His figure suddenly disappeared and reappeared 30 feet away.
A look of joy appeared on Wang Lin’s face as he couldn’t help but mutter, “This Ma Liang’s body is much stronger than my previous body. Although it is not top grade, it is still middle grade, so it is not hard to learn this Earth Escape Technique. But I will still need to practice for a long period of time to truly master it.”
Wang Lin took out the wooden bucket filled with spirit liquid. He drank it all, then began to cultivate. Half an hour later, all of the fatigue from practicing the Earth Escape Technique was gone.
He casually picked up the third jade and looked through it. This jade contained recordings of Sun Youcai’s daily activities. It seemed Sun Youcai had a habit of keeping a daily log. This jade roughly contained his 30 years of being a cultivator.
It also contained information on his complicated relationships with several women.
Wang Lin skipped over all these things. What interested him was the summary of all of the pills Sun Youcai had taken in the last ten years. The jade contained information about more than ten different types of pills, including the effects they would have on the body, amount of spiritual energy given, and how fast they would raise his cultivation level.
In addition to these, it contained information on seven or eight pills that he really wanted, but could not get his hands on. After that, he looked through the bags of holding for other things.
Besides a few bottles of pills, Sun Youcai didn’t have any magic treasures. If it was before, Wang Lin would have been suspicious, but after reading his logs, he knew that Sun Youcai traded everything he had for pills to increase his cultivation level.
The black-clothed middle-aged man had one thing that caught Wang Lin’s attention. It was a yellow paper with a black symbol on it. The symbol released waves of a powerful aura.
Wang Lin knew what this yellow paper was as he had owned one before. It was made by a Core Formation cultivator and contained one of that cultivator’s attacks at full power.
Wang Lin couldn’t help but sneer as he held the yellow paper. If the middle aged man had been more careful and had taken this out, then he wouldn’t have died. But it was obvious that this was the middle aged man’s ace in the hole. He wouldn’t use it unless it was absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, he met Wang Lin’s Ji Realm. Adding on the fact that he underestimated Wang Lin, he didn’t even have time to take out this treasure.
Compared to this talisman, nothing else in the bag of holding was worth mentioning. After he finished organizing his spoils, he pointed at his brow and the heaven defying bead floated out.
Wang Lin let out a bitter smile as he looked at the bead. The heaven defying bead had already returned to having five leaves on its surface. Wang Lin pondered a little. The heaven defying bead needed to complete all five elements to release its true power. Water and fire were done and wood was half completed. He still needed earth and metal to complete all five elements.
Wang Lin couldn’t wait to see what power this heaven defying bead will have once the five elements are complete. Looking at it now, the only ability it had was access to another space. However, how could a treasure that caused planet Suzaku’s number one expert, Situ Nan, to lose his body be this simple?
Staring at the bead, Wang Lin’s eyes trembled. He put it back into his brow. Next, he shook his bag of holding and a jade flew out. His divine sense entered the jade. This jade contained the refining technique Yang Xiong had copied for him from the War God Shrine.
This whole time, Wang Lin hadn’t found the time to check the jade. Now he could finally study it in peace.
At this moment, the countless volcanoes in Hou Fen emitted black smoke. The smoke became even denser as it spread spiritual energy filled with rage across Hou Fen.
In addition to all of this, the disciples of the various sects noticed the fire beasts at the mouths of the volcanoes. They were all shocked and used various methods to report the information back to their sects.
The four major sects were very used to sealing the volcanos and were very used to the fire beasts. However, only cultivators at the Nascent Soul level knew about them.
At this moment, in the main hall of the War God Shrine, there were four males and two females sitting inside, silently frowning.
One of the old men to the left spoke with with a grim voice, “What does everyone think of this matter?”
“Senior brother Song, I have only seen these fire beasts in some old records. The records only say that they are spirit beasts. The descriptions are overly dramatic, but I believe they shouldn’t be ignored. However, since they are spirit beasts, I believe they can be tamed. If the six of us move, we should be fine. I refuse to believe six Nascent Soul cultivators can’t deal with mere fire beasts.” The person who spoke was a middle aged man. Although his face was gentle and his voice soft, they were filled with pride.
The beautiful woman who met Wang Lin ruthlessly said, “Absurd! Master has met the fire spirit beasts once when they were only at the Core Formation stage. It is a nature fire spirit, so all fire based techniques have no use on them. Only ice-based techniques can hold out for a bit. Don’t even talk about killing or taming them.”
The middle age man didn’t feel embarrassed. He looked at the woman awkwardly and no longer spoke.
“This matter is really simple. The fire spirit beasts have existed for a long time, but they never left the volcanoes. I believe there are some natural restrictions preventing them from leaving. I just need to increase the intensity of the seals. Instead of wasting time here talking, we can be doing that right now. I’ll go ahead.” The person who spoke waved his sleeves, stood up, and walked out. This person was six feet tall and with a forehead that extended three extra inches forward.
Seeing that everyone went silent, the old man named Song said, “Forget it. I hope that the appearance of the fire beasts won’t cause the seals to fail. Let’s do what we normally do and seal the volcanoes we are responsible for.”
The same scene happened at the Lou He Sect, Evil Demon Sect, and Corpse Sect. The results were roughly the same and all of the Nascent Soul cultivators in Hou Fen went about sealing the volcanoes.
Suddenly, the entire county of Hou Fen could see various Nascent Soul cultivators from different sects floating around volcanos, sealing them. The fluctuations of spiritual energy became more violent in these past few days as well.
As they sealed the volcanoes, all of the Nascent Soul cultivators couldn’t help but feel that something was off. Every volcano had countless fire beasts just waiting at their mouths. They didn’t stop the sealing or attacked the cultivators, they just waited with cold gazes.
Their actions gave the feeling that they didn’t even mind the seals at all. Gradually, the hearts of the Nascent Soul cultivators that had joined the sealing became heavier and heavier. Even those that had optimistic views changed their minds.
Wang Lin wasn’t ignorant to all of this while he was immersed in learning how to refine magic treasures. He knew that the fire beasts would appear one day, but he had to wait ten days for Lin Tao to bring him the map. Only at that moment could he leave. It would be too difficult to find a map after entering another country.
There were still four days left before the day Wang Lin was supposed to meet Lin Tao. Wang Lin withdrew his divine sense from the jade. Although he was tired, he revealed a joyous expression. The refining technique was very deep and not something he could master in a short period of time. Once he realized that, he focused his attention on refining flying swords.
After putting away the jade, he waved his hand and the piece of metal immediately flew out of his bag of holding. It circled around his head once before stopping in front of him. After being used so much recently, the piece of metal had shrunk. The edges were all black, which was caused by all of the high speed flying. The edges had melted more and more each time he flew.
Wang Lin pondered for a while, then closed his hands. When he opened them, there were thin lines of spiritual energy between his hands. This was the first step to the War God Shrine’s refining technique.
The refining technique from the War God Shrine was different from the traditional refining techniques. It could be said to walk its own path. It didn’t involve using fire to refine, placing formations, or mixing materials. Instead, it was a very mysterious system that was like a pegasus appearing out of thin air.
This special system required three steps: adjust, fuse, and harmonize. The War God Shrine also required a very important tool called the reaction furnace that was mentioned many times in the jade.
The effect of the reaction furnace was to stimulate the various elements of each material. Only after successfully creating a reaction furnace could one be considered to have taken the first step in this refining technique.
Both of Wang Lin’s hands moved very quickly as the amount of spiritual energy threads between his hands increased. Soon, he formed something like a sheet of cloth made of shining spiritual energy between his hands.
Once this thin cloth of spiritual energy was made, he waved his hands and it floated into the air. Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as he recalled the methods of making the reaction furnace. There was one very difficult requirement and that was the skull of a spirit beast to use as the body of the furnace.
Wang Lin didn’t know that just this requirement caused many disciples in the War God Shrine to be stuck forever.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and slapped his bag of holding. The corpse of a snake with a head and body that were as thick as a small wooden bucket floated out.
This snake came from the bag of holding he got from Xu Hao in the foreign battleground. Wang Lin wasn’t sure where he had gotten it and he didn’t really care. But now that he needed to make the reaction furnace, he took it out to try.
According to his analysis, this snake was once the pet of some powerful cultivator. Xu Hao got lucky and found its body while cleaning up the foreign battleground.
He carefully cut the snake’s head off and got rid of all of the skin and meat. What appeared before him was a oval skull. After removing the insides, the body of a reaction furnace was complete.
Next, Wang Lin carefully controlled the layer of spiritual energy and delicately placed it over the skull. He only heard a snap as cracks appeared on the skull. The cracks increased until the skull broke into pieces.
At this moment, the layer of spiritual energy began to slowly dissipate until it completely disappeared.
The production of the reaction furnace failed.
Wang Lin let out a bitter smile. Although he was disappointed, he was still somewhat prepared for this result. The jade said that the chance of creating the furnace was low. He would need to gain better control over the strands of spiritual energy, but the most important part was still the material for the furnace’s body.
It would be best if he could get the skull of a beast that had just died or the skull of a powerful beast. A desolate beast would be even better. If the beast had been dead for a long time, the chance of succeeding was very slow. If it was not a spirit beast, then the success rate was basically zero.
The quality of the reaction furnace will affect his refining capability in the future. The jade repeated this many times.
Wang Lin pondered a bit after the production of the reaction furnace failed. As for spirit beasts, he only had the one snake in his bag. Now that the snake’s skull had shattered and there was no way to make a reaction furnace, Wang Lin could only take a step back and look for another way to refine treasures.
He pointed at the piece of metal and it immediately began to spin rapidly. Soon, drops of liquid metal fell from the piece of metal as it shrank. Finally, the piece of metal turned into a puddle of liquid metal. The devil had already left the metal and looked at Wang Lin sheepishly from the side.
The image of the little cyan sword flew out and floated around Wang Lin. He then took out the black sword that belonged to Sun Youcai’s senior apprentice brother. This made it easy for Wang Lin.
Wang Lin pointed at the image of the little sword. It flew into the black sword and slowly fused with it. This method was the most direct and the worst type of refining. It really couldn’t even be considered refining, more like finding a new body for your flying sword, much like how cultivators possess bodies.
Wang Lin frowned as he tested the flying sword. The sword was much faster than the piece of metal, but still far from what it was back in Zhao. However, this was the best result he could get for now.
The devil didn’t wait for Wang Lin’s order and obediently entered the flying sword. Wang Lin put away the flying sword. He did some calculations to figure out the time for a bit, then took a break to cultivate. After recovering his spiritual energy, he took a step without any hesitation and disappeared.
Wang Lin didn’t know that during the few days he had been in closed door training, some earth-shattering changes had occurred in Hou Fen.
The source of this change was a volcano a Nascent Soul cultivator from the Lou He Sect was sealing off. One of the volcanoes he had sealed suddenly erupted, spewing lava hundreds of feet into the air.
At the same time, large amounts of black smoke filled the sky. This wasn’t much, but what caused the Nascent Soul cultivator’s scalp to go numb were the countless fire beasts that charged out with the lava.
Among these spirit beasts, there was one that was especially large. After the Nascent Soul cultivator fought the giant fire beasts, he found that he was no match and escaped with injuries.
Luckily, the fire beast didn’t chase him. It went to destroy the seals on the other volcanoes instead. Suddenly, many volcanoes across Hou Fen erupted, filling the air with violent spiritual energy. If anyone were to cultivate that spiritual energy right now, if they were lucky, they would just go mad, but if they were not, they would burn themselves to death.
The moment this happened, the entire country of Hou Fen went into chaos. The first to be affected were the mortals as they couldn’t defend against the fire beasts at all. All of the mortals were moving out of the country.
Second were the various small and medium sects and families. They all looked toward the four main sects to see if they were fighting or running.
The Nascent Soul cultivators of the four sects met at the War God Shrine. After reporting the news to the upper cultivation country, they gave out the order to migrate.
After all, there was a chance that the rank 4 cultivation country would show up at any time. Even if they were to win, their losses would be heavy and they were likely to drop back down to rank 2.
Bordering Hou Fen was the country of Xuan Wu. Compared to Hou Fen, Xuan Wu was much messier as there were a lot more sects there.
When Wang Lin exited the cave, it was just as the four main sects were migrating. A migration of sects sounded simple, but because such a thing rarely happened, it was anything but. Because of the fire beasts’ constant attacks, the sects had to keep sending out disciples to hold them off.
As a result, once the four main sects finally grouped together, adding on the various other families, they formed a group of 20,000 plus cultivators. At this point, not only had all of the fire beasts broken open the seals on all of the volcanoes, they also formed a 100,000 fire beast army, which was closing in.
After several large battles, the cultivators broke out of the encirclement. They left behind a group to hold off the fire beasts as everyone else closed in on Xuan Wu.
The moment Wang Lin left the cave, his pupils shrank as he saw seven or eight cultivators get jumped on by fire beasts and instantly die.