Chapter 208 – Final Destination of the Ji realm

Wang Lin frowned. His gaze fell on the giant turtle under the old man for a bit. The aura this giant turtle gave off was very similar to the giant dragon in the land of the ancient god.

Most importantly, this giant turtle looked exactly the same as a giant turtle in the ancient god’s memory.

“Xuanwu!!” Qiu Siping’s eyes suddenly opened wide as his pupils shrunk and his face suddenly changed color. He formed many different seals with his hand and sent them into the statue at the front.

Suddenly, the entire boat started to turn so it could go around the old man.

“Xuanwu…” Wang Lin stared at the turtle for a while and pondered. In the memories, there was no Xuanwu, but a creature called Ti Shou.

This beast mainly ate spiritual energy. Its attack was a roar that, when heard by a normal cultivator, their spiritual energy will go out of control, causing their body to collapse and become the beast’s food.

The old man that had been cursing took out a big dirty gourd. After drinking a big gulp, he started to curse again. He didn’t even look at the boat Wang Lin and Qiu Siping were on.

Sweat appeared on Qiu Siping’s forehead. He carefully controlled the boat to slowly go around the old man. Only after flying far away from the old man did he finally let out a breath and turn to Wang Lin. He said, “Since that person can use a Xuanwu as a mount, his cultivation must be at an unimaginable level. It seems this change to the Sea of Devils has caused a lot of powerful old timers to come out. Fortunately, he didn’t bother with us, or we would be out of luck.”

Wang Lin looked at Qiu Siping and said, with a dark expression, “That might not be so.”

Qiu Siping was stunned. Wang Lin pointed with his right hand. Qiu Siping turned to that direction and saw the scene from before.

The old man was standing on top of the giant turtle, cursing loudly.

Qiu Siping pondered a while and said one word, “Formation?”

Wang Lin didn’t bother with Qiu Siping. He walked up to the head of the boat and looked around. When the boat turned earlier, he felt there was something strange, like a fluctuation of power coming from the legs of the turtle.

After pondering for a while, Wang Lin said, “This is not a formation, but some kind of restriction!”

Qiu Siping slightly frowned. He looked around and bitterly said, “With just our cultivation, it can’t incentivize this senior to place this restriction just for us right?”

Wang Lin didn’t speak, but kept his divine sense scanning the area. This old man wouldn’t just stop them for no reason. It seemed there might be some trouble ahead.

The old man seemed to be tired of cursing. He took another big gulp from the gourde and sat down. His gaze fell on the boat Qiu Siping and Wang Lin were on.

This old man grabbed with this right hand and the boat suddenly flew toward him. Soon, the boat was only 10 feet away from him.

Qiu Siping quickly put on a respectful face and said, “Junior Qiu Siping greets senior.”

The old man blinked and said, “You know me?”

Qiu Siping was stunned and quickly said, “Senior…”

“I don’t know you, so how would you know me? If you don’t know me, then why do you call me senior? Am I that old? Fine. Let me tell you about the things that happened when I was three. After I have finished telling you about all the things that happened in these past few thousand years, then you can say you know me. When I was three…” The moment the old man started talking, he went on endlessly, causing Qiu Siping to be completely stunned and unable to say a word.

After a long time, the old man finally stopped talking and drank another gulp of wine from the gourd. The gourd was now empty and the old man’s mouth twitched and muttered, “If I knew I was going to talk so much today, I would have brought more wine with me. Now that there is no more left, the two of you come with me to get more wine and I’ll tell you about my experiences of when I was 75 on the way.”

Qiu Siping’s face twitched. He quickly took out wine from his bag of holding and said, “Sen… er…junior has wine, so there is no need to go buy more.”

The old man’s face lit up and he moved his hand. The wine in Qiu Siping’s hand immediately disappeared.

Wang Lin was silent the whole time. He couldn’t see through the old man’s cultivation at all, and since he was not good with conversations, it was perfect to leave it all to Qiu Siping.

Also, Wang Lin had been thinking about why this person had stopped them. He felt that the reason was either the divine retribution or the killing spree he went on. Of course, there was also a chance that the person this old man was here for was Qiu Siping, but as the old man talked, Wang Lin had a feeling that the person this old man was here for was not Qiu Siping, but Wang Lin himself.

The old man opened the bottle. He sniffed the wine, then said, “Fine wine made from Can Yun fruit. Not bad. Little guy, you suit this old man. How about it, want to be my disciple?”

Wang Lin’s mind began to race. This old man wouldn’t say this for no reason. There must be some hidden meaning behind it.

Qiu Siping was completely stunned this time. If this person was long winded before, he seemed completely insane now. Who accepts disciples like this?

Qiu Siping suddenly felt like someone had a hold on his throat and couldn’t say a word. After a while, he bitterly smiled and said, “Senior, I…”

The old man’s eyes turned and said, “What? Not happy? Then do you, yes you, want to be my disciple?” The old man turned to Wang Lin and faintly smiled.

Wang Lin’s expression was calm. He already knew that the old man would bring the subject to him and respectfully said, “Junior already has a sect.”

“What sect?” The old man’s face was still full of smiles, but from Wang Lin’s view, he could already see a hint of coldness in the old man’s eyes. He immediately confirmed his guess that the target of this old man was himself.

Wang Lin’s expression remained the same and he respectfully answered, “Country of Zhao, Heng Yue Sect.”

The old man thoughtfully looked at Wang Lin and his smile became even colder. He said, “In three days, you killed thousands of Core Formation cultivators. You are very daring!”

The moment those words came out, Qiu Siping’s face suddenly paled. He took a few steps back and looked at Wang Lin with a look of disbelief.

Wang Lin’s expression remained calm, but his heart skipped a beat and numerous ideas flashed through his head. After thinking about all the things the old man had said, and the tone he said them in, Wang Lin took a deep breath. He became more respectful and said, “Junior is willing to take you as his teacher.”

The old man was stunned. After staring at Wang Ling for a long time, little by little, the coldness in his eyes disappeared. Then, he let out a laugh and waved his hand. A restriction landed on Wang Lin’s forehead, then he said, “Good! You are really smart! This old man will take you as his disciple. Come with me, then.”

After the restriction landed on Wang Lin’s body, it immediately turned into a giant lotus, using Wang Lin’s channels as roots, his blood vessel as branches, and his blood as nutrients.

Wang Lin’s expression didn’t change at all and he said, “Disciple already has plans with Qiu Siping, to help him with something, so I would like teacher to give me a few days.”

The old man’s gaze fell on Qiu Siping. Qiu Siping struggled a bit. He clenched his teeth and said, “Senior, this is true. I would like to ask senior to accommodate.”

The old man rolled his eyes and said, “I’ll give you one month. After one month, go to the treasure refining pavilion in any city and tell them my name, Sun Dian, and I will know.”

With that, the old man looked at Wang Lin and let out a laugh. He tapped the turtle with his feet and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Qiu Siping pondered for a while. He gave Wang Lin a frightful look. He didn’t ask anything about the old man, but said, with a heavy tone, “Brother Wang, I’ll increase the speed of the boat so we can arrive in two days. I’ll leave the matter of the restrictions in the cave to brother Wang.”

Wang Lin nodded his head. He quickly sat down on the stern of the boat and pointed his finger at his brow. The devil Xu Ligou and the second devil came out and floated around him.

At the same time, he slapped his bag of holding and the restriction flag came out. This time, under his control, the restriction flag surrounded his body.

Shortly after, a cold voice came out from the black mist. “Fellow cultivator Qiu, I’m going to go into close door cultivation for two days, so please don’t disturb me.”

Qiu Siping immediately agreed. After looking at the black mist, he turned around and focused his attention on controlling the boat to make it go faster.

After two days, the boat arrived at the a desolate mountain. He turned around and looked at Wang Lin. After pondering a while, he sat down and waited for Wang Lin, rather than bothering him.

After a few hours, the restriction flag around Wang Lin started to move. It soon shrunk down back to the size of a small flag and was put away.

Wang Lin’s face was somewhat pale. The lotus restriction placed on him by the old man wasn’t that strict, so he had already cracked part of it, however, to completely remove it, he needed more time.

But in these two days, Wang Lin came to a complete understanding of this restriction. This restriction acted as a tracker and, from Wang Lin’s understanding, the range was extremely large.

After Qiu Siping saw Wang Lin come out of the black mist, he stood up and said, “Brother Wang, below us is where the cave is located.

Wang Lin nodded and looked down. He suddenly left the boat and floated in the air.

Qiu Siping formed a seal with his right hand and used a technique on the boat. The boat shrunk down to the size of his palm and he put it away.

After doing that, he quickly went down. After looking around, he landed on some stone steps. He placed his right hand on a black rock and spit out a mouthful of golden core energy onto it. The black rock started to shine.

Qiu Siping waved his hand and the rock floated into the air, then his hand formed many seals and the black rock floated toward the mountain while shining.

As the black rock floated toward the mountain, waves of ripples appeared on the mountainside and started to spread.

From within the water ripples, a half circle hole appeared in the mountain.

Qiu Siping took a deep breath and looked toward Wang Lin.

Wang Lin pondered a little. His divine eye lit up. After staring at the water ripple for a while, he formed three illusionary circles and sent them toward the water ripple.

The moment the circle landed, the water ripple started to shake. Bumps appeared on the mountain. These bumps sometimes enlarged and sometimes shrunk. They were very strange.

Wang Lin didn’t even bat an eye. His hand moved, creating one illusionary circle after the other.

Just then, one of the bumps in the water ripple suddenly broke. Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he sent one of the illusionary circles to the location where the bump burst.

But afterward, more bumps burst. Wang Lin quickly sent out the illusionary circles one by one and they all landed on where the bumps had burst.

As time passed, more and more bumps burst. Wang Lin gradually became unable to keep up with the speed the bumps were bursting. Qiu Siping had always been nervous, and after seeing that Wang Lin couldn’t keep up anymore, he couldn’t help but be worried. He slapped his bag of holding and ten black rocks came out.

Shortly after, both of his hands worked on the block rocks. Soon, he sent one of the black rocks toward one of the bumps that had burst and Wang Lin was too late to send an illusionary circle to.

He revealed an aching look as he sent out the black rock, but soon became serious. His hand constantly moved. Whenever there was a time Wang Lin couldn’t keep up, he filled the gap with the black rocks.

After Wang Lin saw this, his eyes lit up. He purposely slowed down a bit, forcing Qiu Siping to use the black rocks to fill in the gaps.

Eventually, all ten black rocks were used and Wang Lin’s hand suddenly sped up and sent out dozens of illusionary circles. A boom appeared from the water ripples and it split in half, creating an opening to the entrance.

Qiu Siping’s expression became excited and he charged into the opening. Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he followed behind.

The hole wasn’t big. Inside the cave were four stone doors. After Wang Lin entered, he saw Qiu Siping in front of one of the stone doors with a look of horror on his face.

Wang Lin ignored Qiu Siping and looked at the stone doors. After examining them, he found that there were restrictions placed on all four doors. His gaze landed on a door to the left and found that the restrictions on that door were the easiest to break.

He pondered for a while. His hand started to move, formed an illusionary circle, and he threw it at the door.

Suddenly, the stone door began to quiver and slowly opened up. Wang Lin looked inside the room and his eyes suddenly widened.

The stone room was completely empty, with only a circular array in the middle. This array looked very old, but upon closer inspection, Wang Lin found that the material used to create this array was still in good condition.

And Wang Lin was immediately able to see through what this array was as well. This was an array that could instantly transfer people millions of kilometers!

Qiu Siping turned his head and looked at the array. He blandly said, “This is an ancient transfer array. When my teacher found this cave, he also found the transfer array. Although the transfer array is kept in top condition because it is in a cave, to activate it requires top quality spirit stone. I have never heard of anyone having top quality spirit stone in the Sea of Devils, so I have never opened up this transfer array.”

Wang Lin didn’t speak, but he secretly became very excited. It had to be said that after leaving the land of the ancient god, one of his main goals was to find an ancient transfer array, but he couldn’t find much in Qilin city.

His original plan was to find information on ancient transfer arrays and find an ancient transfer array himself and fix it. But with this transfer array in front of him, he wouldn’t need to do any of that.

The only pity was that he didn’t know where this transfer array lead to.

Qiu Siping pointed at one of the rooms and said, “This stone room to the left is a storage room that used to contain many books, but I have already taken them all.” With that, he formed a few seals with his hand and set it on one of the stone doors.

Suddenly, the stone door opened up, revealing an empty room.

“This room contained the remains of the ancient cultivator, but it is no longer there. My teacher refined the remains into pills.” With that, he once again opened another door and it was empty as well.

Qiu Siping glanced at Wang Lin and slowly said, “My teacher and senior brother are in the room to the right. Once the room is open, we will take one Nascent Soul for each of us. My teacher’s Nascent Soul will belong to you and I’ll take my senior brother’s. Brother Wang, I know we had some misunderstandings when we first met, but I believe that, during our trip here, those misunderstandings have been resolved.”

Wang Lin calmly said, “If your conclusion is wrong and both Nascent Souls aren’t in Gui Xi, then what?”

Qiu Siping shook his head and said, “Brother Wang, you can rest assured that both of them are in Gui Xi, but I have prepared something, just in case.” With that, he took a deep breath and took out a purple incense stick. He lit the stick up and a burst of sandalwood fragrance filled the room.

“Heart Confusing Fragrance?” Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he immediately realized what it was. This Heart Confusing Fragrance was a material for making pills. If combined with other drugs, it could calm the heart and help resist outside devils. But if used alone, especially if used on someone who was being invaded by a devil, then their injuries would increase and the devil would be receiving outside help.

Qiu Siping nodded and calmly said, “Yes, Brother Wang can rest assured now. However, this restriction is dangerous, so Brother Wang should be careful.” With that, he took a few steps back, making room for Wang Lin.

Wang Lin stared at the door for a while, then he moved his right hand and sent an illusionary circle toward it. However, the moment the illusionary circle fell on the door, a beast head appeared on it. It roared and tried to swallow Wang Lin.

Wang Lin’s expression remained the same. He slapped his bag of holding and the restriction flag appeared. He growled, “Devour!” and a giant hand came out of the flag and dragged the beast into the flag.

Shortly after, Wang Lin’s hand kept moving and illusionary circles appeared one after another and landed on the door. As each circle landed, another beast head would appear. Slowly, the number of beast heads increased, but the restriction showed no signs of being broken.

Qiu Siping slightly frowned. He pondered for a while, then took out four more black rocks. He looked at them with a painful look. After caressing them a bit with his hand, he sent them out in four directions and they landed on the stone door.

Qiu Siping shouted, “Brother Wang, I can only suppress the beast heads for 10 breaths! Quick!”

Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. He held the restriction flag in his hand and waved it. Immediately, the hundreds and thousands of restrictions on the restriction flag came out and slammed toward the stone door.

Wang Lin wasn’t confident that he could break the restriction on this stone door in a short amount of time, so he decided to use the second method, which was to open it by force.

Thousands of restrictions landed on the door and countless beast heads struggled to come out, but the 4 black stones on the door released a gentle light that prevented the beast heads from coming out.

The moment the restrictions hit the door, a series of tremors suddenly started causing dirt and dust to fall from the cave ceiling. It felt like the whole cave was going to collapse.

The moment the door was opened by the restriction flag, two dim, yellow lights flew out from the room and tried to escape from the cave.

But just at that moment, the two yellow lights started to slow down and began to wobble. The lights became even more dim, as if they were about to dissipate.

This was the Heart Confusing Fragrance coming into effect.

Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. The moment the two dim, yellow lights came out, he saw that within the yellow lights were two Nascent Souls that were almost transparent.

From how their color was fading, they looked like they were about to collapse at any time, and, with the help of the Heart Confusing Fragrance, they had reached their limit.

Wang Lin and Qiu Siping moved almost at the same time. Wang Lin moved a bit faster and grabbed hold of the elder Nascent Soul. Without a word, Wang Lin charged out of the cave.

The moment Wang Lin charged out of the cave, the cave started to collapse and a series of tremors occurred. Qiu Siping also quickly left the cave. After he came out, he clasped his hands toward Wang Lin and quickly left, as if he was afraid that Wang Lin would act against him.

Wang Lin held the Nascent Soul. He touched his forehead and the devil Xu Liguo came out. The moment Xu Ligo saw the Nascent Soul, his face filled with greed.

Wang Lin snorted. Xu Liguo suddenly trembled and revealed a look of fear. He obediently took the Nascent Soul and returned to Wang Lin’s consciousness.

After that, Wang Lin looked at the collapsed cave and then looked at the direction Qiu Siping left. He blinked a few times as he pondered. Eventually, he gave up on the idea of chasing after Qiu Siping and killing him, because, after all, his soul could only hold one Nascent Soul of power at the moment. If he were to add another one onto that, then there was a chance of him losing control and getting possessed by a devil too.

Wang Lin’s eyes flashed. He was very excited. After devouring this Nascent Soul, he should be able to break into the nascent realm. He calmed himself down and quickly left.

After traveling for one day, Wang Lin stopped in the middle of a desert. He purposely traveled a very desolate flight path. He looked around and knew that, within a 10,000 kilometer radius, there were very few people and beasts. He stomped his feet and his body immediately sunk into the ground.

He stopped after reaching a depth of 2000 feet. He then created a cave and sat down cross legged. He pointed his finger at his brow and the devil Xu Ligou came out.

Wang Lin looked at Xu Ligou, Xu Ligou obediently took out the Nascent Soul that was about to collapse and then stood to the side, staring at the Nascent Soul.

Wang Lin didn’t even look at Xu Ligou. He closed his eyes for a few breaths, then reopened them with a determined look. He opened his mouth and swallowed the Nascent Soul.

The moment the Nascent Soul entered his body, the ancient god tactic immediately went to work like a great millstone. As the Nascent Soul dissolved, it released large amounts of energy that filled Wang Lin’s body.

Wang Lin immediately stopped the ancient god tactic to prevent it from using all this power on refining his body. As a result, under his control, this powerful spiritual energy moved through his body and toward his core.

His core suddenly expanded and its color darkened. Its size continued to expand, until cracks appeared on its surface.

A sign of Nascent Soul slowly appeared in his body.

But!

Just at that moment, the Ji Realm in his consciousness activated without his control. It quickly left his consciousness and traveled through his body toward his core.

Wang Lin fiercely opened his eyes. No matter how much he tried to control his Ji Realm, he couldn’t gain control over it. The moment his Ji Realm landed on his core, it exploded.

After the explosion happened inside Wang Lin’s body, the spiritual energy released by the explosion of his core collided with the spiritual energy from the Nascent Soul he devoured.

The impact of the two spiritual energies sent all that energy out of Wang Lin’s channels as they swept across his body.

Wang Lin’s body was thrown around by the explosion in his body. He coughed out several mouthfuls of blood and his face immediately paled.

He struggled to sit up. Wang Lin’s eyes were dull and he was silent. After a long time, some light came back to his eyes and he closed them. After checking his body, he let out a crazed laugh. After crazily laughing for a long time, no matter how one listened to it, there was a hint of grief.

Wang Lin’s eyes were bloodshot as he muttered, “Ji Realm Soul… Ji Realm Soul… Ji Realm Soul…”

The core inside his body didn’t completely explode, but shrunk to the size of a thumb nail.

Wang Lin had already expected the Ji Realm to prevent him from reaching Nascent Soul. Although he wasn’t sure before, he had just confirmed that the greatest barrier to reach Nascent Soul was his Ji Realm.

Wang Lin’s success was due to his Ji Realm and his downfall was also due to his Ji Realm, but what Wang Lin really wanted to know was why this happened. Why his Ji Realm would go out of control and attack his core when he was trying to reach Nascent Soul.

He bitterly took a deep breath and started to cultivate to recover his body.

After three days, Wang Lin opened both of his eyes. After leaving the cave, he quickly moved to find a town.

After half a month, Wang Lin had been to almost every city in the area, but, of course, he didn’t go to any of the Treasure Refining Pavilions.

Within these cities, he didn’t even find any trace of information about Ji Realm.

In his confusion, he suddenly remembered Qiu Siping’s cave. Inside the cave were many books, even books that were recorded on bamboo, displaying how old they were. They would break with any fluctuation of spiritual energy, so they couldn’t be stored in a piece of jade.

Thinking about this, Wang Lin quickly moved toward Qiu Siping’s cave.

After five days, Wang Lin arrived. He didn’t care if Qiu Siping was there. If he were to try to stop him, then Wang Lin would kill him without any hesitation.

Although Qiu Siping received a Nascent Soul, forming a Nascent Soul takes more than half a month, so Wang Lin wasn’t worried about the current Qiu Siping.

Wang Lin sank into the ground and found the cave. As for the restrictions on the cave, they were no problem for Wang Lin. After breaking through them all, he entered.

Wang Lin scanned the cave with his divine sense and found that Qiu Siping was not inside. He walked toward the room with all the books. As for the restriction on the room, it only took Wang Lin three hours to break through it and enter.

After entering, Wang Lin took a deep breath and calmed his heart before starting to search through the books.

Among these bamboo books was mostly information about restrictions. After scanning them, Wang Lin put them away, as none of them even contained the words Ji Realm.

Wang Lin’s heart became heavy and he continued to look. Suddenly, his gaze fell onto a piece of bamboo. This bamboo looked extremely old and even showed some signs of damage.

After picking it up, Wang Lin opened it up and his body trembled. He took it to a table and slowly opened it up.

Most of what was on the bamboo was about restrictions, but, on the back, a row of small words was carved.

“In the cultivation world, there can be a change in spiritual power that will result in something that could be called the Ji Realm. I have studied the Ji Realm for many years and I have left my research for the future generations.”

“This mysterious force known as Ji Realm, from my view, should be a divine technique! Only a divine technique would have the power to instantly kill a cultivator of the same realm!”

“The final evolution of the Ji Realm is believed to be the Nascent Soul stage by many other researchers, but, after reading some historical text, I found a very interesting phenomenon.”

“First of all, I want to say that, in the historical text, there is no direct indication of who has Ji Realm, but, from the context of the document, I managed to find track of several cultivators with Ji Realm.

“Among these people, some stopped at Core Formation, some stopped at Nascent Soul, and some stopped at Spirit Severing. It could be said that there is no pattern and it all depends on each individual.“

“In fact, all the breakthroughs in my Ji Realm research are all thanks to one person. I won’t say this person’s name, but this person is the first Ji Realm cultivator I have met!”

“His cultivation level is Nascent Soul.”

“This person wanted to break through Nascent Soul and reach Spirit Severing, so he came to me for help, but, in the end, I still failed…”

Wang Lin was immersed in the text, reading it word by word. After a long time, he revealed a very confused expression.

According to the record on the bamboo book, Wang Lin immediately realized that his own Ji Realm limit was Core Formation, otherwise, his Ji Realm wouldn’t go out of control when he tried to form his Nascent Soul.

As a result, his cultivation will be stuck at the late stage of Core Formation without any chance to break though in the future. Wang Lin found this unacceptable!

If his cultivation couldn’t break through, then those 400 years of suffering would never be released and Situ Nan would never wake up and all that he had done would stop right here.

Teng Hauyaun would still be able to keep on living and he would never get his revenge. He would also never be able to return to the country of Zhao because Teng Hauyaun would not let him go.

All of his dreams shattered at this moment.

His success came from his Ji Realm…his downfall also came from his Ji Realm…. Wang Lin clenched his fist and revealed a monstrously unwilling expression.

If he wanted to reach the Nascent Soul, then he must give up his Ji Realm. The only way was to give up all the power of his Ji Ream so he could reach Nascent Soul.

This was a very hard choice. The person who left the message on the bamboo book came up with one idea for the Nascent Soul cultivator he was helping and that was to waste his cultivation.

As his cultivation would scatter, his Ji Realm would also scatter, allowing him to start cultivating again and break through.

That Nascent Soul cultivator didn’t choose that method in the end.

Now, Wang Lin was faced with this difficult decision.

If he didn’t give up his Ji Realm, then he wouldn’t be able to break through. Everything he tried in order to form his Nascent Soul was obstructed by his Ji Realm. But if he gave up, then all the cultivation he had worked so hard to obtain in the past 400 years would be wasted. Also, he was currently in the Sea of Devils, a very dangerous place, where he might die before his cultivation reaches back to what it is now.

After a very long time, Wang Lin’s eyes revealed a determined look. He took a deep breath and put the bamboo away as he slowly walked out of the cave.

The first thing he must do is completely remove the lotus restriction on his body.