Chapter 55: Dev Evil, Residual Echo, Profound in Qi
“Eh?”
An Jing, somewhat astonished, peeled off a jet?bck, jade?like skull from the vine?like demonic creature. Pitch?bck vines emerged from the skull’s eye sockets, trembling and twitg as though they were fleshy sprouts, seeming ready to transform into a snail or a hermit crab, poised to crawl away.
This bizarre sight prompted An Jing to press his swainst the skull?like demonic creature, its limbs filing like a thrashing octopus. He remarked curiously, “How strange, and it’s so tough—my Death Bde ’t even pierce it.”
“This is the true body of that demonic creature,” the Sword Spirit said thoughtfully. “So that’s it—it’s not a spiritual pnt that fell into demonic corruption. I was w why I didn’t sense any Demonic Qi in those fluorest grasses… This is the skull of a cultivator who has fallen into demonic corruption. In life, he was most likely a wood?attribute Spiritual Root user who had mastered the art of maniputing spiritual pnts.
“After falling into demonic corruption, his fleshly body turned into this skull demon, trolling these natural ‘Light Spirit Vines’ in the cavern as both body and traps, ambushing any passing creatures.”
“Destroy it,” the Sword Spirit said calmly. “This is a low?level ‘Remnant Demon,’ g a plete sense of self.”
“Mm.”
An Jing gave a slight nod. Exerting force with his sword tip, he thrust through the skull’s mouth area and pihe hermit?crab?like object to the ground.
Blood Baleful Qi surged. From within those fleshy vines came wave after wave of ghastly wails, and thehing transformed into streaks of pitch?bck Demonic Qi, dissolving into nothingness. Only a trace of hazy, white?gray mist remained, drifting within the ter of the skull and glimmering with a faint glow.
“This is…”
An Jing was a bit puzzled. The Sword Spirit g it and, somewhat surprised, said, “It’s actually a ‘Residual Echo.’ It’s quite useful.”
“What is that?” After defeating the demonic creature, An Ji much more at ease. He asked curiously, “And about that Spiritual Root you mentio time at Hanging Fate Manor, I heard y it up. What exactly is it?”
“If one never fets, a response will iably echo.”
The Sword Spirit tis patient expnation: “This world truly does devour evil. A ‘Residual Echo’ forms when a demonic creature is destroyed and Heaven ah purify all of its essence, leaving behind a thread of Profound in Qi. Low?level Echoes appear as the hazy mist you see before you; higher?level ones transform into all sorts of Divine Spiritual Forms*—divine birds, dragons, serpents, even Immortal Pills or Dao scriptures.
“Within a Residual Echo lie fragments of memory or cultivation from the cultivator who fell into demonic corruption—or the demonic creature itself. It’s inparably pure. A suffitly powerful Echo even offer various Divine Marvels, such as f Magical Treasures, cultivating Divine Abilities, or rest injuries. It be sidered Heaven ah’s reward to us demon?syers.
“That grand formation in Hanging Fate Valley, whiabled all of you to awaken your Heaven?Ordained Fate, essentially employed My power to help you eradicate your Inner Heart Demon, geing Profound in Qi and assisting in awakening your Heavenly Fate.”
“However.”
At that point, the Sword Spirit fell into ption: “In My era, only a ‘True’ reat’ Demon would leave behind a Residual Eoreover, the Echo left behind by a True Demon would take on a distinctive form. It would never be just a wisp of qi like this… Far too weak.”
“Yes… why would that be…” he murmured to Himself, suddenly being fused. “I seem to know something about it. I was involved… but… I don’t remember…”
An Jing remained silent, quietly waiting.
“Sigh.” After p for a bit, the Sword Spirit—possessing a rather carefree temperament—chose not to dwell on it and sighed. “I ’t remember. Fet it.”
“Will this Echo help restore your memories, Fuxie?” An Jing asked. The Sword Spirit chuckled softly. “Good of you to ask. Of course, it would. However, given My essence, only a tremendously powerful Heavenly Demon Residual Echo would have any ce of effeg repairs. Don’t even think about that for now.”
The Sword Spirit g the white?gray qi. “As for this sliver of Remnant Demon Residual Echo, it enhance a bit of your Divine Soul cultivation. It’s nearly useless to Me, but as for you, who just suffered a mental shock, it's enough to recover and stabilize your foundation. I’ll teach you how to gather it in. You draw it into your Divine Soul.”
Following the instrus, An Jing performed the visualization teique, cirg his Divine Soul to pull that faint wisp of white?gray mist into his Sea of sciousness.
Onside, it transformed into a hazy flicker of fire that huhe Sword Spirit’s true form, like stars orbiting a great sun. Whenever An Jiered stillness and cultivated the Serene Sword Teique, he could draw upon that strand of Echo to fortify his Divine Soul.
After all of this was dohe Sword Spirit spoke slowly.
“Regarding the Spiritual Root… I’ve mentioned before that prior to the 【Heaven?Ordained Fate Martial Path】, the cultivation system in the era I e from was called 【Spiritual Root Qi Refining】.
“Just like in the Heaven?Ordained Fate Martial Path, if one cks a Heavenly Fate–based Heaven?Ordained Fate, one ot break through Internal Energy to reaternal Fortification. Likewise, in the Spiritual Root system, if you don’t have a Spiritual Root, you ’t advance from ‘Spirit Awakening’ to ‘Qi Refining.’”
“I see.” An Jing roughly uood: this was the core talent that defihe gulf between Immortals and ordinary folk.
Ordinary people could still practice cultivation, but they could only reach the peak of the first realm at most. Only those who possessed both a Heaven?Ordained Fate and a Spiritual Root could tinue progressing oh.
He couldn’t help but ask, “Since I have a Heaven?Ordained Fate, do I also have a Spiritual Root?”
“Yes.”
The Sword Spirit said, “Furthermore, your aptitude is not bad. You have three Spiritual Roots: Metal, Earth, and Wood.”
“Among them, Earth gives rise to Metal, Metal subdues Wood, and Wood trols Earth. Within this cycle of creation aru, Earth bolsters Metal and weakens Wood, yet Wood suppresses Earth, f it into dormancy. Only your Metal Spiritual Root stands out—clearly, you possess no small gift for the path of Metal.”
“That’s why I reended 《Radiant White Spirit's Diviri》 to you.”
“It’s a pity we have no resources.”
An Ji a bit ret. However, as he raised his head and looked toward the ruined pavilion, something occurred to him. “Wait, Fuxie.”
“Tell me…” He narrowed his eyes at the a pavilion, which tained quite a bit of metal in its structure. “Does that t as ‘Five Metals’?”
“This…”
The Sword Spirit froze for a moment, apparently not having sidered that. As He followed An Jing’s gaze toward the colpsed Heavenly Pavilion's Grand Hall and sed the metal framework, however, His thoughts began te. “Indeed. Scrap iron is still iron. Go check it out, and I’ll examine whether these Five Metals are up to standard!”
An Jing immediately took a.
The surface of the colpsed corridors and beams bore a yer of “Red Copper,” all covered in rust.
her thieves nor the former owners—who had moved out long ago—had ever thought to scrape off these materials. Only a small amount was still usable, f a thi the very bottom.
Meanwhile, the mpstands—long siinguished—were made from “Purple Tin.”
Though aged, they were surprisingly well?preserved. The premium mp oil once used on them seemed to have imbued the outermost yer of purple tin with a touch of radiance, leaving its quality still quite high.
Lastly, An Jing discovered numerous “Profound Iron” nails on one of the walls.
Presumably, that wall had once beeo pin up annous or notices. Whoever had ed up the pce had been too zy to remove those densely packed nails. Now it was all to An Jing’s advantage—and they were all in excellent dition.
In total, he gathered five liang** of red copper, one jin** and two liang of purple tin, and three liang of Dark Iron.
(End of Chapter)
*神异灵形, quite literally "Divine and Wondrous Spiritual Form."
**One liang is 0.05kg, and one jin is 0.5kg.
