Chapter 180

A major sect governed by integrity—it certainly seemed powerful. But once they discovered their cultivation method had been leaked, they would likely investigate immediately. And if they found the practitioner’s will wasn't "righteous" enough...

Lin Hui considered the matter carefully. He felt he could still be considered a friendly, upstanding young man. Choosing this option might actually work.

After all, the special effects of this branch were truly enticing.

Especially the Heart of Integrity and the Formless Tribulation Seal, which could withstand a single instance of fatal damage. It was simply a god-tier skill.

But just as this thought arose, he decided to review the Blood Seal's description one more time. He re-examined the introduction for the Formless Sect.

The more he looked, the more off it felt.

The more righteous one is, the faster their cultivation speed and the weaker their bottlenecks.

What did that imply? It implied that the top powerhouses of the Formless Sect were likely extreme champions of justice—the kind who couldn’t tolerate a single grain of sand in their eyes.

He suddenly realized the danger.

If that were truly the case, considering his current activities... one could say he was kind, perhaps, but as for justice—his compatibility might be lacking.

Shaking his head, he moved on to the next branch, leaving the Formless Sect as a backup for now.

The fourth option:

[Empty Nether Sect: A Nether Dao sect way extrapolated from the martial arts of the Clear Wind Temple. All inducted disciples obtain one Nether Rotation.]

[Nether Rotation: Instantly revive after death, with all physical and mental states amplified ninefold for nine seconds. Automatically lost upon betraying the sect.]

[Sect Special Effect: Nether Hollow. (Sect members who have experienced a near-death state gain a 100% increase in cultivation speed. Stackable. Lost upon leaving the sect.)]

[Note: Due to the special nature of the Empty Nether Sect’s cultivation methods, disciples are driven to madly pursue near-death experiences, causing the number of members to dwindle until the sect eventually vanishes into the vast universe.]

This was another twisted sect.

Lin Hui had no interest in any path that encouraged courting death. Although the stackable Nether Hollow effect was absurdly powerful, if one tempted fate too often, they would eventually die for real.

He looked at the final option.

[Nine Skies Gate: A sect way extrapolated from a specific direction of martial arts comprehension by the current Temple Master of the Clear Wind Temple, Lin Hui.]

Seeing this sentence, Lin Hui was stunned. This sect was actually extended and traced back from his own understanding of martial arts?

In other words, the inspiration and direction he had comprehended just happened to align with a sect named the Nine Skies Gate in some distant place?

Lin Hui grew thoughtful. He continued reading.

[...Disciples entering the sect can receive the empowerment of the Clear Source Law Seal. When executing martial arts, they can trigger an unknown wind-disaster power to amplify the effect.]

[Sect Special Effect: Righteous Body, Righteous Heart, Righteous Virtue.]

Curious, Lin Hui tapped on these three effects.

[Righteous Body: Upon gaining sect member status, immediately receive a 50% all-around enhancement to the physical body. Effect is lost upon betraying the sect.]

The prerequisite for Righteous Heart was the same, granting a 50% all-encompassing enhancement to the mind and spirit. Righteous Virtue granted a 50% boost to cultivation comprehension.

It was straightforward. The descriptions were sparse, and these were purely instant-effect buffs—simple and brute-force. They were clearly designed to make developing a large-scale sect extremely convenient.

This last one is also very strong...

Comparing all the options, the first—Wind Aspect Sect—was the worst and definitely wouldn't be chosen. The amplification was too low.

The last two paths, the Empty Nether Sect and Nine Skies Gate, could massively strengthen the sect’s power in a short time. Especially the Empty Nether Sect—the effect of Nether Rotation was terrifying. Dying once triggered a ninefold, all-encompassing burst. Although it only lasted nine seconds, that was enough to drag an enemy down into mutual destruction.

Nether Hollow was just as extreme. "Stackable" meant that, with enough luck, a sect could produce a disciple who had survived multiple near-death experiences. Their cultivation speed would be unimaginable.

But the drawback was exactly as the Blood Seal warned: it drove members to seek their own deaths.

Lin Hui weighed his options and finally narrowed his focus to the Nine Skies Gate and the Formless Sect.

The Formless Sect was obviously very "righteous," belonging to the Righteous Path. The ability to withstand one instant-death attack was formidable—equivalent to having an extra life. But the risk was obvious. If the ultimate powerhouses of the Formless Sect were extreme moral absolutists... once they discovered the situation here, it would be a disaster.

Lin Hui couldn't guarantee he hadn't committed a single bad deed, and no one could say for sure how extreme Righteous Path worldviews operated.

His gaze ultimately settled on the steady, dependable Nine Skies Gate. This option carried no strange biases and hid no lurking dangers. Aside from slightly weaker long-term potential and effects that were purely present-focused enhancements, there were essentially no drawbacks.

This is the one.

He made up his mind. He would evolve this path.

He checked the time required. Aside from the first option being seventeen years, the rest were all fifty years.

With medicine available, fifty years wasn't unacceptable. Since this was an enhancement for the entire sect, a larger consumption of resources was to be expected. Once the evolution was complete, the entire Clear Wind Temple would usher in an unprecedented strengthening.

However, Lin Hui shelved it temporarily.

The Blood Seal still had many items that needed appraisal and short-term evolution. He would wait until his personal enhancements were finished before starting the massive sect-wide evolution.

Putting away Ruyi, Lin Hui was in no mood to continue practicing swordsmanship. Now that the Blood Seal was free, the first problem to solve was the Purgatory pollution.

If this thing continued to spread, sooner or later, he would be attacked by everyone. He had to find a way to hedge against the pollution—or perhaps contain it and hold it within his own grasp.

Now that the channel for buying medicine was secured, he felt an illusion that the future was entirely under his control.

He returned to his residence within the sect in one breath.

The first thing Lin Hui did was consider how to counter the Purgatory pollution. Purgatory corresponded to flame, to the massive burning of energy and the physical body.

Immediately, he thought of the "Extreme Cold" option that had appeared in the Blood Seal evolution branches very early on.

After wandering around the residence, Lin Hui quickly found several items that might have evolved effects to counter Purgatory: Lamb Kebabs, Chicken Legs, and medicinal herbs with cold properties—Cold Ginseng, Nine-Heart Lily, and Anemarrhena.

The first two were branches he had seen during previous evolutions; the latter were his own guesses.

He took these items into the pharmacy, chased Chen Meng out, and began testing them one by one with the Blood Seal.

The Lamb Kebabs and Chicken Legs were the same as before, but the Cold Ginseng, Nine-Heart Lily, and Anemarrhena showed differences.

Cold Ginseng had two branches: Extreme Cold Heaven Ginseng King and Cold Jade Heaven Ginseng King.

Nine-Heart Lily had three: Ice Mechanism Lily, Extreme Cold Heaven Lily, and Aurora Lily.

Anemarrhena was like the Cold Ginseng, adding Extreme Cold Heaven Anemarrhena and Cold Jade Heaven Anemarrhena.

Lin Hui carefully examined the difference between Extreme Cold Heaven and Cold Jade Heaven.

[Extreme Cold Heaven Ginseng King: A century-old Ginseng King that grows in the Extreme Cold Heaven. Consuming it transforms the entire body with the aura of the Extreme Cold Heaven and spontaneously adds an Extreme Cold attribute to one’s Internal Force.]

[Cold Jade Heaven Ginseng King: A century-old Ginseng King that grows in the Cold Jade Heaven. Consuming it increases Ice-Cold attribute Internal Force by one hundred years and extends lifespan by ten years.]

Clearly, Extreme Cold Heaven was a kind of pollution similar to Purgatory, while Cold Jade Heaven didn’t mention any aura transformation at all. It was likely a more orthodox land of extreme cold—and it even extended life.

Lin Hui hesitated no longer and immediately chose to evolve the Extreme Cold Heaven Ginseng King.

Back then, he had only eaten an evolved Lamb Kebab to obtain that perverse, exaggerated Purgatory pollution ability. It had grown to become one of his major trump cards in battle. That alone showed how outrageous it was.

For power gained so easily, there had to be a massive, unknown price hidden behind it. Otherwise, if everyone could just grow infinitely stronger by killing each other, Purgatory would have ruled everything long ago.

It was just that Lin Hui hadn’t yet discovered what that price was. He had to prepare for a rainy day.

After he confirmed the evolution for the Extreme Cold Heaven Ginseng King, the feedback prompt appeared immediately.

[Evolution time: 9 years.]

This amount of time was a drop in the bucket for him now that he had four Purple Cloud Reishi in hand.

Lin Hui swallowed all four Purple Cloud Reishi in one go right there in the pharmacy.

The evolution time was instantly reduced to one year.

One year, for him, simply required taking medicine according to schedule for a little over a month.

After this, he planned to try evolving Relics, such as the Silencing Stone provided by Tao Xuehai, and treasure medicines like the Purple Cloud Reishi that could enhance energy. He had wanted to try this for a long time, but he couldn't help himself; as soon as he got these treasure medicines, he would lose all self-control and use them to shorten evolution times.

In addition, he had some immature ideas regarding the Blood Seal that he needed to attempt. Since concepts could be evolved, would it be possible to directly evolve the land itself, or even the air...?

…

Clear River Sect Headquarters.

Inside a gloomy fissure in a stone cliff.

Rows of black stone pavilions formed a small architectural complex; this was the true headquarters of the Clear River Sect in the Inner City.

At this moment, in front of a certain pavilion, two sect members wearing black robes and white masks waited helplessly outside the main door.

"Didn't they say we were to report to headquarters today to accept new dispatch missions? Why hasn't Sect Master Cao arrived yet?" One person complained via sound transmission.

"Perhaps he was delayed by something. Sect Master Cao has always been dedicated; he's the busiest person in the sect. Sect Master Situ doesn't manage things much, so he is the one responsible for operations. It's understandable if he's delayed a bit," the other comforted.

"I can understand, but the problem is my matter is urgent. If I go back late..."

Before the transmission was finished, both of them sensed someone opening the door to the pavilion ahead.

Looking up, they could vaguely make out a tall, powerfully built silhouette through the window, slowly walking toward the door. A pair of hands gripped the door handle—and then... went still.

One second. Two seconds... Five seconds...

Watching the figure remain motionless for so long, the two of them could no longer hold back their curiosity. From the outline—though a bit burly—they could still tell it was Vice Sect Master Cao.

He’s probably practicing some kind of secret art, they guessed inwardly.

"Sect Master Cao, it's getting late. This subordinate still has to return to the Outer City to execute a mission. I wonder if you could process my report first? I have two situations that need to be reported to you in person!" one of them spoke up loudly.

"Good... you can..." A blurred, unclear voice drifted out from inside the door. "Lu Zhengyuan, is it? You come in alone first..."

"Yes!" The disciple named Lu instantly relaxed, hurrying toward the pavilion and pulling the door open to enter.

The door slowly closed.

Time passed, second by second. But the person who went in never came out, nor was there any movement.

The other disciple waiting outside frowned, suspicion rising in his heart.

"Sect Master Cao? May I come in?" he asked aloud.

No response.

The person outside the door felt something was wrong. He slowly approached, Void Force and Internal Force mixing around him to form a special defense. This was something only the special Divine Method he cultivated could achieve.

But he had only taken two steps.

Pu!

In an instant, a streak of red burst through the door, shattered his defenses like lightning, clamped around his neck, and yanked hard.

In the very next heartbeat, he was dragged into the pavilion and vanished.

Silence fell once more, as if the two of them had never stood there at all.