Just as Lin Moyu was about to escape the pursuit of the cloud beasts with the aid of the Profound Qing God-Traveling Talisman, a cloud beast of terrifying solidity suddenly blocked his retreat.
"A Peak Tier 2 Cloud Beast!" Lin Moyu felt a jolt of alarm, but fortunately, although this cloud beast was incomparably solid, it had ultimately not undergone a qualitative transformation to Tier 3. Otherwise, he might as well just wait for death.
Lin Moyu drew out a talisman brush, and the wound on his hand began to bleed anew. Watching the cloud beast inch closer toward him, he forced himself to calm down.
"Tier 1 Top-Grade Offensive Talisman: God-Invoking Talisman! I summon the Divine General, the Third Lotus Prince!" Lin Moyu executed a secret technique from the Blood Talisman Killing Scripture, leveraging the Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus to invoke a deity to descend!
In the dim reaches of the void, Lin Moyu seemed to feel the gaze of a supreme existence cast down upon him. Then, his Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus flashed, receiving a response from that existence.
A single spark of Samadhi True Fire fell from who knows how many heavens beyond, burning a hole through space and landing squarely on the forehead of the Peak Tier 2 cloud beast.
Without any suspense, the Peak Tier 2 cloud beast was incinerated by that tiny speck of scorching fire before it could even emit a shriek, after which it plunged further down into the depths of The Void.
Lin Moyu was not surprised that he had received a response, but he was very surprised that the Peak Tier 2 cloud beast, annihilated by the Samadhi True Fire, had left behind pure, unadulterated origin cloud Qi.
Quickly, Lin Moyu stashed that mass of Tier 2 origin cloud Qi into a jade bottle. Although an ordinary jade bottle could not completely seal it or prevent the origin cloud Qi from dissipating, it would hold up fine for a few months.
By that time, the origin cloud Qi would have long since been sold off to who knows whom.
At this point, the Tier 1 cloud beasts that had previously been chasing Lin Moyu had long since fled in terror, nobody knew where. Lin Moyu stayed put, quietly waiting for the backlash of the deity invocation.
As it turned out, time ticked by second by second. Lin Moyu had used the God-Invoking Talisman to summon a mere spark of Samadhi True Fire belonging to the Third Lotus Prince, Nezha, yet the backlash that should have manifested never appeared.
"Could it be because of the Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus? Or the Samsara Heavenly Evolution?" Just as Lin Moyu lowered his guard and began to speculate, a pain akin to the tearing of his divine soul violently coursed through his entire body, accompanied by the complete drainage of the spiritual Qi stored within his blood as it circulated through him.
Roughly a dozen breaths later, Lin Moyu finally recovered from the soul-tearing agony, only to find that not a shred of his spiritual Qi remained—it had been completely sucked dry.
"I knew it!" Lin Moyu was filled with bitter resentment, but in the end, he had no choice but to resignedly circulate the Blood Talisman Killing Scripture to replenish the spiritual Qi that had been drained away.
Although Lin Moyu had drawn talismans so many times, and even with the memory inheritance of a Grade 6 Talisman Master to spare a great deal of spiritual Qi, his cultivation realm was what it was; even without being sucked dry, he would have used up most of it anyway.
The scene of Lin Moyu being hunted down was instantly reversed. The previously dangerous sea of clouds fell into utter silence. After laying out a few talismans for defense, Lin Moyu began to recover his spiritual Qi.
……
Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Ruyu and Yun Rumo, who were gathering resources in the Spirit Cloud Realm, were also running into trouble.
"Xiao Yun, I'll go draw that Tier 2 fierce beast away. You find a safe place to hide first. I'll come find you as soon as I get back." With a resolute snap, Lin Ruyu hurled a dozen Tier 1 Top-Grade offensive talismans—Purple Lightning Talismans.
With tears welling in her eyes, Yun Rumo watched helplessly as Lin Ruyu lured the fierce beast away, completely powerless to help.
Yet she knew that even if she went over now, she would only be a hindrance. Finding a safe place to wait for her aunt to return was the best course of action.
After all, Yun Rumo's cultivation had only just stabilized at Qi Refining Level 1, and aside from practicing the Azure Orchid Art, she had not learned any other spell techniques.
Originally, Lin Ruyu had merely intended to bring Yun Rumo into the relatively safe Spirit Cloud Realm to see the world and learn how to gather various resources. Who could have anticipated that Lin Moyu, who should have been with them, would vanish to who knows where, or that the safest Spirit Cloud Realm would now harbor a Tier 2 fierce beast?
Panicking, Yun Rumo hurried to find a cave that looked safe, only to stumble upon the corpse of a cultivator the moment she stepped inside.
Gazing at the corpse whose chest was still spurting blood, Yun Rumo shrewdly guessed that the killer must still be nearby. The very next second, a heavy blow struck her, and she passed out cold.
A woman emerged from the shadows, gazing at the fallen girl with a trace of annoyance. "Why does this girl look so familiar?"
On the other side, after luring the Tier 2 fierce beast away and confirming that Yun Rumo should be safely hidden, Lin Ruyu whipped out a Tier 2 auxiliary talisman—a Teleportation Talisman—that she had failed to draw previously, though it was still usable.
"So long, stupid bear!" Lin Ruyu tossed over a dozen Beacon Thunder Cloud Talismans, and taking advantage of the fierce beast being temporarily stunned, she activated the Teleportation Talisman to blink a kilometer away.
A normal Teleportation Talisman would randomly transport someone ten kilometers in any direction, but because the one in Lin Ruyu's hand was a failed creation, it barely retained its teleporting capability, managing only a random jump within a one-kilometer radius.
Having shaken off the fierce beast, Lin Ruyu returned to the spot where they had separated. Staring at the three fork roads before her, she wondered perplexedly, "If I were Xiao Yun, which path would I take?"
……
"I never expected to actually breakthrough? Advancing right in the middle of battle—isn't that the kind of stunt only geniuses pull?" Lin Moyu couldn't help but chuckle wryly.
He looked at the updated information on his panel:
**Lin Moyu**
Aptitude: Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus (Innate Spirit Body)
Cultivation: Qi Refining Level 6
Destiny: Samsara Heavenly Evolution
Samsara Warehouse: Blood Talisman True Soul (Orange), Faded Lotus Petal (Golden)
Samsara Heavenly Evolution Attempts: 0 (Samsara Heavenly Evolution available in seven days)
"I've broken through to Qi Refining Level 6 just like that?" Lin Moyu said, feeling immensely thrilled.
After all, just a few days ago, he was still a piece-of-trash cultivator at Qi Refining Level 1. Never did he imagine that after a mere seven days, he would already match the pace of the top geniuses at Huayang High School, and in a few more days, he would surpass that genius entirely.
After all, that person only possessed an acquired spirit body, whereas Lin Moyu possessed the Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus, one of the supreme innate spirit bodies. Moreover, as time went on, his strength and aptitude would only grow more terrifying.
Feeling his blood drive the circulation of spiritual Qi throughout his body—not only was this equivalent to practicing the Blood Talisman Killing Scripture at every waking moment, but the spiritual Qi was also gradually strengthening his internal organs.
As long as Lin Moyu could piece together the missing fragments of the Blood Talisman Killing Scripture and keep up with his talisman master inheritance, there would not be a single bottleneck on his path of cultivation.
After carefully savoring the might of the Blood Lotus Spirit Fetus, Lin Moyu prepared to leave the sea of clouds and see what else the outside world had to offer.
After all, he had spent a hundred Spirit Stones just on the admission fee to get in; no matter what, he had to earn back the cost of that ticket, and he needed to scrape together some pocket money as well.
He didn't even have a reliable weapon suited to his hands yet!