Heart Purification

When only Lin Xiao and Jiang Youfu remained in the cave, Lin Xiao sent a voice transmission to Jiang Youfu:

"Fuzi, see how good I am to you? I specially brought you here to witness a Nascent Soul cultivator being invaded by a heart demon. You must observe carefully—this kind of thing isn't easy to come by. Later, when we return to the sect, I'll leave it to you to explain everything to everyone."

Hearing this, Jiang Youfu didn't even have time to respond. He immediately rushed over to a spot not far from the Yuan Family Ancestor and began observing his condition with great focus.

He strained to catch every clue, so he could give the sect a more detailed account later.

As for Lin Xiao, he sat down near the Yuan Family Ancestor and mentally reviewed the third stage of the Purification Art—the Heart Purification Technique—which he had never used before. Only then did he look at the old ancestor before him, who was visibly tormented beyond recognition.

After a long moment, he closed his eyes and began to cast the spell.

This was his first time using this technique.

When he had first created this spell, he hadn't thought much about it.

Later, aside from using it once for Yigao's mother, the only other use the Purification Art had in the Lingxian Sect was for cleaning.

Using it on a person—and for a serious cultivation matter like this—was only the second time.

Still, it was fortunate that the spell was synthesized by Lin Xiao through his system. All spells he created with the system he learned instantly, so he could use it on the spot without trouble.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been so convenient.

But as soon as the Heart Purification Technique started running, Lin Xiao felt something was off.

His cultivation base was only at the Golden Core stage, but he was facing a Nascent Soul stage heart demon—one strong enough to suppress a Nascent Soul cultivator. He needed total concentration.

Since he had come and agreed to help, he naturally wanted to do his absolute best. After all, he was helping Yuan Qing, who might one day become a member of their sect, as well as the Yuan family—the top clan of Yuanling City. That couldn't be a bad thing, could it?

Yet now, he felt unable to fully focus on casting the spell.

It was nothing like the feeling he had when helping Yigao's mother.

After thinking for a moment, a sudden flash of inspiration struck Lin Xiao.

He opened his personal storage and dug around, pulling out a book called The Doctrine of the Mean from the collection he kept there. He tossed it to Jiang Youfu.

"Fuzi, quick—start reading this to me aloud, right here. Don't stop until I tell you."

With that, he closed his eyes again.

His storage had many books, given to him by Sun Yigao when he used to visit the private school. Back then, Lin Xiao had said he was bored, so Sun Yigao gave him a stack of books to read when he had nothing else to do.

But Lin Xiao had never really had the chance to read them, so they had been sitting in his storage ever since.

Now, he had finally found a use for them.

Suddenly handed a book by Brother Xiao, Jiang Youfu looked a little confused.

But when it came to Lin Xiao's instructions, he never needed to ask for clarification before carrying them out.

So, seeing that Lin Xiao offered no explanation, he didn't ask either. He simply opened the book and started reading aloud.

Thanks to over a year of lessons from Sun Yigao, Liao Pantu, and the others, he could now read books that weren't about mental techniques or spells without any trouble.

And so, within this cave thick with the scattered energy of a heart demon, the clear sound of reading suddenly rang out.

"What Heaven has conferred is called the nature; an accordance with this nature is called the path of duty; the regulation of this path is called instruction."

"The path cannot be left for an instant. If it could be left, it would not be the path. Hence, the superior man is cautious about what he does not see and apprehensive about what he does not hear..."

Although the cave was set with many defensive and protective formations, it had no soundproofing talismans or barriers.

Thus, Yuan Bi and Yuan Qing, who had been waiting restlessly outside, suddenly heard the sound of reading coming from the previously silent cave.

Yuan Bi: ?

Yuan Qing: As expected of Fellow Daoist Lin.

With the support of the reading, Lin Xiao felt his heart calm down in an instant.

With a stilled mind, he rapidly activated the Heart Purification Technique.

Jiang Youfu, while reading, kept a close watch on the Yuan Family Ancestor’s condition, occasionally glancing at his Brother Xiao.

Suddenly, Jiang Youfu saw strands of pure energy slowly emanate from Lin Xiao’s body, drifting gently toward the Yuan Family Ancestor across from him.

As these strands of energy spread out, they dissipated the scattered black heart demon energy wherever they passed.

When the pure energy finally touched the black energy wrapped around the Yuan Family Ancestor, the two collided silently and vanished together in an instant.

Jiang Youfu watched this wondrous scene in amazement.

Then, remembering something, he locked his gaze on the ancestor’s barely visible expression amid the black energy.

He saw the ancestor’s tightly knitted brow seem to loosen slightly.

Jiang Youfu breathed a sigh of relief.

Brother Xiao was right—this Purification Art really worked!

Who would have thought that a spell their whole sect used just for cleaning teeth could have such an incredible use?

At the same time, Liao Pantu, hidden within the Soul-Nurturing Amulet, was also deeply astonished.

He had seen Lin Xiao’s Purification Art before and knew it was very useful, but he hadn’t expected it to be this powerful.

To directly eliminate a Nascent Soul stage serface-level heart demon with only Golden Core cultivation!

Originally, he had thought that using this spell at Lin Xiao’s current level to slightly weaken the heart demon for the Yuan Family Ancestor would already be impressive—enough to buy the old man an extra year or two.

But he never imagined that the pure energy would eliminate the heart demon outright, as soon as it appeared!

This spell was beyond his understanding...

At that moment, however, Lin Xiao had no idea what was happening outside.

He was completely immersed in the spell.

He felt as though he had entered an utterly still space, where only faint sounds reached him—every word and sentence seemed to have a magical power guiding him.

Before him lay only complete darkness.

In his hands, he held something that could wipe that darkness away.

So, following his intuition, he steadily faded the darkness, bit by bit, making it lighter and shallower.

...

Time flew by.

Outside, Yuan Bi and Yuan Qing listened to the sound of reading all night long.

Fortunately, the moment he first heard the reading, Yuan Bi had immediately activated the nearby soundproofing formations to isolate the sound from outside the mountain. Otherwise, with cultivators everywhere in the Yuan family estate, nearly everyone would have heard it.

He turned his head and realized it was already morning.

He wondered how things were going inside.

Worry crept into his heart.