The Third Doubt

It was not long after He Yi arrived at Lingxian Academy that Lin Xiao received word and came over.

Seeing that He Yi looked to be in fairly good spirits and had not panicked over the sudden change within his body, Lin Xiao secretly let out a sigh of relief, though he also felt a little guilty.

After examining He Yi’s condition three days ago, Lin Xiao had already realized that the man’s coma was probably related to him.

That tiny bead inside He Yi’s Golden Core seemed to be in the process of transforming spiritual energy into origin energy.

Moreover, all the spiritual energy within He Yi’s Golden Core possessed the water attribute. Clearly, he was a pure water cultivator.

While he was at it, Lin Xiao had also examined He Yi’s bone age and discovered that he was only thirty years old.

A thirty-year-old Golden Core cultivator with such abundant water spiritual energy was most likely a single-spirit-root genius of the cultivation world.

Although transforming spiritual energy into origin energy would be beneficial in the long run, for He Yi at present, it was probably anything but pleasant.

Because he could no longer cultivate normally.

Clearly, the cultivation method He Yi practiced was a spirit-root-based method, and methods of that kind could not accommodate the transformation from spiritual energy into origin energy.

As a result, the tiny bead remained stuck in the midst of its transformation, unable to complete it.

At the time, Lin Xiao had humbly consulted the system about why He Yi had suddenly undergone such a change.

The system’s response had been:

[The Host’s cultivation has now reached the Nascent Soul stage, and the cultivation method you practice has merged with your Dao heart. Your insights and state of mind are already far above those of most cultivators. Therefore, when you focus wholeheartedly on expressing your own beliefs, you can easily influence cultivators who have not placed particular defenses around their minds.]

[So the Host need not be confused. This person’s transformation was caused entirely by you.]

Lin Xiao: …

Wasn’t this awkward?

Still, after learning that he actually possessed such an ability, he was rather pleased.

In the future, if he took a liking to someone… Ahem.

Feeling somewhat guilty, Lin Xiao looked at He Yi, who was seated in the guest chair, with an innocent expression and even gave him a broad smile.

Seeing him like that, He Yi knew that he must have some understanding of his condition. He decided to stop probing and asked directly, “Sect Master Lin probably knows something about what caused me to suddenly fall unconscious three days ago. May I ask if there is a way to resolve it? I would be deeply grateful for any guidance.”

“To be honest…” Lin Xiao looked at He Yi and blinked sincerely. “At present, the only way to resolve this problem may be for you to join the Lingxian Sect.”

He was telling the truth!

After all, he had no idea whether there were any cultivation methods elsewhere that could transform spiritual energy into origin energy.

Based on what he knew, joining their sect was the best solution for He Yi.

He Yi: …

He stared intently at Lin Xiao for quite some time, confirming that the other man did not appear to be joking.

“What do you mean by that?”

“It concerns several secrets of our sect. Once you join the Lingxian Sect, I’ll tell you.”

Lin Xiao continued to answer with complete sincerity.

He truly was not lying!

After all, Senior Liao had said that transforming spiritual energy into origin energy was something never before seen in the cultivation world, and perhaps not even something many people had heard of. One could only sense that origin energy was a power purer than spiritual energy.

Therefore, it was quite possible that as far as many cultivators were concerned, the entire Lingxian Sect—or perhaps Lin Xiao alone—possessed something unique.

Not long after Lin Xiao had learned how to transform spiritual energy into origin energy, he had gone into seclusion. After emerging, he had been busy with one matter after another and had completely forgotten to teach it to the other members of the sect.

He had never expected that an outsider like He Yi would gain the advantage first because of a few words from him…

Lin Xiao’s thoughts drifted away until He Yi’s voice forcibly brought him back.

“Since Sect Master Lin is unwilling to speak plainly, I won’t press you. For now, let us finish discussing what we left unsaid three days ago.”

That was a polite refusal of Lin Xiao’s invitation to join the sect.

Lin Xiao was not discouraged.

After all, He Yi was a prodigious disciple of the number-one sect in the northern and southern spirit realms. He might even have a powerful backer there. Naturally, he would not be willing to suddenly transfer to their little sect in the mortal world.

But Lin Xiao was in no hurry. Following He Yi’s words, he asked, “Three days ago, Envoy He mentioned two questions. Was there a third?”

He Yi nodded.

“There was.”

“Sect Master Lin also knows that I came from the cultivation world to the mortal world this time to investigate the matter of the Jishi Stones from three years ago.”

“I heard that Sect Master Lin also took part in the campaign against the Jishi faction in Huanyou Kingdom three years ago.”

When the topic turned to this matter, Lin Xiao nodded and admitted it.

“Yes. An important campaign like that would not normally have involved an obscure little sect like the Lingxian Sect. However, I heard that what appeared there at the time might have been some sort of plague. So, in order to allow the allied forces to focus on exterminating the Jishi faction, I went over to offer what little assistance I could.”

Lin Xiao had met the two leaders of the allied forces back then, so there was no point denying his involvement.

As for his sudden appearance inside the Jishi mine and his ability to move about freely, members of the allied forces had questioned him about that as well. But since the Qinglian Sect already possessed a treasure capable of resisting the Jishi aura, Lin Xiao had given a vague answer, saying that his own sect also possessed a legacy treasure. However, the incident had occurred so suddenly, and their sect’s treasure could protect only one person from the effects of the Jishi aura.

After that, no one had pursued the matter further.

After all, he had said it was a treasured inheritance of his sect. It was not as though they could demand that he contribute it.

If he had to offer it up, would the Qinglian Sect not have to offer up its treasure as well? And what about the other sects? Everyone knew that such a thing was impossible.

Thus, the matter had eventually been left unresolved.

At this, He Yi lowered his eyes. He wore a bracelet strung from green jade beads on his left wrist, and his right hand was slowly moving from bead to bead.

“However, there is a rumor that when Sect Master Lin was there, your hands were empty, and you were not surrounded by any protective barrier. Because of this, some people claim that what you used at the time was not a treasured inheritance of your sect, but a legacy cultivation method.”

“A cultivation method capable of resisting the Jishi aura and preventing it from draining one’s strength.”

As he spoke the final words, He Yi raised his eyes and looked straight at Lin Xiao.

Lin Xiao kept his expression unchanged and returned a warm smile. He shrugged.

“I never would have thought that merely showing up in Huanyou Kingdom for a short while three years ago could become the subject of rumors—and that those rumors would even reach you three years later. It’s quite a novel experience.”

Seeing that he neither admitted nor denied it, treating it as nothing more than a rumor and a joke, He Yi’s fingers slowed on the beads. He then exhaled softly and said, “My sect possesses a Scripture Repository that collects secret manuals from throughout the world. Its books span the ages and cover every subject imaginable; their number is as vast as smoke and sea.”

“Among them is a fragmentary ancient manual from the distant past that records a single line.”

“‘The benevolent force of the world is spiritual; Jishi is its opposite, while origin energy serves as its counter.’ In this passage, ‘spiritual’ naturally refers to spiritual energy, and Jishi corresponds to the Jishi aura. Therefore, we speculate that the ‘origin’ mentioned here refers to origin energy.”

“In other words, there may very well be a power in this world beyond spiritual energy—the power of origin.”

He Yi looked at Lin Xiao, but his voice did not stop.

“I came here this time not to cause trouble for Sect Master Lin. The truth is, I possess a formation recorded in that fragmentary ancient manual. It is called the Jishi-Binding Treasure Formation.”