Decaying World

Chapter 128 Evolution 128 (Thanks to Alliance Leader Pecket)

"Alright, alright, stop talking nonsense." Lin Hui awkwardly interrupted his flattery. Being praised to one's face made him feel somewhat uncomfortable.

"Alright. This disciple truly speaks from the heart, not flattery. Everything I said before came from the bottom of my heart!" Tao Xuehai said sincerely.

"Alright, I don't disbelieve you, tell me." Lin Hui was speechless.

"Yes." Tao Xuehai nodded. He didn't ask his master why he didn't ask the high priests or great priests who clearly had relatives. Instead, he explained directly and frankly.

"In the system of the Summoners, the priesthood represents a major leap forward and a qualitative change, with a fundamental and enormous gap compared to the previous levels."

"If a high-ranking summoner has awakened the power of the void and reached the level of invincibility, then a priest has completely integrated the power of the void into himself, reaching the point of being able to use it at will. Compared to the huge consumption of power by a high-ranking summoner, a priest consumes no power when using it."

"No consumption!?" Lin Hui narrowed his eyes.

“Yes, at the priest level, illusory power has become instinctive, as common as ordinary people reaching out and moving their arms and legs. In fact, illusory power is no longer the main thing for them,” Tao Xuehai continued. “At this level, what they truly cultivate is another power derived from illusory power—divine power.”

"Divine power?"

“Exactly, divine power is short for spiritual ethereal power, and that’s why priests are called priests.” Tao Xuehai’s face showed a solemn expression. “Compared to the indestructibility of ethereal power, the effect of divine power is not to directly affect the body of the enemy or opponent, but to construct the priest’s own mental and spiritual killing moves. The characteristic of these moves is that they do not cause any physical damage, but rather attack through the mind and consciousness.”

"These kinds of tricks can easily manipulate and influence ordinary people, forcibly controlling them to do what they want. They can even break down the consciousness of ordinary people, causing them to fall into a state of stasis and never wake up again."

He paused for a moment at this point.

"Of course, the divine powers of priests are all deadly, and their use consumes a huge amount of energy. They are not used often, and even less so against ordinary people. But there is no doubt that the destructive power of these divine powers is terrifying. Some can even completely change a person's mind, causing them to go from one extreme to another."

"Manipulating consciousness?" Lin Hui was shocked. He hadn't expected the priest to have reached such a level.

No wonder her older sister Liu Xiao, who is a priest, speaks in a tone that looks down on everyone else.

From this perspective, the fact that Brother Liu Wujun spoke and communicated with me in such a gentle manner earlier already shows that he was extremely well-mannered.

“Yes, priests can theoretically control consciousness. Therefore, battles between priests are mainly decided by a battle of minds. And in general, the injuries suffered by the loser at this level will take a very long time to heal. This is because they are not physical injuries, but severe damage to the mind.” Tao Xuehai nodded.

"I see." Lin Hui nodded, finally understanding the inside story.

"Therefore, I dare to say that I can challenge Zhou Tian, ​​but I dare not challenge the Divine Official. On the one hand, Zhou Tian is one level weaker than the Divine Official. On the other hand, once the Divine Official gets carried away, you know the side effects of the Extreme Martial Arts and the Summoning System. It is easy for his mental state to become unstable and explode. If he is beaten into a fool or a lunatic, then he will be truly ruined." Tao Xuehai said with a wry smile.

"And what about the High Priest?" Lin Hui asked again.

"High Priest, it involves the cultivation of Divine Techniques, which are said to be able to forcibly change the mental instincts of certain targets in a short period of time. Divine Techniques and Divine Skills, the techniques cultivated by these high priests, are all secret methods that target the mental instincts of the target. I once saw my uncle, who is a high priest, kill a Three Harmony Master fugitive on the street," Tao Xuehai recalled.

"At that time, the fugitive had already rushed into the crowd and was about to use his power to cause a large number of casualties, but my uncle made a move in an instant. Without any obvious fluctuation of power, he immediately made the fugitive strangely change the direction of his power attack to the sky."

"I watched as that man unleashed hundreds of attacks at the sky. His face showed confusion, bewilderment, and a frantic attempt to change the direction of his attacks. But no matter how he moved, his attacks only flew into the air. The crowd around him was densely packed, only a dozen meters away, yet he couldn't hurt even one of them."

"...Forcibly altering a person's cognition and instincts?" Lin Hui's eyes were grave. He simulated what he would do if he encountered such an attack.

The answer is that if one cannot resist such an instinct-altering technique, once it hits and takes effect, no matter how fast one is, one will not escape death.

"Yes. In the end, my uncle slowly walked over and smashed the man's head with a single palm strike. A minor Three Harmony Grandmaster who had cultivated for over a hundred years was gone just like that. This was a huge blow to me, who had just started learning martial arts at the time. It took me a long time to recover." Tao Xuehai sighed. "But fortunately, Master, you thought of a solution!"

His eyes quickly brightened again.

"?" Lin Hui looked bewildered. What idea had he come up with? How come he didn't know?
“Master must have also figured it out. As long as I am fast enough, even divine skills and techniques cannot hit me. Then these kinds of moves will have no chance to take effect. In this way, I will be invincible!” Tao Xuehai said in a deep voice.

"Um, I didn't actually think that way," Lin Hui said honestly.

"Master's biggest problem is that he is too modest. The perfect version of the Qingfeng Sword is already so powerful. I wonder how powerful the Kuangfeng Sword Technique will be. After I successfully temper my body, will I be able to follow you to practice the Kuangfeng Sword Technique?" Tao Xuehai asked, seizing the opportunity.

"We'll see then. The difficulty of the Gale Sword Technique is dozens of times, or even more, than the perfect version of the Gentle Breeze Sword Technique," Lin Hui sighed.

"Yes." Tao Xuehai lowered his head and said no more.

"By the way, Master, when I went home before, I mentioned my apprenticeship. My family is somewhat opposed, and they might send someone to the temple to check on things. If you encounter them, please inform me immediately, and I will handle everything." He was clearly worried that his family might speak disrespectfully to his teacher.

"Don't worry, I won't easily fight with them," Lin Hui replied. The Tao family might be even more outrageous than the Wang family, so he naturally wouldn't provoke trouble.

"That's good, then I can rest assured." Tao Xuehai breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

The two chatted about life in the inner city again until it was almost dinner time, at which point Lin Hui asked Tao Xuehai to get up and leave.

Without pausing, he quickly returned home, intending to inquire about the priest's situation from Liu Xiao, and ideally, to test his skills and experience the effects and destructive power of divine power. Unfortunately, Liu Xiao had already been transferred to a distant area of ​​the inner city to oversee a region and had been away from home for a long time. His elder brother, Liu Wujun, spent most of his time cultivating at the Rain Palace of the Sha Yue Sect. He was a genius, one of the top ten candidates being groomed by the Rain Palace, and had a large group of investors backing him. Therefore, he couldn't possibly spend most of his time and energy at home.

This older brother cultivates in his spare time, and when he has free time, he goes to fight the Wanhua Sect. This is the reply from the second aunt.

Left with no other choice, Lin Hui had to put the matter on hold for the time being and wait for an opportunity.

From Tao Xuehai's words, he felt that the priest was indeed too dangerous, directly attacking people's consciousness and mind. Without equivalent protective measures, one could really be ambushed and suffer a blow.

Just then, he received a reply to the task he had issued to seal the insect eggs.

Several days later.
Lin Hui was in the pharmacy, looking at the white porcelain plate placed in front of him.

There were twenty pale blue caterpillars piled up on the plate.

"You're not mistaken. These things look like ordinary cabbage worms, but they are actually the sealing worms that are quite famous in the Fog Zone. If you want to seal the worm eggs, you just need to wait for them to develop for a period of time before they lay eggs," explained Pharmacist Chen Meng.

"How does this thing seal things?" Lin Hui asked, looking at the slowly wriggling green worms in the plate.

"Don't underestimate them because of their small size. This swarm of insects is a powerful insect group capable of sealing away creatures in the fog zone," Chen Meng smiled. "When faced with an invasion of hostile creatures, they will gather together and rapidly spin silk. The silk they spin is extremely tough, unbreakable by fire or cuts, like countless ropes that can wrap around some fog zone creatures in just a few strokes. Afterward, they will inject toxins into the fog zone creatures that are wrapped in cocoons, softening and shrinking them. Finally, they will lay eggs inside the cocoons, and the egg cells will automatically wrap around the fog zone creatures, becoming sealing eggs."

“Of course, this kind of seal cannot be used against individuals that are much larger than them. It is generally only used against other groups that are also insects.” Chen Meng had obviously done her homework beforehand, and her answer was smooth and natural.

"I see." Lin Hui nodded.

Gazing at the sealing insects, he gently picked one up with wooden chopsticks and carefully examined the large green worm, which was only about the length and thickness of a finger.

He was recalling how he had learned the technique of sealing poison formations.
'Patterns!'

"Right, back then, I mastered the sealing toxin array for evolution by observing the patterns on dead insect eggs and relying on blood seals. So, judging from that, the sealing patterns on living sealing insects should be more complete and stronger!"

"Alright, I'll take one to play with. You look after these for me for now, I'll deal with them later," he instructed, turning and quickly leaving the pharmacy.

Lin Hui slipped back into his study, placed the sealing worm on the table, and watched it wriggle and crawl around. It seemed no different from an ordinary green caterpillar. It didn't seem to be a particularly dangerous insect from the fog zone at all.

He reached out and gently touched the sealing worm.

Instantly, a notification message about the bloodstain appeared in the field of vision.

Below the image of the sealing worm, a black dotted line extends, pointing to lines of text information.

'Sealing Bug: A creature from the Fog Zone. Due to its low danger level, it cannot be classified. It can forcibly seal hostile creatures many times its own size by spinning silk and using sealing toxins, thereby achieving its purpose of preying on and feeding on them.'

Evolvable branch: 4.

Without hesitation, Lin Hui quickly clicked on the branch.

'1—Spirit Sealing Array.'

'2—Evil-Sealing Array.'

'3—Fire Sealing Array.'

'4—Life-Sealing Array.'

It's different from last time!

Lin Hui narrowed his eyes. He remembered that the last time it was about sealing demons and evil spirits. This time, only sealing evil spirits remained; everything else was different.

'It seems my constitution is different now. The daily energy I can provide is far greater than before, so the evolutionary branches I can take are also different.'

Lin Hui understood and immediately opened each branch to examine it carefully.

'1——Spirit Sealing Array: Originating from a mysterious ruin, this array can seal the spiritual consciousness of living beings. Once sealed, the creature will fall into a state similar to slumber, losing consciousness, but its body will survive.'

Conditions for activating the seal: When the mental energy and spiritual power are fully accumulated to nine eyes, it can be activated remotely once. (Nine eyes: After mastering the spirit-sealing formation, nine emerald green, insect-eye-like crystals will grow on a certain spot on the shoulder. This is a mark indicating that the formation is charged.)
Sealing time: 900 years.

Note: This is a secret technique created by a high-ranking cultivator. Due to his fiery temper, once the formation is activated, it cannot be reversed. The sealing effect will remain for nine hundred years before it can be released. Furthermore, the user cannot dispel it. Please double-check the target before using this technique.

(End of this chapter)