Chapter 336: Discovery During the Investigation

Translator: Atlas Studios  Editor: Atlas Studios

“Is this a kind of treatment? …Directly attacking it?”

“No preparations are needed? But isn’t this too rash!”

Everyone in the room had just returned to their senses after hearing the word ‘sword’, and they were all shocked by this fierce attack.

It was no wonder that others doubted it. Anyone who saw it with their own eyes would feel that it was an unreliable method, even Chen Yiming himself.

This was similar to chemotherapy in cancer. This method forcefully destroyed the fragments of the mysterious symbols in the body. A healthy Elder Zhang might be able to withstand the rough treatment, but now, his pupils were starting to dilate.

However, Chen Yiming believed that since he was facing an opponent at the same level, with the enhancement from the spiritual figure’s swordsmanship talent, it shouldn’t be a problem to instantly destroy all the fragments.

The problem was how to avoid affecting Elder Zhang as much as possible.

At this moment, a scene had already appeared in some people’s minds. Two forces at the level of the inscription realm were fighting in Elder Zhang’s body, and then with a bang, Elder Zhang’s body would be blown to pieces.

The old doctor and his medical team were forced to move aside. Their temples were about to cramp up. This was completely against the normal rules of medicine.

If Zheng Hong had not instructed him beforehand, he would have gone up to scold Chen Yiming.

Under the gazes of many people who were not confident in the method, the thin needles that filled Elder Zhang’s body grew brighter, then disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The sword returned to Chen Yiming’s hand in a stream of light.

Chen Yiming’s spiritual power had entered Elder Zhang’s body and destroyed all the fragments of the mysterious symbols. The only uncertain factor was the incomplete spiritual body left in his spiritual world.

“Is Elder Zhang alright?” Zheng Hong asked in a low voice.

The members of the Zhang family also looked at Chen Yiming, waiting for an answer.

Chen Yiming retracted his spiritual power and nodded. “I’ve achieved what I set out to do. The rest will depend on Elder Zhang’s recovery ability.”

…

Not long after, “I’m fine!” Elder Zhang opened his eyes and sat up on the bed.

Chen Yiming heaved a sigh of relief.

His materialized spiritual power was indeed no longer as weak as before. Since his spiritual body was incomplete, he was definitely still affected, but at least it would not be a problem for him to wake up.

Everyone from the Zhang family rushed forward and surrounded the bed, crying.

The others were in a similar situation. They had their doubts, but they all hoped that Elder Zhang would pull through.

After everyone calmed down, Elder Zhang expressed his gratitude to Chen Yiming.

At the same time, he revealed a piece of bad news:

The black light that had launched the attack came from the body of a soldier on patrol.

Possession?

Chen Yiming thought of this possibility.

This seemed to be a little troublesome. In his memory, the ghosts born from the 10,000-meter-long corpse did not have much intelligence.

However, since it could cause a martial master to be unable to react in time, he could no longer use his previous impression of the ghosts as a gauge.

Zheng Hong immediately brought Chen Yiming to look for the soldier that Elder Zhang had mentioned.

…

Before long, the two of them arrived at the sentry post at the border.

It was called a sentry post, but it was actually a small military camp. The soldiers there were responsible for monitoring the movements in the surrounding 10 kilometers.

At this moment, the lights in the sentry post were on, but it was strangely silent. Even from a distance, the two of them could sense that there was no sign of a living person inside.

“Something has happened!”

Chen Yiming frowned.

The sentries had to report the situation to the command center in the no man’s land in the southwest every once in a while. It was impossible for it to have gone unnoticed for a long time.

And he had just destroyed the fragments of mysterious symbols in Elder Zhang’s body.

The two of them stopped at the entrance of the sentry post. Zheng Hong took out his communication device and contacted the command center. He learned that the sentry post had just reported the situation an hour ago.

Chen Yiming’s expression darkened.

This unknown enemy had clearly found out that the fragments of the mysterious symbols had been completely destroyed and left in advance. However, both he and the spiritual figure had not noticed it.

Soon, the two of them entered the camp to check on the situation.

As soon as he entered, two black lights shot over from both sides.

Zheng Hong’s entire body stiffened. At the moment he sensed the black light, his physical and spiritual reflexes seemed to have become much slower.

A bone-piercing chill not only froze his flesh, but also affected the spiritual body in his spiritual world, infinitely magnifying the fear in his heart.

It had to be known that he was not an ordinary person, but a half-step away from the master realm. There were less than 100 people in the entire Daxia Kingdom who had reached this level.

Chen Yiming didn’t dare to be careless. He held the sword formed by the sword spirit in his hand and slashed out in a circle.

A circle of white light quickly expanded and collided with the incoming black light. Two forces, one black and one white, were instantly reflected off the clouds.

The scene was similar to the intersection of the currents in the sea. The coldness and heat were separated by an invisible line.

In the next moment, the scene in the sky collapsed.

A dazzling white light blossomed, and the black patch that had turned half the sky from day into night quickly melted away, as if ice had encountered a scorching sun.

On the ground, the entire sentry post was completely razed to the ground, raising a large cloud of dust.

…

A few minutes later, everything returned to normal.

Chen Yiming and Zheng Hong, who was still a little stiff, found two incomplete drawings in the ruins of the sentry post.

These drawings were the source of the two streams of black light, and were originally carved into the stone wall.

One of them was a monster with a goat head, its eyes blood-red and filled with madness. The other was a monster that looked like a bat. There were purple patterns on its body, and one’s consciousness seemed to be pulled in from the first glance.

“A drawing made from mysterious symbols?”

Chen Yiming sized up the two drawings and communicated with the sword spirit in his hand.

The figure in his mind: It’s a combination of mysterious symbols unrelated to swordsmanship. Without the relevant knowledge, it is impossible to analyze it fully.

At the same time, the spiritual figure sent over a new cultivation technique.

The new technique used some of the mysterious symbols in the drawings as the foundation and used a power similar to the black light adapted for swordsmanship. Its attributes tended towards coldness, darkness, curses, and illusions.

However, Chen Yiming didn’t need to rely on this to become stronger. Instead of learning about the mysterious symbols, he was better off accumulating more Skill Points to increase his talent.

This technique could only be used to expand his knowledge about the mysterious symbols.

Zheng Hong asked, “What should we do with these two drawings?”

His words were filled with panic.

He had looked at the drawings of the goat-headed monster and the bat monster one after another. He suddenly found himself in a mountain of corpses in a sea of blood. His consciousness seemed to be showing signs of breaking down.

Fortunately, since the drawings were incomplete, they did not seem to be able to be fully activated. This allowed Zheng Hong to forcefully break free.

Chen Yiming retracted his gaze.

He had seen Zheng Hong’s abnormal situation earlier. The reason why he had allowed himself to be affected by the drawings was because he wanted to test how much resistance he could put up at half a step away from the master realm.

His experiment proved that if it was a complete drawing, there was a high chance that he would fall under its control once he glanced at it.

Even if it was incomplete, and it would not be a problem to take a look or two at it, it still could not be used for research.

In the end, Chen Yiming destroyed the two incomplete drawings with one strike.

Other than him, it was best not to let anyone else look upon it. He did not want to leave any hidden dangers behind.

Other than the two drawings, they could not find any other clues. The other party seemed to have left behind just a trap and moved far away.

…

In the blink of an eye, three days had passed.

During this time, Chen Yiming went to the large lake. The alien creature that was at the level of a martial master had disappeared.

He entered the space-travel passage at the bottom of the lake. On the other side was a large body of water, but it was similar to the ocean on the blue planet.

Furthermore, the environment was harsh, and there were often terrifying thunderstorms. The strength of the wind far exceeded any records on the blue planet.

Since there was no end in sight, Chen Yiming didn’t go too far. At the same time, he didn’t find any traces of the otherworld creature.

On a sunny afternoon, in the small courtyard of the villa, Chen Yiming chatted for a while with Elder Zhang, who was sitting in a wheelchair. He knew that the elder’s injuries could be completely healed, but he needed time to recover, so he left.

Some time after the conversation in the courtyard had ended, Zhang Qingqing came out of the house.

She walked forward and helped push the wheelchair along the stone path.

On the way, Elder Zhang suddenly said, “I heard from your mother that you addressed him as ‘uncle’ the other day.”

Zhang Qingqing looked embarrassed and explained softly, “Uncle Zheng suddenly called me over. There were so many people in the hall at that time, I was confused.”

Elder Zhang sighed and said, “What a pity.”

Zhang Qingqing pouted. “No, I’m not going anywhere. I’ll just stay by Grandpa’s side.”

Elder Zhang could not do anything about it and did not ask any more questions.

The members of the Zhang family from his children’s generation were trying to set things up for the sake of the clan. There was no right or wrong to it.

However, due to her background, Zhang Qingqing was used to having her way. It was clearly not suitable for her to be forced into something.

However, even Elder Zhang was powerless to deal with the problem facing the no man’s land in the southwest. Therefore, he had to plan ahead.

He had planned to send a portion of the Zhang family to Jiangnan province. However, after the incident with Zhang Qingqing, he was too ashamed to ask Chen Yiming to take care of this matter.

…

After leaving the villa, Chen Yiming walked casually along the streets of Chengdu City.

Elder Zhang’s serious injuries had not been publicized, but the military’s actions would not stop because of this. Chengdu City had entered a state similar to wartime.

Teams of soldiers walked onto the streets. Not only were they patrolling, but they were also checking every household and every corner of the city.

These soldiers had all undergone special training. They moved in groups of three. One was in charge of checking, one was in charge of observing the situation, and one was in charge of supervising the other two.

In short, they worked together according to their assigned roles.

Once they discovered that something was amiss, the group would not investigate any further. Instead, they would report it to the captain to prevent everyone in the group from being affected.

At some point, the phone rang.

Feng Wuji’s voice came from the other end of the line.

He had called Feng Wuji over not because he was short on manpower, but because he wanted to try and see if he could turn the situation around with his crystal shadow talent.

There was a fundamental difference between the crystal meditation technique and the crystal shadow talent it was derived from.

As Feng Wuji progressed in his cultivation, there was still room for improvement of his crystal shadow talent in the future, especially when Feng Wuji broke through to the master realm.

As for the crystal meditation technique, there was nothing else to refer to, and the upper limit was already fixed. It worked on the level of internal force, and was too weak against the power of nature.

For example, Zheng Hong had mastered the crystal meditation technique. When faced with the two drawings and the mysterious symbols, the crystal meditation technique could be said to be useless.

Not long after, Chen Yiming and Feng Wuji met at the airport.

Chen Yiming led Feng Wuji to the flattened sentry post. Along the way, he briefly explained the mysterious symbols.

When Feng Wuji heard this, not only was he not afraid, but he felt excited instead.

On the path of martial arts, if one did not have a strong enough foundation, they still had to fight for their only chance.

He had already reached a bottleneck, but what was the limit of his crystal shadow talent?

If he encountered a suitable opponent, such as one with a natural power that was completely at odds with his power of purification, he might be able to complete a qualitative change in one go.

…

At the flattened sentry post, “Give it a try first.” Chen Yiming pointed out the location to Feng Wuji.

Feng Wuji nodded and went to the spot where the destroyed drawing was.

He pressed his palms together, and a glint flashed across his eyes. Immediately, a crystal shadow appeared behind his head.

Compared to the crystal created by the crystal meditation technique, the crystal shadow talent undoubtedly had a trace of spirituality. This trace of spirituality brought about a dynamic nature, and it was not just an inanimate object.

Then, streams of purification power slowly spread out from the crystal shadow in all four directions.

Time quickly passed by.

After nearly half an hour had passed, suddenly, something strange happened.

Chen Yiming keenly sensed a trace of malice surging up from the ground.

He quickly retreated a large distance and restrained his aura, afraid that he would scare the other party away.

Feng Wuji understood his intentions. While maintaining the crystal shadow, he focused his attention on his feet.

Chen Yiming had discussed it with him beforehand. Unless he was definitely going to die, he would have to rely on himself to resolve the problem.

“They’re here!”

Dozens of shadow tentacles suddenly appeared from the ground, sealing off almost all of Feng Wuji’s escape routes.

Chen Yiming could only observe it with his naked eye.

The shadow tentacles were almost made of pure energy. There were no mysterious symbols on them, but some strange marks with a trace of the mysterious symbols.

He thought to himself, “To deal with the black tide, it seems that I have to think of a way to trick the female spirit.”

In the face of the black tide, the martial arts level on the blue planet seemed to be even weaker than that of a baby. At this moment, it was definitely only at the probing stage, and the other party had already displayed an unpredictable side.

If Chen Yiming wasn’t wrong, the strange marks on the shadow tentacles were a form that resonated with the power of nature.

By mastering these marks, one could achieve a resonance with the power of nature. The mark was a simplified version of the mysterious symbols. Then, by mastering the mysterious symbols, one could break through to the inscription realm.

This was a gradual path of improvement.

As for the martial arts of the humans on the blue planet, be it the marks or the mysterious symbols, they lacked the corresponding cultivation techniques. It could even be said that they drew a complete blank when it came to these. Breaking through depended purely on one’s talent and luck.

As for Chen Yiming, he relied on the talent system.

With such a method, one could naturally control the corresponding power when they broke through to the next level.

The only flaw was that he himself could not explain how he could master the corresponding power of nature. Naturally, he could not teach it to others.

On the battlefield, Feng Wuji was fighting the shadow tentacles.

For Feng Wuji to be able to advance so quickly from someone who had just obtained internal force to someone who was half a step away from the master realm, the crystal shadow talent naturally had its own advantageous points.

For the time being, with the help of an invisible force, Feng Wuji was only at a slight disadvantage.