Book 9: Chapter 80: Price of Maturity

Lin Xi stood up.

He saw that the Heaven’s Lens Mermaid in front of him already died. Then, the aura of Bian Linghan’s body shook, blood gushing out from her mouth and nose.

Since he still hadn’t used the ten minute rewind ability yet, he was too nervous right now, only wishing to find out just what exactly happened.

Du Zhanye’s expression was also extremely pale, but her face didn’t carry the panic of Jiang Xiaoyi and the others, instead only having shock and pleasant surprise.

It was because she knew what kind of thing happened.

Bian Linghan’s aura no longer surged, falling down in a decrepit manner.

Du Zhanye immediately rushed out, reaching out two fingers and pressing against Bian Linghan’s wrist vessels.

“What exactly happened? How is she?”

Lin Xi who was more calm than anyone else could also see that Du Zhanye’s expression was different from everyone else’s. He had to confirm whether or not he should use the ten minute rewind ability, time couldn’t be wasted, so he immediately looked at Du Zhanye and asked.

“Soul merging.”

Du Zhanye was a bit nervous, first speaking these two words.

Gao Yanan who didn’t even have enough time to wipe off the blood from the corners of her lips immediately frowned, a bit confused. “Soul merging?”

Du Zhanye immediately replied, “It is equivalent to a forced soul merging.”

This simple reply alone immediately made Lin Xi’s mood become extremely serious. Even though he had never come into contact with a concrete soul merging cultivation method, he already understood the related soul merging theory clearly. He knew that only cultivators who reached State Knight level or high had a chance of conducting soul merging cultivation.

“Is there any danger?” He gave Bian Linghan a look and then immediately took a deep breath, asking this.

Du Zhanye gave the Heaven’s Lens Mermaid corpse a look. She knew that since this type of thing happened, this Heaven’s Lens Mermaid was already equivalent to a cultivator at the peak of State Knight level. However, regardless of whether it was this Heaven’s Lens Mermaid being killed by Lin Xi’s group or Bian Linghan still being alive, they were both inconceivable things, so she momentarily found it hard to clearly explain her thoughts, her brain going a bit empty. “She should be okay.” After first freezing up for a few breaths of time, this was the only thing she said in reply.

“Linghan, are you able to speak? How do you feel?” Lin Xi released a slight breath of relief, doing his best to ask Bian Linghan with a calm voice. In his opinion, cultivators understood their own injuries more accurately than the observations of others.

“I won’t die. It was just my arms’ meridians and inner organs that were wounded a bit from the shock, so I won’t be of use in battle for quite some time.” Bian Linghan looked towards Lin Xi with difficulty, nodding and saying, “Only…”

Lin Xi’s brows jumped, continuing to ask, “Only what?”

Bian Linghan also slowly took a deep breath, doing her best to calm herself down a bit. “Only, the Heaven’s Lens Mermaid’s power is still within my body.”

“Without State Knight level cultivation, there is no way to merge this wave of power.” Gao Yanan looked at Du Zhanye, her brows furrowed deeply. “Now that this Heaven’s Lens Mermaid sent out the last of her own power, trying to merge her soul in reverse, it was precisely to kill her opponent. Why is Bian Linghan fine?”

Under Gao Yanan’s questioning, Du Zhanye’s thoughts became a bit clearer. While looking at these youngsters who were originally her junior brothers and sisters, but now seemed to have become youngsters who were more mature and powerful, in a bit of an ashamed and not completely certain manner, she said, “With her cultivation, there should be no way she could merge this wave of power… The soul merging of cultivators, the reason why it needs State Knight level before it can be conducted is that apart from only State Knight level soul force being enough to merge a fiend beast’s source power, normally, only the willpower of a State Knight level cultivator could endure the backlash of this type of fiend beast source power’s willpower.”

“Soul merging is a contest of will to begin with, see who can subdue who.” Du Zhanye thought while explaining, “So that’s why even though the academy has some spiritual medicines for increasing one’s cultivation level, they don’t freely give them out… Many actual examples have proven that cultivators who have only borrowed external force to raise their cultivation have a hard time successfully merging souls, because their spirit and willpower don’t match their cultivation levels, not reaching that level. Right now, Linghan is still fine… so it can only prove that her willpower is sufficiently powerful.”

“I just find it hard to understand, all of you guys… how do you have such powerful willpower?” Du Zhanye looked at Lin Xi, Bian Linghan and the others. According to normal reasoning, with these people’s cultivation, killing a Heaven’s Lens Mermaid with this level of fighting strength was impossible. However, these junior brothers and sisters displayed such a valiant side. She suddenly felt like she was looking at the initial form of a small troop that would leave all of Yunqin Empire shocked in the future.

When he heard Du Zhanye say this, Jiang Xiaoyi whose mind relaxed a bit shifted his gaze over to Lin Xi. Meng Bai who was sitting on the ground, clutching his chest, feeling like he still couldn’t catch his breath also looked at Lin Xi.

The two naturally understood the reason well… Under Lin Xi’s crazy cultivation that didn’t even fear death, how could Bian Linghan’s will not become powerful?

Gao Yanan’s expression instead became serious. She looked at Du Zhanye and asked, “But with her cultivation, she still cannot merge this wave of power… what would this power do if it is left in her body?”

Lin Xi also frowned, looking at Du Zhanye. This was also what he cared about the most.

“It will most likely intermittently act out.” After some hesitation, Du Zhanye said, “This wave of power cannot become stronger without merging with her. Since she was able to stop it from the beginning, I have confidence that she won’t suffer any dangers to her life… However, the shaking of this power can still injure her. This will continue until she can break through into the State Knight level and completely merge this wave of power with herself.”

“This means that before she breaks through to the State Knight level, she would become injured from time to time… perhaps even always sustaining injuries?” Lin Xi asked quietly.

Du Zhanye nodded. She gave Bian Linghan and Lin Xi a look. “However, I feel that this should be something to be happy about. Wounds can naturally be recovered from, but a Heaven’s Lens Mermaid is an extremely rare and powerful fiend beast… Cultivators who could merge with the soul of such a powerful fiend beast are extremely few in Yunqin. As far as I know, in all of Yunqin, there is only one person who could merge with the soul of a Heaven’s Lens Mermaid.”

“The imperial princess.” Lin Xi and Gao Yanan exchanged a look, saying these three words at the same time.

Du Zhanye nodded.

This was originally a secret no one knew about. However, after the imperial princess suffered an assassination during Rudong chaos, the cat was already out of the bag.

“Which means that she is equivalent to being already prepared with what she needs for soul merging, just that she will always have to remain a wounded member?” After a bitter smile, Jiang Xiaoyi thought for a bit and said, “I felt like this is indeed something worth celebrating. I wonder if after learning about her situation, the academy will do their best to help her break through into State Knight level cultivation.”

“The academy will still be partial to their own people.” Lin Xi began to remove the heavy armor covering his body. He could feel that his injuries already stopped bleeding, but a large amount of soul force was exhausted for this staunching process. The tremendous amount of blood loss and soul force consumption made him feel a bit weak and tired. “Only, it really is a bit difficult for our sickly and wounded group.”

Cultivators could judge the other party’s condition from the breathing and auras of another.

In this situation where they were all close, no one deliberately tried to hide their true condition.

That was why Lin Xi and the others all clearly sensed that… Lin Xi’s vitality and soul force were both extremely weak. Gao Yanan’s soul force was also almost completely exhausted, her inner organs also injured. Some of Meng Bai’s ribs might be broken, suffering some injuries between his chest and lungs, making his breathing a bit difficult. Lucky also used up a lot of its power, having to sit out for a bit. As for Bian Linghan, she definitely couldn’t help any more, to the extent where she urgently needed medical treatment… Their small troop’s current condition was indeed a bit miserable.

“We are still in Jadefall City, it is unknown how much longer you have to remain sickly for… do you feel that this type of price is worth it?” While Du Zhanye quickly examined his injuries, Lin Xi looked at Bian Linghan, seriously asking this.

Bian Linghan didn’t understand the true intentions behind Lin Xi’s words. She thought that they were just injuries, even if she had to remain injured for a bit longer, regardless of whether it was in Yunqin, Tangcang or Great Mang, the number of fiend beasts was extremely few. Once one reached State Knight level cultivation, cultivators who could merge souls were even fewer in number. Meanwhile, she obtained the soul of one of the higher level fiend beasts, a Heaven’s Lens Mermaid. This type of price, in her eyes, was naturally worth it. So she only looked at Lin Xi with a bit of shock, naturally saying, “Of course it’s worth it… If my luck is bad and I end up dying in Jadefall City, then there’s nothing that can be done about it.”

“Then even if we redid things and killed the Heaven’s Lens Mermaid, I reckon we wouldn’t be able to obtain this type of benefit.” Lin Xi thought for a bit and then chuckled. “It does seem to be worth it.”

“Your injuries…” Du Zhanye released a cry of alarm.

“This is also a secret, please do your best to help me keep it… these flesh injuries of mine don’t need to be treated.” Lin Xi noticed Du Zhanye’s shock at how his injuries all stopped bleeding without any treatment, quietly saying this. Then, he sensed a wave of warmth that didn’t exist before spreading throughout his body, sensing that something which previously didn’t exist in his dantian was taking form. As such, a smile appeared on his face again. He looked at Gao Yanan, Jiang Xiaoyi and the others, quietly saying, “I just happened to break through into mid stage Soul Master level.”

No one found this surprising.

This was especially the case in Bian Linghan, Jiang Xiaoyi and Meng Bai’s eyes, this was something that was extremely natural and ought to happen.

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