Chapter 341 – The Duel Approaches!

Sharing authority and expanding combat methods, while rare in this world, do occur. However, Gang Condensation and Sha Refinement involve a person’s foundation, making it extremely difficult to assist others in this regard.

Upon first hearing that Mu Lin could help her in this area, Xue Ying was naturally surprised.

In contrast, Yan Yunyu remained quite composed.

“Brother Mu would never speak falsely. You just need to trust him.”

“…”

Xue Ying was left speechless by Yan Yunyu’s adoring words, and even Mu Lin felt somewhat awkward.

“Ahem…”

After coughing twice, Mu Lin also mentioned the drawbacks of this matter.

“Of course, there are some flaws in my assistance with your Sha Refinement. Since I am involved, the Gang Sha will carry some of my will, which will affect your future to some extent. However…”

Mu Lin didn’t finish the sentence, but both Xue Ying and Yan Yunyu understood his meaning.

After entering the True Spirit Karma Diagram, they had long been influenced by Mu Lin. A little more wouldn’t make much difference.

Having figured everything out, Xue Ying nodded indifferently and said, “Then let’s begin.”

…

Xue Ying was well aware of the specifics of the Sha Refinement stage. She knew that, due to the limited strength of the human body, Sha Refinement normally takes three to five years.

Of course, during this process, cultivators can accelerate their Sha Refinement progress by consuming resources.

For example, certain treasures that restore the body can increase the speed of Sha Refinement by three to five times.

Thus, for some prodigies supported by influential families, their Sha Refinement time is mostly around half a year to a year.

When Mu Lin said he could assist, Xue Ying originally thought this assistance would reduce her time by one or two months. However, once the actual Sha Refinement began, she realized the power of Mu Lin’s assistance and understood how wonderful and rapid it is to cultivate with cheats.

Is Baleful Qi difficult to tame?

Just consider the True Spirit Karma Diagram and the Vow Power Heart Flame.

Once entered into the diagram, no matter what kind of Baleful Qi it is, Mu Lin can easily control it with his supreme status.

Then, this controlled Baleful Qi is directly transmitted to Yan Yunyu and Chu Lingluo through the True Spirit Karma Diagram.

This operation completely eliminates the need for them to tame the Baleful Qi and makes the highly dangerous Baleful Qi extremely easy to absorb. This alone reduces their time by at least tenfold.

Next is the physical body.

Normally, a person’s physical strength is limited. Absorbing too much Baleful Qi can cause damage to the body, such as petrification, lacerations, burns, frostbite, etc. To avoid severe bodily harm, cultivators rest for a few days after each session of Sha Refinement.

But this issue does not exist for Mu Lin.

After reaching the Master level with Substitute Paper Figures, they are no longer limited to creating substitutes for Mu Lin alone.

Advancing to Grandmaster made them even more powerful.

Since Yan Yunyu and Xue Ying are under Mu Lin’s command and their relationship is close enough, Mu Lin can easily create Substitute Paper Figures for them—and he doesn’t even need to spend time making them himself. His Substitute Paper Figures have already established a Paper Doll Workshop, which can continuously produce Paper Figures for Yan Yunyu and Chu Lingluo.

With the help of Substitute Paper Figures, once Yan Yunyu and Xue Ying accumulate a certain level of injuries, they are directly transferred away.

This allows them to engage in Sha Refinement frantically without any loss, increasing their speed by more than tenfold again.

Of course, the Substitute Paper Figure – Others was ultimately still others, so Mu Lin couldn’t transfer all the injuries away completely. Therefore, they couldn’t replicate his feat of refining Sha for an entire hour.

But if an hour wasn’t possible, three days would surely be enough.

“A bit slow, but it should suffice…”

Mu Lin wasn’t entirely satisfied with this timeframe.

However, what Xue Ying felt was sheer astonishment.

“Such speed, such powerful auxiliary abilities… Mu Lin, even if you had nothing else, just this alone would attract countless people to seek your allegiance.”

“But I won’t accept just anyone.”

…

Aside from accelerating cultivation, Mu Lin’s True Spirit Karma Diagram could also enhance their foundation and potential, which was reflected in the Divine Position.

Xue Ying and Yan Yunyu’s talent and foundation weren’t particularly outstanding. The amount of Baleful Qi the two women could absorb was only about 4.8 times that of an ordinary Prodigy.

Of this, Xue Ying accounted for 4.2 times, while Yan Yunyu was 0.6.

But the Divine Position changed everything. Mu Lin’s Divine Position could also contain Baleful Qi, which could be utilized by the Divine Master occupying it.

In the end, Xue Ying’s Baleful Qi capacity increased to 7.2 times, while Yan Yunyu’s also rose to 3.6 times that of an ordinary Prodigy.

“With such potential, it should be enough to handle the battle the day after tomorrow.”

…

Time passed slowly as Mu Lin cultivated. Soon, several days went by, and the day arrived when the Prodigies from the Northern Wastelands were set to challenge Mu Lin.

Because in recent times, after their defeats, Southern scholars frequently used Mu Lin to salvage their pride, the young Prodigies from the North understood one thing: as long as they defeated Mu Lin, they could completely crush the hopes of the Southern Aristocracy.

At the very least, the youths under eighteen would be utterly defeated.

For this reason, on this day, nearly all members of the Northern Aristocracy came to the Jade Lake Dao Academy to witness this battle.

Similarly, the Southern Aristocracy also arrived.

Knowing that Mu Lin possessed genuine skill and wasn’t just a blustering waste, they felt somewhat nervous and uneasy about this battle, but not overly fearful. Instead, they were more expectant, hoping Mu Lin would teach the Northern Aristocracy a harsh lesson.

“Young Master Mu, give it your all! Beat those arrogant Northern barbarians to a pulp!”

“Beat us? Him? Ha, he’s not even worthy.”

“You have no idea how high the sky is or how deep the earth is. You simply don’t understand Young Master Mu’s strength.”

“We don’t know how strong that Mu Lin is, but we’ve truly experienced your incompetence… ‘No idea how high the sky is or how deep the earth is’—that’s more fitting for you.”

“Exactly! Over these past few days, you haven’t even been worthy of giving us a proper challenge!”

“…”

With so many people gathered together, especially the youths from both sides of the North-South rivalry, tempers ran high. Even before the Northern Prodigies’ challenge began, a war of words erupted at the Jade Lake Dao Academy.

And the result of this verbal battle was a complete victory for Mu Lin’s side.

  —After all, this was the South’s home ground, and the Southern scholars vastly outnumbered the others.

Among so many people, there might be some who disliked Mu Lin.

However, compared to Mu Lin, they despised the Northern Aristocracy even more—the ones who had beaten them soundly, acted arrogantly, and competed for their interests. Thus, nearly all the Southern youths present supported him, and the shouts of “Mu Lin!” echoed to the heavens.

Of course, while ordinary youths were cheering, the Clan Elders of the aristocratic families and some scions of these families would not react in the same way.

They gathered in the VIP rooms beside the Jade Lake Dao Academy’s martial arena, discussing the outcome of this battle.

Due to the overwhelming number of spectators, the VIP seating at Jade Lake Dao Academy was insufficient. Some aristocratic families even brought treasure ships and palaces capable of floating in the air.

At the same time, the audience for this battle was not limited to scions of human aristocratic families—there were also individuals from foreign races.

Tian Yun of the Feather Clan had returned to Jade Lake Dao Academy, accompanied by several prodigies with wings and Elders of the Feather Clan.

Meanwhile, other foreign races had also arrived.

Such as the Tiger Tribe, the Wood Tribe, the Qingqiu Fox Clan, and… the Dragon Clan.

The arrival of so many foreign races seemed like a reenactment of the Southeast Region’s grand examination several months ago.

In reality, however, this was not the case.

The foreign races arriving this time were of a much higher caliber than before.

After all, that previous battle was merely a contest among the younger generation of the Southeast Region, with only minor clans subordinate to humans participating.

Now, however, it was a conflict between the North and South of humanity—an event capable of determining the direction of human affairs. As such, those who came this time were all major powers nearly equal to humanity or capable of posing some threat.

As for Mu Lin and whether he could achieve victory, their perspectives differed from those of the North-South Clans.

“Let’s hear your thoughts. Do you believe Mu Lin can win?”

The one asking was an Elder of the Tiger Tribe. As the king of beasts and the shared ruler of the Demon Race, the youths in their group were the most numerous and the most peculiar among the foreign races.

Here, not only were there members of the Demon Tiger Tribe, but also Bull Demons, Ape Monkeys, White Deer, Blood Eagles, Stones… all gathered together.

Of course, although the Demon Race was numerous, the Tiger Tribe took the lead here. The Black Evil Tiger that Mu Lin had seen before was seated to one side, flanked by a White Tiger and a golden, radiant Golden Winged Tiger.

In response to the Tiger Tribe Elder’s question, the first to speak was the White Deer.

“It’s impossible to determine for now. The Southern Aristocracy has such confidence in Mu Lin, so he must possess some strength. However, the Northern humans are also formidable, each wielding Forbidden Power. Moreover, in previous battles, the Child of Mars among them has yet to take action—he is a threat, a significant one.”

Although uncertain, the White Deer subtly felt that the Northern Aristocracy held a greater advantage.

Especially when mentioning the Child of Mars, its gaze grew particularly grave.

Hearing this, the Bull Demon grumbled, “Isn’t that better? If Mu Lin loses, the Southern humans will become even more dependent on us.”

“That’s not how it works.”

This time, it was the Celestial Fox among the Demon Race who spoke—Tu Su, the Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox.

As she looked toward Mu Lin’s direction and heard the many Southern scholars shouting his name, her mood had been somewhat peculiar.

Several months ago, she had heard of Mu Lin’s name.

At that time, the Fushan tribe, which belonged to the Demon Fox Clan, had reported information about Mu Lin, stating that he possessed exceptional talent and requesting that the Qingqiu Fox Clan send a princess to marry him.

However, after considering all aspects of the information, the Qingqiu Fox Clan deemed Mu Lin not yet strong enough and lacking in influence, so they did not agree.

But she never expected that after just a few months apart, Mu Lin had gained such immense momentum, and even managed to make all the young men of the Southern Aristocracy submit in awe.

Such prestige was already enough for him to marry her sister, the princess of the Qingqiu Fox Clan.

‘I could inform the clan and have Third Sister marry him.’

‘But with his current prestige and fame, if Third Sister marries him, can she truly become the most favored one?’

After some thought, Tu Su shook her head. She didn’t believe her Third Sister could compete with the human girls.

‘Sigh, too late…’

Though she felt regretful as she sighed, Tu Su never once considered marrying him herself.

Clearly, in her view, while Mu Lin’s talent was strong, he was still not qualified to marry her.

As the most noble princess of the Qingqiu Fox Clan, a Nine-Tailed Celestial Fox among the Demon Foxes, her potential partners had always been the Son of the Demon Emperor or a True Dragon Descendant.

Even among humans, only princes with a chance to seize the throne were considered.

Mu Lin simply never caught her eye.

“Without the support of a noble family, the Southern scholars merely respect you and are unwilling to offend you lightly, but they will not obey your commands.”

“Someone like you, in the end, is just a lone wanderer. You cannot bring much help to the Qingqiu Fox Clan, nor are you worthy of my favor.”

Holding such thoughts, Tu Su naturally looked down on Mu Lin.

Though, even if she wanted to marry him, Mu Lin might not necessarily be willing.

…

While pondering over Mu Lin, Tu Su spoke up:

“If the Southern Aristocracy suffers too heavy a defeat, we will be the ones to step up next. But the Northern humans… are not easy to deal with. Even if we win against them, it will be a pyrrhic victory.”

“If it comes to that, we and the Southern Aristocracy will have no choice but to cooperate closely, and we won’t be able to demand too many resources from them.”

“On the other hand, if Mu Lin withstands the Northern offensive, it will make them fight even more fiercely, causing the Human Race to continue its internal strife. That’s better than us taking action ourselves.”

This reasoning made some sense. After all, the Northern Aristocracy only wanted money from the Southern Aristocracy, but from Foreign Races like them, they wanted their lives.

If the Southern Aristocracy suffered too heavy a defeat and simply gave up, these Foreign Races truly wouldn’t dare to demand resources and would instead help for free.

That was not the outcome they wanted.

Only if the North-South Clans fought back and forth would they have significant room to maneuver and demand resources from the Southern Aristocracy.

Thinking this way, the Demon Race never considered one possibility—that even without them, the Southern Aristocracy could achieve a great victory solely by relying on Mu Lin.

(End of Chapter)