Chapter 436 – Sky Observation's Power: Shortcut to Controlling the Black River

Studying the Source Runes, yet ultimately comprehending the Heaven-Gazing Trait—for this final outcome, Mu Lin was not overly surprised.

He was not like a child, merely learning in a muddled way or through rote memorization.

While observing the Stone Tablet and contemplating the Source Runes, Mu Lin focused more on grasping the profound meanings behind the Source Runes.

In the end, with Grandmaster Level Painting and Grandmaster Level Calligraphy as his foundation, Mu Lin comprehended that the Source Runes were the Heavenly Dao Traces, the World’s Veins.

“All phenomena and myriad things have Source Runes as their representation. What I must learn now is not simply a single character, but to observe and discern the Source Runes from the myriad manifestations of heaven and earth…”

“Only by seeing can one understand, learn, and even master them. Therefore, my first step is to see—to see heaven and earth, to see all living beings, and to see their origins…”

This was Mu Lin’s thought at the time, and Grandmaster Level Painting had already given him an eye for discovering beauty.

The foundation of painting is aesthetics and observation. Only by seeing with his eyes or conceiving in his mind could Mu Lin create paintings that were either exquisitely beautiful or awe-inspiring.

It could be said that a Grandmaster Level painter’s unique way of observing the world formed the basis of the [Heaven-Gazing] trait.

Subsequently, Grandmaster Level Calligraphy enabled Mu Lin to transform what he saw into written characters.

Well, aside from these, there was also a little help from the Attribute Panel.

“No, not just the Attribute Panel. During this period, my eyes have evolved several times, which also serves as the foundation for Heaven-Gazing.”

Without careful reflection, he wouldn’t have realized it, but now, upon thorough consideration, Mu Lin discovered that his eyes—were utterly terrifying.

First, after transforming into the Candle Dragon, Mu Lin’s eyes contained the Shifts of Light and Dark.

Second, the Life-Death Illusion-Destruction Ability of the Other Shore Flower Sea could also be manifested through Mu Lin’s eyes.

Then there was King Yama—its authority allowed Mu Lin to see through a person’s Sin and Lifespan Limit.

Furthermore, by Commanding the Chongming Bird, Mu Lin’s eyes gained the abilities of Clairvoyance, Farsight, and Observing the Microscopic World.

The combination of these various abilities meant that Yin-Yang Light-Dark, Life-Death Illusion-Destruction, and Observing the Great Chiliocosm were all concentrated within Mu Lin’s pupils… With these as the foundation, it was only natural for Mu Lin to acquire the Heaven-Gazing Trait.

…

After reflecting on the reasons he could obtain the [Heaven-Gazing] trait, Mu Lin was also immensely satisfied with this trait.

The Heaven-Gazing Trait allowed Mu Lin to observe everything in the floating world and, through his own eyes, deduce the origins of things and depict their characters.

Just like now, within the Netherworld Palace, Mu Lin transformed into King Yama and summoned a handful of Sin Salt.

Then, with Transcendence Activation and Nether-Communion Empowerment, Mu Lin’s aura suddenly became lofty and majestic, while his eyes, like the Heavenly Dao itself, radiated boundless might and indifference.

Now, his eyes could see through everything.

And as his gaze fixed intently on the Sin Salt… grains of salt, like tears, fell from Mu Lin’s eyes.

Gazing directly at the Forbidden Power, Mu Lin’s eyes were contaminated.

It must be said, Mu Lin was powerful, but the Forbidden Power was no trivial matter either.

Not everyone possessed the ability to observe their origins.

After all, when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back into you.

Fortunately, this danger was also within Mu Lin’s expectations, and he had a way to deal with it.

“Buzz!”

Just as Mu Lin’s eyes were being eroded by the power of Sin Salt, turning into salt crystals, a diligent Paper Figure in the Paper Man Workshop, who had been toiling for months, suddenly stiffened.

In the next moment, its rigid body gradually began to saltify, transforming into a pile of salt pillars.

Mu Lin had transferred the damage he suffered onto the Substitute Paper Figure.

This move was highly effective. As the damage was transferred, the condition of Mu Lin’s Main Body improved.

Consequently, his Heaven-Gazing Trait was able to continue functioning.

With prolonged observation, the scene before Mu Lin’s eyes gradually began to change.

Although his gaze remained fixed on the salt crystals, what he saw was no longer the salt before him but a vast expanse of saline-alkali land.

“Is this that forbidden land?”

As Mu Lin pondered, the hallucination in his eyes shifted once more. The saline-alkali land… began to shrink.

This phenomenon was not caused by Mu Lin, nor was the saline-alkali land in the present world shrinking. Rather, Mu Lin was observing the past of this handful of salt crystals.

“To think it contains the Power of Time… but that makes sense. I already possess a sliver of time-related ability, whether it’s the Source Rune – Stabilize or the Nether-Communion Ancestral Hero Souls—both are connected to time.”

“When I comprehended Heaven-Gazing, I also incorporated these insights into time…”

Amid Mu Lin’s musings, the scene in his eyes changed once more.

The saline-alkali land, which had spanned thousands of miles, shrank down to a small handful of salt crystals.

In the next moment, these salt crystals soared into the sky, flying into an Extradimensional Space.

Of course, Mu Lin knew this was time flowing backward.

Thus, the true sequence of events was that the salt crystals fell from the outer realm and rapidly expanded.

Naturally, the truth of the past had little to do with the present Mu Lin.

What troubled Mu Lin was that, after prolonged observation of the salt crystals, sixty-three of his Paper Figures had already turned into salt pillars.

Moreover, continuously activating Heaven-Gazing consumed an enormous amount of his Mana.

Under normal circumstances, Mu Lin should have stopped at this point.

But he was unwilling to give up, so he continued to maintain his Heaven-Gazing Power.

Fortunately, Mu Lin had the resources to sustain it.

“I have three to five hundred Paper Figures. Losing just sixty-three is something I can afford!”

“As for Mana consumption… the Spirit Veins of the Agricultural Militia are all under my control. I refuse to believe that with so much Mana, I still can’t uncover your origin!”

With a surge of determination, Mu Lin not only persisted but also increased his Mana input.

The influx of massive amounts of Mana allowed Mu Lin to see even deeper into the truth of Sin Salt.

He saw Sin Salt flying through the heavens, watched as it fell into one world after another.

And when his Paper Substitutes had been reduced by one hundred and eighty, Mu Lin finally witnessed the origin of Sin Salt.

It was a world not unlike the one Mu Lin currently inhabited—a world also plagued by Calamities, Anomalies, and Malevolent Ghosts.

In that world, salt was considered a Sacred Object. Through people’s faith, over a hundred thousand years of worship, and some unique Heaven and Earth Laws, the salt of that world truly possessed Mysterious Power.

By scattering salt, the humans of that world could Expel Malignant Ghosts, Purify Impurities within themselves, and cleanse Polluted Areas.

With the Holy Salt, they fended off the attacks of the Malevolent Ghosts time and again, protecting the world from disaster.

Yet, in the end, that world still fell.

Ironically, that world did not fall to the Malevolent Ghosts or Evil Spirits, but to humanity itself.

Some Human Kings sought immortality, some powerful individuals desired to Ascend to Godhood… the Desires of all living beings led them to turn against one another.

Even worse, to force the World’s Heavenly Dao to lift its restrictions and release more Root Power, many of the world’s powerful figures actually stood by as Evil Gods invaded their own world, or even actively acted as Traitors.

——When a world faces a crisis, the Heavenly Dao instinctively consumes its origin power to nurture Prodigies or other supreme treasures. This is why, before a Doomsday Calamity, a Golden Age often emerges.

This is the World’s Self-Salvation. In the world where the Holy Salt existed, the powerful humans exploited this very mechanism, continuously draining the world’s origin to enhance their own strength.

In the end, they went too far. The world’s origin was exhausted, and it could no longer suppress the power of Evil Aberrations.

Without the World’s Suppression Force, countless calamities and countless Evil Gods easily polluted their world.

When the world was destroyed, the powerful might still find a way out, but ordinary people could only pray for the protection of the Holy Salt.

Alas, the Holy Salt was merely extraordinary, not an omnipotent god.

With the entire world polluted, it could not protect everyone. The deaths of countless people turned their worship from gratitude into seething resentment.

They hated the Holy Salt for failing to save them.

They hated the demonic monsters that killed them.

And they hated even more those powerful individuals who had drained the world’s origin.

This Sky-Scraping Hatred, fused with the Great Despair and Great Destruction of the Heavenly Dao’s Fall, ultimately transformed the Holy Salt into Sin Salt.

It was the ember of a world’s destruction, and because of that destruction, the Sky-Scraping Hatred of an entire world became a Forbidden Power.

From then on, the Holy Salt vanished, and the world was left only with the Sin Salt that corroded, polluted, and Assimilated Everything.

…

The scenes witnessed from the Historical Projection filled Mu Lin with deep emotion and served as a stark warning.

“I must never allow this world to fall to such a state. Those Cultivators who seek to drain the world’s origin for their own gain deserve death!”

Having made this decision in his heart, Mu Lin continued to fix his gaze intently upon the Sin Salt.

Having understood everything, Mu Lin also discerned the underlying patterns within the Sin Salt’s evolution.

And from these countless patterns, Mu Lin perceived the essence of the Holy Salt.

Then, relying on his mastery of Calligraphy and Painting, Mu Lin gathered the patterns of the Sin Salt and, using these patterns along with the world’s textures—or rather, Dao Traces—he evolved a Source Rune.

In the end, this rune was named — Purify! Or Purification.

It possessed the power to Purify all things.

Normally, Mu Lin’s observation would only reach this point.

After all, the Heaven-Gazing Trait merely provided him a method to observe the world’s textures and Dao Traces.

It did not contain the ability to control or command.

If Mu Lin wished to fully master the Root Script – Purify, he would need to slowly comprehend and understand it through continued observation.

However, while Sky Observation lacked this capability, the Vow Power Heart Flame possessed it.

Upon seeing the rune formed from countless textures and Dao Traces, Mu Lin’s will instantly transformed into flames that surged forth to envelop it.

“Boom!”

“Be refined by me!”

The Root Script is an illusory entity, but Mu Lin’s Vow Power Heart Flame is also an Illusory Flame.

Using this illusion against illusion, Mu Lin forcibly refined the Root Script—Purify.

“Hum!”

Upon mastering the Root Script—Purify and imprinting it onto his True Spirit Karma Diagram, Mu Lin instantly realized that the Sin Salt he had forcibly refined earlier was now inseparably bound to him.

This scene made the smile on Mu Lin’s lips impossible to suppress.

“Hahaha…”

Mu Lin’s wild laughter was not only for the joy of refining Holy Salt but also because he had discovered a shortcut to mastering the Black River and other Forbidden Powers.

“The Black River possesses the ability of Dissolution, capable of dissolving everything. In the past, it was difficult for me to fully control it. Each time I used it, I had to sacrifice a Clone.”

“Moreover, such usage was not secure. Since it was not my possession and lacked my imprint, when I wielded the Black River Water, enemies could also use it against me and contend for control.”

“Given the danger and taboo of the Black River Water, the prospect of fully mastering it through sheer strength seemed distant and uncertain.”

“But now, it’s different. If I can perceive the source of the Black River Water through Sky Observation and evolve its origin and Dao Traces into a script, as long as I refine that script, I can fully master the Black River.”

True Names truly possess power.

In some Western worlds, certain Spell Masters can control Demons for their own use simply by mastering their True Names.

Similarly, in some worlds, when Summoners command pets or refine Mystic Treasures, they also bestow names to impose restrictions.

Now, Mu Lin’s Heaven-Gazing Trait allows him to directly master the essence of Forbidden Powers through True Names.

(End of Chapter)