Chapter 67 – Essence Blood Catalysis: Blackwater Dark Serpent

Dense black mist shrouded an area of several dozen meters, also concealing Mu Lin’s figure.

And in the next moment, several human figures began running within the black mist, with some even dashing out beyond its boundaries.

As the Flying Yaksha drew near, it was astonished to discover that all the figures running out looked exactly like Mu Lin’s main body.

These were clones blown out by Mu Lin, used to lure the enemy.

Faced with this, the Flying Yaksha hesitated for a moment but still had to leap forward, using the steel fork in its hand to stab each of those figures to death one by one.

It had no choice but to do so. Because the appearances were identical, the scents were similar, and they were all lifelike, the Flying Yaksha simply couldn’t distinguish whether the figures running out were real or fake.

Left with no alternative, it could only adopt the principle of “kill all, spare none,” slaughtering every figure that had escaped.

Then, just as it leaped up to kill, Mu Lin’s second coffin nail suddenly pierced the chest of the paper yaksha.

“Hiss…”

Relying on the connection between the paper yaksha and the yaksha’s main body, this coffin nail from Mu Lin tore a large hole in the heart of the yaksha’s main body as well.

If it were an ordinary person, this strike could have killed them outright.

Unfortunately, the yaksha, being a demonic monster, was not ordinary.

First, high-level entities possess damage reduction against curse arts.

If it were merely a curse art at the third realm’s Expert level, without knowing the true name or birth characters, and only having some essence blood, Mu Lin could at most cause the yaksha’s body to experience some phantom pain.

From a distance, even this phantom pain effect would fade.

The reason the current paper figure curse possessed such immense divine power was due to Grandmaster-level Origami, Master Grade Painting, and Master Grade Calligraphy.

Lifelike, vivid, with meaning penetrating the paper, and spiritual resonance—these characteristics were too well-suited to the paper figure lineage.

But no matter how well-suited, Mu Lin couldn’t transfer 100% of the injuries suffered by the paper figure to the yaksha—even his own doppelganger didn’t have that high a compatibility.

Mu Lin’s remote curse only caused the yaksha’s heart to rupture.

As a demonic monster, its vitality was extremely tenacious; the ruptured injury was even slowly healing.

At the same time, this strike also made the yaksha sense the threat of death, enraging it further.

“Roar!”

With a furious roar, it no longer maintained a playful attitude but unleashed its true full power.

“Whoosh…”

Going all out, it swung the steel fork in its hand, making it spin continuously.

As the steel fork spun, wind began converging toward it.

The violent wind gradually formed a tornado, connecting heaven and earth. “Boom!” With a wave of the yaksha’s hand, the raging tornado rumbled and rolled, crushing toward the area of black mist exhaled by Mu Lin.

“Rumble…”

The rapidly spinning tornado dispersed the black mist summoned by Mu Lin. The paper figures blown out by Mu Lin were also swept up by the fierce wind, thrown into the tornado, and then, without the yaksha even needing to act, those paper figures were shredded into pieces by the wind blades within the tornado.

Such a violent spell instantly tore through Mu Lin’s concealment.

It must be said, a Gushing Spring Realm demonic monster is indeed Gushing Spring Realm. Surpassing by a whole major realm, such a monster is difficult to confront head-on.

“Found you!”

With the black mist gone and the paper figure interference cleared, the Flying Yaksha immediately fixed its gaze on Mu Lin, who had transformed into a serpentman.

“Die!”

Suspended in mid-air, it accelerated and charged straight toward Mu Lin.

By now, it was already too late for Mu Lin to flee.

However, he had no intention of running away in the first place.

“I originally wanted to save these two moves for the next level, but it seems I can only make it through the fourth level at most. Trying to clear the fifth level is still too much of a stretch.”

“Still, even if I can’t get past the fifth level, I’m confident I can hold you off.”

As he spoke, Mu Lin pulled out two paper-folding creations from his chest.

One was dressed as a little girl, and from the exquisite paper-folding technique, one could still see her beautiful yet eerie smile.

The other was a black serpent, its ferocious appearance accentuated by a special construction method.

  The Little Match Girl and the Blackwater Profound Serpent were among the strongest creations Mu Lin had visualized in his Mindscape, and they were also his greatest trump cards.

“Hah…”

With a breath of living energy exhaled, a juvenile Blackwater Profound Serpent instantly appeared beside Mu Lin.

Of course, at this moment, the Blackwater Profound Serpent had not yet reached the Gushing Spring Realm—through the bloodline phantom sensed while advancing with the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art, the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mu Lin visualized in his Mindscape was powerful enough.

However, all things in the world must abide by the law of energy conservation.

The insufficiency of living energy meant that when the Blackwater Profound Serpent manifested in the physical world, it suffered a drastic reduction in power.

Under normal circumstances, like the Burial Yaksha, the Blackwater Profound Serpent was a powerful creation that Mu Lin could not summon at his current level.

Fortunately, Mu Lin did not cultivate only the Taiyin Life-Nurturing Scripture.

“Thump!”

As Mu Lin struck his chest with a palm, a large amount of blood suddenly gushed from his mouth.

Having refined the Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood, the blood within Mu Lin’s body shared the same origin as the Blackwater Profound Serpent before him.

At this moment, the blood Mu Lin spat out not only contained his essence but also another energy within his body—the Black Mist Magical Power. With this strike, it all surged out and poured into the Paper Figure: Blackwater Profound Serpent.

“Roar…”

The dual infusion of essence blood and magical power caused the Blackwater Profound Serpent’s aura to visibly surge.

In the blink of an eye, the manifested Blackwater Profound Serpent advanced from the Spirit Awakening Realm to the Gushing Spring Realm.

—A normal Blackwater Profound Serpent would not see such a drastic increase in strength even with the support of essence blood and Black Mist Magical Power.

But it must be understood that Mu Lin had already cultivated the Blackwater Profound Serpent Mortal Shedding Art to the third realm, Expert.

In terms of cultivation realm, he was at the Spirit Pool Realm, above Gushing Spring. It was the scarcity of magical power that limited the Blackwater Profound Serpent’s performance.

Now, with essence blood and magical power wildly surging and burning, the Blackwater Profound Serpent regained a portion of its might.

“My magical power and essence blood are still too little. Otherwise, the Blackwater Profound Serpent could leap directly into the Spirit Pool Realm. Unfortunately, although my Black Mist Magical Power and Black Serpent essence blood have both reached the Spirit Awakening Realm due to refining a considerable amount of Blackwater Profound Serpent Essence Blood, there is still a major realm gap between Spirit Awakening and Gushing Spring, and an even larger two-level gap compared to Spirit Pool. So, even if I burn my essence blood, the Blackwater Profound Serpent can only reach the Gushing Spring Realm.”

“Moreover, its increase in strength is only temporary. Once the essence blood and magical power I expelled are exhausted, the Blackwater Profound Serpent’s strength will fall back to the Spirit Awakening Realm.”

But what Mu Lin needed was precisely this brief moment of advancement.

“Hiss…”

With its strength surging, the Blackwater Profound Serpent did not immediately launch an attack. Instead, it coiled its body.

Mu Lin and Chu Lingluo were thus protected at the very center by the Blackwater Profound Serpent of the Gushing Spring Realm.

At the same time, countless black water vapors were summoned by the Blackwater Profound Serpent, forming wave-like shields that blocked the outermost perimeter around Mu Lin.

The Blackwater Profound Serpent of the Gushing Spring Realm was the guardian Mu Lin had found for himself. His true killing move was the next creation.

“Huff…”

After another breath of living human energy was exhaled, the Little Girl Who Sells Matches also manifested in the outside world.

Unlike the Blackwater Profound Serpent, the Little Girl Who Sells Matches drew upon Mu Lin’s mental and Divine Soul power.

And this was Mu Lin’s greatest strength.

“Mmm…”

Although the sudden extraction of a large amount of mental energy caused some throbbing pain in Mu Lin’s head, his vitality did not rapidly diminish.

At the same time, the Little Girl’s offensive effect was exceptionally potent.

“Hehe, big brother, would you like to buy some matches?”

“Fwoosh…”

Accompanied by the sound of a match being struck, flames emerged from the match in the Little Girl’s hand.

The wondrous flames, like a mirage, projected an illusion.

What was startling was that the illusion emerging from the flames in the Little Girl’s hand was not warmth and beauty, but—snow!

A sky full of heavy snow!

(End of Chapter)