Chapter 24: 24 Incense Seed
[Nine of Four].
The eight-zhang Bodhisattva became five zhang.
Power decreased.
[Nine of Five]
The five-zhang Bodhisattva became one zhang.
Power decreased again.
[Nine of Six]
The eve of dawn.
The sky turned gray.
The young man sat cross-legged at the foot of Manfeng Mountain, exuding an extremely sharp and impatient aura.
The moment the sky brightened, he didn’t run or dodge anymore. Instead, he suddenly opened his eyes, as if he had timed it perfectly. He gripped the roughly zhang-long Beast-slaying Saber with his five fingers, then shot up into the sky.
With a Flying Swallow Collapsing Mountain strike, he slashed towards a certain spot in the void.
Where it was clearly empty, as the young man’s saber chopped down, a one-zhang Bodhisattva suddenly appeared.
Upon seeing the blade light, the Bodhisattva clasped his hands together slightly, attempting to catch the blade.
But how could that be possible?
Ning Xuan’s saber was extremely fast. The Bodhisattva’s movements were like a snail’s in comparison. This strike landed on the Bodhisattva’s brow.
The brow cracked.
Ning Xuan didn’t lower his saber. Instead, a sound like swallows chirping emanated from his bones and muscles.
Swallow Chirping Force, capable of erupting within an inch of space.
A gentle press was equivalent to a Flying Swallow Collapsing Mountain.
Boom!
The crack widened significantly.
After his two consecutive strikes, the Bodhisattva’s hands finally closed.
Bang!
This closure, however, met empty air.
Ning Xuan, using the force of the press, had already leaped up.
Slash!
Another saber strike landed on the same spot.
One saber fell, followed by another force, and then another. This was equivalent to him delivering one saber strike, but upon impact, the subsequent saber forces surged forward like a raging tide, wave after wave.
Bang bang bang bang!
Finally,
A crisp “crack” sound was heard.
Spiderweb-like cracks spread rapidly from the Bodhisattva’s lotus-like coiled hair towards the surroundings.
The corners of Ning Xuan’s mouth curled into a sinister grin. He even wanted to laugh wildly.
Without saying a word, without asking a question, he struck again.
Boom!!
The Bodhisattva shattered.
It splintered into countless tiny fragments.
That full-moon-like face, those white-haired eyebrows, those lips hiding a greedy smile all became dull, frozen, then dispersed and pulverized.
Ning Xuan felt a sense of catharsis.
He couldn’t suppress the increasingly ferocious curve of his lips, nor the uncontrollability of the greed in his eyes.
He stared at the scattered fragments and then saw a gray, long-haired rat at the core.
This rat was no more than a foot long, its fur like steel needles, its eyes gleaming with a faint green light.
Those faint green pupils now held an indescribable look of disbelief.
The moment those faint green pupils met Ning Xuan’s gaze, his saber had already pierced through.
The demon rat’s claws flailed in mid-air, but it was like the wheels of a carriage stuck in mud. No matter how hard it struggled, it only spun in vain. It didn’t land, so it couldn’t tread on the wind.
The saber tip became a spear, a line like lightning.
The saber tip pierced the gray rat demon’s body almost instantly. The force erupted within it, almost simultaneously with the rat demon’s pained “squeaking” sounds.
Squeak, squeak, squeak!
Boom!!
The rat demon exploded.
It turned into a mass of thick, rolling black smoke that flowed towards Ning Xuan.
Finally, words appeared before his eyes.
[Heavenly Demon Record: S. (20/100)]
But it didn’t end there.
The “(20/100)” began to climb rapidly, becoming “(100/100)” in almost the blink of an eye.
Then, with another jump, the complete text appeared.
[S.]
[Heavenly Demon Attribute: Category Rat, Suborder Rat, Fragrance Family, Species S. (Spirit): 5.0] (Main attribute only displayed) (Additional Spirit attribute of 4.5 available after exiting)
[Innate Demonic Art: S. Art: Steal a wisp of incense at night, impersonate a Heavenly Venerate to receive the year, steal incense and transform it for one’s own use.] (Minimum requirement: Spirit 5)
[Controlled Demonic Art: Hum and Ha Art: Transform strength into sound, impossible to guard against; one hum breaks courage, one ha dispels form.] (Minimum requirement: Physique 6)
As the Heavenly Demon Record was successfully refined, the world of black moon and white sun quietly collapsed.
The campfire reappeared in Ning Xuan’s vision.
The sounds of patrolling soldiers could be heard in the distance.
Inside the tent, Chou Nu’s steady breathing indicated his rest.
The cold branches in the campfire crackled, and Ning Xuan’s eyes regained their luster.
He checked the seamless transition of his surroundings, confirming one thing: time outside was frozen during nightmare refinements.
He took another deep look at the distant mountains and closed his eyes slightly.
He had gained the S. ‘s power but not the ten-zhang Bodhisattva’s incense body.
However, because of this, he had also vaguely guessed a lot of information.
He was born from the night.
Demonic creatures were born from the day.
When night and day intersected, he and the demonic creatures would also intersect.
The [Heavenly Demon Record] would sense this intersection in advance, and then it would forcibly seize the lives of the demonic creatures at the point of contact, allowing him to refine them coercively. If successful, he would become the one who controlled the power of the demonic creatures. If unsuccessful, his soul would be scattered.
Therefore, the power of demonic creatures could be forcibly restored through secret methods during the day, but not at night.
The S. was a spirit-oriented demonic creature, but the Bodhisattva shell was physique-oriented. The Bodhisattva shell could recover without injury during the day, but at night, it could only forcibly burn its own foundation, shrinking from ten zhang to eight zhang, to activate the “Hum and Ha Art.”
Similarly, although he obtained the S. ‘s power, he did not obtain the S. ‘s incense.
This was because incense belonged to the side of daylight.
And he belonged to the side of night.
Even when refining the [Heavenly Demon Record], daylight did not permit him to take any extra incense away.
As for why this S. could carry a “Incense Bodhisattva Body,” and the Mountain Collision Bear Demon before could not bring the “Blood Incense Brocade Kasaya” into the nightmare, the problem likely lay in the words “Incense Seed.”
The Mountain Collision Bear Demon was an “ordinary seed.”
The S., however, was an “incense seed.”
Ordinary seeds could not condense incense and needed to pray to Bodhisattva statues for incense treasures.
Incense seeds, however, could condense incense, making incense a part of themselves.
As for how much incense they could condense, it depended on their spirit, or in other words, their nature. This was what his elder brother called the soul, a realm completely different from flesh and blood.
Now, he had obtained the S.’s power, and his nature could be raised from the original “1.0” to “5.5.” Could he learn from his elder brother’s words about dragon qi, first become an Orthodox Exorcist, and then a Heavenly Master?
At the same time, he had obtained the S.’s power but needed to steal incense himself.
And if he stole incense, and this incense became a part of him, would that mean he could also bring incense into the nightmare?
But… what was incense?
And where could incense be found?
If incense could become power, Ning Xuan believed that his surroundings would already be filled with temples, not the prosperous empire it was now.
Appendix: The original arrangement was not very reasonable and has been deleted. Regardless of whether it is followed, it will not affect the content.
(End of this chapter)
