Chapter 106. The Eye of Life(1/2)
The Life Gold before his eyes only nourished his body for an extremely short period of time, but he could clearly feel that the sum of every herbal medicine and tonic he had eaten before were not as effective as that moment he had just experienced. The feeling of sudden and smooth circulation was unprecedented. He was positive that, after this transformation, his cultivation speed would be greatly improved, and his body’s endurance would be boosted as well. His capacity for higher-ranked soul rings would be raised by at least a thousand years, and this meant the power of his soul skills would be raised at the same time.
Just when Huo Yuhao was at the climax of his exhilaration, the vast aura of life paused as the sensation of comfort and pleasure receded in just a matter of seconds.
Huo Yuhao was still relishing in his comfort before his entire body started to feel empty. However, his unnaturally sensitive perception immediately told him that something was wrong – he realized, to his shock, that the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife had departed from between his eyebrows. What was more frightening was the fact that the sharp end of the blade was pointed right at his forehead, above his eyebrows.
Before he could even react, the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife stabbed down ferociously, and the entire blade sunk deep into his skull. Huo Yuhao wanted to scream and struggle under the agonizing pain, but he quickly realized that, to his intense dismay, there was nothing he could do.
Tremendous volumes of life energy instantly flooded in once the blade entered his skull. His current experience was similar to that of someone who had just eaten a strike of his Spiritual Shock – it felt like he had just been hammered on the head, and his mind was a complete blank.
It was too late for the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion to save him once they felt everything. The extensive energies of life surged into Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea from his forehead and gave them an inexplicably comfortable sensation as their spiritual origins were rinsed.
Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea had turned into a green-colored ocean at this point. Dense and thick mists of life energy gradually started to condense, while his spiritual sea began to expand outwards with bedazzling speed.
Two shadows materialized in his spiritual sea – the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress.
They glanced at each other, and immediately detected the shock in each other’s eyes. They had been alive for hundreds of thousands of years, and even though Huo Yuhao’s head had just been pierced by the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife, they could feel that Electrolux didn’t harbor evil intentions. Furthermore, that vast pool of life energy that had just poured into Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, and the process of expansion that was triggered, was greatly beneficial to them.
The life energy nourished the spiritual sea, and this was equivalent to nourishing their spiritual origins. Therefore, they resolved to calm themselves as they focused on protecting Huo Yuhao’s spiritual origin while paying attention to the changes around them.
A frail old man clad in white appeared inside Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea between shimmering grey lights.
He glanced at the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion and smiled as he said, “Big bug, small scorpion – I will not fight with you for territory any longer. You can release a little bit of your sealing power to boost Yuhao’s spiritual sea and raise his spiritual power. His body can be considered pristine and impeccable after this transformation. However, don’t infuse your powers into him too quickly – it’s better to wait for his mastery of soul power to break rank 30 before you two continue fusing with him.”
Skydream watched him with astonished eyes as he asked, “You’re Electrolux?”
The old man nodded and replied, “My thread of divine sense had no foundation. It was empty and weak, which meant that it could have dissipated at any moment. However, things are a lot different with this miraculous Life Gold – it can provide me with a vector, and I will be able to sustain myself inside, and this is bound to stabilize my divine sense a little more. However, much of my memory has been lost – too much – and I can only rediscover these memories if my divine sense gets stronger, and so I need Yuhao’s help. You guys can relax – we all share the same goal, and that’s to make him stronger. When the power of his divine sense reaches the level I possessed back in the day, everything I’ve lost will return. Furthermore, I am starting to find this world a lot more interesting ever since fusing myself with his body. I need to be on my way, and you guys can communicate with me through our spiritual origins.”
Electrolux’s right hand swiped across the air as he spoke, and a green door made of light appeared before him. He waved back at the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress before his shadow vanished into the door.
The Ice Empress couldn’t help but give praise as she watched Electrolux’s departure. “Such powerful control of his divine sense. This is humankind’s innate talent! I have cultivated for four hundred thousand years, but I don’t think I can condense my spiritual origin enough for it to evolve into divine sense.”
The Skydream Iceworm wriggled his body and said, “Don’t worry. We are integrated with Yuhao in order to draw upon his innate talents now. If he can succeed in the future, then we will surely succeed as well.”
They were still engaged in casual conversation when something insidious started happening to Huo Yuhao’s body.
The green Soul-Devouring Carving Knife inside his forehead was trembling faintly. However, the gash that was opened by the blade didn’t gush with blood – instead, the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife started to soften, and eventually melted into a green liquid that flowed into Huo Yuhao’s head through the opening.
Huo Yuhao’s entire being was tainted with a thick layer of green as the large volumes of life energy started to wash his body continuously, with his forehead as the central point.
The wound slashed open by the blade didn’t close up following the fusion of the carving knife. Instead, it began to open even wider under the effects of a circle of green-gold light, much like the mouth of an infant – it also seemed like a single eye.
His wound quivered, while his muscles and his bones were all being continuously distorted during the process. Huo Yuhao’s body trembled from the effects of the transformation, and that was an excruciating pain that ordinary people wouldn’t be able to tolerate.
Huo Yuhao’s mind had been awake this whole time. He could even hear the conversation between the two powerful soul beasts and Electrolux inside his spiritual sea. However, there was nothing he could do to interrupt the process, or truly understand what was happening to him at this moment.
The green-gold light gradually stabilized. A single tiny grey pearl materialized at the gash on his forehead and began to fuse intricately with the broken flesh, tendons and bones around the hole.
The harrowing pain pierced Huo Yuhao’s nerves like countless numbers of needles. The pain he was feeling now was perhaps ten times greater than what he had experienced during his fusion with the bones of the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion.
Huo Yuhao’s soul and spiritual origin were screaming incessantly as he felt as if his spiritual origin was being torn apart. One could also say that his spiritual origin was being ripped to shreds before it was pieced back together. That kind of pain was truly indescribable. No matter how vast the pools of life energy were, Huo Yuhao couldn’t feel a single ounce of comfort at this particular moment. The pain he was feeling seemed to drag him into the deepest and darkest abyss, and he was just sinking ever deeper.
Terrifying ripples of soul power erupted at this moment. Huo Yuhao’s Mysterious Heaven Technique soul power instinctively tried to protect his body, but that soul power had no way of entering this particular region of his spiritual sea.
An unknown duration of time passed, and just when he was becoming numb to the agonizing pain, and his spiritual origin already felt like it had been torn to pieces, he suddenly felt a trace of light.
It was a dull, gentle and tender golden color.
His shattered spiritual origin was seamlessly covered and enveloped by this all-encompassing golden light. That feeling was strange, as if he was thrown into a warm lake, and his fractured spiritual origin was progressively softened and agglutinating within.
The lake was golden, and glued his spiritual origin back together while it injected a mysterious kind of energy inside.
The numbness slowly became warmth. Huo Yuhao’s mind was also recuperating along with the convalescence of his spiritual origin.
He reached out with his senses at once. The first thing he saw was that he was sitting by his bed, cross-legged, and his waist was erect while his entire body was extremely silent. There was suddenly an extra eye on his forehead.
This eye didn’t radiate with green light, and the socket was a little smaller than his original eyes. There appeared to be faint and pale flickers of green light around the socket.
The pupil itself was grey. However, there was a subtle flicker of golden light deep within the patches of grey. His strange third eye moved a little, and Huo Yuhao instantly realized that he was staring at himself – he saw the vicissitudes, the abstruseness, and a life and purity that was difficult to describe.
Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power returned to his body with a whistle. This time, the things he was looking at started to change – he could see his bones, his muscles, and his veins and capillaries.
The circulation of blood was like a flowing river as it trickled along, and the dense essence of blood was permeated with vigorous life energies. His skeleton, his muscles, his veins and his organs were all covered by strange layers of green, and this layer was currently fusing with his body while its color gradually receded.
Huo Yuhao couldn’t wait as he directed his spiritual energy back into his brain and back into his spiritual sea, as he wanted to see what was different about it.
The changes in his spiritual sea fell into his eyes very swiftly.
Describing it as world-changing was as suitable as it could get.
His spiritual sea was drastically different from before. If one could say that his original spiritual sea was a patch of nothingness, his current spiritual sea was now transformed into a patch of real space.
This space was white, with no end in sight. The first thing he saw the moment he entered it was a large green lake. This lake was filled with vitality and vigor, and its surface was calm and gentle like a mirror. Dense auras of life energy nourished his spiritual sea.
Such a vast space! Huo Yuhao perceived the boundlessness of his spiritual sea in shock. His spiritual sea was at least three times larger than before, and it was hard to say how much more stable it had become.
He refocused his eyes, and noticed a single pearl drifting on the surface of the azure lake – it could also be said to be the Sun of the spiritual sea.
This pearl was also jade-green in color. It was totally transparent, crystal-like and radiated a gente light, much like that of the Soul-Devouring Carving Knife. It changed when Huo Yuhao cast his gaze upon it, transforming into an eye that gradually opened and looked back at Yuhao with a tender gaze.
Lights flickered as Huo Yuhao discovered, to his intense shock, that he suddenly had a body. His spiritual power created a figure that was identical to himself in the blink of an eye, and he was just standing there by the lake.
It wasn’t just him. The plump and robust white bug, the Skydream Iceworm, and the enchantingly beautiful Ice Jade Empress Scorpion appeared beside him as well.
“This.. What’s all this? What just happened?” Huo Yuhao was clueless about everything before his eyes. However, there was a feeling tingling at the bottom of his heart that told him he was in control of everything here. This kind of change that he had never experienced before gave him a strange and incomprehensible sensation.
The giant eye in midair stared at him, and Electrolux’s decrepit voice rang out, “This are the effects of the Life Gold. Don’t worry, for I will explain everything to you slowly.”
“Let’s talk about what Life Gold is. Life is as the name suggests. All beings have life, and can called living beings. It’s the same whether it was me in the olden days or you guys. Every living being is separated by intelligence, and the original force of all living beings is life energy, or vitality.”
“Life Gold is the material representation of life energy. Put more simply, it’s the product of condensing copious amounts of life energy, and a treasure of the world that only can come about after many years of gestation and incubation. I was not originally from your world, but from another parallel dimension – however, Life Gold shares the same existence no matter which world you’re in. The vast amounts of life energy contained within Life Gold are extremely beneficial to any living being. Every living being represents a life, but every piece of Life Gold represents an entire world.”
Huo Yuhao became more perplexed as he listened on, and a look of confusion came over his eyes. He still didn’t really understand the existence of this Life Gold.
At this moment, the Skydream Iceworm asked, “Old man, you still haven’t mentioned how Life Gold came about. And what does it mean by gestating copious amounts of life energy over many years? Don’t make it so abstract and get to the point.”
Electrolux replied plainly, “It’s easy to be direct. Even though your origins are nothing impressive, it’s a rare sight for someone like you to live for so long, and you’ve been alive for a million years. Put simply, the sum of your million years of age is about the size of a teardrop of Life Gold.”
“You can’t be serious!” The Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress exclaimed at the same time. Even though the Ice Empress didn’t think too highly of the Skydream Iceworm, she knew that she was ultimately inferior to him in terms of life energy, as the Skydream Iceworm had been alive for over a million years.
Electrolux continued, “This is already holding him in high regard. You guys have to know that Life Gold exists initially in a gaseous form, and following the passage of time, gradually transforms into a liquid – much like the one Huo Yuhao has obtained, except it had already become a solid. You guys will understand as I explain. Big bug, do you remember the forest in which we fused together with Huo Yuhao?”
The Skydream Iceworm muttered through his teeth, “Of course. The Great Star Dou Forest. I was tortured by those bastards in that cursed place!”
Electrolux said, “That forest is host to a plentitude of lives. When my divine sense descended, I could feel the intense vigor and vitality of the giant forest. If we used that to measure Life Gold, forming a lump of solid Life Gold about the size of a carving knife would require about twenty thousand years – and that is already under the assumption that nothing is damaged or interrupted. Furthermore, you guys need to understand that the formation of Life Gold requires a great many objective conditions. For example, for the forest to produce a piece of Life Gold, there has to be a place inside that is dense and concentrated with life energy.”
Huo Yuhao nodded and said, “I think I roughly understand. You’re trying to say that this carving knife was made entirely from Life Gold.”
Electrolux replied, “Yes, that is correct. Life energy is beneficial to any force of existence; evil beings can also enjoy the benefits of vast amounts of life energy. My divine sense is too dilapidated – therefore, I had no choice but to take the majority of its power when we obtained this piece of Life Gold. I used its power as the foundation to open a third eye for you, which is the same one you saw with your consciousness. My consciousness is contained within this third eye. Under the nourishment of this Life Gold, I don’t think my divine sense will ever run the risk of dissipating anymore.”
“With the nourishment from this enormous pool of life energy, my divine sense will be healed continuously, and I will also be able to manipulate some of its power. You’re too weak at the moment – when you’re stronger, I will give you a choice, and you can decide whether you want to inherit my powers.”
“I can still remember three different powers from the remnants of my broken memory. Two of them were passed down to the people from my original plane, but my last inheritance – also my highest one – is still being withheld. When you reach the fifth ring, you should have the ability to attempt this inheritance. Of course, you have to be willing.”
The Skydream Iceworm snorted and said, “So you are taking the lion’s share of the benefits of this whatever Life Gold?”
Electrolux couldn’t help but laugh and answered, “Are you blind, you bug? I have even transformed his spiritual sea into such a beautiful place. I dare say that there will never be such a beautiful spiritual sea inside this plane ever again. I have just said that every single piece of Life Gold is an entire world, and I used the power of this Life Gold to seal its original life energy into this spiritual sea. After today, the growth of Yuhao’s spiritual power will be at least three times faster than before, and his spiritual sea will be as good as eternal. Even his physical body has been influenced by this Life Gold – whatever his injury is, as long as his mind is still functional, it will regenerate on its own. It won’t be so easy for him to die anymore.”
“You have to remember a few things, Yuhao. Firstly, that carving knife hasn’t disappeared. Your third eye, and also the Eye Of Life that I just spoke of, is its current metaphysical existence. When you’re in need, you just have to focus your consciousness into the Eye of Life, and you will be bestowed with the power of the carving knife. However, this carving knife will possess certain qualities of the Life Gold and a portion of my own qualities as well. You’ll have to try it out to know exactly what those are.”
“Secondly, my existence from now on can be counted as one of your martial souls – a very special martial soul. However, this martial soul cannot be fused with soul rings. You have to be clear that my strength comes from you, only my control is probably superior to yours. The most I can give you is intelligence and wisdom – therefore, you can’t have too high hopes of me.”
“Thirdly, I hope you will shut yourself in for a while after you’ve finished with the things you have at hand. You should attempt to experience and understand the profundities this Life Gold has brought to you, and truly integrate with the life energy inside of you. You have to allow it to become a part of you like your finger or your arm, and this will be extremely beneficial for your future development.”
“Lastly, following the transformations made by the Life Gold, both the strength and flexibility of your body has been greatly improved – do make use of that. Oh, and you have to try your best to control it however you can. Your spiritual sea can now contain a greater volume of spiritual power. However, no matter how powerful your spiritual powers are, it’s all wasted if you don’t know how to control them. This is also one of the reasons why I wish for you to shut yourself in to cultivate and meditate in silence.”
“Alright, that’s all I have to say. I have to integrate with the Eye of Life as soon as possible. You will also regain command of your consciousness very soon. After this episode, your consciousness, your body and your spiritual sea will be flawlessly integrated. It will be very difficult for us to take over your bodies after this – all we can do is help you in your growth.”
The eye closed, and Electrolux’s aura swiftly vanished. In the next moment, Huo Yuhao felt his world spinning like a top around him, and he fell into a daze. When he opened his eyes in the next moment, he was back on his bed.
He first action was to reach up to touch his forehead subconsciously. What caught him off guard was that his forehead was smooth – where was the third eye?
Perhaps all this was due to the unbearable intensity of pain that he had just experienced, but his mind ended up in a trance – could everything that had just happened be nothing but a hallucination?
He tossed his head from side to side as he attempted to reorient himself before he focused and looked inwards once again.
It wasn’t a hallucination after all. At this point, his spiritual power enabled him to see every corner of his body when he looked inwards, to the point where he could see the circulation of the pure white color of the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power. Every detail within his body fell into his perception – the life energy that belonged to the piece of Life Gold was currently being fully absorbed by his body.
Huo Yuhao stood up and stretched a little. He immediately discovered, to his amazement, that every single joint in his body felt incredibly flexible. He turned his head, and found that his neck could almost rotate a full hundred and eighty degrees. He lifted his right leg backwards; it didn’t take much effort at all to touch his head.
What stunned him the most was the circumstance of the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s circulation. He no longer needed to engage in meditation – its circulation had practically become a part of his breathing process, and followed the huff and puff of his every breath. The Mysterious Heaven Technique was actually following the paths of cultivation and circulating automatically. His own blood essence was flowing vigorously, and was integrated impeccably with his soul power, as if they were being boosted with every second that passed.
Huo Yuhao watched the rays of sunlight coming in through the window. He immediately felt as if his mood was overcome with an incredible sensation of optimism and cheerfulness, as if his entire being was immersed and integrated with nature.
The Life Gold was so powerful! His body seemed to have risen to another level under its effects.
He concentrated on his spiritual sea. Everything that he saw before was still there – the serene Lake of Life, the dense essence of life energy, and the Pearl of Life hovering in the sky could all be seen with great clarity.
Both the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Empress remained at the lake, as if they had felt the probing from Huo Yuhao’s spiritual power. They turned their gazes into the sky, and Huo Yuhao immediately sensed that they were watching him.
At this moment, these two powerful soul beasts started to radiate with pale brilliance. Especially the Skyream Iceworm, who was a emanating tender golden light that flooded his spiritual sea. It looked like he was fusing his vast pools of soul power with himself to boost his expanded spiritual sea.
The Ice Empress was emitting layers of light that were a mix of icy-white and green. These layers of light were first infused into the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s skeleton before they were spread all around Huo Yuhao’s body.
Neither the Skydream Iceworm’s nor the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion’s power could increase Huo Yuhao’s soul power, as they had already become Huo Yuhao’s martial souls, but the Mysterious Heaven Technique’s soul power had also taken two different forms of existence. There was no question that the changes they were currently undergoing were meant to boost Huo Yuhao’s spiritual sea, his physical strength and the power of every one of his soul rings.
Huo Yuhao could still use his spiritual detection to perceive his surroundings before his absorption of the Life Gold. However, there was no way he could be clairvoyant, and his personal senses were only slightly superior to those of normal people. The Life Gold had triggered an almost sublime transformation in his body, but his powers didn’t appear vastly improved, as the effects worked to develop his potential while giving him a boost to his senses.
Huo Yuhao rushed into the bathroom to cleanse his body and changed into a set of clean clothes the moment he witnessed the changes that were happening to the Skydream Iceworm and the Ice Jade Empress Scorpion. He checked himself in the mirror and made sure that there wasn’t a third eye on his forehead, as if that eye had only existed in his sensations – but the feeling of its existence was just too real.
He refused to mull over it too much, and returned to his bed. He started to channel the Mysterious Heaven Technique and activated his soul power to begin his cultivation, as he had a faint feeling that cultivating at this time would be most beneficial to himself.
All Wang Dong saw when he slunk back into the room was Huo Yuhao, who was deep in meditation.
Wang Dong was a little surprised as he watched him. Even though Huo Yuhao didn’t seem any different on the surface, Wang Dong had a feeling that there was something different about his friend, and it felt like his temperament was different. Huo Yuhao’s physical appearance was originally slightly above average, but he suddenly seemed to have a new and unique kind of charm.
Self-confidence, steadiness and a few measures of depth – yet, he was still filled with liveliness and brimmed with vitality.
“This guy is just too hardworking. He can still be so involved even when he’s cultivating alone – he can even enter deep meditation.”
Soul masters generally experienced two different states during their cultivation – meditation and deep meditation. Standard meditation could typically be interrupted, and the soul master would wake up naturally when there was external stimulus, or if the soul master detected any change in his physical surroundings, so any adverse effects would be highly limited. Therefore, this form of meditation was also referred to as light cultivation.
This was the state that they would typically enter when Wang Dong and Huo Yuhao teamed up to concentrate the Haodong power. After all, they had to pass the Haodong power around, and thus they couldn’t let their soul power course around freely.
On the other hand, deep meditation was a serendipitous occurrence that only came about when one had an epiphany in the process of normal meditation. The meditator’s consciousness would sink deep into his or her cultivation, and their entire being would be fixated – one would no longer be able to experience any changes in the outside world and, would only wake when it was time.
The soul master’s soul power would be circulating automatically during deep meditation, and at a speed that was much faster than during normal meditation. At the same time, the soul master would experience a higher level of absorption and perception during deep meditation. Many things that were typically perplexing or difficult to fathom would become a lot more transparent and understandable during deep meditation.
Any soul master would wish that he or she could enter deep meditation during cultivation, especially when they were breaking through a bottleneck. If the soul master was lucky enough to encounter deep meditation, he or she would experience a success rate of higher than eighty percent.
Because of the very reason that deep meditation encompassed a profound level of comprehension and cultivation, soul masters in deep meditation were most afraid of being interrupted. They ran the risk of going insane if they were interrupted, and it could even be reflected in real and severe bodily harm.
It was easy to differentiate between normal and deep meditation. There was no change in physical state or appearance during normal cultivation, as soul power was only circulating inside the soul master’s body. There would only be a slight external aura or release when there was a special or esoteric technique in play, or if the soul master was breaking through a bottleneck – for instance, when Huo Yuhao and Wang Dong were cultivating with Haodong power, Huo Yuhao’s body would radiating with golden light under the effects of the Golden Light Left Arm Bone.
Due to the need for personal protection, the soul master’s soul power would be automatically released to protect himself or herself during deep cultivation, and mask his or her aura at the same time.
Huo Yuhao was currently in this exact state. There were layers of white light shimmering outside his body, as if his entire body were a jewel that sparkled with plain rays of light.
It was natural for other people to develop some sense of envy or jealousy when they witnessed others in deep meditation. However, Wang Dong was different, and he only felt glad for Huo Yuhao. He made a few mischievous expressions before he took a chair, discreetly departed the room and took his place outside to protect his friend and prevent Huo Yuhao from being affected by anybody from Shrek who came around looking for him.
Huo Yuhao felt a wave of wa-->>