Chapter 353 – Wood Element
The plant on w.a.n.g Lin’s forehead quickly grew and covered his body. There were even black lines on the back of his hand.
These black lines formed various tattoos. These tattoos seemed to have taken root inside w.a.n.g Lin’s flesh and were slowly spreading.
The pain w.a.n.g Lin showed on his face increased. He suddenly opened his eyes and formed a seal. After a long time, although his eyes were still glowing red, there was a hint of clarity.
However, an image of a tattoo would mysteriously appear and disappear in his eyes.
“This tattoo is simply too vicious.” w.a.n.g Lin was very gloomy as he looked at the black lines on the back of his hand.
The tattoo had already covered his entire origin soul like a net, trapping it. The tattoo that appeared on his skin was merely a reflection of what was happening to his origin soul.
“This tattoo seems to have life. I can only temporarily suppress it!” w.a.n.g Lin pondered and managed his body to make his spiritual energy stable. He then touched the war chariot. It turned back into a bracelet and landed on his wrist.
After using up a top quality spirit stone to counteract the suction from the bracelet, he coldly looked at the void behind him.
He could feel that the old man was still chasing him and was getting closer and closer.
If it wasn’t for the star compa.s.s’s speed being beyond the old man’s imagination, he would have already been caught.
w.a.n.g Lin cursed, “d.a.m.n old ghost won’t give up!” w.a.n.g Lin had been running for over a month now. He felt the same as he did back when he was being chased like a fugitive during his Foundation Establishment days.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he had various things that could recover his spiritual energy, he would have already been exhausted and caught by the old man.
However, no matter how many pills he had, they would all be used up eventually. When he runs out of things to recover his spiritual energy to operate the star compa.s.s, then the only outcome for him will be death.
Run, he could only run. All of his treasure were useless against the old man other the scroll, which he didn’t know how to use.
Since the old man couldn’t catch up, this had turned into a war of attrition to see who could last longer.
w.a.n.g Lin’s eyes lit up and he controlled the star compa.s.s to continue flying.
After deciding to go into a war of attrition, w.a.n.g Lin started to be very careful with every single pill he took. He didn’t want to waste any of the spiritual energy within the pills.
The old man continued to chase. The more he chased, the more shocked he became that the junior before him could keep flying at this speed for this long. Although w.a.n.g Lin was using some kind of treasure, a treasure would still use up spiritual energy.
A junior that was able to control a treasure for this long while having the tattoo seed in him was very rare.
“This person must be a disciple of some big sect up there, maybe even a disciple of Suzaku! I must refine him into my tattoo puppet, then, when I send him back up, it will have great effect!”
The Forsaken Immortal Clan couldn’t go beyond the first floor due to a seal by Suzaku. The only ones that could leave were tattoo puppets. The one w.a.n.g Lin met outside before was a tattoo puppet, only it was a low-ranked one.
This was why the Forsaken Immortal Clan took the bodies of dead cultivators. Otherwise, the Sea of Devils and all surrounding countries would have been wiped out by the Forsaken Immortal Clan. The Forsaken Immortal Clan members would also not have to fight each other for beasts.
The old man’s eyes released a mysterious light as he continued to chase.
The old man snorted. “This junior must have a lot of pills, but no matter how many he has, he will run out. When he runs out, I’ll refine him into a puppet!”
This void was extremely large. w.a.n.g Lin had flown in a straight line for over a month now and still hadn’t seen the end. Right now everything looked exactly the same as where he entered.
It was completely dark without any living or nonliving things.
On this day, w.a.n.g Lin was still steering the star compa.s.s to escape when the plant on his forehead suddenly started s.h.i.+ning and all of the tattoos on his body began to move.
“Another attack!” w.a.n.g Lin quickly began to multi-task. One part of his mind was set to continue controlling the compa.s.s and the other to suppress the power of the tattoo.
After a long time, he opened his eyes. The tattoo in his eyes was even more clear than before and his hands were covered in tattoos. If a cultivator were to see w.a.n.g Lin right now, they would think he was a member of the Forsaken Immortal Clan.
w.a.n.g Lin’s face was gloomy as he let out a breath. He could feel that the tattoo had dug into his origin soul and began to spread.
Once the entire origin soul is covered by the tattoo, he will become what the old man called a tattoo puppet.
After he entered the Immortal Graveyard, he saw a few tattoo puppets. Their eyes were all red and they gave off an oppressive aura. They didn’t look like humans or ghosts.
w.a.n.g Lin felt very bitter. He knew that if this chase continued, his origin soul would be completely covered by the tattoo before he uses up all his pills.
He touched his bag of holding. In his bag there was a bag of holding that the head elder of the Corpse Sect had given him. However, he didn’t even know where he was right now, so how could he call the head elder here?
He pondered for a while and his eyes became cold. In his 500 years of cultivation, w.a.n.g Lin had been through many life and death situations. These experiences made him very determined to survive. The more dangerous it was, the more calm he became.
“What is most important right now is removing the tattoo!” w.a.n.g Lin calmed himself down and began to study the tattoo.
w.a.n.g Lin pondered. “This tattoo came from the plant between my eyebrows. All of the savages have a plants between their brows as well… Since it is a plant, then no matter what kind of power the tattoo has, it must be wood element!”
He encountered danger like this back when he was still at the Foundation Establishment stage. This was when he met the desolate beast fire spirit back in Hou Fen.
That fire spirit was devouring cultivators to help itself grow. At the last moment, the heaven defying bead appeared to absorb the fire spirit and completed the fire element requirement.
Thinking about this, w.a.n.g Lin decided to give it a try. He took a deep breath, pointed at his brow, and said, “Heaven defying!”
A grey orb suddenly flew out from his forehead. There was an image of a few leaves on the bead, but other than that, nothing about this bead seemed abnormal.
After seeing the leaves on the heaven defying bead, w.a.n.g Lin let out a roar. The spiritual energy within his body surged to make the star compa.s.s go even faster.
w.a.n.g Lin immediately withdrew his spiritual energy. He knew that time was of the essence and that the star compa.s.s would be able to glide for a while without his spiritual energy,.
Although this time would be very short, it was w.a.n.g Lin’s only option.
After withdrawing his spiritual energy, w.a.n.g Lin focused on his origin soul and forced the tattoo toward his brow.
Soon, the demonic plant appeared between his eyebrows. Its small leaves were slowly growing.
The old man immediately noticed that w.a.n.g Lin had slowed down. He snorted and chased after him.
The black lines moved mysteriously on w.a.n.g Lin’s body. Sometimes, they would retract toward his brow, and sometimes they would extend out more. Every time the tattoos moved, w.a.n.g Lin’s body would tremble and the painful expression on his face intensified.
The plant between his eyebrows became even more clear.
One leaf opened and the second leaf was about to open too.
w.a.n.g Lin suddenly opened his eyes and the hint of clarity that was hidden in his eyes slowly disappeared. He let out a roar and stared at the heaven defying bead.
The clarity in his eyes slowly disappeared before suddenly returning. This cycle repeated and soon, w.a.n.g Lin was soaked in sweat.
He was betting that the although the plant was created from the power of the tattoos, it contained a hint of wood element. As long as there was wood element, the heaven defying bead could absorb it!
If he lost then he would immediately use all his power to suppress the tattoos.
The old man seemed to notice something and let out a sneer as he continued to chase. He was confident that someone who wasn’t at least one realm above him in cultivation couldn’t remove the seed.
w.a.n.g Lin stared at the heaven defying bead. The struggle on his face became even more fierce. Then the heaven defying bead suddenly released a green light. It was weak at first, but it gradually got brighter.
Shortly after, the leaf that had just opened up trembled and was pulled out from w.a.n.g Lin and absorbed by the heaven defying bead.
The moment that leaf disappeared, the clarity in his eyes returned. w.a.n.g Lin was excited. He quickly pointed at the heaven defying bead to make it disappear and then turned his full attention to controlling the star compa.s.s to escape.
He knew that time was of the essence, so he had no time for the heaven defying bead to absorb more. Now that he knew that the heaven defying bead could absorb the tattoo, he was no longer in a hurry to get rid of it, so he focused on escaping.
The old man appeared right after w.a.n.g Lin disappeared. His face was gloomy as he stared into the distance with his eyebrows locked.
“Why does this junior have so many different treasures? He has something that can remove the tattoo seed!”
When the leaf was absorbed by the heaven defying bead, the old man was able to detect it and was shocked.
“I must refine this person into my tattoo puppet!” The old man’s eyes became cold again and he continued to chase.
w.a.n.g Lin was very happy. He sat on the compa.s.s, touched his forehead, and muttered, “I didn’t expect to find such good luck in this misfortune. The heaven defying bead’s water, fire, and earth elements are complete. There’s no metal element at all and the wood element is half complete. I wonder if the wood element will be complete after absorbing the tattoo in my body.”
Time slowly pa.s.sed. w.a.n.g Lin’s sense of time was basically non-existent. He spent every moment focused on controlling the star compa.s.s to escape.
He had already used more than half of the pills in his bag of holding. There were only several bottles left, but the danger behind him still hadn’t disappeared.
However, what made w.a.n.g Lin feel grateful was that the old man chasing him was gradually slowing down. If this kept up, it wouldn’t take long for w.a.n.g Lin to completely lose the old man.
“After all the pills are used up, I still have top quality spirit stones. With those, I can last until that old bag of bones is completely exhausted.” w.a.n.g Lin looked back with a sneer.
“I have to thank that old bag of bones. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have known that the star compa.s.s had a movement technique in it.” w.a.n.g Lin touched the star compa.s.s. He really adored this treasure.