Chapter 1653: Ancient Mystery, The Canvas’s Grimace (Second Update)

Wang Lin calmed his mind. The sounds of the multicolored Daoist smashing through the Restriction light screen outside seemed to be cut off, and his entire focus was immersed in the study of the Restriction.

Just then, a gust of wind appeared strangely. The wind blew onto the mast of this Soul Demon Boat, lifting the canvas on it, causing the eerie grimace on the canvas to reveal a demonic glint in its eyes.

The grimace seemed to stare at Wang Lin, the corners of its mouth faintly revealing a strange smile, as if it had come alive.

Wang Lin frowned, feeling a faint sense of unease in his heart. He was actually unable to calm his mind. He looked up, his gaze sweeping across and landing on the grimace on the canvas, meeting its gaze.

After a long while, Wang Lin's mind gradually calmed down. He lowered his head and immersed himself in the Restriction once again.

Gradually, the light of the Restriction on the deck beneath Wang Lin's feet flickered, with layers of ripples swirling and permeating the entire deck, spreading further outwards.

"Among the Four Great Restrictions, I understand the Destruction Restriction the most. The Life and Death Restriction and the Time Restriction are also passable, but I have seen very little of the Ancient Soul Restriction. I only saw that massive turtle beast within the Land of Falling."

"But the Restrictions on this deck contain many Ancient Soul Restrictions…" Wang Lin pondered, the look of deduction in his eyes intensifying. The spot his right hand pointed to was a Restriction rune.

This rune was exactly a shrunken Ancient Soul Restriction! Inside it, there were faint sounds of roaring and howling. As Wang Lin's gaze swept over it, he could vaguely see a massive giant python within the Restriction. This python was extremely vicious, roaring constantly at Wang Lin, as if it wanted to break out of this Restriction and devour him.

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, three hours had passed. During these three hours, the Restriction light screen outside the boat roared continuously. Under the violent flickering of the light screen, a multicolored light faintly seemed to pierce through, shining onto the deck.

Fan Shanmeng's eyes grew cold. She stared at Wang Lin, her previous shock having completely subsided. In her view, Wang Lin seemed to have entered a Bottleneck, remaining almost motionless for three hours.

"How could this Soul Demon Boat be so easy to study and understand? This person being able to open the protection of this deck's Restriction previously was already his limit. Attempting to unravel the Restrictions of this boat—Wang Lin, oh Wang Lin, you are truly too arrogant!" Fan Shanmeng's expression was calm, with no hint of the cold sneer in her heart.

"Fellow Daoist Wang, it has already been three hours. If you go to the altar now, perhaps there is still time…" Fan Shanmeng spoke softly, her voice rising faintly.

Wang Lin turned a deaf ear, as if he hadn't heard. He kept staring at the Restriction touched by his right fingertips, the look of deduction in his eyes intensifying.

"Ancient Soul Restriction… using souls as a guide, merging them into the Restriction, making the Restriction become a living thing. In this way, it can change in a thousand ways. The stronger the sealed soul, the greater the power of the Restriction… This Restriction is not difficult!"

In the fifth hour, Wang Lin suddenly closed his eyes and pointed his right hand fiercely at that Restriction rune. With this point, the Restriction rune immediately trembled and collapsed with a bang. The moment it collapsed, a ghostly python turned into a stream of black Qi and dispersed directly. But before it could spread too far, it was grabbed by Wang Lin's right hand. With a fierce squeeze, the black Qi immediately disintegrated, but it did not dissipate. Instead, under Wang Lin's Hand Seals and a point of his finger, the black Qi turned back into a Restriction and landed in its original place.

"This is the first one…" Wang Lin opened his eyes, looking at the Restriction rune on the deck that he had studied, understood, and completely controlled. His expression was calm, and he looked up at Fan Shanmeng. "No rush, there is still enough time."

Fan Shanmeng frowned. Although Wang Lin had broken one Restriction rune, the number of Restriction runes on this deck was almost unimaginable. And even so, this was only the outer perimeter; there were still the internal Restrictions of this Soul Demon Boat.

"It took five hours to break just one. At this speed, I fear that in three days, Fellow Daoist would only have broken a dozen or so. You…" Before Fan Shanmeng could finish her words, suddenly, banging sounds emerged from all around Wang Lin.

Under her stunned gaze, she watched with her own eyes as Wang Lin waved his right hand, and nine Restrictions on the deck collapsed simultaneously. After turning into black Qi, they condensed into new Restrictions and fell back into their original places one by one.

"This…" Fan Shanmeng took a deep breath, but before she could fully inhale that breath, her eyes suddenly bulged, revealing a look of disbelief.

However, she saw Wang Lin wave his right hand again. Rumbling sounds suddenly echoed as the rune Restrictions forming the deck collapsed all at once. Dozens, hundreds, thousands, and finally tens of thousands all exploded. The black Qi they emitted turned into a black storm that rose high on the deck and swirled around in all directions.

In just these few breaths, within a hundred zhang of Wang Lin, there were no longer any Restrictions, only this black storm howling. Finally, this storm broke apart and turned back into streaks of rune marks, all falling back to their original places. Only then did Fan Shanmeng's shock truly begin.

"I have made a fool of myself before you, Fellow Daoist." Wang Lin smiled slightly.

Fan Shanmeng took a deep breath, forcing a slight smile, and nodded: "Fellow Daoist's attainments in Restrictions are indeed extraordinary. However, there are tens of millions of Restrictions on this deck. Fellow Daoist has finally managed to solve one percent of them, which is quite rare… However…"

Wang Lin raised his right hand with the Destruction Restriction in his grasp, a sharp light in his eyes, causing Fan Shanmeng's words to pause. In that very moment of pause, the Destruction Restriction in Wang Lin's hand suddenly flashed out, turning into a sheet of black light that spread and permeated the entire deck.

Rumbling sounds rose again. All the Destruction Restrictions on this deck trembled in that instant and collapsed simultaneously. Among the tens of millions of Restrictions, there were millions of Destruction Restrictions alone. Now that they all collapsed, it immediately caused the Soul Demon Boat to tremble violently.

Furthermore, at the same time, the Life and Death Restriction and the Time Restriction manifested on Wang Lin's right hand, sweeping across the entire deck. With constant rumbling, streams of black Qi rose into the sky. Within the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, countless Restrictions collapsed, turning into swirling black Qi.

With the black Qi swirling, even the multicolored Daoist outside the boat narrowed his eyes and looked over carefully.

Not to mention Fan Shanmeng, whose view was blocked by the black Qi. She stared blankly at all of this, her mind instantly going blank.

"Five hours… How is this possible? Although the Restrictions on the deck are only the outer perimeter, it is impossible for anyone to completely solve them in five hours. And he is not simply breaking them, but reverse-controlling them after breaking them… This… This…"

Amidst the rumbling, the black Qi gradually dissipated and all turned into Restrictions that landed on the deck. In the blink of an eye, more than half of the tens of millions of Restrictions on this deck belonged to Wang Lin!

Wang Lin's eyes revealed a bright look. He raised his right hand, and four Restriction runes floated above it. These four Restriction runes were vastly different; they were precisely the forms of the Four Great Restrictions!

Breaking the deck Restrictions was not difficult for Wang Lin. What was truly difficult was that he had to learn the Ancient Soul Restriction. During those five hours, Wang Lin appeared to only be studying that one Restriction, but in reality, as long as he thoroughly studied this one Restriction, it was equivalent to him comprehending the Ancient Soul Restriction!

After all, before this, Wang Lin was not completely ignorant of the Ancient Soul Restriction. Wang Lin had also studied the Ancient Soul Restriction in the Land of Falling, but that Restriction appeared complete yet actually had many flaws. It was precisely these flawed areas that hindered Wang Lin from comprehending it.

But the Ancient Soul Restriction on this deck was different; it was extremely complete!

The current Wang Lin was no longer the him who had studied Restrictions for years on the Restriction Mountain back then. The current Wang Lin was at the Void Spirit Middle Stage of cultivation, with six Origins in his body. With his comprehension and his understanding of Restrictions, five hours was enough to see through everything!

Wang Lin stood up and flicked his right sleeve. With rumbling echoing, all the remaining Restrictions on the deck collapsed, including the Ancient Soul Restriction, as well as some strange Restrictions Wang Lin had never seen before.

He did not have the time to thoroughly understand all those unfamiliar Restrictions one by one. He only needed to take a quick look, commit them to memory, gain some insight, and then forcibly destroy them.

This method might weaken the power of the deck's Restrictions significantly, but it allowed Wang Lin to thoroughly open a gap in the Restrictions of this Soul Demon Boat in a very short time!

With the rumbling echoing, amidst Fan Shanmeng's shock, all the Restrictions on the deck were completely controlled by Wang Lin. Standing on this deck, Wang Lin was the master of this deck. He revealed a strange light in his eyes and glanced at Fan Shanmeng.

"This boat has nine layers of Restrictions. The deck is the first layer, and there are eight layers below! Fellow Daoist, you just said that if I, Wang, broke the Restrictions, you would give me this boat?"

Fan Shanmeng's face turned faintly pale. With the breaking of the first layer of the Soul Demon Boat's Restrictions, she clearly discovered that her control over this boat seemed to have been forcibly snatched away by someone, as if it were a Magic Treasure that had suddenly sprouted two masters!

She never imagined that such a drastic change would occur in just five hours.

Seeing that the other party did not speak, Wang Lin smiled and shook his head. With a flicker of his body, his figure disappeared from the deck, and when he reappeared, he was already inside the Soul Demon Boat, on the second deck.

Staring at the place where Wang Lin disappeared, Fan Shanmeng revealed a cold glint in her eyes.

"So what if he broke the first layer? The further back the Restrictions of this boat are, the more difficult they become. I do not believe that he, a mere ant-cultivator from the Immortal Cave Realm, can fully control this Soul Demon Boat!"

Time passed—one hour, two hours, three hours. In the blink of an eye, seven hours had passed; an entire day had flown by. The multicolored light outside the boat became increasingly blinding, and the Soul Demon Boat trembled even more violently. The outer light screen had already been more than half broken by the multicolored Daoist.

Just at the very instant the seventh hour had passed, a heaven-shaking aura suddenly erupted from within the second deck, and the Soul Demon Boat violently shook.

"Impossible!!!" Fan Shanmeng stood up directly. The shock in her eyes could no longer be concealed by any light. Her control over this Soul Demon Boat was snatched away by another portion in this instant. Since her main body could not enter here, she originally did not have much control over this boat, only able to exert less than thirty percent of its power. Now that a portion had been snatched away by Wang Lin, at this moment, she only had a sliver more control than Wang Lin.

The second update is delivered. Seeking monthly votes!!!