Chapter 358: Finding a way to restore cultivation

The next evening, a torrential downpour began.

Inside a cave in a southern country, Lin Che suddenly spat out a mouthful of crimson blood. The heart-wrenching pain caused the last vestiges of energy within him to erupt.

However, no matter how hard he tried, even consuming high-grade elixirs, the final result was still unable to repair his meridians.

Lin Che spat out another mouthful of scorching blood, collapsing heavily to the ground, a bitter smile on his face: “Am I, Lin Che… truly destined to be a cripple for the rest of my life?”

A desolate, bitter laugh echoed through the entire cave. Outside, Li Muwan, holding an oiled paper umbrella, gazed silently in the direction of the cave.

Li Muwan painfully placed the oiled paper umbrella on the ground. Enduring the heavy rain, she silently turned and left, leaving only the constant flash of thunder and lightning in the sky.

In the dim cave, Lin Che closed his eyes in despair. Just as he was about to give up completely, the killing intent he had obtained from Qinglin Immortal Emperor’s cave, flowed ceaselessly like a surging river.

Lin Che abruptly opened his eyes, looking at the killing intent energy in the cave. Only then did he recall the killing intent Qiu Yao had left behind in the cave back then.

This killing intent was extremely pure, and because he hadn't had time to absorb it, Lin Che had stored it in his system.

Lin Che immediately sat up, his face full of pleasant surprise: “That’s right! I can use the killing intent I obtained back then to re-condense energy… As long as I can successfully absorb all the killing intent, restoring myself to my peak should not be a problem.”

Thinking of this, Lin Che was overjoyed. He immediately moved his fingers rapidly, releasing all the killing intent Qiu Yao had left behind.

He then began to absorb it frantically without hesitation. Even as his bones crackled and his meridians tore with pain, Lin Che did not stop absorbing.

The killing intent, black as ink, poured out from the system's storage space, and the entire cave seemed to be dragged into a frozen hell of ten thousand years.

The killing energy, which contained Qiu Yao's lifelong slaughter, carried an irresistible sharpness capable of slaying immortals and demons. The moment it appeared, it transformed into countless dark threads, surging madly towards Lin Che's body.

“Ugh ah!”

Lin Che gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his forehead like coiling dragons. The moment the killing intent entered his body, a pain a hundred times more intense than when his meridians had ruptured swept through him.

It was as if countless ice-tempered sharp knives were simultaneously tearing at his flesh and bones.

At this moment, Lin Che could clearly feel the violent energies rampaging through his body. Wherever they passed, his already withered meridians were torn even more, and the light-green marks instantly turned purplish-black.

Yet, he did not retreat in the slightest.

With bloodshot eyes, Lin Che clenched his fists, letting his fingernails dig deep into his palms, using the pain to maintain his last shred of consciousness.

Lin Che thought of Li Muwan’s increasingly gaunt face, of her trembling shoulders as she turned in the rain, and of his vow to accompany her to see all the scenery in the world.

These thoughts were like an unquenchable light, burning brightly in the boundless darkness created by the killing intent.

“Condense… for me!”

Lin Che let out a beast-like growl from his throat, forcefully activating his remaining divine sense, guiding the rampaging killing intent towards his Dantian.

This was undoubtedly drinking poison to quench thirst. Qiu Yao's killing intent was inherently highly corrosive, and now, being suppressed by him in an almost barbaric manner, it began to backlash against his divine soul.

Countless bloody scenes exploded in his mind: battlefields of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, the wails of broken halberds and shattered swords.

“Get out!”

Lin Che roared, biting his tongue until it bled, using his vital blood to temporarily force back the illusions that interfered with his divine sense.

He also knew in his heart that once his mind was devoured by the killing intent, he would only become a puppet capable only of slaughter. That was more terrifying to him than being a cripple; he couldn't let Wan'er see him like that.

Time became viscous in the midst of extreme pain.

The heavy rain outside the cave had stopped at some unknown point. When the sky began to lighten at dawn, the killing intent within Lin Che finally ceased its rampage.

Those dark energies swirled and condensed in his Dantian, gradually forming a miniature sword shadow about an inch long. Cold light flowed across the sword body, yet it strangely began to resonate with his aura.

However, at this moment, Lin Che’s vision suddenly changed. Although he was still in the cave, he now saw mountains of corpses and seas of blood before him. Countless亡 souls climbed all around, ferociously pouncing towards Lin Che’s location.

Lin Che stomped his right foot heavily on the ground. Although he had no energy, he possessed killing intent, instantly shattering the亡 souls in front of him.

At the same time, many powerful individuals he had slain in the past appeared before him. These powerful individuals lay on the ground, their families clinging to them, in unbearable agony.

Watching the events unfolding before him, Lin Che frowned slightly, subconsciously clenching his fists, not wanting to continue watching.

“It’s you! You killed my father!”

A little girl with twin buns crawled out of the pile of corpses, her blood-stained small hands clutching Lin Che’s trousers tightly, her cries so sharp they seemed to pierce his eardrums.

Her eyes held none of the clarity a child should possess, only bone-deep hatred. “My father was just a small city guard. He said he’d take me to buy candied hawthorn after the war. Why did you kill him?!”

Lin Che’s body stiffened. The little girl’s face gradually overlapped with a certain battlefield in his memory. Indeed, there had been a child that age, crying until she fainted while holding her father’s corpse.

“And my husband!”

A woman in a coarse cloth dress lunged over, her hair disheveled, her fingernails digging deep into his arm. “You said he cultivated demonic arts, but he only killed a few people. By what right did you sentence him to death with a single word? I still have his flesh and blood in my womb; how are we, an orphan and a widow, supposed to live?!”

The woman’s belly was heavily swollen, and tears mixed with blood streamed from the corners of her eyes. Her desperate gaze was like a red-hot branding iron, searing Lin Che’s heart.

“Lin Che! You executioner!”

“My son was a talented cultivator, destined for a great future, but you crippled his Dantian to compete for a secret realm spot. Is your heart made of stone?!”

“My husband merely said your cultivation technique had flaws, and you ground him to dust. Where is the Heavenly Dao?!”

Countless vengeful spirits gathered around. White-haired old men leaned on canes, pounding his back. Women cradling infants knelt on the ground, kowtowing, the blood from their foreheads staining the earth beneath their feet. Even the cries of those infants carried a curse-like venom.

“Look at them!”

A figure shrouded in black mist slowly emerged, his voice like countless wronged souls screaming simultaneously.

“These are all the innocent souls on your hands. Do you think you can control power by condensing killing intent into a sword shadow? You are wrong; you are already part of the slaughter!”

Lin Che’s heart felt as if it were being squeezed by an invisible hand, and a suffocating sensation overwhelmed him.

Looking at the mother crying over her dead infant, he remembered that he had indeed once imprisoned that entire household in order to force out the mastermind behind the scenes.