Volume 1 Chapter 6 — Backlash? Defying Energy? Defying Birthmark?
"So it was the scar!"
Xin An took a deep breath, his back drenching with sweat. Although he had been prepared for the second time, the heart-wrenching soul-demolishing pain still made him shivered as if he plunged below 10,000 feet of Chilling River!
If not for him ripping his clothes and touching the scar, the underworld would have one more customer.
Fortunately, Xin An was witty.
Xin An said, "This scar probably not ordinary. Before Teacher vanished, there was a scar on his forehead. It looked similar to mine...
....
"Lemme see your scar."
"Scar? You mean this?"
"You, you truly are... .."
....
During that time, Xin An was uninterested. He reckoned the scar was plain and ordinary. Because in the eighteen years of his life, it never showed any abnormality. However, it seemed he was mistaken.
If Old Man has a scar on his forehead...Would that be mean every single person with Defying Bloodline has a scar?"
Old Man Yu was not too vague on his information too and only give a bit of explanation, so Xin An was extremely baffled. He said, "What am I gonna do next?"
"Would that pain emerge if I say...Activate?"
Xin An was troubled. After all, when he had activated the Intent Segment, the pain would suddenly emerge. He didn't know if it will occur twice.
"Let's try it!" Xin An gritted his teeth and stood up. He took a deep breath and gripped the stick. His veins emerging, he shouted, "Activate!"
Ba-dump!
His heart thumped deafeningly and his body felt a vibration passed as if a thousand worms wiggled inside his flesh. He clenched his teeth and every vein on his body bulge out. Xin An let out a cry and touch the scar.
Ba-dumb Ba-dump ~~
His heart rate normalized and the pain similarly vanished. His appearance was pale but it was slightly better than previously.
"Why is this happening?"
Xin An stared blankly. He didn't panic nor was driven by his situation. Yes, he was in a tough spot, but if he wasted time by cursing, he will never solve his dilemma.
After a moment of silence, Xin An muttered. "Is there any way to activate the Intent Segment?"
"But...Whenever I active Intent Segment, the scar will similarly brighten. Are they interconnected?"
"In this situation, what would Yan'er do?"
Yan'er was his source of advice. She was a good teacher and had a massive amount of knowledge; she even knew how to forge weird things. That weapon she called katana that she forged seemed decent too, Xin An had thought of switching weapon because of that.
Without Yan'er on his side, Xin An seemed lost. Every second spending with her was a breeze of wind and sea of rainbows, he learned new things every day to her. He learned how to remain calm because of her. Perhaps if she was here, dealing with this problem would be relatively easy. After all, she was a genius and wielded one of the Archaic Essences, Fate Essence.
"Is there any book pertaining to the information about this scar?" Xin An muttered. He looked at his remodeled wooden sword and let out a sigh.
Reaching Half-Sword Intent within few hours was unheard of, but Intent Segment makes it impossible to possible. It could be used long-term. Cultivating Intent was like commanding wind while Comprehending Intent was like finding a tael of silver on a river. Without a doubt, every Intent Enthusiast would choose the former. If they could just cultivate Intent why would they bother to comprehend?
Xin An had the same thought. He wanted to rely on this segment to retain his strength as soon as possible. For his woman, he'll take the shortcut even if it means threading dangers!
Xin An hanged a helpless smile and mocked himself. "I thought once I have this cultivation art, I'll become invisible. Walking the path of glory and domination. No obstacles could block my path, however, it seemed I'm mistaken. There's no easy path."
Xin An reverted his gaze on the sword. At that moment, he noticed the spatial ring on his ring finger. His eyes brightened as if a ball of light illumine his head. "If there are treasures and manuals on this ring...Seeing a book that contains information about the scar could be possible."
With that, his consciousness entered the space of the spatial ring. Xin An was wandering around like a countryside youth. He didn't stop at manuals, or techniques, nor treasures and continued finding the purpose of his visit. Occasionally, he would find books, but they talk about this so-called 'Fiends' and Xin An haven't had heard of them, so he ignored it.
An incense of time passed and Xin An ventured almost the entire area of the spatial ring. Because he was simply an embodiment of consciousness, Xin An could travel this spatial ring, which has a size similar to a sea, very fast.
Xin An drifted and went around. Some books were very misleading, and instead of the information about the scar, it was yet another book talking about the weaknesses of fiends.
"What's Fiend anyway? Why I never heard of them." Xin An was baffled. Almost all the collection of books here talked about fiends and stuff; talking about how terrifying and bloodthirsty they were, about humans being their favorite food. It was indeed terrifying.
Another incense of time, yet his effort never bore fruits. However, like a star that shines at night, Xin An came across a formula of an alchemist called 'Defying Heaven Pill.'
When Xin An opened the scroll, he felt like this was it!
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Heaven Defying Pill
Creation of the one and only Xin Xialu.
Introduction: We all face backlash and it's frustrating. It could cause death, but under our care, we seldom face it. However, all of this merit belongs to the older generations who fortified the position of our Defying Clan.
I was inspired to create this pill in hopes of passing it before my Death Transformation, if I fail, at least I will also contribute to the foundation of our clan like our Ancestors made.
Ladies and Gentlemen, after thousands of years, I finally created this pill formula!
It is called Heaven Defying Pill!
With Heaven Defying Pill, replenishing your Defying Energy would no longer be a problem. Consuming a single pill would last about a month depending on the quality. So instead of slaughtering beasts to replenish our Defying Birthmark, consuming a single defying pill can sustain our needs for using Defying Manual!
Everyone, as one of the Defying Alchemists, will present to you my newest creation.
Here's the formula: Three stalks of Cleansing Water Herb, Five pieces of Holy Haze grass, three drops of Celestial Dew, and fifteen buckets of Paragon Diremonster Blood.
As for the step and procedures... After lightening up the furnace, drop the stalk of .....
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Xin An hovered on the spatial ring and pondered. Now he had clues that sound similar to what he had experienced.
Xin Xialu mentioned Backlash, Defying Birthmark, and Defying Energy.
These three words from the Heaven Defying Pill formula were very similar to what he had experienced. Xin An unconsciously muttered, "What if the Backlash refers to the pain? What if Defying Birthmark refers to the Scar?...And what if Defying Energy refers to the warm and cozy feeling on my scar; the scarlet light that brightened up during the entire session of using Intent Segment?"
"It's not impossible." Xin An said and he slowly regained his composure. His head imagined a woman and he smiled. "Without Yan'er's teaching, there's no way I could think the bigger picture."
"And right. Senior Xin Xialu also mentioned that (so instead of slaughtering beast to replenish the defying birthmark). Does that mean I have to slaughter beasts to replenish the Scar?"
Perhaps it was only his imagination but Xin An felt his thoughts were pretty reasonable. He had no evidence that could back his words, but his instinct told him he was heading on the right path!
However, Xin An was nothing but a human. He was not a genius nor a God. So if he wanted to learn about this theory of his, he had to experiment; an experiment through slaughtering beasts!
Xin Xialu's Heaven Defying Pill was tempting. But Xin An was very far from capable of making one. Not to mention the ingredients, the blood of this so-called Paragon diremonsters had given him headaches. He complained, "What's a Paragon diremonster anyway?"
Xin An knew about the existence of diremonsters, but Paragon...What does that mean?"
Heaven Defying Pill required fifteen buckets of paragon diremonsters blood. Fifteen paragons! However, he was clueless about what type of beast is that. In addition, the ingredients were very ancient. On Wasteland Domain, he had never heard of such herbs.
"Why I'm thinking of this? I'm not an alchemist." Xin An shrugged and realized. "No wonder in the introduction of Defying Manual, no one dares to concurrently cultivate the segments; the costs of it was astronomical!
Xin An smiled and put the scroll on the pile of treasures. Then his consciousness went outside and Xin An opened his eyes. He stood up and murmured, "If not for the formula, perhaps it would take me half of my life to figure out the problem of this scar."
He gripped his sword and looked at it. "Looks like you'll be my partner on this journey."
Xin An went out of the cave and looked below. He decided to head out to slaughter diremonsters. As for the reason, it was to know if his theory was right or not. At the same time, it was a form of testing his current strength!
Sword Intent Activate!
Xin An raised his sword and sword lights began gathering around under the aura of his half-sword Intent.
When the sword lights had an amount enough to produce a crescent slash, he let out a cry and his sword descended to the ground from the sky!
A beautiful scarlet slash materialized. Following this, Xin An withdrew his wooden sword and hopped atop the Crescent Sword Light, airing it as if he was riding a flying sword.
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