After I left the sect, the entire sect knelt down and begged for forgiveness.

Chapter 19 Inner Demons? Not Afraid.
"Do you think it's appropriate to use spiritual power in this cave?" During the last battle, the cave didn't collapse because of the protective barrier, but it did cause the ground to shake.

Moreover, this is a swordsmanship competition. What if using spiritual energy hurts the Crimson Demon? Last time, in order to break through, I used a shield-to-spear approach. She used magical shields for defense the whole time and didn't use any offensive spells, so I was able to control the direction of the damage.

She glanced over and saw the Crimson Enchantress fast asleep again, and couldn't help but facepalm. She'd just eaten and was already asleep—how ​​much did she love sleeping?
After a moment's thought, Lingjian agreed.

A man and his sword faced off, the atmosphere tense and on the verge of exploding. Just as they were about to fight, Lin Yan spoke again. "Wait, there's something else. You can't fight without your sword sheathed!"

The spirit sword protested, "Why is this forbidden and that prohibited?"

"Don't you want to listen to what you're saying? You're a top-grade magic weapon. Even without spiritual power, you can still cut through iron like mud. If my jade flute touches your sword, it will be sliced ​​in two, right?"

Spirit Sword: ...

Okay, she has a point.

The fighting resumed.

Lin Yan used the flute as a sword, her aura changed, and she thrust it at it without hesitation.

Lingjian sensed Lin Yan's fierce attack and, instead of dodging, chose to meet it head-on.

The jade flute and the sword sheath clashed, producing a clear, ringing sound. It handled it with ease, even managing to quip, "Hey, that's not bad."

Lin Yan's expression turned solemn; she knew it had underestimated her, saying her sword strength was only enough to tickle it. She changed her sword technique and continued her attack. For a time, the two fought fiercely, neither gaining the upper hand.

The sword's scabbard was made of cold iron, and when it was swung, a cold aura rippled around it, giving off a chilling feeling. The jade flute, on the other hand, was made of jade stone, which was not as strong as the cold stone. After the two sides collided repeatedly, a thin crack appeared on the jade flute.

Seeing that Yu Di couldn't hold on any longer, she stopped and said, "Alright, alright, stop fighting."

The spirit sword was in the middle of a good fight when it heard its opponent say "I'm not fighting anymore," and it immediately became unhappy. Its blade swayed from side to side in protest. Seeing that she didn't give in, it then made the blade clash with the scabbard, making a "clanging" sound as a sound attack to express its dissatisfaction.

How can you just stop fighting like that? They didn't even get to fight properly!
Ignoring the spirit sword's protests, Lin Yan turned her jade flute and prepared to sit down to cultivate. The spirit sword flew in front of her and shouted, "No, we must continue fighting!"

She frowned and showed it the flute: "If you keep playing it, this flute will break in two."

Jade Flute: I've cracked, but thankfully someone spoke up for me.

The difference in materials alone reveals the superiority of the two. She only sought to test her learning progress by sparring with it, not intending to fight the spirit sword to exhaustion.

The spirit sword refused, circling around her. "Then you can exchange it for a magic weapon of the same grade as mine."

Lin Yan sighed helplessly, "Do you think Heaven-level magic treasures are commonplace?"

Unable to refute, the spirit sword obediently flew back to the stone platform and remained motionless.

She put away her flute and continued her practice.

After an unknown amount of time, Lin Yan encountered a bottleneck in her cultivation. It was as if an invisible shackle was suppressing her. This feeling was similar to the one she had experienced before when she was stuck at the fourth level and unable to break through.

No matter how hard she tried to mobilize her spiritual energy, she couldn't break through this barrier. Now it felt like a huge boulder was pressing down on her back, bending her spine, making it difficult for her to move, and making her want to give up.

She felt a change in her state of mind: anxiety, frustration, unease, fear... These negative emotions were like a raging flood, impacting her mind wave after wave, as if a dark cloud was eroding her Daoist heart.

If one is entangled in negative emotions at this point, inner demons will arise. Once inner demons arise, the path to immortality is effectively over.

This is something every cultivator must go through, and the higher the realm, the stronger the shackles and the greater the interference. Those with a clear Dao mind are naturally fearless, but some cultivators cannot withstand it, develop inner demons, are devoured by them, and become true demons.

Faced with such critical moments, Lin Yan always manages to find a way out that no one else has ever thought of.

When she was overwhelmed by negative emotions and enveloped by countless fogs of depravity, she sat still, letting herself be swallowed up.

In an instant, she gathered all the black mist into a ball and stuck it into the ground with a stick in her hand.

Look, it looks just like a black marshmallow, and it looks very sweet.

Pshaw? A little devil? I'm not afraid of anything.

This was created by her, so why should she be afraid? In her world, she is the boss and can control this thing called "inner demon" at will.

Cultivators usually think about how to break or suppress their inner demons, but she was different. She let the black mist envelop her and let the inner demons condense, finally kneading them in her hands.

The inner demons that arise before reaching the Golden Core stage are not yet fully formed; they are merely a hazy, gray cloud. This thing releases negative emotions into the cultivator's sea of ​​consciousness, gradually leading the cultivator to succumb. It strengthens itself by absorbing the cultivator's power. As the cultivator's realm advances, it also grows stronger.

Cultivators' thinking has become rigid, and they all find inner demons terrifying. They even try to appear devoid of desire in order to avoid developing them. But no sentient being can truly be without desires.

Even after she transformed her inner demon into a marshmallow, it remained incredulous. It kept emitting sharp cries. Countless "whys" echoed in her mind, almost causing her to break down.

She directly rubbed the black mist to shut it up.

My deepest desire is to become stronger. But what kind of strength is it if I can't even subdue my inner demons? Inner demons can also be cultivated; they are a part of me, so their cultivation is equivalent to my cultivation.
In other words, when she is fighting, her inner demons are cultivating, so she is also cultivating; when she is cultivating, her inner demons are cultivating, so she is cultivating twice as much!
Fantastic! She's found a great "employee" who works for her illegally without paying her.

The little black ball trembled. Oh no, it had run into a tough opponent who didn't play by the rules! It suddenly realized that its very existence was a mistake.

It desperately wanted to escape, but it couldn't.

Lin Yan watched the grayish ball shrink, then released it with satisfaction before withdrawing it from her consciousness. Her mental state remained stable, unaffected by her inner demons.

When I opened my eyes, I saw the rabbit lying next to me with its big belly exposed. It was still round and plump, and you couldn't tell it had lost weight unless you looked closely.

She took out the mysterious herb and waved it in front of the rabbit's nose. The rabbit followed the herb without opening its eyes, and finally bit the leaf and ate it with its eyes closed.

It wasn't fully awake, but it could still eat. Amazing!

When Lingjian saw her open her eyes, he quickly came over and circled around her, looking her over.

In just over half a month, he actually reached the half-step Golden Core stage? Terrifying indeed!

(End of this chapter)