In the world of martial arts, one works tirelessly to attain enlightenment.

Chapter 162, The Curse

A three-story building.

Lin Ran handed the spatial ring to Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu checked it over and nodded in approval.

"The quality is very good and it will last for a while. The spirit master helped me a lot. After some more time, the curse should be completed."

"That's good. But don't rush. It's okay if it's a little slower, but we need to ensure the power of the curse."

Lin Ran nodded slightly, then gave some instructions.

Zhou Yu indicated that she understood and went into the basement.

Lin Ran took out the resources and began cultivating in the living room.

time flies.

The chaos inside the city had no effect here; it was as if we were in two different worlds.

Lin Ran chose to cultivate the Eight Gates Formation, the Soul Nourishing Technique, and the Fourth Part of the Sword Manual together. Even if she was distracted, it did not affect their respective progress.

When the Four Pillars of Elemental Law reaches the fifth level, the experience gain speed of the three fourth-level skills will be greatly increased.

Twenty days later.

Suddenly, golden light emanated from Lin Ran's body. The four gates—the Rest Gate, the Injury Gate, the Block Gate, and the Open Gate—appeared simultaneously. Then, two clusters of golden light appeared at the knees of her legs.

A portal slowly took shape amidst the golden light, eventually becoming clearly visible.

The portal vibrated slightly, then opened a crack, and the flow of qi and blood and their quality immediately improved significantly, continuing to improve as the portal opened further.

Before long, the portals at the knees opened completely, and the five portals that had opened earlier also opened.

Golden light filled the living room, and the air seemed to turn into mercury, almost unable to move, with spiritual energy completely squeezed out.

After a long while, the golden light returned to the seven portals, the portals disappeared, the external golden light vanished, and everything returned to normal.

[Eight Gates Formation LV5→LV6: 10/3000]

The Fifth Gate of Shock, open!

Lin Ran sat cross-legged in the air with her eyes closed, a bright silver light shimmering between her brows.

Besides the Eight Gates Formation, the Soul Nourishing Technique has also accumulated enough experience. Compared to the changes in the former, the latter has very little impact.

In the spiritual space, the ten leaping and burning divine flames merge together, becoming a larger divine flame. This process will repeat until one enters the realm of the extraordinary.

[Soul Nourishing Technique - Fourth Level → Fifth Level LV1: 50/500]

【Sword Manual Part 4 - Killing Sword Intent LV5→LV6: 50/3000】

Lin Ran exhaled and reassessed the power she had gained.

His spirit, physical body, and spiritual energy all entered the mid-level Divine Fire Realm!

Then there's sword intent, eye techniques, and finally, the rule skills that haven't been improved.

After breaking through to the mid-level Divine Fire Realm, the speed of experience gain becomes even slower.

Lin Ran carefully sensed the surroundings and, based on the Eight Gates Formation, which is the slowest to improve, discovered that it would take about ten hours to gain even a single point of experience!

The next breakthrough, if I only cultivate, will require nearly 30,000 hours! More than three years!

The Soul Nourishing Method and the Four Pillars Yuan Method are relatively better, increasing experience by about eleven points in ten hours.

However, all things considered, the time required to break through to the Upper Divine Fire Realm is about the same as that required for the Eight Gates Formation.

Lin Ran shook his head. Normal cultivation was probably not feasible; he would have to rely on the power of the alien race.

Hopefully, these alien races can put in some effort and kill them all so he can get more rewards, thereby accelerating his cultivation speed.

The feedback from the Mother Realm is much better than the Enlightenment Crystal.

Looking into the basement, Zhou Yu and the Spirit Master were still discussing something. A strange pattern floated in the air, giving off a rough feel.

The curse he spoke of already has a framework, and is currently in the process of being supplemented and perfected.

Lin Ran withdrew her gaze and looked outside.

After passing through layers of space, I saw the former chamber of commerce. It seemed to have returned to normal, but there were two or three times more aliens patrolling inside.

He smiled slightly and continued his cultivation.

……

One month later.

Lin Ran noticed the fluctuations coming from the basement and gently lifted her finger.

An invisible wind aura spread outwards, sealing off the ground floor of the three-story building.

The earth's spiritual energy seeped downwards, sealing off the same underground space and turning the three-story building into a structure within a sphere.

The waves hit the barrier of wind and earth and were completely blocked, without a single one penetrating out.

We went into the basement.

Zhou Yu and the Spirit Master were still pointing at the runes and changing their structure from time to time, unaware of the invisible fluctuations.

A brief observation.

Lin Ran concealed his aura, and his figure gradually became transparent until he completely disappeared.

As the fluctuations continued to spread, Zhou Yu and the Spirit Master entered the final correction phase.

Zhou Yu pulled out a bunch of alien races of the same race from his spatial ring, and then drew out a wisp of power from the runes.

The Spirit Lord then used spiritual energy shields of varying strengths, as well as a source shield, to block each alien race as a control experiment.

The power of the runes activated, instantly killing one alien creature, followed by a second one with a spiritual energy shield, and a third...

Depending on the thickness of the spiritual energy shield, the aliens died one by one until the final primal shield. The aliens lasted the longest, about fifteen minutes, but in the end they still died.

Zhou Yu took out a memory crystal and wrote the latest results into it.

"That's about it. The function of the curse has been confirmed. Next, we need to confirm its scope and the strongest targets it can be used against."

Zhou Yu exhaled and said.

Lin Ran released a wisp of her aura, and after the two noticed it, she stepped out from the shadows.

"Captain, we succeeded!"

The Spirit Lord smiled and beckoned, pulling Lin Ran in front of the runes.

Lin Ran smiled and nodded, carefully observing the runes. There were many things he didn't understand about their structure, but he could observe their specific effects through the Truth Eye Technique.

It was exactly as he had thought: by cursing the bloodline of a different race, all those of the same bloodline could be cursed!

"Well done!"

Lin Ran rubbed the Spirit Master's head and then patted Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu: ...

She rolled her eyes but didn't move away.

Lin Ran smiled.

"Let's put it away for now. The curse has a special fluctuation. If it spreads, it might be noticed by the alien races."

"it is good."

Zhou Yu cast several hand seals, and the floating curse flashed slightly before disappearing into her brow.

Lin Ran sensed that the side effects of the curse within her body were several times greater than before, but she could still suppress them.

He planned to resolve the issue all at once when he could no longer suppress it.

"Alright, let's rest first. Once we've fully recovered, we can then take action against the alien race."

"it is good."

Zhou Yu pulled Lingzhu to take a bath.

【Soul Nourishing Technique - Fifth Level LV1→LV2: 342/1000】

【Four Pillars of Destiny Method - Fifth Level LV1→LV2: 342/1000】

[Eight Gates Formation LV6: 82/3000]

……

outside the city.

Lin Ran, along with the recovered Spirit Master and Zhou Yu, captured more than a dozen different alien races and took them outside the city.

A strange light flashed between Zhou Yu's brows, revealing a special symbol. He then pressed down on the dead corpse with one hand.

In no time, the corpse dried up, and the blood inside was extracted, compressed and condensed in the air, eventually turning into a crimson-black symbol!

The symbol swayed slightly and split into four, corresponding to four other races of the same race nearby.

The blood-red, blackish symbols rushed into the alien race's bodies, immediately causing their bodies to tremble violently and their eyes to twitch. They died on the spot in no time!

All four alien races were dead. Zhou Yu grabbed the rune that was meant to kill more alien races and recorded the relevant information.

The Spirit Lord waved his hand, erasing the few remaining traces of his aura.

After carefully sensing the runes, Zhou Yu crushed them.

"There are no major problems, but some details need to be corrected."

(End of this chapter)