6: Pure malice

Next door, inside the bathroom of Kirisu Mafuyu's apartment.

That wisp of cold, sinister aura, which had originally been lying dormant deep within the corner drainpipe, suddenly became restless and began to expand, like an ice cube thrown into boiling oil!

It sensed the power of a "backbone" that was of the same origin but far more powerful, and it tried to respond, tried to break through its bonds!

The bathroom was filled with steam.

Kirisu Mafuyu was soaking herself in the warm water, trying to wash away her exhaustion and shame.

Suddenly, her shoulders and arms, exposed above the water, felt a bone-chilling cold, and fine goosebumps instantly broke out on her skin.

"Huh? Is the heater broken?" she murmured to herself in confusion, subconsciously shrinking her body further into the hot water, completely unaware that an invisible battle was unfolding around her.

Just at the moment when that cold, sinister aura tried to burrow into her body through her skin, or influence her mind—

The "pebble" that Lin Luo had given her, which she had casually placed on the edge of the bathtub, had the protective seal that Lin Luo had personally inscribed inside it quietly triggered.

A spiritual light, invisible to ordinary people, covered her gently but firmly like an inverted glazed bowl.

The restless, cold aura collided with this layer of radiance, like snow meeting the sun, emitting a silent "sizzle" of dissolution; not only did it fail to penetrate even an inch, but its own power was instead constantly purified and consumed.

After several failed attempts to impact it, the aura seemed to realize that this "stone" was just as troublesome as its owner, and with reluctance and fear, it sullenly retreated back into the depths of the drainpipe, falling silent once again, even more withered than before.

In the bathtub, Kirisu Mafuyu only felt that the sudden chill had inexplicably disappeared again.

She sighed comfortably, picked up the warm, smooth stone to fiddle with, unaware that it had just silently helped her fend off a supernatural crisis.

In the bedroom next door.

A torrent of malice, ten times thicker and a hundred times purer than it had been at the library, erupted violently!

The darkness was no longer just an aura; it had turned into a viscous, tangible liquid, instantly submerging the entire bedroom.

Resentment screeched, murderous intent roared, and countless twisted whispers filled with negative emotions poured directly into Lin Luo's mind, frantically assaulting his mental defenses, attempting to drag him into an abyss of madness and depravity.

This was just the beginning.

This pure and powerful malice, like bloody bait dropped into the silent deep sea, immediately attracted the "things" lurking in the shadows of the city that flocked to negative energy.

In an instant, the temperature inside the bedroom dropped below freezing, and thick black frost quickly condensed on the walls.

Countless translucent, twisted manifestations of resentment appeared in the air.

They took various forms—some like bloated infants, others like elongated human figures—emitting greedy howls as they lunged from all directions toward Lin Luo, who was holding the "bait"!

Bang! Crash!

The glass water cup on the nightstand could not withstand the suddenly intensified energy pressure and shattered first!

Immediately following that, the ceramic pen holder and the mirror on the desk also burst apart!

Fragile items turned into shards one after another.

Fortunately, the window had already been replaced with a flexible screen, which vibrated violently and buckled inward under the intense energy fluctuations, emitting an overwhelmed "creak."

If it had been ordinary glass, it would have shattered by now, inevitably triggering an alarm for the entire community.

Lin Luo was at the center of the storm, his expression more solemn than ever before.

With his left hand, he pressed firmly down on the cicada song collection on his lap, which was vibrating frantically and rattling its pages as it tried to open.

Vast Spiritual Qi transformed into countless fine golden chains, wrapping around it layer by layer, forcibly suppressing its violent outbursts and its pervasive mental erosion.

Inside his Sea of Consciousness, a silent, grueling battle was taking place.

The haiku imagery, filled with temptation and despair, was like maggots on bones, constantly manifesting various illusions in an attempt to disintegrate his will.

At the same time, his right hand formed a sword-finger, with sharp platinum radiance flickering at his fingertips, tracing mysterious trajectories in front of him.

"Command!"

A low shout, like a clap of thunder, exploded!

A circular ring of blazing flame suddenly expanded from him as the center!

"Screech—!"

Those approaching resentful ghosts were like grease thrown into a raging fire, emitting incomparably shrill screams as they quickly dissolved and evaporated under the pure, masculine Spiritual Qi, turning into wisps of blue smoke.

But the ghosts behind them continued to surge forward one after another, greedily wanting to devour that evil book and Lin Luo, this "delicacy" filled with Spiritual Qi.

Lin Luo's eyes were sharp as knives.

He had to divide his attention between suppressing and analyzing the evil book in his hands—which seemed to possess a life of its own and kept trying to backlash—and precisely and efficiently exterminating these demons and monsters that had been attracted here.

His Spiritual Qi was depleting rapidly, and fine beads of sweat seeped from his forehead, appearing exceptionally prominent in the cold room.

The battle had been going on for the time it takes to burn half an incense stick.

Having only recently completed a full Great Circulation of his body, Lin Luo's foundation of Spiritual Qi was still shallow.

At first, he was still able to handle the weak collections of resentment that had been attracted, and with a flicker of spiritual light from his fingertips, he could purify and disperse the twisted black shadows one by one.

However, as time passed, the situation began to deteriorate.

The malice emitted by the cicada song collection was like an inexhaustible spring; the "things" it attracted became increasingly dense, and among them, there even began to be some powerful, fierce ghosts that knew how to attack indirectly.

They hid behind the weak resentful spirits, waiting for an opportunity to spit out filthy arrows of Yin Qi, or condense cold bone claws, attacking from inconceivable angles.

Lin Luo was struggling to cope, sweat rolling down his forehead.

Suppressing the evil book required consuming a massive amount of mental energy and Spiritual Qi, and exterminating the ghosts was draining his power like a bottomless pit.

He felt the Spiritual Qi in his Dantian depleting at an unprecedented speed, a faint stinging sensation coming from his Meridians, and the barrier of spiritual light surrounding him began to flicker, becoming thin.

"Oh no..."

Just at the moment when his Spiritual Qi was nearly exhausted, and an exceptionally solid black shadow broke through his defenses, rushing straight at his face with bone-chilling cold—

The seemingly simple wooden pendant on his chest suddenly became warm without any warning!

It was not power from himself, but a stream of incredibly pure energy, containing vibrant vitality and the ancient Dao rhyme, like a sweet spring in the mountains, flowing through the pendant without any obstruction and injecting directly into his nearly dried-up Dantian!

This energy, like a clear spring, did not require Lin Luo to divide his attention to guide it; once it entered his Dantian, it began to surge and circulate along the path of his Cultivation cycle on its own!

On the first cycle, his dried-up Meridians were instantly nourished, and the stinging sensation disappeared.

On the second cycle, his Spiritual Qi recovered by a small portion, and the spiritual light around him stabilized again.

On the third cycle, not only did his Spiritual Qi fully recover, but it even appeared thicker and purer than at his peak!

The speed of this self-operating cycle was unimaginably fast, as if space and time were being accelerated within it.

Lin Luo could only passively and shockingly feel his own power skyrocketing like it was on a rocket.

On the fourth cycle, the spiritual light blazed, and the approaching ghosts collapsed upon contact!

On the fifth cycle, his Divine Sense became clear, and the mental whispers of the cicada song collection became like distant gnats.

On the sixth cycle, his power was abundant, as if he could shake mountains with a mere gesture!

The moment the seventh cycle was completed to Perfection—

"Hum!"

A grand sound of the Dao seemed to resonate from the depths of his Soul!

A complex, mysterious seal, composed of pure golden light, uncontrollably burst forth from his Dantian, carrying an overwhelming and irresistible power, like the scorching sun melting snow, and slammed onto the cover of the frantically struggling cicada song collection!

Time seemed to stand still at this moment.

All the surging black gas, shrill howls, twisted whispers, and lunging ghosts... under this seal, were like being hit by a delete key, instantly coming to an abrupt halt!

The suffocating cold and malice in the bedroom receded like a tide, and the temperature began to rise.

Those resentful ghosts that had been attracted, like puppets that had lost their target, paused blankly for a moment, and then turned into wisps of blue smoke, dissipating into nothingness.

The cicada song collection, which had previously emitted an ominous aura and seemed to possess a life of its own, now lay quietly on Lin Luo's lap, its pages closed, the golden seal on the cover slowly fading away, leaving only... an old haiku collection that looked as ordinary as could be.

Everything was over.

The room was in a mess, with broken items scattered all over the floor, proving the intensity of the silent battle that had just taken place.

But the suffocating cold and malice in the air had completely dissipated, and the temperature was slowly rising.

Lin Luo let out a long sigh of relief, his tense nerves finally relaxing, and an intense wave of exhaustion swept through his entire body.

He looked down at the cicada song collection on his lap, which now appeared incredibly docile, even somewhat plain, and then raised his hand to gently grasp the seemingly unremarkable pendant on his chest.

It felt warm and smooth to the touch, no different from usual.

But this pendant was by no means ordinary.

It was not an object of this Realm, but the only "relic" that had come to this world with him.

Its origin was a mystery, its material unknown; it resembled jade but was not jade.

All he knew was that it was indestructible—it could not be smashed or burned—and it remained immaculate, as if transcending the physical Law of this world.

At first, it was just a souvenir he couldn't throw away and didn't know the purpose of.

It wasn't until he first sensed Qi in this world and drew Spiritual Qi into his body that he accidentally touched a faint, imperceptible resonance within it, as if knocking open the outermost door of a dust-covered treasure vault.

Since then, he had gradually discovered the tip of the iceberg of its abilities—

It was a storage medium, containing a small but stable space within.

It was a protective talisman that had autonomously activated during several of his crises, resolving disasters.

And tonight, it had further revealed its terrifying side as a source of Spiritual Qi; that stream of pure energy and the self-operating cycle were simply like the legendary "empowerment" of transferring cultivation.

Lin Luo even had a faint feeling that what this pendant contained was far more than this.

Perhaps it was more like a vast treasure vault left behind by a previous owner, which required specific keys to be opened layer by layer.

The golden seal that had instantly suppressed the cicada song collection, with its mystery and power, was by no means something his current Realm could understand; it seemed more like some kind of defensive or Legacy mechanism that the vault triggered on its own when he met certain conditions (such as his Spiritual Qi being depleted to the extreme).

"What on earth are you..." he murmured to himself, rubbing the pendant.

The secret of this pendant, which had accompanied him through his Transmigration, seemed even deeper than that of the evil cicada song collection in his hand.

He did not immediately check the state of the cicada song collection, but instead first closed his eyes and carefully looked inward, consolidating the Spiritual Qi that had skyrocketed due to those seven rapid cycles and was still somewhat unstable at the moment.

At the same time, he divided a wisp of his mind, attempting to communicate with the pendant on his chest once again.

This time, when his mind sank in, he seemed to feel that the layer of obstruction was... slightly thinner than before?

The night grew deeper.

Outside the window, the city was still flickering with neon lights, with heavy traffic.

For the surface world, this was just another calm and waveless night, and no one knew what kind of storm had just been quelled inside an ordinary apartment.