23: Chapter 23 The True Heart

Hearing Ma Xiaotao's miserable screams echoing by his ears, Lin Yan's expression remained calm, completely unmoved.

He was never a soft-hearted person; if Lin Yan were truly some sort of saintly do-gooder, it would have been impossible for him to continuously slaughter and refine Spirit Beasts for his own cultivation over all these years.

He merely detested meaningless indiscriminate killing, and detested the wanton trampling of life and the complete lack of reverence!

In Lin Yan's view, once a person completely lost the proper reverence for life, they would not be far from demonic nature overpowering human nature.

Of course, holding reverence for life was by no means womanly benevolence, nor was it fear of killing; rather, it was knowing why one kills and understanding when killing should stop!

In his past life, Lin Yan was plagued by prolonged illness and died with regrets.

Now that he could live another life, he sought only the Great Dao of longevity, practicing ultimate freedom and ease.

He had no desire to be a sage or Bodhisattva saving all living beings, nor was he willing to be a demon or evil entity wreaking havoc on the world; he only wished to guard his Dao, perform his deeds, and be himself!

Being decisive in killing was to clear away obstacles on the path ahead and protect the cultivation Dao; harboring reverence was to guard the bottom line of his original intent, preventing endless karmic killing from blinding his mind and making him forget how the word "human" was written!

Ignoring Ma Xiaotao, who was currently being drained of her Soul Power by the Emperor Flame Seed, her mouth sealed, and still struggling desperately.

Lin Yan raised his hand to recall the Flash-Wing Firebird in the distance carrying Wang Dong, leaned over to gently lift her down from the bird's back, and asked aloud: "How do you feel? Can you walk on your own?"

Having slightly recovered after a moment of regulating her breath, Wang Dong's cheeks flushed slightly.

She nodded, carefully stepped down from Lin Yan's arms to steady her stance, and softly thanked him: "Thank you for stepping in to save me just now. If it weren't for you, I might have lost my life today."

Catching a glimpse of the blush on Wang Dong's cheeks, Lin Yan simply assumed it was caused by the heat wave earlier and didn't think much of it, speaking indifferently: "It's nothing. Let's go, let's head over together to find Principal Yan Shaozhe. The one who injured you is precisely his Personal Disciple."

Following Lin Yan's indication to look at Ma Xiaotao, a burst of anger instantly ignited within Wang Dong's clear pinkish-blue eyes.

The fear of near-death still lingered in her heart, and recalling Ma Xiaotao's completely unrepentant attitude—having grown up this large, she had never suffered such grievances before!

If Shrek didn't give her justice today, this matter would definitely not end here!

Picking up the bound Ma Xiaotao, Lin Yan greeted Wang Dong and took the lead in walking forward.

Seeing this, Wang Dong hurriedly quickened her pace to follow.

Along the way, seeing that Lin Yan remained silent throughout without any intention of speaking proactively,

her gaze landed on the crimson chains binding Ma Xiaotao, and she curiously asked: "Are these chains, and the spirit tool you used to control her just now, all spirit tools?"

"Yes."

"As a Genius like you, why would you use external forces like spirit tools?"

Hearing Wang Dong ask this, Lin Yan didn't feel surprised; after all, influenced by Tang San's Divine Sense, Wang Dong had instinctively rejected spirit tools in the early stages.

"External force? What do you consider to be external force?"

"I have never considered spirit tools to be an external force. They are tools, tools that assist me in cultivating better."

"The reason humans are distinct from beasts is that humans can create tools and utilize tools to achieve their own goals."

After giving a simple reply and seeing that Wang Dong had fallen silent, Lin Yan said no more.

He stepped in to save people just now partly out of reluctance, and partly to avoid Tang San's divine descent stirring up even greater changes.

But regardless, at this moment Lin Yan still maintained his initial thought and was unwilling to get too entangled with Wang Dong.

As for Lin Yan learning spirit tools, was that very strange?

You must know that his Golden Finger—the core function of his companion Spirit Treasure, the Prajna Heart Lamp, was wisdom! It was Comprehension Ability!

As for self-selected Spirit Abilities, they were merely secondary Golden Fingers derived on that basis.

Possessing such a companion Spirit Treasure, Lin Yan certainly hadn't been idle over the years; he had constantly and frantically absorbed all kinds of useful knowledge, ranging from various collected Mind-Cultivation Techniques and predecessors' cultivation insights, down to astronomy, geography, and miscellaneous medical records.

And spirit tools naturally fell within Lin Yan's scope of study.

However, unlike the current research direction of major Empires towards warfare, Lin Yan placed his main energy on the root power of spirit tools—the Soul Guidance Array.

Through analyzing and summarizing various Soul Guidance Arrays, then experimenting and recording the function of each array pattern, Lin Yan discovered that the core arrays of these spirit tools seemed to be the energy operation Laws under the Law of the Douluo Continent Plane itself.

Different combinations of patterns derived different abilities and effects.

Even by cross-verifying the Soul Guidance Array patterns with the Soul Power operation routes in various Mind-Cultivation Techniques and the human body's Meridian trajectories, Lin Yan discovered that the internal Soul Power circulation within the human body and the energy operation Laws of the Soul Guidance Array shared many commonalities.

Relying on the Comprehension Ability blessing of the Prajna Heart Lamp, over all these years, Lin Yan's analysis and research on Soul Guidance Arrays had already yielded massive gains.

As for his core research direction at the present stage, simply put, Lin Yan wanted to invert the two characters for array to become Formation!

However, although arrays and Formations seemed similar on the surface, the inner reality was worlds apart; it wasn't to say that scaling up an array proportionally could directly be called a Formation.

Through Lin Yan's exploration over these years, in his view, if he wanted to truly create the kind of Formation he envisioned that could connect heaven and earth, there was only one path to take.

That was to dig deeper into the true appearance of the rules within from the surface manifestations of thousands of Soul Guidance Array patterns, and only then would it be possible to create a Grand Formation connecting heaven and earth!

Unfortunately, the number of Soul Guidance Arrays currently in his hands was limited, and experimental Materials were extremely scarce, causing related research to have already fallen into a stagnant state.

If he wanted to continue deeply cultivating and making a Breakthrough, for now, he still needed to think of a way from Shrek's side.

Regarding the path of Formation, Lin Yan had always held extremely high expectations; even right at the beginning, his astonishing wisdom had given birth to an ingenious conception!

Imagine what kind of sight it would be if he could use the life core of the entire Douluo Plane—the Golden Ancient Tree as the core of the Formation, and set up a heaven-reaching Grand Formation enveloping the entirety of Shrek!

By that time, perhaps this Sea God Pavilion could also be renamed as the Lin Yan Pavilion!

Of course, he also understood that wanting to truly achieve this step was fraught with difficulties, whether on the technical level or the realistic level.

But human effort can achieve anything; if a person had no dreams, what difference was there from a salted fish!

At the same time, although Lin Yan's main goal over the past few years had been placed on exploring the essence of Soul Guidance Arrays, on the path of pursuing knowledge, power was naturally a matter-of-course byproduct.

For instance, he combined Soul Guidance Arrays to improve his own Mind-Cultivation Technique, causing it to truly form a complete celestial circulation within his body, reaching a stage where it could be called a Cultivation Technique; moreover, he was now a genuine Level 5 Soul Engineer.

Even if it weren't for the fact that his internal Soul Power was insufficient to support him in fully carving a Level 6 array, relying on his understanding of Soul Guidance Arrays, calling himself a Level 6 Soul Engineer would be completely unproblematic!

And the two spirit tools he used previously, as well as the Level 5 chains currently imprisoning Ma Xiaotao, were naturally all his own creations.

As for why that Fire-Suppressing and Spirit-Sealing Cauldron from earlier could reach Level 6?

Its power even far exceeded ordinary Level 6 spirit tools, and the reason lay in the fact that the Materials it used were good enough to carry a large number of Soul Guidance Arrays; therefore, Lin Yan organically fitted, nested, and stacked a massive amount of Soul Guidance Arrays, forcefully piling it up to Level 6.

Actually, speaking of which, this cauldron could be considered a piece of work he made to show off his skills while sorting out what he had learned at the time!