"Correct."
Clover's voice rang out,
"Furthermore, to leave no lingering disasters behind, Lieutenant Sevrin, I hope you can... eliminate those two newly born Evil Spirits and destroy those two Bronze Corpses as well.
Because after a long time has passed, those two seemingly dead Bronze Corpses will also awaken and transform into Evil Spirits. I know they were once your friends, but I believe they likely would not wish to turn into man-eating beasts in the future."
Sevrin remained silent.
"Lord Sevrin."
At that moment, Dashan, who had been listening to their conversation all along, spoke in a heavy voice, "Please, kill us."
Beside him, Yufen also spoke up: "My Lord, what this unseen person says is true. We truly do not want to become man-eating demons. We... our family has never committed an evil act in the first half of our lives, and we do not wish to do so in the second half. It is just that..."
She silently turned her head toward the two Bronze Corpses on the ground and said mournfully: "My Lord, could you perhaps allow me... to destroy their bodies myself?
They are so small. After enduring so much hardship alongside Dashan and me, in the end, they cannot even keep their bodies whole. As their biological mother, I... I cannot bear it."
After speaking, Yufen slumped onto the ground, cradling the two shriveled Bronze Corpses and weeping softly.
"Lord Sevrin."
Dashan, who had been standing silently to the side, suddenly said, "Yufen is merely a woman and does not understand the importance of the big picture. Please do not take her words to heart. I..."
Phosphorescent light flickered within his eye sockets as he said resolutely, "My Lord, shall I be the one to handle this? I will strike off the heads of these two cubs of mine!"
As Dashan uttered those words, Yufen's whole body trembled, and her grip on the Bronze Corpses tightened.
To this, Sevrin remained silent with his brows tightly furrowed, his thoughts unknown.
Just then, Clover, having overheard their words, spoke again:
"Sigh ~ Although it is regrettable, doing that... will not work."
Sevrin heard this and looked toward the air, staring at the cluster of floating golden birds, and asked in a heavy voice:
"Why? Is it not even possible for them to destroy the corpses themselves?"
"No, as the parents themselves... they are not ruthless enough."
Clover explained slowly, "For an unawakened Evil Spirit larva, merely striking off the head is insufficient. It must be... entirely crushed into dust."
As those words were spoken, Dashan slumped right there, the strength he had just forced himself to maintain shattering completely; his wife Yufen collapsed even further over the two Bronze Corpses.
But just as the situation seemed nearly unsolvable, Sevrin spoke up as if he had suddenly thought of something:
"Commander Clover, you have been saying that the fragmentary volume of the "Lotus Scripture" cannot do this or that... so, what if a complete version of the "Lotus Scripture" were here?"
"A complete set of the "Lotus Scripture"?"
Clover's voice paused for a moment on the other side, then rang out again, "Lieutenant Sevrin, if there truly were a complete set of the "Lotus Scripture" here at this moment, then it wouldn't just be these few Evil Spirits that could be cleansed of their evil filth and turned back into humans.
Even the tens of millions of floating corpses that have thoroughly died within this Yellow Spring sea of filth could similarly be returned to life and brought back to the mortal realm."
"Then the problem is easily solved."
Sevrin's expression finally cleared of the gloom, his face spreading into a smile, "Tell me now where the complete set of the "Lotus Scripture" is. I will go get it myself. Is it at the Graew Demon-Slaying Bureau headquarters?"
"It is not."
Clover sighed, "Lieutenant Sevrin, you should just give up. Perhaps the heavens could not bear to let such a flawless divine object remain in the world; that complete set of the "Lotus Scripture" handed down from ancient times... has been lost to the mortal realm for thousands of years."
"Is that so?"
Sevrin fell silent for a moment, then looked up and laughed, "Very well, I shall take half an hour to use that fragmentary volume of the "Lotus Scripture" as a foundation and deduce a complete set."
"What did you say?!"
Clover was struck with terror upon hearing this, saying hurriedly:
"Lieutenant Sevrin, you... what kind of delirious talk is this?! You... want to use a fragment? In half an hour... to deduce a complete version of the "Lotus Scripture"? Have you gone mad?!"
Sevrin paid him no mind, sitting upright on the ground by himself, his expression solemn and his eyes half-closed, feigning a posture of attaining enlightenment.
In reality, he had shifted his mind to his personal interface, moving toward that "Lotus Scripture".
Indeed, Sevrin planned to consume a Shard to upgrade this scripture, elevating it from a fragmentary volume to a complete set.
"I can't do it too quickly; if I deduce the complete version in just a few seconds, it would be too illogical."
Sevrin, sitting with his eyes closed, muttered to himself, "Hmm, so... I'll use half an hour. Deducing a complete version in half an hour should be reasonable enough."
Indeed, he believed this was a reasonable calculation.
He thought that taking "as long as" half an hour to deduce a complete set from an ancient fragmentary volume was a perfectly logical occurrence, a minor matter that could be perfectly explained by the single word: "Genius."
Regrettably, Sevrin was mistaken.
In this world, there had never been such a heaven-defying monster.
It couldn't be helped; since transmigrating to this world of the Martial Lands, he had never encountered any so-called difficulties on the path of cultivation. He had always enjoyed smooth sailing and broken through everything like a knife through bamboo.
But Sevrin didn't realize that simply because of those words of his, Clover's side had completely boiled over; every Lieutenant was dazed with shock.
...
Dozens of miles away, inside that temporary Demon-Slaying Bureau stronghold,
"By my mother's soul!"
Zenom's eyes bulged like copper bells as he stared fixedly at Sevrin sitting with closed eyes on the screen, stuttering, "Sevrin, you... this is way too outrageous! Half an hour... to deduce a complete version from a fragment? You can't even dream a daylight dream like that!"
"Hey, hey, hey! Xixun, Xixun!"
Shaxe grabbed Xixun and shook him forcefully, asking hoarsely, "You've read many history books; tell me, has there ever been a person with such freakish comprehension in history?"
"No, no, no!"
Xixun, whose head was similarly spinning from the shock of Sevrin's "Arrogant Words," shouted with his chubby face scrunched up, "There was none in the past, there is none now, and in the future... in the future, it's impossible for there to be one!"
"Eh?!" Shaxe froze. "You mean you don't believe Sevrin can deduce the complete version?!"
"Phew~"
Xixun let out a long sigh, pulled his hand away, and pursed his lips. "Sevrin's martial arts talent is indeed formidable; you could even say it's so powerful it soars into the sky to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the sun.
But I simply do not believe he can deduce the complete version from a mere fragment within half an hour. Forget half an hour, he couldn't do it even if he sat there for a full year!"
"The way you put it, Xixun."
Beside him, Rheta's delicate brows furrowed slightly. "Even if Sevrin can't calculate it in such a short time, it shouldn't take as long as a year to..."
Before she could finish, Clover, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke: "I also agree with Lieutenant Xixun's perspective. I believe it is... fundamentally impossible for Lieutenant Sevrin to deduce the complete "Heavenly Lotus Earthly Saint Salvation Scripture"."
"Eh?!"
As soon as Clover spoke, everyone present froze and turned their eyes toward him one after another.
Feeling the gaze of the Lieutenants, Clover gave a gentle smile:
"Is it so strange? You feel that... since I have always been extremely vocal in recognizing Lieutenant Sevrin's martial arts talent, for me to question him now is very unusual, right?"
Upon hearing this, Rheta and the others looked at each other and nodded in succession.
"Haha, very well then, I shall give you the answer."
Clover turned around, looked at the Demon-Slaying Lieutenants in the tent, and spoke calmly, "I believe you all have forgotten that the "Heavenly Lotus Earthly Saint Salvation Scripture" has never been a martial arts technique. It is a true... ancient tome of occult arts."
"..."
The group was stunned at first, and then it dawned on them all.
That was right; the "Heavenly Scripture" belonged to the path of Occult Arts, which had no connection whatsoever to martial arts.
No matter how heaven-defying Sevrin's martial talent was, what did it have to do with a technique of the Occult path?
Having understood this key point, the gaze of the group toward Sevrin on the screen couldn't help but fill with a hint of doubt and pity.
It was a pity that he was bound to labor in vain.
And it was a pity that Dashan's family was ultimately destined to die.
Sevrin would not be able to change their tragic fate.
Even Rheta, who had always greatly admired Sevrin, was no exception; she began to harbor doubts regarding his attempt at deducing the technique.
At the same time, the Sevrin whom everyone was subtly questioning had already shifted his mental perspective into the Kiyou Grotto.
Since he intended to put on an act for half an hour, he couldn't just sit there doing absolutely nothing.
He might as well take this opportunity to carve some soul-remains for the Grotto to "recharge" it, and unlock a few more rooms.
After shifting his mind into the Grotto, Sevrin immediately began the "recharging" process.
First, those several thousand soul-remains from Wandering Soul rank ghostly entities were ground into powder and painted onto the red-light scroll. Following this, the entire Side Hall vibrated slightly, recovering and connecting to two new architectural locations.
Sevrin entered and searched through them one by one. He discovered that these two locations were a silent ice lake spanning roughly ten square miles and a dilapidated alchemy room.
As for the ice lake, Sevrin did a cursory inspection and found no precious relics. Therefore, he set it aside for now, thinking he might explore it further whenever he felt interested.
However, in that alchemy room, which looked tattered and measured only about thirty meters wide, Sevrin conducted a careful investigation and unexpectedly discovered something real.
There were two round pills, one red and one blue, carefully preserved within an unknown crystalline block.
Aside from these two, all other pills stored in porcelain bottles or various containers were found, upon Sevrin opening them, to have turned into foul-smelling, pitch-black slime.
They had clearly spoiled completely, degraded by the long passage of years from medicine into poison.
As for the two well-preserved pills, Sevrin discovered a jade slip nearby that acted like a medicinal manual.
According to the faint script upon it, the red pill was named the Earth-Longevity Pill, and its effect was to increase one's lifespan by three hundred years.
Three hundred years of lifespan...
If this pill were taken back to Earth, whether in ancient or modern times, it would likely spark a war.
The other, blue pill was named the Heavenly Saint Pill. Its specific effect was to optimize the physical body, enhancing strength and vigor.
As for exactly how much it could enhance, the jade slip did not specify.
However, Sevrin had an intuitive feeling that if he were to consume this pill, the increase in his physical strength and endurance... might be quite significant.
After taking those two pills, Sevrin returned to the Side Hall and resumed carving bones to "recharge" the Grotto.
The soul-remains he used was, of course, the one "enthusiastically" donated by the Thousand-Year Intoxicated Dragon.
Once Sevrin ground this significantly larger soul-remains into fine powder and painted it onto the red-light scroll, the entire Side Hall immediately recovered and connected to yet another new architectural location.
This building was an Armory.
Upon entering, Sevrin discovered that after countless ages, the interior of this Armory, which was no smaller than the Naeaie Mansion's Side Hall, was filled with rusted scrap metal. Scanning the room, one could barely see a single object that could be called intact.
However... after venturing deep into this mountain of junk and rummaging through it meticulously, Sevrin finally found a "big item."
It was a massive humanoid object with four arms and two legs, lying flat on the ground and completely buried under discarded rot.
After clearing away all the debris and junk from its body, Sevrin realized what it was.
It was an ancient-looking, humanoid mecha, standing roughly fifteen meters tall and perfectly preserved, its entire frame a shade of dark greenish-bronze.
Indeed, it was a mecha suit, not a robot.
The reason he was so certain was that deep within the chest of this giant machine, carved with bas-reliefs and runes, was a recessed cockpit.
However, this circular cockpit was unusually small, with a diameter of only about one meter. An ordinary person would have to curl their entire body into a ball just to fit inside.
But Sevrin quickly discovered the reason for the cramped space.
Inside the small cockpit, he found a bloated, thoroughly fossilized skull.
Densely packed and complex cables, along with various thick and thin metal brackets, were plugged into every part of this skull.
Seeing this, Sevrin understood in an instant. This was a "hardware" mecha suit specifically designed for a single, isolated head.
That distorted, fossilized skull, when it was alive thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, had been the original pilot of this bronze mecha.
As for how the high-ranking members of Naeaie Mansion had managed to keep a single head active and thinking, transplanting it into a mecha for long-term existence... Sevrin couldn't be bothered to investigate; he wasn't a scientist.
Nor did he have the inclination to do so.
It was because, in a corner of the spot where the mecha lay, he suddenly discovered a manual written on unknown materials, an unknown technique.
And when Sevrin flipped open the hard cover of that secret manual... he discovered it was the complete set of the "Heavenly Lotus Earthly Saint Salvation Scripture".
"Great! Saved me a Shard!"
Filled with joy, Sevrin immersed himself entirely in the technique.
Equipped with the [Study Hard] system, his reading speed was incredible, almost rivaling geniuses capable of quantum wave speed reading.
After some time had passed, Sevrin had completely learned the technique, placing it into the skill slot of his personal interface.
Having thoroughly mastered it, he immediately understood its specific powers.
Simply put, once one had fully learned and mastered this complete scripture, they could break through several realms in succession to reach the fourth stage of the Occult path, the Seizing and Capturing realm.
At that stage, almost all illnesses and toxins in the world could be easily dispelled by the practitioner of this scripture.
Furthermore, anyone who had been dead for no more than five days, provided their body and soul were intact, could be brought back to life through his magic.
What surprised and delighted Sevrin even more was that everything mentioned above was merely the "orthodox" power of the scripture.
It could actually be utilized in reverse, transforming into a... world-shocking evil art.
In that case, the technique's name would change to... the "Heavenly Demon Earthly Calamity Art".
It is important to know that.
Basically, all sorcerers who reach the Seizing and Capturing realm can undergo a further transformation to sublimate their Yang-Spirit, allowing them to freely communicate with the heaven and earth's will.
Consequently, the wind, rain, thunder, and lightning of the world become the beloved allies of a fourth-realm sorcerer.
As long as a fourth-realm sorcerer possesses sufficient magical power, wherever their Yang-Spirit's mental consciousness reaches, all thunder, wind, and rain will be under their willful control and at their beck and call.
This appeared somewhat similar to Clover's "Thunder-Fire Tyrant Seal", but in reality, the two were entirely different.
The former, being a martial arts technique, required the practitioner to seek power from within themselves for everything beyond the most basic absorption of world Essence. This included the lightning and thunder released externally, which had to be transformed and expended from the martial artist's own True Force.
Therefore, in terms of scale, intensity, and sustainability, a martial arts technique like the "Thunder-Fire Tyrant Seal", which merely simulated thunder and lightning, naturally could not compare to the Heavenly Thunder summoned from nature by a fourth-realm sorcerer.
And the "Heavenly Demon Earthly Calamity Art", derived from the reverse operation of the "Heavenly Lotus Earthly Saint Salvation Scripture", added an extra special ability to the practitioner on top of controlling wind, rain, and thunder.
Namely... life-absorption from a distance.
This so-called distant life-absorption meant that wherever the Yang-Spirit mental consciousness of the practitioner roamed and covered, the life-essence of the living beings there would be extracted from afar, directly draining them dry until they died on the spot.
Furthermore, every illness and potent toxin ever encountered and contacted by the practitioner of the "Calamity Art" would be recorded and stored by the technique as illusory shadows.
During battle, the practitioner of the "Calamity Art" could extract the life-essence of others from a distance while simultaneously injecting those recorded illnesses and pains back into the enemies' bodies.
...
After some time had passed,
"It can save lives as well as harm people. Good, a good technique!"
In reality, Sevrin slowly opened his eyes, a mysterious light flashing within them.
RUMBLE!
In an instant, the rolling dark clouds ten thousand meters above became turbulent and boiling, faintly as if they were about to give birth to thunder and a torrential downpour.
Indeed, after perusing the "Heavenly Lotus Earthly Saint Salvation Scripture", Sevrin had easily learned it and advanced the technique to its absolute peak.
Consequently, his occult realm had now broken through its shackles and advanced to the Seizing and Capturing stage.
From now on, with but a single thought, ten thousand bolts of thunder, howling gales, and torrential rains would crash down; he no longer needed to bother with chanting incantations or drawing talismans for half the day.
"Lord Sevrin! You..."
Dashan, who had been waiting anxiously by his side, immediately stepped forward carefully and asked the moment Sevrin opened his eyes, "Did you succeed?"
Meeting Dashan's expectant and worried phosphorescent gaze, Sevrin smiled: "I succeeded. The complete technique has been deduced by me."
"Ah? Success?! Hahaha, wonderful!"
Upon hearing this, Dashan was ecstatic. He immediately ran over and tightly embraced his daughter-in-law Yufen, who was sitting in a daze on the ground, and said in a trembling voice, "Yufen, the Lord succeeded! We are saved! The two children... they don't have to die!"
"Good! Good!" Yufen was also overjoyed. She scrambled up from the ground, ran to Sevrin, and knelt down to kowtow, her excitement so great she couldn't even speak clearly.
Her husband Dashan reacted as well, hurrying over to Sevrin to kowtow.
"Wait."
Sevrin suddenly reached out to stop him. At the same time, his gaze swept over Yufen, pulling her up from the ground with an invisible force. Only then did he smile warmly and say, "Both of you, stand firm. I shall cast the spell now and return all four members of your family to normal human beings."
"Lieutenant Sevrin, did you... did you really succeed?!"
Clover, who had been closely monitoring the situation, suddenly asked urgently through the golden talisman birds, "Have you made any errors in the deduction? You must not practice the wrong technique. It feels like... it hasn't even been half an hour yet."
"There is no need for worry, nor for doubt."
As if hearing the disbelief in Clover's voice, Sevrin looked up at the cluster of talisman birds in the air and said with a slight smile, "The rest of you, just stay to the side and watch quietly."
Having said that, he suddenly soared into the sky, flying up to a height of a thousand meters in an instant.
Then, he looked down at the ruins of Nina Town, which had become a sea of Yellow Spring filth, and performed a hand seal to begin casting the spell:
"Lotus Saint Stamen, blooming in the Great Clarity; spiritual light brilliant, illuminating the underworld."
BUZZ!
As the incantation was uttered, a broad pillar of golden light radiated from the brilliant Great Sun at the edge of the firmament. It pierced down through the layers of dark clouds, tearing them asunder, and shone upon Sevrin from above, making him look like a divine being descending to earth or an immortal Buddha appearing in the mortal realm.
Following this, thousands of warm rays of light radiated from him as the center, serenely blanketing the entire Yellow Spring sea below.
"This is..."
...
Gazing through the talisman array at Sevrin suspended in the sky, radiant with golden light, Clover, Rheta, Zenom, Shaxe, Xixun, and the others at the distant Demon-Slaying Bureau stronghold were all stunned, their gazes dazed. They doubted whether they were witnessing a god or Buddha manifesting in the world. "Is this the power of the complete version?"
Simultaneously, within the region illuminated by these layers of light, countless blurry, ghostly phantoms began to emerge from nothingness.
These flickering spirit-shadows, arriving and fluttering like a tide, all drifted and hovered stupidly above the Yellow Spring sea. They continuously emitted screams, calls, piteous sobs, and mournful wails, making anyone's heart skip a beat with terror.
Dashan's family, looking up at this vast spirit-tide, felt their scalps go numb, and they couldn't control their trembling.
But Clover, seeing this through the talisman birds, marveled in shock:
"Lieutenant Sevrin is... dragging the souls of everyone who perished in this area back from the path to the underworld and into the mortal realm. Just... what level of heaven-shaking occult cultivation is required to achieve this?"
Beside him, Rheta and the others were equally terrified and confused, whispering to themselves:
"Sevrin... he actually succeeded?! In less than half an hour, using a fragmentary ancient scripture, he deduced the true complete set... how, how on earth did he do it?"
Clearly, even as Sevrin produced such a massive commotion, these people still found it hard to believe, instinctively unable to accept it.
And while they were feeling utterly flabbergasted, Sevrin, standing a thousand meters above the Yellow Spring Domain, had already shifted his hand seals and begun the next stage of the spell:
"To the deceased present, life hangs in the Underworld; let the three souls reconvene, and the seven spirits return home."
BUZZ!
In an instant, the rays of golden light radiating from Sevrin, which had blanketed the thousands of ghosts, transformed into hazy ropes. They dragged these dazed souls, hurrying them toward the countless floating corpses scattered in every corner of the Yellow Spring sea below.