Chapter 0984: Disliking the Light

The damaged gilded hall was a mess.

Rogue cultivators and the teams from various powers were scattering in all directions, hurrying to leave this damned place. Although the Other had been eliminated, the fear they felt for their own lives earlier had remained vividly in their minds. They did not want to linger around here any longer.

Of course, there were some who were more greedy and continued searching for treasures within the chaos.

Amongst them were also the corrupted individuals. At present, they seemed to have lost control and were running about like walking corpses. Their bodies continued to decompose as blood flowed out and white bones were revealed. Even though the Soul Eater True Devil had lost control of them, it seemed like a matter of time before these people disappeared from this world completely.

Everyone else avoided them like the plague. They did not want to risk getting corrupted as well.

At this moment, Li Lingjing dashed past the countless halls, bounding atop the roofs. Her charming face remained emotionless and icy.

All the strangers kept their distance from her.

Originally, some of the teams that got lost in the action earlier wanted to greet her when they saw her running by. However, they quickly changed their minds when they saw how unapproachable she seemed.

Li Lingjing was not bothered by this. She followed her senses and ran past the vast gilded halls before arriving in front of an eerie and dark forest.

She tightly gripped her Aquamarine Bamboo Python Staff and slowly walked into it.

The forest was pitch-black with barely any sunlight passing through the canopy, and it was shrouded in a chilly air. Li Lingjing looked through the forest and noticed a handicapped corrupted individual lying in the distance. This individual seemed to have lost any hope of survival as he lay with the stench of decay.

Li Lingjing simply stared coldly at it. "Stop acting dead. Aren't you dying to get a bite of me? Come on, I am here now." However, the corrupted individual did not move at all.

Li Lingjing then proceeded to take a step forward. Suddenly, the Aquamarine Bamboo Python Staff swung towards the right and a poisonous ray shot out, filling the bamboo forest with a faint fragrance.

An amputated limb could be seen falling onto the ground from above where the poisonous ray had struck.

The flesh of the limb appeared to be wiggling with something.

Li Lingjing's resonant power surged when she saw this, and she blasted it into pieces without any hesitation. The bloody remains splattered across the ground.

As the blood and flesh spewed across the dirt, a black light that could hardly be detected by the naked eye suddenly shot out and flew towards the center of her forehead.

It was so fast that an ordinary Heavenly Pearl cultivator would hardly ever notice it.

However, a slender arm shot up just before the black light struck her. She caught the black light just in time.

When Li Lingjing looked down at her hand with her icy eyes, she saw a strange, black worm wriggling in her palm. It was really tiny, but one could see that there was an extremely twisted human face on its head.

The worm continued to struggle violently at this point. Its negative energy erupted and shot high up into the sky. It was so strong that it could even corrupt a late stage Heavenly Pearl cultivator.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

However, Li Lingjing allowed it to come towards her. Her red lips curved slightly as she whispered, "I've managed to keep my consciousness intact even after sinking into the depths of despair and madness. Do you think you can actually corrupt me? You Soul Eater True Devils make me sick."

As Li Lingjing looked at the strange, black worm in her palm, she seemed to be talking to herself as she asked, "So, it seems you are number two. Is number one in the Spiritual Resonance Cave too?"

The worm wriggled and its twisted face suddenly burst into an eerie laughter. "Number three, you'll surely be eaten by it! You can't escape! Only the last Variant can reach the perfect form! It'll be a masterpiece!"

Hearing this, Li Lingjing pondered for a moment before she asked, "Perfect form? Based on what you've just said, a Variant can get stronger by consuming others?"

At this moment, her bright, almond-shaped eyes stared at the strange, black worm in her hand.The smile on her red lips became a little strange. "Doesn't that mean... I can eat you too?"

The worm seemed to freeze for a moment before it started struggling violently, trying to escape.

Li Lingjing's eyes turned gloomy and dark as she stood in the dimly lit bamboo forest with her Aquamarine Bamboo Python Staff. There was a heart-stopping sense of darkness around her, as if she was a Rakshasa from the abyss.

In the end, Li Lingjing took out a black jade bottle with a rune on it and threw the black worm inside. At the same time, she directed poisonous rays from the Aquamarine Bamboo Python Staff into the bottle to continuously deplete the black worm's strength, not giving it any chance to recover back to its original power.

Li Lingjing's eyes lit up as she looked at the jade bottle. She let out a light sigh of relief before she held it close to her chest.

After finishing this, she slowly walked out of the dim bamboo forest. When she found herself back in the sunlight, she felt a little disorientated. She instinctively retreated a few steps back into the darkness of the forest.

This was a natural reflex. However, this surprised even Li Lingjing herself. She laughed and murmured to herself, "It seems that I still prefer the darkness. Light is really not suitable for me."

At this moment, the sound of breaking wind could suddenly be heard coming towards her. Li Lingjing looked up and saw Li Luo rushing towards her direction. There was a look of worry on his face.

Li Lingjing fell into a moment of silence as she watched him rush over. Then a bright smile appeared on her pretty face and she stepped out of the shadows of the forest, waving to him.

Li Luo landed in front of her and let out a sigh of relief as soon as he saw her.

"Cousin Lingjing, you're seriously injured. You should not be running about. I've more or less collected enough Spirit Resonance Golden Dew, so there is no need to search for it anymore," Li Luo complained to her. Zhu Dayu and Zhu Zhu soon arrived on the scene too.

In response to his complaints, Li Lingjing smiled and nodded. Then her eyes paused as she studied Li Luo and said with some surprise, "You seem to have gotten stronger somehow."

Li Luo smiled modestly and replied, "It's a small boost. My Fiend Dipper Energy has only increased by one hundred and fifty feet."

Although the Golden Holy Fire Talisman had brought about enormous pain for Li Luo, it also came with many benefits. Originally, he only had seven hundred feet of Fiend Dipper Energy, and now that number had increased to eight hundred and fifty feet.

His current plan was to head towards the Golden Dew Platform and leverage its power to consume the Nine Orifices Dipper Smelting Pill. With that, he could give it one last push.

He would reach the pinnacle of the Fiend Finisher Tier there.

Afterwards, it should be really easy for him to break into the Heavenly Pearl Tier.