Bamboo Mound

"Hmm? That's strange. Judging from Changdi's appearance, he doesn't seem like someone who is usually angry."

Ning Tongyu closed his eyes and remained silent, but soon opened them again.

"Your soul is also undamaged... so it seems there's a problem with your heart and seven spirits."

"The heart senses the seven souls?" Ning Chang heard another partially modified term.

"It is common knowledge that humans have three souls and seven spirits, but there is not just one set of three souls and seven spirits."

"What we talk about most often is the primordial spirit, which consists of three souls and seven spirits. Losing any one of them is considered a loss of consciousness, which has a great impact on the spirit."

"Besides this one, there is at least one more, or even more!"

It's just that the four sects have done little research on this; I just came up with the name randomly, "Heart Feeling Seven Souls."

"Seven Souls...Seven Souls..."

"Brother Tongyu, do you know which seven souls are referred to as the Seven Souls of the Heart?"

Ning Chang suddenly remembered the old fortune teller he had met in Changge City, who said that he was missing four of his seven souls. Since the seven souls of his primordial spirit were not damaged, he was probably referring to the seven souls of his heart.

However, as Ning Tongyu shook his head, a sense of regret welled up in his heart.

"This sense of the seven souls is invisible and intangible; perception relies entirely on the concept of 'the unseen,' so..."

"I understand."

Ning Chang knew that the seven souls and spiritual power were completely different things; the former belonged to the realm of metaphysics, while spiritual power... well, fantasy.

"It's good that you understand. At least for now, it's not such a bad thing that some of the seven souls are missing. It greatly reduces the difficulty of dealing with inner demons," Ning Tongyu comforted her.

He simply assumed that Ning Chang didn't want to discuss the matter anymore, so he offered a word of comfort and moved on to the original topic.

"I have a general understanding of the third level of the Inner Demon Swiftness technique. How about it? Would you like to try the fourth level?"

"Well, I should be facing my inner demons at the fourth level. I definitely won't be able to solve it on my own then. Brother Tongyu, give me some time to understand and then pull me out of this predicament."

"Are you that insecure about yourself?"

"Perhaps. Inner demons are just that. If everyone could break free from them on their own, they wouldn't be called inner demons."

"Well... that's fine. Brother Chang, be careful too. Stay true to yourself and I'll intervene if anything seems amiss."

Ning Chang frowned as he noticed the tranquility brought by the fragrant herbs spreading.

The effects of this new herb lasted much shorter than he had expected.

"Brother Tongyu, how long has it been since I began cultivating?"

"About three hours, I don't remember exactly."

Ning Tongyu looked up and pondered for a moment before giving a brief reply.

"Three hours?!"

In his mind, it had been no more than ten minutes from the beginning until now, but unexpectedly, three hours had passed, and six hours had gone by!

"Brother Chang has probably never gone into seclusion, so it's normal that he doesn't know this. It's just that Brother Chang is exceptionally talented. If ordinary disciples in the sect obtained a technique of the same caliber as Heart Demon Swiftness, it would take them several days to even reach the first level!"

Ning Tongyu was somewhat surprised by Ning Chang's speed, but that was all.

He had seen many geniuses, and he himself was a genius. His cultivation of techniques was only slightly slower than Ning Chang's.

If it weren't for bad luck, which coincided with the end of the previous sect leader's term and his own election to become the sect leader, he would have already broken through to the next realm and ascended to immortality!

And then there's that baffling rule: the sect leader can't go into seclusion for the first fifty years of their term. It's unclear what the point is that it's been continued until now!

Thinking of this, he looked down at Ning Chang, who had continued cultivating, and sighed with a complicated expression.

While he was deep in thought, Ning Chang had already set off back to Tianhu Lake, picked three more fragrant herbs and swallowed them, before sitting cross-legged and beginning to cultivate the Heart Demon Speed ​​Journey.

The third time he activated the Demonic Swiftness technique, the speed at which he entered the state and the influence of demonic forces below the third level decreased slightly again, and soon he returned to the third level.

Three kinds of distracting thoughts surged up again, instantly filling his mind and preventing him from thinking or acting!

However, he no longer needed to think about it. Before reaching the third level, he had memorized the changes in spiritual energy circulation for entering the fourth level several times. Now that he had entered the third level, he immediately guided the spiritual energy to change again according to the remaining fragments of memory.

What followed was a surge of intense emotions that crashed into his mind like a tidal wave, and even spawned other variants!

Melancholy, fear, confusion...

Everything was worse than a moonless night, as desolate as a forest without lights!

At this moment, he could no longer receive any bodily sensations, nor could he perform any physical movements. It was as if all the nerves in his body had collapsed at this moment, with only his spiritual energy still running autonomously along the altered path.

Unconsciously, as if it were the fragrant elixir he had just swallowed, or as if it were Ning Tongyu's handiwork, a clear stream pierced through the numbness in his entire body, flowing straight up from his dantian to his heart!

In an instant, Ning Chang's senses returned to normal, but that was all. Amidst the endless distracting thoughts, the pressure membrane between his heart, meridians, and body surface was added, along with the wildly bouncing rattles!

Therefore, he would rather not have that clear stream!

As the spiritual energy circulated, the pressure from all the pressure membranes increased, and the ratchet's ejection speed also increased, as if they were beginning to thicken inward, compressing the ejection space of the ratchet.

Because of this change, his already dwindling clear consciousness diminished further, and he became dominated by fear, beginning to dread the situation after breaking through to the fourth level.

However, thanks to their encroachment, Ning Chang no longer has the ability to interfere with the operation of spiritual power, which is the arrival of the fourth level of the Heart Demon Swiftness.

Finally, as the ratchet stopped and the pressure enveloped his entire body, the flood of distracting thoughts receded, and his mind instantly cleared, allowing him to catch his breath.

"Did it fail...?"

Ning Chang waited for a while before stopping the practice, shaking his head, and opening his eyes in confusion.

But the view that came into view made him pause for a moment.

He was clearly in a valley with Ning Tongyu, but now he was sitting alone on the top of a lonely mountain in the clouds, looking around at nothing in sight.

"Where did Ning Tongyu move me to?"

While wondering, Ning Chang prepared to take out the communication talisman he had asked Ning Tongyu for before cultivating from his spatial bag and contact Ning Tongyu.

He searched his entire body but couldn't find his spatial bag, and then he realized something was wrong.

"A demonic illusion!" He immediately became very vigilant.

"But...why is it the mountaintop?"

The mountaintop was only one square meter in size. He stood up and looked down from the edge. Apart from the thick, seamless clouds, there was nothing else!

"I'm not afraid of heights, and aren't all fantasy games supposed to feature scary environments?"

"Furthermore, if it's just a mountaintop, how do we find the best spots..."