After being reborn, the villain comes with a spoiler tag.

After scanning all the cultivators in the Chang Le Mountains, Huo Yu turned his gaze to the mortals of the Caiyun Kingdom. Only when his fragile divine soul issued an alarm that it could not bear the burden did he have to withdraw his divine sense.

After the sharp pain in his soul subsided, Huo Yu summarized the information he had observed:

This strange prismatic crystal has no physical form; it cannot be seen with the naked eye, nor can it be touched, whether by physical means or by divine sense.

Every cultivator in the Chang Le Mountains has a crystal floating above their head, each a different color; while most mortals do not have such a crystal, only a few mortals with spiritual roots have one above their heads. After careful examination, Huo Yu discovered that these crystals were all pure white and without light.

So, is the key color? And what factors exactly does color depend on?

First, cultivation level can be ruled out. Huo Yu had already discovered that people at the same cultivation level might have different colored crystals on their heads.

Secondly, excluding spiritual root attributes, the crystal above Hua Yan Yue's head, who has a water-attribute heavenly spiritual root, is white and silvery, while the crystal above the head of her younger sister, who also has a water-attribute heavenly spiritual root, is white and without light.

Age and lifespan are not the determining factors.

………………

After eliminating all the options that can be ruled out, there are still many possibilities that are difficult to verify, such as talent, aptitude, and luck, which are difficult to detect.

Perhaps only after Huo Yu comes into contact with more prisms of different colors will he be able to figure out the pattern.

More importantly, it is the words that appear when observing the prism with divine sense.

Most of the people Huo Yu saw were [passersby], [cannon fodder], or [minions], followed by the phrase [hopeless of ascension].

So far, there are still only two people who are not "hopeless of ascension".

Although there are nearly ten thousand cultivators in the Chang Le Mountains, the sample size is still too small. For example, Huo Yu couldn't find a second black crystal. This is one of the reasons why he decided to leave the Caiyun Kingdom.

The main reason, of course, is his damaged soul.

Attacks targeting the soul are rare, and techniques that can repair the soul are even rarer.

Moreover, as long as the damage to the soul is not severe, it can heal itself slowly over time. Therefore, most drugs that repair the soul are only for pain relief and promoting self-healing.

However, Huo Yu's soul is currently "damaged" too severely, and it would probably take hundreds of years to heal itself.

Moreover, what Huo Yu was most worried about was whether his soul could really heal itself—after all, his soul now appeared to be undamaged and indeed had no real damage, but was only in a state of phantom pain.

The ideal outcome is that this phantom pain disappears on its own, while the worst outcome is that the treatment is ineffective against it.

As the Demon Lord, Huo Yu's storage bag contained many rare and precious materials.

However, as a notorious cultivation fanatic in the demonic path, most of the treasures he collected, whether by himself or presented by his subordinates, were treasures that could improve cultivation and break through realms, while those that could repair the soul were extremely rare.

In addition, such rare and precious materials are extremely rare, so Huo Yu preferred to take matters into his own hands rather than revealing the secret of his damaged soul and having his subordinates search for them.

Huo Yu's position as Demon Lord was entirely based on his immense strength. He knew nothing about sect management and never even considered learning such useless knowledge.

Therefore, even after unifying the demonic path, he still retained the original sects and the positions of the major sect leaders.

His main role as the Demon Lord was to intimidate the righteous path and to unite the scattered demonic forces.

Unlike the righteous cultivators who abide by the rules, the demonic cultivators are mostly rebellious and unruly. Their current unification stems entirely from their fear and awe of Huo Yu.

Once Huo Yu shows signs of weakness, he believes that before the righteous path can react, he will probably die from the betrayal and assassination of his own men.

Of course, this also depends on whether they have the capability.

In the past few days, Huo Yu has roughly figured out his current situation.

His current strength is at the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but due to damage to his soul, he cannot freely use his divine sense.

Divine consciousness is a sixth sense that only cultivators possess, in addition to sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste.

During the Qi Refining stage, cultivators gradually develop divine sense as their cultivation level increases. However, it is only when they reach the Foundation Establishment stage and open their sea of ​​consciousness that they can truly master the use of divine sense.

However, for cultivators, divine sense is not only a tool for collecting information, but also related to the control of spiritual power.

If spiritual power is water, then divine consciousness is the channel that guides the flow of spiritual power.

Most spells require divine guidance to be successfully cast, while those spells that can be used without divine guidance are classified as low-level spells.

Divine consciousness and spiritual power complement each other, like a wooden bucket, where the shortest plank determines the overall capacity.

If Huo Yuruo forcibly used his divine sense, he could also exert the strength of the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but he could foresee that he could only last for half an incense stick's time at most, and his soul would feel the same stinging pain as before. If he continued to forcibly use it, it might cause his soul state to deteriorate further.

Without damaging his soul, the maximum spiritual power he could unleash was only equivalent to the late Foundation Establishment stage.

In other words, Huo Yu's strength at this moment is no different from that of a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Huo Yu began cultivating Taoism at the age of fifteen, established his foundation at eighteen, and formed his core at twenty-one. Nearly three hundred years have passed since then.

His memories of the Foundation Establishment stage were already blurred, but he never expected to be able to experience it again, and it was a long-term experience with an unknown duration.

And the cause of all this was a name he had never heard before, until his soul was consumed—Long Yucheng!

Huo Yu recalled the last words Long Yucheng said to him before the Gate of Heaven:

"This is... on behalf of Bai Xue..."

The following words dissipated into the low rumble of thunder emitted when Long Yucheng's soul burned, but the name "Bai Xue" did indeed evoke a brief memory in Huo Yu at that moment.

In the world where his soul was consumed, the name Snow White had vanished along with its owner hundreds of years ago.

But in this world, Bai Xue is not only alive, but also one of the key figures Huo Yu needs to keep an eye on in the future.

Bai Xue is none other than the tragic and merciful Holy Maiden of the Demonic Sect, the "Second Female Lead."

Although it's unclear what the meaning of "Female Second" is, and why she could gain "Heaven's mercy," the phrase "a life full of twists and turns" is indeed true.

In another world, Bai Xue died at the hands of Huo Yu.

Bai Xue's death not only caused cracks in Huo Yu's Dao heart due to his breaking of his oath, but also indirectly led to Huo Yu's final fate.

At that time, he did not understand the true meaning of it, but now when he sees the words "misfortune", Bai Xue's death at his hands seems to be a calamity that was preordained in the dark.

Not long after Huo Yu left the Chang Le Mountains, in a stone chamber deep inside the mountain's belly on the second peak of the Chang Le Mountains, a layer of ice more than ten feet wide tightly enveloped the entire space.

Inside the ice wall, a pale blue light, dreamlike and ever-flowing, became the only source of light in this dark stone chamber.

In the center of the stone chamber, a woman in white sat cross-legged, surrounded by a chilling aura, yet she remained completely unaffected.

After an unknown amount of time, the woman slowly opened her eyes. The ice covering the walls of the stone chamber, like the first snow of spring, melted upon contact with warmth, instantly transforming into a trickle that flowed gently along the carefully carved grooves on the floor.

As the ice wall melted, the true appearance of the stone wall was revealed, and it turned out to be made of jade. It turned out that the entire stone chamber was carefully carved out from a huge piece of immortal jade!

As the canal gradually filled with water, a huge lotus flower pattern appeared on the jade floor. At the same time, a blue lotus mark appeared between the woman's eyebrows, disappearing in an instant.

"Long Yucheng?"

The woman's gaze was so cold that it seemed to freeze the surrounding air.