A World Worth Protecting

1

The donkey was frightened, trembling vigorously. Its gleeful look had long vanished, and now, it hurriedly ran towards Wang Baole, revealing an innocent expression on its face as it rubbed its head on Wang Baole’s legs. Finally, when it realized that it was useless, it decided to work to Wang Baole’s favor.

Previously, before Wang Baole had established a connection with the donkey, he could only vaguely interpret its facial expressions. Now that a connection had formed, it became even more obvious to him. Now, Wang Baole simply sneered.

“No room for negotiation! Scram! Right, I’ll call you ‘Scram’ from now on! How’s that? If you disagree, call out twice.” Wang Baole coughed, looking askance at the little donkey.

The donkey seemed to have realized that the name Wang Baole gave it didn’t carry a good connotation and began to grow anxious. It wanted to call out, but it was impossible with its mouth being clamped shut.

“Seems like you like this name very much. Since you have agreed to it, then your name shall be ‘Scram’ in the future!” Wang Baole delightedly patted his stomach and took out a bag of snacks right in front of the donkey, whose eyes widened as it watched Wang Baole slowly opening it and eating it in small mouthfuls.

The donkey was about to go crazy as it stared without blinking at the snacks in Wang Baole’s hands. It was on the brink of breaking down, but no matter how it tried, its mouth remained shut.

Just like that, it stared stubbornly at Wang Baole for the whole duration as he ate his snacks. In the end, the donkey seemed to have lost all will to live, and it laid on the ground, dazedly looking at the empty bag that was placed in front of it.

Noticing that, Wang Baole’s heart softened. However, when he recalled that the donkey always put on that very same expression after he had beaten it up before forgetting everything about the beating and continuing to have fun by itself, Wang Baole disregarded it coldly. He didn’t bother with it and instead decided to begin cultivating now that there was finally peace.

Time flew by, and three days passed. In the three days, the students and teachers of the Dao Mountain Mist Academy were all confused, as the donkey that they were used to seeing seemed to have undergone a change in personality. It no longer called out, no longer pranced around, and no longer ate anything and everything in sight.

“There’s something wrong with the donkey!”

“That’s right, it passed by me just now while I was holding a Spirit Stone in my hand. However, it didn’t even take a look at it…”

“There doesn’t seem to be signs of the vegetation and buildings in the college being chewed on these few days…”

As more and more people realized that something was amiss, they quickly noticed that the donkey often laid on the bridge over the river of the academy and looked at the river water flowing, carrying a look of sadness in its eyes. Rumors began to spread continuously.

Some kind-hearted female students felt that the donkey looked pitiful. They brought some food to it, but when they placed the food in front of the donkey, it took a look at the food, smelled it, and actually cried!

It cried very pitifully as it kept smelling it but not eating it.

“Go on, eat it.” One of the girls spoke softly. However, no matter how they tried to persuade it, the donkey didn’t take a single bite. Eventually, it felt so sad that it kicked the food away, and then turned and charged towards Wang Baole’s residence.

Right now, Wang Baole was in seclusion. Before he went into seclusion, he had specially approached the donkey to tell it that if it dared to disturb him during the period of seclusion, then the number of days which it had to keep its mouth shut would increase by ten.

Therefore, the donkey could only lay on the ground after returning to the residence. It looked at the sky pitifully, a look of hopelessness apparent in its eyes. It had lost a lot of weight. From time to time, it turned to look at the location where Wang Baole was in seclusion, seemingly waiting for Wang Baole to emerge, and for the day he would be freed from the restrictions.

As the donkey stayed obedient, Wang Baole, who was in the secret chamber, had also completed the cultivation for the second level of the Lightning Dao: First Volume. As his cultivation advanced, the Heavenly Thunder in his legs grew more powerful. With the devouring seed continuously absorbing Spirit Qi, the green lotus also grew stronger. The most obvious transformation was in Wang Baole’s physique, as it seemed to have strengthened visibly from previously.

Sensing the strength emerging from his body, Wang Baole seemed to feel that without even activating his cultivation, he could kill a ferocious beast with just his fist!

However, he was still unsatisfied and somewhat troubled… In Wang Baole’s mind, he felt that he had still not been able to successfully cultivate the Dark Art. That made him depressed, and doubts about his natural qualities arose in his head.

<em>Little Missy said that she only spent a month to successfully cultivate the Dark Art. I have spent almost a year… </em>Wang Baole felt a headache every time he thought of the Dark Art. He knew all that was possible about it and was extremely fluent in the chants that were involved. However, no matter how familiar he was with those, he was still unable to sense the so-called Negative Spirit Body.

That was especially so as every time he tried to forcefully train in the technique, extreme soreness and pain that he was unable to withstand emerged continuously both from within and outside his body.

It wouldn’t be an issue having to withstand the hardship if he could successfully train in it. However, after toiling for the past year, there were still no results, and the thought of giving up arose in Wang Baole’s mind.

<em>Forget it. It’s just one year. How can I give up? I’ll persevere for one more month! </em>Wang Baole took a deep breath. He felt that he was a determined individual, and this could be seen from the last time he was in a tempting circumstances filled with lust—when he was alone with Li Wan’er in the underground cave but still emerged as a virgin.

With that thought, Wang Baole took a deep breath, and he began to try to cultivate the Dark Art again!

The so-called Dark Art involved absorbing the Negative Spirit Body in the Spirit Qi. This method of cultivation didn’t exist in the entire Federation. Even in the world of the woman in the mask, it was considered a forbidden technique.

On one hand, it was unbelievably powerful and couldn’t be predicted. Even after one had successfully trained in it, if one were unable to control the greed in their hearts, an unimaginable catastrophe would result.

At the same time, there was another reason… This technique was difficult to train in, and the cultivation techniques that followed were even more difficult. It seemed like some sort of fate was needed. Till now, there were only a handful of people who had successfully mastered the Dark Art, even in the world of the ancient greenish-bronze sword, where it had been passed down since ancient times.

The handful of people who managed to cultivate in the Dark Art were mostly still in the foundation stage. The advanced Dark Arts that followed were either lost in transmission or simply incomplete such that it was challenging to succeed in practicing it no matter how much effort was put in.

It could be said that no one knew how many stages there were to the Dark Art. However, it was known that there were at least seven stages, and there was no one left who had managed to train to the fifth level, and it was needless to say for the sixth and seventh level.

Wang Baole wasn’t aware of all that. He only knew that Little Missy had managed to successfully cultivate it in a month, yet he hadn’t succeeded even after a year. That made him frustrated. He took a deep breath, and he went according to the requirements of the Dark Art to begin absorbing and compressing the surrounding Spirit Qi.

According to the records of the Dark Art, if one were to absorb the Negative Spirit Body, they would need to first compress the Spirit Qi, transforming it into a somewhat solid state. That was because the Negative Spirit Body could only be revealed after these two transformations had taken place. Furthermore, the Negative Spirit Body in the Spirit Qi couldn’t be taken in through one’s mouth or nose, only through the pores on one’s skin.

However, to someone who was unable to sense the Negative Spirit Body, cultivation felt like having countless needles pierce into the cultivator’s body, as the compressed Spirit Qi, a hybrid of gas and solid, continuously entered through one’s sweat pores.

Right now, Wang Baole had made preparations. After compressing the Spirit Qi around him, he gritted his teeth, preparing to withstand the pain. All his sweat pores opened wide, absorbing the almost solid Spirit Qi while his body suddenly shook. He opened his shut eyes.

<em>It’s different! </em>Wang Baole’s breathing quickened, and he looked at his own body. He was initially confused, before being thrown into disbelief and finally euphoria.

He could clearly feel that it was no longer painful. Not only that, he could feel that, as the absorption took place through his sweat pores, there seemed to be a cold sensation that was completely different from the Spirit Qi continuously entering his body through the sweat pores.

This cold feeling made his body tremble, and he no longer felt pain. Instead, it was a chill that made his breath fog up. There was no tinge of discomfort but a sense of indescribable lightness that to a certain extent, was several times more comfortable that his cultivation in the Lightning Dao that took place on usual days.

That made Wang Baole agitated. He recalled the feeling described in the Dark Art, and that made him extremely excited. He activated his devouring seed, increasing the absorption force of all his sweat pores. Instantly, a large amount of chill rushed into his body through his sweat pores.

<em>According to the description of the Dark Art, this cold feeling belongs to the Negative Spirit Body. The way to verify it was simple, if it could form the Dark Fire, it would be the Negative Spirit Body! </em>Wang Baole took a deep breath. Right now, he had forgotten about everything else, as all his attention was on cultivation. According to the descriptions of the Dark Art, he tried to concentrate the cold feeling in his body.

An unknown amount of time later, when the cold feeling in his body had become saturated such that no more could be absorbed, Wang Baole trembled, and he began the last step of the cultivation process for the Dark Art!

He would form the Dark Fire using the flame of life to light up the chill!

Instantly, his face turned green as his body temperature plummeted. Frost even appeared on his eyebrows and hair. At this moment, the surrounding temperature also plunged rapidly, and signs of rotting appeared throughout the secret chamber!

Very vaguely, sounds of people crying and sobbing that was inaudible to outsiders began to reverberate in Wang Baole’s ears, as if demon gods had gathered.

Wang Baole was unaware of all of it, and outsiders couldn’t sense it either. Only the listless donkey lying outside Wang Baole’s secret chamber could feel it. With a swift action, it stood up, a look of vigilance appearing in its eyes as it looked towards the secret chamber, somewhat confused.

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