A World Worth Protecting

1

He hadn’t looked closely at the arm earlier since he had been angry at the donkey for eating the flesh of a corpse. Now, he instantly noticed that the remaining half of the arm wasn’t made of flesh and blood!

It was formed… from a kind of crystal!

Wang Baole was stunned by his discovery. He let go of the donkey, then bent down and examined the arm in detail. He found out that out of the three heads and six arms belonging to this dead Never-Ending Clan member, only this arm was made of crystal. The rest were flesh and blood.

Wang Baole grew slightly suspicious and confused. He pulled out the corpse that he had gotten inside the golden beetle out from his storage bracelet and compared the two. All three heads and six arms of the corpse in the beetle were made of flesh and blood. He recalled that those that he had seen before had all been flesh and blood. Only this particular corpse that the donkey had been munching on was different from the rest.

It felt as if this half-eaten arm had been formed from a kind of energy source. After the Never-Ending Clan member had died, it hadn’t dissipated. Instead, it had transformed into crystal!

After some contemplation, Wang Baole decided to take the corpse. He turned back and glared at the donkey. Even though he had misunderstood the donkey, as its father, he was right even when he was wrong!

The donkey felt slightly aggrieved. However, it was truly frightened of Wang Baole. Its head drooped, and it looked repentant. The expression on Wang Baole’s face finally eased. He snorted, then left and headed back to Green Fire Island.

The donkey followed behind, with its head drooping and its spirits low. It dared not run around when it returned to the island. It sprawled inside the cave abode and stared at Wang Baole with its guileless eyes and misery clear on its face.

Even Wang Baole began to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable. He straightened his face and glared at the donkey. Then, he threw one of the last nine pieces of chips he had left at the donkey.

“Fine, take it. After eating that, you can go run around outside. Remember to stay on the island.”

The donkey stared at the snack that was giving off a strange smell in front of it. It froze. Finally, it swallowed the chip with misery written all over its face. It forced itself to show that it was enjoying the treat, then left hastily.

After the donkey left, Wang Baole coughed. He gathered his thoughts and took both Never-Ending Clan members’ corpses out from his storage bracelet. He placed them before him for a more detailed examination. He tried to recall what he had read before when he had been at the Dark Sect. He had mostly read up on the cultivation techniques of the Dark Sect. He had little knowledge of the Never-Ending Clan.

He took quite some time before he gradually noticed the differences between the two corpses.

Firstly, their attires were different. Although they were both torn and tattered, the corpse with the crystallized arm wore something that was woven from a cloth that was resistant to decomposition. It was a refined sort of attire unlike the armor on the corpse found inside the beetle.

Their body shapes were different too. The former could be described as slim and the latter strong and well-built. Everything pointed to the seeming conclusion that… the former had been an academic while the latter had been a warrior!

<em>That’s not right… </em>Wang Baole shook his head. He called out for Little Missy in his head. She was awake this time and responded to Wang Baole’s summons.

“It’s such a simple thing. Haven’t you figured it out?” Little Missy said indifferently. Her words were colored with a sense of intellectual superiority as well as disdain.

“I caught a few members of the Never-Ending Clan when I was seven years old. After some examination, we discovered that a typical member of the Never-Ending Clan has three heads and six arms for their entire life—from when they are born and until they die. Only their royalty… after undergoing some special form of cultivation, can transform their three heads and six arms into sources of energy!

“The first level is when they transform one head and one arm into energy sources. They would rival a Planet realm cultivator. Two transformed heads and two transformed arms meant they were at the Eternal Star realm. If they could transform all three heads and six arms into energy sources, they would be at the greater Star Domain realm!

“As for the corpse before you, one arm has been transformed into an energy source while one head is in the midst of its evolution. He must have been at the Spirit Immortal realm prior to his death. Once that head fully transformed into an energy source, he would have attained a breakthrough and entered the Planet realm!”

Little Missy seemed satisfied with her explanation to Wang Baole. Wang Baole began to gain clarity in his thoughts after hearing her explanation. Gradually, his eyes began to shine with a strange, bright light.

<em>Transforming one’s arm into energy… this sort of cultivation method seems familiar… </em>Wang Baole fell into deep contemplation. He examined said arm carefully. After a long moment, his breathing suddenly quickened.

<em>The Thearch Armor inheritance requires one to form an armor that’s made of flesh and blood outside of one’s true physical body… To a certain degree, isn’t that the same as energy transformation? The difference lies in the fact that the Never-Ending Clan’s royalty transform their own bodies while the Thearch Armor inheritance creates a new body outside the original one! </em>Wang Baole’s thoughts raced through his head. The light in his eyes grew increasingly brighter. He felt that he had grasped something important.

It was something key that could help him in mastering the Thearch Armor inheritance!

At that thought, Wang Baole immediately waved his hand and pulled out a flying sword. His eyes flashed. He made a slice on the corpse with the sword… He intended to dissect the corpse, locate its meridians, and identify the cause that transformed the arm into an energy source!

As the dissection was carried out, as further examination and research were carried out, and as time continued to pass, Wang Baole forgot completely about food and rest. He instructed the donkey to go back to the Sea of Fire and find him a few more of these corpses with arms that had been transformed into energy sources. A month passed. He had managed to dissect seven to eight similar corpses. He still didn’t understand much about the cultivation methods of the Never-Ending Clan. However, he had found clues about the arms that had been converted to energy sources!

They were… meridians that were formed from Spirit Qi and that were found in the dead bodies!

That single discovery allowed him to further expand his understanding. He grew excited as he gained a new understanding of the Thearch Armor inheritance.

<em>There may be other ways to practice the Thearch Armor inheritance, but what I’m thinking of… should be one of those methods, which is… to link every meridian inside my body with Spirit Qi, then allow them to emerge from inside my body and form a circulatory system outside my body!</em>

“It’s as if… my body has become a seed. To a certain extent, I’m spreading and scattering my meridians outwards, then reforming them outside my body!” Wang Baole muttered to himself. The more he thought about it, the more he believed that his was a workable idea. The only thing that was holding him back was how his approach seemed identical to the Thearch Armor inheritance but was in actual fact slightly different.

The final flesh and blood armor formed from the Thearch Armor inheritance would exude power and strength. It would also augment his original physical body multiple times. It served almost like a magnifying glass. The source of the augmentative effect was the accumulation of Spirit Qi within the armor.

The armor could be seen as a new body. Its rate of absorption and cultivation would be much faster. It could be compared to the humps on a camel. As his cultivation continued to accumulate, it would be fed back into the original physical body. That was how the augmentative effect would come to be.

Regardless, the armor that was formed would become a part of him. He could move it like his own limb, but he couldn’t separate it from his true physical body.

However… if Wang Baole practiced the Thearch Armor inheritance based on the method he had just thought of, the results would be different. He was extending his existing meridians and forming a circulatory system outside his body. He would be applying the same approach when forming the skeletal structure as well. However, it was simply an extension. It wasn’t something that was inseparable from his original physical body. Simply put, it was as if Wang Baole had refined an artifact that encased his true form!

The disadvantages of his method were that precisely because it wasn’t something inseparable from his body, it wasn’t a part of him and only an external object. In terms of cultivation, accumulation of Spirit Qi, and the armor’s augmentative properties, they wouldn’t be able to compare with the former approach.

The advantage of his method was that it was simple and straightforward. If he resolved the first problem, the power of the armor and speed of cultivation would far surpass that of the former approach.

Of the two cultivation methods, one was good and the other… evil!

This was because… there was only one way to resolve the problems regarding the accumulation of Spirit Qi and the armor’s augmentative properties. There was only one way one could acquire a vast accumulation of Spirit Qi without the need for cultivation.

Wang Baole had his ideas regarding this method as well. It was… the incomplete inheritance that was second most powerful following the Thearch Armor inheritance… the Flame Snatch!

This technique was perverse. It required killing someone and then stealing said person’s vitality and will. If the practitioner were unable to maintain control, he would lose his own will and descend into madness. This was because as the number of people he killed grew, and as the number of discordant wills that were infused into the practitioner’s body grew, he himself would find it increasingly difficult to withstand the resultant mental and psychological chaos.

However… if this armor extending from one’s body could be used as a vessel to hold and accumulate the vitality and wills after each kill, everything could be solved. He would grow stronger with every kill. In fact, there would be no limit to the number of people he could kill!

However… Wang Baole wasn’t sure what would happen if he did learn the inheritances. With the increasing number of murders he would rack up, would there come a day when this armor of his would become… a demonic armor with a blood lust that rose to the skies and shook the heavens and earth!

He remained silent as his eyes lit up with determination. He had made up his mind. He whispered, “A vessel for my murderous karma… so be it!”