Chapter 4. The Magic Cube and a mysterious bead
Before suddenly transmigrating Lin Yang was coincidentally in the process of re-reading the 'Martial World' novel. Although he only read half of it in total, the early parts were fresh in his memory when he reincarnated. Thanks to this he clearly remembered that the beast that swallowed the Magic Cube in the novel was a Gold Back Pangolin, a scaled second-level vicious beast with teeth that could crush rocks and stomach acid that could melt steel.
This vicious beast is quite rare and can be occasionally encountered in the depths of the Zhou Mountains near the capital. They are skilled at drilling through the earth and rocks, eat smaller animals whole and are seen occasionally swallowing stones and other random items.
If the Magic Cube still landed in the same area of the Sky Fortune Kingdom in this world, then the beast that would have found and swallowed it would most likely be a Gold Back Pangolin!
Lin Yang ignored the first-level vicious beast, picked up a deboning knife and directly approached the Gold Back Pangolin. Feeling both excited and anxious, he rolled over the Gold Back Pangolin, exposing its white abdomen. He placed a hand on the vicious beast's abdomen and studied it.
After recalling a general idea of the Gold Back Pangolin's anatomy, Lin Yang placed the tip of his knife at a spot and then pushed in.
Although there was a strong level of resistance, the knife still went in three inches deep. Following that, Lin Yang used his strength to pull downwards across the Gold Back Pangolin's abdomen while rising and descending his knife, following a path in between the solidified plates.
Normally it is difficult to cut among the scales of this vicious beast's abdomen, but Lin Yang had extremely rich experience of deboning vicious beasts and sufficient strength to make this process look quite easy.
The abdomen of a Gold Back Pangolin was its weak point and there are no true scales there like on its back, but the solidified thick skin-plates that it formed to protect its organs were almost as durable as scales, and they even almost looked like scales.
After cutting open the thick outer layer scales, Lin Yang's work became much easier. He started from the beginning again and cut in deeper with his knife. The knife-edge slid through the gap between the muscles of the Goldback Pangolin abdomen.
At that time Lin Yang halted his breath as his full concentration was on the knife in his hand. He carefully observed if he would encounter any resistance.
This moment of truth was extremely important to Lin Yang. It was something that he had waited for fifteen years of his life!
If he did not find the Magic Cube here, then he would inevitably feel quite depressed.
Suddenly, while cutting the stomach open, Lin Yang felt the knife being blocked by something. It felt as though the knife had run into something hard.
Lin Yang's heart jumped and he became excited. He quickly slipped on a pair of gloves and carefully retrieved the hard item while avoiding the stomach acid.
Looking at it, he was surprised. There were actually two items that he retrieved. One was a cube and another a sphere.
Lin Yang cleansed the two items in clear water from a bucket at the side. He then looked at these two objects as he held them in his hand.
The cube was only one cubic inch in size. It was gray-colored and neatly cut, with precise corners. In addition, the six surface areas of the cube were engraved with black coloured inscriptions, giving it a mysterious aura.
As for the sphere, it also had a one-inch diameter. It was perfectly round with a gray surface. Whether it was its size or the color, the sphere seemed quite similar to the Magic Cube. The differences were that the engravings on the sphere were of a golden color and resembled wavy flames; the sphere was also significantly heavier.
Lin Yang was surprised, but also elated.
The Magic Cube was in his hands!
This was his hope for Immortality!
As for the sphere, it was a very unexpected gain.
Was it the body transformation Grandmist Spirit Bead that was mentioned in the novel?!
Lin Yang did not know, but he doubted that it was an ordinary object.
…
Having finished deboning the two beasts three quarters of an hour later, Lin Yang packed his plate with some left-overs in the kitchen, then after hurriedly eating lunch went to his room.
After retreating to his room again, Lin Yang quickly closed the doors. He took out the two items from his pocket and looked at them once again.
At that time, a one-inch cube laid on the palm of his left hand, while a similarly sized sphere laid on his right.
As Lin Yang looked at the 'Magic Cube' first, he felt incredibly excited and relieved, but also slightly nervous.
He began to study and experiment with the Magic Cube for a while, but he didn't discover anything special.
Following that, he looked at the sphere on top of his other palm.
The first thing that he thought when looking at this item was that it might be the Grandmist Spirit Bead, which was a sister item to the Magic Cube. While Magic Cube helped with soul cultivation, the Grandmist Spirit Bead was a divine tool to help with body cultivation.
Lin Yang could recall that the consumable beads produced by the Grandmist Spirit Bead were incomparably heavy, but he simply didn't know if the Grandmist Spirit Bead itself would also be as heavy. If it was, then the sphere in his hand was certainly not it; although it was slightly heavier than the Magic Cube, it could not be considered heavy.
He observed the mysterious sphere for a while and then probed it with his soul force. He didn't yet have the ability to manipulate his soul force in any exquisite manner, but using it to read a jade slip was still something that he could do.
Unfortunately, when he tried to inject his soul force into the sphere there was no result just like with the Magic Cube. It was as if he was trying to probe a rock or another dead object.
Lin Yang pondered for a while and decided to try something. He pulled out a knife that was attached to his thigh and pricked his thumb with its tip. He then allowed a few droplets of blood at the mysterious sphere and then the Magic Cube.
It is often in Xianxia novels that an artifact needs to be bound through blood with the user before it can acknowledge one as its owner, so Lin Yang wanted to try precisely that.
As the blood droplets dropped on the Magic Cube, nothing happened, but once they dropped on the Mysterious Sphere, they were immediately sucked in.
There was a reaction! Lin Yang was startled, but it wasn't long before he was surprised once again.
After a few moments, the Magic Cube sucked in his blood as well!
Lin Yang looked at the Magic Cube. While sorting his thoughts, he put his finger in his mouth to close the wound and stop the bleeding.
He guessed that the Magic Sphere absorbing his blood was an automatic reaction, but as for the Magic Cube, it was very likely that Mo Eversnow had consciously done it after making up her mind. Her intention should be to help direct him into seeking the blood essence of powerhouses, telling him that the Magic Cube needs blood for him to receive benefits.
Lin Yang then probed the Magic Cube with his soul force once again, but nothing happened. Next he sent soul force into the mysterious sphere. Unfortunately, there was no change as well.
Lin Yang frowned. He continued to play with the cube and the sphere for a while, but made no new discoveries.
Soon Lin Yang placed the two items aside and began killing time by cultivating with his low-grade technique. He felt that for now he could do nothing, but wait for the Magic Cube to bind with him over night of its own initiative.
As for the sphere, its abilities could be figured out in the future. The priority was to learn a high level foundation technique from the Magic Cube.
As Lin Yang continued cultivation, he eventually heard a knock on his door.
"Lin Yang, are you inside?" a fair voice of a young girl sounded out.
Lin Yang opened his eyes. He knew that it was Lin Lu. Apparently, she had already registered herself and came back to visit him.
"Yes. Let me open the door." Lin Yang stood up and let Lin Lu in.
After the door closed again, Lin Lu looked at Lin Yang and asked, "Big brother, do you really plan to go to Huoluo nation?"
She knew that after Lin Yang made such a promise in public, there was no way left for him to join the Seven Profound Martial House in Sky Fortune City anymore.
Lin Yang looked at her and said, "Ideally not, but if there's no other choice, then yes. I'm not a coward, but Zhu Yan is not someone I can provoke in my current situation. It was best for me to make a compromise and scam as much gold as I can from him."
Lin Lu looked at Lin Yang for a while and nodded. "If brother is going, then I'll also go."
Lin Yang smiled. "Thank you, Lin Lu. If nothing special happens, I will really need to go to Huoluo nation. But don't worry about it for now. Just focus on your own training."
Being stared at by Lin Yang as he spoke, Lin Lu nodded after a moment and glanced away. She then had a thought. Since Lin Yang was even prepared to leave the nation, then it means that he really didn't care about that Lan Yunyue anymore. That was good!
When she realized that she had this thought, Lin Lu's face heated up.
Lin Yang noticed Lin Lu's embarrassed expression and lightly chuckled. How could he not be aware that Lin Lu liked him. He looked toward the door and said, "You can go back."
Lin Lu hesitated for a while as she remained in place. Then she looked at Lin Yang and weakly said, "Lin Yang… Don't worry about what Zhu Yan said. It's that ungrateful Lan Yunyue who doesn't match up to you. I believe that with big brother's determination and talent, you'll still have great accomplishments in the future."
After hearing Lin Lu's words, Lin Yang's heart was touched. He looked back at her. Right now he had the Magic Cube, so he knew that the future will be quite interesting, but Lin Lu did not know about this. After looking at her for a while, seeing her embarrassed and shy appearance, he brightly smiled and said, "Thank you, I knew that Lin Lu believes in me the most."
As Lin Lu's complexion headed up even further, Lin Yang added, "Let's keep practicing, you can leave for now."
Lin Yang did like Lin Lu, but since their relationship was good, he felt that there was no need to rush things.
"Hn." Lin Lu nodded and after a while left.
After Lin Lu left, Lin Yang understood that the only thing that he could do right now was to go to sleep and hope that the Magic Cube would bind with him. After going out to take care of his basic hygiene, Lin Yang soon returned to his room.
Although it was still quite early, he still wanted to go to sleep as soon as possible. He meditated for a while to calm down his mind and then slumped down on the bed.
He felt quite anxious and excited, and his brain was full of activity, but thanks to chanting a heart mantra, his consciousness eventually drifted off and he fell asleep.
…
In his sleep, Lin Yang had a strange dream. He dreamt of a resplendent palace made of jade. Each pavilion was made of jade, its level of artisanship staggeringly high.
Groups of beautiful women with elegant clothes, graceful temperament and outstanding appearance shuttled through the palace. From time to time, fantastical birds and beasts traveled across the sky, making it seem like a magical world of immortals.
He had never seen such a beautiful place even in movies back on Earth.
At one moment, the scenery suddenly transformed and the resplendent palace collapsed.
Countless figures had appeared in the skies above. From amongst the countless figures, streams of light shot out. The streams of light were beautiful to behold; however, when it descended upon the lands, it caused the lands and mountains to be decimated.
The lands were split apart while the skies were covered with demonic flames. A huge spell array covering a surface area of hundreds of li appeared out of thin air and a multitudinous number of mysterious symbols covered the entire sky.
A war on this scale was something that Lin Yang could never have imagined. Because he was in a dream state and not fully conscious, he watched all of it unfold half-consciously.
Cultivators! These were cultivators of an unimaginable strength. This level of strength was something that those at the Body Transformation Stage and Houtian Stage could not hope to compete against.
Every person within this imagery were beings that Lin Yang would previously consider nothing but fantasy characters.
After that, the scene changed and turned into a world of snow and ice. A frightened looking beautiful woman held onto a one cubic-inch cube, facing off against ten thousand figures standing on the skies.
This woman was actually standing just less than three feet from Lin Yang. Even though he didn't feel that it was reality, Lin Yang was able to feel an extremely powerful yet gentle and holy aura radiating from the woman's body.
Seeing that the beautiful woman held a cube that looked exactly like the Magic Cube found in the stomach of the Goldback Pangolin, Lin Yang snapped out of his trance. He realized that he was dreaming and became conscious of everything.
Watching the woman, he thought in shock, 'She must be Mo Eversnow!'
'Mo Eversnow' spoke a series of words, but the words spoken were vague. Lin Yang could only make out two words – Magic Cube!
"Bang!"
An explosion!
The space itself was rent apart, the skies were twisted into a raging whirlpool with seemingly infinite power, sweeping up all of Heaven and Earth.
Everywhere the whirlpool reached, mountains would collapse and skies would crumble. The icy glacier was instantly transformed into nothingness and the ten thousand figures were reduced into dust. Their souls were fragmented and absorbed into the cube!
As for Lin Yang, he found himself standing in the middle of the whirlpool, witnessing with his own eyes as everything was absorbed into the whirlpool. Everything around him was reduced to ashes while he himself remained unaffected.
This feeling was simply indescribable and unforgettable.
Lin Yang felt himself drenched in cold sweat.
At this moment, he suddenly found that he had arrived at an incredibly large and dark space. Here, various specks of light hovered in suspension, resembling pieces of broken mirror.
The various specks were of varying sizes, some big and some small. The bigger ones were as big as a palm, while the smaller ones were only as small as a grain of rice. In the middle of all those specks of light, there was a sphere of light, which emitted a soft glow, a gentle and sacred glow.
Inexplicably, Lin Yang felt that the atmosphere around this sphere of light was very similar to that of the woman he had seen earlier. No, it was exactly the same!
'This sphere of light must be Mo Eversnow's soul,' he thought.
Lin Yang recalled that the woman had turned into a stream of white light and was absorbed into the Magic Cube right after the explosion happened… Mo Eversnow turned into a sphere of light, while the various specks of light should be fragments of souls of the various experts absorbed by the Magic Cube after they have been crushed by the spatial storm.
Lin Yang then focused his eyes and peered into the dark space that was littered with countless specks of light.
After hesitating for a while, he extended his hand and gently touched a speck of light which was both the smallest and the closest to him. He assumed that this speck of light was especially prepared for him by Mo Eversnow or by fate, since it was so close to him. He would not dare to choose anything bigger either.
Upon contact, the speck of light instantly flowed into Lin Yang's fingertip.
Lin Yang had no time to respond at all as his head felt as though a heavy hammer had suddenly struck down on it viciously. He let out a cry and fell to the ground.
"Ahh!"
Lin Yang tightly gripped his head; he felt as though there was something desperately invading his mind. The piercing pain caused him to wish he could crack open his skull and remove whatever was causing the pain!
He could not resist! Lin Yang felt as though he was about to be devoured!
Devour. Right, the soul fragment was trying to devour his consciousness!
Lin Yang snorted in disdain. Like hell he would let himself get devoured.
Lin Yang clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his flesh and blood: his goal was to become a supreme existence, how could he lose at the very first step just because of some pain?
Lin Yang didn't know how to deal with that fragmented consciousness that had no owner, so all he could do was grit his teeth and persevere with everything he had.
Various disorderly images flowed into his sea of consciousness, causing him to undergo an inhuman amount of pain, threatening to render him unconscious.
However, he kept gritting his teeth, maintaining his hold onto the vestiges of his consciousness and holding on to his unwavering will. He knew he could not fall there. Especially not now that he received the Magic Cube and the sphere when his true journey would begin…
After an unknown amount of time, the severe headache faded.
At last, Lin Yang woke up from his dream. He opened his eyes to see that it was early morning of the next day.
At that moment his body was drenched in cold sweat and his bed sheets were soaked.
Observing all this, Lin Yang became excited. It was obvious that during the dream he had made contact with the Magic Cube and Mo Eversnow, and had absorbed his first soul fragment.
He owned the real Magic Cube!
As Lin Yang thought of this, his face suddenly changed: these memories…
He learned a lot of new things!
Arrays, inscriptions, engravings, various bizarre symbols, mysterious characters, plain looking and powerful weapon techniques…
'After absorbing the memories of the ownerless soul, I learned many new powerful techniques from the Upper Realm. Let's see what I know,' Lin Yang thought and concentrated on what he had learned.
Although the soul was devoured by Lin Yang's sea of consciousness, the memories were complex. They were not something that Lin Yang could recall as and how he liked. Those memories needed to be further consolidated and integrated.
While doing so, Lin Yang ignored the memories regarding arrays and inscriptions. These memories were a little fragmented and disorderly.
There was something else that he desperately needed first, something he desired for… A powerful cultivation technique!
He kept searching through his sea of consciousness and finally held his breath as he found it: Body Transformation Formula – Chaotic Virtues Combat Meridians!
It was a peak-level Body Transformation cultivation technique of the Divine Realm, the same one that Lin Ming practiced in the novel!