Chapter 282 - Returning to Zhao to Reach the Soul Formation Stage The young man looked at his master’s back as he left. A scene of the past entered his mind. He kowtowed to his master before clenching his fist and leaving. “I, Chen Huan, swear that I’ll wipe out Xue Yu!” Wang Lin returned to the ice tower with a complicated state of mind. Although he had obtained a powerful treasure, he didn’t feel happy. He only felt a sense of melancholy. At this moment, Wang Lin suddenly gained another bit of insight of his life and death domain. “What is life… what is death…” This question echoed in Wang Lin’s mind. The late stage Soul Formation cultivator of the Water Ink Sect used the last of his cultivation to fly up to the snow fairy statue at the Divine Temple of Snow and Ice. Like a moth flying toward a flame, he exploded on the statue, leaving behind a red mark that they couldn’t get rid of. Along with him, several other Soul Formation cultivators were killed in this explosion. All the glory was now gone with the wind… In his death, he died at the right spot. His death awakened the Four Sect Alliance cultivators that hadn’t dared to show their faces. In the blink of an eye, another year passed. Throughout this year, Wang Lin kept thinking about the life and death domain, and he gradually gained more insight. His own being had undergone a transformation in this past year. Looking at a mountain as a mountain, looking at a river as a river. However, Wang Lin noticed that sometimes a mountain isn’t mountain and a river isn’t a river. It was as if there was another layer of fog blocking his eyes. He couldn’t see it, but he could feel it. When he reached out, he couldn’t touch it. This type of thing won’t go away with time. He would need a sudden burst of insight to get past the fog. Autumn passed and spring came. Two more years in this icy world passed. Wang Lin was able to make some progress regarding the creation of the ice sculpture puppets. These ice sculpture puppets relied on snow blood veins to maintain themselves. A puppet with 49 snow blood veins could achieve a Core Formation cultivator’s power. To be as powerful as a Nascent Soul cultivator, one would need 81 snow blood veins, but with these ice sculptures, the more veins a puppet has, the harder it is to control. And if two veins touch, the ice sculpture will explode. Because of this, the difficulty increases exponentially with each additional snow blood vein. Thus, one can see how difficult putting 81 blood veins into an ice sculpture is. This is why there were so few Nascent Soul ice sculptures produced by Xue Yu. In addition to this, the snow blood veins come from the Icy Snow Tactic. Wang Lin was amazed by this technique. This Icy Snow Tactic emphasizes refining the heart. This technique uses ice as the bones and snow as the heart to form an ice and snow soul to reach the state of a clear heart. It can be described as very mysterious and unstable. This is why Xue Yue cultivators are all impulsive and have personalities that can change drastically on a dime. The goal was to follow their will and do as they pleased to refine their hearts to the point of being impenetrable to outside influences. The more Wang Lin studied this technique, the more clear he became about its true terror. This technique couldn’t be considered a righteous path at all; it was definitely a side path. Wang Lin felt that this technique was very similar to the Six Desire Devil Lord’s cultivation method. Wang Lin wasn’t willing to practice this technique. He merely imitated it by changing the snow blood veins to pure blood veins. He used blood to work with his life and death domain to gain the ability to control the carvings. In the blink of an eye, Wang Lin had already stayed in this small city for three years. Adding on the one year he had spent traveling, four years had passed. Only one year left until 10 years was up. He could feel that the time for him to reach the Soul Formation stage was coming. He didn’t know if he would trigger divine retribution when he reaches the Soul Formation stage. However, as he got closer to it, he realized that when he reaches the Soul Formation stage, it will create a disturbance that will alert everyone. So on this day, Wang Lin walked out of the ice tower and left. Before he left, Xue Yu had sent out a decree for all Core Formation and above cultivators to gather at the temple to receive a Dao lecture. The reason was that one of the thirteen cultivators that had gone to Suzuka had returned. He was the only person that had succeeded in reaching the Soul Transformation stage. As for whether only one of the thirteen succeeded or if Suzuka had done something, it was not something for outsiders to know. Wang Lin silently left without anyone knowing. Even the Core Formation cultivator that Wang Lin had trapped had lost his memory and regained his original position. At the border of Xue Yu, Wang Lin turned around and carefully looked at the land. Scenes of the past several decades passed through his mind as he let out a sigh and left. Wang Lin’s goal was Zhao. He decided to reach the Soul Formation stage there. As for why Wang Lin was going to Zhao to break into the Soul Formation stage, one reason was that it was a remote location. The other reason was because he felt a longing for his home after talking to that late stage Soul Formation cultivator from the Four Sect Alliance. Everyone has a home. Does he have one… Zhao could be considered home and there was a woman waiting for him on the other side of the Sea of Devils. That place could also be considered home… So he decided on Zhao to complete the cycle of being born there. Before he returned home, he went to the town to check on Da Niu and saw that Da Niu had opened up another ironworks shop. His wife was not young anymore, but she was clearly pregnant again. Wang Lin let out a smile as he looked at them. That new life was growing by the day… When he left, he left a bit of spiritual energy inside Da Niu’s wife. That bit of spiritual energy could guarantee the mother’s and daughter’s safety. The new life was a girl. Da Niu still didn’t know that the uncle Wang he had always wanted to see again had come to see him. Da Niu’s only regret at death was not that Xiao Niu was not here to see him off but that he never got to see the uncle the Wang who had watched him grow up again. That mysterious person who opened a shop, who he always pulled customers for, and who managed to sell a carving for 10 pieces of gold. He gave those two wood carvings to his daughter and they became family heirlooms. Wang Lin flew toward Zhao. 40 years ago, he walked the same road when he had just reached the Nascent Soul stage. Today he was going back through the same road, but this time he was about to reach the Soul Formation stage and was choosing a location to do so. The Wang Lin now and the Wang Lin then were as different as heaven and earth. He passed through one ancient transfer array after another. On this day, he was in a strange land where clouds filled the sky and rain began to fall. The rain began to fall harder and harder until it seemed like water was being poured down. Wang Lin looked at the sky. It had been a long time since he had seen rain this heavy. He couldn’t help but think back to when he was in the same room with Zhang Hu back at the Heng Yue Sect. The rain poured while lightning and thunder fell from the sky. At this moment, rays of lightning flashed across the sky like silver snakes. They looked very beautiful. Wang Lin’s body slowly landed on the ground. He didn’t even use a technique to block the rain. Instead, he waved his hand at a nearby tree and the leaves on the tree gathered to form a leaf umbrella. Wang Lin walked in this foreign land with his umbrella. He was only two ancient transfer arrays away from reaching Zhao. In an area 40,000 kilometers to the east was where the ancient transfer array was located. The sound of rushing rain filled the forest and gave the whole area a certain charm, especially the old temple in the distance. This temple was clearly deserted. Its original red paint was now dim and some parts were even damaged, Even the brass rings on the door had rusted. There are patches of green on the temple’s side. Wang Lin had not seen many temples in his life. Looking at the temple, Wang Lin walked inside. This was an ancient temple. There were no statues of gods inside; only a half-petal praying pad. As he looked at the temple, he looked toward the door and then he returned to looking at the temple. Once he finished looking, he stood at the door and enjoyed the view of the rain. After a long time, shouts came from a distance. A few large men wearing rain cloaks came while yelling. “This damn weather. Once it starts raining, it never stops.” “There is a temple ahead; let’s hide in there for a while. We can continue our travel once the rain lightens up.” As they were talking, they saw Wang Lin inside the temple. They all paused and looked at each other before silently walking toward the temple. When they walked past Wang Lin, one of them took a step toward Wang Lin and seemed to have tried reaching toward him with his right hand for a gentle pat. However, another person from the group let out a grunt and pushed that person to stop him. That person turned his head and let out a snort before silently entering the temple. The five of them took off their rain cloaks, set up a fire, took out some food, and began to loudly chat with each other. However, every now and then, their gazes would turn to Wang Lin. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮 Wang Lin gently shook his head. These five mortals had ruined the special mood of this night and wasted the atmosphere. He let out sigh. Just as he raised his feet to leave, his gaze suddenly locked onto the forest in the distance. He saw a man with long hair wearing a thin robe taking big strides toward the temple. Although the man looked very slow, after taking one step, he was suddenly next to Wang Lin, walking into the temple. As he passed by Wang Lin, the man gasped and suddenly stopped. He carefully looked at Wang Lin, revealing his white teeth in a gentle smile, and said, “I didn’t expect to meet a fellow cultivator in such a small temple. My name is Mo Zhi. You are?”