Chapter 386 - Second encounter with Liu Mei In these three months of closed door cultivation, with the help of the spirit vein, Wang Lin was able to breakthrough past the Nascent Soul stage. All he needed to do now was reform his origin soul and then his cultivation level would return to the Soul Formation stage. There were only three tea marks left on his face and Sun Tai’s seal was on the verge of breaking. Compared to all of this, his greatest achievement was that he found out that the entire Soul Refining Sect was covered by something invisible. This invisible thing covering the sect would occasionally release soul fragments and then hundreds of different spiritual energies would come out to fight for them. These soul fragments didn’t always appear in the same place; they were scattered across every part of the Soul Refining Mountain. After noticing this, his heart was moved. He quickly took out the soul flag manual and then, after checking it for a while, he was able to see through some secrets. The three methods to refine the soul flag were split into soul refining, soul extracting, and soul sealing. Soul refining was a method to refine any soul fragment in the world and to seal it inside a flag so that it will grow instead of dissipate. Soul extracting was different. It couldn’t refine soul fragments; it could only extract the soul from a living person and seal it inside a soul flag to control. As for the final one, soul sealing, Wang Lin didn’t have anything to compare it to and was a bit confused. According to the Soul Refining Mountain, the soul flags were in ranked tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and so on. The more souls a flag contained, the more powerful it was. Ten and hundred-soul soul flags were very common, but once a soul flag gained one thousand souls, it could use certain spells and its power would depend on the primary soul. In order to make a thousand-soul soul flag, one had to have a primary soul. This was a limiting factor that made thousand-soul soul flags quite rare. Many hundred-soul soul flag had reached the limit of 999 souls, but without a primary soul, it couldn’t become a thousand-soul soul flag. There was only one requirement for a primary soul and that was that it had to be stronger than all of the other souls in the soul flag combined. While Wang Lin studied the soul flag, he thought about the Qilin deep under the sect. That beast had to be that golden soul flag’s primary soul. Wang Lin had collected a large amount of soul fragments throughout these three months of cultivation. For some reason, these soul fragments had gathered inside the spirit vein. When Wang Lin checked the spirit vein for the first time, they weren’t there. Someone had clearly just collected them just be before he checked. As he collected the soul fragments, he understood where all of the soul fragments in the spirit vein went. They were all absorbed by the soul flag underneath the sect. A person and a flag began to steal soul fragments from each other. However, the flag was locked in one place and wasn’t as agile as Wang Lin. In the past three months, almost 90% of the soul fragments were taken by Wang Lin. There were strong and weak souls among these soul fragments. During these three months, Wang Lin found one that was at the early stage of Nascent Soul and used it as his primary soul. Not many Nascent Soul fragments appeared; only about two or three a year. Every time one appeared, the top disciples of the Soul Refining Sect would fight over it. Guo Dongjian’s words moved Wang Lin. It was just as he thought; the disciples of the Soul Extracting Mountain extracted souls from bodies to seal into their flags. He decided that he had to find some time he get himself the soul flag production method of the Soul Extracting Mountain and study it. As for the soul vortex, it was one of the three techniques inside the soul flag manual. The three techniques were condense, soul vortex, and blood sacrifice. Condense was rather simple. Although there were only ten jades in the Soul Refining Peak, many had made copies of this technique to sell. This technique was based on soul refining. With this technique, one could make the ethereal soul fragment take form and put it inside a soul flag. Soul vortex was a very rare technique. At least this was the case in the Soul Refining Mountain. It required at least Nascent Soul level cultivation to learn, but not all Nascent Soul cultivators could learn it. For example, Guodong Jian still hadn’t managed to learn it. Once this technique was used, it would absorb a large amount of souls. Whether it was used for fighting or stealing souls, it was extremely powerful. The final technique was blood sacrifice. Using this technique would increase the power of the soul flag by several fold. One third of the reason why the Soul Refining Sect had so few disciples yet was so powerful was due to this technique. However, this technique was very difficult to cultivate. Even most of the late stage Nascent Soul disciples hadn’t been able to learn it. Wang Lin waved his hand and the soul vortex disappeared. He took out a soul flag and then a large amount of soul fragments were absorbed by it. Duodong Jian’s expression was very ugly. It had taken him years of hard work to gather all of those soul fragments and they were stolen just like this. After letting out a sigh, he could only bitterly smile. This was the rule of the Soul Refining Sect. He came here to steal Wang Lin’s soul flag, but his was taken instead. He let out another sigh, clasped his hands at Wang Lin, and left feeling depressed. Wang Lin put the Nascent Soul he had caught into his soul flag. It soon began to fight with the Nascent Soul that was already inside. Wang Lin no longer looked at the flag; he knew that the winner would become the new primary soul and the loser would become the winner’s underling. Xu Yun and Liu Wei’s hearts were pounding as they silently stood to the side. Although Xu Yun looked confident before, she never would have thought that this senior brother Qing Mu would manage to master the soul vortex. Wang Lin looked around. This place was very elegant and contained a certain appeal. Wang Lin calmly and slowly said, “I’ll drop the matter of the two of your changing the surroundings of my cave. You two, leave quickly.” Xu Yun revealed a pleading expression and said, “Senior apprentice brother Qing Mu, the two of us won’t bother you. If we leave now, the soul fragments we worked so hard for will be stolen. The two of us only want a safe place to cultivate. We definitely won’t cause you any trouble.” Wang Lin didn’t speak, but his eyes became cold. Xu Yu’s heart trembled when that gaze fell on her. Liu Wei was already timid and at this point she couldn’t hold it in anymore, so she started crying. Liu Wei was very talented; she reached the mid stage of Core Formation relatively quickly. Then, during an outer disciple competition, she gave it her all and became an inner sect disciple. But after entering the inner sect, it wasn’t what she expected at all. The inner sect was a place of the strong devouring the weak; it was far too different from what she expected a cultivation sect to be. Wang Lin frowned. He waved his sleeves and was just about to throw these two out when he suddenly raised his head and stared at the sky. A green figure that looked like a fairy descended from the sky and landed 100 feet before Wang Lin. “Liu Mei!” After seeing this woman, Wang Lin frowned even harder. Liu Mei let out a faint smile and said, “Brother Qing Mu has recovered most of his cultivation. That calls for celebration.” The moment Liu Mei spoke, Wang Lin pointed to the air, causing Xu Yun and Liu Wei to faint. “Liu Mei, just get to the point; there is need to pretend. You’re only ruining the past image I had of you.” Wang Lin stared at Liu Mei. His voice was cold. Liu Mei looked at Wang Lin. She let out a sigh and said, “Wang Lin, a great calamity is about to befall upon you. Go… leave planet Suzaku…” Wang Lin’s expression remained calm. He didn’t say anything as he waited for Liu Mei to finish. Liu Mei whispered, “I won’t lie to you; you already know that I’m someone from the country of Suzaku, but I’m not an ordinary disciple. My master is the number one cultivator in Suzaku, Zhuque Zi!” Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. Everything in his mind suddenly became clear and he asked, “What happened to Red Butterfly after her battle with me?” After listening to Liu Mei, he suddenly made a connection and came to a terrifying conclusion. Liu Mei revealed a hint of appreciation. She looked at Wang Lin and said. “Red Butterfly… was killed by my senior apprentice brother.” Wang Lin sucked in a breath of cold air. After confirming his speculation, he said, “It looks like my battle with Red Butterfly was only a dogfight to certain people.” Liu Mei bit her lower lip and whispered, “Brother Wang, you should leave. The sooner the better.” She looked at Wang Lin meaningfully, let out a sigh, and left. As Liu Mei left she let out a sigh and thought, “Wang Lin, Liu Mei was ordered by master to leave my mark on your dao heart. This is a fate Liu Mei can’t resist… I can’t disobey master’s order… Unless your shadow appears in my dao heart, there is no way for me to lose this battle between our dao hearts… Only I, Liu Mei, comprehended the Thousand Fantasy Ruthless domain and showed emotions on the surface while my heart remained ruthless. How could you win…” In her eyes, there was a hint of ruthlessness, but it was hidden by her acting. Wang Lin was still frowning as he looked at Liu Mei’s back. Although Liu Mei seemed to have pointed out the problem, it also left countless uncertainties. Wang Lin frowned again and muttered to himself, “This whole thing is strange. I keep having this weird feeling about Liu Mei. Strange…” Shortly after, he looked at Xu Yun and Liu Wei. He waved his hand and moved the two women 1000 feet away from his cave. As he was moving them, his heart started trembling as if he had suddenly remembered something. His right hand reached out and pulled the two women back. Their expressions while passed out were very different. Yu Xun’s earlier expression was very strong and determined, and she was talking for the other girl. But now that she was asleep, her expression showed a hint of weakness and helplessness. Wang Lin’s earlier impression of the other woman was that she was very weak. However, now her expression was very determined and ruthless. She was clearly one of those that appeared to be weak but was in fact very strong on the inside. Wang Lin felt like lightning had struck his brain and his eyes sparkled. He looked up toward where Liu Mei went and sneered. “Now I understand why I get this strange feeling everytime I see Liu Mei. Although she shows all these emotions like she cares, she’s actually using it to hide her true ruthless nature!”