Chapter 575 Heart Demon

The energy flow went into my body far smoother than anything I've ever tried before. The whole experience was incredible. I could sense and understand the flow of Qi and how it 'should' move through my body. 

And what surprised me was the fact that this old man, not only did he have no knowledge of my Poison Path cultivation method and meridian pathing, he immediately understood and deduced them, then came up with a far more flexible and more optimal pathing method.

This way, if I wanted to use my Poison Qi to cultivate, I would have far less wasted rotations and will have my overall cultivation speed increase by at least a third.

That's an absurdly high amount of efficiency, and it comes at no costs. 

Not only that, I'm even gaining benefits. The pill I'm currently consuming, not only is it repairing my damaged body, since even after hundreds of years in the white pagoda was not enough to fully cure my internal wounds from fighting the Fire Lord, but now, it's as if those wounds never existed. And my body's overall functionality seems to be improving.

My muscle and fiber structure which I thought had already reached the peak seemed to be evolving once more.

"Hmm, I can't push anymore," he said.

"Your muscles are incredibly well developed even for someone at the Void Stage, I suppose you're able to take a hit or two from someone at the Void Stage, but the problem is you're stuck a step behind, it's as if not only did your cultivation level dropped but even your understanding of law… wait, no that shouldn't be possible," said the old man.

"What do you mean?" I said.

"I can sense that you dabbed in law, not the low tier stuff, but the laws of creation and elements, look at your fingertips…"

I looked at my fingertips but didn't see anything different.

"I can see the laws of the world moving whenever you're moving your fingers. It's as if you came in contact with something so far advanced that the lower laws wish to be 'controlled' by you. You only see this when you reach my level… which is impressive. Our teacher really did find a great talent. But I'm sorry I couldn't protect you back then, when our home was invaded," the old man sighed.

'He sounds like a good guy, thinking of his clan members this way. I feel bad for tricking him…'

"But don't worry," he said as he stopped with his guidance of Qi.

"I sealed the remaining energy of the pill within your Dantian, I'm sure that you already picked up on how to use your Qi pathing better, once you're capable you should slowly dissolve the pill and use it to regain your cultivation base," he said.

"I'll keep that in mind," I replied.

He stood up and said, "Now tell me, where is that bugger? You said you can locate him."

"Ah yes, really simple," I said as I pulled out my brush.

"Oh, Ohhhh!! Where did you get that?" asked the old man surprise clear on his face.

"This brush? I was given it by a merchant in black," I replied.

"Seems that our teacher's grace extends far, do you know what that is?" he asked.

"It's a good brush?" I said.

The old man smiled, "That's a Divine Dragon Whisker Brush, you can only make one if the dragon willingly gives you one of his whiskers. It's an incredible item that is sought out all over the beyond. Make sure to keep it safe and hide, but still it's only good at making formations, how are you going to use it to locate the shadow?"

"Well, simply put, that shadow had the ability to enter this place," I said, "So it was able to tamper with the formation to do so, I talked to it a bit, and he revealed his knowledge about formations, it was… let's say, lacking. And so," I said as I began moving my brush.

"He never seemed to fully understand the purpose of the protective formation around the palace. It was never meant to stop the shadows from going inside… that was never its purpose… it was meant to prevent the palace and city from losing to Time. And in his attempt to understand the formation to enter it the first time, he caused issues with it, and it branded him, and anything related to him to not enter." 

My arm was still moving around revealing more of the formation above us until it showed a special section that only the maker of the formation knew about.

"This is a log of all the modifications that happened to the formation since its creation, and today marks the… holy shit this thing is old…"

The old man frowned, "How old? I'm sure it shouldn't be a hundred years old at most," he said as he looked up.

"…It's more than that," I said.

"How much more…"

"Close to a million years of age…" I said.

"That… that's not possible!" he said and soon his eyes began losing focus.

He grabbed his head in pain and was about to go on another rampage.

I think reminding him of the time he spent here, and how long its been since he was separated from his clanmates will probably cause his mental to crumble again. I'd rather deal with this semi-sane elder than the crazed version of him.

"Hold on, we're in a separate space. Time may not move the same as outside, even if a million years pass here, it could be nothing more than a few hours in the Beyond. Let's not jump to conclusions," I said.

The old man calmed down, "True, you yourself don't feel that old to me. So it must be true, the time just runs differently here… anyway keep explaining…" the old man said.

"Well, the log here says that the shadow…" damn I guess this is not something that I can tell him either.

What I see in front of me is absurd.

The shadow… not only it, but every other shadow here, all of them, they're one being. Only the one that was living underneath the old man's corpse has an Ego. The rest are all pieces and bits of one…

They're all the same person and they're all the same thing, they're the old man himself. And at the same time not… there is one thing that can fulfil that condition.

A heart demon.

A heart demon given manifestation and ego, due to the passage of time.

"So, tell me, what is does the formation say about the shadow?" the old man asked.

'This is gonna be hard to explain…'