Chapter 42: Thousand-Eyed Evil Spirit

“Junior brother, be very careful when you fetch water tomorrow!”

After leaving the Stone House, Senior Sister Jiang Ying still worriedly chased after him, repeatedly reminding him.

Li Si turned back with a bright smile, said nothing, and just gave a firm wave of his arm before pushing Senior Sister Jiang back into the Stone House.

Worry was an emotion, right? She shouldn’t get caught by it.

Closing the wooden door of the Stone House, Li Si stood in the darkness, feeling unexpectedly warm and secure for some reason, and a little homesick. But almost at the same time, he cast a Mind-cleansing Aura on himself. The principle that a skilled swimmer often drowns in water needed no reminder…

It was around 7 PM, but the world was already pitch black. Outside the village, the Dark Mist seethed, filled with eerie wails. Only at the village boundary, a faint, weak glow held back the churning Dark Mist, creating two separate worlds inside and outside the village.

This was the effect of the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array operating at full power, significantly increasing its ability to block the Dark Mist. The cost was consuming five Spirit Gathering Talismans daily, each with only 100 points of Magic Power. Over time, this amounted to a substantial consumption, significantly hindering the Floating Cloud Sect’s profits.

But it was necessary. The Dark Mist continuously accumulated mutation pollution in people. Although the amount was small, over ten or twenty years, the accumulated pollution toxicity could become very severe.

So from this perspective, Xu Shen had considerable nerve. After all, he was an old coin who had hidden for three hundred years, and he could pinpoint the crucial points when he acted.

“However, even with the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array at full power, its effect is only so-so. It might handle things short-term, but it couldn’t cope with greater crises in the future.”

Li Si contemplated. He decided that after he fully mastered the Formation Array principles from Xu Shen’s notes, he would enhance the Three Talents Demon-Purging Array.

But for now, he had to focus all his attention on fetching water tomorrow. Although he was confident, that didn’t mean he shouldn’t make perfect preparations.

“Junior brother, are you ready?”

In the distance, Xu Shen, who had just finished patrolling the village, walked over and casually handed the Array Control Disk for the Five Tribulations of Lightning Method Array to Li Si. Next, he was going to the Quiet Room to craft the Black Fog Cloak, also in preparation for Li Si’s water-fetching trip tomorrow.

The Black Fog Cloak was useless during the day, but at night, it could withstand the Dark Mist’s erosion and render the wearer invisible within the mist, undetected by the Mist Demons.

This was a precaution in case Li Si couldn’t return in time and had to spend the night outside. Without the Black Fog Cloak, he wouldn’t survive.

“Senior Brother Xu, I’m fine,” Li Si said seriously.

“Good!”

After saying this, Xu Shen headed straight for the Quiet Room.

The Quiet Room had been built that afternoon, located about thirty meters from the Stone House. From the outside, it looked like two stone houses, but the interior space was only half a room. This was for sufficient safety and quiet.

The walls of this Quiet Room alone used three layers of stone blocks. Ji Chang had used most of the savings he’d accumulated for a long time to build this Quiet Room.

But it was worth it because a Quiet Room was too important for a Cultivator. Without one, even daily cultivation would be fraught with fear.

At the entrance to the Quiet Room, Xu Shen first cast a Heart Cleansing Curse and an Evil-Warding Curse on himself, then took out three peculiar black incense sticks and lit them.

“Junior brother, ever since my realm fell, I haven’t practiced artifact crafting for many years. So I’m not entirely sure what changes have occurred in this world under the influence of the Evil God’s power. I’m worried that just this one Quiet Room might not be enough. These three Black Soul Incense sticks can burn all night. They have a special attraction effect on Evil Spirits and demons, buying me time for crafting.”

“In short, although you need to guard me tonight, as long as these three Black Soul Incense sticks aren’t extinguished, you must not intervene.”

Xu Shen spoke very seriously, making Li Si’s hair stand on end. How ‘terrifying’!

“Wait, Senior Brother Xu, isn’t it just crafting a magic tool? Does it need to be this exaggerated?”

Li Si found it hard to believe, especially since he possessed a top-grade magic tool himself.

“Junior brother, watch your words. Trouble comes from the mouth. Those Evil Spirits, demons, and Evil Entities are just waiting for us to make a mistake!” Xu Shen’s expression was extremely grave.

So Li Si stopped talking and could only nod vigorously.

After Xu Shen entered the Quiet Room, Li Si looked at the three eerie Black Soul Incense sticks, hesitated for a few seconds, but ultimately did not release a Demon Sealing Aura.

Really, he hadn’t taken it seriously from the start. In his view, releasing ten Demon Sealing Auras to form a Demon Sealing Domain would make everything safe, ensuring Xu Shen could craft peacefully until dawn.

Alright, he was getting a bit carried away. But the powerful effect of the Demon Sealing Domain had been proven last night; even Mist Demons dared not approach.

What Li Si was thinking now was that the Floating Cloud Sect would certainly need to craft more than one magic tool in the future. Artifact crafting would become routine, and they might even prepare for pill refining later.

When he was around, he could use the Demon Sealing Domain. What if he wasn’t home?

Avoidance wasn’t the solution. So he needed to observe Xu Shen’s crafting this time to see exactly where problems might arise.

Well, it definitely wasn’t entrapment. He was too kind, too upright, too handsome to stoop to such tricks. Didn’t those Evil Spirits and Evil Entities have any rights?

Moreover, he had mastered Palm Thunder and the Thunder-Summoning Curse today. How could he not test their power? He was going out to fetch water tomorrow; wasn’t it right to accumulate combat data in advance?

In short, after a complex internal struggle, Li Si expressionlessly retreated about twenty paces from the Quiet Room, comfortably released three Demon Sealing Auras, then sat down cross-legged, quietly waiting for the ‘guests’ to arrive.

He wasn’t worried about Xu Shen because the Black Soul Incense had a special property: any entity drawn to it would first feed on the incense, providing a very safe margin for control.

But he never expected that this wait would last several hours. The Black Soul Incense sticks, over a foot tall, burned steadily but showed no sign of consumption; in hours, they had burned less than a millimeter…

One could only say this thing was truly Bizarre.

And before he knew it, it was past midnight. There was still no movement from inside the Quiet Room.

Of course, he couldn’t hear anything; otherwise, why call it a Quiet Room? Its soundproofing must be excellent.

An unknown amount of time passed.

Suddenly,

without any warning, the three Black Soul Incense sticks were as if something took a huge inhale, instantly burning down ten centimeters.

Yet, there was no reaction around the Quiet Room.

But Li Si didn’t see it that way. He waved his hand and threw a Demon Sealing Aura towards them. The next moment, he saw the Demon Sealing Aura suddenly light up, then quickly shatter and vanish, fragile as a tender cabbage.

Seeing this, Li Si felt not fear but delight. Dammit, he loved things that were this savage and aggressive. He didn’t charge forward but stood twenty paces away, protected by the Demon Sealing Aura, replenishing his Mind-cleansing Aura, Evil-Warding Aura, and Disaster Warding Aura, continuously throwing Demon Sealing Auras around the Black Soul Incense.

Go on, tough it out if you can.

“Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!”

Li Si was brimming with confidence and certainty. In the blink of an eye, he had thrown a full twelve Demon Sealing Auras. Under normal circumstances, that would be enough to form a Demon Sealing Domain.

The unknown enemy was strong, but the Demon Sealing Aura was no pushover either. With this constant resistance, there was bound to be consumption, and with consumption, vulnerabilities would appear. Then, the three Black Soul Incense sticks suddenly glowed and directly lost another ten centimeters.

By the brief light of the Black Soul Incense, Li Si vaguely saw a furry outline. At first glance, it seemed cute, but he quickly realized that the so-called fur was actually layers upon layers of eyelashes…

Countless eyes stacked together, chaotic yet superimposing into an indescribable sense of beauty.

Hmm, beauty…

But now, this thing seemed enraged because it had arrived right in front of Li Si.

Almost simultaneously, Li Si’s Steadfast Mountain Seal shattered, meaning he had evaded one of its attacks. But he had been waiting for this moment!

He immediately countered with a Heart Cleansing Curse, aiming to ensnare the creature. But the next second, all those eyelashes blinked in unison, and the Heart Cleansing Curse actually missed. What the hell?

Li Si instantly felt something was wrong. This thing’s strangeness exceeded his expectations.

Suddenly, a sharp, piercing pain hit his chest, as if an eye was trying to open there. But immediately, his Evil-Warding Aura and Disaster Warding Aura shattered.

The eye disappeared, but it gave Li Si enough information.

That is, the rows of eyelashes came from the Illusory Void. They looked like eyelashes but were actually an illusion caused by it; he didn’t know what it really was.

Most importantly, this thing remained hidden in the Illusory Void, making it impossible for him to use most of his methods. This was somewhat similar to an Attached Ghost Child.

Thinking of this, Li Si decisively summoned the top-grade magic tool, the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl. Although this object couldn’t detect the Illusory Realm, once a being from the Illusory Void attacked him, it would create a combat trajectory. Then, the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl could lock onto it. In this locked state, his Dao Techniques and Divine Abilities would have a 100% hit rate!

In short, this thing was very mysterious. Originally, in the hands of an Evil God Cultist, it was used to communicate with the Little Mushroom in the Illusory Realm.

Now, as the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl rose into the air, Li Si’s perception immediately locked onto an indescribable existence. He didn’t even know where it was or what it was, but that didn’t matter. He had an intuitive sense that if he cast the Heart Cleansing Curse now, it would definitely succeed.

The next moment, he cast the Heart Cleansing Curse. Immediately, a shrill, agonized scream was heard. Then, a corner of the void above the Quiet Room was revealed. The creature had finally been dragged into the Mortal Realm.

Li Si wasn’t about to hold back now. He hit it with an Iron Prison Discipline, successfully landing it. Although the judgment was only to imprison it for three seconds, it was enough.

But just at that moment, Li Si felt a dizzy spell, and the Wish-Fulfilling Pearl completely lost its luster, falling to the ground. It had been forcibly corrupted by the entity.

Fortunately, his Iron Prison Discipline had already taken effect; otherwise, it would have been troublesome.

Immediately, he decisively used his ultimate move