Chapter 7: The World Will's Feedback

This time, entering the Abyss fragment world wasn’t about enhancing his Cyan Lotus Dao Seed; it was solely to gauge his true strength and compensate for any losses incurred by the God Soul Continent’s World Will.

Though he was merely a speck now, such losses could accumulate over time. It wouldn’t do to let them pile up unchecked.

Just as politeness never goes amiss among people, so too should one be generous with the World Will.

Without informing his family, Qin Shu sat in his room, attuning himself to the fluctuations of the Abyss.

As a gravitational pull enveloped him, he knew the Abyss had arrived.

While others would flee from this place, he felt a subtle anticipation building within him.

This time, he materialized deep within a mountain range, surrounded by flora and fauna unlike anything on the God Soul Continent.

Before him stood what appeared to be a locust tree, yet its trunk resembled fleshy flesh more than wood. Its leaves were fragmented human faces, each bearing one or two eyes that glared at him menacingly.

The grass beneath his feet was sawtooth-shaped, moving piston-like up and down. Between each tooth grew patches of bloody flesh.

“What the hell is this?!”

The moment Qin Shu arrived, the sawgrass quickly shredded his shoes. Thankfully, it didn’t breach his skin.

But an even greater danger loomed: the Multi-Eyed Locust Tree. One by one, its hundreds of eyes snapped open, unleashing a barrage of gray beams directly towards Qin Shu.

In that critical instant, Qin Shu transformed his right hand into a sword-like gesture. Drawing upon the essence of the Qingping Sword, he conjured a shield of sword energy before him, just in time to deflect the attack.

The gray light dissipated, revealing the once-bloated body of the Multi-Eyed Locust Tree rapidly withering. The eyes on its branches began to glow again.

Qin Shu seized the opportunity to strike with his sword. A burst of sword qi pierced through the tree, slicing it in half horizontally.

He followed up by thrusting forward with his sword finger. Sword qi erupted from his body, forming a cyan lotus in mid-air.

Cutting grass requires removing the roots.

As the cyan lotus blossomed above the tree’s root system, its sword qi radiated outward like beams of light. In an instant, a pit ten meters wide was etched into the ground. The trunk and roots of the Multi-Eyed Locust Tree were pulverized by Qingping’s sword qi, their life force utterly extinguished.

“Too close for comfort!” Qin Shu surveyed his surroundings, having narrowly escaped danger.

Yet, new perils loomed on the horizon.

He found himself in terrain that newcomers least desired to enter: a mountainous region teeming with monsters—both bestial and botanical alike, much like that treacherous Multi-Eyed Locust Tree.

Qin Shu drew a deep breath, drawing in the abyssal essence.

Within his sea of consciousness, the Dao Seed of Cyan Lotus released its power of fortune. It filtered out the impurities from the abyssal essence, transforming it into true fortune qi, which replenished Qin Shu’s reserves.

Thus, even within this Infinite Abyss, he could recover his resources without limit.

With a wave of sword qi, he severed the serrated sawgrass at its roots, carving out a makeshift path.

Qin Shu ventured along this trail, exploring his surroundings.

Suddenly, the howl of a wolf echoed through the air.

He turned towards the sound just as a Deep Abyss Demon Wolf unfurled its bat-like wings and dove straight for him.

Deep Abyss Demon Wolves were second-rank abyssal creatures, roughly equivalent to Foundation Establishment cultivators.

No way, am I really this unlucky?

Qin Shu dared not use ordinary sword qi against such an opponent. Without hesitation, he opened his mouth and spat out the Qingping Sword Pill.

The pill left his body, transforming into a flying sword that shot forward.

Before the Abyssal Demon Wolf could react, it was pierced by the Qingping Sword Pill.

Cyan lotus blossomed, unleashing a burst of sword qi.

The wound where the wolf had been struck tore open into multiple gashes. As it hit the ground, its body disintegrated into fragments.

A Foundation Establishment monster was equivalent to ten Qi Refinement monsters. Sensing this, Qin Shu realized he could now teleport back to the God Soul Continent at any moment.

As the Qingping Sword Pill entered his body, true qi from his dantian rushed in. Feeling a sudden emptiness, he quickly circulated the Good Fortune Primal Chaos Scripture to replenish his inner true qi.

This incident proved that his self-learned Cyan Lotus Sword Art possessed extraordinary power.

However, more crucial was the enhancement provided by the Qingping Sword Pill.

After the Abyssal Demon Wolf died, its body swiftly rotted away and vanished.

The sensation of abyssal essence entering his body wasn’t pleasant, but fortunately, it was merely absorption, not cultivation. Otherwise, how could Qin Shu have remained composed?

With the immediate threat gone, he took a moment to catch his breath before continuing his exploration.

For some individuals, venturing into the Infinite Abyss served as a trial after breaking through to a new cultivation realm.

For others, like Qin Shu, the boundless depths of the abyss represented a treasure trove of opportunities.

His divine sense extended outward cautiously, ever vigilant for potential dangers lurking around every corner.

In this place, ordinary life couldn’t survive; only first-rank or higher monsters existed.

The Abyss Mountains had sparse vegetation, with pitch-black stones emitting dark vapors covering their slopes.

After cresting a mountain peak, Qin Shu looked down into a deep ravine below.

In the gloomy darkness, greenish flames burned.

Qin Shu recalled the host of these flames—the first-rank monster known as the Firefly Corpse Toad, roughly football-sized in stature.

These were corpse fires, containing toxic essence.

Before him, a swarm of over a hundred such creatures gathered, but even the strongest among them barely reached the third level of Qi Refinement.

We can handle this.

Firefly Corpse Toads lacked any semblance of intelligence. Sensing the presence of a living being, they swarmed upward like a fiery dragon.

“Bring it on!” Qin Shu flicked his sword finger, releasing strands of Qingping Sword energy that formed tiny cyan lotuses in mid-air.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Each strand of sword energy accurately struck a Firefly Corpse Toad, followed by explosions akin to fireworks. The resulting shockwaves triggered a chain reaction, decimating the swarm within moments.

With the remaining few Firefly Corpse Toads eliminated, Qin Shu declared, “That was too easy!”

He felt an urge to plant the Cyan Lotus Dao Seed here but, after some thought, decided against it.

“Wonder what these hundred-plus Firefly Corpse Toads could’ve offered me,” he mused, gazing up at the celestial dome, as if seeing the God Soul Continent itself.

Time was still early, so he planned to wait until nightfall before returning.

Having risked danger for this venture, how could he face himself without reaping some rewards? Besides, he could return instantly if needed.

Sword glares filled the sky as Qin Shu’s blade sliced a seamonster pig head in half with one swift strike.

He then closed his eyes, pondering each sword move he had made within this mountain range, gaining new insights.

To escape environmental influences, he communicated with the will of the God Soul Continent, requesting teleportation back home.

Once inside his room, he delved deeper into comprehending sword techniques.

Vital energies flowed into every acupoint on his body, while the sword qi generated by the Qingping Sword Pill became increasingly sharp and agile alongside his growing understanding.

After hundreds of strikes, at the cost of over a hundred abyssal monsters’ lives, he had grasped a sliver of the essence of the sword path.

As his comprehension solidified, a golden light illuminated the room.

A piece of teal-colored metal materialized before him.

This was the world’s will reward: Cyanwort Essence Gold, renowned for its exceptional hardness and toughness. It was an ideal primary material for forging flying swords, classified as top-tier second-rank.

The chunk, roughly the size of a human head, held a value equivalent to three second-rank treasures.

Converted into Spiritual Soul Coins, it amounted to approximately 3,000 coins.

One spiritual soul coin equaled ten thousand ordinary currency units.

Qin Shu hadn’t yet encountered spiritual soul coins but now possessed goods worth around 3,000 such coins.

However, he felt no great joy; the world’s will took an overly hefty commission, nearly halving his earnings.

He decided to sell this item and use the proceeds to buy space equipment.

It wasn’t urgent now, but once he reached the Golden Core stage and began accepting Abyss missions, each trip would last months, perhaps even a year.

Without space equipment, managing everything would become exceedingly inconvenient.

Before selling though, he considered performing some preliminary processing on the metal.