Chapter 387

Chapter 387: Speaking Frankly

In everyone’s hearts, they all thought Lou Yun had lost, yet now, the situation reversed once again, and the one who lost suddenly became Ye Piaoling, who had already been winning.

This was another strong contrast, and this change was not only unbearable for Ye Piaoling himself but also for all the other onlookers present, except for Xia Zhilan.

Not accepting it meant not accepting it, but the fact was right before their eyes—the palm strike Lou Yun had landed on Ye Piaoling’s chest earlier, everyone saw it clearly, especially Ye Piaoling; he knew very well that if Lou Yun had used full force, he would already be dead now!

Of course, without Lou Yun first being frozen into an ice statue, it would almost have been impossible for him to hit Ye Piaoling so easily.

All in all, Lou Yun tricked a little to ultimately gain victory, but this trick, ordinary people would never have been able to pull off even if they wanted to try.

Abandoning resistance, willingly allowing Ye Piaoling’s cold spiritual energy to invade his body, not suffering any harm but instead making Ye Piaoling lower his guard, only then succeeding in the ambush—such a trick, who dared to try?

After being stunned for a moment, Ye Piaoling suddenly burst into laughter, shook his head, and said, "In this contest, I lost!"

Ye Piaoling’s laughter was very open and natural, without any other emotion mixed in, showing that his mind was very broad; regardless of whether Lou Yun won through trickery or through strength, he admitted his defeat!

This openness naturally made Lou Yun’s opinion of him improve even more.

But Ye Piaoling was not ready to let Lou Yun off so lightly; without resolving the doubt in his heart, it would probably leave a thorn in his life, so he said to Lou Yun, "Didn’t you say earlier you came to Ice Ruins to look for some plants? Come, I’ll take you around!"

This was Ye Piaoling thinking about Lou Yun’s situation; although he wanted to ask the reason why Lou Yun was unaffected after his cold spiritual energy invaded, he knew it might involve Lou Yun’s cultivation method, and cultivation is each person’s taboo, so he could not say it openly in front of so many people—that was why he invited Lou Yun into the Ice Ruins.

Lou Yun smiled and nodded, "I gladly accept!"

After speaking, Lou Yun turned around to Xia Zhilan and Wen Zhi Lao Ren, saying, "Brother, Little Lan, let’s go!"

Wen Zhi Lao Ren, like others, was still deeply dazed; upon hearing Lou Yun’s call, he snapped out of it and quickly nodded, "Alright!"

Xia Zhilan naturally ran directly to Lou Yun’s side.

Lou Yun clasped his hands toward the surrounding crowd and said, "Apologies for disturbing your meditation; Lou Yun here apologizes to you all. Farewell!"

The crowd also snapped out of it, realizing the excitement was over; though they had many doubts, clearly the others were not going to explain, so they should be sensible and leave quickly.

But through observing this battle, they gained a lot of insights, and most importantly, they remembered the name Lou Yun—especially with such immense power, yet still so polite, naturally winning their favor; naturally, befriending Lou Yun would be a good thing, so they all smiled, bade goodbye to Lou Yun, and departed.

As for Ye Piaoling, though his strength was similarly formidable, because of his icy demeanor, everyone sensibly avoided interacting with him.

After finally waiting for everyone to leave, only the three of Lou Yun followed Ye Piaoling and re-entered the Ice Ruins.

Entering Ice Ruins a second time, everyone’s feelings naturally differed, especially Wen Zhi Lao Ren’s; earlier he had been terribly worried, but now even a fool could see that Ye Piaoling had taken a liking to Lou Yun and intended to befriend him, so he completely relaxed, a smile appearing on his face.

However, Lou Yun still needed to use the heat of his celestial fire to protect Wen Zhi Lao Ren and Xia Zhilan from the cold spiritual energy’s invasion; seeing this action of Ye Piaoling, he could not help but feel another wave of surprise.

Because during their fight earlier, Lou Yun’s spiritual energy should have been nearly exhausted by all accounts, or at most very little remained, but now Lou Yun could still use his own spiritual energy to warm others, and his expression showed no trace of fatigue or weakness; clearly, his spiritual energy remained extremely abundant.

Ye Piaoling himself could quickly absorb cold spiritual energy, and since this was the Ice Ruins in the Great Snowfield, the coldest place on the Spirit Weapon Star, his internal spiritual energy had fully replenished, but he just could not fathom how Lou Yun managed the same feat.

The four of them soon reached the cave bottom; Ye Piaoling took out a shirt from somewhere and put it on, then pointed to the ground and said, "Apologies, everyone; aside from myself, no one else comes here year-round, so I have no guest facilities to offer; you’ll have to make do by sitting on the ground."

"No problem!"

Lou Yun sat down first, lightly pressing his palm on the ground; a wave of red high-temperature energy instantly swept over, suddenly causing the extremely cold ground to grow a bit warm—he was naturally doing this for Xia Zhilan’s benefit.

Being already unphased by Lou Yun’s many unbelievable feats, once everyone was seated, Ye Piaoling almost urgently asked, "Younger brother, what exactly happened earlier?"

From this clash, although Ye Piaoling lost, it greatly strengthened his bond with Lou Yun, so like Wen Zhi Lao Ren, he naturally called Lou Yun "younger brother."

Lou Yun smiled faintly and said, "Simply put, because I can also absorb cold spiritual energy for my own use!"

In that earlier battle, when Lou Yun had been about to perform the Sword Dance of Wind and Thunder, Ye Piaoling’s magical weapon disrupted the flow of energy of heaven and earth within him, making him consider giving up, but then a flash of insight struck him—since cold spiritual energy surely belonged to the energy of heaven and earth, why not give it a try and absorb it?

From the time Lou Yun set foot in the Great Snowfield, although his body was still absorbing the energy of heaven and earth, it was not purely cold spiritual energy but a mix of all energies. In this location, cold spiritual energy was abundant, but when it entered his body as part of the energy of heaven and earth, it carried very little coldness.

While fighting Ye Piaoling, to prevent the cold spiritual energy from Ye Piaoling’s attacks from invading him, Lou Yun had deliberately sealed his body, not absorbing any energy of heaven and earth.

When this thought occurred to Lou Yun, he immediately felt he should be able to absorb cold spiritual energy, as he had once absorbed evil energy in the Ghostly Valley.

Thus, Lou Yun abandoned the idea of continuing the Sword Dance of Wind and Thunder, fully withdrawing the energy of heaven and earth within him into his dantian, and began instead to absorb cold spiritual energy—and not just from the surroundings, but specifically what came from Ye Piaoling’s magical weapon.

It proved that Lou Yun could indeed purely absorb cold spiritual energy (which was essentially chilled spiritual energy). However, as he always used spiritual energy, and later got used to energy of heaven and earth, when the cold spiritual energy entered, it briefly felt hard to adapt to, which explained why frost formed on his body.

But soon Lou Yun adapted to that cold spiritual energy, and by then, he was in an invincible position. Ye Piaoling’s pride—his special cold-based attacks—could be absorbed by him. Even if he stood still letting Ye Piaoling wield powerful cold against him, it would not hurt him but instead be converted into strength for himself.

Plus, Lou Yun truly felt he had no reliable way to beat Ye Piaoling at the time, so he used a small trick: he feigned vulnerability to fool Ye Piaoling, then seized the moment to relax and suddenly struck Ye Piaoling with a palm.

The reason for Lou Yun’s victory sounded simple, but those hearing it did not think so!

When Ye Piaoling first saw Lou Yun, he suspected Lou Yun wanted his cultivation method. But feeling the high temperature in Lou Yun’s power reassures him, as he believed no one in the world could hold two opposing forces simultaneously inside their body.

Yet Lou Yun was an exception—he could absorb any gas effortlessly and use it as his own, so long as it belonged among the energies of heaven and earth, whether cold or hot.

Ye Piaoling and Wen Zhi Lao Ren both wore deep looks of doubt, scanning Lou Yun up and down visibly disbelieving him.

Lou Yun did not explain further; instead he spread his palm, and a cloud of mist immediately flowed out.

Witnessing this, Ye Piaoling’s expression changed sharply, because he clearly knew this mist was cold spiritual energy, thick and potent!

"How…how did you do this?"

Earlier Lou Yun also noticed that Ye Piaoling’s absorption and application of spiritual energy greatly exceeded most others. If he could see his own soul, he would likely sense the way of nature, thus beginning to absorb energy of heaven and earth as a cultivation method like Lou Yun did.

So, upon hearing Ye Piaoling’s question, Lou Yun hesitated momentarily, glanced at Wen Zhi Lao Ren and Xia Zhilan, and then spoke, "Brother Ye, Brother, Little Lan, now I must tell you about a new cultivation approach; whether you can comprehend it totally depends on you—nobody else can help!"

Lou Yun never hoarded selfish wisdom, especially regarding cultivation; he was extraordinarily generous, ardently wishing everyone could master the true approach like he had. So he candidly and completely shared everything about the soul and the energy of heaven and earth with the three before him.

Hearing him out, all three looked bewildered—a reaction Lou Yun had expected. Smiling wryly, he said, "What I’ve told and what I’ve mastered are all shared; just as I said earlier, whether you achieve it solely rests on you, and nobody else can lend a hand."