For the next week, I was looking for a solution to this problem, while cultivating, accumulating internal energy, and exterminating wolves, rats, bears, and other magical creatures living in this area. All this time, the energy discharge syndrome only worsened; with each battle and application of magic, more and more of it tended to leak out. And when it left my body, the magic began to form into spells on its own. Lightning energy formed weak lightning seals, which could hardly harm anyone; well, an ordinary person might get slightly singed, but that's it. Wind energy formed a weak wind around my body. When running or striking, it intensified slightly, accelerating my movements.
At first, this only manifested during combat, but after a week, it began to bother me at normal times as well. Not much energy was leaking, but it was still very unpleasant, and besides, if I didn't find a solution to the problem, I wouldn't be able to come to the city! After all, I would simply incinerate everyone there with lightning! But there was almost no progress in this matter; I tried to loop the energy's movement, but it didn't work out very well.
Well, and now a little about hunting. This week, about two hundred one-eyed wolves, hundreds of one-eyed rats, and other servant-level beasts perished. Besides this small fry, six three-eyed wolves went to the other world, giving me twelve beautiful fangs. Yes, it was a busy week. But there were no particular problems with their extermination; after tempering my body, killing monsters became significantly easier. The souls and soul shards that remained from the servants, I used for creating artifacts, but I saved the soul shards of the leaders for a full artifact that I would use myself.
As for artifacts, I decided to make myself an offensive permanent artifact, namely six daggers, interconnected with each other and attached to my back in special unified scabbards. Firstly, it's pretty cool, and secondly, it will allow me to always have daggers at hand. Only the daggers themselves were different from the ones I held in my hands; the blade was equally sharpened on both sides, and the handle was much smaller. They resembled a computer cursor; I don't know how else to describe them more accurately. In fact, this was enough, as they were supposed to be used with spatial magic and practically never held in hand.
However, creating permanent artifacts, especially from the fangs of three-eyed wolves, is an incredibly difficult task, and even for me, finding consumables for many failed attempts is difficult. So I decided to first practice on the fangs and souls of one-eyed wolves. Despite the fact that I was engaged in this all week, spending long hours at night, I couldn't get a decent result, or rather, everything still didn't even think of working!
But it was today that I decided to go to Xiamen and sell the four servant-level souls I had accumulated; in another vessel were shards that fit in packs into the vessels. But even so, the last one was full. I simply didn't have time to use them all. I also wanted to learn more about the surroundings of the city of Bo, while I still could.
The trip went without incident; the souls were sold at the lowest prices, three million each, so I had twelve in total. I also learned that northwest of the city of Bo, in the mountains, lives a pack of lightning wolves. This was an incredible find, if not for one thing... They were about two hundred and fifty kilometers away, and in that direction lived a large number of other creatures. Well, I don't think it's a big problem for me, but their bones and hides might help me in creating my own unique artifacts.
Upon returning to the city of Bo, I immediately headed in that direction. I didn't intend to delay, nor did I have anything else to do. However, I moved slowly, spending most of my time on training and artifact creation. If I can't make myself a good artifact, why bother getting resources for it? Right, no reason!
The entire journey took me about two weeks, during which my energy discharge syndrome only intensified! And this was despite all attempts to slow down this process by directing elemental energy in the same circle as the internal energy. No, of course, some energy circulated, but most of it now, even at normal times, tended to burst out as a lightning seal! I couldn't be harmed by it myself, but losing magic is not the best thing that can happen to a mage!
Around this time, I encountered the first group of lightning wolves. They resembled Mo Fan's dark wolf, with the exception that they had lightning patterns all over their bodies. The first group was small, only a couple of individuals. However, all adult lightning wolves are considered high-level servants and are elemental beasts.
Unfortunately, they were unlucky to meet me. I cut off the head of one with the blade of wind, and burned the brain of the other with a direct lightning strike through my dagger. Examining their bodies, I became convinced that their bones and fangs were much better suited for my artifacts than anything I had before. Also, I decided to try their meat; why not, Mo Fan in the original constantly ate monsters! What can I say about the taste of these wolves? It's quite tolerable, not a delicacy, but edible if seasoned well.
The rest of the day I cultivated and trained, and the next day I continued to explore the territory of the lightning wolves. There was indeed a lot of lightning elemental energy here, even too much, which explains the presence of these monsters here. I wonder if I'll find a spiritual seed here for Xu Zhaoting? Unlikely; if it were here, it would have already been taken.
The elemental energy didn't calm down at all, gaining momentum; it was becoming unbearable, and the magic loss was approaching critical levels. Yes, I won't be able to defend myself soon! I found no other way than to loop this escaping energy, which means I have to try to finish it completely, and this can only be done through prolonged cultivation.
Finding a relatively safe cave, I began to implement my plan. For the first few hours, there was almost no progress. After eight hours of continuous cultivation and energy control, I began to get quite tired, but the effect was still insignificant. By the twelfth hour, something started to work out. After a day of continuous cultivation, elemental energy mixed with internal energy swirled through my body, causing only light electrical discharges on the skin.
Naturally, I didn't cultivate for a whole day; I took breaks to drink one of the old man's healing teas and also to eat lightning wolf meat; it was quite good if you got used to it. Why did I eat it at all? It's simple: by eating it, I felt that my lightning energy was gradually calming down. Perhaps this was some effect from eating their flesh.
However, I didn't stop there and cultivated for another whole day, becoming very exhausted. Sweat literally poured off me, my clothes were soaked through, and by the end, I could barely think due to fatigue, but the effect was evident. All visible consequences of energy leakage had practically stopped, and the energy itself began to simply circulate from the inner world to the body, and then back. This should likely make using magic easier.
From exhaustion, I couldn't even move and collapsed to the ground, falling asleep. At first, some images flashed, my head spun, and I didn't understand where I was or what I was doing. But soon, the entire cycle in front of my eyes stopped, and I found myself on a street in some old Chinese city. Looking around, I saw nothing strange or unusual, not even familiar. Thinking that this was again some trick of Asura's, I headed wherever my legs took me.
Soon, a silhouette of a girl appeared ahead. She had long black hair, a slender and graceful figure, and cute facial features. Approaching, I recognized her as Lin Yun Er; it was definitely her; there are no other beautiful girls like her in the world! However, she was standing and talking to some guy, and their conversation sounded like that of lovers. Something pricked unpleasantly in my chest, causing unbearable pain; what's more, this pain was even greater than from a thousand bruises and abrasions! More than from many broken and cracked bones! It felt like my heart was being pierced, keeping me constantly conscious, with thousands of needles!
But I decided to be a little more restrained; this could be her very close acquaintance or friend, maybe a brother, although what kind of brother, unless a cousin. I moved closer; they continued to not notice me, so I decided to speak up.
"Lin Yun Er, hello," I said, smiling awkwardly.
"Oh, hello, Jiaxing Yun," she said, smiling tenderly. "And this is... We've recently started dating." She said immediately after this, and these words plunged me into complete stupor; I literally fell out of reality and looked at them with glassy eyes. I didn't hear the guy's name, by the way.
"But... but... what about me, I mean, us?" I stammered, my voice trembling.
"Huh?" she said, surprised, tearing her gaze away from the guy. "Us? Is there an 'us'?" Her eyes expressed even more surprise than mine, and her face clearly showed shock! "We broke up more than half a year ago."
"But you said you only left me because of your mother?" I tried to object.
"Well, maybe that was the case then," she replied thoughtfully. "Don't misunderstand me, I'm grateful to you for everything you've done, but... perhaps I had some feelings for you then, but now only gratitude remains. It's impossible to maintain a close relationship if your boyfriend condescends to talk once every couple of weeks, and after the breakup, there was no news of him for a month. Feelings fade over time, understand." She smiled awkwardly, but still sweetly.
"But, how could this be..." I stammered, falling to my knees.
"We dated for almost a year; it was just a prolonged youthful infatuation. I'm sorry if I offended you, but I truly feel nothing more for you, and I don't want to return to someone I don't love. Especially since I've already met my true love..." I didn't hear the guy's name again, but it wasn't that important. I was dumped... A second time... Yes, it's all in a dream, but I can't treat it as delirium from fatigue. I feel like it's all real!
"Lin Yun Er, we have to go," a male voice suddenly sounded above me, pulling me out of my complete stupor.
"Yes, let's go," Lin Yun Er's voice replied, and then she added, addressing me. "I'm sorry, Jiaxing Yun, I hope you find someone better than me."
After that, footsteps sounded. I raised my eyes to see what was happening and saw Lin Yun Er's retreating back, along with some guy, disappearing into the sunset. Emotions churned within me; jealousy and the pain of separation tore my heart from my chest, and anger at myself, at that guy who took Lin Yun Er, at my own powerlessness ignited my body. But the realization of everything that had happened and that I had lost the person most dear to me left an emptiness in my soul and prevented me from moving, reflecting as weakness throughout my body.
"No-o-o!" I shouted with all my might and hit the ground.
From the sudden surge of energy and strong emotions, I woke up, finding myself in the same position as in the dream, kneeling and hitting the floor with my hands. Internal and elemental energies were circling in my body, spilling out in huge portions. A strong wind rose around me, comparable to third-stage initial-level magic, and lightning of the same power struck from me. Even the space around me slightly distorted due to the leakage of corresponding energy.
Very soon, I became weak; my magical energy reserves were empty, as was my head. Around me, in the cave, there was complete devastation; dust, rubble, and even huge charred boulders lay around me. I remained kneeling, my body ached, and I felt much more tired than before falling asleep. Weakened and exhausted, I fell into a sweet oblivion, right where I stood.