Luring the Bloodthirsty Swordfish posed no problem. The moment Bai Sha left her Cultivation Shell, one of them caught her scent like blood in the water and began to follow.
As she pressed onward, more and more Bloodthirsty Swordfish emerged from all directions.
Everything was unfolding exactly as it did in her last life.
Having been through this once before, Bai Sha was exceptionally calm. She leisurely swam out of the Seven-Colored Shell’s vicinity.
She left the Seven-Colored Shell area and headed for the Seagrass Slope.
When the rolling fields of dense seagrass came into view, Bai Sha sped up and darted inside. As she predicted, the pursuing Bloodthirsty Swordfish also accelerated, quickly surrounding her within the slope.
Bai Sha stopped.
Her gaze swept across them, finally landing on Jian Yun.
Jian Yun was noticeably larger than the other Bloodthirsty Swordfish. His eyes were cold as he voiced his interrogation: “Speak. Where did you get that technique?”
Identical to the question from her last life.
Bai Sha had no intention of answering. She simply said, “It’s time.”
It’s time?
Jian Yun was baffled by her words, but in the next instant, his expression shifted drastically.
Boom!
First, a bolt of lightning shot out from the seagrass, striking him squarely and blasting him heavily backward.
Immediately after, a variety of other figures emerged from the cover.
Everything had a predetermined outcome before it even began.
Yu Ye and his friends attacked without hesitation, launching a slaughter against the Bloodthirsty Swordfish.
Bai Sha watched calmly from the water. Not long after, the numerous Bloodthirsty Swordfish were blasted apart one by one; none survived.
The trouble of this lifetime is finally settled.
Bai Sha thought quietly to herself.
Afterward, she expressed her thanks to Yu Ye and the other demon cultivators who had come to help, taking the opportunity to get acquainted with them.
All of them were at Foundation Establishment cultivation. Perhaps these connections could prove useful in the future.
…
A short while later, inside the Seven-Colored Shell.
Bai Sha returned and entered her Rest Shell.
After sealing the Rest Shell shut, she parted her lips and spat out two items she had been carrying.
One was a Thunderstrike Talisman marked with purple runes!
Since Yu Ye had mentioned earlier that they’d seized plenty of Talisman Papers from the Wind-Thunder Observatory cultivators, Bai Sha had shamelessly asked for one.
This Thunderstrike Talisman was Foundation Establishment-level. Once activated with Demonic Power, it could unleash an attack equivalent to that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator. If used against a Qi Condensation demon cultivator—even a Late Qi Condensation one—a clean, solid hit would be enough to obliterate them instantly.
With this talisman, Bai Sha no longer needed to search for another to deal with Mo Hen.
More importantly, she had finally obtained the Ancient Forbidden Artifact Yu Ye brought back.
Looking at the Black Mud before her, Bai Sha recalled the scene from her third life, when Ding Lei, a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Wind-Thunder Observatory, had used it.
“Ancient Forbidden Artifacts are different from Magical Tools. Even though I’m only at Qi Condensation, I can use them. If used correctly, killing a Qi Condensation demon cultivator like Mo Hen is simple. I could even save the Thunderstrike Talisman.”
Bai Sha murmured to herself, then summoned the Dream Ruins Panel and entered the trading interface.
She certainly had no intention of selling the Black Mud; she wanted to appraise it.
In the trading interface, one could list items for sale, and the Dream Ruins would appraise them beforehand. This led many demon cultivators to use the function to identify things they couldn’t understand. As for the actual selling step, it could naturally be cancelled.
Soon, the Black Mud’s information was appraised and revealed.
Name: Hell Mud.
Category: Ancient Forbidden Artifact.
Level: Foundation Establishment Level.
Effect: After calling out to a target and receiving any form of reply from them, the Hell Mud will transform into a replica of that target. Whatever is done to the Hell Mud from that point on will manifest as the same changes on the target’s actual body.
Cost: Any treatment the target locked by the Hell Mud has previously endured will be experienced as identical sensory feedback by the user.
Upon seeing the Hell Mud’s information, everything suddenly made sense.
She remembered in her third life, after Ding Lei used the Hell Mud, he had writhed in agony in the water. Yu Manman had said at the time that it was the cost of the Ancient Forbidden Artifact.
Now Bai Sha fully understood Ding Lei’s situation back then.
Because Ding Lei used the Hell Mud to make Jian Yun feel as if he was being crushed to death, he himself accordingly suffered the exact sensation of being crushed alive.
Even though it was only a sensation, with no actual physical injury, that kind of feeling must have been unbearable.
“Still, I wonder… why is my Simulator so eager for you?”
Bai Sha stared deeply at the Hell Mud before her.
Ever since she acquired it, a sense of longing had been emanating from the Simulator—a feeling of wanting to obtain something from the Hell Mud.
Bai Sha had been suppressing this urge until now, but she finally stopped holding it back.
Instantly, the Simulator’s panel materialized without her control.
Bai Sha felt an invisible suction force emanating from the panel, reaching out toward the Hell Mud. Immediately after, it felt as if something was extracted from it and drawn back in.
Following that, the Simulator’s sense of longing vanished without a trace, as if it had never existed.
Was that it?
Bai Sha was a little surprised and looked at the panel.
Name: Bai Sha
Cultivation: Qi Condensation Middle Stage
Simulation Count: 2
Simulation Saves: 1
Technique: Raging Waves Art
Spells: Water Dragon Burst, Wave Riding, Stone-Splitting Strike.
Items: Gray-White Stone Slab.
Was there any difference compared to before?
Bai Sha scrutinized it, and suddenly her gaze contracted.
Simulation Count: Two?
After entering her fifth life, the simulation count should have only been one left. But now the display showed two.
It dawned on Bai Sha.
“So that’s how it is. Ancient Forbidden Artifacts can be used to increase the simulation count?”
She looked at the Hell Mud before her, then summoned the Dream Ruins to appraise it again.
The appraisal result showed no change.
The Hell Mud was still the Hell Mud. It seemed no different from how it was before.
This made Bai Sha a little curious. What exactly had the Simulator extracted from the Hell Mud? It seemed not to affect the artifact’s usability at all.
At the same time, another question surfaced in Bai Sha’s mind.
Was the Hell Mud able to provide extra simulation uses because it was inherently special, or did all other Ancient Forbidden Artifacts possess this same effect?
The moment this thought appeared, she could no longer contain herself.
She opened the Ancient Forbidden Artifacts section of the trading interface. Here, one could see quite a few Ancient Forbidden Artifacts for sale.
Ancient Forbidden Artifacts were generally very expensive. Foundation Establishment-level ones cost 10,000 Contribution Points, while Demon Core-level artifacts reached an astronomical 50,000.
Bai Sha glanced at the Demon Core-level artifacts before shifting her focus back to the Foundation Establishment-level ones.
“The quantity doesn’t seem very large. Unlike the other categories where goods appear almost infinite, the total number of Ancient Forbidden Artifacts is only a few dozen pieces here. And this is just the Foundation Establishment-level ones; the higher the level, the fewer there are.”
