Chapter 176 - Purpose

Xu Yuan frowned. He did not know much about things like the wraithfiends. There was not much about them in Azure Point, nor in the internal briefings of the Chancellor's Manor.

Ten thousand years had passed. Seas had turned into mulberry fields, dynasties had split and joined so many times no one could count them, and many of the old records had long since vanished into smoke because of wars and other calamities.

That was probably why even the Chancellor's Manor had very few records on wraithfiends. Of course, it was also possible that information on wraithfiends had been classified under the highest A-grade of internal intelligence.

Xu Yuan did not have the authority to browse that kind of intelligence at will. Since he had no special need for it, he naturally had not gone to the trouble of sending a message all the way to the capital to ask his old man for permission.

He flipped through the few scraps of information in his mind, then looked at the Sage's remnant soul beside him and asked in a low voice, “Wraithfiends? Didn’t they say wraithfiends have no intelligence?”

After the incident in the Splendorbloom Secret Realm, the Sage's remnant soul rarely played the riddling old ghost anymore. He stared at the short-haired old man for a few breaths, then said quietly, “Wraithfiends do have intelligence. The ones without intelligence are the humans and demonic beasts that have been warped by them.”

Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow.

The Sage's remnant soul continued in a low voice, “Though that is not entirely accurate either. If the warped humans or demonic beasts had deep cultivation, they could actually keep their intelligence for quite some time. But in the end, they would still become walking corpses. I once had an old friend who was warped by a wraithfiend. He relied on his cultivation to hold on for more than ten years before his mind gradually slipped away.”

At this point, the Sage's remnant soul sighed. “But that is only intelligence on the surface. It is much the same as being ghostified. Once someone is warped by a wraithfiend, that person can no longer be called human. Destruction, ruin, assimilation of other species. These are things born into wraithfiends, and they will grind a person’s original self down until nothing is left.”

Xu Yuan understood quickly. Frowning, he said, “You mean those warped human experts only seemed to keep their intelligence on the surface, while at their core they had already become wraithfiends?”

The Sage's remnant soul’s voice grew strangely complicated when he spoke of this. “Mhm. Whether in temperament, cultivation, or physique, they were no different from before. But inside, they had become wraithfiends completely.”

“They caused heavy losses?” Xu Yuan could already imagine what those warped human experts might do while hiding among mankind.

The Sage's remnant soul shook his head, his tone distant and slow. “No. They did not cause much loss. On the contrary, we used that chance to turn the tables on the wraithfiends and killed many high-ranking ones.”

“What?” Xu Yuan raised an eyebrow, surprise flashing in his eyes. Why was this story from ten thousand years ago not following the usual script?

“Every age produces its own heroes.” The Sage's remnant soul said this, then shook his head with a light laugh and murmured, “From the moment wraithfiends first appeared, many people began studying these things that had crawled out of the Great Wilderness.”

Xu Yuan stared at the Sage's remnant soul. “People studied something that dangerous? Weren’t they afraid it would get out of control?”

It was just like those apocalypse movies from his previous life. Scientists studied some strange thing or other, and in the end they played with fire until they burned themselves alive.

The Sage's remnant soul glanced at Xu Yuan, his gaze very calm. “Out of control? As long as profit can be found, someone will always do it. Besides, during the Great Calamity, the situation left us no room to worry about such things.

“Some people certainly had impure motives. They wanted longevity. They wanted power. They wanted the wraithfiends’ undying traits for themselves. But others wanted to discover the weaknesses of this creature and save the people, save the world. Whatever the purpose or the process, the result was that someone researched the wraithfiends’ traits and used that knowledge to deal them a heavy blow.”

At this point, the Sage's remnant soul raised a hand and pointed at the short-haired old man across from them.

“The cultivation method this brat practices most likely came down from that era. There were many research results related to wraithfiends, and many powerful cultivators used those things back then to create corresponding cultivation methods. After all, while wraithfiends represent destruction, many of their traits are exactly what humans long for. An undying body, tremendous strength, even eternal life. Heh.”

Xu Yuan fell silent for a moment, then suddenly asked out of nowhere, “So the reason your soul intent has survived this long is also because you studied wraithfiends?”

Luo Daofan had clearly been one of the people who studied wraithfiends back then.

In Azure Point, if the player followed the old grandpa route and cultivated the method that Luo Daofan provided, they could go into secret realms, slaughter wraithfiends, obtain a kind of crystal from their bodies, and use it to level up quickly.

If anyone said there was no connection there, not even a ghost would believe it.

“Of course.” The Sage's remnant soul admitted it with blunt confidence, as if it were only natural. “But the cultivation method this old man has researched for ten thousand years is far stronger than the half-baked thing this brat practices. Not only does it require no flesh and blood, there is also no need to worry about losing one’s mind.”

Xu Yuan listened carefully, then jerked his chin toward the short-haired old man, who had already been frozen solid into an ice sculpture. “Is this old man dead?”

Without the Sage’s soul power supporting him, Xu Yuan had turned back into that little seventh rank scrub. He could not sense through Ran Qingmo’s condensed ice crystals to see what was happening inside.

The Sage's remnant soul answered casually, “The cultivation method this man practices should be one of the earliest wraithfiend methods from ten thousand years ago. His body possesses nearly all the traits of a wraithfiend. He will not die that easily.”

Xu Yuan was silent for a brief moment, then asked, “If it is that powerful, then what is the price?”

“It needs to devour flesh and blood, and it is prone to losing control.” The Sage's remnant soul answered without even thinking. As one of mankind’s higher-ups who had lived through the Great Calamity, he truly understood things like wraithfiends.

After a pause, however, the Sage's remnant soul chuckled and once again tried to sell Xu Yuan on his cultivation method. “Well? Xu boy, want to consider switching to this old man’s method? My method has none of those worries.”

Hearing this, Xu Yuan’s lips curled slightly. He stared at the Sage's remnant soul with a smile that did not reach his eyes.

“Are you sure you want me to cultivate it?”

Under that stare, the Sage's remnant soul inexplicably felt as if this boy knew everything. The corner of his eye twitched, then he gave a light snort. “Hmph. Forget it if you do not want it. Back in the day, who knows how many people begged this old man for it.”

“Enough.” Xu Yuan waved a hand and cut off the Sage's remnant soul. “If I cut off his head and leave it sitting around for a long time, will he die?”

“Probably not. After all, this brat’s body has almost completely become that of a wraithfiend.” The Sage's remnant soul did not get annoyed at being interrupted. He shook his head, then asked, “Xu boy, are you asking because you plan to hand him over to your Blackscale Guards for interrogation?”

Xu Yuan nodded, then looked back in the direction of Sageridge. “After doing something like this, someone ought to pay a little price.”

The Sage's remnant soul glanced at Xu Yuan and said with some amusement, “You call that sister of yours foolish with your mouth, yet your own hands are doing the same thing she did.”

Xu Yuan did not answer at once. He took Clear Whisper from his Sumeru Ring and walked forward slowly. Soul power surged, and with one stroke he sliced off the short-haired old man’s head.

Holding the old man’s head in his hand, Xu Yuan turned back with a calm gaze. “Old Man Luo, I called her foolish because the future she wants can never be achieved with the methods she is using now. As for why I am doing this, it is simply because the Myriad Manifestations has made me very unhappy.”