Chapter 653: Lucky Escape
To form a soul foundation, one needed to merge one's soul power, draconic aura, and astral energy into one, creating a foundation that guarded one's soul. The foundation would strengthen the soul, turn one's soul into a martial soul, allow one to form a connection with the natural world, and increase one's combat prowess to a brand new level.
The energy contained within the sin dragon vine was capable of strengthening one's soul and increasing the durability of one's soul foundation. The sight of a sovereign medicine like the sin dragon vines accelerated Xiang Shaoyun's heartbeat.
There were a considerable number of sin dragon vines growing at the pond's shore, and from their lengths, they were all of sufficient age as well. He had to suppress the urge in his heart as he thought, Let's first enter the Sin Dragon Pond.
He went over and plucked a tiny piece of leaf from a random sin dragon vine and placed it in his mouth. A tiny action like that was still not enough to attract the attention of the sin dragons in the area.
After the leaf entered his mouth, bitterness assaulted Xiang Shaoyun as if he had eaten a gallbladder, giving him an urge to spit it out. However, he suppressed the urge.
Although the leaf of a sin dragon vine did not possess much medical potency, it was capable of suppressing the sin dragon energy around the pond, reducing the harm Xiang Shaoyun would suffer. He slowly entered the pond, not daring to create any sort of sound.
Layer upon layer of sin dragon energy wrapped around him, causing him great discomfort with its corrosive power. His skin felt like it was going to rot away, and he had the urge to scratch the itch on his body. It was an extremely uncomfortable sensation.
At this time, the sin dragon vine leaf finally showed its worth. Strands of faint medicinal power nourished Xiang Shaoyun's flesh, slowly alleviating his discomfort. He heaved a long breath of relief and started circulating his cultivation method, absorbing the sin dragon energy around him.
The sin dragon energy was not classified as a type of astral energy. Instead, it was a type of unique natural energy. The energy contained the negative emotions and the corrosiveness of a sin dragon, and if a regular person absorbed it, they would be driven mad while their body rotted away.
Initially, Xiang Shaoyun could sense the consciousness of a sin dragon slowly reaching for his soul. It was filled with negative emotions, causing his eyes to turn red in madness. If the negative emotions managed to invade his soul, his filthless soul would become filthy and degrade.
He would turn mad, no longer capable of controlling himself, and start his path of self-destruction. Fortunately, his Nether Dragon Soul Headband blocked the negative emotions' invasion, protecting his soul from all harm. Slowly, his emotions stabilized.
As for the energy's corrosive attribute, it was a type of dark power that started coursing along Xiang Shaoyun's body, trying to corrode his organs. After regaining his clarity of mind, he quickly channeled the dark power into his dark star.
The dark star absorbed the dark power, and it started growing again, slowly reaching the peak he could reach at his cultivation realm. After dealing with the two powers, what remained were strands of thin draconic aura.
The strands of draconic aura sensed the draconic aura within Xiang Shaoyun's body. A resonance formed between them, and the external draconic aura started merging with his own draconic aura.
Although the two draconic auras were not exactly the same, they were similar enough to easily merge together. Originally, Xiang Shaoyun's draconic aura solidification had reached 19 percent. He was only a tiny bit away from reaching 20 percent.
The new draconic aura merged with his existing draconic aura, slowly pushing him to 20 percent. With the enhancement of his draconic aura, his nine stars also benefited, making breakthroughs much easier when he attempted them.
Such a change gave Xiang Shaoyun an urge to immediately make a breakthrough. Because of that, he failed to keep his presence concealed.
"Roar!"
Instantly, a sin dragon head shot out of the pond and roared loudly. It had smelled the scent of a human, and that human was actually within their pond. It was not something it would allow.
The roar shocked Xiang Shaoyun, messing up his energy circulation, nearly causing him to receive a backlash from energy disorder. Fortunately, he was able to suppress his presence in time before he was fully exposed.
Even after he managed to conceal his presence once again, the sin dragons did not give up searching for him. They started flailing about in the pond, sending about shockwaves. The shockwaves blasted Xiang Shaoyun toward the shore, and the impact even passed through his heavy armor, causing him to spit up a mouthful of blood.
Sphhlt!
A tinge of red appeared in the pond as a different smell spread amid the sin dragon energy in the area. The slight change was noticed by the sin dragon in the pond. It raised its head and spewed a clump of terrifying sin dragon energy in Xiang Shaoyun's direction.
It was a sin dragon energy powered by a sin dragon. The moment Xiang Shaoyun was hit, he would die even if he had nine lives. Without any hesitation, he summoned the nether prison devil puppet, and it immediately blocked in front of him.
Bang!
The block was successful, and the puppet was sent flying toward the shore, revealing the gap between the sin dragon and the nether prison devil puppet. Xiang Shaoyun did not dare to attempt anything else, and he quickly submerged into the pond. The sin dragon was rather simple-minded. It was completely distracted by the puppet, and it charged forth to battle it.
As for Xiang Shaoyun, he absorbed even more sin dragon energy into his body before rushing toward the sin dragon vines without even bothering to refine the newly absorbed energy. After plucking three random vines, he quickly stowed them away.
Because the battle between the sin dragon and the nether prison devil puppet had caused a great commotion, his actions went unnoticed this time. He then escaped. He did not have much time left in his invisibility. If he couldn't escape before his time was up, things would turn very troublesome.
During the final moments, Xiang Shaoyun found that his energy was becoming more and more disorderly, and he almost failed to suppress his breakthrough.
Suppress! Xiang Shaoyun clenched his teeth and compressed his draconic aura, preventing himself from breaking through. The sin dragons near him sensed his action, and they started roaring and sniffing about repeatedly, trying to smell the intruder.
They had indeed smelled something different, but they couldn't see anyone and were thus confused. And just like that, Xiang Shaoyun managed to escape in an extremely lucky fashion. The exact moment he escaped, his invisibility ended.