The next day, under Ivan’s leadership, a group of people set off on the road to Spiral Valley.
Entering a region with a higher level of danger, the team became more cautious, and their pace slowed down.
As the saying goes, ‘Walking on night roads will eventually lead you to ghosts’, especially in a chaotic area like the Nine-Colored Pit, where anything could happen at any time.
Suddenly, not far to their left, a distinct figure appeared.
She stood silently more than three meters above the ground, expressionless, facing the group.
Locke caught a glimpse of her, and his heart leapt when he saw the figure only five or six meters away; he almost swung his curved knife at her.
At that moment, Ivan glanced at him sternly, signaling him to stay calm, and Locke settled down. However, the figure’s posture lingered in his mind.
Not to mention her breathtaking appearance, she didn’t have the slightest hint of presence, as if she were nothing at all.
Her eyes were clearly closed, yet he felt as if she was staring at him, a thorn in his back.
Such an existence was more terrifying than any Lord creature they had encountered before.
They walked this part of their journey in utter silence, daring not to make any unnecessary moves, and it took a long time for them to complete this difficult path.
After a while, Locke couldn’t help but ask, “What was that just now—”
“A Thought-form, a Conscious-entity of sorts, similar to the Black Scythe Lord we encountered in the Red Cloud Realm. As long as we don’t act rashly, such beings generally won’t bother with insignificant figures like us.”
“I see, the pressure from that person just now was too much.”
Having heard Ivan’s explanation, he finally relaxed.
In fact, Ivan had also been startled initially. This situation was completely unexpected, but fortunately, his mind was resilient enough. He immediately thought of the best strategy, which was to keep walking normally in silence.
The journey, despite the tense atmosphere, ended without incident.
After witnessing the bizarre and terrifying nature of the creatures in the pit again, the team became even more cautious, with even Locke ceasing his wild shouting, focusing fully on watching out for any potential dangers.
“Let’s take a short break.”
After moving a bit further, they found a relatively stable and open area, and Ivan motioned for a temporary halt.
He set up a simple defensive array on the spot and took out a tricolored bead they had obtained earlier. With unexpected risks in the Nine-Colored Pit, he felt the need to revise their strategy and make more thorough preparations.
“Jenny, come help me analyze this jewel.”
“Okay, Sorcerer Ivan.”
As she left her guard duties and approached, they began their studies.
On closer examination, the bead’s Earth-type energy was highly concentrated and pure, and also held a unique gentleness, almost like a miniaturized version of an excellent energy particle pool.
“Although its quality isn’t as good as the previous Frost Flame Flower, it’s also quite exceptional. With its presence, we can easily construct an Earth-type energy particle pool,” Ivan concluded after a preliminary investigation.
“Constructing a particle pool might be wasteful. I can guide it a bit to alter the energy properties inside, turning it into a fantastic item with decent lethality,” Jenny suggested, impressing even with her discerning eye.
“Unfortunately, I have another use for it.”
“Forget I said anything.”
Regardless of whether there were other important uses, none could compare to Ivan’s own Level 3 ascension, for which he planned to use the tri-colored Earth-type bead as bait.
As for how to craft the bait, naturally, it relied on the Meditation Method “Black Magic Sacrifice.”
When deducing this new Meditation Method, his secondary goal was to counter the Black Scythe Lord, reversing the effects of the “Black Beard Chapter” and even turning the tables.
He borrowed the techniques from “String Control Sacred Heart” for this.
The methods of String Control Sacred Heart were crude yet simple, revolving around the condensation and usage of the puppet’s heart.
A low-level puppet’s heart could initially manipulate the mental consciousness of lower creatures, an intermediate puppet’s heart could control the flesh and blood life of intermediate creatures, and a high-level puppet’s heart could dominate multiple aspects, including mind, body, and spirit, turning them completely into puppets.
Derived from this, the Black Magic Sacrifice method was less cruel and oppressive and was named by him as “Sacrificial Heart.”
Both being unique techniques accompanying meditation methods, puppet’s heart and Sacrificial Heart had significant differences.
A puppet’s heart could be condensed continuously and even sold, while Sacrificial Heart could only be condensed once, unless the previous one dissipated; another could not be formed.
A puppet’s heart could permanently dominate creatures, but Sacrificial Heart could only control creatures within a limited time.
In terms of effects, of course, Sacrificial Heart was not as effective as the puppet’s heart.
However, in terms of the cultivator’s risk and personal concealment, Sacrificial Heart was much more favorable than the puppet’s heart, as it did not need a long time to incubate in the mental ocean.
His biggest concern about someone exploiting loopholes to turn him into another’s puppet, as well as polluting his mental ocean, also ceased to exist.
“I’ve decided, I’ll use this tri-colored Earth-type bead as the bait. Continue guarding it, and don’t let anything come to disturb me,” Ivan concluded after a thorough investigation and finally made up his mind.
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“Understood, Sorcerer Ivan,” Jennie had no objections.
Time passed slowly, and the rest period took longer than expected. Half a day later, Ivan condensed a slightly yellowish Sacrificial Heart, the size of a thumb, with properties and aura identical to the tri-colored Earth-type bead.
After much effort, he merged the Sacrificial Heart into the tri-colored Earth-type bead.
“Come take a look, see any difference from before?” he said, standing up and handing the bead to Jennie.
“No difference, no trace at all,” Jennie observed for a few seconds and quietly admired.
“Tell it as it is,” Ivan’s face darkened, as he was not here to receive praises.
“There’s a slight difference, but only someone who had carefully inspected the bead before would notice. Otherwise, it’s absolutely undetectable, I assure you,” Jennie pondered and spoke.
“That’s more like it,” Ivan nodded slightly.
Jennie’s extreme sensitivity to Earth-type energy meant her appraisal spoke volumes of the concealment of Sacrificial Heart, proving it sufficient for use as bait.
As for the other gains, he hadn’t yet decided what to do with the Lightning-type tri-colored bead.
The two Space Rings bore deep personal power marks, and erasing them would cost considerable effort. Ivan wasn’t prepared to deal with them yet, choosing to wait until he left the Nine-Colored Pit.
Concerning the possibility of attracting the pursuit and retaliation of the Lightning Tribe, he wasn’t worried at all.
The rules within the Nine-Colored Pit were chaotic, most methods unable to trace anything. Outside the Nine-Colored Pit, once he left, he would return to the sorcerer’s territory, where there would be no need to worry about those birdmen from the Lightning Tribe.
“Let’s go, continue on our journey.”
“Alright!”
Soon, Ivan dismantled the defensive array and announced the continuation of their journey toward Spiral Valley.