Her gaze swept over the swarm of bees, and a bold, crazy plan began to take shape in her mind.
"Since you've all absorbed the silver energy…" she murmured softly. A wisp of silver spiritual power gathered at her fingertip, and the swarm instantly stirred, clearly drawn to that power.
Xie Zhaolin pulled out a few blank jade slips and quickly etched symbols onto them.
She wanted to set up a special formation, one that used the bee swarm as its medium to create a moving spiritual barrier. The idea came from an old book she'd read in her past life in the Hehuan Sect, though she'd never had the chance to test it until now.
When the last rune was finished, the jade slips released a faint silver glow.
She handed them to the queen bee and a few of the strongest worker bees. Once in place, the slips would form a small protective formation as the swarm flew.
"Go!"
At her command, the bees shifted into formation. Silver light rippled between them, gradually forming a hemispherical shield. Xie Zhaolin carefully injected more spiritual power into it, and the barrier instantly grew stronger and denser.
"It worked!" A flicker of joy lit her eyes. This spur-of-the-moment idea actually worked.
"Let's test it out…" She cautiously manipulated the formation, opening a narrow gap at the entrance.
"Bzzz—"
The swarm immediately sensed her intent. The bees at the edge beat their wings, releasing a denser glow of silver specks. Those firefly-like lights drifted through the dim passage and quickly caught the attention of the yin souls outside.
"They're coming!"
Xie Zhaolin held her breath, her divine sense locking onto a low-level yin soul slowly drifting toward the gap, lured by the silver glow.
The creature's body was hazy and frail, clearly one of the weakest kinds. The moment it touched the shield, the formation changed!
The bees shifted swiftly, forming a funnel-shaped trap. The workers in front surged forward, their silver light wrapping around the yin soul and binding it tight. At the same time, the rest of the swarm collapsed the barrier into a sealed sphere, caging it completely.
"Beautiful!"
She couldn't help whispering in praise. The design worked perfectly, not only luring the yin souls but capturing them alive! Xie Zhaolin made a hand seal, guiding the imprisoned yin soul into the stone chamber.
The creature shrieked shrilly, thrashing within the silver cage, but the barrier held firm.
"Now, let's see how to deal with you."
Her eyes narrowed. She gathered pure yinsha energy in her right hand while channeling silver spiritual power from her dantian with her left, testing the yinsha first.
"Hiss—"
The black misty energy struck, making the yin soul twist in pain, but it didn't deal a fatal blow. Xie Zhaolin frowned slightly.
"As expected, yinsha against yinsha doesn't do much."
She immediately switched tactics, sending spiritual power into her fingertip. This time, the effect was obvious. The instant it touched the yin soul, the creature's body melted like ice under fire.
"Effective!"
But before she could celebrate, the yin soul thrashed violently, then exploded!
The blast of soul power knocked a few bees out of the air, but the queen bee stabilized the formation in time.
Xie Zhaolin rubbed her chin thoughtfully.
Pure spiritual attacks worked, but they triggered self-detonation. That wasn't a long-term solution. Her eyes gleamed as she watched the soul power disperse. It didn't vanish, but instead condensed into strands of pure yinsha energy, flowing straight into her dantian.
"So that's it…" she murmured, her gaze sharpening. "These yin souls are made from yinsha energy and remnant spirits. Once their will dissipates, they naturally return to their source."
The realization made her heart race. If killing yin souls replenished her own power, then she could train and experiment at the same time! She immediately adjusted her plan, commanding the swarm to lure in more. This time, she let five low-level yin souls slip through, each trapped in separate cages.
"Let's start from the basics…"
Xie Zhaolin pressed a hand seal, sending a strand of divine sense stabbing into the first yin soul.
The creature convulsed, cracks spreading across its form. The method worked, but the cost was steep. In only three breaths, her divine sense was clearly weakened.
"No, I can't afford that against higher ones." She shook her head and moved to the second yin soul.
This time she wrapped her divine sense with spiritual power. The creature went wild and self-destructed immediately.
"Still too rough?"
She approached the third. This time, she used just a trace of spiritual power to paralyze it, then gently infused divine sense. The result was much better. She could see the yin soul's internal structure clearly now, with a tiny soul core at its center, tangled with countless resentments.
Her eyes lit up.
Testing on the fourth, she wrapped the soul core in spiritual power and slowly refined the resentment around it. The method worked beautifully. Instead of blowing up, the yin soul became obedient!
"So that's it, the core is the key."
But just as she was about to continue, the fifth yin soul erupted! It devoured the scattered power around it, swelling to more than double its size, and broke free of the swarm's restraint.
"Courting death!"
Her eyes turned icy as she raised both hands. An energy arrow carrying seventy percent of her spiritual power shot forth, piercing straight through its soul core.
The yin soul gave a shrill scream before collapsing into pure yinsha energy, which she immediately absorbed.
"I'll need to be more careful."
She wiped cold sweat from her forehead and quickly rearranged the swarm. From then on, she systematically studied the nature of yin souls. She let the swarm lure small groups in, experimented with different energy ratios, recorded each effect, then finished them off to absorb the energy.
As the trials continued, Xie Zhaolin pieced together a clear method. For low-level yin souls, thirty percent spiritual power mixed with seventy percent yinsha could suppress the soul core temporarily. For mid-level ones, fifty percent spiritual power paired with divine sense pressure was required. As for the high-level ones…
Her gaze flicked toward the depths of the passage, desire glinting in her eyes. To subdue those, she'd need to wound them first, then refine them with special methods. The thought made her heart pound. If she succeeded, she'd gain a powerful ally!
"But not yet…"
She suppressed her excitement and kept focusing on cultivation. Each experiment, each absorption pushed her cultivation steadily forward. The yinsha energy in her dantian grew purer, the silver spiritual power reserves swelling.
Ten days later, when the last of the low-level yin souls dissolved into pure energy, her dantian trembled violently. Her cultivation surged, breaking through to the peak of the Foundation Establishment early stage!
"Faster than I planned…"
Feeling the surging power inside, she turned her gaze back to the dark passage. After all this time, most of the weak yin souls outside had been wiped out. It was finally time to attempt that bold, insane plan.