Twenty days passed after Xiao Mo woke up.

During this time, the external injuries on Xiao Mo’s body had mostly healed thanks to the herbal remedies carefully prepared by Wangxin.

The skin that had been scorched black by the Thunder Tribulation had sloughed off, and new flesh and skin had grown in its place.

But Xiao Mo’s Spiritual Vein Root Bone showed no signs of improvement.

The Spirit-Collecting Blade lay in the room.

Because the Spirit-Collecting Blade had absorbed too much Blood Evil Qi over the years in Xiao Mo’s hands, drawing it required not only a sufficient Realm, but also a great deal of Blood Evil Qi to fuel it.

Thus, for the current Xiao Mo, even drawing the Spirit-Collecting Blade was a luxury he could not afford.

Every day, Xiao Mo would sit and meditate in the courtyard, trying to repair his Spirit Veins and Root Bone, but it was all for naught.

Sometimes, in his haste, he would cause the Blood Evil Qi to surge into his heart, making him spit up a mouthful of blood and injuring his Spiritual Vein Root Bone even more severely.

Whenever she saw Xiao Mo like this, Wangxin would become extremely anxious and worried.

Countless times, Wangxin wanted to persuade Xiao Mo to just give up.

Otherwise, if Xiao Mo continued to torture himself like this, he wouldn’t just fail to recover his Realm—his body might give out completely.

But Wangxin also knew that Xiao Mo would never listen to anything she said.

However, Xiao Mo wasn’t a fool. After multiple failed attempts to repair his Spirit Veins, he realized this method was simply not working and decided to stop for the time being.

Xiao Mo no longer tried to mend his Spirit Veins. Instead, he would sit in the courtyard, lost in thought, for the entire day.

He mulled over every possible method to reconstruct his Spirit Veins.

But every path he considered was a dead end.

Then one day, as Xiao Mo sat on a stone bench watching a spider spin its web in a tree, a bold idea flashed through his mind.

It was a method no one had ever tried, and the risks were immense.

But in the end, Xiao Mo decided to try it.

’Otherwise, what’s the point of just barely surviving like this?’

After that day, Xiao Mo would wake up every morning and sit in the courtyard to meditate.

Just as before, Xiao Mo continued to help Madam Wang chop firewood.

When Ning Wei practiced her Cultivation Technique, Xiao Mo would still offer appropriate guidance.

Even though Xiao Mo’s current Realm was only at the Cave Mansion level, his insight was still sharp.

The Thousand Soul Yin Yang Technique that Ning Wei was cultivating was a Cultivation Technique that suited her exceptionally well.

If Ning Wei was diligent enough and had sufficient talent, it wasn’t impossible for her to enter the Upper Three Realms in the future with this technique.

What Xiao Mo was doing wasn’t much different from before.

But now, Xiao Mo seemed to have resigned himself to his fate. He spent a lot of time on other things and no longer thought about reconstructing his Spirit Veins.

Wangxin watched Xiao Mo’s every move with suspicion.

She didn’t believe Xiao Mo would give up so easily, but she had no idea what he was up to.

Wangxin just had a feeling that Xiao Mo was preparing for something.

He was emptying his mind, making his heart even more serene.

"Wangxin, could you tell me a bit about the Buddhist Dharma of Kongnian Temple...?"

One day, as Wangxin walked past Xiao Mo, he spoke to her.

"Huh?" Wangxin thought she had misheard. "Xiao Mo, you want to learn the Buddhist Dharma?"

"Not exactly learn it, I just want to listen," Xiao Mo said, shaking his head. "If it can’t be shared with outsiders, then forget it."

"It’s okay, it’s okay." A glimmer of joy flashed in Wangxin’s eyes. She quickly ran into her room and brought out a Buddhist Scripture. "Let’s start by talking about this one."

Seeing how happy Wangxin was, Xiao Mo nodded. "I’ll be troubling you, then."

"It’s no trouble at all," Wangxin said, shaking her head.

Although Wangxin didn’t know what Xiao Mo was planning, she thought it would be wonderful if she could persuade him toward a path of good and help him find a trace of peace through the Buddhist Dharma.

And so, in the small courtyard, the woman earnestly explained the Buddhist Scriptures, and the man listened intently.

Sometimes Madam Wang would listen in from the side, as she was also quite interested in the Buddhist Dharma.

Ning Wei tried to listen for a while, but after growing more and more confused, she went off to play with Little Chaos.

By the courtyard’s stone table, the sound of Buddhist Scriptures could be heard from time to time.

Not far away, Little Chaos rolled around incessantly in the courtyard, turning itself into a small snowball.

Ning Wei chased Little Chaos all over the place.

It was as if time itself had stopped in that moment.

Before they knew it, winter had passed, and the old snow had melted away.

One morning, after saying a few words to Madam Wang and Wangxin, Xiao Mo left the house early.

Xiao Mo went to a hilltop outside the village.

He took out some Spirit Stones from his Storage Pouch and slowly began to set up an Array.

An hour passed. After the Array was complete, Xiao Mo sat cross-legged within it as a stream trickled slowly past him.

Taking a deep breath, Xiao Mo completely unleashed all the Spiritual Power and Blood Evil Qi within his body.

In an instant, bone-corroding Evil Qi eroded Xiao Mo’s body.

Cold sweat beaded on Xiao Mo’s forehead, and his hands gripped his knees tightly.

He controlled the Evil Qi in his body, using it to directly excise the damaged parts of his Spirit Veins and Root Bone.

The process was like Xiao Mo taking a scalpel to himself, cutting open his own stomach to perform surgery and remove a lesion.

Moreover, he had to remain conscious throughout the entire "surgery," with no anesthesia whatsoever. The pain was even thousands of times worse than having his flesh torn open.

After Xiao Mo excised his damaged Spirit Veins and Root Bone, he then used the Blood Evil Qi to construct new Spirit Veins and fill his Root Bone.

This was the method Xiao Mo had devised.

’Since my Spiritual Vein Root Bone was too severely damaged to be repaired, I’ll just use the Blood Evil Qi to build a bridge, connecting all the Spirit Veins.’

He would use the Blood Evil Qi as the "material" to repair his Root Bone.

The entire process was excruciatingly painful and exceptionally dangerous. One wrong move and Xiao Mo could suffer a qi deviation and go berserk.

That was why Xiao Mo had spent this time studying Buddhist Scriptures and doing other things—to calm his mind as much as possible.

If he ultimately failed, had his sanity completely destroyed by the Blood Evil Qi, and turned into a "Blood Demon," then the moment he stepped out of the Array, he would be annihilated by it.

Xiao Mo didn’t know if this method would work, but as far as he was concerned, it was his only way forward.

"Kill them."

"Xiao Mo! Die!"

"Don’t kill us, please, don’t kill us."

"Fifth Brother, this is the Western Regions! I refuse to be bullied! I will climb to the very top, step by step!"

"Kid, remember this: in the Western Regions, if you don’t want to be eaten, you have to eat others first!"

As he constructed his Spirit Veins and mended his Root Bone, Xiao Mo’s mind replayed every major battle from his past, and the face of every person he had ever killed appeared before him.

BOOM!

With a tremendous roar, Blood Evil Qi erupted from the woods, instantly destroying the Array surrounding Xiao Mo.

Xiao Mo’s eyes snapped open.

His eyes were crimson, devoid of any trace of humanity, like a bloodthirsty Fierce Beast.

"Xiao Mo... time for dinner... Xiao Mo... where are you..."

Wangxin called out for Xiao Mo nonstop in the woods, searching for him.

When she sensed the Blood Evil Qi, Wangxin’s heart leaped in alarm, and she quickly flew toward it.

Soon, by the streamside, Wangxin saw Xiao Mo slowly rising to his feet.

"Xiao Mo?"

Wangxin called out softly, an extremely unsettling feeling rising in her heart.

Xiao Mo turned around. He formed his Blood Qi into a long blade and vanished in an instant.

By the time Wangxin reacted,

the long blade was already swinging toward her head.