Lin Mu felt a lot better after the bath and got out of the pond.
Changing into a new set of black robes, Lin Mu decided to head out. He needed to test out the new Sutra after all.
~THUD~
Removing the boulder from the entrance, Lin Mu and Little Shrubby walked out.
"Well then, let's get started." Lin Mu said while letting Little Shrubby stay back.
He didn't know how exactly the Murdering Heart Sutra might affect others, thus it was better for Little Shrubby to be a bit far from him. Once he ensured that everything was fine, he took a deep breath and started chanting the new sutra.
Strange and eerie words belonging to an unknown tongue left Lin Mu's lips as an unsettling feeling filled the area. The words were incomprehensible and yet all those that heard it would find a chill going through their body.
The same was for Little Shrubby, whose fur stood on its ends.
His vertical pupils narrowed into needles as he got alert. The beast could certainly sense the danger emanating from Lin Mu, though he didn't exactly know what it was. Little Shrubby had never felt something like this from Lin Mu, not even when he had used the Burning Heart Sutra.
Rather, when Lin Mu used Burning Heart Sutra and transformed, Little Shrubby found him closer to a beast rather than some demon. But now that he was chanting the Murdering Heart Sutra, it was simply unnerving.
It was as if a Blade was hanging above one's head, ready to fall at any time. It would make one unable to calm down and stretch their nerves taut. Those with a weaker will might even find themselves shivering simply from hearing it.
And the longer Lin Mu chanted it, the worse the feeling got.
But that was not all, as a new aura rose from his body.
It was a mix of dark purple and black, looking like a thick vapor. The aura enveloped the back of Lin Mu and rose up like a wall.
At first, it seemed like there was no change to Lin Mu's body itself, but when he opened his eyes they were different. Instead of his usual black eyes, there was now a purple outline to them while a translucent gleam spread from the corner of the eyes.
All those that looked into his eyes would shudder, as they contained a power that was simply terrifying. It felt like one was staring into the eyes of a monster from hell itself!
"So this is the Murdering Heart Sutra?" Lin Mu muttered to himself, stopping the chant.
Just like Xukong had said before, the effect of the sutra would not be gone, even if he stopped the chant. They would have to be culled using another sutra. But before doing that, Lin Mu checked the status of his body.
While it didn't seem like there were many changes on the surface, there were more of them on the inside.
'My Immortal Qi is certainly being consumed at a rapid rate…' Lin Mu noted the first effect.
The thing was that Lin Mu couldn't tell for what the Immortal Qi was being used for. It didn't feel like his strength was being enhanced either, as he felt the same.
~SHUA~ SHUA~
Lin Mu threw out a few punches to test too, but didn't find any difference.
"Hmm… didn't work." Lin Mu said before taking out Afternoon Pine and slashing out with it.
This time he didn't forget to infuse some immortal Qi into it too.
~SHING~ SHING~
But even after doing this, there was no change. The sword lights were normal and the slashes left marks on the ground that were a few meters long.
'If it's not this then, what is it?' Lin Mu wondered.
He looked around and extended his senses, wanting to know more. And when he did this, Lin Mu finally sensed something new.
"Huh? Someone's here?" Lin Mu found a presence near him that wasn't Little Shrubby.
But just as he was about to look for it, he sensed another presence.
"One more? And another one… a third one, a fourth, and a fifth!" One by one, Lin Mu started to feel multiple presences appearing around the area.
Some were as near as a hundred meters from him, while the farthest one he had sensed was three kilometers away from him.
"I need to see them myself!" Lin Mu rushed towards the nearest presence and reached it in just a few seconds.
In front of Lin Mu floated a strange silhouette. It looked to be translucent, almost bordering on invisible, and if not for Lin Mu focusing on it, he might have missed it.
"What is this…" Lin Mu was confused upon seeing it. "Wait… it's not a soul, is it?" he recognized.
"More accurately, it's the remnant of a soul." Xukong corrected.
"A remnant of a soul?" Lin Mu narrowed his eyes.
Looking at the form of the soul, it was hard to tell what it originally belonged to. It had become quite deformed and mostly looked like a irregularly shaped blob that was floating around.
It was normal since it was just the remnant of a soul and not a complete soul. Most of the remnant souls were unable to maintain their forms and would turn into blobs like these.
Of course, one question still stood.
"Why can I see them, though? This certainly isn't a Nascent soul, so they should not be visible." Lin Mu wondered.
He knew very well, that there were two different souls that a cultivator would have. The first was the Nascent soul that would be artificially formed, and the second was the True Soul that every creature was naturally born with.
True Soul was something that even immortals could not sense normally. They would need special tools to do so, and even then, it was a very difficult matter. And even if they did manage to sense them, they actually couldn't do anything to a True Soul.
It was simply beyond their powers as True souls were protected by the laws of life itself!
