“That stance with the spear, it’s complete! But these few strokes of characters, it’s hard to judge their intention.” Xu Jingming observed carefully, somewhat puzzled, as he focused on the black character for a long time.

The black character seemed to be constantly enlarging in his eyes, even triggering intense emotions within Xu Jingming; a killing intent was brewing.

“Hmm?” Xu Jingming suddenly woke up with a start. “I’m a semi-step third realm expert of the heart realm lineage, yet I couldn’t control myself and was provoked to such killing intent?”

Xu Jingming reached out and touched the black character, taking it into his palm.

“This black character has only five strokes, very simple, but it inexplicably triggers my killing intent?” Xu Jingming tried to exert force, but his palm’s strength couldn’t damage the black character in the slightest.

He tried burning it with Red Lotus Fire! He attacked with his Mind Weapon! The character seemed real, yet also illusory, impossible to damage at all.

“A single character isn't enough to tell much. If there were more characters, I should be able to glean some information.” Xu Jingming put away the character, glanced around, and continued his super-speed journey.

Time flowed, and Xu Jingming occasionally encountered attacks from the native creatures. These native creatures varied in strength; the strong ones forced Xu Jingming to rely on his many avatars to escape, while the weak ones were easily killed.

In the blink of an eye, it had been five days since Xu Jingming arrived on this boundless land.

“In these five days, I’ve been attacked by native creatures 92 times. I won 87 times, successfully counter-killing 29 times, and obtained 29 characters,” Xu Jingming rested against a tree in the forest.

Inside his personal pocket universe, Xu Jingming’s avatars were resting. The characters were suspended in the starry sky of the pocket universe.

There were 29 characters in total, 21 black characters and 8 colored characters, each with a completely different structure.

“These 21 black characters should be of the same type. It’s possible that they are part of a long text written by an ultimate existence,” Xu Jingming guessed. “It’s just that the countless characters of this long text have scattered, and I’ve collected 21 of them?”

“And the 8 colored characters could be different characters from another long text?”

“Or perhaps, this isn’t writing, but purely painting? Or peculiar symbols?” Xu Jingming had too many questions.

“But what can be certain is—”

“The black characters are of the same type, and the colored characters are of the same type.”

“The black characters all trigger my killing intent.”

“The colored characters all affect my state of mind.” Xu Jingming had only collected 29 characters, yet he had already inferred many things. “Just from a preliminary observation of these 29 characters, my understanding of killing intent and state of mind has changed.”

“The *Bafang Tu* (Eight Directions Chart) divides the state of mind into eight realms, but that’s Yu Huojun’s classification.”

“His classification is very basic, but too rigid.”

From the 8 colored characters, Xu Jingming saw more possibilities for the state of mind and understood the limitations of the *Bafang Tu*. The *Bafang Tu* was ultimately just a basic inheritance created by a third-realm existence. Compared to the characters left behind by a suspected ultimate existence, the gap was still very large. From just a few scattered characters, Xu Jingming had already seen a different world.

“The core of my mind-realm spear technique, *Jin Ge* (Golden Halberd), is to extinguish the enemy’s mind. But if the killing intent isn’t strong enough, the power won’t be great enough.” Xu Jingming tried to incorporate some of the insights from the black characters into his spear technique.

“If I incorporate some of the methods of the colored characters into my illusory realm, I can better control the enemy’s mind and consciousness.”

Xu Jingming himself was also very excited.

He wondered if it was because he had comprehended that silver paper for hundreds of thousands of years. This time, he entered the threshold of comprehending the black and colored characters on the very first day and began to gradually integrate his insights into his own spear techniques and illusions.

Or was it that his own mind-realm lineage talent was high enough that it happened to be a good fit for these mysterious characters?

“Here it comes.”

Leaning against the big tree, Xu Jingming looked into the distance. Another Xu Jingming was rapidly approaching from afar. The two Xu Jingmings touched and merged into one.

“Finally brought the third-realm weapon.” With a flip of his hand, Xu Jingming produced that illusory silver spear, the weapon that Island Lord Di Long had painstakingly run back to his hometown to help him retrieve.

Normally, Xu Jingming was reluctant to risk bringing the weapon with him. If he made a mistake, the death of an avatar would be a minor matter, but if this weapon was lost, it would be difficult to buy another one.

“This time, it’s a treasure land left behind by an ultimate existence. If I don’t go all out now, when will I?” Xu Jingming looked at the illusory silver spear in his eyes. With a third-realm weapon in hand, he was like a tiger that had grown wings.

“Leaving aside other treasures, just these mysterious characters alone are a great help to my Mind Weapon and Void Abyss Illusions.”

“If I collect more characters, I might be able to directly reach invincible semi-step third realm.” Xu Jingming immediately put away the spear and, with a whoosh, transformed into an afterimage and continued on his way.

After a few days, Xu Jingming had already discovered a pattern.

If they stayed in place, the native creatures would give up completely after one failed attack.

Only by moving quickly to other distant areas would they be attacked again.

“Come on, attack me more.”

“I brought a third-realm weapon, and I also brought five hundred avatars with me.” Xu Jingming was full of fighting spirit. Although he had originally brought some avatars, they were avatars that were stationed in Yu Huo City for a long time, and the number wasn’t too large.

This time, the avatars from his hometown brought a full five hundred avatars, as well as several third-realm treasures, in order to allow him to reach his strongest combat state.

For heart-realm lineage experts, avatars were the least valuable, but the 'mind consciousness' that controlled the avatars was the same, so the strength that could be unleashed was also limited.

…

“Tear—”

An afterimage flashed past Xu Jingming, and three black rays of light flew out of Xu Jingming’s body, also piercing through that afterimage.

The exchanges between the two sides were extremely fast.

The afterimage landed there. It was a strangely shaped gray creature. Its single eye was now completely dim, obviously having experienced the simultaneous attacks of Xu Jingming’s three avatars, its mind and consciousness destroyed in an instant.

Whoosh.

Silently, the corpse disintegrated, eventually leaving only a colored character.

“A colored character.” Xu Jingming immediately used his heart-realm power to wrap it up and put it away. “I haven’t found two identical characters so far.”

As he comprehended the characters, Xu Jingming’s strength was also slowly increasing. Adding to the fact that he had a third-realm mind spear in hand! Xu Jingming’s strength had obviously greatly increased, and the success rate of counter-killing after being attacked by native creatures had exceeded 80%.

“Swoosh.” After collecting the character, Xu Jingming continued on his way.

“How big is this land anyway? I’ve been here for half a month, and I haven’t encountered any other semi-step third realms.” Xu Jingming was thinking, when suddenly he was stunned, looking into the distance.

In the distance, there was also a semi-step third realm expert rushing on their way. He resembled a small mountain, taking huge steps forward. Suddenly, he also stopped and looked at Xu Jingming from afar.

The two sides faced each other from a distance.

“Who is he?”

“Who is he?”

The human ‘Xu Jingming’ and the small-mountain-like semi-step third realm expert looked at each other warily.

They didn’t recognize each other!

Xu Jingming came from the region influenced by Yu Huojun.

And this small-mountain-like semi-step third realm expert came from the region influenced by Zui Weng (Drunken Old Man).

That semi-step third realm expert glanced at Xu Jingming, then turned around and sped away, fleeing in a panic. “Zui Weng is benevolent, allowing us to come here. He said that many ‘invincible semi-step third realms’ and ‘abyss lords’ from other territories have entered. I have to be careful here.”

“That speed is faster than mine.” Xu Jingming thought to himself. As a heart-realm lineage expert, after being unable to use heart-realm teleportation, he really couldn’t keep up with those physical-body semi-step third realms in terms of pure running speed.

The first semi-step third realm expert he encountered on this vast land, and the other party was scared away after a glance from afar.

“Fortunately, there are many native creatures, and there are many attacks every day.” Xu Jingming continued his journey.

…

The days on this boundless land were very lonely; he was just constantly moving to attract native creatures to attack him.

In the blink of an eye, it had been a month since he had arrived here.

“In this month, I have obtained a total of 396 characters. Among them, there are 212 types of black characters, 128 types of colored characters, and 56 types of transparent characters.” Inside Xu Jingming’s personal pocket universe, 396 characters floated in the starry sky.

Black characters stirred killing intent, colored characters affected the mind, but transparent characters were the most peculiar.

“These transparent characters actually show combat scenes?” Xu Jingming exclaimed in admiration.

Each transparent character, when carefully observed, would eventually show a residual image of a stance with a weapon.

Apart from knives, swords, spears, and staffs, weapons that Xu Jingming was more familiar with, there were also various peculiar weapons. For example, a 'real universe' was held in someone’s hand and thrown out as a weapon! For example, an endless high-dimensional mountain was held in the palm of someone’s hand and used as a dagger!

Each transparent character was a residual image of a combat move.

These combat residual images weren’t too strong. Xu Jingming judged that they should all be combat scenes at the third-realm level.

Because he had seen that spear move on the silver paper! If an ultimate existence were to use that spear move, the power would be far greater than these residual images.

“To this day, I’ve only collected three types of characters. Although I’m still unsure about their origins and uses, at the very least, they are helpful to my Mind Spear Technique and Void Abyss Illusions.” Xu Jingming could feel his improvement over the past month.

Xu Jingming was studying the characters when he suddenly sensed something. He raised his head and looked into the distance.

On the other side of a wide gray river, an alien semi-step third realm expert was standing. His slender tail swayed slowly, and his cold eyes were observing Xu Jingming.

Xu Jingming also looked at him.

“Invincible semi-step third realms and abyss lords all have third-realm guidance and should have reached the inner regions.” The alien semi-step third realm expert observed Xu Jingming and guessed, “He’s still in the outer regions after so long; he must be a relatively weak semi-step third realm.”

He had entered the inner regions five days ago and experienced the terror of the inner regions, which had scared him back to the outer regions.

Whoosh.

The alien semi-step third realm expert took a step and instantly crossed the wide river, arriving on the riverbank on this side, much closer to Xu Jingming.

Xu Jingming was shocked by this.

So fast! The speed was far above his own!

“You’ve been here for a while, right? How many runes have you accumulated? Three hundred, or a thousand?” The alien semi-step third realm expert asked.