The ethereal bodies closed in and tried to chomp off YuXiao's arm but he managed to dodge as his body had been continuously refined making it extremely durable, his senses were also heightened to an absurd extent being able to react fast enough.

YuXiao had finally got a good look at the creatures that just attacked him, it was 5 meters tall with its ethereal body it had sharp claws and had a disfigured face of what looks like used to be human at one point in time. He tried his best to identify what this creature was and then he suddenly recalled the information he'd gotten from Wei long, particularly about Evil spirits.

He remembered that they were embodiment of the resentment of the dead that had been wronged and turned into Evil spirits, this particularly sounded similar to what YuXiao has to do with his Dark Heaven Mantra. The spirit had a very imposing aura that radiated a baleful energy that could kill a mortal with its mere presence, the Evil spirits worked together to strike at once for the kill.

YuXiao snapped out of his out of his deep thought and reacted as fast as he could dashing backwards, one of the claws of the evil spirits was able to scratch his cheek and suddenly the old pain from when he first refined his purest form of hatred had reappeared which would make it even harder to dodge while under intense pain.

Fuck, god damn it why's this pain back? It should have been completely numb now especially since i haven't cultivated any more hatred, why's this happening could it have something to do with this cut i've gotten on my cheek?

Then YuXiao realized something, the evil spirits were beings formed from resentment of the dead which gives them their ethereal and baleful aura but if that's true if it made contact with me it would be leave small amounts of residual energy of there resentment. The Dark Heaven Mantra Circulates itself without input from the user, so the Dark Heaven Mantra is refining there resentment causing the pain to reappear.

Although there are hundreds of spirits this opportunity to use these evil spirits as a tonic for his cultivation of the Dark Heaven Mantra, YuXiao's plan was to run until after he gets injured and wait till the pain numbs again and rinse and repeat. Putting this plan into action he gotten cuts all over him now, YuXiao had taken so many attacks from the evil spirits he absorbed over nearly all of the spirits and there was only one spirit left.

Suddenly there was the sound of people murmuring could be heard moments later he heard a shout from behind.

"Young mortal, why are you within this forest you will die if you stay he any longer." A bulky man with a sword on his back was now visible to him once he turned his head, but then remembering what had happened with Wei Long and how he attacked him due to the curse on him that he learnt about from the Dark Heaven Mantra.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

So he knew if they had gotten a clear look at his face the curse would take effect and they'll lose all their sanity, so YuXiao decided to cover his face with dirt as a last ditch effort to prevent the past from repeating itself. YuXiao decided to play the role of a mortal and turned around and asked them for assistance.

"Immortals please provide this mortal with some assistance, I got thrown into this forest by an gang my young master had offended and I took the punishment for him. There is a strange spiritual creature chasing after me!" He plead in efforts to get out of this situation with these cultivators.

"Hahahaha, Worry not mortal we are immortal cultivators from the blue lotus sect. We do not discriminate against mortals like most other sects, this ones name is Liu Yuan and these people are my fellow disciples!" The man now known as Liu Yuan and leading that pack of cultivators to go help him from this evil spirit.

Liu Yuan put his hand on the sword's handles from his back his hands slowly turned into magma and in split second he drew his sword, it sent a blade of sword Qi rushing towards the Ethereal body of the evil spirits at a rapid pace at which Yu Xiao's eyes could barely keep track of it. The second the ethereal body of the evil spirit came in contact with the sword Qi there was a flash of white light, moments later the evil spirits size had decreased by half.

That single blade of sword Qi had obliterated half of the baleful energy from the evil spirit, this was YuXiao's first time seeing something like this. especially the sword which captured his attention and put him into the state of enlightenment.

A sword, the embodiment of destruction. A tool with a singular purpose to destroy that can't do anything against its fate, it will always be something that will get used by someone else. forced to abide someone elses will with not of its own. much like myself I will be stuck alone waiting to be used again maybe we can use each other?

YuXiao was in such a deep thought he didn't realize that Liu Yuan had already defeated the the evil spirit all by himself, Liu Yuan seethed his sword and focused his attention onto YuXiao.

"Mortal we have eliminated the threat, you must make sure you leave this forest or else even we wont be able to save you" another voice came from behind Liu Yuan, and another man appeared. He had was a skinny as a skeleton and appeared bald but had part of his skull sticking out, the man had a strange aura to him which was vastly different from Liu Yuan.

"Bao Ning don't scare this little mortal, with us here nothing should be able to happen to him. we'll send Bai Li with him to ensure he leaves this forest safely, is that alright with you Bai Li?"

Then another figure appeared from the shadows, its was a small women in green clothes and exerted an Elegant aura it looked as if she was a celestial being descending the mortal plane.

"I don't mind senior brother Yuan" Bai Li replied coldly and glanced over at YuXiao and felt a strange energy from him.

"Mortal follow me, ill lead you out of this forest" Bai Li said as she slowly walked north and YuXiao closely followed behind her.