"How many more dangers and horrors are lurking in this city... A dead man just mingled among the crowd like this. I happened to know Liu Yan, so I recognized him, but I don't know most of these people. Among them, how many are problematic?"
"It seems Liu Yan wasn't watching me. That was too dangerous earlier. If I were targeted by such a bizarre thing now, I would definitely be dead without a doubt."
With this chilling thought, Li Yi quickly headed toward his home. He planned to hide at home for a while, using the Mysterious Object in his hand to accelerate his Cultivation progress and gain some self-protection.
As for the trouble that might come with Cultivating too fast, he couldn't care less.
He locked the door and double-checked it was secure.
After changing the nutrient liquid for his parents' medic pods, Li Yi switched off his cellphone to avoid being disturbed. He then sat down in the living room with his eyes closed, adjusted his breathing, and quickly entered a state of Meditation.
Upon meditating,
Li Yi sensed the Energy Field emanating from the Incomplete Coin. He began to guide the pure Cosmic Energy within that Energy Field into his body and absorbed it.
At first, he was a bit clumsy, but as time passed, the speed at which he guided the energy increased, and his absorption rate steadily climbed.
His potential was about what Lin Yue had assessed.
In just half a day, his Cultivation Value had reached sixty percent.
This value meant that out of every ten units of Cosmic Energy, he could successfully absorb six, with only four going to waste.
Such rapid progress was thanks to the half of the Sword Coin he held; since he had this Incomplete Wonder, Li Yi didn't need to spend time and energy capturing the Cosmic Energy spilling out from worms in space.
Being able to concentrate on one thing without distraction naturally allowed him to perform it much better.
"Gurgle gurgle!"
Li Yi was woken by hunger again. He opened his eyes somewhat helplessly: "Indeed, hunger significantly affects Cultivation. I've been woken up three times by hunger in half a day. If I were to Cultivate the entire day, wouldn't I be woken up six times? And then I'd have to spend time cooking and eating... It's too much of a delay."
"Right, this time I'll try the effectiveness of Nutrient Liquid No. 2."
Li Yi took out Nutrient Liquid No. 2, glanced over the instruction manual, and discovered that ordinary people were forbidden to consume it, and even Cultivators shouldn't drink too much at once, as it could burden the body's organs and cause side effects similar to food poisoning.
He carefully poured a cup using a measuring cup and drank it down as the instructions indicated.
"Sweet and apple-flavored." Li Yi licked the cup; the liquid was not cheap, so he couldn't afford to waste any.
Although he had only had a small cup, the feeling of hunger in his body was rapidly disappearing.
It was quite incredible.
To satisfy his hunger, Li Yi usually needed to eat several packets of instant noodles, as well as sugar water, milk, eggs, fruits, and so on.
"Indeed, you get what you pay for. Nutrient liquid is so convenient; I don't even want to cook or eat food anymore—it's too much of a waste of time and energy."
Li Yi thought to himself and then resumed his Cultivation.
In the subsequent Cultivation process, he found the nutrient liquid to be even more filling than actual food; where he previously needed to eat every four hours, now he only felt hungry after eight hours of Cultivation.
By this calculation, he needed only three cups of nutrient liquid a day.
But a single bottle of Nutrient Liquid No. 2 only contained ten cups' worth, which meant it would be finished in three days, making Li Yi realize that Cultivation truly burned through money.
However, he wasn't considering these factors at the moment.
A day of Cultivation ended quickly.
After resting for a while, Li Yi took a bath and cleaned the dirt excreted through his pores due to his body's Evolution; then, he began a new round of Cultivation.
He could now clearly feel that his physical condition had made a jump in improvement.
Only his ears began to buzz, as if he was experiencing auditory hallucinations.
Li Yi understood it wasn't an illusion but a transformation of his senses; his hearing was being enhanced, and it was just a matter of time for his body to adjust.
Soon.
The third day of Cultivation arrived.
During this time, Li Yi's Cultivation Value improved again. It went straight from sixty percent to seventy-five percent, and this value was still slowly increasing, just not as obviously as before. This indicated that he had almost reached his potential's limit.
"My final Cultivation Value could probably only reach about eighty-five percent at most, and that's when I'm not distracted. Without the help of this incomplete wonder, my Cultivation Value would likely drop to around sixty-five percent. Lin Yue's assessment of me was very accurate."
"Yet reaching eighty percent would be satisfying enough for me. At least this value is considered excellent among Cultivators—it won't be too mediocre."
He slowly closed his eyes and entered Meditation once again.
"What's going on? The Energy Field from the Incomplete Coin seems off today."
Suddenly,
Li Yi, in the midst of Cultivation, noticed something unusual. The usually calm Cosmic Energy was now rippling, and subsequently, the movement grew larger, like a wave of a mighty storm.
This anomaly even made it difficult for Li Yi to guide the Cosmic Energy into his body smoothly.
He tried to wake from Meditation.
Yet, to his shock, he found his consciousness trapped as if tethered by the Incomplete Coin, unable to break free or to come to consciousness.
Having never encountered such a strange occurrence before, he couldn't help but feel a sense of panic.
"There's something wrong with this Incomplete Coin," Li Yi remembered Lin Yue's words at this point.
If the Mysterious Object was indeed incomplete, it inevitably contained some sort of flaw or problem.
At the moment, his consciousness was trapped within the Energy Field of the Incomplete Coin, leaving him completely powerless to resist and forcing him to watch helplessly as various changes unfolded around him.
Soon.
As the energy fluctuations grew stronger, something seemed to surge up from the depths of the pure Cosmic Energy Field in Li Yi's perception. The energy around began to converge crazily toward one spot, and in no time at all, it took the shape of an incomplete humanoid creature.
Then the humanoid gradually coalesced within the Energy Field, taking on a vague body and facial features, but its lower half remained invisible, just like the Coin itself, broken into two parts.
"What the hell is that?" Li Yi felt an inexplicable horror.
Just through his consciousness, he felt a sharp pain.
As if his soul was being torn apart.
The Incomplete Person seemed to have its consciousness; it immediately noticed Li Yi's presence and lunged at him with a roar, as if it intended to devour his consciousness.
"Even if I'm left with only a Residual Soul, I must destroy you, a naturally evil Earth Prisoner..."
Li Yi had no capacity to resist. Then a intense dizziness overcame him, his consciousness felt like it had been dealt a heavy blow, and quickly he was enveloped by darkness.
"It hurts, it hurts so much."
He passed out completely.
Just as Li Yi lost consciousness, the bedroom door behind his parents creaked slowly open.
A shadow cast by the light extended from the room and spread over Li Yi's body in an unbelievably rapid manner, until it finally enveloped him.
The Incomplete Coin by Li Yi's side bizarrely contorted as if it were influenced by a massive unknown force, and after a faint sound of a terrified scream, the Coin shot out and embedded itself deeply into the wall, coming to a complete stop.
After that, the black shadow that had projected from the bedroom rapidly retracted.
"Bang!"
The door slammed shut, the lights in the living room flickered, and finally went out completely.
The old house fell into a deathly silence.
As time passed, Li Yi's breath gradually stabilized, but blood slowly trickled from his ears, eyes, nose, and mouth.
As time ticked by, second by second.
The night outside the window turned into daylight, and then back into deep night again.
Li Yi was unconscious for two whole days.
It wasn't until noon on the third day that he slowly came to.
"It hurts, hiss..." Clutching his head, Li Yi couldn't help but draw a sharp breath from the intense pain.
What happened? Why did he pass out while he was cultivating just fine?
That's right, he remembered now.
That Incomplete Coin...
He woke with a start, looking around until he finally found the half coin on the wall inside the house.
Li Yi did not immediately reach for the object, but instead felt a lingering fear. He clearly remembered how his consciousness had been trapped by the Energy Field of the Coin, and then another very powerful and terrifying consciousness had emerged from the Coin and tried to kill him.
"A naturally evil Earth Prisoner? How am I, a hardworking young man providing for my family, naturally evil?" he wondered indignantly at the unfairness of the situation.
Li Yi realized that encased within the Incomplete Coin seemed to be the grudge of someone who had died, or as the person had put it, a Residual Soul.
"Indeed, grave goods are never anything good," Li Yi stood up, his body swaying unsteadily, feeling dizzy.
"Why is it that when I held the Coin for cultivation before nothing happened, but this time I was targeted by the Residual Soul harbored by the Coin? Could it be because I cultivated for too long this time?" he speculated with a variety of expressions, unsure of what to do with the Coin stuck in the wall.
If he encountered such an occurrence again during his next cultivation session, Li Yi wasn't confident that he could survive. He didn't want to go through that feeling ever again.
But this Incomplete Mysterious Object was key to his Cultivation. If he stopped using it, his improvement would be difficult to continue.
"This is probably the risk and benefit of incomplete wonders. On one hand, they can accelerate my Cultivation, on the other hand, they hide immense dangers. To use it, I must figure out a relatively safe method," Li Yi thought for a moment. He was not willing to abandon the object and was determined to tread on the edge of danger to find a way to use this incomplete wonder.
Just relying on his own Cultivation was too slow.
With the Mysterious Object, Li Yi could clearly feel his progress improving dramatically every day.
Having tasted the flavor of a genius, he naturally refused to return to mediocrity.