The pain of being torn apart had long been etched into his soul, so the notion of forgetting was nothing but a farce. All the regret, pain, and disappointment had already turned into hatred; he had just been too shocked by his rebirth and too preoccupied with preparing for the apocalypse to dwell on it.
After all, Sun Muyang had stayed with him initially because he had saved his life and needed him for support, and Park Su had willingly provided that care. He had even wondered if he had pushed too hard or if the apocalypse hadn't happened, would Sun Muyang have ever been with him? Was it because of his own awakening ability that Sun Muyang had acted the way he did?
But today, Park Su realized that no matter how many excuses he made for him, his hatred for Sun Muyang far exceeded his own expectations.
He couldn't just let go of the past. Sun Muyang had depended on him to survive, and if he truly didn't want a relationship, Park Su wouldn't have forced him. Yet, Sun Muyang chose to accept his feelings. At first, Park Su had suspected that Sun Muyang was only using him, but Sun Muyang was a good pretender. For six years, Park Su had thought Sun Yang was just somewhat aloof, never imagining that deep inside, he harbored a desire to kill him.
Yet, Park Su had given everything for him, and when he was no longer useful, Sun Muyang killed him without hesitation or remorse. How could he not hate him? If Sun Muyang had no feelings for him, why accept in the first place?
Even if he only intended to use him, when Park Su was no longer of use, Sun Muyang could have simply abandoned him, not kill him in such a cruel manner. Was Park Su so intolerable to him?
He had often gone without food to ensure Sun Muyang didn't go hungry, had chosen to stay by his side over seeking his mother, had given him his unwavering love and done his best for him. Why, why treat him like this?
Park Su didn't realize that as he watched the gruesome scene before him, his eyes had turned red, and he was completely immersed in his negative emotions, unable to break free.
Just then, a refreshing wave of spiritual energy entered his body from behind, directly impacting his brain and snapping him out of his dark thoughts.
He then saw Xu Nuo standing beside him with a stern face, which surprised him, and he whispered, "Why are you out here? Weren't you resting?"
Xu Nuo gave him a cold glance, "If I didn't come out, I'm afraid your mind would have snapped. Don't rush your cultivation; keep your mind steady."
He then turned, lifting his hand to release three talismans that flew to different corners of the yard. Xu Nuo muttered an incantation, and Park Su, squatting beside him, felt an air of profound mystery surrounding the man as he performed his Daoist magic.
Soon, Park Su witnessed the true extent of Xu Nuo's mysterious abilities. When Xu Nuo's hands moved through a series of gestures and he uttered a single word, "Purify," Park Su felt the overwhelming stench of blood in the yard vanish completely.
Looking at Xu Nuo, Park Su felt the man grow even more imposing in his eyes, and he couldn't help but wonder if this Xu Nuo might be the same Daoist master he had heard of in his past life.
After finishing his incantation, Xu Nuo looked down to see Park Su staring at him with bright, almond-shaped eyes, which sent a strange, tingling sensation through him, though it was fleeting, barely there before it vanished.
He had used his control ability to discipline the convoy, then went back to his room to draw talismans without much rest. Halfway through, he heard the commotion downstairs, so he came down with purification talismans, intending to clear the blood scent to prevent more zombies from being attracted.
What he hadn't expected was to find Park Su ensnared by his inner demons. He had thought that with Park Su's unique cultivation method, he wouldn't encounter such problems. However, it seemed there was a threshold even to that. Seeing Park Su's pained and twisted expression, Xu Nuo frowned and used a calming talisman along with his spiritual energy to drive away the demons.
When he touched Park Su, he understood why the young man had been suddenly overtaken by inner demons—it was due to the reckless cultivation causing the spiritual energy to surge chaotically within him.
Now, meeting those round almond eyes, Xu Nuo was curious about what kind of past could cause such pain in this young man's heart?
However, despite his curiosity, he wouldn't just ask outright. Although they had been living together for a while, they hadn't shared any deep conversations, so there was still a sense of distance between them. Xu Nuo, not being the most sociable person, knew that whatever could evoke such an expression must not be a pleasant memory.
So, he only glanced at Park Su, "I've used up quite a bit of energy. Don't get too caught up in the fight; retreat when it's time. Without the scent of blood, they won't linger here for long."
Although Park Su had snapped out of his trance, the earlier negative emotions had left their mark. He had thought he had put the matter behind him, assuming that by not thinking about it, it wouldn't cause any trouble. But now, he understood that the pain was still deeply rooted in his heart.
After all, being killed, and killed brutally, by someone you loved, wasn't something easily forgotten or forgiven. He realized he needed to find out what happened to Sun Muyang, to confront this issue head-on to resolve it. Running away was just fooling himself, and he didn't want to lose his life over this again.
However, he also knew that now was not the time to dwell on this. First off, he had no information on Sun Muyang's current status, not even knowing if he was dead or alive. There were still zombies to deal with outside his door and the gluttonous pothos, which was still collecting and consuming crystal cores, causing his spiritual energy to surge.
Learning from his earlier mistake, Park Su immediately gave the pothos an order to only collect the cores without consuming them.
Although the pothos was unhappy with the command, it didn't dare defy Park Su. If he didn't allow it back into his dantian, it couldn't survive long outside with the cores it absorbed.
Park Su had already tested this limit. Initially, he was concerned that if the pothos grew stronger than him, it might rebel. So, he had tried to find ways to control it, discovering that from the moment it entered his dantian, it was restricted by it. If the pothos left his dantian for more than three days, its life force would start to diminish. More importantly, Park Su could summon it or return it to his dantian at will, but it couldn't re-enter on its own without his consent.
In other words, if Park Su couldn't survive, neither could the pothos, and if Park Su wanted it dead, all he had to do was keep it outside his dantian.
After discovering this limitation, Park Su felt more at ease with the pothos. After all, any creature would value its own life over power. That time, when Park Su left the pothos outside his dantian for four days, it was genuinely scared, effectively erasing any lingering willfulness.
So this time, when Park Su gave the command, it immediately complied obediently. Although it was drooling over the crystal cores that it had enveloped, it didn't dare to continue devouring them, but it did accumulate some resentment. Therefore, when dealing with the zombies, it became even more violent.
Moreover, with Ivy saving time by not absorbing the crystal cores, the efficiency was naturally much higher than before. In just a quarter of an hour, a large number of zombie corpses had fallen around them.
Regaining his spirit, Park Su no longer hesitated. Although Xu Nuo had told him that he had cleared the blood aura in the courtyard, which should not attract more zombies actively, if the commotion here was too loud, zombies would inevitably come.
After all, there were still quite a few wandering zombies around, and Park Su knew that their numbers would only increase, not decrease. Today, both he and Xu Nuo had consumed too much energy; he didn't want to invite more trouble upon himself, so he went all out with his second-tier wood ability. A faint green light emanated from his body, and simultaneously, the wood-elemental spiritual energy in his dantian started spinning rapidly.
Under Park Su's control, the surrounding plants seemed to come alive, swinging their branches to tightly bind the zombies. At the moment the zombies lost their mobility, Park Su used wooden spikes to kill them, driving each spike directly into the zombies' skulls, some even forcefully pushing out the crystal cores from their heads.
In just half an hour, nearly sixty zombies that had rushed over were completely dealt with by Park Su and his pet, Ivy. However, seeing the corpses scattered around, Park Su frowned. Although the blood aura in the courtyard was cleaned, would these bodies not attract more zombies? The blood aura here might be even stronger than before.
He glanced at Xu Nuo's resting room, thinking he should go ask if there were any more of those blood-cleansing talismans. If not handled, tonight might be endless.
But the thought of talking to Xu Nuo made him sigh. That person was good-looking but had a cold personality, really hard to communicate with; he didn't know if he would be willing to give him a talisman.
Park Su first called back Ivy, making sure it brought back all the crystal cores collected by the plants around. He roughly counted about forty, plus those absorbed by Ivy, indicating a high probability of crystal cores forming in zombies' brains.
After washing his hands in the courtyard, he went upstairs and knocked on Xu Nuo's door. Xu Nuo had just made a lot of talismans, and his spiritual energy was heavily consumed, making him feel somewhat drained. However, he knew Park Su would come looking for him given the pile of zombie bodies at the door; he certainly wouldn't feel at ease.
He didn't like showing his vulnerable side to others, so when he heard the knock, he lazily said, "I know why you're here. Even if I gave you the talisman, you wouldn't know how to use it. But don't worry, I've already set up an array talisman on the front door. Even if the zombies come here, they'll only see it as a normal wall and won't sense us inside. So, feel free to sleep soundly; we'll talk about anything else tomorrow morning."
Hearing this lazy voice, Park Su's brows furrowed even more. He thought to himself, "I'm fighting zombies to death out here, and you're already asleep? That's just too unreliable. And you say you've already set up something, when did you do that without me knowing?"
And that comment about him not being able to use the talisman— how would Xu Nuo know if he couldn't use it? If he didn't know, he could teach him! Being so smart, he would surely learn it in no time. Did he have to be so dismissive?
But such complaints he only dared to voice in his heart. He didn't know why, but he always felt a step lower in front of Xu Nuo. Was it because Xu Nuo was his creditor? Park Su grumbled to himself a couple of times before turning to leave. Since Xu Nuo had said so, he wouldn't bother anymore.
If zombies came later, he would settle accounts with Xu Nuo then. With this thought, he returned to his room, took a simple shower to wash away his fatigue, and lay on his bed, secretly delighted over the crystal cores he had collected.
These were the first batch of crystal cores he had gathered in this life. Although he had once nearly been controlled by inner demons due to greedily absorbing too many crystal cores, it scared him. He hadn't expected to encounter such demons after being reborn and cultivating his abilities. He knew from his previous life that he hadn't faced such things even up to the fourth tier. It seemed the blow from Sun Muyang was too significant; perhaps he should find a chance to deal with this inner demon.
Park Su sighed, deciding to be more cautious with his cultivation in the future. But he was now sure that when Ivy absorbed crystal cores, it indeed brought him more pure wood energy, and he had checked the Ivy in his dantian earlier.
Naturally, he discovered that after Ivy absorbed the crystal cores, its abilities had also improved. Park Su himself had previously absorbed energy from crystal cores and knew that although absorbing the energy from one core yielded more energy than what Ivy absorbed and passed on as wood energy, the energy from directly absorbing a core contained more impurities. He would need to spend more time purifying these impurities, which required more effort, and the results might not be as effective as when he absorbed the energy through Ivy as an intermediary.
However, he also thought that since he was different now, with his abilities having mutated, he wondered if absorbing the energy from a crystal core now would yield better results than before.
But recalling how he had almost caused an incident due to absorbing too much crystal core energy earlier, leading to an outbreak of inner demons, he decided not to absorb any core energy at that moment. There was plenty of time; he could explore this further tomorrow. Perhaps being in too much of a hurry wasn't a good thing.
He remembered how Xu Nuo had helped him dispel his inner demons earlier, which made him feel somewhat grateful. This person was perhaps cold on the outside but warm on the inside; he did help when he saw Park Su in trouble. Anyway, Park Su was determined to learn something from him since Xu Nuo would be with him for some time. He would definitely pester him to learn a trick or two, even if it was just the basics, as it could be another way to save his life.