Chapter 1918: Chapter 1918: Arlo Drake’s Madness
"Impossible! Impossible!!"
"Try again... Try again... It must work... It must work!!"
"My talent root is a ’green root’; it’s impossible not to sense the spiritual energy!!"
Taking a deep breath, the frantic ’Arlo Drake’ suppressed his nearly insane emotion, trying to calm down and once again sense the spiritual energy inside the ’Beta House.’
Because of the existence of three Spirit Gathering Arrays in the Beta House, the spiritual energy inside is much denser than outside.
However, no matter how Arlo Drake tried to sense the spiritual energy, he found that he couldn’t perceive its presence.
It was as if he was not in a room with three Spirit Gathering Arrays but rather a room completely drained of spiritual energy.
"Something must be wrong somewhere... Continue! Continue!!"
Again feeling a sense of panic, Arlo Drake grit his teeth and continued to try to sense the spiritual energy.
While he wasn’t a supreme genius, his green talent root meant that his aptitude was far beyond the average person.
With his talent, he had a significant chance of entering the ’Saint Immortal Realm’ in the future!
By then, as long as he wished to stay in the Fire Worship Sect, he could directly become the sect’s ’Copper Flame Elder.’
Arlo Drake had never doubted his bright future before.
But at this moment, a sense of despair rose within him.
"Got it!"
Just as Arlo Drake was despairing to the point of giving up, he suddenly perceived the spiritual energy clearly and attempted to absorb it into his body.
However, the next moment, something happened that left Arlo Drake dumbfounded.
Not only was the spiritual energy he sensed extremely weak, but his rate of absorption into his body was incredibly slow—slower than a tortoise crawling!
"Impossible... Impossible... I possess a green talent root as a martial artist; this can’t be the speed at which I perceive and absorb spiritual energy! Even those with only a red talent root shouldn’t have such a slow speed!"
Arlo Drake grew frantic once more.
He pushed himself to the limit, trying to sense and absorb the spiritual energy.
Yet after a day passed, two days passed... Until three days and nights had gone by, he found the speed at which he perceived and absorbed spiritual energy was still that slow!
Bam!!
With a loud bang, Arlo Drake rushed out, breaking through the door of the Beta House.
His deranged appearance naturally attracted plenty of attention, "What’s wrong with Arlo Drake? He looks like he’s lost his mind... Could he have gone crazy?"
"He really does look like he’s gone crazy."
"Hey? Why is he heading towards the pond?"
...
Soon, a group of Black Tortoise disciples noticed the deranged Arlo Drake rushing to a nearby pond and stopping there, lying down and looking into it.
It was as if there were some kind of ’treasure’ inside the pond.
Of course, they didn’t believe there would be any treasure inside; even if there were, it would have been taken long ago, not left for Arlo Drake.
"I am still me! That’s right... I am still me! But why has my sensing and absorption of spiritual energy become so slow? Even those with a red talent root wouldn’t be this slow... What happened? Why is this happening?"
Seeing his familiar face reflected in the mirror-like pond, Arlo Drake once more grew restless, muttering to himself like a madman.
He had initially believed his soul had entered the body of someone with terrible talent.
But now it seemed that he was still himself, and he hadn’t taken over someone else’s body.
After a bout of madness, Arlo Drake gradually calmed down.
Upon calming down, the first image to emerge in his mind was of a handsome young man with sword eyebrows and starry eyes, "It’s him! It must be him!!"
The person he thought of was none other than ’Wyatt Barnes!’
"Since being knocked unconscious by him last time, I have not been able to cultivate for nearly twenty days due to healing... Today, when I resumed cultivation, I discovered my sensing and absorption of spiritual energy had slowed! And the slowness is ridiculous!!"
With this thought, Arlo Drake gritted his teeth in hatred.
Moments later, Arlo Drake began asking several new disciples about being knocked unconscious that day.
He was eager to understand what happened that day!
Although these new disciples didn’t care much for Arlo Drake, fearing him as Elder Silver Flame ’Maximus Lee’s’ apprentice, they dared not refuse and told Arlo Drake everything about that day.
"Before knocking me unconscious, Wyatt Barnes created his domain, blocking everyone’s sight?"
Upon learning about the circumstances from the new disciples, Arlo Drake’s pupils involuntarily constricted, recalling the moment:
"From my memory, there was a flash of golden light before I lost consciousness... So, Wyatt Barnes created his domain, hiding everyone’s view as he knocked me out."
"That Wyatt Barnes, knocking me unconscious while conjuring a domain, was utterly redundant! He must have wanted to do something shameful, fearing that others would see... It seems more than likely that my slowed cultivation speed is connected to him!"
Thinking of this, cold shivers surged in Arlo Drake’s heart.
Though Arlo didn’t know what Wyatt Barnes had done to him, the ’consequences’ of Wyatt’s methods made him shudder with fear.
He even felt as if his innate spiritual roots had been destroyed!
Otherwise, why would his cultivation speed have slowed so drastically?
And why would the talent he now displayed seem so lacking?
Arlo could only recall his innate spiritual roots because he knew that one relies on these roots to sense and absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
Now, the slow speed of his sensing and absorption was solely because there had to be a problem with his spiritual roots!
Of course, he didn’t know exactly what the problem was.
However, not knowing didn’t stop the chilling fear from rising in his heart.
He had never heard of anyone tampering with innate spiritual roots!
Even those in the ’Saint Immortal Realm,’ though capable of sensing the presence of spiritual roots, couldn’t tamper with them without damaging a person’s soul.
Yet, he could clearly sense that his soul was intact!
"I hope he hasn’t destroyed my spiritual roots, but merely restricted or sealed them with some means... Otherwise, my life is truly over!"
Arlo silently prayed in his heart.
At the same time, a cold, sharp light flickered in his eyes, "Wyatt Barnes, when my cousin arrives, you’ll be left without a grave! And before you die, I’ll cut you to pieces, making you experience the greatest pain in the world!!"
"Moreover, I won’t spare your two companions... I remember their faces; even if they’re not at the Black Tortoise Hall, once they pass the assessments of the other three halls and stay in the Fire Worship Sect, they will surely die! They can only blame themselves for knowing you!!"
Raging hatred flared in Arlo’s heart, burning like a wildfire, uncontrollable!
At this moment, not only did Arlo not regret provoking Wyatt Barnes for no reason, but he also clamored for revenge against Wyatt Barnes!
As for the problem with his spiritual roots, in his view, his mentor, Maximus Lee, the foremost Elder Silver Flame of Black Tortoise Hall, could certainly help him resolve it.
"If my roots were truly destroyed by you... I won’t grant your companions a swift death! I’ll slice their flesh piece by piece, having them watch as I feed their meat to the dogs!!"
Thinking that his spiritual roots might have been destroyed, Arlo suddenly went insane again.
"Go find my mentor!"
After his frenzy, Arlo left the Black Tortoise Hall disciple quarters without hesitation, heading directly east to find his mentor, Maximus Lee.
"What’s got you in such a panic?"
Seeing Arlo approach hastily, his face full of anxiety, Maximus Lee furrowed his brows, his eyes revealing some dissatisfaction.
To be honest, if he could choose, he definitely wouldn’t have accepted this disciple with only ’green spiritual roots’!
However, the other party promised him an irresistible condition.
That was, Maximus Lee would let his cousin become his disciple!
According to Maximus, his cousin’s innate spiritual roots were ’cyan spiritual roots,’ and his cultivation had already reached the ’Earth Saint Realm Peak,’ just one step away from breaking through to the ’Heavenly Saint Realm’!
Soon, his cousin would join the Fire Worship Sect.
The Fire Worship Sect has a rule:
Anyone with ’cyan spiritual roots’ or above can enter the Fire Worship Sect unconditionally at any time and become a disciple!
This is a personalized rule set by the Fire Worship Sect since ancient times, which in turn has produced many strong individuals in each generation.
In the Fire Worship Sect, even a ’gold flame elder’ level existence would be tempted by a talented disciple with cyan spiritual roots, not to mention him, just an Elder Silver Flame like Maximus Lee.
Maximus Lee has been an Elder Silver Flame in the Fire Worship Sect for over a thousand years, during which he only managed to find three disciples with ’cyan spiritual roots’ by sheer luck.
So, hearing Arlo’s promise of having his cousin become his disciple, Maximus agreed to Arlo’s apprenticeship request.
In his view, Arlo’s cousin was the disciple he acknowledged.
As for Arlo, he was merely an ’accessory’!
"Mentor, please check my spiritual roots... Something’s wrong with them!"
Upon meeting Maximus Lee, Arlo’s face was full of panic, his heart filled with unease.
"Spiritual roots? How could anything be wrong with spiritual roots!"
Hearing Arlo’s words, Maximus Lee not only didn’t take action but also frowned.
As a Saint Immortal Realm expert, Maximus deeply understood:
Even if spiritual roots had issues, the person with them couldn’t possibly stay alive!
And yet, Arlo stood alive before him!