[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou":3,"chapter-the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-chapter-238":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The Ink Saint of Great Zhou",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2292201,4481,"Chapter 238","the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-chapter-238",238,"\u003Cp>Lu Fang took out the white jade skull palm and placed it against his chest, waiting silently as the Devil Heart absorbed it; after fifteen minutes, when the white jade skull palm—this ultimate treasure—turned to dust, he let out a satisfied sigh.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After waiting a while and finding the Devil Heart remained silent, he couldn’t help urging inwardly: “Didn’t you forget something?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart replied in a low tone: “Of course I haven’t forgotten. Don’t rush—transferring the Fire Secret Art to you isn’t simple. I need to prepare.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With its current strength, the Devil Heart could indeed transmit the Fire Secret Art to him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But after absorbing the ultimate treasure—the white jade skull palm—it wished to sacrifice a great deal of its cultivation origin to sense another presence within Lu Fang’s body: the entity capable of erasing it or blocking its absorption of his cultivation source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win a hundred battles without danger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon hearing that Lu Fang could erase it at the cost of fifty years of life, the Devil Heart pondered long—by his own power alone, such a feat was impossible.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, before it, another presence had already taken root within his body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter what, it had to determine whether that presence truly possessed the power to erase it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If possible, it was willing to burn most of its cultivation origin to inflict mutual destruction upon the unknown entity, for it could not imagine how painfully slow its cultivation would become if it could never absorb Lu Fang’s cultivation source.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In an instant!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the cost of burning part of its cultivation origin, the Devil Heart temporarily amplified its already terrifying perception—such a method, sacrificing a thousand to kill eight hundred, was usually effective.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet it could not sense the other presence within Lu Fang’s body.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Impossible!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had I misunderstood? Is there no unknown presence at all—could it merely be that Lu Fang possesses some extraordinary supernatural power?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But supernatural powers generally match the user’s realm; even if superior, they never exceed it so absurdly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Given Lu Fang’s current strength, even with extraordinary supernatural power, he should be utterly incapable of blocking my absorption of his cultivation source or erasing me—even at the cost of fifty years of life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet I perceive no other presence at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What is going on?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Could it be that the unknown presence is so powerful that I cannot perceive it at all?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart had come this far—it would not abandon easily. Upon considering this possibility, it hesitated not, burning even more of its cultivation origin; no matter what, this time it would see that unknown presence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, its perception had reached an utterly terrifying state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In its perception, everything in heaven and earth seemed frozen—yet strangely, it still sensed no other unknown presence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Is it truly Lu Fang who possesses extraordinary supernatural power?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the Devil Heart thought this, it suddenly realized: Lu Fang, who should have been frozen in its hyper-perception state, had returned to normal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang was normal—but everything around him remained frozen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This dissonance confused the Devil Heart: This shouldn’t be happening. Why?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before it could ponder further,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang’s furrowed brows slowly relaxed, and he murmured: “Devil Heart, you’re perceiving that unknown presence? You’re curious about it? So eager to see it?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With his own strength, he naturally could not detect any difference.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the Devil Heart, burning its cultivation origin to sense the Ink Brush Manuscript Realm, had been detected by the Realm Spirit, who informed him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart: “Since you know too, then let’s meet.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang fell silent, thought for a moment, then said: “Very well. Since you wish to see it, I’ll let you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Almost as soon as the words left his lips,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart’s vision went black. When it regained awareness, it found itself inside the Ink Brush Manuscript Realm—but now, the realm was entirely ink-black sky and ink-black earth; the colorful, luminous books had vanished, leaving only a colossal brush standing between heaven and earth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is this the unknown presence?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart was stunned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang glanced at the heart-sized organ beside him—this was the first time he’d clearly seen the Devil Heart’s true form.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before he could answer, the colossal brush above flicked its tip and wrote a line of characters: “You need not be curious about me. Unless the host Lu Fang demands it, I will not erase you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart said nothing, instead using its hyper-perception to probe the Realm Spirit, determined to confirm whether this entity truly possessed the power to erase it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But its attempt failed—it could not perceive the Realm Spirit at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The gap between them was too vast.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even though it had anticipated this, only now did it fully grasp how immensely powerful this unknown presence truly was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Realm Spirit flicked its brush again; a ripple of luminous energy, like water waves, spread outward and washed over the Devil Heart. Instantly, the heart-sized organ shrank gradually until it became the size of a fist.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is your punishment for spying on me.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Realm Spirit wrote these words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the blink of an eye, Lu Fang and the Devil Heart both reappeared outside the Ink Brush Manuscript Realm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Are you alright?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang asked inwardly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He hadn’t expected the Realm Spirit to strike the Devil Heart—he himself didn’t care, but he worried it might now be unable to teach him the Fire Secret Art.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Devil Heart’s voice was weak: “To teach you the Fire Secret Art, I must enter a deep slumber.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No sooner had the words been spoken\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Than a memory appeared in Lu Fang’s mind—a technique for controlling fire. The memory flickered and faded repeatedly; within a mere fifteen minutes, he had mentally rehearsed it countless times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Is this the Fire Secret Art?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lu Fang extended his hand; the ground fire in the stove was drawn into his palm. Despite its intense heat, he felt only warmth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With a thought, the large mass of ground fire condensed into a single blue flame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What amazed him was that this tiny flame burned hotter than the original ground fire had.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After waiting a long while without a response from the Devil Heart, Lu Fang guessed it had expended much of its cultivation origin perceiving the Ink Brush Manuscript Realm’s Spirit, and then suffered the Realm Spirit’s punishment—it was surely now truly asleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn’t want this—he might soon encounter ancient alien races, and the Devil Heart’s slumber would be disadvantageous.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the situation was as it was; he could do nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without the Devil Heart’s guidance, Lu Fang carefully used his controlled ground fire to melt the hard stone—just as the Devil Heart had said, the temperature of the ground fire, guided by the Fire Secret Art, was precisely sufficient to melt it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He poured the molten metal into the sword blank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Aside from melting the hard stone—which was difficult—the rest of the process was simple; he had already discussed this with the Devil Heart: hard stone naturally possessed lethal power against punishment, so only the simplest sword blank was needed.\u003C\u002Fp>",1199,"2026-06-20T03:56:22.339Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","5429efe6e80359735db6341af680cba979793a3b92f001a6ae85ee887d015bf2","the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-chapter-239","the-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-chapter-237",289,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-ink-saint-of-great-zhou-cover.jpg"]