Chapter 1261: with translation of chapter title

However, just as the dark claw shadow was about to touch the female cultivator's body.

An abrupt change occurred!

That fierce claw shadow, as if it had struck an invisible, extremely viscous barrier, the yin-sha power condensed within it, like ice and snow under a scorching sun, silently and soundlessly disintegrated and dissipated! No explosion, no impact, just so abruptly and thoroughly... returned to nothing!

「What?! 」

The three black-robed cultivators' faces changed drastically; they abruptly halted their escape lights, looking around in bewildered uncertainty. They felt no spiritual power fluctuations or any trace of spellcraft!

The female cultivator also stared wide-eyed in shock, discovering she was unharmed, equally bewildered.

Only Han Wuxian, standing at the edge of the crowd like an ordinary onlooker, had a flash of realization in his eyes. Just moments before, he slightly stirred his thoughts, using that wisp of pure Returning to Void qi, invisibly guiding the most unstable point in the claw shadow's energy structure, causing it to undergo 'self-annihilation.' This was far more subtle and concealed than if he had directly blocked it.

「Which expert dares to interfere? This is an internal affair of my Black Sha Sect! 」 the black-robed leader shouted sternly, trying to find the hidden assailant.

Han Wuxian naturally would not respond. He glanced at the still-shaken Qinglin Prefecture female cultivator, then at the three flustered Black Sha Sect cultivators, and shook his head slightly. This muddy water, he had no intention of wading deep into.

He turned and, like an ordinary passerby, silently blended into the market crowd, disappearing without a trace.

The three black-robed cultivators, finding nothing and wary of that mysterious method, could only glare resentfully at the female cultivator before grudgingly retreating.

The minor disturbance quickly subsided, and Huangsha Market returned to its usual clamor and numbness.

After secretly resolving the Black Sha Sect's attack that day, Han Wuxian's life returned to surface calm. He continued to play the role of an inconspicuous Foundation Establishment Stage loose cultivator, daily studying the mysteries of Returning to Void in his stone hut and gathering scattered information in the market. Yet he knew that his seemingly casual intervention that day was like dropping a small stone onto a calm lake—though the ripples were slight, they had already begun to spread.

He keenly noticed that some unfamiliar, scrutinizing gazes had appeared in the market. They were not aimed at him personally, but constituted a surveillance of the overall atmosphere of Huangsha Market. Perhaps the Black Sha Sect was investigating the hidden assailant of that day, or perhaps other forces had taken note of the abnormality here.

「The tree desires calm, but the wind will not cease. 」 Han Wuxian understood this in his heart. The struggling survival of low-level cultivators likewise lies on the greater power struggle's chessboard. His «test stone», seemingly inadvertently, had touched a hidden line on the board.

He did not retreat because of this; instead, he turned his attention to the female cultivator from Qinglin Prefecture who had been pursued that day. Her name was Liu Qing, an agent sent by Qinglin Prefecture to investigate recent abnormal movements of the Black Sha Sect near the Chensha River. Qinglin Prefecture and the Black Sha Sect have long been at odds, and in recent years friction has persisted over several mineral deposits and a minor spiritual vein.

Han Wuxian had no interest in power struggles themselves, but he felt a hint of curiosity toward the familiar, erosive and plundering yin-sha power in the Black Sha Sect's techniques. This power resembled, faintly and weakly, the «I Desire» Dao of Yan Buji he had encountered, as well as some chaotic law fragments in the Starfall Valley, being extremely feeble and mixed.

「Could it be that the Black Sha Sect is connected to remnants of some ancient demonic path, or to certain «contaminated» laws? 」 This speculation led him to decide to take the Black Sha Sect as his next, and more profound, «test stone».

He did not directly contact Liu Qing, as that would expose himself. He chose a more covert way to observe the environment and trace the source.

He again transformed his divine sense into invisible tendrils, no longer confined to Huangsha Market, but extending along the upper and lower reaches of the Chensha River, especially the areas where the Black Sha Sect's forces were active, to sense minutely.

After several days of investigation, he indeed discovered an anomaly.

Deep within a Black Sha Sect-controlled mine cave hundreds of li from Huangsha Market, he sensed an extremely faint yet essentially quite pure yin-corrosive death qi. This death qi was not naturally formed; it resembled an external, active corrosive energy slowly polluting the ore veins, and through the earth veins, subtly affecting the surrounding environment, even... imperceptibly amplifying the greed and ferocity of those who came into contact with it.

「Indeed, there is something strange. 」 Han Wuxian's eyes narrowed slightly. This method, while wonderfully similar in effect to Yan Buji's «Dao Corrosion», is countless times lower in level, more like an unconscious diffusion or a poor imitation.

He silently sneaked into the depths of the mine cave, evading the guards and crude formations. In the lowest level of the cave, inside a secretly opened stone chamber, he saw the source—a fist-sized irregular hole constantly oozing black viscous liquid, as if leading directly to some subterranean source of filth. The pure yin-corrosive death qi was emanating from it.

「A spatial rift? Or perhaps… an artificially opened passage? 」 Han Wuxian observed carefully with his «Mind Mirror», discovering that the hole was extremely unstable, its edges in disarray of spatial laws, seemingly connected to a small pocket space filled with death and decay aura, or a fragment of some ancient battlefield.

The Black Sha Sect had obviously discovered this place, but they seemed unable to close or control the hole; instead, they were using the diffusing yin-corrosive death qi to cultivate their plundering technique, and might even be attempting to channel this power to pollute the spiritual veins of Qinglin Prefecture.

「Luring a dove to quench thirst, inviting self-destruction. 」 Han Wuxian commented. Such death qi, with prolonged contact, not only corrodes the mind but may also invite more terrifying existences, or cause the hole to run out of control, leading to a massive outbreak of death qi that could turn a thousand-li radius into a dead zone.

He could have simply stood by, as it was none of his concern. Yet seeing the death qi constantly seeping out and polluting the environment, feeling within it a «termination» force utterly unlike Returning to Void—filled with negative intent—his desire to «guide» and «purify» stirred again.

This was not to save anyone, but an excellent opportunity for him to verify his new Dao!

How should he deal with this hole?

Forcibly close it? With his currently limited power and lacking knowledge of the opposite space's details, the risk is too great, possibly triggering an unpredictable chain reaction.

Leave it alone? That is contrary to his wishes and violates his new principle of «guiding Returning to Void, following a benign cycle».

He pondered for a moment, and a plan gradually took shape.

He no longer tried to «block» it, but decided to «drain» and «transform».

He sat cross-legged before the hole, ignoring the uncomfortable yin-corrosive death qi. With hands lightly pressed, the wisp of transformed essence Returning to Void qi slowly flowed out—not to attack the hole, but to construct around it an extremely intricate, invisible force field composed of countless minute Returning to Void runes.

The function of this force field is not annihilation, but «selection» and «transformation».

It acts like a special filter, allowing the relatively «pure» yin energy emanating from the hole to pass through, while stripping away and intercepting its contained negative intent, erosive properties, and chaotic law fragments.

The stripped-off harmful parts, under the action of the Returning to Void force field, are guided to collide and annihilate each other, turning into harmless basic energy particles.

The «clean» yin energy that passed through the filter was then further «tamed» by Han Wuxian with Returning to Void power, making its nature stable and inert; thereafter… he guided it to sink deep into the earth veins—not as pollution, but akin to applying a special «fertilizer» to barren land, which, while unable to directly breed life, can to some extent stabilize the earth vein structure and slow its natural decline.