Yuan Ming remained silent for a moment, continuing to cultivate the Moonlight Technique and absorb Desire Power into his Sea of Consciousness.

The transparent soul crow, created from his soul splitting, aimlessly wandered in his Sea of Consciousness.

Yuan Ming performed Inner Observation on his Divine Sense, glanced at the crow, and disregarded it.

Just as he was about to continue refining the Desire Power, his expression suddenly changed, and his Divine Sense firmly locked onto the transparent soul crow, making him feel both annoyed and amused!

As the transparent soul crow wandered in his Sea of Consciousness, it wasn't aimlessly so, but it was slowly absorbing the freshly accumulated Soul Power in the Sea of Consciousness to enhance itself.

The Soul Power, painstakingly refined from the Desire Power he transformed, was actually being cornered by this transparent soul crow!

Just as Yuan Ming was about to summon this transparent soul crow out, a thought suddenly occurred to him.

The next moment, he split the Desire Power sent into the Sea of Consciousness into two streams, one toward his main soul and the other toward the transparent soul crow.

Since this soul split had already become independent and developed its own consciousness, it should also be able to absorb Desire Power. Once it refined the Desire Power, he could absorb its Soul Power, which would greatly accelerate the enhancement of his Divine Soul Power.

The Desire Power sent into the main soul was refined and absorbed as usual, so Yuan Ming did not pay further attention to it, but instead focused all his attention on the soul split.

The transparent soul crow quickly absorbed the Desire Power it came into contact with and showed no abnormalities.

Yuan Ming was secretly pleased; this method seemed to work.

However, at that moment, the body of the transparent soul crow suddenly began to show abnormalities by forming bubbles and many cracks appeared.

This startled Yuan Ming, who hurriedly shifted the Desire Power from the soul split back to the main soul, but even so, the cracks on the transparent soul crow's body kept increasing, and it seemed to be on the verge of collapsing.

Through the connection with the soul split, Yuan Ming realized that it was not that it couldn't absorb the Desire Power, but that it simply couldn't dissolve the chaotic emotions contained within the Desire Power.

Being a person with a mature and autonomous consciousness, Yuan Ming himself would experience various emotions daily, which would dissolve over time. Therefore, even by absorbing Desire Power and gaining more mixed emotions, as long as it didn't exceed a certain level, he could dissolve them by himself.

The consciousness of the soul split, although independent, was still very immature and fragile, and it couldn't even form a single coherent thought. Faced with the sudden influx of mixed emotions, it naturally couldn't dissolve them on its own.

Realizing this, Yuan Ming immediately had the soul split run the Moonlight Technique, hoping it would help dissipate the mixed emotions.

However, although the Moonlight Technique was an advanced Soul Cultivation Method, it was only mediocre in dispelling stray thoughts, and the situation of the transparent soul crow did not improve.

"What should I do? Do I just watch this transparent soul crow collapse?" Yuan Ming couldn't help but feel a great urgency in his heart.

This transparent soul crow was not easily obtained and was quite useful. Losing it would be a great loss.

It was then, an idea flashed in his mind, recalling the Heart Cleansing Technique contained within Sha Hao's Storage Bag.

As the main Cultivation Technique of the Great Elder, the Heart Cleansing Technique's greatest feature was its ability to refine the mind and spirit and eliminate emotional stray thoughts.

However, cultivating this technique to its highest realm could completely sever a person's Seven Emotions and Six Desires, which is why Yuan Ming had never tried cultivating it.

Now that the transparent soul crow was troubled by mixed emotions and on the verge of collapse, he might as well try the unlikely cure and not worry about the consequences.

Furthermore, even if the soul split became devoid of emotions due to the Heart Cleansing Technique, it wouldn't affect the main soul much.

Yuan Ming had already memorized the content of the Heart Cleansing Technique and, making a decisive move, controlled the soul split to cultivate according to the method of the Heart Cleansing Technique and operate its Soul Power.

As the soul split had strong Soul Power, combined with Yuan Ming's experience in cultivating the Moonlight Technique, it didn't take long to get a handle on the Heart Cleansing Technique.

Suddenly, the collapsing condition of the soul split staggered to a halt.

Yuan Ming was delighted and continued to control the soul split to operate its Soul Power.

After barely half an hour, he began to clearly feel the mixed emotions within the soul split dissolving like ice and snow, gradually disappearing without trace, the cracks started to heal, and its expanding body gradually returned to calm.

Not only that, the Soul Power of the transparent soul crow was noticeably strengthened.

Yuan Ming breathed a huge sigh of relief; he hadn't expected the Heart Cleansing Technique's ability to remove stray thoughts to be so effective.

With this, his previous plan could completely be realized!

Yuan Ming again directed a stream of Desire Power into the Sea of Consciousness, allowing the transparent soul crow to absorb it all while operating the Heart Cleansing Technique.

The effect of the Heart Cleansing Technique far exceeded his expectations, and the stream of Desire Power was quickly refined and transformed into pure Desire Power in a very short time.

Yuan Ming operated the main soul crow, deploying the Soul Feeding Divine Skills, and before the soul split could act, he sucked away this pure Desire Power.

He couldn't help but feel excited; with this method, he would be able to enhance his Soul Power without any risks!

Yuan Ming repeated the process, continuously directing the Desire Power lingering around the Stealing Heaven Tripod into the soul split, refining it with the Heart Cleansing Technique, retaining only a small part for nourishing the soul split, and pouring the rest into the main soul.

He cultivated in this manner for an entire day and, to his delight, opened his eyes to find that his Divine Soul Power had improved by leaps and bounds, much faster than simply cultivating the Moonlight Technique.

The rapid advancement of Divine Soul Power made the previously elusive Soul Pill Secret Technique now highly probable.

Comparatively, the amount of Desire Power surrounding the Stealing Heaven Tripod now seemed less. It seemed that it was necessary to spread his books throughout Xiansha City for more people to see and idolize him, thereby accumulating Desire Power.

Today, when Yuan Ming went to buy elixirs, he roughly strolled around Xiansha City, where some bookshops also sold books, making publication not a problem.

Yuan Ming contemplated, yet suddenly recalled the Rock Whisker Pill.

This pill was affordable, but the most challenging part was the mixed remnants of Demon Insect thoughts it contained. Since the Heart Cleansing Technique could refine Desire Power, could it also remove the remnants of Demon Insects?

Once this idea struck him, Yuan Ming promptly acted, took out a Rock Whisker Pill, and swallowed it.

Shortly, a thin black mist reappeared in Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness. Prepared this time, he immediately ordered his split soul to absorb all the mist.

Then, as his split soul continuously operated the Heart Cleansing Technique, the black mist vanished in the blink of an eye. Yuan Ming waited for a moment to confirm that the demon beast's miscellaneous thoughts were completely dissolved, revealing a broad smile.

Thus, the side effects of the Insect Pill were non-existent for him. He could purchase and consume it without any hesitation, accelerating his cultivation while genuinely saving a significant amount of Spirit Stone expenditure.

Excited, Yuan Ming immediately went out and purchased various Insect Pills from a few elixir shops at quite low prices, returned to his residence, and immersed himself in cultivation.

...

Four months later.

Yuan Ming came out from a bookshop in the outer city, shook his head, and turned towards the inner city.

Located on the frontier of the Central Plains and far from Da Jin, his publications, though circulated, were scarce in quantity, many of which were pirated with missing or incorrect words. Some even had sections of other books transplanted into them.

To increase his income from Desire Power, he had specially rewritten the manuscript of his works and sent it to a bookshop in Xiansha City for printing and publication.

But now, four months later, he found that the number of readers had grown exceedingly slowly, incrementally accumulating only four or five strands of Desire Power.

He today visited the bookshop and finally understood what was happening.

In the harsh conditions of the Black Wind Desert, where common folk struggled daily just to survive, there was no leisure to buy and read books.

Besides, with Cultivators ruling the area and viewing common people as servants, simply needing them to obey, they naturally did not establish any public or private schools to teach literacy.

Most of the city's commoners were illiterate, and the sales of Yuan Ming's books were abysmal, starkly contrasting with the situation in Da Jin.

Faced with such circumstances, Yuan Ming could only helplessly consider selling the books as a sideline, no longer expecting to gain more Desire Power through this means.

After entering the inner city, he quickly arrived at Spring Breeze Hall.

He had finished the common elixirs he had previously bought and now came to buy more Rock Whisker Pills in bulk for future cultivation needs.

As he walked into the store, thinking about finding the shopkeeper, he looked up and unexpectedly found an acquaintance he had once met.

This person wore a blue scholar's hat and plain scholar's robe, with a gentle and amiable face but dark skin as if often exposed to the sun. Although thin, he did not appear frail.

Currently, he was selecting elixirs in the store. Sensing Yuan Ming's gaze, he looked up, and seeing it was Yuan Ming, his face showed surprise.

"It turns out to be Fellow Daoist Cui, what a coincidence, it's been a long time." Yuan Ming greeted with a smile.

This person was indeed Cultivator Cui who Yuan Ming had met previously in Little Lake City at the Four Symbols Tea House. Although he was from Zhao Country, it was fate that he met Yuan Ming here today.

Cultivator Cui clearly remembered Yuan Ming. However, since Yuan Ming had not exchanged names with him at that time, he wanted to return the greeting but did not know how to address him.

Yuan Ming realized this and immediately said, "Fellow Daoist, just call me Yuan Ming."

Hearing this, Cultivator Cui was momentarily stunned, then seemed to realize, and also greeted with a smile.

"I am Cui Wuran. Fellow Daoist Yuan, I've long admired your name. What brings you to the Black Wind Desert?"

Back at the Four Symbols Tea House, when they talked, someone mentioned having seen Yuan Ming and even had a signed book as proof. Now, one of them calling himself by this name naturally could not be true.

Cui Wuran guessed that Yuan Ming might be using a false name to avoid enemies seeking revenge.

"I came across some minor troubles and thought to lay low for a while. And you, Fellow Daoist Cui?" Yuan Ming replied.

Cui Wuran nodded, further confirming his suspicion. However, when it came to the reasons for his presence, he seemed reluctant to share and vaguely changed the subject.

"Hehe, I'm more or less in the same situation. Are you here to buy elixirs, Fellow Daoist Yuan? I've been living in the city for a while now and am acquainted with the shopkeeper of this store. Let me introduce you later so you can also get a discount," Cui Wuran said.

Yuan Ming smiled, thanked him with a bow, and just then, the shopkeeper came down from upstairs. Seeing Cui and Yuan together, he immediately approached and greeted:

"Senior Cui, you've come! It's been a long time indeed. I thought you might have settled in another city."

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