#1196 - Chapter 1196: Blocking Spiritual Power

Ye Kong immediately sat upright and began circulating his spiritual power to heal himself.

However, as soon as Ye Kong started to cast his spell, his entire body screamed in pain, causing him to fall straight back down.

Large beads of sweat rolled down Ye Kong's forehead.

At this point, he couldn't dispel the poisonous gas on his own. Ye Kong immediately called out to the system, "System, forget about rewards for now, can you at least heal me?"

The system is temporarily out of office.

Ye Kong called out to the heavens and the earth, but received no response. Exhausted, he fainted.

In a state between sleep and wakefulness, Ye Kong felt dizzy and feverish, his body heavy and sinking. One moment, he felt the cold of the eighteenth level of ice hell; the next, he felt the torment of being roasted by fire. He was being tortured beyond recognition. If this continued, even his Vajra body wouldn't be able to withstand it.

Suddenly, in his hazy state, Ye Kong heard a clear flute sound. The flute sound was melodious, bright, and passed through layers of stone walls, reaching Ye Kong's ears and entering his subconscious.

Ye Kong struggled to open his eyes. He was no longer in the dim cave, but under a tall tree on a dark and windy night. The surroundings were dimly lit, and a refreshing breeze blew, making Ye Kong feel a little more comfortable.

Then, the flute sound came closer and closer. Ye Kong smelled a scent, sometimes faint, sometimes fragrant, sometimes clear like a spring, sometimes heavy like mud.

Everything was hazy. Ye Kong couldn't distinguish reality from dream. As he lost consciousness for the last time, Ye Kong heard a heavy sigh.

Alas.

This sigh weighed heavily on Ye Kong's heart. He didn't know who was sighing, what they were sighing about, or why it happened to fall into his ears.

Late that night, an uninvited guest entered Ye Kong's cave again.

A plain white dress trailed to the ground. The hair ornaments on her head fluttered with the movement of her arms. A slender, white hand wrung out a wet towel, gently wiping the sweat from Ye Kong's face before placing it on his forehead.

Then, she opened the basket she carried with her, took out a bowl of pre-cooked medicinal soup, and carefully fed it to Ye Kong, mouthful by mouthful.

After doing all this, she picked up the bamboo basket and left through the back door.

The moonlight was strong. Elder Wang returned, only to discover the presence of another person in Ye Kong's cave. Just as he was about to enter, Elder Wang found himself blocked outside the cave by an invisible force, unable to enter.

Who is it? Who possesses such a powerful spiritual barrier?

He tried to enter without stopping, but failed every time. The last time, the spiritual barrier suddenly disappeared. Elder Wang quickly entered and found Ye Kong sleeping soundly.

Elder Wang took Ye Kong's pulse, only to find an unknown spiritual force within Ye Kong's body rapidly clearing the purple poisonous gas, with a kind of forceful momentum. Ye Kong's complexion was also gradually improving.

Although puzzled, Elder Wang still left.

Early the next morning, Ye Kong got up to greet the rising sun. The fiery pain that had scorched his heart yesterday had lessened a lot, and he felt much more refreshed. He couldn't help but marvel at how resilient his body was. Other than suffering a little, there was nothing else.

Only...

When Ye Kong circulated his spiritual power, he found that he couldn't use it.

Ye Kong's mind went blank.

Crack!

With a sound, the teacup in Ye Kong's hand fell straight to the ground.

Ye Kong immediately came back to his senses. "It's nothing. You just said that everyone was infected by the poisonous gas. Is it serious?"

"It's alright. As soon as the poisonous gas appeared, it was mostly blocked by the elders present. It's just that the staff who were nearby were more seriously affected, and some weak female disciples inhaled some and need to rest for a few days."

Hu Yishao's explosive attack yesterday was untraceable, and there was no time to react. Even the experienced staff members couldn't have anticipated that a sect would violate the competition rules and simply seek death.

Also, because this incident had a wide impact and brought extremely negative consequences, Lefeng Mountain has been stripped of its qualification to host the next sect ranking competition.

"However, since the competition result is already set in stone, resting for a few days won't have much impact. On the other hand, several sects with lower rankings have already started their journey back and won't be attending the final award ceremony."

Zhang Tie told Ye Kong all of this, and then handed Ye Kong the bowl of soup specially prepared by the Taichu Institute to dispel the poisonous gas. Only after watching Ye Kong drink it did he leave after giving a few words of caution.

Ye Kong listened to what happened, his face showing no emotion, but his heart was extremely anxious.

How could it be that after sleeping, the spiritual power in his body became unusable, as if completely imprisoned?

"System? What's going on?" Ye Kong asked anxiously.

"What happened?" The system's lazy voice came.

Is this the system?

Without time to question further, Ye Kong paused for a moment and immediately asked, "My spiritual power can't be used. I can't do anything right now."

"Oh, it's nothing serious. It'll recover soon," the system said and disappeared.

"What does that mean? What does 'recover soon' mean?" Ye Kong continued to ask, but there was no response.

He didn't expect the system to be so fond of riddles lately. It was extremely strange.

Ye Kong was extremely depressed. He ran around the cave ninety-nine eighty-one times, but still couldn't figure it out.

Is this a natural disaster or a man-made one?

No, who am I, Ye Kong? I'm going to defeat all the invincible opponents in the world! Now you're telling me to do nothing?

And this system, with so many tasks, it's so difficult to get help. As Ye Kong complained about the system, the system appeared again.

"I heard someone was saying bad things about me?" A strange voice came.

"What's the use of coming out now?" Ye Kong lay flat, not wanting to pay attention.

"Indeed, there's no serious problem. You just need to wait quietly for three days," the system replied.

Ye Kong ignored it.

"What? Do you want me to give you more rewards?"

Ye Kong still ignored it.

"Forget it, I'll help you when your system comes back. I'm powerless," the system said.

"What? What system? Where did the system go?" Ye Kong was shocked and surprised.

"Oh right, your system is on vacation these days. I'm a substitute. So I can only remind you, not substitute."

The system's last strange voice came with a sentence, "This is also helping you."

Ye Kong didn't have time to digest this weird vacation and the ghost system that had a substitute. He just keenly captured a piece of information in this strangeness.

"Help me? Blocking my spiritual power to help me with what?"

It seems that some things are inconvenient for me to interfere with.

But I insist on taking a look.