Charlie Wade is not known for being stingy; however, he feels a deep sense of loss when ites to spiritual energy.


    This time, the spiritual energy he lost was unprecedented. It included all the spiritual energy within him, the energy from hand seals, and five Peiyuan Pills, all of which had been taken away. The pain of this loss felt far worse than losing 10 billion US dors.


    Lin Wan’er (ni) was taken aback. She never anticipated that after giving Charlie Wade five pills in quick session, the spiritual energy would vanishpletely. She eximed, “Master, this… this can’t just disappear without a reason, right? Could it have been absorbed by the ring again?”


    Charlie Wade shook his head somberly and replied, “That’s not what happened this time. I intended to channel all the spiritual energy into the ring, but the energy generated by the handprint was beyond my control. It felt like it had a will of its own. Instead of going to the ring, it drew my original spiritual energy straight into my sea of consciousness, making me losemand over it. As you continued to feed me pills, it seemed to have a mind of its own. When it detected new spiritual energy in my dantian, it turned on me. It consumed five pills and then some. I suspect it was a trap from the beginning; it lured me in with a little gain, only to keep pulling me deeper. I thought my spiritual energy had doubled with its assistance, but in reality, it was just greedy for my core energy…”


    As he spoke, he thought of the five pills, covering his face in despair: “This feels like being forced to pursue a five-fold leverage after my ount has been liquidated… What the hell! Isn’t this just like a stock market scam artist who lures in more investors just to wipe out the retail ones?!”<h3 style="background-color:DodgerBlue">


    Lin Wan’er (ni) murmured, “But… it’s just the spiritual energy cultivated by the young master using hand seals. It shouldn’t possess self-awareness. How could it be so cunning…”


    Charlie Wade shook his head again, expressing his own confusion: “I can’t make sense of it either. It defies logic…”


    Lin Wan’er (ni) then asked, “If you’re sure the ring didn’t absorb the energy, could something else have done it?”


    “Something else?” Charlie Wade replied, shaking his head. “Apart from the ring you gave me and the medicine cauldron I took from the head of Taizhen Dao, I haven’t used any other magical tools. This time, it wasn’t the ring, and it definitely wasn’t the cauldron.”


    Lin Wan’er (ni) looked puzzled. “But… even your body might struggle to hold such a massive amount of spiritual energy. Why did it vanishpletely after reaching your sea of consciousness? I was right by your side and didn’t sense anything unusual. Logically, the energy in your body shouldn’t have had a chance to escape. Its disappearance is truly bizarre.”


    “Exactly…” Charlie Wade sat up with difficulty, frustration evident in his voice. “It’s like someone trying to eat several times their own weight in one sitting. It seems unbelievable, yet when the spiritual energy reached my sea of consciousness, it just vanished.”


    Lin Wan’er (ni) continued, “Sir, have you considered why, when we stood beneath the Northern Lights, they transformed into that set of handprints? Could it be that someone had been setting a trap for you from that moment?”


    Charlie Wade questioned, “Are you suggesting that someone intentionally had Ji Guang teach me the handprints to trick me into losing all my spiritual energy?”<fn6097> Th? link to the orig?n of this information r?sts ?n FindN0vel</fn6097>


    Lin Wan’er (ni) nodded, adding, “Let’s reason this out together. If this is a trap from start to finish, then its creator must either be a person or an object.”


    Continuing, Lin Wan’er (ni) said, “I believe it’s unlikely to be a person. Even if there were experts hiding near the Aurora that day, it’s improbable they would follow us across the ocean all the way to Aurous Hill and into this vi’s basement. It would require something supernatural, like a ghost, but that remains unproven and unlikely.”


    Charlie Wade agreed, “It does seem improbable for it to be a human or a ghost. If it were a human, they would need to master some kind of invisibility technique, as seen in fantasy stories, to follow us undetected. And as for ghosts, there’s no evidence supporting their existence. Even if they did exist, they wouldn’t be able to absorb spiritual energy.”