Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 433

The contents recorded within the divine sense jade slip were not extensive, yet it had meticulously preserved the entire conversation between Heavenly Frost Demon Lord and the Cold Blood Mountain Lord, down to the smallest detail.

In the lower right corner, Heavenly Frost’s demonic essence imprint had also been left behind.

The corners of Wang Yu’s lips lifted slightly. He could already imagine how absurd the scene must have looked at the time.

However, the Cold Blood Mountain Lord’s reason for attempting to deal with him was not sufficiently convincing. As for the Alchemy Hall harboring deep hatred toward him, Wang Yu had long anticipated that. He even knew that Old Yu did not have much longer to live.

How could he possibly not guard against that?

The issue was that although Old Yu’s death knell had begun to toll, he still had another hundred years to live. With that much time remaining, why would Wang Yu care about a mere Alchemy Hall?

How many Nascent Soul cultivators could they possibly have?

As long as he could break through to late-stage Nascent Soul, it would not matter who came. Absolute power was the eternal truth of the cultivation world. Whether it was interests or resources, the pursuit of them ultimately served only one purpose: To Obtain Power.

For that reason, Wang Yu had never worried about the people of the Alchemy Hall.

If the Cold Blood Mountain Lord had been swayed by nothing more than a promise of prioritized pill supply, then something was clearly wrong.

He had an excellent relationship with Yan Ling. Through that bond, he had also supplied the Cold Blood Peak master-disciple faction with quite a number of spirit pills. If Heavenly Frost could weigh the pros and cons and make the correct decision, there was no reason for the Cold Blood Mountain Lord to be a fool.

Their unity against external forces was based on the premise that the target was an outsider. Wang Yu was a loyalist born and raised within Cold Blood Peak. It made no sense to push one of their own outward.

Therefore, this divine sense jade slip was both important and not so important. The Mountain Lord agreeing to the Alchemy Hall’s request was likely not merely because of a promise of priority pill allocation.

This matter benefited the future, while Wang Yu was the present.

“He deliberately told Heavenly Frost so that he would come warn me?”

After reaching this conclusion, Wang Yu thought further.

The Alchemy Hall did not fall under the authority of the Nine Peaks Mountain Lords, nor was it governed by the Blood Demon Hall. Nominally, it was independent, but in reality it was jointly controlled by the three great clans.

Following that line of thought, aside from members of those three clans, no one could make the Cold Blood Mountain Lord compromise, and certainly not in such a subtle manner.

“First eliminate the Zuoqiu clan. The Zhuo clan is the most suspicious, followed by the Yu clan. Could it be Zhuo Shouyun…”

But the moment the reasoning reached this point, Wang Yu rejected it.

He understood Zhuo Shouyun.

With the Sect Master already coveting his physical body, would he really choose this moment to target Wang Yu? That would be like throwing a meat bun to a dog. Once it left his hand, it would not return. With a simple trap, his body might end up belonging to the Sect Master.

Zhuo Shouyun’s top priority should be cultivation. Ideally, he would break through to Nascent Soul before moving about the outside world, giving himself a stronger safeguard. Otherwise, he would easily fall victim to the Sect Master’s schemes.

He would not act so inappropriately. In fact, Wang Yu felt there was no real grudge between them. After all, he had been the one who won.

The reasoning came to a halt here.

Suddenly, a flash of inspiration appeared in Wang Yu’s mind.

“Could it be because of reputation?”

Supreme Law Profound Pill Demon Lord was hailed as the greatest cultivation genius of the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain in the past ten thousand years. Behind that honor was the growth story of a Spirit Slave born with Innate Wasted Spiritual Roots.

He had even risen by consuming Zhuo clan resources.

To those in the know, it would appear rather laughable. Especially among the Zhuo clan members, there would naturally be a psychological tendency to look down on Wang Yu.

There was no hatred without reason. If it stemmed from jealousy, that would make sense.

The righteous-demonic war had been ongoing for thirty to forty years.

Wang Yu was the most famous and the strongest. His reputation led by an overwhelming margin.

Next came Zhou Lingjun, direct disciple of the Barbaric Ghost line, and Tong Du, direct disciple of Five Yin. Both had displayed their might publicly on the Cloud Ridge Province battlefield.

Then there were Lu Jue, direct disciple of Gu Poison, Yan Tianxing, direct disciple of Evil Sword, Yin Jiuge, direct disciple of Fierce Nether, and Yan Ling, direct disciple of Cold Blood Peak. Some were in Maple Prefecture, others in Night Jewel Prefecture. All were primarily focused on cultivation.

Seven individuals.

All were Nascent Soul seeds.

Their probability of condensing a Nascent Soul far exceeded that of ordinary cultivators. Based on previous generations, it would be perfectly normal for three to five of them to succeed. But now, amid the righteous-demonic war, the difficulty of obtaining opportunities had greatly decreased.

There was a significant chance that all of them might condense Nascent Souls.

Not to mention Xie Xie’an of Evil God Peak, who had disappeared deep within the Desolate Ancient Plains. Once he returned, he would inevitably break through to Nascent Soul. The Blood Pavilion disciples of Blood Nether Peak all possessed Heavenly Spirit Root-grade Blood Spirit Roots.

And that was only the genius cultivators of the Blood Reversal Sect.

Among the Five Great Demonic Sects, there were many more prodigies yet to reveal themselves. As for Taihu, there were even more. The population base alone ensured that.

This war would conservatively last at least a hundred years.

It might even continue for two to three hundred years. Until their objective was achieved, Taihu would not retreat.

Returning to the main issue, after suspecting that it might be a Zhuo clan prodigy trying to use the Alchemy Hall to target him, Wang Yu did not rush. He first sent a message to Xu Ruozhou, instructing him to investigate which Zhuo clan talents had not joined the Exalted Sect for cultivation. Meanwhile, Wang Yu continued his closed-door cultivation, researching the Second Nascent Soul Secret Art.

Matters had to be handled one by one. The Alchemy Hall’s targeting posed no real threat to him. It would not be too late to respond once they took concrete action.

As for himself, ever since devouring the physical body of the Nine Evil Sword Lord, everything related to the Innate Demonic Embryo Physique seemed to have been activated. Now that his cultivation breakthrough goal had been achieved, it was only natural to further research the Heavenly Demon Myriad Transformations ability.

The core of this ability lay in Heavenly Demon Malicious Intent.

Wang Yu’s Mysterious Origin Demonic Embryo and Demonic Nascent Soul had long fused into one. There was not even a spiritual root within his body. This state of emptiness was precisely the prerequisite for achieving Myriad Transformations.

By using Heavenly Demon Malicious Intent to shatter a target’s mind, he could obtain a controllable shell. Then, through an ability similar to demonic corruption, he could extract the origin essence from that shell.

After devouring and refining it, he could utilize the Heavenly Demon Myriad Transformations ability of the Innate Demonic Embryo Physique to perform transformations at both the physical and spiritual soul levels, completely becoming a living being of another race.

The tree spirit form he had acquired in his early years had actually been based on this principle. By cleverly utilizing the power of the Demon Dragon Tree Heart, he had nurtured a Myriad Transformations clone.

Such an ability was practically a divine technique when used to conceal one’s identity.

But using it only in that way was somewhat wasteful. It had not been fully utilized.

Then, Wang Yu naturally thought of the Second Nascent Soul secret art.

The core principle of this secret art was to cultivate the “Ancient Soul” into a “Nascent Soul”, thereby gaining an incarnation whose thoughts were synchronized with his own. It could also bear damage directed at the divine soul, effectively serving as a substitute life.

The reason Wang Yu had always disliked this type of secret art was simple. It carried the possibility of developing independent self-awareness and becoming uncontrollable.

No matter how reliable the secret art’s description claimed it to be, there would certainly be no issues at the beginning. The problem lay in prolonged use. Who knew what changes might occur over time?

There was no one-click reset button. That was why he had never cultivated it.

But now, if he first cultivated a Second Nascent Soul and then demonically tainted it into a Myriad Transformation Incarnation, it would mean one body housing two Nascent Souls. He could even cultivate a second primary cultivation technique.

Whether righteous methods, demonic arts, or even demon techniques, all could be practiced.

This was different from having two separate bodies with two separate Nascent Souls.

Of course, this was not to say external incarnations were inferior. They were simply unsuitable for someone as suspicious as he was. No one understood his own mind better than himself. If he truly created an identical incarnation, would it betray him?

He knew the answer very clearly.

Since he temporarily lacked the material known as True Soul Stone, Wang Yu only began carefully comprehending the Second Nascent Soul secret art. The Ancient Soul Art he had cultivated for many years was already close to completion.

Once perfected, the “False Soul (Ancient Soul)” within his Niwan Palace could be pushed to its absolute limit. He had deliberately preserved this opportunity, waiting for the moment when his divine sense broke through the bottleneck of late-stage Nascent Soul.

At that time, the technique would provide crucial assistance.

As for what that opportunity truly was, he could not yet say. Because he was not dedicating himself to full comprehension, his cultivation continued to grow steadily.

To reach the peak of the third layer of the Nascent Soul realm and attempt a breakthrough, he needed to accumulate twelve thousand drops of demonic essence. Based on the efficiency of his three Idle Slots operating simultaneously, around thirty years was a reasonable estimate.

If he opened the furnace again to refine Longevity Blood Nascent Pills, the speed would increase even further. But Wang Yu would not rely solely on pills to stack demonic essence. Human Pills had advantages, but they also carried drawbacks.

A shortcut always came with side effects.

It was best to cultivate in seclusion for a period of time and experience more high-intensity battles. His foundation would naturally become solid again. There was no need to rush.

Time stood on his side.

As the days passed, the Supreme Law Dao Field would occasionally release waves of pill fragrance. The thick, rich aroma even condensed into multicolored pill clouds. If a mortal inhaled a single breath, impurities would be cleansed from the body, granting a lifespan of a hundred years.

All kinds of pill-forming phenomena appeared without interruption, occurring every year.

The spirit pill entrusted by the Heavenly Roc King was also successfully refined. It was a special pill known as the Jadeite Soul-Melding Pill, whose function was to fuse different souls together.

Few people had use for such a thing. As for what the demon race intended to do with it, Wang Yu did not concern himself. This favor repaid the Heavenly Roc King’s courtesy in yielding the Nine Evil corpse.

The Hound King and the True Word King, however, had not contacted him again.

The northern demon race had helped him eliminate a major enemy, yet he had not fulfilled the condition he promised in return. The condition was simple. He would help them accomplish one matter that did not violate his principles or interests.

Carrying a debt on his shoulders made him uncomfortable.

If it could be repaid, it was best to do so sooner rather than later.

Aside from secluded pill refinement, he also paid attention to the progress of the righteous-demonic war. After Black Mountain Pass fell, more than half of Lingxi Prefecture at the entrance to Taihu had been taken.

The chaos in Maple Prefecture gradually subsided. The Exalted Sect began shifting its focus to the Cloud Ridge Prefecture battlefield, concentrating on dealing with Yellow Springs Monastery. This caused some powerful cultivators to transfer toward the eastern front.

Under such circumstances, after more than two additional years of seclusion, Wang Yu suddenly received a transmission from Jin Miaoshan.

Ancestor Phase Cultivation Log, Year 16, Mid-March.

On that day, a jade pendant inside the Seaheart Ring, specifically used to contact Jin Miaoshan, suddenly flew out and manifested a projection of a human face in midair.

“Brother Wang, long time no see.”

“Fellow Daoist Miaoshan.”

Their last meeting had been just over a decade ago. Wang Yu had spent most of his time in seclusion and was not particularly sensitive to the passage of time.

It did not feel long.

If she contacted him now, it must be for a reason.

And indeed, it was.

“Brother Wang, I’ve caught that brat Jin Lin by the tail. He’ll soon be traveling south from You Prefecture under Yellow Springs Monastery’s jurisdiction toward the Peach Grove region. Interested in killing him?”

Wang Yu’s brows lifted slightly.

You Prefecture and Cloud Ridge Prefecture were locked in fierce battle. The managers behind Golden Abundance Tower in those two regions were precisely Jin Miaoshan and Jin Lin.

To the south lay Tao Prefecture. Not only did it produce the cultivation spiritual item Purple-Gold Peach in abundance, but in its northwestern corner stood Thunder Amassing Mountain, which was also one of Wang Yu’s intended exploration targets.

Revenge had to be taken.

A treasured land had to be explored.

The two matters could be handled together.

With Jin Miaoshan standing at the forefront, he would be acting as support. The consequences of killing Jin Lin would not fall on him. There was no way he would miss such an opportunity.

“Give me the location.”

On the other end of the projection, Jin Miaoshan blinked flirtatiously.

“Within one month. Cloud Ridge Prefecture, Jade Spirit City. Miaoshan will prepare a couch and await your arrival.”

With a wave of his hand, Wang Yu severed the connection of the magic treasure.

“Vixen.”

Immediately afterward, he summoned Xu Ruozhou and gave several instructions. From him, he obtained the deliberately exposed list of young prodigies from the Ghost Fang Zhuo Clan.

The list was not long, roughly eleven or twelve names.

All of them were prodigies who had not entered the Exalted Sect and had instead been nurtured from childhood within the Zhuo Clan’s family academy. They were truly the best among the best.

Attached was another list of accompanying disciples affiliated with the Zhuo Clan.

For example, the children of guest elders, the offspring of stewards, illegitimate sons of the Zhuo Clan, descendants of collateral branches, members of divided family lines, and even disciples or relatives of sons-in-law such as Black Heaven Talisman Lord.

This second list was extremely detailed. Every name was connected by blood or kinship, all bound by clan lineage, and all were talented individuals in their own right.

Each followed a specific Zhuo Clan heir. Nominally they were accompanying students, but in truth they were future confidants who would help wield authority. Their status was far from low.

“A whole batch of Heavenly Spiritual Roots. The Zhuo Clan truly produces geniuses.”

After reviewing the information, Wang Yu memorized the names and portraits. He then left Snowjade in the cave residence. The little fox was about to break through to late-stage Core Formation.

He planned to hand her over to Tantai Chan for a period of care. Following him would be somewhat dangerous.

Of course, she came with her own provisions, and could even share some of the spirit pills he personally refined with Tantai Chan. After all, the latter could hardly afford to raise her otherwise.

He slipped five storage rings onto the base of the little fox’s five tails where they connected to her body. Inside each was filled with the indulgent affection of her master.

Holding her fox head in both hands, he rubbed it repeatedly before instructing,

“Your Sister Chan will come pick you up shortly. Don’t cause trouble.”

Seeing Snowjade nod obediently, he finally stepped out of the Supreme Law Dao Field.

He glanced back once at the summit of Cold Blood Mountain.

Wang Yu transformed into a streak of aurora light and first went to the Blood Demon Hall to report his departure from the sect. Unfortunately, he did not meet the Sect Master and only left a message with the Blood God Guard stationed there.

There was still no news regarding the Alchemy Hall’s targeting. They were likely waiting for the Old Flood Dragon’s death before making a move, or perhaps acting more covertly and had yet to be discovered.

These matters required only attention, not full defensive preparation. Today, he was completely different from before.

Strength was his greatest confidence.

He also made a trip to the All Halls Market and obtained a transmission jade talisman capable of contacting a Nascent Soul cultivator in Cloud Ridge Prefecture. After that, he left the sect directly and flew east with practiced familiarity.

Jade Spirit City had carried his entire Foundation Establishment period of cultivation. After so many years, returning stirred many emotions. If all went smoothly, he could stay for a time.

He could also visit the Yanluo Ghost Market again.

Confirming that no one was tailing him, Wang Yu flew nonstop to Jade Spirit City, arriving in just over ten days.

To a Nascent Soul cultivator, the Ice Prison Realm no longer felt vast. It even seemed somewhat narrow.

This heaven and earth was, after all, a cage imprisoning everything.

…

…

Jade Spirit Golden Abundance Tower stood adjacent to Heaven Treasure Pavilion. When Wang Yu landed atop the building, he looked toward the neighboring pavilion.

The Pavilion Master of Heaven Treasure Pavilion here, Han Jia, had been on excellent terms with him.

They had often shared drinks together. Many third-rank resources had been secured through Han Jia’s help. It stirred a sense of nostalgia. He wondered whether they might meet again.

Because Jade Spirit City had fallen along the advancing warfront, it no longer belonged to the Exalted Sect. Instead, it was now under the jurisdiction of Yellow Springs Monastery. Cultivators stood guard everywhere.

Even the mortals had been relocated to You Prefecture, revealing clear ambition.

The city’s defensive forces were primarily Core Formation cultivators. It was not the foremost frontline nor the most intense battlefield, so Wang Yu’s entry caused no disturbance.

At that moment, a faint ghostly wind swept past.

Jin Miaoshan, dressed in a flowing green robe, appeared beside him with a radiant smile. Her delicate hand looped around his neck as she pressed her head against his chest, her breath fragrant.

Her crimson lips hovered near his throat.

“You’ve come.”

Wang Yu was slightly surprised. He had not expected their relationship to have progressed to this extent. By instinct, his arm wrapped around her slender, supple waist.

“What is going on with you?”

As he spoke, he glanced behind her.

The ever-meticulous Lady Jin Xiyuan was nowhere to be seen.