Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 503

After obtaining these resources, it did not take long for almost all the Nascent Soul experts stationed at the mountain gate to gather. They looked at the ice-sealed Gu Poison Peak and could not help turning their gazes toward Wang Yu.

They knew a great deal about this renowned young powerhouse, but they were not entirely clear on exactly what had happened here.

Until someone spotted the obvious flaw.

“This is Gu Poison Peak… Where is Fellow Daoist Ten Thousand Gu? Why hasn’t he appeared?”

The words woke everyone up.

Could the other person who had fought Wang Yu have been Ten Thousand Gu?

What was the exact reason?

When the Grand Commander met Wang Yu’s eyes, the latter understood instantly. He took out the Blood Demon Token and showed it to the Nascent Soul colleagues of the peak, then explained aloud:

“I came to Gu Poison Peak on the Sect Master’s orders to dispatch Ten Thousand Gu to the Thunderfire Temple battlefield to support the front lines. Unfortunately, that scoundrel refused to obey even at the cost of his life. Offending this lord is one thing, but disobeying the Sect Master’s command… that is simply courting death. What do you all think?”

With the Grand Commander as witness, bitter understanding dawned in everyone’s hearts. The smart ones knew things could not be that simple, but what could they do? A reason had already been provided, and it was passable on the surface.

If they continued to press the matter without knowing what was good for them, they might very well become the next Ten Thousand Gu.

Of course.

This was the malicious interpretation. If one chose to look at it favorably, the principle of “mind your own business and hang it high” was more than enough to keep surviving inside the vast Blood Reversal Sect.

With that, the matter came to an end. The cultivators dispersed one after another.

The Grand Commander walked up to Wang Yu and exclaimed without hiding his astonishment, “You never fail to shock people. How many years has it been? You can already take down an old demon like Ten Thousand Gu all by yourself.”

“Just luck.”

After a modest reply, the two chatted briefly about the current war situation. Wang Yu learned the latest frontline news from him.

The outlook did not seem optimistic.

If the first hundred years of the war had seen the demonic path advance unhindered with no worthy opponents, then after the destruction of the Azure Cloud Sect and the Moon-Gazing Palace, the third target—Thunderfire Temple—had put up unprecedented resistance.

The same old saying applied.

In a war of attrition, the Crimson Kite had no advantage; in fact, it was at a massive disadvantage.

It all came down to whether the “Old Dog Surprise Attack Squad” could achieve the desired effect. Otherwise, the demonic camp would most likely abandon the hard bone that was Thunderfire Temple and continue pushing deeper inward.

At the same time, after the fall of the Azure Cloud Sect, the northern battlefield had shifted from large-scale warfare to elite small-team infiltration and sabotage operations deep in enemy territory. They were also investigating traces of the Ice Race.

The Northern Demon Race was taking the lead in this theater, with Cold Blood Peak cultivators and some Nether Mountain Sect experts playing only a supporting role. Major changes in the situation were unlikely in the short term.

Once Wang Yu had sorted out his thoughts, he calmly returned to his cave abode and entered seclusion.

He had obtained all three of Ten Thousand Gu’s Gu colonies.

The Heavenly Poison Scorpion King and the Red Rust Insect King were both hidden inside his body’s acupoints. The Thunder Fiend Coffin had captured them along with the blood and flesh essence.

As for the Weeping Blood Evil Gu Art, Wang Yu checked it the simplest way possible—he tossed it into the Idle Slots to see if there would be any feedback on cultivation experience or insights.

As long as feedback returned normally, there would be no problem.

Secret arts required time to cultivate, and Gu insects required time to breed. Taking advantage of his status as a Nascent Soul ancestor, Wang Yu issued a material-collection mission to the Miscellaneous Affairs Hall of the various palace halls.

The materials were mainly to accelerate the reproduction speed of the three great Gu Kings so the colonies could regain their former scale. Once the Iceflame Butterfly swarm was added in, the secret art would display its maximum effect.

The process would take quite a while. Using his divine-sense splitting technique, Wang Yu carried out multiple plans at once, pushing himself to the limit while never neglecting his own cultivation.

Everything progressed steadily across the board.

It could be said that no one had a more stable cultivation speed than him.

Ten Thousand Gu’s Nascent Soul was refined by him into a new Blood Nascent Pill. After absorbing it, a full one-and-a-half demonic essence crystals rapidly condensed inside his Qi sea.

That was equivalent to fifteen thousand drops of demonic essence. It showed that Ten Thousand Gu’s cultivation had indeed been impressive.

With no more Blood Nascent Pills available, Wang Yu used Star Demon Stones as the main material, supplemented by other yin-cold spiritual materials, and refined several cultivation pills. With his alchemy attainments, creating a formula was not difficult.

The hard part was making it universally effective so every cultivator would gain the same benefit. Tailoring a few pills solely for his own situation was actually quite simple.

Maintaining his rapid cultivation pace, he quietly placed the life-bound divine ability Guanghan Twelve Phases into the Idle Slots. He still needed to comprehend the fourth Dao intent.

Dao intent extended from a divine ability that had reached perfection.

He had never worked on this aspect before because his life-bound divine ability advanced slowly and the Idle Slots were limited. Now was the perfect time to place it.

After all, the core path he walked was the extreme Cold Dao. Even with a talent like the Innate Demonic Embryo Physique, he had no intention of abandoning it midway. Therefore, yin-cold Dao intents were actually better suited to bringing out the full power of all his trump cards.

And so… ten years passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day.

Wang Yu sat cross-legged on a soft meditation cushion. A rising vortex of qi suddenly appeared around him. His robes fluttered, and his silver hair danced wildly without order.

In that instant, the demonic essence crystals accumulated inside his body broke through the limit of twenty. Like stars of the heavens, they dotted every part of his Qi sea, continuously flashing with cold light around the Nascent Soul.

His cultivation successfully broke through to the eighth layer of Nascent Soul!

The ninth layer that followed would require a full fifty demonic essence crystals. In other words, he still needed to cultivate a total of three hundred thousand drops of demonic essence to complete the breakthrough.

This checkpoint alone was enough to stump countless heaven-gifted geniuses.

Even for Wang Yu, relying solely on bitter cultivation would take centuries, let alone for others.

If there were no sufficiently valuable opportunities, the chances of breaking through the normal cultivation were extremely low. This had a great deal to do with the spiritual qi environment of the Ice Prison Realm.

After all, Nascent Soul cultivators needed to absorb the pure spiritual qi from supreme-grade spirit stones to continue increasing their cultivation. Spirit Transformation cultivators had to stay inside fifth-rank spirit veins year-round just to avoid being affected by the “harsh” environment.

Every time they went all out, recovering to peak condition took years.

And the number of known fifth-rank spirit veins in the Ice Prison Realm was extremely small.

Taihu Sword Sect, Heaven-Refining Demonic Sect, Outer Sea Abyss, Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, Desolate Ancient Plains, Northern and Southern Severed Boundary Mountain Ranges… in total, only these seven locations. But there were definitely fifth-rank spirit veins inside the Endless Ice Plains.

The Blood Reversal Sect and Yellow Springs Monastery’s cooperation with the Northern Demon Race had a partial goal of obtaining the fifth-rank spirit veins the Northern Demon Race possessed. At the same time, they sent elite small teams deep into the ice plains to search for traces of the Ice Race.

In truth, they were also searching for fifth-rank spirit veins.

Borrowing from others could never compare to owning them oneself—for comfort and stability alike.

Back then, the spirit vein in the ancient Heavenly Soul Sect ruins had been extracted by Poison Flood Dragon Venerable. Every time the master of the Blood Reversal Sect thought about it, he could not help but sigh with regret and clench his fists.

This showed just how significant a fifth-rank spirit vein was to a Spirit Transformation cultivator.

During Wang Yu’s ten years of seclusion, advancing his cultivation further was only an expected minor gain. The real goal had been the massive increase in the population sizes of the three great Gu colonies: Red Rust Insect, Ghost Ant, and Heavenly Poison Scorpion.

After spending a huge amount of resources, he had finally gathered all the materials needed to perform the Weeping Blood Evil Gu Art. The only remaining problem to solve was ensuring the Iceflame Butterflies emerged as the final victors!

If the ultimate winner turned out to be one of the other three colonies, the entire plan would fall apart.

During the secret art’s execution, the outcome depended entirely on the law of natural selection. The cultivator himself could not intervene. With the Iceflame Butterflies’ overall strength at the early fourth rank, they were simply no match for the three gu colonies. That was why the Nine Revolutions Gu God Tears remained crucial.

Now that his cultivation had broken through, Wang Yu felt far more confident about negotiating with Poison Flood Dragon Venerable.

Right now. It was time to head out, obtain the item Poison Flood Dragon Venerable wanted, and then make a trip to the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest to complete the final step of the Iceflame advancement plan.

…

…

At the same time.

The “Old Dog Surprise Attack Squad” led by Xie Xie’an included several late-stage Nascent Soul powerhouses: Blood Eye Demon Flood Dragon, Blackgold Old Demon, Qianyuan Demon Lord… and others.

The first needed no introduction. The latter two came from the Zuoqiu Clan and the Yu Clan respectively. They were old demons from the previous generation whose cultivation had stalled at the eighth layer of Nascent Soul due to limited potential, having already reached their limit.

The group had been walking across the Desolate Ancient Plains for several decades now. This slow pace was not because they lacked escape techniques, but because Xie Xie’an had insisted they travel on foot.

Circling around to the rear of Thunderfire Temple naturally made the journey slow.

But they had finally come this far.

Any further delay and some of the old demons might end up sitting down to die on the road.

Because the journey had taken so long, several of them had begun to feel doubt and distrust toward Xie Xie’an. Even though they had truly encountered no danger along the way, irritation and depression had still set in.

More importantly, they had been forcibly conscripted and had never been enthusiastic about the mission. Continuing like this would sooner or later breed other thoughts.

As the leader, Xie Xie’an naturally noticed.

At this moment.

He had already advanced from a mere Core Formation junior to the fourth layer of Nascent Soul. His entire body was shrouded in intense baleful qi, sharp enough to be described as “radiating killing intent in every direction.”

Strange Rakshasa patterns covered his handsome face.

Looking into his eyes gave one the oppressive feeling of an evil and eerie aura. It was a pressure that struck straight into the mind… or rather, the spirit.

After many years cultivating the Rakshasa True Demonic Scripture—a Spirit Transformation inheritance and wielding the fifth-rank spiritual treasure [Rakshasa Heavenly Demon Bell], Xie Xie’an’s strength was more than enough to exchange blows with an ordinary late-stage Nascent Soul.

If not for Wang Yu, he would likely have become the brightest young powerhouse in the entire Crimson Kite.

“Senior Blood Eye, I heard that Brother Wang Yu displayed his demonic might at the Azure Cloud Sect. Could you tell me the details?”

Blood Eye Demon Flood Dragon glanced at him hesitantly.

He looked around at the barren ancient plains and, thinking that chatting would pass the time just as well, said: “I don’t know much about that kid either. Most of it is hearsay. You seem quite eager to meet him? Planning to spar with him?”

“No.”

Xie Xie’an shook his head and sighed. His eyes flickered as he recalled the past.

“Years ago, during the Blood Abyss training, I received Brother Wang Yu’s help. Now that he seems to be facing quite a bit of trouble, it is only right and proper for this junior to lend a hand.”

Blood Eye Demon Flood Dragon looked surprised.

“You brat… I didn’t realize you had this kind of loyalty. In that case, I’ll tell you a bit more about Wang Yu’s past with this old man.”

Once he learned that Xie Xie’an meant no harm, Blood Eye Demon Flood Dragon immediately acted as if he and Wang Yu were extremely close, putting on the air of a close friend despite their age difference.

Sure enough.

Old humans became shrewd with age, and the same applied to demons.

The two were chatting enthusiastically when, for some unknown reason, Blackgold Old Demon suddenly felt provoked. The bald, wrinkled old man had a pair of golden pupils that were extremely sharp.

The moment he glared over, it felt as if knives were scraping across Xie Xie’an’s face. Xie Xie’an’s expression changed drastically as well.

“Senior Blackgold, what is the meaning of this?”

“Hmph!”

The old demon swept his gaze around. His demeanor quickly turned agitated, his emotions fluctuating far too violently. Full of malice, he snarled: “You young whelp, leading us around in circles this whole time. Did you think this old man wouldn’t notice?! Little ghost, I’ll slap you to death right now!”

They started fighting without another word.

Or rather, they had barely exchanged a few sentences before he attacked outright.

This was completely unlike the old demon’s usual steady personality. Blackgold’s abnormal behavior was immediately noticed by everyone. Xie Xie’an shouted loudly: “He has been corrupted by the Desolate Ancient Plains! Take him down immediately!”

The Desolate Ancient Plains were the most mysterious and dangerous place in the entire Ice Prison Realm. In this regard, both Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain and the Endless Ice Plains fell far short of this forbidden ancient land.

The danger of Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain came mainly from the brainless, true-spirit-worshipping savage beasts and birds. Their bodies were as tough as vajra, their strength boundless, and they would attack any living being that entered the mountain.

The perils of the Endless Ice Plains came mainly from the environment.

Both could be avoided with proper methods, so they could not be called true forbidden zones for life. Only the Desolate Ancient Plains, since ancient times, had a core region that strangely stripped away the lifespan of anyone who entered.

The moment a cultivator left the Desolate Ancient Plains, their lifespan would be exhausted and they would sit down and die. After the Ancient Demon of slaughter was later sealed here, the Desolate Ancient Plains became even more bizarre.

A strange killing domain enveloped the area at all times.

It would slowly corrupt any living being that entered, turning them into monsters that knew only slaughter. Combined with the core region’s lifespan-draining property, these killing weapons would never die as long as they remained inside the ancient plains.

After hundreds of thousands of years of accumulation, these killing weapons had become the greatest danger of the ancient plains. The “safe route” Xie Xie’an had spoken of was precisely the path that avoided these killing weapons and did not enter the core region where lifespan would be stripped away.

The changes appearing on Blackgold’s body were clearly turning him into one of those killing weapons. As long as they left the ancient plains in time, there was still a chance to restore his corrupted mind.

All the Nascent Souls attacked together. The somewhat deranged Blackgold Old Demon was quickly subdued. However, the fluctuations from the fight also attracted nearby killing weapons.

These humanoid creatures, dressed in all sorts of different styles from various eras throughout history, were disheveled and filthy. Their blood-red eyes all locked onto Xie Xie’an at the same time.

They muttered indistinctly: “Traitor to the will of slaughter… Rakshasa! You deserve death!”

Even though their speech was unclear, how could these old demons fail to understand?

They were all shocked.

“Xie kid, you…”

Even Blood Eye Demon Flood Dragon looked at him in astonishment.

Xie Xie’an’s mouth twitched. He explained helplessly, “This junior does indeed have some connection to the Ancient Demon of Slaughter, but that link has already been severed. There is no need to worry about me being controlled.”

This was not a question of control. The issue was that he had broken common sense. Everyone present was a high-level member of the Blood Reversal Sect and knew that the Spirit Transformation inheritances passed down by Ancient Demons all carried problems.

In theory, Xie Xie’an was nothing more than a test subject.

Yet the Heaven-Refining Demonic Sect had never taught their secret arts to the Blood Reversal Sect. So how exactly had he freed himself from the source’s demonic corruption?

If such a method could be popularized…