Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 392

Aside from magic treasures, there were only two fourth-rank spiritual items.Storm Wonder Stone, and Heavenly Astral Treasure Jade!

The former could speed up the cultivation of wind-attribute techniques when carried on one’s person. It was Qingyi’s trump treasure. The latter came from Cloudsmoke’s storage ring.

It could be used as a material component and fused into the Demonic Dragon Armor.

As for the magic treasures, the Azure Heaven Ruler and the Thousand Transformations of Heavenly Net Smoke were both fourth-rank low-grade life-bound magic treasures. Their utility was honestly not great. These things only reached their true power in the hands of their original owner.

Once they fell into Wang Yu’s hands, aside from being refined into partial materials, they were almost useless. The Heavenly Net Smoke was also hard to restore. A magic treasure in a cloud-mist form like that was simply too special.

As for how to deal with them, he could decide later.

On the other hand, the divine sense secret treasure that Ancestor Qingyi dropped, the Soul-Splitting Needle, suited Wang Yu perfectly. His divine sense had always outstripped his realm.

If used in a sneak attack, its effect was no weaker than the Blood Slaughter Heart-Butchering Sword.

In terms of divine abilities and secret arts, the gains were scarce.

Even for clan ancestors, the cultivation methods they practiced would not be carried on their person. They were usually kept in the clan’s inheritance grounds. As for scattered minor techniques, they were of little use.

Capturing and killing these two Nascent Soul cultivators, the greatest value was still in their bodies themselves. Every corpse would be fed to the Thunder Corpse. With such abundant nourishment, as long as he could find the right breakthrough item, the Thunder Corpse advancing into fourth-rank was practically set in stone.

That way, it could continue serving as a genuinely useful assistant in Nascent Soul-level battles. The Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet had already proven its worth in this regard.

Given the potential of an anomalous Thunder Corpse, third-rank was definitely not its limit. In contrast, the Lunar Yin Fiend Corpse was a relatively low-end variant. Even if it could be raised to fourth-rank, the price would be far too high.

At present, it was already in a half-abandoned state.

Barring accidents, peak third-rank would be the final stage of that Lunar Yin Fiend Corpse.

After resting for several days, Wang Yu went into a short seclusion for half a month.

When the time he had agreed upon with True Lord Yang Lei arrived, he took the initiative to head out and claim the void secret art he had exchanged for with one hundred thousand war merits.

Cloudsky Warship, central hub.

This time, he came alone.

“Fellow Daoist Wang, this portion of the Void Dao Compendium you selected… is it because you sensed the slipperiness of movement techniques, and chose it on purpose?”

“Yes.”

Wang Yu agreed. Nascent Soul cultivators were truly too difficult to capture and kill. Qingyi had escaped him once, and this time Cloudsmoke was probably simply careless.

Even more unexpectedly, among the four Nascent Soul cultivators at Strange Peak Pass, not a single one noticed the problem. If any of them had come to provide support midway, or even launched a casual sneak attack from the shadows, the outcome would have been completely different.

His title of Demon-Subduing General was well deserved.

True Lord Yang Lei nodded.

“This is the one-time inheritance jade slip for the Secret Art, Lock of Heaven. Before you receive the inheritance, you must swear a Heavenly Dao oath, and also sign this True Spirit contract.”

This was standard procedure. When he had accepted the Blood Reversal Sect’s inheritance, he had experienced the same.

This time, it was merely a different contract. The clauses were more or less the same.

After confirming there were no issues, Wang Yu successfully obtained the secret art inheritance. The Void Dao Compendium was divided into nine catalogues, all of them inheritances related to the Great Dao of Space.

The Lock of Heaven that he had chosen was a fourth-rank top-tier secret art. Cultivating it required drawing in spatial power and condensing it into silver locks. The more locks one condensed, the more tyrannical its effects became.

Not only could it seal spatial movement divine abilities, it could also stabilize collapsing space. It could even “fish” in the void. Even if used purely to bind an enemy, it was an excellent method.

Cultivating this secret art was somewhat like a process of creating something from nothing.

It was quite similar to the path of artifact refinement.

The spatial silver locks condensed during cultivation would become half-illusory and half-real. When unactivated, they were merely a spatial silver pattern upon the Nascent Soul’s body.

Once activated, they could transform into chains that sealed off a region of space.

There was practically no delay at all. The area of influence depended on the length of the spatial silver locks.

Overall, this was a secret art with no visible upper limit. The longer one cultivated it, the more powerful it became. Its only difficulty lay in drawing in spatial power. Such a thing was formless and intangible.

In the normal world, spatial power almost never leaked out.

Unless one found a special terrain to cultivate in, such as a dangerous land filled with spatial rifts, or some kind of heaven-and-earth natural formation related to space.

It was even harder to capture than spiritual qi, baleful qi, blood qi, and the like.

Besides that, there were also shortcuts, such as absorbing spatial-attribute spiritual materials.

However, as the Ice Prison Realm was a prison world chosen by upper-realm mighty experts, its space had been reinforced to an extreme degree. Even Nascent Soul cultivators could only shake it through top-tier secret arts or realm-based miracles.

Spatial rifts seemed not to exist at all.

Spatial-attribute spiritual materials were also exceedingly rare. After the end of the ancient era, they had completely vanished.

In today’s cultivation world, storage pouches could still be crafted.

But storage rings, which achieved the effect of containing the cosmos within a stone and holding a mustard seed within a Sumeru world, had already lost the ability to be mass-produced. [1]

That was also why Wang Yu had a habit of collecting storage rings.

He had no fewer than three hundred, perhaps even five hundred, storage rings in his possession. If he refined them all down and melted them into spatial-attribute materials, he could even craft a fourth-rank magic treasure.

This was an extremely important resource, and Wang Yu would sooner or later have use for it.

After accepting the inheritance jade slip, it crumbled into ash. True Lord Yang Lei opened his mouth and asked, “Well? Do you have confidence that you can cultivate it successfully?”

“I should be able to.”

Even if he was completely certain, he never spoke in absolutes.

As he pondered, he arranged the secret art Lock of Heaven into the Idle Slot. This thing was similar to the corpse demon secret technique. At every moment, it fed back spatial power, automatically condensing silver spatial patterns over the Nascent Soul’s chest.

There was no need for comprehension. Once placed in the Idle Slot, it began cultivating by default.

Skipping class completely!

That step alone saved an enormous amount of time. The Idle Slot’s spatial power came from some unknown source. It cultivated on its own, and Wang Yu did not need to worry about it at all.

After bidding farewell to True Lord Yang Lei, Wang Yu returned to his temporary cave dwelling.

And once again began secluded cultivation.

As a newly advanced Nascent Soul cultivator, he still had plenty to do.

…

…

As time passed, the Thunderfire Temple cultivator army’s assault on Strange Peak Pass gradually shifted from a lightning war into a war of attrition. Even though the enemy side was down one Nascent Soul cultivator, it was still difficult to achieve a decisive breakthrough.

In a sense, True Lord Yang Lei’s plan to take Strange Peak Pass had failed. He had not arranged any internal agents. Even if he had, they would have been over in the Southern Severed Boundary Mountains rather than within Strange Peak Pass itself.

The war of attrition dragged on for nearly eight months.

On this day, True Lord Yang Lei led the Thunderfire Temple forces as they prepared to withdraw. Meanwhile, Wang Yu, newly appointed as the Demon-Subduing General, had not fought a single battle. His time had been spent entirely in seclusion in the rear, and the campaign ended just like that.

It was honestly baffling.

Fortunately, Lei Yao had a good relationship with him, and she deliberately explained the situation.

Aboard the Cloudsky Warship, she gave him an apologetic smile and said, “Violet Lightning used a few little tricks and forced Uncle Li to change his mind. Even though the matter didn’t succeed… the people back at the temple still can’t fully trust you.”

In plain terms, his military rank remained, but his real authority was gone.

Wang Yu did not particularly care about that, but that did not mean he would tolerate just anyone acting high and mighty over him. In theory, what he had joined was the Moluo Horde, not the Thunderfire Temple!

Violet Lightning was a genius who had risen to fame at a young age.

Having broken through into the Nascent Soul realm with ease, his life had been smooth sailing. He was completely different from someone like Wang Yu, who had clawed his way up through hardship. The gap between the Taihu environment and the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain environment was precisely the breeding ground for his arrogant temperament.

If this were the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain, someone like that would have already been ambushed in the dark and had his Nascent Soul dug out. As for how to deal with him, Wang Yu would have to think about it.

Besides, their lack of trust was based on the premise that Wang Yu was unaware of it. The Thunderfire Temple had issued a strict death order. It was not just True Lord Yang Lei. Even Lei Yao had been placed under a gag order.

Only recently, after the strategic objective had been achieved and the army temporarily withdrew to the south, did Lei Yao come to explain things to him.

The matter was simple.

The southern region of the Blood Reversal Sect had been invaded by the Joyous Union Demonic Sect. The battlefield was right on the edge of Blood Abyss Prefecture, and Black Mountain Pass was nearby. All previous cooperation agreements had been overturned.

After the two sides clashed and beat each other bloody, elite Taihu cultivator squads used Black Mountain Pass as a forward base, infiltrating Blood Abyss Prefecture to assassinate city lords across the region. Although their success rate was not high, each incident served as a sharp warning.

What if the next one to come was a Nascent Soul cultivator? And what if it was a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator?

Once it reached that point.

It would force the Blood Reversal Sect to divert massive energy and attention. At the same time, on the eastern front, Yellow Springs Monastery’s full-scale offensive was equally insane, and it also brought enormous pressure.

They had no choice but to commit even more strength. No one knew whether it was because they had oppressed others too harshly in ordinary times, or because of the lingering aftereffects from the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest incident.

Yellow Springs Monastery seemed to be serious this time.

From Cloud Ridge Prefecture in the south to Maple Prefecture in the north, the entire front line was engulfed in fierce fighting.

With these two battlefronts existing simultaneously, far too many experts were being pinned down. Thus, True Lord Yang Lei arrived with five Cloudsky Warships to carry out a probing feint attack, trying to squeeze out even more remaining strength from the Blood Reversal Sect.

In the end, they discovered the Blood Reversal Sect was even pulling people from Maple Prefecture, and they immediately concluded the sect was putting up a strong front while actually being short-handed.

Maple Prefecture’s western border pass: Ice River Pass!

It had already been taken by a one hundred thousand cultivator army jointly formed by Azure Cloud Sect and Moon Gazing Palace. Their warships had now reached Maple Prefecture territory, and they had begun a localized campaign of seizing cities and territory.

The news had not spread yet, but it had already been confirmed.

After learning all this, Wang Yu was shocked, but he also felt a faint sense of doubt.

Why were all the Exalted Sect’s experts doing nothing? Why were they this useless?

Right now, this cultivator army would split into two forces. One portion would head south to garrison Black Mountain Pass, while the other would withdraw to a heavily fortified bridgehead-style city outside Strange Peak Pass.

They had to remain on constant alert in case Crimson Kite cultivators poured out of Strange Peak Pass and launched a surprise raid into the Taihu Spiritual Domain. Their mission was already complete. By a rough estimate, casualties had to be at least thirty thousand.

Yet it was hard to see any regret in their words. All that remained was excitement and a hunger for war merits.

Thirty thousand meant nothing to them.

By the simplest estimate, Taihu’s population was more than ten times that of Crimson Kite. The number of cultivators should be at least ten times as well, although that kind of calculation was not truly accurate.

The real number of cultivators was likely fifteen to eighteen times greater. It might even be possible for them to assemble a cultivator grand army on the scale of ten million.

Compared to that, thirty thousand was indeed insignificant.

As all sorts of random thoughts churned through his mind, Lei Yao relayed everything truthfully and then asked,

“Fellow Daoist, how do you plan to choose next?”

Wang Yu laughed instead.

“Which way are you going, Miss Lei?”

“I’ll be heading north to Maple Prefecture with the Moluo Horde. We’ll continue gathering refugees displaced by the war over there, first sending them to the territory of the Demon Cat Clan, and then transporting them back to lands under Thunderfire Temple’s control.”

She explained in great detail, clearly knowing what Wang Yu was testing for. And just as she expected, he answered without hesitation.

“After I give Violet Lightning a beating, we’ll go.”

Lei Yao sighed helplessly, but her beautiful eyes blinked again and again as she gave a mischievous grin.

“Be quick. I’ll go prepare a mount.”

It seemed she did not like Violet Lightning either.

This dogshit military post was not worth keeping anyway.

After thinking for a moment, Wang Yu wiped his face, and in an instant he transformed into Violet Lightning’s appearance. Only, he had the body of an eleven or twelve-year-old, yet wore the face of a young man.

No matter how one looked at it, it was unbelievably bizarre.

With his disguise technique, it was less “hiding” and more “mockery.”

Truly unbeatable.

Once Lei Yao sent him the signal, Wang Yu immediately moved.

After more than half a year of recovery, the dark scar that ran across True Lord Violet Lightning’s face had shrunk a great deal. It was now only about five inches long. Sitting on his face, it looked like the mark left by a branding punishment.

Hideous and terrifying.

It was also the symbol of his humiliation.

His injuries were still not healed, and he would not take a single step out of his cave abode. Violet Lightning did not want too many people seeing him in such a state.

Caring too much about what outsiders thought was one of the psychological flaws of geniuses like him.

He was calculating in his mind how much longer it would take before he could finally emerge from seclusion,

when he suddenly heard someone shouting outside his door.

“True Lord, True Lord, something terrible has happened!”

“That Wang savage is going around yelling that you’re too scared to fight, hiding like a coward, telling you not to be shameless…”

Boom!

A deafening explosion rang out as the cave abode’s door was kicked open with a single strike.

Violet Lightning was instantly furious.

“How dare he…”

Before he could finish speaking, he saw a short, squat figure wearing his face. And as if it were deliberate, two black scars were symmetrically placed on both cheeks.

Like silent ridicule.

The boy gave him a wicked smile, and a fist as large as a sandbag smashed straight toward him.

Violet Lightning was still young, lacking the experience of those old monsters. His methods for dealing with sudden attacks were limited, and in that moment of shock, he could not bring them out in time.

Of course.

The biggest problem was that this was the main encampment of the Thunderfire Temple’s cultivator army. He had never even considered that someone would dare to openly sneak attack him.

If one never imagined it, one never guarded against it.

Thump!

Wang Yu threw a simple straight punch. Under the restraining field of Silver Blood divine strength, the blow landed brutally solid against Violet Lightning’s left eye, sending him reeling and flying backward in a daze.

Wang Yu followed up immediately with another kick.

With explosive acceleration, it felt like he was spiking a volleyball with a person. Under extremely refined control, he did not even make a single sound.

This vicious beating lasted a full three breaths of time.

He struck at least several hundred times.

Punches and kicks, all aimed at vital points. Each burst of force pierced through the surface and planted explosive hidden strength into flesh, tendons, and bone. It would not cripple Violet Lightning’s body, but it would make him suffer properly for a long time.

At this moment, amid the crushing force, True Lord Violet Lightning’s mind finally cleared, and he immediately roared,

“Wang…”

But the instant he tried to shout, he discovered something bizarre. It was as if something was lodged in his throat. He could not yell, and he could not even force out a sound.

His face turned purple-red, like pig liver.

Wang Yu’s eyes held a smile. His hand casually brushed past Violet Lightning’s finger, and with divine sense he notified Lei Yao, who was waiting outside. Just as Violet Lightning erupted with violent lightning, the top of the cave abode was ripped open.

Lei Yao rode a black, majestic giant eagle straight through. Wang Yu flipped up smoothly, and the two of them rode together, flying directly north at terrifying speed.

Glancing back at Violet Lightning’s cave abode, he was furious yet powerless, restrained by the hidden strength to the point he could barely move. Wang Yu and Lei Yao laughed silently.

A storage ring marked with violet lightning patterns was casually tossed up and down in Wang Yu’s hand. He explained to Lei Yao,

“I only took what was worth spirit stones. I’ll trouble Miss Lei to return the rest.”

“No problem.”

[1]: a profound philosophical paradox wherein the smallest of things (a mustard seed) contains the largest, most majestic cosmic mountain (Mount Sumeru), representing the idea that the infinite universe resides within the infinitesimal.