Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 455

The Coiling Dragon Ring possessed two forms.

In ring form, it granted a form of authority far higher than the reserve Valiant Cavalry General title he held, nearly equivalent to the rights the Crown Prince had enjoyed in the Immortal Dynasty.

Just this point alone offered enormous room for maneuvering.

Especially with the current contention over Eastern Extreme Capital, using it well might allow him to replicate the operation he had pulled off in the Immortal Officials’ Medicine Vault.

The second form was a square Coiling Dragon Seal.

The true power of this spirit treasure lay mainly in this form. Having gained the recognition of the artifact spirit inside, Wang Yu could now wield the spirit treasure smoothly.

The only drawback was the rather high consumption. This was not a suitable place to test it rashly, as it could easily cause unnecessary trouble.

After inspecting the Coiling Dragon Ring, Wang Yu directly slipped it onto the index finger of his right hand. An idea had suddenly occurred to him earlier.

He would see whether he got the chance to put it into action next.

After taking another careful look around the main hall of the Eastern Palace, Wang Yu packed up the Crown Princess’s spirit coffin and took it with him. The materials used to craft this thing were all supreme-grade spiritual materials.
They could perhaps be fused into the Thunder Fiend Coffin to raise the grade of that magic treasure. After being steeped in yin spirit power and soul force for a hundred thousand years, the materials that formed the spirit coffin had undergone earth-shaking changes.

It would not be wrong to say they had been perfectly seasoned. In short, this was a special type of fifth-rank spiritual material, extremely suitable for crafting spirit-coffin-type magic treasures.

It still lacked a bit of tempering before it could be used.

Although the Eastern Palace trip had come with surprises, the gains were still acceptable, especially the Coiling Dragon Ring. This meant Wang Yu now had another decisive trump card.

Back when Xie Xie’an had obtained the Rakshasa Heavenly Demon Bell, he had already felt covetous. Unfortunately, he had been defeated by the hidden secret within and had not dared to touch it.

He could only do the other party a favor out of convenience. Speaking of which, calculating the time, Xie Xie’an should have broken through to Nascent Soul by now. As long as nothing unexpected happened…

Next, Wang Yu used the authority of the Coiling Dragon Ring to exit the Eastern Palace without any issues. He had no intention of regrouping with Scorching Sun Old Demon and instead headed alone toward the western side of the imperial palace.

As the residence of the Human Emperor, aside from treasure lands like the Longevity Medicine Vault, there were naturally other fortunate grounds. Aside from treasures, the most precious one was none other than the Marrow Washing Pool!

Legend said this pool could help a person shed their mortal body and exchange their bones, advancing their cultivation aptitude while also possessing the effect of bloodline transformation.

Wang Yu possessed spiritual-grade aptitude. In the Ice Prison Realm, he had basically reached the limit and was aiming for the Spirit Transformation realm.

Theoretically speaking, the Marrow Washing Pool would have very ordinary effects on him.

It would not produce the heaven-defying fate-changing effect described in legends.

“What a pity I didn’t bring Snowjade this time. If she could soak in the Marrow Washing Pool, her bloodline would at least advance to mid earth-rank.”

Wang Yu sighed inwardly and continued forward.

Theoretically the Marrow Washing Pool had no effect on him, but according to ancient records from the Blood Reversal Sect, the ancient Immortal Dynasty had possessed a fifth-rank dragon vein.

The Marrow Washing Pool was a supreme treasure nurtured by that dragon vein.

What he had in mind was to cultivate the Demonic Dragon Armor to the mid fourth-rank true artifact level. The original purpose of crafting this thing had been to provide powerful defensive capability.

But gradually its purpose had shifted. Wang Yu now valued even more the amplification it could bring to his physique, its ability to magnify his Silver Blood Divine Strength, and even enhance the strength of his Force Domain by nearly one-third.

The effect was quite considerable.

With the Coiling Dragon Ring in hand, Wang Yu’s authority was so high that, even today countless years after the fall of the Immortal Dynasty, he could move through the imperial palace as if it were unguarded territory.

Those ultra-dangerous restrictions and formation no longer posed any threat to him.

He could go almost anywhere. The entire journey could only be described as smooth sailing.

As time passed.

When Wang Yu reached the Marrow Washing Pool deep inside the imperial palace and began absorbing the pool water using the dragon-vein devouring power of the Demonic Dragon Armor.

Several days slipped by quietly.

…

…

Celestial Star Tower.

Once the Nascent Soul cultivators reached their limit, the tower spirit unceremoniously flung them all out. When the Yellow Springs Monastery cultivators warily scanned their surroundings.

They unexpectedly discovered there was no ambush at all.

What exactly was Cold Bone doing?

Feeding fake information seemed unlikely. The group of Yellow Springs Monastery Nascent Souls quickly gathered, pulling in a few filler Nascent Souls from the Nether Mountain Sect to form a massive team of over twenty Nascent Souls.

On the Blood Reversal Sect’s side, they also assembled rapidly.

They tacitly avoided mentioning any gains from the Celestial Star Tower. Both sides quickly noticed one problem: Scorching Sun Old Demon and Master Youming, both at great perfection, had disappeared.

Dark Demon, Dark Tiger, Yin Gui, and the others exchanged glances.

“Uh… where’s Brother Wang?”

Their focus leaned more toward familiar faces. The Celestial Star Tower had brought enormous changes between entering and exiting, and it was difficult to sort out the situation for the moment.

Until the true disciple Tong Du cried out in shock.

“So strong! Senior Wang Yu actually ranked two hundred and ninety-ninth on the Celestial Star Ranking. And he faced Nascent Soul-level tests!”

Everyone’s attention instantly shifted to the Celestial Star Stone Stele.

No one minded that Tong Du had addressed a young man a hundred years younger than himself as “senior.” With such a massive gap in strength, calling him senior was perfectly normal.

It would only be when the younger generation entered Nascent Soul that things would change.

That meant they were all old-timers. Not long ago, the Blood Reversal Sect had finished selecting the new true disciples for the Nine Peaks. Aside from Blood Nether Peak, each peak had eleven or twelve candidates.

Only one person from each group could become a true direct disciple. Competition in the demonic path had always been brutal. It was better to die at the hands of fellow sect members than to hand over one’s life and possessions to strangers.

This kind of thinking could be called simple and unpretentious~

With Scorching Sun Old Demon absent, the three most renowned veteran Nascent Soul experts — Three Corpses Daoist, Thunder Howl Lord, and Ice Soul Fairy — became the leaders of the Blood Reversal Sect’s group!

At this moment, the frequency of their secret divine sense transmissions was extremely high.

After discovering Wang Yu’s ranking on the Celestial Star Ranking and connecting it with the simultaneous disappearance of the two powerhouses, they immediately made the corresponding association.

“They went to the imperial palace…”

This was the consensus of the three. But what was the reason?

Opportunities in the imperial palace were not so easy to seize. Just preparing to break the restrictions would require quite some time. This could be judged from how long it had taken them to breach the palace city’s grand formation.

Meanwhile, the opportunities in the Celestial Star Tower were right in front of them. Everyone who had experienced the trials knew very well that the Celestial Star Tower definitely contained chances to achieve Spirit Transformation.

Master Youming’s disappearance was most likely because of this reason.

Three Corpses Daoist, whose face was deathly pale like that of a young male corpse, transmitted: “Senior Scorching Sun previously said he would secretly set up traps to take the opportunity to eliminate those lower-ranked Nascent Souls from Yellow Springs Monastery.”

“In other words, unless there was a compelling reason, he would not casually abandon the plan.”

“There seems to be residual formation aura here.”

These few short sentences led the three to reach a common understanding.

“—Let’s go!”

No matter what had happened, even Scorching Sun Old Demon had stopped caring. Why should they care? After secretly transmitting the message to the Nascent Souls on their side, they each took their Core Formation true disciples and flew toward the imperial palace.

The moment the Blood Reversal Sect moved, Earthnether Master, who had just regained control, immediately ordered without hesitation:

“Follow them!”

He had vaguely guessed the reason. After all, Master Youming had not hidden his plan when setting up the scheme. He suspected that Cold Bone had already been killed but had still completed Master Youming’s task.

Perhaps it was precisely because of this that they had not fallen into Scorching Sun Old Demon’s trap.

It had to be said that these Nascent Soul old demons were all crafty veterans.

In just a short moment, they had guessed the situation almost perfectly. The moment he thought that the master of Yellow Springs Monastery might personally come, Earthnether Master directly cast a divine ability and attacked the Blood Reversal Sect group.

A unique black-yellow hand seal, like the hand of a god or Buddha reaching out from the clouds.

It was also the Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal, yet Earthnether Master had cultivated it to the fourth rank. The terrifying turbid Yellow Springs current appeared even more realistic.

This move was difficult to block with magic treasures. Ice Soul Fairy suddenly turned her head. Her red lips parted slightly as she exhaled a stream of frigid air. The extreme cold breath transformed into an ice storm that froze everything in its path.

At a visible speed, it froze the Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal solid, then smashed it onto the ground, turning it into a pile of ice shards.

“Impressive skill!”

Earthnether Master formed hand seals with both hands. One after another, white bone giant swords resembling heavenly pillars descended from the sky, surrounding the Blood Reversal Sect cultivators in a grand formation.

This was the Yellow Springs Bone-Burying Curse Sword combined with earth formation master techniques.

A temporarily created sword formation divine ability whose power had reached an unprecedented peak. If Dark Demon or Dark Tiger tried to block it, they would most likely be in serious trouble after just one exchange.

But at this moment, the Blood Reversal Sect had quite a few powerhouses.

Upon seeing this, Thunder Howl Lord gave a cold snort. His already burly body rapidly transformed. Violent thunder spread across his body as his head turned beast-like and his purple skin seemed dyed by lightning.

This was one of the zombie progenitor lineages of the Thunder Corpse branch.

The legendary being that possessed true spirit bloodline — the [Thunder Howler]!

Of course.

He was still far from reaching that level. He only possessed a fraction of the Thunder Howler’s might. Cultivating zombie techniques and divine abilities with a human body and actually succeeding made him quite the anomaly.

Rare and uncommon did not necessarily mean powerful.

But the number of truly powerful experts was definitely small.

Thunder Howl Lord was one such extreme powerhouse. His combat strength was nearly invincible within the same realm. No matter who he fought, he could always seize the upper hand.

At this very moment.

Thunder rumbled and black clouds blotted out the sun. A violent and ferocious ocean of lightning suddenly descended upon the world. Endless bolts of electricity flashed as they slammed into the temporary formation formed by the Yellow Springs Bone-Burying Curse Sword.

The Yellow Springs Monastery cultivators naturally would not sit back and watch the opponent break free.

The Nascent Soul experts began taking action one after another, each seeking an opponent of roughly equal strength. A massive chaotic battle inexplicably broke out.

Among them, Three Corpses Daoist’s fighting style was the most peculiar.

He possessed three corpses — Heaven, Earth, and Human. They were said to be zombies refined through a special secret art, serving as both mutant creatures and special incarnations.

Even if all three corpses were destroyed, as long as one remained, he could refine them anew. In other words, he had three lives!

However, these were all reasonable speculations and guesses made by outsiders based on what had already happened.

He had never revealed the true details of his abilities.

Rumors said that once, all three corpses had been destroyed. Yet after merely sixty years of silence, Three Corpses Daoist had returned to life. Even the Heavenly Corpse Peak did not possess this secret art.

He had obtained it from some ancient ruin and never offered it to the sect.

At this moment, Three Corpses Daoist’s opponent was another late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivator from Yellow Springs Monastery — the Filth Daoist!

This person was not particularly famous, but his appearance was extremely distinctive.

He was incredibly ugly!

Aside from his memorably grotesque facial features, he seemed to have no noteworthy abilities. But it was precisely this false impression he gave to the outside world that caused people to greatly underestimate the Filth Daoist’s bizarre and uncanny powers.

He had pushed the defiling aspect of Yellow Springs Monastery’s inherited divine abilities to the extreme. While other Yellow Springs techniques could be dealt with by simply avoiding contact with magic treasures, the Filth Daoist’s methods were like a mortal wildly swinging a mop covered in filth. Just looking at it made one wrinkle their face in disgust, let alone try to block it.

“Too disgusting.”

Under the backdrop of the thunder sea, the Filth Daoist’s entire body oozed foul-smelling mud that resembled yellow and white waste. This was actually a highly concentrated product of the Yellow Springs Turbid Flow.

Because it was fused with poison path techniques, it produced a nauseating stench.

Three Corpses Daoist’s face turned green.

“Where did this filthy thing come from?”

Cursing loudly, his attacks were extremely ruthless.

The current body he was using belonged to the Heaven Corpse, which possessed powerful divine abilities to control heavenly phenomena. Combined with the thunder sea summoned by Thunder Howl Lord, they actually formed a perfect coordination.

Heavenly lightning rolled in. A meteorological vortex whipped up a storm, transforming into countless cyan giant serpents. Amid the grinding friction between thunder and storm, the Filth Daoist was like a potato in a blender.

The foul-smelling mud covering his body was scraped into the sky and flung in unknown directions. Lightning struck him repeatedly until his whole body turned pitch black, emitting waves of burnt stench.

He fell into a disadvantage from the very first exchange.

Seeing this, Earthnether Master summoned a magic treasure resembling a long mace. With a swing of his hand, it transformed into an endless whip. With a loud crack, the space itself twisted from the force.

After the explosive thunder-like sound, the target of the whip was none other than Three Corpses Daoist. Ice Soul Fairy naturally would not stand idly by. Her life-bound magic treasure, the Ice Soul Pearl, shot out instantly.

The Ice Soul Divine Light containing extreme cold power turned into a long streak.

It forcefully intercepted the mace’s strike. The aftershocks from late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivators’ battle spread extremely far. Many buildings in the palace city had their restrictions destroyed as a result, causing large numbers of structures to collapse.

This disturbance alerted the most numerous type of guardian force within the palace city.

The Azure Lion Stone Puppets!

Wang Yu had studied these stone puppets earlier and discovered that they possessed extremely strong resistance against cultivators’ spiritual mana. Using brute force to destroy them was the best method.

Now that the commotion had grown large, nearly half of the Azure Lion Stone Puppets in the entire palace city had gathered. They were densely packed. Just one glance was enough to make ordinary Nascent Souls retreat in fear.

At that moment.

The Yellow Springs Bone-Burying Curse Sword formation, which had held on for five or six breaths, was forcibly crushed by Thunder Howl Lord’s thunder sea divine ability. Only then did the battling Nascent Soul cultivators notice the Azure Lion Stone Puppets charging toward them.

They cried out in alarm one after another.

“What are these things…”

The stone puppets lacked spiritual intelligence. There was only one thought in their minds: to kill all invaders.

One early-stage Nascent Soul from Yellow Springs Monastery, affected by the thunder sea, accidentally retreated a bit too far and was immediately surrounded by the suddenly charging Azure Lion Stone Puppets.

His face turned cold and severe.

“You pieces of trash dare to offend this lord’s dignity?!”

He immediately slapped out a palm.

Then, to his shock, he discovered that the Azure Lion Stone Puppets completely ignored his attack. They leaped out from his palm print one after another, completely unaffected.

When the Azure Lion Stone Puppet’s large mouth bit into his body.

Only then did he realize in horror that their mouths contained sealing restrictions. The stone teeth shattered his protective astral qi. The moment they sank into his flesh, that part of his body lost all sensation.

He tried to escape the encirclement using an escape technique, but found even more Azure Lion Stone Puppets closing in, leaving no gaps. By the time he switched tactics and summoned his life-bound magic treasure in an attempt to knock the puppets away, it was already too late.

He was almost completely submerged by the stone puppets and vanished into a corner in an instant.

Not even a trace of his Nascent Soul remained.

He died instantly!

The others watching felt their hearts tremble. They had never expected that the Azure Lion stone statues seen everywhere in the palace city would possess such terrifying power.