Cultivation: When you take things to the extreme

Chapter 357: Chapter 236: Cultivation Technique_2

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“…”

The four of them, upon hearing this, also fell silent.

Though somewhat lacking in ambition, ensnared in mediocrity, Ascension indeed represented their ultimate pursuit within the Four Sects.

World Subduing Demon Slaying, quelling chaos and breaking through calamities?

It sounded lofty, but how feasible was it, and what hopes of success did it hold?

At the end of Ancient Times, there were Immortals of great righteousness who sacrificed themselves to suppress demons in the world, seeking to unearth the means to eradicate them.

What was the final outcome?

Did they not all die with regrets, their bones buried and forgotten among the living?

Even though this man hailed from beyond the realm and could very well be an Immortal from ancient times, a powerful being returned from the Upper Realm, there was no guarantee he could find a turning point for this world, a means to extinguish the Demon Catastrophe.

Should they, for his few words, an uncertain promise, a dim chance at a turning point, forsake the Ascension they had strived for over countless years?

Clearly, that was impossible.

Therefore, they must ascend, they absolutely must ascend.

At most, they would not become his enemy, that was all.

The four made a silent agreement in their hearts, and Meng Fuyao spoke no further, “This matter is settled. In three years’ time, the outcome will be known. In the meantime, each of you must restrain your followers from practicing the Five Viscera Elixir Skills. As for the Demon Transformation Spiritual Objects, you may seek them out, but avoid conflict with the White Jade Capital’s people.”

“…”

“Yes!”

With the decision made, the three monks left, leaving only the master and disciple.

Li Qiankun’s brows were tightly furrowed as he asked in a grave voice, “Master, are you certain he is confident?”

“Having dared to voice such bold words, he surely has the grounds for it.”

Meng Fuyao spoke softly, “But whether he succeeds, that will depend on the will of heaven!”

“The will of heaven?”

Li Qiankun murmured, looking up at the sky with eyes full of changing thoughts, “Which heaven’s will?”

…

Atop the snowy mountain’s peak, Xu Yang sat alone.

World Subduing Demon Slaying. Banning the elixir of the human body, searching far and wide for spiritual objects?

While these tasks seemed exceptionally difficult, they were actually not that hard to manage.

One only needed strength and methods to cope.

Did he have them?

Of course, he did.

There’s no need to say more about his strength; the Demon Slaying battle established his might, terrifying the Corpse Resolution Four Sects.

Even Meng Fuyao, who depended on an Immortal Artifact for power in his Corpse Resolution form, was not willing to become his enemy, which spoke volumes of the deterrence caused by that previous battle.

The four major Sects, the five Corpse Resolution cultivators, represented the pinnacle of power in this world. Aside from the Death Land Demon Region, remnants from ancient times, there was no one who could stand shoulder to shoulder with them.

So long as they cooperated and did not hinder him, this task would be easy.

As for those Loose Cultivators…

Suppress some, win over others, ban the procedure of the Five Viscera Pills while introducing alternatives like the Demon Transformation Spirit Talismans and Spirit Pills he developed—giving them a glimmer of hope, a way out. In this manner, by both weakening and leveraging, he could control the situation.

The barefoot fear not the shoed; after all, when death is certain, one has nothing to lose by burning both jade and common stone.

But what if the barefoot were given hope of shoes?

In the end, people fear death, and so long as there’s even the slightest chance of survival, a glimmer of hope, they will not easily forsake it.

With his strength as a foundation, even if the Demon Transformation Spirit Talismans and Spirit Pills he currently developed were far less effective than the Five Viscera Human Pills, they would be enough to keep the situation under control and prevent the Loose Cultivators from rebelling and opting for mutual destruction.

As an emperor in two lifetimes, a supreme being for a thousand years, such a scenario was all too familiar, and addressing it was not an issue at all.

The only truly difficult problem now was the Death Land Demon Region, the calamity of Boxun!

His strength was sufficient to cope with the Corpse Resolution Four Sects and to explore Ancient Secret Treasures, but the three great Death Lands, the nine great Demon Realms, were still forbidden territories, extraordinarily dangerous to an extent that even Corpse Resolution Divinity Transformation cultivators found them to be a one-way trip.

Especially the three Death Lands, rumored to contain three supreme Demon Artifacts which were the root of the current demonic troubles, and were connected to the Six Desires Demon Realm.

In Ancient Times, it was with these Demon Artifacts that the gates to the three Heavenly Demons were opened, allowing the Heavenly Demons to lead their armies into this realm.

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Although later the ancient immortals bathed in blood and sacrificed their lives to repel the heavenly demon army and destroyed the Heavenly Demon Gate, these three demon artifacts were still deeply rooted, difficult to eradicate. In the end, they switched from offense to defense, shrinking back to protect themselves, thus forming the three Death Lands.

The ancient immortals attacked them several times but found it difficult to destroy them, and with no other choice, they could only seal them, leaving behind a heritage of demonic affliction to present times.

Now, thousands of years have gone by, seas have turned into mulberry fields – have circumstances taken a turn for the better, or have they become even more dire?

No one knows.

But regardless, to deal with it, to solve it, one must have enough strength.

Xu Yang was already very strong, but he was far from enough to confront the Death Land of the Demon Realm and the Six Desires Demon Realm behind it.

He needed to enhance his power further – not only his own but also that of the “other selves”!

How to enhance it?

Xu Yang took out an item with a flip of his hand – it was shaped like a Red Scorpion, crimson all over, but its form was incomplete, its glow dull, covered in scars, teetering on the brink of collapse, with pentachromatic thunder forming talisman array patterns around it like iron chains and shackles, tightly sealing it.

It was a demon-spiritual treasure – the Blood-Transforming Divine Blade!

This blade was originally an object where Yuwen Shang left his Corpse-Resolution essence; an ancient spiritual treasure, of supreme grade. After Yuwen Shang’s descent into the demon path and his realization of the Blood God Sutra, the blade also fell and became a treasure of demonic spirits. Bringing it even closer to breaking celestial limits, even when facing ancient immortal artifacts like the Haoqi Long Breath, it could barely contend.

Xu Yang, wielding the power of the array and using the Five Elements Divine Thunder to exterminate demons, could only destroy the physical and spiritual form of the Blood Demon and was unable to destroy this near-immortal caliber demon blade, only managed to partially damage it.

Although damaged, it remained a hidden danger; if left unaddressed, it might give rise to the calamity of the Blood Demon again.

But obviously, Xu Yang was not one to ignore it, so to him, this object was merely a spoil of war.

Xu Yang stimulated his mana and the thunder moved, causing the Red Scorpion to tremble in agony under the heavy shackles, eventually unable to withstand it, and ejected several streams of brilliant light.

For items of belongings, those of a higher tier typically have prohibitions; they cannot be activated by anyone other than the original owner, and one must forcefully decrypt them, which is time-consuming and laborious, and there’s also a chance of the items self-destructing.

But this was obviously not a problem for Xu Yang – a grand Refinement Master with the Heavenly Craft Method aiding him, and while he might not be able to deal with true immortal artifacts, for a damaged half-demon artifact…

Several objects flew out, and the blood scorpion wilted.

Xu Yang did not bother with it. Instead, he added several more layers of thunder seals and retracted it into his body, sealing it in the Five Elements Orb, along with the half piece of Blood Seed given to him by the Four Sects.

After that, he turned towards the spoils of the battle.

There were not a few items, but few caught his eye. Picking and choosing, he ended up with just a few objects.

Specifically, they were a spiritual root of Ice Branch Fire Leaf, a crystal-clear ice crystal snow palace, a lifeless white-scale horned dragon, and several antiqued jade slips.

Ice-Fire Seed, Ice Polar Palace, White Chi Dragon!

Demon-transformed spiritual root, an ancient spiritual treasure, demon-transformed spiritual beast.

All ranked at tier four, they are the Blood Demon’s incarnations, objects of disguise and cover.

Although they are demon-transformed spiritual objects, even ancient spiritual treasures, after being altered by the Blood Demon, their intrinsic nature has changed, and they have now become tainted demon objects.

It’s not surprising that even demon-transformed spiritual objects, given their advantage in dissipating demonic qi, could potentially fall into the demon path if the accumulation of demonic qi becomes too excessive.

These three demon-transformed spiritual objects are an example – they have already been refined into demon treasures by the Blood Demon, reduced to puppet-like existences, incapable of evolving into spirits.

Otherwise, Xu Yang could have gained the power of three Nascent Soul-level forces.

A real pity.

But regardless, these were tier-four spiritual objects; as long as they are cleansed and their demonic qi is purged, they can still be used as materials, whether for artifact refinement, array setting, or other purposes – they remain excellent choices.

Not a bad harvest.

But compared to them, the jade slips were the real focus.

Jade slips, inheritances, Ancient Immortal Gate!

Xu Yang picked up a jade slip, swept it with his Divine Consciousness, and a smile appeared on his face.

Ancient inheritance, as it turns out, was indeed the inheritance from an Ancient Immortal Gate.

The former identity of the Blood Demon Zheng Yin was the founding ancestor of Snow God Mountain, Divinity Transformation Corpse-Resolution Yuwen Shang.

This individual was exceptionally talented and stunningly brilliant, one of the top Corpse-Resolution cultivators of his time.

However, due to his limitation by the laws of heaven and earth, unable to ascend, he, increasingly in despair, began to spare no method in collecting all the cultivation techniques from the world, especially the ancient immortal skills, hoping to forge a new path.

Later, he still fell into the demon path and created the Blood God Sutra based on Boxun, but the various ancient inheritances he had collected were not discarded. He kept them in his possession, and they became Xu Yang’s war trophies as of now.

This saved Xu Yang a lot of trouble. He had planned to start plundering the tombs after taking over the Three Sects but had not expected Yuwen Shang to have dug them up for him a thousand years ago.

The jade slips were all ancient inheritances containing multiple cultivation techniques, along with the part of the Divinity Transformation Skill that Xu Yang had long coveted.

Although this avatar of his has just achieved the Golden Core and does not possess a Nascent Soul, thus unable to directly advance to the Deity-Transformation Realm, even if he had the Divinity Transformation Skill – let’s not forget that he is not alone.

Behind him, there is another world, an era of flourishing Taoism!

The Taoism Origin Body has been cultivating arduously to date, three thousand years, with cultivation that had long reached the limit of the Seventh Realm, the peak of Nascent Soul, merely lacking the right cultivation techniques before achieving Divinity Transformation.

Not just the Taoism Origin Body, within the Wandao School, there are no few cultivators at the limit of the Seventh Realm, the peak of Nascent Soul; all are one-time masters of Taoism, accumulations of the Scholar’s Palace.

These ancient inheritances, the Divinity Transformation Skills, opened a door for the Wandao School, a door leading to a new world.