Qi Refining Fifth Layer (Seeking Further Reads, Seeking Votes)

Because the Corpse Demon Secret Art's cultivation speed was simply shocking—1,440 cycles a day. What kind of concept was that?

One cycle per minute!

Thus, the moment he placed it in the slot, Wang Yu felt an obvious difference.

Every minute, a stream of Yin Qi and Corpse Qi suddenly appeared within his body. The Yin Qi merged into his bloodline, rapidly lowering his body temperature and giving his entire body a faintly cold, sinister sensation.

The Corpse Qi fused into his bones, making his skin paler and even somewhat gaunt. His nails darkened and hardened, while his entire bearing shifted toward that of an orthodox demonic cultivator. At a glance, he did not look like a good person.

The inch of black hair that had originally grown out from his roots turned completely white again. This time, it was not due to the loss of lifespan, but rather some sort of transformation wrought by Yin Qi and Corpse Qi.

A great deal of insight and experience regarding the Corpse Demon Secret Art flooded into his mind.

The ultimate purpose of this secret art was to cultivate "Heavenly Yin Blood" and "Corpse Demon Bone." It was definitely impossible to achieve that with the incomplete art alone, so this was merely the first round of preliminary transformation.

It gave Wang Yu traits like a zombie's bronze skin and iron bones, along with infinite strength.

It granted him a Yin Ghost's innate Yin-Cold nature. In the future, his cultivation speed with Cold Attribute Cultivation Methods would increase, and the power of Yin-Cold Attribute spells would soar. It would even slightly enhance his Divine Sense.

Secret arts that transformed the body were exceedingly rare.

If it were a complete secret art, its value would be impossible to estimate! Yet as an incomplete art, the many Side Effects it carried ensured that very few cultivators would choose to practice it.

What Wang Yu valued was its special effect of reconnecting severed limbs.

Moreover, Heavenly Yin Blood carried the implication of imitating Spiritual Root Aptitude. To a certain extent, it was also a method of improving his aptitude. Together with the Cold Blood Art, it might very well produce a special connection.

After all, both brought Yin-Cold changes to the blood.

Results would be visible in Three months!

Wang Yu swiftly returned to his residence, sealed it off, and began a prolonged period of seclusion.

Thus.

The fourth month of his second year in the Outer Sect.

Ninety days passed in the blink of an eye. Before an Ice Mirror as tall as a person in his Evil God Ward residence, Wang Yu, whose appearance had changed drastically, examined his new look.

His pupils were a ghostly green, while the whites of his eyes had turned pure black, making him look somewhat unnerving. Two fangs had grown from his upper jaw, identical to zombie teeth.

His complexion was paler than a corpse's, and his silver hair was tied beneath a Tall Crown, making him appear clean and capable. His originally refined features, paired with those strange eyes, carried a few more traces of wickedness.

That was the change to his face. The nails on his hands and feet had turned black and sharp, their mutation the most obvious of all.

The Qi and Strength in his limbs and bones had soared. He possessed infinite strength and could forcibly pulverize a person-high Azure Rock. His bronze skin and iron bones were impervious to blades and spears, water and fire.

At the same time, Wang Yu discovered that he had become somewhat afraid of light and preferred dark environments. He had also developed a bloodthirsty sensation and the desire to Devour those wandering ghosts and lonesome spirits.

These were all Side Effects brought by the [Corpse Demon Secret Art]. In a sense, it had transformed him into a physique similar to that of a zombie or Yin Ghost, possessing the strengths of both while suffering the drawbacks of both.

Wang Yu's body temperature had dropped to around eighteen or nineteen degrees, and his heart beat incomparably slowly.

His blood had transformed into Yin, with black rune particles swimming within it.

His bones had undergone Demonization, Corpse Qi penetrating deep into his marrow and forming a set of incomplete runes across his skeleton.

[Placement Slot 3: Corpse Demon Secret Art (Incomplete Art/Being Completed...)]

"Corpse Demon Secret Art (100/100): 1,440 cycles a day; Twenty Years to completion."

Wang Yu was deeply surprised, then suddenly understood.

The Twenty Years here should refer to the time required to complete it to the Second Tier. There should be a Third Tier and Fourth Tier afterward, corresponding to the Nascent Soul Stage.

With the bodily transformation complete, the Corpse Demon Secret Art's description stated that the next step was to use Yin Qi and Corpse Qi to condense a "Yin Blood Pill" within his body. This item was the key to reconnecting severed limbs.

Not only could it eliminate rejection reactions from foreign bodies, but if he could cultivate three "Yin Blood Pills," he could even achieve rebirth from a severed arm. At the very least, that required completing the art to the Third Tier.

The road ahead was long, and the burden heavy.

While examining his body, Wang Yu made another discovery—his aptitude had changed!

The incomplete Heavenly Yin Blood and Corpse Demon Bone seemed to have bestowed upon him another kind of unorthodox aptitude, resembling an acquired Yin Spiritual Root that complemented his initially mutated "Ice Spiritual Root."

The Yin, Ice Attribute mutation had all been applied to his Water Spiritual Root, which had suddenly grown from barely an inch to nearly four inches long.

It was already almost no different from Mixed Spiritual Roots aptitude. This change delighted Wang Yu beyond measure. Sacrificing his little brother's happiness and enduring so many Side Effects had all been for this change.

After quietly cultivating for a day.

Four more strands of refined Yin-Cold spiritual power appeared within his body. This change meant that his Cultivation speed had doubled once again.

Including the medicinal effect of the Top-Grade Cold Blood Pill, it would take at most one hundred and sixty days—around five and a half months—for him to smoothly break through to the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.

For his entire cultivation career, this was a milestone-like transformation of extraordinary significance.

From this day onward, time seemed to have pressed the acceleration button.

Wang Yu's change in appearance did not draw much attention. After all, this was the Demonic Path, where there were plenty of strange cultivators who were neither human nor ghost. He was still considered normal—merely somewhat like a zombie.

Only Zhao Shang and the others from the Alchemist Society noticed the extraordinary nature of this secret art of his, but they did not ask further.

He continued earning Spirit Stones as usual, while Wang Yu also contacted Inner Disciples of [Heavenly Corpse Peak], seeking a Refined Corpse to make up for the defect of his severed arm.

Although True Inheritor Su had promised him the arm of a Second Tier Frost Corpse, he could not possibly go ask Duan Ping about it. The fact that he had not contacted him for so long already explained some things.

If he dragged it out for several more years, perhaps even more unforeseen changes would arise.

Thus, Wang Yu first searched on his own. At the very least, he needed one at the First Tier Peak Stage; ideally, he could obtain the remnant arm of a Second Tier Corpse Refinement.

For Foundation Establishment Cultivators of Heavenly Corpse Peak, there should be quite a few Second Tier Refined Corpses that could not be repaired. If he only bought one arm, there should be many opportunities.

On the other hand, Wang Yu was also looking for a suitable High-Grade Magical Artifact, preparing for his eventual departure from the sect.

Thus, five and a half months passed in the blink of an eye.

In the ninth month of his second year in the Outer Sect, the aura around the cross-legged Wang Yu suddenly swelled. His spiritual cultivation had reached the limit of the current stage.

A full three hundred streams of Yin-Cold spiritual power coiled around him, freezing even the ground beneath him into a layer of frost.

Qi Refining Fifth Layer, achieved!

His original three-and-a-half-year plan had been completed in just over a year. The speed could not be called anything but fast.

As for breaking through to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer, that would take considerably longer. He needed to condense a full thousand streams of spiritual power, and at that point he would encounter the bottleneck between the Qi Refining Mid Stage and late stage.

He would need to perform Spirit Refining on those thousand streams of spiritual power a second time, turning a thousand into a hundred. Measured in strands, one hundred strands of spiritual power would make the Qi Refining Seventh Layer!

Then came the final accumulation, until he Arrived at the threshold for the third Spirit Refining. Spiritual power would transform into liquid and advance into True Essence, one of the three hurdles of Foundation Establishment.

At present, he needed to accumulate seven hundred streams of spiritual power to reach completion.

Based on the efficiency of his current two Placement Slots, it would require 1,750 days—nearly five years. That was not slow. If the Top-Grade Cold Blood Pill was included, he could break through in roughly three years.