Tunhai Fish and Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit

The remaining Thousand Rivers Hundred Herbs Paste was carefully stored away again.

Xiao Chen turned to look at the lightest of the Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box.

Gently lift the lid of the box, and you'll find four identical Small Blue Jade Bottle inside.

"Could this be Fourth-Order Spirit Pill?"

Xiao Chen was curious because he recognized the jade bottle in the box as the kind usually used to hold elixirs.

However, when he opened one of the small jade bottles, a strong smell of blood wafted out.

Upon closer inspection, the Small Blue Jade Bottle was clearly filled with a full bottle of blood!

It also contained a relatively strong spiritual energy, and there was a noticeable outward dissipation of Wood Spiritual Power.

"Ah?"

After a brief moment of surprise, Xiao Chen immediately realized, "This is a bottle of Essence Blood from a high-level cultivator!"

He immediately recalled the Demonic Legacy he had read, and then compared and distinguished them again.

It was quickly determined that this was indeed the Essence Blood of a Nascent Soul Cultivator with a Wood Spiritual Root.

Based on the degree of preservation, it can be deduced that the person's cultivation level before death was likely at the Nascent Soul Early Stage.

It can even be determined that this bottle of Essence Blood is relatively fresh, and the extraction time should not exceed twenty years.

"So, within the last twenty years, a Nascent Soul True Lord with a Wood Spiritual Root has perished?"

Xiao Chen was surprised by his own conclusion. "The Yin Corpse Sect is still secretly hunting down other Nascent Soul True Lord?"

"They still have that ability?"

To be honest, this is actually quite outrageous, almost unbelievable.

It's not that it's particularly difficult; after all, the Yin Corpse Sect has a large and powerful force, and ordinary people really can't defeat them.

The key issue is that the number of Nascent Soul True Lord is quite limited; losing even one would be big news.

If the Yin Corpse Sect were truly hunting Nascent Soul Cultivator in secret, it should have been discovered by other sects long ago.

The Storm Sea will never be as calm as before, with no sound of wind escaping.

Xiao Chen immediately checked the other three jade bottles.

It was a shock when I looked.

The other three Small Blue Jade Bottle each contained a portion of the Essence Blood of Nascent Soul Cultivator, and they were all different.

They are a Nascent Soul cultivator with a Gold Spiritual Root at the Nascent Soul Early Stage, a Nascent Soul cultivator with a Water Spiritual Root at the Nascent Soul Middle Stage, and a Nascent Soul cultivator with an Earth Spiritual Root at the Nascent Soul Early Stage.

"Metal, Wood, Water, Earth, so what's missing is Fire?"

Xiao Chen checked it again to make sure he hadn't misread it. "Good heavens, it's still following the Five Elements Rule. What are they trying to do?"

To be honest, this is obviously not right!

Normally, even if a demonic cultivator secretly harms other True Lord to extract their Essence Blood, they wouldn't specifically observe the other party's Spirit Root Attribute.

They basically target whoever seems easiest to harm.

There must be another purpose behind deliberately collecting the Five Elements Essence Blood in this way.

Moreover, this means there are four Nascent Soul True Lord!

With so many True Lord missing from the Storm Sea, how come the other Great Powers are completely unaware?

Isn't that a bit too... useless?

Xiao Chen was really starting to lose his composure. Surely all the major sects couldn't be blind and deaf, completely indifferent to what was happening outside.

Fortunately, he soon noticed that there was a significant difference in the spiritual energy contained in the four bottles of Essence Blood.

After careful comparison, the age of the bottle of Gold Essence Blood was closer to that of the first bottle of Wood Essence Blood, but there should still be a difference of several years.

The other two vials of Essence Blood were actually quite old.

The water-type bottle is at least sixty years old, and the earth-type bottle is even older, probably close to a hundred years old.

However, because they have always been stored in this batch of specially customized Spirit Medicine Bottle, the spiritual energy and Spiritual Power within the Essence Blood have been locked in to the maximum extent.

So despite the passage of so many years, there has been almost no loss.

"Oh, I knew it! So it was premeditated all along."

Xiao Chen finally understood a little better.

Even if we extend the timeframe to a hundred years from now, this still seems incredibly absurd.

However, this does create some room for maneuver, allowing them to avoid directly attracting the attention of other forces.

Of course, compared to the specific details of the cause and effect.

Xiao Chen was more concerned about the effects of this Essence Blood: "I haven't seen any relevant records in the Yin Corpse Sect's Scripture Pavilion or in the Storage Ring of several True Lord."

"Why are they going to all this trouble to collect Nascent Soul Essence Blood of different attributes? What are they trying to do?"

His gaze fell on the last two unopened Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box: "Since they're not found anywhere else, could the answer be hidden inside?"

There were originally two Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box left.

Xiao Chen was genuinely conflicted about which one to open first.

However, if we follow this line of thought, the treasure box containing the relevant records probably wouldn't be very heavy.

So he weighed the remaining two treasure boxes again and opened the lighter one first.

As expected, inside this Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box was a small Jade Slip and two separate small wooden boxes.

Xiao Chen then opened the two small wooden boxes as well.

Inside were a stack of handwritten notes and a blue and purple conch Seashell.

He carefully read through the relevant records and finally understood the main course of events.

First up is this two-tone Seashell, which has quite a history.

It was a Contact Token given by a Tunhai Fish to the Yin Corpse Sect.

The Yin Corpse Sect was able to collect so many Nascent Soul Cultivator ' Essence Blood without being detected by the other sects in the Storm Sea.

It can be said that everything depends on its contribution.

According to the descriptions Xiao Chen had read in Ancient Books, the Tunhai Fish was one of the Heaven and Earth Exotic Beast from Ancient Times.

Although it cannot compare to the renowned mythical Divine Beast such as the Kirin and Kunpeng, it is far superior to ordinary mutated Demon Beast.

Moreover, it has a special Innate Ability: it is naturally unaffected by most illusion arrays.

The specific method of cooperation between the two parties is that the Tunhai Fish will search for secluded islands in the Storm Sea and even in the Kunpeng Sea to find refuge from the Hidden Dao Heritage.

Thanks to its Innate Ability, as long as it is willing to spend time searching in different places, it can always find the Human Race cultivators who are hiding, even if it is through the formation.

Once it finds it, it will return and contact the Yin Corpse Sect via the Seashell shell.

Then they had the Yin Corpse Sect take action, secretly surrounding the island and hunting down all the cultivators inside, leaving no one alive.

Afterwards, those Tunhai Fish will receive the physical body of a Nascent Soul True Lord, as well as at least ten thousand portions of Blood Food.

If there aren't enough cultivators on the island, the Yin Corpse Sect will secretly capture rogue cultivators to make up the numbers.

In any case, people will care if a Nascent Soul True Lord goes missing, but no matter how many low-level rogue cultivators go missing in the Outer Sea, it won't attract any attention.

The Yang Jiu True Monarch possessed a full nine Nascent Soul Corpse Puppet, instead of the five or six speculated by outsiders, was also largely due to this cooperation.

"Damn the Yin Corpse Sect, aren't they colluding with Great Demon to turn against their own people?"

Xiao Chen finally understood the truth. "He cultivates demonic arts and colludes with the Sea Race; he's a complete scoundrel and Human Race Traitor!"

"Fortunately, Your Venerable One went to the Compassion Sea earlier."

"If this were to happen in the Storm Sea, wouldn't those Yin Corpse Sect be the first to turn against us?"

That makes sense, since they've already cultivated the demonic path, they're not going to do all sorts of bad things.

Anyone with even a shred of conscience wouldn't have stooped to becoming a demonic cultivator.

From this perspective, colluding with Great Demon is quite consistent with the general situation that all demonic cultivators are a bunch of lunatics and psychopaths.

That's alright then.

Next, we'll get to the real story.

It all started when the Yin Corpse Sect acquired a powerful Demonic Legacy from the outside world.

The Jade Slip inside the treasure box is the Inheritance Jade Slip with only one reading opportunity remaining.

It not only records some Devil Cultivation Method, but more importantly, it also records a special Demonic Altar.

As is well known, demonic cultivators often deplete their own vital Essence Blood when practicing and using Devil Cultivation Method.

This results in them facing far greater difficulties than Righteous Cultivator when attempting to break through to the next Major Realm.

This can be considered one of the major drawbacks of cultivating the demonic path.

However, this Demonic Altar can help the worshipper Moulting and Bone Rebirth by offering specific sacrifices.

In imitation of the Innate Five Elements Spirit Body in High Antiquity legends, Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body is forged with the help of external objects.

Although it's a replica, if used correctly, it can achieve nearly 60-70% of the effects of the original.

In this way, one can not only enjoy the benefits of cultivation brought by the Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body.

More importantly, when breaking through to the Spirit Transformation in the future, one can also gain an additional 20% success rate in the breakthrough.

This helps to compensate for the impact of depleted Essence Blood on cultivation and breakthroughs.

"Wow, there's actually such a way?"

Xiao Chen's eyes were opened to a whole new world.

The only problem is that Devil Cultivation Method often have significant flaws, but these flaws are not noted on these sheets of paper.

Moreover, the specific arrangement methods are not recorded in a comprehensive manner.

No matter, Xiao Chen immediately picked up the Inheritance Jade Slip and stuck it to his forehead.

He then channeled his Divine Sense into it and began to browse the specific contents of the inheritance.

Coincidentally, this Devil Cultivation Method did not come from anyone else, but from the local forces of the Storm Sea, the infamous Yin Demon Immortal Sect in Ancient Times.

Moreover, this is a core, secret document.

It contains detailed records of many sect secrets and internal struggles unknown to outsiders.

It also left behind a large number of Demonic Secret Methods, including many methods that had long been considered forbidden by the outside world.

However, after seeing the complete inheritance of the Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body, Xiao Chen also learned about its three major difficulties and shortcomings.

First, the requirements for the offerings are extremely high.

Not only do we need to collect the Essence Blood of five Nascent Soul Nascent Soul True Lord with different Spirit Root, but we also need to consume five fourth-grade high-quality Five Elements Five Elements Spiritual Objects.

These five spiritual items also naturally require the presence of the five elements.

It should be noted that Fourth-Order High-Grade Spirit Item are almost all non-renewable, belonging to the kind of unique items where once used, there are fewer and fewer available.

Gathering five Fourth-Order High-Grade Spirit Item of different attributes is a rather difficult task, even for Nascent Soul Great Perfection stage.

For most cultivators, this is enough to give up.

Secondly, there were instances of sacrificial failures occurring for unknown reasons.

That's right, even if a demonic cultivator gathers all the offerings, the sacrifice is not guaranteed to succeed.

At least when this Inheritance Jade Slip was originally made.

Of the four sacrifices, two resulted in the successful forging of a demonic body, while the other two resulted in nothing.

There are very few cases, and the offerings used in all four instances were different.

Therefore, the Yin Demon Immortal Sect has not yet been able to find the reason for the failure of the sacrifice.

However, even if the above two points are not a problem, there is still one last hurdle.

Thirdly, if the sacrifice is successful, the changes that the Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body brings to the cultivator are unique and irreversible.

The concept of "unique" is actually quite easy to understand.

That is, once a cultivator possesses the Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body, they can no longer possess any other physical or Spirit Body.

For example, Xiao Chen had previously heard of the True Yang Creation Pill in Hundred Herbs City, which could help those with Fire Spiritual Root cultivate True Yang Dharmic Body.

Some Ancient Books also record even more powerful spiritual objects or elixirs.

It can help cultivators cultivate Spirit Body that is even superior to a physical body.

To put it bluntly, it's still the same old path of the demonic path—sacrificing future possibilities for immediate gains.

This can also be understood as raising the lower limit by lowering the upper limit.

As for irreversible, it's even simpler: it just means there's no way to undo it.

"Alas, in the end, we can't escape the inherent problems of the demonic path."

Xiao Chen sighed and shook his head, "Although the effect is good, it still feels a bit uneconomical to lower the upper limit."

Although for the time being, there seems to be no upper limit to the aptitude of his Mixed Wood Spiritual Root.

If it were any other cultivator, they would be overjoyed, let alone have the chance to obtain Spirit Body, or even a magical body.

However, it's really hard to say what Xiao Chen's future potential will be.

He may well have the opportunity to obtain a true Spirit Body in the future, and it's even possible that he'll get the relevant option in the next Hextech.

Of course, even disregarding Hextech Optimization, which is completely uncontrollable and relies entirely on luck.

Sooner or later, Xiao Chen will travel to the other regions, to the Three Mountains Grotto-Heaven, and even to the Holy City of the New Cultivation World.

In those places, he might obtain special spiritual objects or elixirs that could help him cultivate a complete Spirit Body.

It should be noted that the Acquired Five Elements Demonic Body is ultimately a replica, and the original version is still more effective.

"Hey, if a 60% effect can increase the breakthrough success rate by 20%, then wouldn't the original version increase the breakthrough success rate by 30%?"

After a quick calculation, Xiao Chen immediately realized that the difference seemed quite large.

This is not as simple as a difference between 20% and 30%.

If you use every means to accumulate it to the end, it could very well be a significant difference between 90% and 100%.

"In that case, let's keep it as a backup."

Thinking of this, Xiao Chen immediately put all these things away again.

Unless absolutely necessary in the future, it's best to prioritize the normal breakthrough route.

"And this little Seashell."

Xiao Chen directly refined it again so that he could also receive messages.

If that Tunhai Fish dares to make any more contact, then we'll go and take it down!

The Storm Sea will not tolerate such an arrogant Demon Beast.

There's one Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box left.

Xiao Chen took another deep breath and placed it properly in front of him.

Then, with a sliver of hope, I opened it.

The moment the lid was opened, a beam of emerald green light shot out, dazzling the eyes.

Wrapped within the bright yellow silk was a round, fist-sized Spirit Fruit.

Its surface is interwoven with turquoise and white patterns, naturally forming a truly exquisite design.

What's even more amazing is that the pattern was actually flowing slowly, causing the aura to change accordingly.

It looked as if the Spirit Fruit was still breathing.

"A fruit that glows?"

Xiao Chen reached out and picked it up.

The moment he touched the surface, he sensed an exceptionally powerful Spiritual Power hidden beneath the fruit peel.

It is ten times or even dozens of times more potent than ordinary Fourth-Order Spirit Fruit.

Therefore, in an instant, Xiao Chen realized that this was definitely a Fifth-Order Spirit Fruit!

And if nothing unexpected happens, it should be the Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit he had seen in Ancient Books before.

According to those who have tasted it, it has a sweet taste, like honey.

It is said that this Spirit Fruit is divided into five different types based on its color.

For example, the one in Xiao Chen's hand contains both green, representing Wood Spiritual Power, and white, representing Water Spiritual Power.

After consuming it, you can have the following benefits within the next hour.

Through a series of changes within one's own body, one can fully appreciate the profound mystery of the Five Elements Mutual Generation, specifically the relationship between Water Generating Wood.

If it is turquoise or red, then it is Wood Generating Fire, and so on.

Because the Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit is effective even for Spirit Transformation Venerable, it has been offered for a high reward for many years.

According to the records in that Ancient Books.

Since Ancient Times, if a cultivator were lucky enough to obtain Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit, he could almost offer it as a reward to most Spirit Transformation Venerable.

Because most Nascent Spirit Transformation Venerable, even if their attributes don't match, might not be able to utilize their abilities.

They would also buy Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit at a high price, and then exchange it with suitable like-minded people for even better things.

"Oh, this is a really good thing!"

Xiao Chen's eyes lit up immediately. "This is made from Water Generating Wood, isn't it perfect for me to eat!"

Although he usually wields the Azure Wave Piercing Bone Needle in his left hand and the Crimson Sky Mountain Severing Palm in his right.

But if you look into it, he is indeed a Wood Element cultivator.

Such a spiritual object, which clearly helps in comprehending the Great Dao of Wood, could be considered the perfect match.

Therefore, Xiao Chen definitely did not intend to offer it as a tribute. Instead, he brought the Double-Patterned Honey-Flavor Fruit to his nose and gently smelled its fragrance.

Then it was placed back into the Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box for safekeeping.

I plan to keep it and use it to aid my spiritual practice when needed.

"All done."

After putting away the Spirit Accumulating Treasure Box, Xiao Chen checked the remaining items again to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything.

Then he stood up and reassessed his location.

He immediately used Water Escape and headed straight for the Nether Sky Sea.

Now that the Yin Corpse Sect has been dealt with, the next step is naturally the Three Great Families.

Since we're already here, we can't leave anyone out.

Xiao Chen had even planned out the route.

First, travel from the northern part of the Storm Sea, passing through the Black Rock Sea where the Five Thunder Temple is located, and then directly arrive at the Nether Sky Sea.

We stopped by the Golden Haze Sect's scripture library to borrow Scripture Pavilion, focusing on learning about the raising of spirit insects.

Then it travels from the southern part of the Storm Sea, passing through the Ten Thousand Immortals Archipelago.

The Ten Thousand Immortals Island Jin Family had searched for him for a while back then, so he settled that score as well.

Then continue south, cross the Southern Lao Sea to reach Dragon Slaying Sea, and attend the Spirit Fish Banquet that was arranged with Lie Que True Monarch.

This creates a circular route, which is convenient and quick.

Meanwhile, within the Nether Sky Sea, the Three Great Families were completely unaware of the impending purge.

Since receiving the order from the Pagoda True Lord two years ago, they have been busy mobilizing manpower to mine the Fourth-Order Spirit Vein and fourth-order spiritual mines within their territory.

This can be seen as preparation or a trial for the opening of the Vast Sea Secret Realm Inner Realm.

Firstly, it's to collect Mid-Grade Spirit Stone for Pagoda True Lord, so they can trade them for some fourth-tier consumables.

Secondly, we hope to find rare Special Ore before the Secret Realm opens.

Once Special Ore is mined, it can not only help the Pagoda True Lord, but also grant them additional rewards.

Although they are collectively referred to as the Three Great Families when speaking to outsiders.

However, they are not entirely united.

For example, the extra rewards promised by the Pagoda True Lord can only be claimed by Lineage that have mined special spirit ores.

If nothing is gained, then there is almost no reward.

Providing them with shelter and allowing each of them to occupy one-third of the Nether Sky Sea to develop their Lineage is already a tremendous reward.

Otherwise, the three of them alone wouldn't be able to safeguard the foundation of the Nether Sky Sea.

Therefore, the Three Great Families actually became competitors to each other at this time.

They all went to collect their rewards themselves.

However, relying solely on their own manpower is clearly not efficient enough.

After all, mining fourth-order spirit ore is inherently a difficult and tiring task, not to mention that the large number of Foundation Establishment Cultivator can hardly help at all.

Basically, all that everyone can rely on are Golden Core cultivator and Golden Core Spirit Beast.

Under such circumstances, those rogue Golden Core who, while not highly skilled, were numerous enough, naturally attracted the attention of the Three Great Families.

They all issued Hero Ranking, announcing that they had hired temporary Guest Elder to complete a treasure hunt mission.

It's basically just a nicer way of saying "miner".

The so-called treasure hunt mission is simply to dig for treasure in the Mine Tunnel and, incidentally, hand over the fourth-tier spirit ore they find.

Objectively speaking, this was originally a good thing.

Since independent cultivators lack income, they don't mind selling their physical labor in exchange for some cultivation resources.

The problem lies in this treasure hunt mission.

The Three Great Families wanted the assistance of the Golden Core cultivators, but they didn't want to actually pay a large sum of money.

So they very cunningly claimed that there were very rare Special Ore inside the Mine Tunnel.

If someone manages to mine Special Ore, they can directly exchange it for an extremely generous reward.

However, they also used this excuse to offer extremely low buyback prices for ordinary fourth-tier spirit ore.

After all, I've given you the opportunity to go treasure hunting and I'm not charging you an entrance fee, so it's not unreasonable for me to recycle these ordinary spirit ores at a low level.

To put it bluntly, they completely repackaged mining as a treasure hunt.

Furthermore, in order to attract more cultivators to participate.

The Three Great Families even arranged for some shills.

They either lied to the public, claiming that they had made a fortune through mining.

Or they might pretend to be ordinary rogue cultivators and infiltrate a mining team, then take out Special Ore they had brought with them before entering the mine and claim that they had just dug it up.

Anyway, it's really hard to tell whether ores are new or old.

The Three Great Families would also publicly reward these accomplices.

They want people to believe that as long as they work hard, they might become rich overnight.

What if a rogue cultivator actually finds Special Ore?

The solution is quite simple.

It's nothing more than another so-called ' Bizarre Disappearance Case ' or a fabricated 'unexpected incident'.