Demonization

The Beast God Essence Pill touched the skin over Zhong Yue's brow. At once, countless scales beneath his skin began drilling outward with hissing sounds. The energy contained in the Beast God Essence was truly strange and powerful—simply untouchable!

At the same time, Xin Huo shouted, "Guide it with your spiritual power!"

In that brief instant, Zhong Yue's body had already begun undergoing strange changes. Scales covered half his body, and even his forehead began to itch, showing signs of growing horns. His coccyx was burning hot as well, as if a tail were about to grow from it!

Without hesitation, Zhong Yue's spiritual power surged forth, wrapped around the Beast God Seal, and drew it toward his sea of consciousness. Strangely enough, the goose-egg-sized Beast God Seal seemed not to possess a true physical form at all. It entered his sea of consciousness along with his spiritual power!

Zhong Yue froze for a moment. His soul looked over his sea of consciousness and saw the Beast God Seal floating above it, radiating brilliant light, heat, and splendor.

"How can this be?" He still found it hard to believe.

"The Beast God Seal is simply Beast God Essence. How could essence possess a true physical form?"

Xin Huo laughed. "Now you need to visualize Suihuang without stopping and constantly refine the essence radiating from the Beast God Seal. Otherwise, you'll become demonic and beastified, transforming into the form of the Beast God."

Zhong Yue immediately visualized Suihuang, but he still felt that the Beast God Essence was so abundant that he could barely endure it. Even more essence surged from the Beast God Seal and merged into his body, leaving him no time to refine it.

He hurriedly lowered his head and saw that his palms had already begun to beastify. The scales hardened, his palms thickened and grew stronger, and the muscles beneath the skin of his arms began bulging continuously!

Hiss.

A crisp sound rang out. Zhong Yue felt his leather shorts being torn apart by something. He hurriedly reached behind himself and touched a tail that was still growing!

He looked back and saw a dragon tail covered in the patterns of a fierce tiger. Yet, at the tail's dorsal fin, long strands of mane had somehow grown as well.

"Xin Huo, what's going on?"

Before Zhong Yue could finish speaking, two soft popping sounds rang out. His forehead throbbed with pain as two horn bones grew from either side of it!

His body was expanding as well. His muscles and bones continued to grow, and ribs sprouted one after another. He had originally possessed only twenty-four ribs, but now another twenty-four were growing!

In that brief moment, his body had grown to more than twice its original size, transforming into an exotic beast!

"Eek, eek! The Beast God who died here was actually a Longxiang, possessing the bloodlines of a dragon, a horse, and a tiger!"

Xin Huo was astonished. Zhong Yue's head was changing as well. His mouth widened, fangs grew out, and soft, slender whiskers thrust forth, making his head resemble a combination of a dragon's, horse's, and tiger's!

His neck grew longer and longer, and scales sprouted over it. Yet, a long mane grew along the back of his neck. Unable to help himself, Zhong Yue planted both hands on the ground. The tail behind him grew longer and longer. It resembled a dragon's tail, bore the markings of a fierce tiger, and yet was covered in a horse's mane!

By now, he was nearly a zhang and seven or eight chi long. Resembling a dragon, horse, and tiger, his entire body exuded an extremely high-grade Demonic Beast aura!

"'The Longxiang's dragon-like might and tiger-like gaze survey the eight dimensions, suppress rebellion, and triumph across the four seas!' The Longxiang is an auspicious beast, but also a fierce beast!"

Xin Huo sighed in admiration, then said guiltily, "Little Yue, I miscalculated. This Beast God Essence seems to be a little too concentrated..."

The energy contained within the Beast God Seal was as terrifying as a vast ocean. Although the energy had been refined into the size of a goose egg, even without touching the seal, the energy it radiated alone was enough to demonize or beastify him!

Even visualizing Suihuang could not reverse the trend of his beastification!

Moreover, Zhong Yue could feel terrifying energy constantly pouring out and merging into his body, deepening the extent of his demonization and beastification!

"Xin Huo, can you be any less reliable?" The voice of a human came from the Longxiang that Zhong Yue had become, deep and resonant.

Xin Huo scratched his head, even more guilty, and whispered, "Well, from now on, you can't interrupt your visualization of Suihuang. If you do, the demonization will grow even more severe. Once the Longxiang bloodline completely overwhelms your own bloodline and assimilates it, you'll never be able to transform back..."

Zhong Yue flew into a rage. Xin Huo hurriedly said, "But as your cultivation rises, you'll refine Beast God Essence faster through visualizing Suihuang. Once you refine the essence, you'll be able to recover your original form and no longer remain in the Longxiang form. Well, of course, you'll have to visualize even while sleeping. Otherwise, if you delay for three or four hours in your sleep, you might awaken to find that you've been permanently demonized into a Longxiang... Actually, being a Longxiang is pretty good. Don't you think?"

"I have to visualize Suihuang even while sleeping?"

Zhong Yue was startled. That amounted to cultivating without interruption for twelve shichen every day—a challenge he had never faced before. If he failed, he would permanently become beastified and demonized into a Longxiang!

Yet the benefits of doing so were obvious. When other Upper Palace disciples cultivated, being able to spend five shichen a day visualizing was already remarkable. Those who could visualize for eight shichen were using even the time spent eating, drinking, relieving themselves, and sleeping for visualization, without doing anything else!

As for visualizing for twelve shichen, making complete use of even the time spent eating, drinking, relieving himself, and sleeping, the difficulty could be imagined!

Zhong Yue had never been able to cultivate without interruption for twelve shichen because he lacked sufficient spirit pills. But now that the Beast God Seal continuously supplied Beast God Essence, it forced him to cultivate without interruption!

"Li Xiuniang's Lotus Blooms with Every Step is subconscious visualization, merging visualization into her consciousness until it becomes as natural as drinking water or eating. Not forgetting to visualize even while sleeping is far more difficult than Li Xiuniang's subconscious visualization."

Zhong Yue felt immense pressure.

"Little Yue, once you've grown accustomed to uninterrupted visualization and removed the Longxiang form, you'll be able to draw even more tremendous energy from the Beast God Seal. Refine this seal, and you'll be able to strengthen your Fuxi bloodline. Right now, you're absorbing too little Beast God Essence, so the purification of your Fuxi bloodline is negligible."

Xin Huo was completely oblivious to the pressure in Zhong Yue's heart and spoke excitedly. "But now that you possess the Longxiang form, the Longxiang has boundless strength, the power of a dragon and tiger, and the speed of a Heavenly Horse. You also have nearly inexhaustible Beast God Essence in your sea of consciousness, so you can finally dig out that platform buried underground! Then I'll teach you how to move those stone steles and place them in the correct positions. After that, we'll dig several channels and guide the Yin Dragon River along the proper course. Then we can restore the Beast God Seal!"

"Xin Huo, do you think I can raise my cultivation to the point where I can refine Beast God Essence before I become completely beastified?"

"Don't worry, don't worry! I guarantee that you can do it!"

The little flame brimmed with confidence. "With me by your side, success is certain!"

Zhong Yue composed himself and walked out of the Beast God's heart chamber. Following Xin Huo's directions, he found the platform buried beneath the rocks and shouted in a low voice as his spiritual power surged forth.

He had only just begun visualizing a flood dragon when his spiritual power suddenly transformed into a flood dragon and flew out, stretching a hundred zhang long!

He froze. In the past, when his spiritual power manifested as a flood dragon, it had reached at most ten zhang in length. Now it had suddenly expanded to a hundred zhang, startling even him!

"The Longxiang's spiritual power is naturally formidable. Now that you've transformed into the Longxiang form, your spiritual power is naturally stronger as well!"

Xin Huo said, "There's no need to be surprised. If you refine the Beast God Essence and remove the Longxiang form, your spiritual power will still be able to reach this level. Hurry and tear open the ground!"

With a thought from Zhong Yue, the flood dragon plunged its claws into the earth and tore with all its might, ripping open a great fissure dozens of zhang long!

"Such powerful spiritual power..."

Zhong Yue was horrified. He could hardly believe that this was his own strength. He continued driving the flood dragon, and after a few strikes, he dug out the platform hidden beneath the ground.

Zhong Yue leaped down, carried the platform out of the pit on his back, and placed it in the correct position under Xin Huo's guidance.

"Good! Let's go complete the Yin Dragon River and the Grass and Trees Become Soldiers Formation!"

Before long, Zhong Yue restored the disordered stone steles, adjusted the Yin Dragon River and the Grass and Trees Become Soldiers Formation, and walked out of the seal.

At that moment, outside the Beast God Seal, a vast Weishui River flowed through the sky. The great river drifted overhead and stretched endlessly forward, with a large ship sailing upon its surface.

This Weishui River had clearly been manifested from spiritual power!

On the ship, several Shuitu Clan qi refiners stood at the bow. The Shuitu Clan elder, Shui Zi'an, stroked the whiskers on his chin while adjusting the course of the Weishui River and sailing toward the Beast God Seal on Beast God Ridge.

"Our Great Elder is still far too rigid."

Shui Zi'an spoke softly to the qi refiners behind him. "He only wants to avoid trouble and doesn't want to go to war with the Demonic Race, but he doesn't understand the principles of doing business. If we can't break through this Beast God Seal, Anshan, you'll go beyond the Great Wilderness and sell this information to the Demonic Race at a good price."

Behind him, Shui Anshan hesitated. "Sell the Demonic Race the news that a god-level formation has appeared on Beast God Ridge? I'm afraid someone will say that our Shuitu Clan is a traitor to the Great Wilderness..."

"A traitor? You're overstating it."

Shui Zi'an sneered. "The appearance of a god-level formation can't possibly be hidden from the Demonic Race. The only difference is whether they learn of it sooner or later. If you sell this information to them, our Shuitu Clan can also earn a handsome reward. Why wouldn't we?"

The great ship slowly descended outside the Beast God Seal. Everyone looked toward the long white-stone barrier when, suddenly, an exotic beast leaped out from the mountain wall. It moved with the bearing of a dragon and the stride of a tiger before vanishing in a flash.

"This exotic beast... it seems to be..."

Several qi refiners looked astonished and cried out, "It's a Longxiang! A Longxiang even higher-grade than our Four-Clarity Beast!"

"Good heavens! How could such a divine creature exist in a place like Beast God Ridge? Could it be that there's truly an extraordinary treasure hidden within Beast God Ridge?"

Shui Zi'an was greatly tempted and immediately ordered, "There must be even better treasures within Beast God Ridge! I'll personally investigate the Beast God Seal. You go capture that Longxiang!"

Several Shuitu Clan qi refiners acknowledged the order and hurriedly flew after Zhong Yue, while Shui Zi'an drew a long breath and walked toward the white stone wall. In a low voice, he muttered, "Even a Longxiang has appeared. Could it have escaped from the god-level formation? The Great Elder said there couldn't possibly be any treasures here that our Human race could use. I'm afraid he was spectacularly wrong..."