Demon Refining Bead

Orange State, the Temple of the Immortals.

The news that Gu Jinlai had returned to the battlefield in his Cheng Ying mech and brought down the curtain on the Battle of Muzhou with overwhelming force quickly reached Wu Tiandi and Di Luo, who were preparing to ambush and kill Xuan Tianzun.

"I guessed wrong!?"

Wu Tiandi's expression was somewhat grim. "To annihilate three Demonic Beasts emperors and twelve great Demonic Beasts kings in one strike—that's power comparable to a true immortal on land. No matter how strong the amplification of war Spirit Artifact forged Gu Jinlai is, there should be significant limitations in unleashing an attack of this level. At the very least, it should take two or three months of recuperation, like before. But now, he has recovered in less than twenty days..."

What does that mean!?

This means that his power, comparable to a strike from a true immortal on land, only has a twenty-day cooldown period.

"Throughout Gu Jinlai..."

Di Luo's expression was filled with resentment, and even a hint of lingering fear. "Fortunately, I didn't take action myself back then."

Gu Jinlai to Orange State.

At that time, he was mindful of Taiyuan and only sent Xiao Quan to take action, leading people to cooperate with Wu Tiandi.

After Wu Tiandi and the others' operation failed, they even calculated that although the Gu Jinlai war Spirit Artifact named "Chengying Mech" was powerful, it could only barely reach the level of a saint at most.

With his unyielding will and a saintly body exceeding twenty meters in height, dealing with such combat power would require very little effort from anyone Gu Jinlai.

It's just that he's faster, making him a bit more difficult to kill.

But now that I think about it, if he had really attacked Gu Jinlai, forcing Gu Jinlai unleash his terrifying trump card—the one that could annihilate the three Demonic Beasts Emperors and the twelve Demonic Beasts Kings...

He absolutely cannot stop him.

Wu Tiandi sneered inwardly upon hearing Di Luo's words of relief.

He didn't think much of his second senior brother, Di Luo.

He, Di Luo, and Tianji Dijun all came from the same school.

There are seven fellow disciples in total.

Apart from the eldest brother Xiaoyaozi, who was forced to leave Qiantian after the rise of the third brother Tianji, the other brothers, including him, all served the Tianxian Palace founded by Tianji.

Currently, the fourth, fifth, and sixth senior brothers all died in the great battle a hundred years ago, and only Di Luo survived by being extremely cautious.

Over the past century, he has become increasingly timid. Despite his ambition to emulate Tianji and recreate the glory that swept across the Great Qian Dynasty, he has been hesitant and indecisive, and has accomplished nothing so far.

If he is the one who achieves sainthood...

"When Gu Jinlai killed three Demonic Beasts emperors and twelve Demonic Beasts kings in one blow Gu Jinlai, I investigated him. The weapon he used at that time was not the weapon of the matching war Spirit Artifact Cheng Ying mecha, but the Dao artifact Panwu spear. Based on the information I gathered from other sources, I deduced that Gu Jinlai had to pay a price to unleash a blow comparable to the power of a true immortal on land, whether it was a vehicle or something else. This price was a Dao artifact."

Wu Tiandi glanced at Di Luo: "When he first came to the True Immortal Palace, he didn't have a single Dao artifact in his hands."

"That's just your speculation. Who knows how the trump cards of Gu Jinlai will be activated?"

Di Luo said, "Dragon Sparrow Manor and Yellow Heaven Sect were destroyed because they failed to see through the hidden cards of the Gu Jinlai."

"No matter how powerful his trump cards have been Gu Jinlai, it's a fact that he relies on external objects to achieve saint-level combat power. If we don't give him time to activate that war Spirit Artifact..."

"Oh?"

Before Wu Tiandi could finish speaking, Di Luo interrupted him. Looking at Wu Tiandi, who seemed to be growing increasingly dissatisfied with him, he sneered, "Junior brother, are you planning to assassinate Gu Jinlai?"

Wu Tiandi remained silent.

"Alright, as for Lingxiao Palace, since they don't provoke us, we won't provoke them either. Next, let's deal with Xuan Tianzun first."

Di Luo didn't intend to strain his relationship with this junior brother too much, so he changed the subject and said, "Xuan Tianzun is our biggest threat. Don't forget, you were the one who personally destroyed the Frost Sword Sect. You tortured his respected master and beloved senior sister to death right in front of him."

Wu Tiandi nodded after hearing this.

"Good."

In contrast to the arguments in the True Immortal Palace, Jiang Tianji in the Emperor Tower was excited upon receiving the news and uttered a resounding "Good!"

"Muzhou has been liberated."

He activated the Qian Tian purple qi Technique and looked south.

Although the direction of the Three Thousand Great Swamps is still shrouded in a dense black aura, the land within Muzhou is gradually becoming clear, and the radiance of order is about to be restored in that land.

"Gu Jinlai, you have never disappointed me."

A glimmer of hope seemed to rekindle in Jiang Tianji's eyes.

"Our Great Qian is favored by the heavens and earth, and in times of crisis, the Lord of War will descend to stop the fighting with killing. These Demonic Beasts that surround us will one day be completely driven out by the elite of our Great Qian."

Seeing that His Majesty was in a very good mood, Zhou Ji smiled and said.

"Luck..."

Jiang Tianji recalled his observations of fortune during this period.

Compared to the previous scene of dark clouds looming over the city, the Great Qian Dynasty has indeed shown a glimmer of hope.

But...

It was just a matter of taking another breath.

Not to mention the external threats from Demonic Beasts, even within the Qiantian realm, internal troubles have not been completely resolved.

"The Hall of True Immortals, the Hall of the Three Pure Ones..."

Jiang Tianji muttered to himself.

News came from the Xuzhen Tower that the Zhenxian Palace was stirring and seemed to have some kind of plan.

Very restless.

The deadline for the Sanqing Hall's ultimatum is fast approaching. If no response is given soon, a direct conflict between the two sides is likely to break out.

At that time...

"Your Majesty, His Highness the Prince of Tiannan is so powerful that he annihilated three Demonic Beasts emperors and twelve great Demonic Beasts kings in one strike. With such great power by his side, why should we fear the Sanqing Palace and the Zhenxian Palace? Now that Muzhou has been pacified, why not summon the Prince of Tiannan and the Imperial Tutor to cooperate and attack the Zhenxian Palace from the north and south, thus eliminating the threat of the Zhenxian Palace in one fell swoop?"

Zhou Ji said cautiously.

"Let the King of Tiannan, Gu Jinlai, and the Imperial Tutor Taiyuan join forces to attack the True Immortal Palace from both the North and South..."

Jiang Tianji pondered for a moment, but remained silent.

Although he trusted the King of Tiannan, they had just defeated the Demonic Beasts of the Three Thousand Great Swamps and probably needed to recuperate.

The fact that people from Gu Jinlai have come to him to ask for help in repairing the Cheng Ying mech shows that his defeat of the Demonic Beasts in the Three Thousand Great Swamps was not as easy as he appeared.

Summoning the King of Tiannan to the north at this time is inappropriate.

And...

Other ministers in the court probably didn't want to see this happen either.

Some ministers have already advised against allowing the King of Tiannan's prestige to continue to rise, fearing that he will become too powerful to control.

They preferred to use Xuan Tianzun rather than Tian Nan Wang.

Although Xuan Tianzun was somewhat uncontrollable and posed a great threat, he had at least not established any power and posed no threat to the rule of the Great Qian Dynasty.

"Let's leave this matter aside for now. We can't rely on the King of Tiannan for everything. Otherwise, the King of Tiannan drove out the three thousand Demonic Beasts of the Great Swamp without any help, while we can't even do anything to a True Immortal Palace. Compared to that, wouldn't our royal family look very incompetent?"

Jiang Tianji said with a hint of self-deprecation.

"This old servant deserves to die..."

Zhou Ji trembled and immediately knelt down.

"Okay, I didn't mean to blame you."

Jiang Tianji waved his hand.

He returned to his desk where he reviewed memorials, and looking at the mountain of documents, he seemed to have thought of something.

After a long while, he finally let out a long breath, as if he had made a decision. "Go and invite ministers Wang Yizhi, Zhang Hanhai, Long Yuantu, Qian Huashan, and Zhao Riyue to come for a meeting..."

He paused, then said, "I need to discuss with you all the matters concerning recalling the Star King."

A month has passed since the Battle of Muzhou ended.

Lingxiao City, at the drill ground.

A great sun, shining brightly upon the spiritual world, is radiating its intense and dazzling light.

Under this radiant light, the remaining demonic energy on the demon god's guards, which had not yet been eradicated, melted away like ice and snow exposed to the blazing sun.

For a month, besides tempering his physique and trying to reach a level comparable to that of Demonic Beasts king, Gu Jinlai was busy with this matter.

Not only him, but Zhang Lihuo was the same.

With their constant efforts, the number of Demon God's personal guards has increased to 40,000.

To completely refine all the remaining Essence Blood, and to increase the number of the Demon God's personal guards to 100,000, it would probably take another six months.

After a flurry of activity, Gu Jinlai walked out of the training ground under the fervent and worshipful gazes of countless demon guards.

Outside, Gu Qingmei and Leng Tianfeng were serving him.

Yes, besides Gu Qingmei from the Gu Clan, there was also Leng Tianfeng, who was not of the same surname.

Leng Tianfeng, along with Gu Qingmei, Gu Luochen, Gu Chifeng, and others, has become one of his newly accepted disciples.

And this disciple did not disappoint him.

His progress in cultivating the new version of the Great Sun Demon God Body Refining Technique was astonishing. After being guided by him for several months, he had already reached the Great Perfection stage, becoming the second disciple after Gu Qingmei who could manifest the Great Sun True Demon Body.

Although he could manifest the Great Sun True Demon Body and still be helpless against the Primordial Spirit True Lord, he was the disciple most compatible with the Great Sun Demon God Body Refining Method among all the demon god warriors he had encountered Gu Jinlai.

If he continues to cultivate, he will inevitably reach perfection in this body-refining technique before Gu Qingmei.

Gu Jinlai nodded to the two of them and went directly to the military workshop.

Inside the military workshop, Zhou Yi and Zhang Lihuo were studying something.

The core of this research is the Demon Soul Crystal.

Demon Soul Crystals are treasures left behind after the fall of the Spirit Lord. They are a high-level currency used by creators in trade. Besides being used to refine Void Beasts, they have many other wonderful uses.

What has been most valued Gu Jinlai is its ability to absorb scattered demonic energy and re-condense it into a new Demonic Spirit.

"How's the Demon-Refining Pearl being refined?"

A question has been asked Gu Jinlai.

"It went very smoothly. The inheritance brought by Zhou Tianjun contains the complete method for refining the Demon-Refining Pearl. With some improvement and guidance, we were able to refine it."

Zhang Lihuo smiled and said, "The Demon Refining Pearl was originally developed to purify the residual demonic nature in some people. Now, with the Demon Soul Crystal as the core, not only has the efficiency increased by dozens or even hundreds of times, but it can also extract the imperceptible demonic nature from the bodies of Demon God Warriors and condense it into a demonic Demonic Spirit that can be killed. After the Demonic Spirit dies, we can extract its spirituality from it, achieving multiple benefits in one fell swoop."

After saying that, he glanced at Gu Jinlai and said, "No wonder you were so desperate to kill that Spirit Lord back then, Supreme Elder."

"It would be good if it could be mastered."

Gu Jinlai smiled.

He had long wanted to escape the repetitive and tedious work of cleansing demonic energy from demon warriors.

He had memorized the Demon-Refining Pearl from the relevant information he obtained from the Book of Changes.

However, those Demon Refining Beads are expensive and slow to produce. The cost of refining one bead is more than the same as that of a top-grade Spirit Artifact, and it takes three to five days to remove the model from the body of a Demon God Warrior.

Unless a more advanced core material is used.

Like the Demon Soul Crystal.

After seeing this information, and knowing that it was not easy to encounter a Spirit Venerable who was like a target, he naturally risked consuming eleven beams of pure light to obliterate that Spirit Venerable.

"The Demon Refining Beads, made from Demon Soul Crystals, are extremely efficient. With the addition of the core power of the Great Sun that we visualize as a purification catalyst, the efficiency is further enhanced. In one day, it is enough to extract the demonic nature from the bodies of hundreds of Demon God Warriors and form a small or medium-sized Demonic Spirit."

Zhang Li Fire Path.

"A medium-sized Demonic Spirit?"

A thought has stirred the heart Gu Jinlai.

"Yes, the longer the demonic nature within a demon god warrior is nurtured, the more powerful the Demonic Spirit will be when it is extracted by the demonic soul crystal."

Zhang Lihuo nodded. "In other words, we don't need to rush to deal with the demonic nature within some demon god warriors. We can nurture it and extract it when the demon god warriors realize that their emotions are about to be affected by the demonic nature. The effect will be better."

After saying that, he laughed, "If we can really achieve this, with the constant cooperation between the Demon God Warriors, the Demon Refining Pearls, and the Celestial Masters, we might be able to mass-produce ordinary Spirit Artifact on an assembly line."