Beneath a sky thick with dark clouds.
Gu Cheng flew through the air, moving at astonishing speed, like a streak of blood-red light slicing across the heavens.
Though that Willow God had been rather weak, it was still a great demon at the high stage of the Innate Realm. Even its dead remains contained a vast wellspring of life force.
Gu Cheng had devoured it completely with the Blood Melting Furnace, but now he was having a little trouble digesting it.
He needed to find a secluded place as soon as possible and completely refine this power.
As he pondered, Gu Cheng landed on a remote mountaintop.
He swept his divine sense over the surroundings and, once he was sure it was safe, sat cross-legged on a bluestone and slowly opened the system panel.
"Let's begin..."
Gu Cheng took a deep breath. Vast as the sea, his lifespan surged into his body, driving the Blood Melting Furnace's refining process forward.
A terrifying aura that made the heart tremble spread around him...
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Year 1: You tried to convert the life force in the Willow God's remains into the blood baleful energy needed to cultivate the Blood Blade Scripture.
Since your Blood Melting Furnace and this innate demonic art shared the same roots despite taking different paths, the conversion went smoothly. It could perfectly replace the blood of demonic cultivators required for cultivation—and even worked better.
However, the essence of demons and monsters differed greatly from that of the human race. The energy you had devoured was impure and chaotic, and completely refining it would inevitably consume a great deal of your lifespan.
"Just as I thought—it works!"
A glint flashed in Gu Cheng's eyes. His earlier deduction had indeed been right.
As for the enormous lifespan required to refine it... did that even count as a problem?
The Thousand-Year Tree Demon and the Blood Blade Sect's master he had just killed had contributed more than eighteen hundred years of lifespan between them.
That was the equivalent of thirty-six Tang Yuans!
Purifying all that chaotic energy, using the ingredients in their original form, would be a piece of cake.
Year 683: You completely refined the energy you had devoured, converting it into incredibly pure blood baleful energy. Driven by this power, your Blood Blade Scripture advanced at astonishing speed.
Year 708: After years of arduous cultivation, you absorbed all the refined blood baleful energy and completely assimilated it. Your Blood Blade Scripture broke through to the Proficient level!
Body Refinement cultivation: Innate, fifth stage
Remaining lifespan: 3,259 years
"..."
Gu Cheng slowly opened his eyes. A glint of light flashed and vanished deep within them.
He rose to his feet and stretched his limbs. Feeling the vast power surging through him like a tide, he couldn't help but curl his lips in satisfaction.
In the Innate Realm, every step brought a new height.
Breaking through each minor stage was like rowing upstream, fraught with difficulty, but the increase in strength it brought was also earth-shattering.
When he had fought Duan Feng earlier, his opponent had popped pills, unleashed his ultimate move, and transformed. Gu Cheng had been forced to put in quite a bit of effort.
He had thrown more than thirty punches before finally breaking through that old geezer's Blood Demon transformation.
But with Gu Cheng's current strength, even without activating the ultimate art, the Indestructible Demon Physique,
the Blood Blade Sect's master wouldn't last ten exchanges against him!
"Now, I only need to hunt a few more demons at the Innate Realm, and I can push the third volume of the Blood Blade Scripture all the way to perfection!"
Gu Cheng mused to himself, deciding to strike while he was in top form and press his advantage.
He took the Willow God's demon core from his storage bag, swallowed it, and began refining it by burning lifespan.
The Thousand-Year Tree Demon's core was the ultimate distillation of the Willow God's thousand years of cultivation.
It was far harder to refine than the demon cores of ordinary great demons at the Innate Realm.
But under the merciless weight of Gu Cheng's vast lifespan, even this demon core could only submit meekly, turning into incredibly pure energy that merged with his body.
Year 563: You finally finished refining and analyzing the demon core you had obtained from the Willow God.
The immense life force it contained nourished your body like spring rain, extending your lifespan by a hundred years.
Not only that, but the healing insight hidden within the Willow God's demon core gave you a completely transformative understanding of related incantations and martial arts.
After years of contemplation, you had an epiphany and learned a new divine ability from the demon core.
You comprehended a divine ability—Innate: Spring Revival
Innate: Spring Revival: When spring comes, plants revive and dead trees bloom. Your body contains the powerful vitality of a plant spirit, and your ability to recover far surpasses that of ordinary people.
Even if you suffer a mortal wound, you can burn your own lifespan and instantly return to peak condition!
"Oh? Isn't this the Willow God's innate divine ability?"
Gu Cheng's eyes lit up. He had experienced firsthand the Willow God's powerful ability to heal itself during their earlier fight.
Had he not possessed the Destructive Wound divine ability, he could still have won that battle, but it certainly wouldn't have been so easy.
Now that the Spring Revival divine ability was in his hands, coupled with his thousands of years of lifespan, he was practically like Cheng Yaojin with endless ultimate moves and a Phoenix rebirth.
Unless someone could kill him in an instant or had an ability that prevented healing, like Destructive Wound,
he could stand still and let others hit him—and still find it hard to die!
At that thought, Gu Cheng felt reassured. He continued burning lifespan, pouring all that remained into deducing the Yin Yang Absolute Immortal Hand.
With the help of the Willow God's demon core, the deduction went fairly smoothly this time.
In just over four hundred years, this innate martial art, already at perfection, broke through once more to a higher realm!
Year 441: Yin and yang flowed, life and death intertwined. Your Yin Yang Absolute Immortal Hand broke through its limits, and you grasped the ultimate intent of martial arts.
Based on the characteristics of this art, you named it: King of Hell Finger!
King of Hell Finger: Burn your lifespan to decide life and death in an instant. By burning your own life force, you greatly enhance the power of your Yin Hand and Yang Hand, gathering it all into a single finger.
Like the magistrate of the underworld passing judgment with his brush, one finger could save a life, the other could end one!
Remaining lifespan: 2,355 years
"Why is this another move that burns lifespan...
No wonder refining the tree demon's core extended my lifespan by a hundred years. So this was what it was saving it for."
Gu Cheng chuckled and shook his head.
To him, lifespan was an inexhaustible resource. A martial art that wagered one's life against heaven seemed tailor-made for him.
After advancing the Yin Yang Absolute Immortal Hand to the Extreme Intent Realm,
Gu Cheng closed the system panel with satisfaction, took out Duan Feng's storage bag, and began sorting through his spoils.
As the Blood Blade Sect's newly appointed master,
Duan Feng's belongings were surprisingly meager, nothing like the collection of that gluttonous elder.
Gu Cheng rummaged through the storage bag for a long while and found only two valuable treasures.
One was a blood-red bead the size of a fist. The moment he picked it up, a chilling baleful aura washed over him, making his heart pound with fear.
As expected, this had to be the target of his trip—the Blood Blade Sect's treasured heirloom, the Blood Soul Bead!
Gu Cheng held the Blood Soul Bead in his palm, only to find it covered in fine cracks. Its once abundant spiritual energy had also drained away, leaving it on the verge of being ruined.
"Could this artifact really be broken?"
"What a pity. The Willow God didn't drop a Soul Remnant when I killed it. Otherwise, I might have found a way to repair this Blood Soul Bead."
Gu Cheng furrowed his brows, unable to hide his disappointment.
Without the Blood Soul Bead to assist him, he couldn't cultivate the Heavenly Demon Blood Transformation Great Law he had obtained from the gluttonous elder at all!
But then he thought about it. The Blood Blade Sect's two Blood Soul Beads had been obtained by Lin Xueyi two hundred years ago from a Rebirth Sect outpost.
Now that the Rebirth Sect had risen from the ashes, and he happened to know the location of one of its Inheritance Secret Realms,
getting another Blood Soul Bead shouldn't be difficult.
"Besides, my Body Refinement cultivation has only just reached the fifth stage of the Innate Realm, and that Spirit Sea Realm demonic art is only a fragment. There's no need to rush..."
At that thought, Gu Cheng sighed.
He put the damaged Blood Soul Bead back into his storage bag and turned to examine the second treasure.
It was a blood-red token about the size of his palm. It felt icy to the touch, and he couldn't tell what material it was made of.
On the front of the token was carved a hideous, three-headed, six-armed demon. Its face was so lifelike that it seemed ready to devour anyone who came near.
On the back were several characters he didn't recognize. Their strokes were sharp, and they carried a chilling aura of slaughter.
"What is this thing?"
Gu Cheng looked puzzled and cautiously sent his divine sense into it.
The next moment, a strange scene appeared in his mind... This mysterious blood-red token was actually a map!
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