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Snake Abyss, Second Layer
Su Qingqiu opened his mouth and inhaled. Water vapor came rushing through the void, followed by blazing Crimson Fire, and the vapor instantly boiled. Countless Evil Remains rolled within it.
Three to five minutes later
The "tea broth" had taken shape.
He was a particular sort of person. Before a proper meal, he would first drink three cups of tea broth. The steaming broth, mixed with the slightly numbing, spicy sensation of the Evil Qi stimulating his mouth, had quite a distinctive flavor.
His unsettled emotions after the great battle slowly calmed.
These Evil Remains really were good stuff. Even made into tea broth, their effects were extraordinary.
This time, he had unexpectedly encountered the Hundred-Eyed Devil, which was genuinely beyond his expectations.
Although what had come here was only a wisp of the Hundred-Eyed Devil's avatar consciousness, its might was still far beyond that of the split souls of other Devil Lords—or even great devils like the Great Asura Lord.
It was surely a true upper-third-grade Evil Lord.
As for whether it was third-grade, second-grade, or even the legendary first-grade, Su Qingqiu could not make a judgment.
According to some knowledge he had once acquired, the three stages and nine grades corresponded to Refining Essence into Qi, Refining Qi into Spirit, and Refining Spirit to Return to Emptiness.
Essence and Qi were the Spiritual Light of spirit beasts cultivated by the cultivators of the Ten Nations and Twelve Veins. As for Evil Devils, they were formed from the Five Turbid Devil Qi scattered throughout the world, mixed with fallen Spiritual Light.
Thus, the Hundred-Eyed Devil could also be called a Refining-Spirit powerhouse.
Upon reaching the stage of Refining Spirit, one's own Essence, Qi, and Spirit had already drawn infinitely close to beings that cultivated Spiritual Light. For instance, the monks of Dragon-Raising Temple and the Buddhas of the upper third grade could briefly transform into Spiritual Serpents or Spiritual Pythons.
To a certain extent, this was equivalent to being half a Spirit Lord—not in strength, but in the essence of one's existence.
This was the first time Su Qingqiu had encountered such a powerful existence.
The Hundred-Eyed Devil had controlled a hundred miles of evil qi with his own body, drawing all the energy of heaven and earth into his palm. With the might of heaven and earth and its majestic grandeur, he had suppressed everything.
So-called thousand wondrous arts and ten thousand treasures—whether spells, weapons, or all manner of inconceivable methods—had to kneel before a powerhouse who controlled an entire region of heaven and earth!
The upper-third-grade Refining-Spirit powerhouses known as Earthly Immortals truly could not be measured by ordinary reasoning.
Yet Su Qingqiu had been able to oppose him without falling behind. His ten-thousand-year Daoism Cultivation and Spiritual Light transformed into Spiritual Essence were both rarities under heaven.
However, Su Qingqiu had possessed the advantage of home ground, while the information between them had been asymmetric. If the Hundred-Eyed Devil had known his true circumstances, the final outcome would have been entirely different.
The two had tested each other, and neither had struck with killing intent. The Hundred-Eyed Devil had mistaken Su Qingqiu for a thousand-year-old Spirit Lord, or perhaps a Buddha still in the mortal world. Su Qingqiu, meanwhile, knew his own situation best: he was merely a newbie with an enormous amount of Spiritual Light and nothing else.
This crisis, brought about by the Devil Lord's sudden assault, had been muddled through just like that.
"His methods are still lacking. Ten thousand years of Spiritual Light can only keep me from losing for now. But against a true upper-third-grade powerhouse like this, relying on the might of Spiritual Light alone is absolutely insufficient."
Su Qingqiu pondered this in silence.
Perhaps with the attacks of his main body added in, he could contend with an upper-third-grade powerhouse for a while. But only an idiot would use his main body. What he pursued was being able to stay behind closed doors while his Spiritual Light suppressed every enemy.
At present, he was an existence infinitely close to the upper third grade. He could briefly contend with a third-grade powerhouse.
So...
His sense of security was gone!
His Spiritual Light needed to grow stronger!
If ten thousand years were not enough, then twenty thousand years. If twenty thousand were not enough, then thirty thousand. The Snake Abyss had nothing else, but it had Evil Remains in abundance.
So many Evil Remains were enough to raise his Spiritual Light to another absurd level.
He would set a small goal first: ten thousand years of Daoism Cultivation and magical power.
The next time the Hundred-Eyed Devil came, he would scare him half to death!
Sluuuurp.
He swallowed.
After swishing the Great Asura Lord around in the Water Pool, adding some Evil Bones with rather fine flavors, Su Qingqiu once again used his Spiritual Light to control everything through the void. Crimson Fire filled the pool, and he stewed a huge pot of soup.
Then a trace of bliss appeared on the enormous snake face, and he swallowed the thick soup in one gulp.
The Great Asura Lord truly deserved to be an Evil Devil nearing the third grade. Even though Su Qingqiu's Spiritual Essence had already ground away its soul consciousness, the Evil Qi within its body still surpassed the combined Devil Qi of all the Evil Remains Su Qingqiu had devoured in the past.
Cruelty.
Bloodlust.
Slaughter.
Madness.
The Devil Qi boiled within his body.
Su Qingqiu felt as though he had swallowed a huge mouthful of chili powder made from ghost peppers. The stimulation was so intense that it nearly sent him bursting into tears on the spot.
It was simply unimaginable.
"Cough, cough... That's a little too intense."
Even with the digestive speed of Exorcism and Blessing, he could not digest so much Evil Qi all at once. The vast Evil Qi charged left and right within his body, emitting shrill cries.
Faintly, some inconceivable, unimaginable Evil Devil life-form seemed ready to be born from the Evil Qi.
"Hmph!"
"The Great Asura Lord is already dead. Do you think this remnant Devil Qi can still act recklessly?"
Su Qingqiu remained unmoved.
Brand-new Evil Devils could be born from some relatively powerful Evil Remains. He had encountered such things before.
But that had always happened after prolonged immersion and erosion by Evil Qi. For the residual Devil Qi within a body to attempt to establish a new household immediately after the death of an Evil Devil like the Great Asura Lord was extremely rare.
However, since it had already entered his belly, whether it was a dragon or a tiger, it would have to coil obediently for him.
His immense Spiritual Essence instantly locked down the Evil Qi within his body. Then he opened a passage, allowing all the Evil Qi to pour into the seventh vertebrae below his neck, into those backward-growing Reversal Scales.
A dragon had Reversal Scales, and touching them brought certain fury.
His own Reversal Scales were also extremely unique. He had discovered long ago that these scales possessed an extraordinary fondness for Evil Qi.
The reason Su Qingqiu could devour so many Evil Remains without being polluted and eroded like other Spiritual Serpents was, besides his innate divine ability, more importantly because of these Reversal Scales around his neck.
They absorbed all the Evil Qi that entered his body.
He still did not know exactly what function absorbing the Evil Qi served, but that did not stop him from making active use of it.
After every last drop of Evil Qi had entered the Reversal Scales, Su Qingqiu faintly sensed that these scales had undergone further changes.
The Reversal Scales had completely spread across the seventh vertebrae of the snake's body. They were darker and brighter, forming a stark contrast with the surrounding crimson dragon-spine scales and the golden snake scales nearby.
From far away, they looked like a black bracelet.
Black, crimson, gold!
Together with the enormous Crimson Fire Horn in the center of his forehead, Su Qingqiu had become increasingly different from the other Spiritual Serpents.
However, the Reversal Scales were still transforming. What they would ultimately be used for required further observation.
[Exorcism and Blessing in progress...]
The most anticipated part had arrived.
Whether it was the Great Asura Lord's various memories and information or the rewards after Exorcism and Blessing, Su Qingqiu was filled with anticipation.
This was an Evil Devil nearing the third grade—the strongest among all the Evil Remains he had ever devoured.
If it did not give him some powerful divine ability or a wondrous item like the Crimson Fire Horn, that would be far too unreasonable.
Image after image
began to emerge.
And Su Qingqiu also witnessed the Great Asura Lord's magnificent yet bloody and dark life.
Within it, he unexpectedly discovered an event related to Dragon-Raising Temple from three hundred years ago.
The Great Asura Lord had actually come from the Snake Abyss within Dragon-Raising Temple!
Before you continue