Netherworld Demon Essence

Wulin Marketplace, his residence.

The Stone Gate closed, the restrictions descended, and all traces of the outside world were shut out.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the stone platform. Rather than begin cultivating, he took something from his storage bag.

The Mysterious Nether Demon-Banishing Ring.

The dark-red metal ring was about an inch wide, its surface covered in fine demonic patterns. A purplish-black sheen flowed faintly through their grooves. He had obtained it years ago. Its Purple Trait, Netherworld Demon Essence, could be made permanent by killing a Nascent Soul Realm Demonic Cultivator or cultivating a Fourth-Order demonic art to Perfection.

He had not met the first condition. What he had killed in the Yaoguang Secret Realm were members of the Devil Race, not Demonic Cultivators.

But he had cultivated the Dark Abyss Demonic Origin Art to Perfection.

Li Yuan took the ring in his hand, and his palm suddenly grew hot.

The Mysterious Nether Demon-Banishing Ring shook violently. Every demonic pattern on its surface lit up, its dark-red glow turning purplish-black. The next instant, the metal ring shattered in his palm and became a stream of purple light that rushed into his body.

The light surged along his meridians into his sea of consciousness, then spread through the pathways that carried his demonic qi.

An image burst into view in his sea of consciousness.

A vast underground cavern appeared, its walls covered in dark-red Spirit Patterns. Their ancient, unadorned lines spiraled inward. A Demonic Cultivator hovered at the cavern's center, both hands pressed to the junctions of the patterns. Demonic qi seeped from his fingertips into their grooves, interlocking layer by layer with the Ancient Demon Dao Spirit Patterns on the walls.

Those Spirit Patterns did not simply seal demonic qi. They used demonic power to suppress demonic power.