The Crab Demon

Chapter 4: The Crab Demon

After obtaining a cultivation technique, He Yu immediately began practicing. In this unfamiliar place, he didn't feel safe at all. The two "demon beasts" he'd encountered not long ago had filled him with an unprecedented sense of danger.

Strength!

Only great strength could dispel his unease. Now that he had a cultivation technique, even if it wasn't profound, it was more than enough for him at this stage. And with spirit treasures more plentiful than cabbages, as long as He Yu worked hard, his strength would surely improve by leaps and bounds.

For his first attempt at cultivating the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, He Yu didn't eat any spirit treasures to help him. He needed to find out how quickly he could cultivate normally—and what the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was like here.

With all eight legs planted firmly on the ground, he focused his mind and set everything else aside, devoting himself entirely to practicing the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole. At first, he made no progress because his consciousness hadn't settled into the right state. But after a little while, once he had successfully entered the cultivation state of the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, He Yu felt eight powerful streams of spiritual energy pour into his body through his eight legs.

He Yu's eight legs were connected to the Eight Main Meridians. As soon as the spiritual energy entered his body, it began surging from the meridian entrances at the tips of his crab legs, battering all eight main meridians at once. Ordinary cultivators opened their meridians from easy to difficult: first clearing the minor branch meridians, then gradually opening the main meridians. To open all the main meridians at once was unprecedented!

Though He Yu also had forty-eight Minor Branch Meridians in his body, the technique he had created worked by opening the Eight Main Meridians all at once, followed by the forty-eight branch meridians, also all at once. That was what set the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole apart from other cultivation methods. In the past, cultivators drew spiritual energy into their bodies through breathing, then opened their meridians by following the branch meridians—a process that went from the inside out. He Yu, however, went straight from the outside in, doing the exact opposite.

As the technique circulated, powerful waves of spiritual energy flooded into his body and battered the Eight Main Meridians. He Yu was stunned. He had never imagined that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth could be so dense. Even on his first, unpracticed attempt, he had absorbed almost as much as his body could bear.

Feeling wave after wave of pain from the Eight Main Meridians, He Yu realized that the sheer volume of spiritual energy had already damaged them. Too little energy was useless for opening meridians, but too much was just as bad. Right now, he had nearly reached the limit his body could contain. It felt as if his Eight Main Meridians were about to burst.

Alarmed, he hurriedly stopped circulating the technique. If he continued, his meridians would only suffer worse damage as time went on.

When his consciousness emerged from the cultivation state, He Yu broke out in a cold sweat. Thank goodness! If he'd used spirit treasures to help him cultivate this time, combined with the freakishly dense spiritual energy, he would have burst apart and died.

After this experience, He Yu understood how dangerous cultivation could be. One wrong step, and he could be doomed forever! He'd been lucky this time, but who could guarantee he'd be just as lucky next time?

Caution! He silently resolved to be exceedingly careful in all his future cultivation.

Though this brief attempt had yielded no results and even damaged his meridians, He Yu had still gained a great deal. At the very least, he'd confirmed that the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was extremely dense—and avoided a brush with death.

"Looks like I can't handle drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth directly for now!" He Yu couldn't help laughing at himself. The energy was so dense that it interfered with his cultivation. But with countless spirit treasures at hand, he had no problem getting started. Once he grew stronger, he would naturally be able to absorb the abundant spiritual energy directly.

Having figured everything out, He Yu began cultivating by eating spirit treasures. Because of the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole, he couldn't open his branch meridians first. All he could do was use the spiritual energy in the spirit treasures to strengthen his body and Half-Demon Core.

Cultivation knew no time. He had no idea how long had passed before He Yu finally paused his practice. His body had once again grown stronger from the inside out, several times over, and his meridians had become sturdier. He had also grown to the size of a washbasin, and his two enormous pincers looked like a pair of axes pressed together. Tiny sharp spikes covered them, making him look savage and terrifying.

Not only had his body grown stronger, but the Half-Demon Core Seed inside him had officially grown into a Half-Demon Core, now about the size of a soybean. A hazy green glow radiated from it, illuminating every part of He Yu's body and constantly strengthening his physique. The process was slow, but over time the results were quite impressive.

He Yu was now more than ten times stronger than he had been before cultivating!

Feeling that he was strong enough, He Yu once again considered drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to break through his meridians.

Though he had grown more than ten times stronger, he was still worried about absorbing the spiritual energy directly. So He Yu circulated the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole at his slowest pace. Having done it once before, he now knew the process by heart. As the technique began to circulate, eight powerful streams of spiritual energy entered his body through his eight legs.

Feeling the strength of the eight streams, He Yu breathed a deep sigh of relief. They amounted to only one-tenth of what he could withstand. Reassured, he gave the technique his all. Even as greater, denser waves of spiritual energy poured into his body through his eight legs, the amount entering him reached only about two-tenths of his limit. It was easy to handle.

Once he could cultivate with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, his progress in the Qi Induction stage of the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole became astonishingly swift. As He Yu repeatedly used the energy to batter his meridians, the Eight Main Meridians gradually opened.

He Yu had learned from the cultivation memories in his mind that opening meridians was painful. But only when he experienced it himself did he realize it was like having a sword driven into his body. The unimaginable agony nearly made him give up. But when he thought of the dangers here and his burning desire to cultivate, he gritted his teeth and held on. He hadn't had the means to cultivate before; now that he did, he couldn't give up for anything.

After several rounds of cultivation, He Yu grew dissatisfied with the progress he could make by absorbing only the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. He began using it as his primary source and eating spirit treasures as a supplement. Cultivating both internally and externally, his strength grew with each passing day. The Half-Demon Core inside him grew larger by the day, his demonic energy grew stronger, and the powerful currents of spiritual energy continued to force their way deeper through his Eight Main Meridians.

As He Yu cultivated with all his might, time slipped quietly by. Before he knew it, he had eaten almost all the spirit treasures in the woods around the stream. Naturally, some of the weak little demons in the forest weren't happy about it, but they were no match for He Yu. Even if he stood still and let them attack him, their blows couldn't break his hard crab shell. Left with no choice, they all fled the area.

After eating countless spirit treasures from the forest and absorbing vast amounts of spiritual energy, He Yu had opened all eight of his main meridians and all forty-eight branch meridians. Demonic energy flowed endlessly through his body in a continuous cycle.

While opening his meridians, He Yu discovered that the process was nothing like what he'd read in novels. There were no barriers or bottlenecks. He didn't know whether he was special or the novels had gotten it wrong, so he could only set aside his doubts.

Once all his meridians had opened and formed a circulating cycle, the powerful spiritual energy he had absorbed quickly transformed into Innate True Qi. He Yu had now mastered the first layer of the Eight Meridians Mystic Pole. His next step was to cultivate a Golden Core—or, in his case, a Demon Core.

Forming a Demon Core in the Twenty-Four Inner Mansions of the Eight Main Meridians wasn't difficult. He Yu followed the technique and succeeded after only a few attempts.

Before long, he had one Half-Demon Core and twenty-four Half-Demon Core Seeds inside him. His demonic energy was vast, and by He Yu's estimate, he was now no weaker than the two monsters he'd encountered earlier.

Figuring that he was now strong enough to protect himself, and with almost no spirit treasures left nearby, He Yu realized that simply absorbing spiritual energy from heaven and earth could no longer satisfy him. He began to feel the urge to venture out.

Wanting to try what it felt like to ride the clouds, He Yu immediately sent countless streams of hazy green demonic energy surging from his body. With a thought, the energy gathered into a green cloud. It lifted his basin-sized body into the air and carried him off in one direction—the same direction the two monsters he had encountered earlier had gone. Since they had been able to go that way, and he now figured he was no weaker than them, he should be able to go there too.

I guess I count as a demon now. A crab demon? Heh! He Yu chuckled to himself.