Terrifying Monster--Hei

Chapter 7: Terrifying Demon—Hei

Following this battle, He Yu felt the urge to create a few powerful offensive techniques of his own. Although he knew countless martial arts moves and some simple immortal cultivation methods, he did not want to practice them directly. Only by fusing the strengths of many schools to create an offensive method best suited to himself would be the best path; especially those immortal cultivation methods, which required time to research.

Even the simplest immortal techniques were incomparable to martial arts moves. Even with demon qi as a foundation, successfully executing them was no simple matter.

Putting this aside for the moment, He Yu's attention turned to the corpse of the Python Demon before him. This Python Demon had cultivated for over a hundred years; its snake scales, flesh, eyeballs, snake gall, and so on could all be considered treasures. However, these were not what He Yu valued. He lacked the skills for refining, and he could not utilize the tough snake scales. As for the flesh and the like, he looked down upon them even more. Perhaps to an ordinary person, they were supreme treasures for strengthening the body and granting immunity to all poisons, but to He Yu, they were useless.

What truly concerned He Yu was the Python Demon's Demon Core. The Python Demon had been able to rival He Yu's twenty-five Demon Cores without falling behind, which showed just how powerful its Demon Core was. Although the Demon Core would lose some demon qi following the demon's death, it was still a supreme treasure to He Yu!

After absorbing its Demon Core, my cultivation will surely advance by leaps and bounds! He Yu thought excitedly.

He immediately arrived before the Python Demon's corpse, surging a strand of demon qi into its mouth and down into its abdomen. At the same time, under the guidance of his consciousness, he pinpointed the location of the Demon Core: it was right inside the snake gall.

The snake gall was a supreme treasure of the snake's body; consuming it could greatly increase one's essence, energy, and spirit, as well as consolidate one's foundation. The Python Demon had placed the Demon Core inside the gallbladder, a perfect utilization. The two were mutually beneficial: the snake gall helped the Demon Core strengthen, and after the Demon Core strengthened, it in turn greatly increased the utility of the snake gall, forming a virtuous cycle.

Now that the Python Demon was dead, its Demon Core naturally dissipated a portion of its demon qi. Sensing the power of the Demon Core plummeting, the snake gall immediately offered its essence to help. But since the Python Demon was already dead, it could no longer provide feedback to the Demon Core. Before long, all the essence of the snake gall was absorbed by the Demon Core, and the Demon Core was fully restored.

With a sweep of his demon qi, the Python Demon's Demon Core was in his grasp!

Looking at the Demon Core, which possessed no less demon qi than his own, he was astonished. It was the size of a pigeon egg, brown throughout, crystal clear like a brown gemstone, and emitted a faint brown luster with a wisp of brown smoke swirling within. One had to know that a Demon Core was a demon's life-essence treasure; once a demon died, its core would lose at least thirty percent of its demon qi.

Puzzled, He Yu carefully examined the Python Demon's body. Upon seeing the essence-depleted snake gall, he understood everything and couldn't help but secretly marvel at his luck. How could the essence of a snake gall compare to demon qi?

Having obtained the Python Demon's Demon Core, He Yu immediately found a hidden mountain cave nearby to refine it. This Demon Core would not remain forever; as time passed, it would gradually dissipate into the heavens and earth. The sooner it was refined, the greater the harvest.

The strength of the Demon Core was no less than He Yu's own demon qi. Although it had lost its resistance following the Python Demon's death, it was ultimately a foreign demon qi. Once it entered his body, it would struggle incessantly against He Yu's own. Therefore, the amount of demon qi refined into his body was a problem. Too little was naturally safe, but a significant amount of demon qi would be lost to the heavens and earth; too much would cause the demon qi within his body to lose control and struggle, potentially harming himself.

This was He Yu's first time refining a Demon Core, so he dared not swallow and refine the whole thing at once. For now, he absorbed only a wisp of demon qi into his body from the outside.

As soon as the wisp of demon qi entered his body, He Yu felt all twenty-five of his Demon Cores vibrate, and his demon qi became restless. Although he was alarmed, the disturbance was minor, and there was basically no obstacle to controlling it. His heart immediately eased, and he did not hesitate—time was demon qi! For every extra moment, the external Demon Core would dissipate a little more. A strand of demon qi followed his will, emerging from his own Demon Cores to meet the wisp that had entered his body.

The demon qi from his main cores, a hundred times greater than the intruding wisp, surged out rapidly. It reached the intruding demon qi, directly enveloped it, and successfully devoured it in an instant. His demon qi grew slightly as a result.

With this experience, He Yu absorbed more of the Demon Core's qi into his body, this time ten times more than before.

With ten times the previous amount of demon qi entering his body, the twenty-five Demon Cores within He Yu vibrated even more violently. Controlling them already presented some obstacles, but they were not significant. Ninety percent of the demon qi from his main cores surged out like a torrential flood toward the intruding demon qi. This time, the devouring was slightly more difficult than the last, but it only took the blink of an eye.

Following these two refinements, He Yu basically grasped his fastest refining efficiency. He did not refine at his maximum tolerance limit; although the harvest would be great, the time spent would be enormous, making it not worth the loss!

With his twenty-five Demon Cores working at full capacity, the Python Demon's Demon Core was rapidly refined, shrinking visibly to the naked eye. When only one-tenth of its size remained, He Yu swallowed it in one gulp to refine it. By this time, following his previous refinements, all twenty-five of his Demon Cores had grown, and his demon qi had increased greatly. Now, refining the remaining tenth of the Demon Core was a simple matter.

Having successfully completed the refinement, He Yu was full of joy. In this short period, his demon qi had nearly doubled, and his twenty-five Demon Cores had also grown by nearly a factor of two. The harvest was not small!

It was comparable to the results of his own cultivation!

He Yu also understood that this was merely a simple refinement; it would still take some time to harmonize it so it could completely merge with his own demon qi. This process would inevitably result in the loss of some demon qi. According to his estimation, he would only obtain about eighty percent of the Python Demon's ten layers of demon qi, with twenty percent lost to dissipation and the harmonization process.

"Roar!"

Just as he was pondering whether to stay here to harmonize his demon qi, a massive tiger roar came from not far away. He Yu's heart jolted; this was precisely the sound of the Giant Tiger Demon he had seen fighting the Python Demon last time!

My luck couldn't be this good, could it? Another Demon Core delivered to my doorstep! He Yu had gained huge benefits from refining the Demon Core this time and couldn't help but want to repeat the trick.

The Giant Tiger Demon's cultivation was no less than the Python Demon's, and its Demon Core was naturally incomparably powerful. He Yu was certain that as long as he obtained its Demon Core, combined with the Python Demon's, his demon qi would surely increase by more than double in one fell swoop, worth many times more than bitter cultivation.

Thinking of the benefits, He Yu immediately moved his six legs and headed out of the mountain cave. At the same time, he deliberately made no sound, and his aura was restrained. Although he was now significantly stronger than the Giant Tiger Demon, having swallowed ninety percent of the Python Demon's remaining demon qi, his own demon qi was not as fluid as before and had some slight flaws. A head-on battle might result in a disadvantage, but a sneak attack was different!

With He Yu's current cultivation, if he deliberately hid, the Giant Tiger Demon would be unable to discover him. It was the perfect opportunity for a sneak attack, enough to kill with a single strike.

After leaving the mountain cave and traveling not far, through the dense trees, He Yu saw the mottled giant tiger in the distance. However, he was surprised to find a Black Beast, slightly smaller in size, following behind the giant tiger.

The Black Beast was covered in foot-long black fur, its expression ferocious, looking like a tiger and a wolf, and it emitted a terrifying aura from its body.

Even from far away, He Yu could feel the strength of the Black Beast's aura. Its demon qi was likely more than double his own current level; it was truly terrifying!

Black? Could it be Hei? He Yu was shocked. In his past life, he had read Liaozhai, which contained a description of Hei. It was said to feed exclusively on tigers and leopards and was exceptionally vicious. Seeing the giant tiger's respectful demeanor as it looked back from time to time, his thoughts were confirmed a little more.