Refining the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu

Bai Yu had been having a rather difficult time these past two days.

Ever since Qin Yuxi condensed her Divine Path Nascent Soul, it seemed as though someone had set their sights on him. Especially whenever he went out, countless devouring gazes locked onto him.

Coupled with the commotion caused by the Three-Eyed Wine Worm, Pang Tong and Zhao Mingzhu indignantly cursed him for being disloyal, forgetting his friends at the sight of beauty. They said he should have given them the source for such a thing.

Left with no choice, Bai Yu refined the Three-Eyed Wine Worm dozens more times and sent the two of them away.

Yet quite a few inner sect disciples still lingered outside the Cave Heaven. Some wanted to buy Wine Worms, while others sought cooperation.

This sensation, combined with the promotional effect of Qin Yuxi's breakthrough, turned Bai Yu into a hot commodity for a time. Everyone wanted a taste.

The disciples of Gu Refining Peak seemed to have spotted a business opportunity. For a while, alcohol became the hottest-selling commodity in the Heavenly Demon Sect.

Unfortunately, they lacked Bai Yu's means of mass production. They could only refine them painstakingly, resulting in merely scattered sales.

Even so, the market for Three-Eyed Wine Worms remained an enormous gap!

Bai Yu could not be bothered to go out and deal with such worldly social affairs. He entrusted Yu Linglong with purchasing materials and handling the Cave Heaven's needs, while assigning Zhao Yun to protect her.

Although Yu Linglong was technically a follower, as her talent revealed itself, she could now independently refine Three-Eyed Wine Worms and Nine-Breath Flower Pouch Gu.

Seeing this, Bai Yu gave her several combat Gu to practice with.

Sometimes, seeing Yu Linglong being pushed to her absolute limit, Bai Yu could not help feeling sorry for her.

He finally understood why Pang Tong had said that a cultivator's cultivation required many people to handle logistical work.

Not only did one need to consider one's own cultivation, one also had to learn farming and make the fullest use of the Cave Heaven, that private little space belonging solely to oneself.

Recently, he had also been considering whether he should acquire more followers, slaves, or even cultivation furnaces. They could expand the Cave Heaven while also working and cultivating.

But after thinking it over, while the Heavenly Demon Sect did not lack followers, slaves, or cultivation furnaces, it lacked people like Yu Linglong—obedient and talented.

It would be difficult for another person like her to emerge among the menial disciples. Those with even a little ambition were all striving to become official disciples.

As for those who had been eliminated, their aptitude was limited. Even if he looked to them, they would be of little use.

He could buy some, or go to the mortal realm and capture some.

But under the current circumstances, if he went out, he might very well be captured himself.

So Yu Linglong would have to work a little harder these next few days. They could discuss it again after resolving the matter of the Iron Sword Sect.

He nourished the Swine Black Apes with Spirit Stones and Nine-Pouch Flower Gu. Under the abundant spiritual qi, their urge to reproduce became even stronger. In only two days, they had multiplied to eight hundred pairs.

Once the Swine Black Apes matured and this batch died, he would be able to harvest their souls.

And the faster they grew, the greater the pressure Bai Yu faced, since the consumption increased day by day.

Thinking of this gave Bai Yu a headache.

In the end, he simply cast everything to the back of his mind and cultivated in peace.

Li Shishi moved quickly. The materials for refining the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu alone cost him a full thirty thousand contribution points.

When Yu Linglong brought back the final material, Bai Yu prepared to refine the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu and use this opportunity to break through.

"You don't need to take everything into consideration."

"If you're busy, then stop refining the Three-Eyed Wine Worm for now. Otherwise, you'll be busy until deep into the night every day."

Seeing Yu Linglong's state, Bai Yu advised her.

"No, I can still adapt. Refining Three-Eyed Wine Worms is also an opportunity to improve, and this thing can generate income for the Cave Heaven. In the end, all the income goes back to Young Master."

"The stronger Young Master becomes, the more secure our status will be."

"I can improve my cultivation too."

Although Yu Linglong was touched by Bai Yu's words, she did not want to fall behind others either. After all, everything she had today was because of Bai Yu.

Who could have imagined that she was merely a follower, yet whenever she went out to purchase things or exchange for techniques, everyone treated her with utmost politeness—better even than they treated ordinary official disciples.

Yu Linglong loved this feeling, so she wanted Bai Yu to advance even further!

Seeing Yu Linglong acting as if she had been injected with chicken blood, Bai Yu felt rather helpless. This woman was far too driven...

"Fine, do as you please. But know your limits."

"Once the Iron Sword Sect matter is settled, I'll take you home for a visit. By then, you'll be a cultivator too. I believe your status in the Lineage will rise accordingly."

"Mm..."

Watching Yu Linglong bustle about, Bai Yu adjusted his condition before heading directly to the newly established secret chamber.

He took out all the materials for refining the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu and placed them to one side. Then, following the description on the scroll, he began carving an array onto the ground.

The process lasted more than half an hour. Once the array was complete, Bai Yu swallowed a Qi-Gathering Pill, then took out the wooden plaque and released the Mother-Child Ghost Baleful Spirit!

"Roar!"

Along with a flash of red light, dense ghostly qi spread through the secret chamber. A beautiful woman in white slowly emerged from the center of the array.

Her eyes were crimson, and two infants with ferocious expressions circled around her. The instant she appeared, the temperature in the secret chamber plummeted to the extreme.

"Becoming a Mother-Child Ghost Baleful Spirit should have been your fortune. But because of the environment within the White Bone Mountain Range, vast amounts of Sha Qi and resentment have worn away your consciousness."

"You became a monster that knows only slaughter. Was this a backlash brought on by insufficient fortune?"

"I will take your power and grant you release. It is better than having you endure this pain at every moment."

"I hope a fragment of your true spirit still remains in the outside world. After being freed, take your two children and enter Reincarnation once more."

Bai Yu spoke slowly, then bowed respectfully!

"Roar!"

The woman did not change because of Bai Yu's words. She merely rammed herself madly against the array, trying to break free of the chains wrapped around her limbs and tear everything before her apart!

Seeing this, Bai Yu shook his head and raised a hand, tapping lightly.

Mana shot forth and surged directly into the woman's forehead. In an instant, violet flames erupted within the array. Heart-wrenching screams rang out, accompanied even by the cries of infants!

Bai Yu steadied his mind and prevented the sounds from affecting him. With a movement of his right hand, a blood-red flower landed in his palm.

The Red Moon Blood Flower, a Golden Core-grade poisonous herb, generally grew in ancient shadowed corners. It was condensed from the remains left behind by corpses and the boundless essence of killing intent on battlefields.

It was also the most crucial material in refining the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu.

The amount of Red Moon moonlight determined the quality of the Heavenly Demon when it took form!

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

Without the slightest hesitation, six hundred Red Moon Blood Flowers fell directly into the array. As the violet flames tempered them, sizzling sounds rang out. Dense black-red blood threads condensed within the array and flowed directly into the woman's brow!

"Urgh, urgh, urgh!"

Painful groans rang out as the woman struggled endlessly. But as the blood threads eroded her, spiderweb-like cracks began spreading across her skin, and the violent light in her eyes gradually calmed.

The two infants beside her curled passively into her embrace. The woman instinctively protected them with both hands.

Bai Yu narrowed his eyes. A large amount of materials gathered into a stream in midair and continuously fell into the array. As materials containing purifying power melted away—

The woman's gaze gradually became vacant. Finally, in a daze, Bai Yu seemed to see a woman in white holding the hands of two jade-carved children beneath sacred light.

They kowtowed to him three times, then vanished with the faint glow.

"Go well..."

Bai Yu smiled, then calmed his mind and continued tempering the materials and the body of the Mother-Child Ghost Baleful Spirit.

Time passed bit by bit. As the materials continuously fused, the body of the Mother-Child Ghost Baleful Spirit began shrinking until it finally became a thumb-sized piece of jade.

The jade resembled a peerless beauty curled into a ball, desperately protecting the two infants in her arms. It looked lifelike.

Violet demonic qi continuously seeped out from around the jade. The demonic qi gathered without end and ultimately formed the graceful figure of a woman.

The woman wore obsidian armor and held two scythes. The handles of the scythes were shaped like infant heads, identical to each other as though copied from the same mold.

The violet demonic qi on the scythe in her right hand corresponded to the sinister Sha Qi on the one in her left. Two utterly different powers constantly balanced each other within the ghostly pendant on the woman's chest.

In the end, demonic qi, Sha Qi, and ghostly qi entered a bizarre state of balance, achieving a scene where you contained me, and I contained you.

[Technique: Return-to-Origin Gu Control Art (Mastery)]

[Technique: Eight Desolations Spirit Convergence Art (Minor Mastery) 4633/8000]

[Skill: Cutting (Mastery)]

[Progress: (2860/3500]

[Yin-Yang Mystic Dragon Gu (Life-Bound Gu) (Growth Stage)]

[Dragon Qi Progress: /]

[Yin-Yang Qi: 4566/5000]

[Evil Dragon Resentment: 9872/]

[Evil Earth Stone Gu (Dragon Blood Stone Gu Mutation): 200/2700]

[Yin Mosquito Gu (Blood Mosquito Gu Mutation) 469/4500]

[Blood River Body Tempering Art (Beginner 563/]

[Delusion-Breaking Golden Eyes (Beginner) (Earth-Entering Eye Mutation): 2366/]

[Human-Faced Black Centipede Gu 4271/6000 (Mutating)]

[Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu 2/9500]

Looking at the progress bars on the panel, Bai Yu knew that forming the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu was easy, but its subsequent cultivation was the true priority!

Now that the Heavenly Demon had taken shape, the next step was to improve its quality.

Thinking this, Bai Yu brought up "Calamity Beauty Primordial Yin" and "Nine-Tailed Heavenly Fox Bloodline" from the panel, then threw them out along with three Jade Infant Fruits.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

The Jade Infant Fruits melted, and three terrifying powers—black, azure, and white—flowed into the jade.

Amid wave after wave of humming, the jade began trembling. The formerly tranquil Heavenly Demon slowly opened her eyes, while her jet-black hair gradually turned silver-white.

Those violet eyes were like an abyss capable of bewitching all things in the world, drawing people into ruin.

"It's time..."

Bai Yu swallowed two more Qi-Gathering Pills and continuously replenished his mana. As the Heavenly Demon's eyes became increasingly lively—

Bai Yu's hand seals changed continuously. He began devouring the violent power in the secret chamber into his body. At the instant the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu took form, he would use the power she fed back to establish his Foundation.

At the same time, he would open his Aperture and allow the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu to enter it, causing a transformation in his Life-Bound Gu.

This process was also the most dangerous. With a single misstep, Bai Yu might suffer backlash and become a slave controlled by the Heavenly Demon Soul-Devouring Gu.

"Whew..."

Bai Yu let out a heavy breath, stretched out his hand, and lightly beckoned to the Heavenly Demon's phantom.

"Come!"

As his words fell, the Heavenly Demon phantom slightly raised her head. The next instant, the jade slowly drifted toward Bai Yu.

"Buzz, buzz, buzz!"

The jade arrived before Bai Yu's brow, and the piercing hum made his ears swell with pain.

As strands of violet aura emerged from the jade and touched Bai Yu's brow—

A chill rising from the depths of his soul instantly swept through Bai Yu's entire body. When he opened his eyes again, he saw the Heavenly Demon phantom walking slowly toward him with a seductive smile.

"Foundation Establishment!"

"Boom!"