Pu Demon Method

He hadn't stopped a descendant beast and tormented it just for fun.

Lately, Chen Yao had been using the Pu Demon King's method to take his Heavenly Demon Tribulation a step further.

The Pu Demon King, suppressed directly within the Void God Realm, had been at their mercy, along with an entire small world of Pu Demon Trees. By the time they returned from the fight, every last method had been stripped bare.

He had obtained the Pu Demon Method, a cultivation method on par with the Immortal King level.

Chen Yao had immediately felt that this method was well suited to putting his Heavenly Demon Tribulation to work.

At present, he had roughly three ways to inflict negative conditions:

Direct physical contact, which inflicted an external demonic invasion and distorted the state of spirit and flesh to the greatest extent;

Infection through the Three Corpses God, which stirred the opponent's Three Corpses God to affect the state of spirit and flesh, with moderate effectiveness;

Infection concealed within his own magical power, which had the weakest effect.

The third was essentially a god-tier skill for crushing weaklings. Against cultivators who had broken through the extreme realm, it meant little; it wasn't even as effective as the weakening caused by hitting them with the Five Thunder Orthodox Method's Water Viscera Thunder. Only because the descendant beasts here were weak enough could the Twin Hands force field hidden within the five elements order affect the state of their spirit and flesh.

Simply put, the more layers separating the target from the Heavenly Demon Tribulation itself, the weaker the effect.

Direct attacks, infectious attacks, and effects mixed into precious techniques were like progressing from invasion through a wound to infection from a hazardous environment. People with robust constitutions had no fear of the former, not even the most outrageous wound infections.

No matter; immunity would handle it. This applied only to extreme-realm prodigies.

To affect an extreme-realm prodigy, he needed direct contact at the very least, like when he had slapped Shi Yi's forehead at point-blank range to cause blindness, or slapped his chest to cause immune rejection. If he used other means, the effects declined sharply and lasted only a short time.

Chen Yao had tested it on Shi Hao while suppressing himself to the same cultivation realm. The weakening had lasted only a few breaths, while infection through the Three Corpses God and effects mixed into precious techniques had done nothing at all.

He had to find a way to deliver the weakening in the form of a precious technique. Relying on physical contact was the worst possible choice; he might as well become a frontline damage dealer.

The Pu Demon Method could create Pu Demon Seeds that took root inside others and absorbed their life essence, even their cultivation and magical power, to nourish oneself. Beyond absorption, it also included a means of storing the fruits of cultivation within the seeds.

Then was it possible to reverse that process, storing the laws of cultivation methods that caused symptoms and letting them take root inside someone else to benefit that person?

It was. Since he could absorb from others to empower himself, reversing the operation meant absorbing from himself to empower others.

But he could add another layer to that process.

Absorb from others, then empower others.

The process would pass through him, but he wouldn't enjoy any of its blessings.

Like a catalyst, he would participate in the transformation but ultimately remain unchanged. Only the raw materials and products would change.

Chen Yao planned to use the Pu Demon Method to turn himself into a catalyst.

So where would those blessings come from?

Naturally, from this group whose elders had already agreed to let them join the Temper Training Camp.

His own store of knowledge might not be enough to determine which negative conditions could work on cultivators. Those that had no effect on extreme-realm prodigies might possess limitless potential, but were too weak simply because they hadn't been developed. The right path was to test them on ordinary talents with all sorts of problems, then select suitable ones to cultivate.

What was this called? Seed cultivation, selective breeding.

Besides, although the Pu Demon Method took the form of a carnivorous plant, it was still a plant, not one that couldn't grow normally without eating meat. Plants were producers, after all. With sunlight, fertilizer, plenty of water, and fresh air, they could grow just fine.

Look at the Willow Deity: its mastery of drinking blood was no worse than the Pu Demon King's, yet wasn't it still a willow tree harmless to people and animals?

Since it was a plant, naturally he could cultivate it the way he would any ordinary plant.

When there was no meat to eat, quietly being a dandelion and undergoing crossbreeding was good too.

Once he had collected enough excellent seeds, he could experiment himself, stimulate crossbreeding, optimize their traits, and select the most inhumane... the healthiest and friendliest seeds.

Then he would analyze and comprehend each qualified specimen, turning it into a method of his own.

At that point, he could unleash Pu Demon Seeds as a precious technique, sending them out in a hail of bullets. Getting hit would be equivalent to suffering the negative conditions caused by physical contact now. The worse their condition, the more hits they took; the more hits they took, the worse their condition became.

He wondered whether negative conditions could form a combo, triggering an instant-kill execution once he had assembled the full set.

Chen Yao decided to make that his goal.

Come to me more often to temper your foundations. You'll gain tempering, I'll gain seeds of the Dao, and we'll all have bright futures.

By then, only Shi Hao remained in the Kunpeng Nest.

Unlike his initial comprehension of the Immortal Phoenix method, this was closer to his experience with the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art.

The Kunpeng Method was extraordinarily compatible with Shi Hao's path, especially after he had opened his unique cave heaven.

It was just like the compatibility between the Six Paths of Reincarnation Heavenly Art and the rebirth of his Supreme Bone.

Moreover, after his Supreme Bone entered the countdown to nirvana, Shi Hao's comprehension of the Immortal Phoenix method had risen another level, gradually catching up with Aman's progress in that method.

Because he had opened his unique cave heaven ahead of time, many things had changed.

Having witnessed Chen Yao's approach to opening a cave heaven in his lower dantian, Shi Hao had touched upon the place where life originated in the lower abdomen early on, allowing him to begin comprehending the Kunpeng Method's yin-yang profound meaning sooner. Riding the momentum of his current transcendence beyond the cave heaven extreme realm, Shi Hao's comprehension of the Kunpeng Method had continued to soar in a straight line, far surpassing his original self.

Transcendence beyond the extreme realm brought divine abilities into manifestation. The process of watching such laws take shape from nothing was a rare encounter that could not be sought at will. While comprehending the Kunpeng Method, Shi Hao had also begun taking his cave heaven further into transcendence. He had observed the entire transformation and reaped enormous gains.

He was also trying to imitate Aman and Chen Yao, attempting to compress his cave heaven into different locations to see what different changes in life it could produce. He compressed it into the acupoints of his hands and feet, into his chest and abdomen, and even into the primordial spirit between his brows.

Throughout this process, all manner of wondrous changes occurred from time to time, unknown to outsiders.

Elsewhere, Aman, who was likewise comprehending the Pu Demon Method, was preparing to give Shi Yi a beating later.

Because his experiences had been different, he now had considerable confidence in catching up with Shi Yi-a mindset he hadn't possessed in the original course of history. Both hardware and software were already in place.

The path of nurturing deities in the acupoints throughout his body had also reached a turning point thanks to the Pu Demon Method. Pu Demon Seeds did more than simply absorb, store, and release essence. They could also carry one's own fruits of cultivation to create clones and divided spirits, preserve one's life against death, and even enter the mortal world to undergo tribulations in one's stead.

Every Pu Demon Seed was another version of oneself.

That being the case, things became simple instead. Each deity formed from a drop of essence blood would evolve into a Pu Demon Seed, becoming another version of himself. One was all, and all was one. All gods were him, bowing before his true self.

Once an Immortal King-level method aligned with one's path, it provided immensely powerful support for transcending the extreme realm.

The Pu Demon Method was like a fish in water when it came to breaking the upper limit on nurturing spirit bodies. It was much like how, in the Array Formation Realm, merely inscribing the sword formation from the incomplete Grass Character Sword Art into his body had helped Shi Hao break through the extreme realm without difficulty. Had he used the complete Grass Character Sword Art, he might have gone beyond even the extreme realm back then.

Combined with the orthodox Sacrificial Spirit Method obtained from the Willow Deity, and his understanding of the sacrificial spirit path in which spirit and divine kingdom empowered one another, the path of bodily deities bowing before the Heavenly Emperor became even smoother, far surpassing Shi Yi's current progress.

What made the orthodox Sacrificial Spirit Method different? Descendant beasts worshipping the Willow Deity could naturally purify their bloodlines, without even requiring the Willow Deity to act personally. Could other sacrificial spirits do that? Looking at the Fire Kingdom's Vermilion Bird, the answer was clearly no.