Chapter 329: Fiend Pill

From these items, Han Li spotted the five "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pills" at a glance and was overjoyed.

He immediately took them from the beast puppets' mouths and carefully inspected them.

From the immense spiritual energy contained in the pills, Han Li confirmed they were genuine. Only then did he feel at ease, taking out an exquisite jade box from his storage bag to carefully store the five pills.

Although Han Li didn't know the specific effects of the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill," seeing how much the Emperor of Yue valued this item, he knew that what the young master of the Prince's Mansion had said about it being useful for Core Formation was likely true, and he felt extremely excited.

Subsequently, Han Li turned his attention to the other items: a pitch-black bowl, a blood-red awl the size of an inch, and a jade slip emitting a grayish-white aura.

Looking at these items, Han Li felt a bit uneasy.

These items clearly looked like magic treasures used by demonic cultivators and evil practitioners; there might even be some restrictions or curses on them. Therefore, he didn't rush to handle them but took a light breath, his hands emitting a faint light, suddenly wrapped in a thin layer of green light.

Only then did Han Li feel at ease, picking up the jade slip first to examine it.

Apart from the slightly eerie aura it emitted, the jade slip indeed seemed to have no restrictions on it. After Han Li felt relieved, he slowly extended his spiritual sense into it.

As soon as his spiritual sense entered the jade slip, Han Li stood motionless, but his expression became strange—sometimes full of surprise, sometimes extremely dejected, and finally turning into an expression of extreme solemnity, with a trace of rare fear.

After a full cup of tea's time, Han Li withdrew his spiritual sense, but he remained dazed.

The contents of this jade slip were both within Han Li's expectations and quite beyond them.

It indeed recorded the cultivation techniques of the Black Fiend Sect members, such as the "Black Fiend Shura Art" practiced by the young prince, the "Fiend Demon Art" practiced by the four blood servants, and the "Blood Refining Divine Light" practiced by the Emperor of Yue, and so on.

But what shocked Han Li was that these people's cultivation techniques all mentioned something called the "Xuan Yin Scripture," as if all these techniques originated from it.

This made Han Li extremely curious!

However, Han Li hurriedly flipped through the jade slip but couldn't find the whereabouts of this scripture.

Helpless, Han Li had to give up on this and turned his attention to some strange secret techniques outside the cultivation techniques.

A few of them made Han Li overjoyed. Not only did they resolve some of his long-standing doubts, but they also mentioned the true purpose of the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill."

Han Li calmed down and read carefully.

It turned out that the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" was something similar to a demon beast's inner core that could be condensed in the body by cultivators who practiced the "Fiend Demon Art." This was also the main purpose for which the "Fiend Demon Art" was created.

The reason the four blood servants could transform into fiend demons and enter the Foundation Establishment stage without taking Foundation Establishment Pills was also because they had formed this pill.

However, according to the description of the "Fiend Demon Art," even without using blood sacrifice techniques, because the cultivation technique was a shortcut, they could never hope to reach Core Formation in this lifetime. Foundation Establishment was the highest level of their cultivation technique.

In fact, not just the "Fiend Demon Art," other cultivation techniques were much the same, almost all having the fatal flaw of being unable to reach Core Formation.

Of course, correspondingly, their cultivation speed, coupled with the assistance of blood sacrifice techniques, naturally improved at a staggering rate.

The appearance of the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" seemed to be to compensate for the flaws of such cultivation techniques.

This brought up a secret technique in the jade slip called the "Fiend Pill Technique."

According to this secret technique, even a Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivator with poor aptitude, as long as they took the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" according to this technique, would have a one-third chance of forming a "Pseudo-Core"—a "Fiend Pill"—similar to the Golden Core of a Core Formation stage cultivator.

When this Fiend Pill was first formed, its power was slightly inferior to a true Golden Core, but it wouldn't be too far off, and it also had the miraculous effect of prolonging life.

When Han Li saw this, his heart almost jumped out. A one-third chance of reaching Core Formation—this "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" was too heaven-defying!

He almost immediately had the urge to grab the five pills and try them!

But the flaws of the Fiend Pill mentioned later in the secret technique left Han Li stunned.

It said that because the "Fiend Pill" was an artificial Golden Core, once formed in the cultivator's body, it would not have any possibility of increasing in size. This meant that the cultivator's cultivation would never grow by another inch in their lifetime, remaining at the early Core Formation stage forever.

If it were just this, Han Li still wouldn't let go of this shortcut.

The method of dispersing cultivation three times in the "Three-Turn Heavy Origin Art" and then condensing a Golden Core was too full of twists and turns and too slim a hope. Moreover, even if he really dispersed his cultivation three times, Han Li had no bottom line in his heart.

After all, this cultivation technique was just a hypothesis by the expert who created the "Green Origin Sword Art"! No one had ever truly practiced it.

But this "Fiend Pill Technique" was different. Judging by the tone of this secret technique, someone must have used it before.

A one-third chance—this temptation was truly too great for Han Li!

As for the fact that forming a "Fiend Pill" would make it impossible for a cultivator to advance to the Nascent Soul stage, Han Li wouldn't consider such a distant matter at all.

"Nascent Soul stage"—Han Li only occasionally fantasized about it when dreaming at night.

For him now, reaching Core Formation was his highest goal. As for whether he could hope to condense a Nascent Soul after reaching Core Formation, he would naturally consider that when the time came.

But the continued explanation below the "Fiend Pill Technique" left Han Li dumbfounded.

It continued to say that once a "Fiend Pill" was formed in a cultivator's body, it would continuously release fiend demon energy. Over time, it would gradually erode the cultivator's consciousness.

Although it wouldn't lead to a terrible outcome like losing one's consciousness and failing to recognize one's own kin, the consciousness would gradually become dull, and the mind would gradually become stupid, which was an unavoidable outcome.

This made Han Li feel cold all over!

One must know that what Han Li had always been confident in was that his mind was still quite sharp, which was his greatest reliance for roaming the cultivation world to this day.

So, seeing this, Han Li struggled slightly in his heart before completely giving up the idea of using the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" himself.

At this moment, Han Li felt extremely annoyed. Did this not mean that the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill," which he had obtained with such great effort, had become a chicken rib, completely useless?

But after a little thought, Han Li felt something was wrong.

If that were the case, why would the Emperor of Yue specifically cultivate this pill?

Looking at his cunning and crafty appearance, he certainly wouldn't consume it directly himself.

Thinking of this, after browsing through other secret techniques, Han Li turned his attention to another secret technique he was very interested in—"External Incarnation."

Han Li had long heard of this famous top-tier demonic secret technique.

Although the specific cultivation techniques and effects of such "Incarnation" arts were strange and varied, no matter which type of "Incarnation" art it was, it was definitely something that demonic cultivators regarded as their life. They were basically the highest secrets of every sect.

The seven sects of the Yue Kingdom had once tried every possible way to collect related cultivation techniques, but in the end, they had gained nothing!

When Han Li finished reading this technique in one glance, he was overjoyed, because he finally found a place where the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill" could be used.

If his guess was correct, the Emperor of Yue must have had the same plan as him, which was why he spared no expense to cultivate the four blood servants, thereby condensing the "Blood-Condensing Five Elements Pill."

And the blue-robed man who had his cultivation absorbed and died under the Heavenly Thunder Bead was the incarnation he had refined.

Only in this way could one explain why he was willing to have his cultivation absorbed without the slightest resistance.

Han Li suppressed the miscellaneous thoughts in his heart and quickly read through the remaining secret techniques.

Han Li had never practiced demonic arts, so he was naturally not interested in the "Marrow-Cultivating Pill" and blood sacrifice secret techniques.

Only the refining method of the "Blood Spirit Drill" at the back made Han Li take a few more looks, which he kept in mind.

After Han Li withdrew his spirit, he digested it well before turning his gaze to the other two items.

The blood-red awl he obtained was the solidified shape of the Blood Spirit Drill after it left the body; it should be usable as a magic treasure!

As for the pitch-black bowl, it was a rare magic treasure called the "Soul-Gathering Bowl," specifically used to contain the souls and primordial spirits of cultivators. As long as they entered this magic treasure, all souls and primordial spirits would gradually lose their spiritual nature and become ordinary lonely ghosts, specifically for evil cultivators to drive and refine.

And this "Soul-Gathering Bowl," Han Li only observed it slightly before being forced to shiver by the cold energy inside, hurriedly putting it into his storage bag.

Han Li knew very well that he hadn't practiced such evil arts, so he naturally couldn't use this magic treasure.

Seeing how cold this magic treasure was, he didn't know how many cultivators' souls had been buried in it.

Coming into contact with this object too much would only make him fall seriously ill!

===== CHAPTER 330 =====