Chapter 120: The Soul Refining Method and the Hunyuan Treasure Box

Having resolved the prisoners of Blood Lamp City, Uchiha Feiyu's hands gained another hundred or so black Qi for sacrifice, all of the high-quality variety.

The Grass Ninja were also very happy, especially the lord of Blood Lamp City, Mui, because more than half of the Origin Pills refined by Uchiha Feiyu were given to this lord who had surrendered.

Unfortunately, he was happy a bit too early; with a single God-Controlling Technique, Uchiha Feiyu directly controlled this lord of Blood Lamp City, effectively giving him no chance at all.

In fact, Mui's strength was already about the strongest among the original Grass Ninja, and after consuming a large amount of high-quality Origin Pills, he progressed even faster than the three Grass Ninja high-level officials, possessing strength comparable to that of the Third Hokage.

The current Third Hokage is about 50 years old, and his strength, while not necessarily invincible in the world, is much stronger than in his later years; among Shadow-level, he can be considered a powerhouse.

With the addition of Mui, the Grass Ninja now possessed one top-tier Shadow-level powerhouse, three mid-tier powerhouses who were not weak among the Shadow-level, over a hundred Jonin, nearly a thousand Chunin, and over 2,000 ordinary Genin.

After casting the Spirit Transformation Technique, a ninja's physical body loses all sensation, becoming similar to a vegetable, but Uchiha Feiyu could clearly feel that his own body was still refining the Box of Ultimate Bliss beneath him; clearly, his current state was not the Spirit Transformation Technique.

Although he did not know what state he was currently in, Uchiha Feiyu could also feel that this did not seem to be a bad thing.

The Hunyuan Treasure Box sounds quite nice by name, but in reality, it is an out-and-out Demonic Path treasure; as for its effect, it can be viewed as an enhanced version of a Blood Pool.

Subsequently, Uchiha Feiyu cast his gaze toward the so-called Box of Ultimate Bliss, his eyebrows slightly raised.

This group of Grass Ninja, when it comes down to it, were merely tools for Uchiha Feiyu to harvest sacrifices and artificially cultivated great medicine; it wouldn't matter if they all died.

A Blood Pool can refine the bones and blood of others to improve bloodlines, while the Hunyuan Treasure Box can refine everything—bones, blood, and soul—cleanly; its effect is not just improving bloodlines, but a comprehensive strengthening of chakra, physical talent, and soul strength.

Now Uchiha Feiyu increasingly believed that the Box of Ultimate Bliss had nothing to do with the Sage of Six Paths, because according to the perception he gained from the Soul Refining Secret Technique, the large box before him stored at least a million souls!

As for whether a situation would arise later where several Ninja Villages would simultaneously crusade against the Grass Ninja, that was none of Uchiha Feiyu's business.

Moreover, Uchiha Feiyu had no way to practice the Secret Realm Method and could not forge a life-bound artifact at all; furthermore, the artifact-refining secret techniques within the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art actually favored physical bodies with special constitutions as the best materials, and were quite ordinary regarding the refining methods for various heaven-sent treasures.

As for the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art, its greatest effect is also changing one's constitution and fusing ten thousand bodies into chaos; increasing soul energy is just an incidental improvement.

Uchiha Feiyu had practiced secret techniques like the Spirit Transformation Technique before, and even though he didn't care much for it at the time, he had easily mastered it by relying on his shocking foundation.

The Sage of Six Paths founded the Ninja Sect and passed chakra to the world only a thousand years ago; no matter how one calculates it, the Box of Ultimate Bliss could not possibly have collected the souls of nearly a million ninjas within a thousand years.

"Perhaps this thing appeared many years before Kaguya; otherwise, it couldn't have devoured so many souls, and it looks like it has the style of systems like the Onmyoji."

But soon, Uchiha Feiyu stopped thinking about which deity had created the Box of Ultimate Bliss and instead sat cross-legged directly on top of the box, beginning to refine the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

Although there was no systematic cultivation method, the chakra within Uchiha Feiyu's body had undergone many secret technique forgings, and its nature had appeared to change greatly, somewhat approaching legendary Dharma Power; at the very least, it was sufficient for refining and forging the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

It just so happened that he had also harvested several thousand ninjas in the Grass Ninja Village, so there was plenty of black Qi for sacrifice.

But whether it is the Soul-Controlling Technique or the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art, neither is actually a cultivation method specifically for devouring and increasing the soul.

"It feels like the kind of good material for making Demonic Path treasures; come to think of it, I don't seem to have any good artifacts right now."

Moreover, these souls were not the souls of ordinary people; they had to at least count as ninja-level to be recorded by the box before him.

After all, so-called Demonic Path cultivation methods always have the flaw of seeking quick success and instant benefits, and yet the Uchiha bloodline and chakra system are not foundations of solid strength either; on the contrary, they can be said to be the most demonic of the Demonic Path, so naturally, Uchiha Feiyu's cultivation also felt a bit like walking a tightrope.

Furthermore, the Box of Ultimate Bliss was filled with baleful energy, and the souls stored within were also severely tainted, containing many impurities; almost ninety-nine percent was resentment, with only a tiny bit of pure soul energy remaining.

After the Soul-Controlling Technique devours souls, what increases is the Innate Qi, not soul energy, and the conversion rate is one in a hundred.

It is precisely because of this that although Uchiha Feiyu's soul energy is not weak, it is not particularly high; compared to ordinary Shadow-level ninjas, it is a cliff-like improvement, but compared to his physical foundation, it is far behind.

Not to mention that Uchiha Feiyu could also feel that his soul did not carry any chakra, which was completely different from the energy shell formed by chakra when casting the Spirit Transformation Technique.

"What is this? The legendary state of no-self and no-thought?"

As the black Qi on the Altar slowly disappeared, the Book of Demonic Inheritance vibrated twice more, transmitting two pieces of information to Uchiha Feiyu.

This time, Uchiha Feiyu's request was for a method to maximize the application of the Box of Ultimate Bliss, but the Book of Demonic Inheritance gave him two inheritances.

It is unknown how much time passed; he only felt his own body become extremely light, and with a gentle leap, he broke free from a layer of restraint and floated in mid-air.

Not to mention that the Ninja World didn't have any heaven-sent treasures; the Box of Ultimate Bliss and orthodox heaven-sent treasures were completely different things. Heaven knows what could be refined using the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art?

Thinking of this, Uchiha Feiyu made up his mind, preparing to extract some knowledge regarding artifact refining from the Book of Demonic Inheritance to make the entire Box of Ultimate Bliss his own.

Devouring souls, absorbing resentment, creating Satori that can sense hostility—such practices are very rare in the chakra system, but they are basic operations in Onmyo Art.

Soul energy equivalent to about several hundred people cannot be called weak; at the very least, Uchiha Feiyu's soul energy was at most about the same as this soul energy of several hundred people.

A million souls is a large number, but in reality, the quality is not high; the most important thing is that because so much time has passed, the energy within the souls has leaked out severely.

One must know that in the Fourth Shinobi World War, the Five Great Shinobi Villages plus the various small villages combined only managed to scrape together an army of 80,000 ninjas, and that was after more than a decade of peace.

Even if one were to overestimate the upper limit, the number of ninjas existing in one era could not exceed 200,000; theoretically, the Box of Ultimate Bliss would have had to bury five full generations of ninjas to collect so many souls.

Calculating it practically, it would certainly be more; one must know that the huge expansion in the number of ninjas only happened after the establishment of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Before that, all ninjas existed almost in the form of families, and searching the entire Ninja World would yield at most a few tens of thousands.

Except for the Genin stage, where there was still a gap compared to the Great Ninja Villages, the Grass Ninja Village was not inferior to the Five Great Shinobi Villages in strength at any other stage, and was even significantly stronger than most villages.

After absorbing a large amount of soul energy, although Uchiha Feiyu could feel his perception, reaction speed, and chakra control ability improve by leaps and bounds, he also had a feeling of being light and floating; after this change, he felt a sense of stability in his heart.

It's just that this kind of ninjutsu didn't have much effect on Uchiha Feiyu, and the physical body after the soul left was in a state of having no resistance, which is why he had never used it.

The Soul Refining Secret Technique is quite similar to the Soul Devouring Technique of the Soul-Controlling Technique; it is a secret method from the Soul Clan of Battle Through the Heavens, the very secret method used by that group from the Soul Hall who laugh "Jie Jie Jie."

To put it bluntly, it is a fully automatic pill furnace, except that the materials this pill furnace needs are all flesh and blood, and it is best if they are alive.

One was a method for forging the artifact known as the Hunyuan Treasure Box, and the other was a Soul Refining Method.

At the very least... this power already gave him enough confidence to capture other ninjas.

The Box of Ultimate Bliss is called a treasure tool created by the Sage of Six Paths, and there are even absurd rumors that whoever opens the Box of Ultimate Bliss can have one wish granted, but Uchiha Feiyu saw at a glance that this box had little to do with chakra.

That Uchiha Feiyu could have such powerful soul energy was due to a bunch of Demonic Arts helping to boost it; in particular, the Soul-Controlling Technique eating souls and the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art devouring the three elements of essence, energy, and spirit all greatly increased Uchiha Feiyu's foundation.

Uchiha Feiyu's Soul Refining Method comes from the Soul Clan of the Battle Through the Heavens world; it can completely eliminate resentment through repeated refining, but while grinding away the resentment, waste is naturally unavoidable.

Because of this, even for so-called Shadow-level powerhouses, their own soul energy is at most ten or several dozen times stronger than that of ordinary people under the nourishment of chakra.

A moment later, Uchiha Feiyu felt a suction force coming from the body beneath him, and in an instant, his soul returned to his physical body; at the same time, he could also feel that his soul seemed to have become much more stable.

Even the Five Great Shinobi Villages would treat such powerful strength with caution; before the war ended, they would not be able to take action against the Grass Ninja.

Although there was also a large amount of energy entwined on the box, that energy was full of dark and bloody aura; according to the Demonic Arts he practiced, the energy entwined on the box was less like some kind of dark chakra and more like pure resentment.

But this time there was a chance to make up for it; as Uchiha Feiyu refined the Box of Ultimate Bliss beneath his feet, he simultaneously absorbed the soul energy within the box, feeling his soul and body enter a certain wondrous realm.

While his chakra slowly permeated the large box beneath his feet, Uchiha Feiyu also operated the Soul Refining Method, and the million souls stored inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss also began to be gradually refined into soul energy.

"This box... is quite interesting!"

Indeed, Uchiha Feiyu had now discovered that his eating of people was becoming increasingly refined; from the Soul-Controlling Technique to the Soul-Devouring and Blood-Refining Secret Technique, then to the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art, and finally the current Hunyuan Treasure Box and Soul Refining Secret Technique, each one was a unique skill for eating people.

Lowering his head, Uchiha Feiyu immediately saw his own physical body sitting atop the Box of Ultimate Bliss; only then did he realize, belatedly, that his soul had left his body.

The Pill refined from it is also far superior to the Blood Pool; once an ordinary ninja is thrown in, three items can be refined out: the soul's Origin, the physical body's Qi and Blood, and their own chakra.

Especially since the souls trapped within the Box of Ultimate Bliss are filled with immense resentment; despite their frighteningly large numbers, once they are completely refined, not even one-thousandth of the pure soul energy remains.

Within the Secret Technique of the Swallowing Heaven Demonic Art inherited from the Covering the Sky Method, there is indeed some knowledge regarding artifact refining, but the artifact refining techniques of the Covering the Sky Method are merely for amusement; aside from the life-bound magical treasure one refines oneself, they cannot be compared to the artifact refining techniques of other Immortal Cultivation worlds, not to mention that the knowledge Uchiha Feiyu obtained is also very fragmented.

The reason such a Soul Refining Secret Technique emerged is because a massive, almost oceanic amount of souls is stored inside the Box of Ultimate Bliss.

"This truly lives up to being a Book of Demonic Inheritance; out of ten inheritances, eight teach you how to eat people! But I wanted a magical treasure to increase my Power Level; why did it give me this thing?"

"However... I am not currently in the state of the Spirit Transformation Technique... my physical body is still refining the Box of Ultimate Bliss below!"

Exhaling a long breath, Uchiha Feiyu revealed a hint of joy; in reality, while Uchiha Feiyu's strength had been advancing by leaps and bounds all this time, it was also fraught with hidden dangers.

The power of the Kusanagi Sword is not bad, but when it comes down to it, aside from a burst of Evil-Breaking Qi, it is merely a sharp and sturdy weapon, far inferior to those miraculous magical treasures and artifacts.

Furthermore, the various Great Ninja Villages are either currently suffering from the aftermath of a major war or are still embroiled in chaotic battles; it can be said that in the entire Ninja World, the Grass Ninja have already become a pivotal force.

Things like chakra do not even count as a complete cultivation system; they are more like so-called superpowers, which only increase with the growth of the body and spirit, without any concrete cultivation method.

Although his cultivation is progressing at a rapid pace now, his foundation absolutely cannot be called stable; it is only stronger than the foundation of the ninjas in this world, and once he reaches a certain level of strength, he might encounter a bottleneck that he cannot overcome no matter what.

"This soul transformation has at least allowed my foundation to be slightly solidified... but I cannot worry about that much right now; at the very least, when I encounter a bottleneck, my strength will definitely be much stronger than the Otsutsuki Clan."

(End of this chapter)