Chapter 153: with translation of chapter title

Cold, it indicates that the yin energy here is becoming increasingly dense.

Actually, this is evident from the ever-growing area covered by the recent yin energy, and the increasing number of beast souls in the ghostly mist also makes it possible to tell a thing or two.

"Why is the yin energy so heavy here?"

Even though separated from the icy river water, the little fox couldn't help but shiver as it asked.

"I also really want to know the answer to that question."

As for this, Yunhe was actually also curious.

Of course, he also had some guesses about this.

"I suspect that a powerful demon beast fell here, causing this situation."

"However, just a high-level demon beast alone probably wouldn't cause such a huge effect, so either that demon beast is excessively strong beyond our expectations, or it possesses some special nature, or perhaps this place itself is special, combined with various factors from the fallen powerful demon beast."

After hearing that, the little fox stuck out its tongue.

"So no matter what, there definitely is a powerful demon beast that fell here, right?"

Yunhe neither confirmed nor denied.

He simply returned again to the vicinity of the horned python's nest from before.

All these changes actually started from here.

However, the nest at this time has undergone tremendous changes compared to when Yunhe first came.

Inside the cave, not only was it filled with extremely dense yin energy, but it was also covered with a large amount of dark brown vines, densely packed throughout the cavern, making walking and movement extremely difficult.

Moreover, many wood spirits dwell in this cave, standing guard like sentinels, firmly holding this place.

Yunhe's Demon Sense flashed past, attracting little notice, giving him a rough grasp of the situation inside the cave.

'If we place the refined corpse here, it wouldn't be long before the refined corpse might even develop its own will, right?'

Thinking this, he employed the Earth Escape Technique, carefully bringing the little fox past the gathering of wood spirits and moving toward the deeper direction.

But unexpectedly, those vines were not only densely spread throughout the cave, but also intricately crisscrossed through the soil and rock layers, completely enveloping this place like a spiderweb.

Furthermore, these vines are all connected to the wood spirits; even a slight touch is likely to attract a large swarm of wood spirits.

Even if Yunhe is now at late Second Stage, being suddenly surrounded by too many wood spirits would still be quite troublesome.

What's more, with so many wood spirits, there might even be third-stage wood spirits among them.

If it were Yunhe from last time, he might have no recourse; although he can shrink his body via the divine ability 'As You Wish', that ability also has limits on how much it can change, and given the density of the vines here, it's obviously not that easy, especially since he's also carrying the little fox.

But for him now, it's not really a problem.

"Wood Escape Technique!"

The power of the Five Elements Escape Technique is beyond doubt.

Although the Demon Beast Body cannot master the complete Five Elements Escape Technique like the Cultivator Body can, learning them separately is still possible.

By alternately employing the Wood Escape Technique and the Earth Escape Technique, he finally broke through the layers of vine obstacles and reached a deeper part of this place.

When the vast, pitch-black cave came into view, the little fox stared wide-eyed, mouth agape, looking utterly shocked.

Bones.

Bones everywhere!

In its eyes flashing with spiritual light, all it could see was the ground littered with corpses, all of them demon beast corpses, densely packed and almost impossible to count.

Moreover, the heaps of corpses have piled up together to the point that one can no longer tell which fragments originally belonged together, nor which can be pieced into a complete demon beast skeleton.

Yunhe likewise employed his Spiritual Eyes, taking in everything inside the cave.

His throat felt a little dry, and he too was shaken by the sight before him.

Just how many demon beast corpses could this be?

Actually, demon beast corpses aren't anything special.

The demon beasts slain by Yunhe alone number at least several hundred, among which there are also many Second Stage demon beasts.

But hunting demon beasts one by one versus suddenly seeing so many demon beast corpses at once feels completely different.

And there are far more than just a few hundred here!

'I seem to have overlooked a possibility: if tens of thousands of demon beast corpses were piled up, they could indeed produce such dense yin energy.'

This discovery left Yunhe a bit disappointed.

Although this place has an enormous amount of demon beast corpses, it is obvious that none meet his requirements for the bones needed to refine the Immortal-severing Strategy, which calls for the strongest possible demon beast bones; although no specific stage was explicitly mandated, in Yunhe's view, if it is a natal treasure, the higher the grade, the better.

Just third-stage demon beast bones would obviously not satisfy his demand.

'At least, it should be comparable to a Fourth Level, right?'

It's not that his standards are too high; rather, realizing the power of the Mysterious Demon Immortal-severing Strategy, Yunhe clearly understands how strong this technique can be, and its might is closely tied to the strength of the Immortal-severing Strategy.

Furthermore, he originally thought this place might very well bury a Fourth Level demon beast deep down, and in his subconscious he had already set the goal of refining the Immortal-severing Strategy at the Fourth Level, so he naturally could not easily lower his standards.

But given that he is only at late Second Stage strength, if he cannot scavenge corpses, then let alone Fourth Stage demon beast bones, even late third-stage or mid-third-stage demon beast bones are far beyond his reach.

'Let's go further in and have a look.'

The unwilling-to-give-up Yunhe thought this.

Besides the vast number of corpses, there are also not a few beast souls, among which several even made Yunhe feel a chill down his spine.

Third-stage beast souls!

Fortunately, demon beasts inherently lack high spiritual awareness, and the beast souls condensed after death find it even harder to awaken spiritual awareness; thus, with the beast soul banner providing cover and the little fox's illusion technique confusing their sight, the beast souls here did not react to their approach.

This is also one of the reasons Yunhe dares to come to this place.

He crept cautiously toward the depths of the cave.

Demon beast corpses litter the ground, wandering soulless beast souls drift about; this place seems less like the Yao Shou Shijie and more like a Fengdu Ghost Lair.

If one lingers long in such a place, even a living demon beast could gradually turn into a ghost.

Enduring the discomfort, they reached the cave's end, yet still found nothing.

Seeing this situation, Yunhe silently sighed.

Rip—

However, just as he was about to leave, his heart suddenly jumped, and the lightning stored within his body became somewhat active.

"Huh?"

This feeling made Yunhe involuntarily narrow his eyes.

He pushed his Spirit Eyes and Demon Sense to the max, and slowly finally noticed some clues.

The yin qi here seemed to actively or passively avoid some places.

"Wait for me here."

Yunhe said to the little fox, then after confirming that no beast souls noticed them, he flashed his body and silently landed at the end of the cave.

Using the divine ability "Ruyi" to shrink his size, then employing the Turtle Breath Body Forging Technique to conceal his aura, it was relatively safe as long as the beast souls didn't see him.

"Hmm?"

The little fox hidden in the beast-soul banner and illusionary concealment let out a confused whimper, watching Yunhe gradually enter the rock layer at the cave's end, not understanding what he was doing.

After Yunhe left, looking at the wandering beast souls around, it shrank its neck, showed a fearful expression, silently curled up in a corner, only hoping Yunhe would return quickly, for it truly did not want to stay long in this place.

Yunhe, who had entered the rock layer, did not move slowly; he followed the guidance of the lightning within his body, felt the surrounding yin qi gradually thinning, and finally arrived at another narrow cave.

"Found it!"

In his sight, a faint arc of light flickered and jumped within the pitch-black, cramped cave.

"Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence!"

Looking at that arc of light and the faint agitation within his body, Yunhe recognized this thing.

It was exactly the "Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence" he had previously found in the Horned Viper's nest.

That is the peculiar metal stone ranked seventh on the Metal Stone Ranking.

If one were to say that Yunhe previously did not have a deep understanding of what being seventh on the Metal Stone Ranking meant, then after seeing the Spirit Insect Ranking, he realized it.

After all, his Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bee is only ranked ninety-ninth on the Spirit Insect Ranking.

Even the Gold-Shaded Eight-Winged Bee species that causes Yunhe's spirit bees to metamorphose is only ranked nineteenth on the Spirit Insect Ranking.

Even the ninety-ninth-ranked Red-Ring Gold-Spotted Bee possesses such power; how strong must the seventh-ranked Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence on the Metal Stone Ranking be?

Absorbing its lightning to strengthen one's divine ability "Yun Lei" is among the lowest-efficiency ways of using it.

If one truly wants to fully utilize such precious metal stone, the best method is undoubtedly to forge it into an artifact.

Even adding just a bit of Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence can greatly increase the power of the forged spiritual artifact.

Therefore, when Yunhe planned his own cultivator body's natal magic treasure, he had considered incorporating Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence into it, which should boost his natal magic treasure's power by at least one tier.

But here, he actually found another piece of Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence!

This caused Yunhe's original idea to change.

Being able to find two pieces of Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence in one place, does it also mean there's a chance to find a third, fourth, or even more?

If

"If I could fully use Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence as the primary material, then infuse it with Meteor Lightning Essence to forge my natal magic treasure, how high could its upper limit be?"

Yunhe's heart beat a little disappointingly with a "thump-thump".

This is a rare metal stone ranked seventh on the Metal Stone Ranking!

He even doubted whether those top-ten metal stones on the Metal Stone Ranking could still be found in the cultivation world.

After all, his cultivator body is also a mid-second-stage artifact refiner, having forged dozens of spiritual artifacts; although most primary materials are beast materials, he inevitably uses some metal stones, and each time he goes to the market to purchase supplies, he consciously selects some relatively rare metal stones to facilitate artifact crafting choices.

Yet even after forging so many spiritual artifacts, he had never seen a metal stone from the top two hundred of the Metal Stone Ranking in the market.

This shows how high the gold content of the Metal Stone Ranking is.

"Even if unable to use Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence as the main material, incorporating more of it into one's natal magic treasure undoubtedly greatly enhances the treasure's power and potential."

Breaking open the "Yaozhu Strange Stone", he took out the Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence inside, which was somewhat larger than the one he had previously obtained.

Yunhe does not know how Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence is formed.

He also does not understand why, in this place where yin qi gathers, there would appear Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence, a metal stone that specifically counters yin evil.

But there is one thing he can be certain of.

The yin qi here is very likely being suppressed by the Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence.

The piece of Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence he took last time caused a breach in its suppression of yin qi, leading to a large outflow of yin qi.

This also means that this place probably does not have only two pieces of Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence.

Of course.

The more he takes, the more severe the leakage of yin qi will become.

At the same time, Yunhe also realized something.

Perhaps the entire cave of beast carcasses that he and the little fox just saw is merely a part of this place, and possibly only a small part.

Deeper down, there might be even more beast carcasses!

Or perhaps stronger beast carcasses!

"I wouldn't be... breaking the seal on some powerful ghost, would I?"

Yunhe rubbed the metal stone, and couldn't help but think.

(End of chapter)