Chapter 208

The materials happened to be just enough.

Returning to his manor, Yunhe looked at the corpses of Liu Yanfeng and Wang Fengbai.

Feeling the yin qi from the Beast Soul Banner invading their bodies, the manifestation of yin qi entering the body at this moment, he revealed a pensive expression.

After all, they were the corpses of two Golden Core cultivators, and their golden cores had not yet been stripped by Yunhe; only their souls were destroyed.

"It's just wasting two golden cores, that's all."

Although golden cores are also good for cultivators, their effect is clearly inferior to that of monster cores, which still have some appeal to demonic beasts.

Thinking this, Yunhe no longer hesitated.

His gaze narrowed, and he formed hand seals.

Immediately, a snow-white flesh worm slowly crawled out from his body.

However, this flesh worm is not as harmless as its appearance suggests.

This worm is ice-cold, emitting extremely strong yin qi all over its body; if placed in a village, even if it does nothing, the village would gradually and silently turn into a haunted realm within a few months, and the villagers would unconsciously become corpses without self-awareness.

This flesh worm is naturally Yunhe's Corpse Gu mother worm.

After years of cultivation, this gu underwent several metamorphoses; the most special was when it merged with a strand of Yunhe's divided spirit, differentiating into the Corpse Soul Gu branch.

Now, its combat ability is virtually nil; even a Qi Refining cultivator holding a magical artifact could possibly kill it.

But the corpse gu is not meant to fight itself; its strength lies in using its offspring to transform and control corpses.

Yunhe held the flesh worm in one hand, made a hand seal with the other, and softly shouted:

"Come out!"

As his hand seal formed, his mana surged and entered the mother worm; the snow-white flesh worm trembled slightly, and many fine, hair-like corpse gu fell from its body.

The fallen corpse gu offspring then slowly crawled toward the two corpses, burrowing bit by bit into their bodies.

For a moment.

Already filled with considerable yin qi from the Beast Soul Banner's influence, their yin qi became even more surging.

However, relying solely on the corpse gu to refine these two Golden Core cultivators' corpses into corpses is impossible; Yunhe's corpse gu still lags far behind the Heavenly Corpse Gu from the Heavenly Insect Sect ruins.

Thus, he later took out many materials filled with yin and evil qi from his storage ring, most of which had been collected by the He family over the years.

'Yin Soul Grass' to increase corpse qi, 'Cold Soul Stone' to strengthen the corpse-refined body, 'Hundred Corpse Pill' to boost the corpse gu's yin qi, etc.

Though none of these materials are extremely precious, gathering them still requires some effort and time.

For corpse refining, Yunhe was also attempting it for the first time.

He gradually infused the materials into the two corpses.

After half a month.

The two corpses lying on the ground showed no difference from ordinary corpses; the originally abundant outward yin qi had now fully retracted inward.

Only by carefully probing with divine sense could one detect that some strange changes were occurring inside these two corpses.

Especially their golden cores; as the corpse gu burrowed in, the mana originally filling them was gradually turning into corpse cores.

"Refining corpses is also refining gu; once these two corpses become fully refined corpses, the gu that changes along with them will also grow stronger."

"Being only early Golden Core, my corpse-refining method isn't very profound; even if successful, it would likely only have the strength of late Foundation Establishment, but thanks to the corpse core transformed from the golden core, it would be considerably stronger than an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, roughly comparable to perfected Foundation Establishment."

Yunhe did not feel disappointed about this.

Corpse refining is not the key; strengthening the corpse gu is more important.

The refined corpses ultimately formed from these two bodies can only be considered a byproduct.

"After completion, injecting the Corpse Soul Gu, using it to control the corpse core's power to erupt the corpse core's force, should allow a short-term match with early Golden Core cultivators; it cannot compare to the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse, but it is considerably stronger than ordinary refined corpses and can serve as one method."

Afterward, Yunhe placed the two corpses into the corpse gu's chamber, together with the Heaven Capital Gu Corpse; only the strong yin qi within this chamber can accelerate the corpse refining formation.

With the corpse gu mother worm, he effectively carries a place of extreme yin with him at all times.

After dealing with the two corpses, Yunhe walked toward the deepest part of the manor.

This is the He family's most secret place, originally known only to He Wen and He Yao.

In the vast secret chamber, an extremely intricate formation was set up.

Lines of patterns were carved into the floor paved with green stone; among the thirty-six depressions, each held a piece of clear, translucent middle-grade spirit stone.

And at the very center of the formation, the patterns were also the most peculiar.

Even though Yunhe is now a second-stage high-grade formation master and still cannot understand it, presumably the He family members also cannot; they merely copied it by following the method in the 'Condensation Technique'.

But there is one thing Yunhe can be certain of.

That the patterns in this formation share the same origin as those on the mysterious altar at the base of Thunder Mountain he visited last time!

Because they appear chaotic, but upon close inspection they actually resemble winding vines.

This is also what Yunhe discovered when he first used the 'Condensation Technique' to refine 'Golden Ear Grass' after returning from Thunder Mountain.

'What exactly is this vine?'

First came the special token and a small section of withered vine in the hut of an ancient pill master; then the mysterious altar in Thunder Mountain; now there is also this peculiar 'Condensation Technique' refining formation.

He felt that perhaps many things in the Cloud Upper Realm are related to these vines.

'My cultivation has already broken through to mid Golden Core; it's impossible to make another breakthrough in a short time, but after finishing this refinement of Golden Ear Grass, I could go to the place where the He ancestors discovered the Condensation Technique to have a look.'

With that thought, Yunhe flicked his storage ring and took out bottle after bottle.

These were mostly thirty-year-old Golden Ear Grass juice.

Given his consumption rate of Golden Ear Grass, the He family's accumulated hundred-year-old juice, already scarce, and any ten-year-plus juice had long been exhausted by him.

What he now takes out are entirely harvests from the Demon Beast World.

After thirty years of development and opening, the Demon Beast World has cleared vast medicinal fields, of which Golden Ear Grass occupies a considerable share.

Enough to support his pill-refining needs.

However, he did not harvest all the Golden Ear Grass at once; he only harvested a portion.

Afterwards.

Yunhe then poured some Gold Ear Grass juice into the groove at the formation's center, sat outside the formation, placed his hand on the formation's sole implement, infused mana, and began to condense.

It can be seen.

As he infused mana, the medium-grade Spirit Stone embedded in the formation immediately emitted a faint glow.

Meanwhile, in the groove holding the Gold Ear Grass juice, Spiritual Power appeared out of thin air, climbing and extending like growing vines.

And when those phantom vines appeared and extended into the Gold Ear Grass juice, that small pool of juice also emitted a faint halo.

Yunhe glanced at the groove, then took out a Jade Slip recording interesting history of the Cloud Upper Realm, infused it with a divine stone, and began reading carefully.

Controlling this formation does not require much focus; he can easily do two things at once.

As for the changes occurring in the formation and that strange power, when he first used this formation, he was also surprised and tried to explore it, but after several attempts yielded nothing, he gave up.

Taking advantage of this time, he could read some of the books collected by He Yuanlin to learn more about the Cloud Upper Realm.

In addition to reading, he also did not forget to take out a red jade gourd and take a small sip.

His current physical strength is already comparable to that of a late-stage Second Stage Demon Beast Body.

To further improve his physique, either he slowly accumulates, aiming for great results after small accumulation.

Or he finds an Elixir or treasure like the Shaping Blood Pill that assists in breaking through the physique's shackles.

However.

If his physique advances further, it could match that of a third-stage demon beast; such treasures are far rarer than Golden Core spirit items, and although he has sent He family members to search, so far little information about them has been uncovered.

In the cultivation world, body cultivators are extremely rare, and most are spirit cultivators; those like him who temper the physique are even fewer, and the main reason is that body cultivation's demand for spiritual materials is much greater than that of spirit cultivation.

If it were in the ancient cultivation world, perhaps some could still be found, but now it is indeed somewhat difficult.

Therefore, Yunhe did not solely rely on He family cultivators to search; he still placed greater hope in the Demon Beast Body.

Yao Shou Shijie

Yunhe, curled up underground, slowly rose from the soil, gazed at the tranquil primordial forest around him, and stretched his body.

Since the last time he narrowly escaped a fourth-stage demon beast, he has been more cautious each time he goes out to hunt third-stage demon beasts.

No longer does he act immediately after picking a target; instead, he first surveys the area, ensuring there are no signs of a fourth-stage demon beast's presence, before acting.

Although this costs extra time, it is much safer, and he has not accidentally entered a fourth-stage demon beast's territory again.

But he has indeed discovered some signs of fourth-stage demon beasts' presence.

In the giant boulder forest tens of meters high, spread about thirty to forty thousand li northwest of Huanhu Dao, and in the ancient primordial forest with vast old trees, seventy to eighty thousand li northeast of Huanhu Dao, there is a possibility of fourth-stage demon beasts' presence.

It's about time to go back; after the Cultivator Body breaks through to mid Golden Core, the Demon Beast Body only needs to accumulate a bit more demonic power, and it should soon be able to attempt a breakthrough to mid third stage.

He has already been out for a long time this trip and has gained many good things.

However, an unexpected event occurred just as he was preparing to leave.

A rumbling sound came from afar, and immediately the ground began to shake violently without any warning; he could clearly feel the trembling of dust and stones on the ground.

At the same time, thunderous sounds were heard, and the noise grew louder.

"Huh?"

Yunhe raised his head and looked toward the direction of the commotion.

A strange feeling suddenly welled up from his heart, like apprehension yet also like excitement.

After a slight hesitation, Yunhe shifted his demonic power, inwardly restraining his aura, turning into a black light and fleeing toward the not-so-distant commotion.

Moments later.

Yunhe, concealing his aura, silently arrived at a mountain cliff and gazed into the distance.

But when he saw the scene before him, his complexion changed several times in an instant.

Not far away.

Some hills and slopes had mud and stones rolling down, and due to the violent shaking, the ground began to show huge cracks several zhang wide; moreover, the plants and trees were instantly overturned.

This still was not enough to make Yunhe lose his composure so badly.

What shocked him was the source that brought about all these changes.

The existence beneath the dark clouds that nurture the thunder slurry.

He slowly narrowed his eyes, his pupils constricted sharply upon seeing this, and his heart surged with waves.

"Transformation Tribulation?!"

I'm still in the hospital today, so the next chapter might be a little late; please understand.

(End of chapter)