Chapter 345

"Such strong essence blood."

In the world of cultivation, inside a cave dwelling among the layered peaks of Layered Peaks Mountain.

After quietly cultivating in seclusion for nearly ten years here, Yunhe finally awaited the awakening of the Demon Beast Body.

He was fully aware of the changes in the Demon Beast Body.

At this moment he also obtained the essence blood transmitted from the Demon Beast Body.

This is not merely the essence blood of an early Fourth Level demon beast; it is also essence blood with an extremely high bloodline concentration.

Gazing at the blood droplet before him, larger than a fist, feeling the thick demonic aura and chilling qi it exudes, it is utterly incomparable to the essence blood of that original Lu Shan turtle.

If a single drop of this essence blood were obtained by a third-level turtle-type demon beast, and if it could be smoothly digested and absorbed, both its strength and potential would surely undergo a qualitative leap, right?

Yunhe murmured.

To be frank, the Demon Beast Body itself feels nothing special when looking at its own essence blood, but when it appears before the Cultivator Body, it can sense a feeling of oppression.

Were it not that his divine sense and demon sense are interconnected, merely refining this drop of essence blood would already require enormous effort.

"It's been a long time since I last condensed a spirit-body phantom."

To some extent, he felt both anticipation and unease.

Because, according to his current cultivation progress, without the aid of elixirs, condensing a stronger spirit-body to thereby increase his cultivation speed is absolutely necessary.

However, he also understands that given his current thoughts and condition, this is not the best moment for condensation.

Earlier, he had already expended considerable energy on studying and practicing formations.

Therefore, he now needs to temporarily set everything aside.

His hands flipped and flew.

He successively cast dozens of rather profound hand signs, infusing them into the essence blood floating before him.

The complexity of condensing a Five Elements Spirit Body is far greater than that of condensing a Minor Five Elements Spirit Body, after all the latter is merely a simplified version in the true sense.

After all the hand signs were completed, the essence blood emitted a peculiar halo, like breathing, matching the frequency of his mana circulation.

Thereafter, Yunhe closed his eyes and entered a meditative state.

Seven days later.

When Yunhe opened his eyes again, he felt his condition had returned to its peak.

Immediately, without the slightest hesitation.

Mana throughout his body surged at a tremendous speed, initiating the Grand Circulation.

And within his qi sea dantian, the Five Elements Spirit Body phantoms surrounding his Nascent Soul all became active, continually inhaling and exhaling spiritual qi, releasing mana.

Yunhe had already mastered the power of the Five Elements.

When his mana had condensed to a certain extent, he formed an extremely complex hand sign with both hands.

"Zhe!"

Accompanied by a harsh, grating strange sound, his mana was injected into the essence blood.

"Five Elements mutually engender, Ren Water!"

Boom!!

The essence blood bead suddenly swelled, then burst open, turning into specks of crystalline granules that condensed before him into a spirit turtle.

Almost identical to his Demon Beast Body.

"Roar——"

A loud, prolonged cry.

As Yunhe slightly opened his mouth, the blood-colored black turtle flashed with brilliance and slipped in along his mouth, burrowing all the way into his dantian qi sea.

The next second.

Yunhe felt his entire body erupt with an intense pain from within outward.

But such pain was already within his tolerance.

In his divine sense, the black turtle that had entered the dantian qi sea faced the already constructed ring-shaped Five Elements Spirit Body phantom and roared once again.

Faced with this 'foreign object,' the Five Elements Spirit Body phantoms, long familiar with each other, seemed to have given birth to spiritual awareness, and without yielding, they all responded to its roar.

But at this moment.

The mana in his dantian qi sea became uncontrollable and extremely unstable; wave after wave of mana surged, as if it were about to be torn apart in the frantic struggle between the two sides.

Moreover, this struggle grew increasingly fierce with the passage of time.

The Nascent Soul sitting quietly in the dantian qi sea felt the surging mana within, opened its eyes, and on its petite face appeared a hint of displeasure, puffing its cheeks as if very unhappy.

Then it saw him loosen his grip on the five flying swords he held in his arms.

Buzz——

Those five Five Elements Thunder Swords actually began to dance within his dantian qi sea, stirring the surging mana within.

For a moment, both the original Five Elements Spirit Beast phantoms and the later black turtle phantom were astonished to discover they had lost control over the mana.

The infant embraced in both arms lifted its head, showing a look of disdain.

As if saying, 'No matter how you make a fuss, remember this is my territory, and this mana is mine!'

Immediately, he clapped his hands, and the five Five Elements Thunder Swords suddenly merged into a single blade, its sharp tip and leaping arcs pointing directly at those six spirit-body phantoms.

Sensing the intense threat, those six spirit-body phantoms stiffened and then all ceased their movements.

Stepping on a turtle shell formed from the Demon-Holding Armor, the infant with a pair of snow-white wings flew forward, its petite palm grasping the sword hilt that looked somewhat angry and unwieldy, and it swayed the blade tip toward the later black turtle phantom.

Thus it should behave honestly and obediently go over.

Seeing this, the black turtle phantom shrank its neck and slowly crawled to the front of the ring-formed Five Elements Spirit Body phantom.

After a brief pause.

With a sudden opening of its mouth, it gulped down the original black turtle phantom in one go!

But because of the threat posed by the infant and the Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Sword, it did not go overboard, merely absorbing the part that overlapped with itself.

"Mmm!!"

Whether it was Yunhe or his Nascent Soul, both suddenly let out a muffled grunt at this moment.

Without the phantom representing the water element, the Five Elements Ring collapsed at an extremely rapid speed, and the remaining four spirit-body phantoms seemed to become uncontrollable at this moment.

The infant's gaze grew sharper, staring directly at the Black Tortoise that had swallowed the original spirit-body phantom.

He slightly pursed his lips.

That Black Tortoise phantom also looked at the infant, yet made no movement for a long time, as if hesitating and also wandering.

Until the infant's eyes narrowed, he clenched his fist, and the mana in his qi sea dantian gathered into a huge fist-shaped form, hovering above the Black Tortoise phantom's head.

With a fist above and the Five Elements Heavenly Thunder Sword behind, the Black Tortoise phantom finally seemed to compromise, stepping into the collapsing Five Elements Ring and taking the place of the original phantom.

And as it stepped in,

Hum!!

The Five Elements Ring not only instantly stopped collapsing, but began to rotate at an even faster speed.

The mana in the qi sea dantian manifested as a huge vortex.

At the same time, the mana here, following the secret technique of the tenth layer of the Great Longevity Five Elements True Scripture, began to circulate the Grand Circulation within the body.

As the Grand Circulation ran smoother, the transformation of mana became even quicker.

Seeing this, the infant finally nodded in satisfaction, clapped his palms, simultaneously retracted the five flying swords, and sat cross-legged on the tortoise shell.

And the newly formed Five Elements Ring also once again encircled his side.

The five-colored light, as it flowed, continuously flashed across his fair face, over and over.

Success!

Yunhe fiercely opened his eyes, the five-colored splendor in his pupils condensed a bit more, lingering for a long time.

"Indeed, as the technique states, the risk of reconstructing a spirit body is originally greater than the risk of initially condensing a spirit body, and the Five Elements Natal Magic Treasure within plays a crucial role."

Having just finished sighing.

His divine sense suddenly throbbed, and his complexion instantly turned deathly pale.

However, Yunhe did not panic; he had long been prepared.

Lifespan, was forcibly pulled away.

This is the greatest drawback of the Great Longevity Five Elements True Scripture technique.

To obtain a powerful spirit body, one must pay lifespan as the price.

Cultivators who practice this technique are like dancing on a blade's edge, using the convenience of the spirit body to boost cultivation speed, racing against time and lifespan.

He seriously suspects that the once-flourishing Great Five Elements Sect of ancient times was ruined by their own such "play".

After a brief period of breath regulation.

Yunhe's pallid complexion gradually recovered.

Suppressing a hint of excitement, he again sank his divine sense into inward observation.

While circulating the technique, after practicing several Grand Circulations, he gained a certain understanding of his current spirit-body condition.

"Just as with the Little Five Elements Spirit Body, the five elements must be fully condensed to construct a true Five Elements Spirit Body."

"However, compared to condensing the Little Five Elements Spirit Body, it is somewhat better in that even if other spirit-body phantoms cannot match the current water element, it does not mean they cannot function."

"If we compare spirit bodies by the grading of spiritual roots, my spirit body should be stronger than an earth-grade spiritual root, yet somewhat lacking compared to a heaven-grade spiritual root."

His original Little Five Elements Spirit Body endowed him with a cultivation speed comparable to that of an earth-grade spiritual root.

Simply completing the replacement of a single Five Elements Spirit Beast phantom is insufficient to bring about a qualitative change, and it cannot let him directly stand shoulder-to-shoulder with a heaven-grade spiritual root.

"But according to this augmentation and prior experience, at most I only need to condense two more spirit-body phantoms for my cultivation speed to rival that of a heaven-grade spiritual root!"

All are heaven-grade spiritual roots, yet differences still exist.

Some heaven-grade spiritual roots are so because they happen to have reached the threshold of the heaven-grade level.

But some heaven-grade spiritual roots are so because, in the cultivator's classification of spiritual-root levels, the highest is only the heaven-grade level.

And the differences in spiritual roots bring not only cultivation speed, but also benefits in breaking through bottlenecks.

"Using the essence blood of a demon beast body as reference, condensing a true Five Elements Spirit Body indeed requires reaching the fourth level of demon beast essence blood to meet the condensation conditions."

"I still have the essence blood of the Land Mountain Turtle on my body."

Yunhe pondered, slowly rose to his feet, and walked toward the outside of the cave dwelling.

"Although the essence blood of the Land Mountain Turtle and that of a demon beast body differ greatly in level, if I first refine all of its essence blood throughout its body, the final refined product should also not be too poor."

After all, it is refined from the full-body essence blood of a fourth-level demon beast.

"Thus speaking, I am lacking the wood, fire, and metal elements; water produces wood, so it would also be unwise to cross the five elements to condense the five elements, otherwise the spirit body would be unstable."

But he soon felt a bit of a headache.

Fourth-level demon beasts are not comparable to third-level demon beasts; the gap between them is easy to imagine.

Originally, the demon beast body could hunt third-level demon beasts and seize demon pills, but it goes without saying that a fourth-level demon beast is far more numerous than a third-level one, and its strength is undoubtedly much greater.

"'Defeating is easy, killing is hard.'"

He waved his hand to open the cave dwelling's restriction and walked out.

Then he heard the fierce fighting sounds from outside, bangs continuing nonstop.

He lifted his gaze to look.

It was the Cold Chant Flood Dragon battling Shen Mu within the valley.

However, thanks to Shen Xingrui's formation blocking, it did not cause major damage to this place.

As for this matter, Yunhe was also not surprised at all.

Back when he first chose to temporarily seclude cultivate here, Shen Mu would engage the Cold Chant Flood Dragon in small fights every three days and big fights every five days; because Shen Mu is honest and straightforward, the Cold Chant Flood Dragon gradually stopped disliking Shen Mu, and as one cultivator and one demon beast, they actually got along harmoniously.

Young master, news.

Seeing Yunhe leave the cave dwelling, Shen Xingrui, who was studying formations by the lakeside in the mountain gorge, immediately went up to meet him and handed him a Jade Slip.

Although Yunhe was temporarily staying here, it didn't mean he completely cut off external news; he still had some channels.

Especially given that war between humans and other races could break out at any moment nowadays.

Good.

Yunhe took the Jade Slip.

The two walked together to the newly built lakeside pavilion.

After sitting down, Shen Xingrui began brewing tea, while Yunhe said:

Tell me about that white-haired golden-winged tiger.

(End of chapter)