Chapter 371

Cultivation knows no years.

When Yunhe awoke from his contemplation of the secret art of External Incarnation, he had no idea how much time had passed; only after counting on his fingers did he realize that a short session of cultivation had actually taken him a whole year.

This was with the aid of the Spirit Wisdom Pill for quick initiation; otherwise, the time required would have been more than double.

"Although the Spirit Wisdom Pill is no longer effective later on, having opened the door of initiation makes subsequent comprehension not so difficult."

He already had a certain understanding of this secret art.

Speaking of which, this secret art actually differs from the divine ability of a Second Nascent Soul.

"The External Incarnation secret art can be cultivated even below the Nascent Soul level, but the cultivated incarnation still must pass through the stages that many cultivators undergo: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, and so on."

But if one possesses a pure, unconscious Nascent Soul, they can directly skip these stages, using that Nascent Soul as a base to directly refine a Second Nascent Soul.

The benefit of such cultivation is naturally that it allows the cultivator to skip numerous tedious steps and the growth process of a clone, saving a great deal of time.

But consequently, the flaws of this secret art are amplified.

For example, directly condensing a Second Nascent Soul results in a weaker connection between oneself and the Second Nascent Soul, unlike the slight growth of an External Incarnation.

Furthermore, an unconscious Nascent Soul is hard to obtain, the new body is difficult to adapt to, and the cultivation method may not be compatible, etc.

But overall, it is undoubtedly that directly condensing a Second Nascent Soul has more advantages; for Yunhe, some of those problems are not actually problems.

So after a good sleep and restoring his condition, Yunhe began refining his Second Nascent Soul.

What is the most troublesome step for others had already been prepared for him.

He summoned the Nascent Soul Corpse Refining and recalled all the Corpse Soul Gu residing within the Corpse Nascent Soul.

Without the Corpse Soul Gu establishing his connection with the Corpse Nascent Soul, that Corpse Nascent Soul was like a mere puppet; if Yunhe did not cast Levitation to suspend it in midair, it might have fallen straight to the ground.

Immediately thereafter, Yunhe circulated his mana and expelled a mouthful of extremely pure vital energy, entwined with his own blood essence.

This mouthful of vital energy and blood essence caused his complexion to turn slightly pale.

Thereafter, he repeatedly cast hand signs, and by the method of the External Incarnation secret art, he injected this stream of vital energy and blood essence into the Corpse Nascent Soul.

In an instant, he felt that he had reestablished a connection with the corpse-transformed Nascent Soul, except that unlike relying on the power of the Corpse Soul Gu, this connection lacked the intermediate bridge, becoming more direct.

And the corpse-transformed Nascent Soul's eyes, after a slight tremor, slowly opened, filled with bewilderment and haziness.

Establishing the connection was merely the first step, and also the simplest one.

Subsequently, Yunhe spat out infant fire, scorching the corpse-transformed Nascent Soul.

This process both tempered the Nascent Soul, expelling all the things originally hidden within it that belonged to the original owner.

Originally, this corpse-transformed Nascent Soul had lost consciousness; retaining these things of the original owner could maximize the power of a corpse-refined Nascent Soul, but now these things have become obstacles to condensing a second Nascent Soul.

At the same time, through the scorching of the infant fire, Yunhe's essence and blood could be better refined into it; moreover, the infant fire is itself the flame formed from Yunhe's Nascent Soul qi, and the longer the scorching lasts, the more it can make it harmonize with Yunhe's Nascent Soul.

This process is similar to refining a magic treasure, but one must control the infant fire well; otherwise, if the fire is excessive, it will scorch the second Nascent Soul to ash.

This refinement process lasted a full three months.

When the refinement ended, the small infant hovering in midair had lost its original aura, and even its appearance became blurred.

Yet from its outline, one could see that this infant already bore a thirty percent resemblance to Yunhe's Nascent Soul.

"Almost there."

Yunhe's face was solemn, he gave a slight nod.

He then cast another spell into the infant, and immediately opened his mouth to swallow it; the infant was drawn in through his mouth and directly entered his qi sea dantian.

As the infant entered the qi sea dantian, Yunhe's Nascent Soul, wearing the five-colored patchwork robe, opened its eyes, gazed at the newly arrived fellow, and pursed its lips.

However, he did not do anything outrageous; instead, he took the hand of the second Nascent Soul and sat cross-legged together on his tortoise shell.

Thereafter, the Nascent Soul exhaled a mouthful of five-colored qi; under the enveloping misty essence, the second Nascent Soul underwent some subtle changes, and these changes were ongoing.

This is the second step in cultivating the Exterior Incarnation secret technique, assimilating the second Nascent Soul with one's own Nascent Soul.

Assimilation in mana, essence, and even spiritual sense.

This process can be much longer than the refinement process, yet it no longer restricts the cultivator's actions.

"From now on, we just need to wait slowly."

Yunhe carefully circulated a shift in his mana, confirming it would have no effect on his own mana circulation.

He still held great expectations for the second Nascent Soul.

With a second Nascent Soul, not only can it accelerate his cultivation progress in the other paths, but it can also substitute for him in undertaking some relatively dangerous and uncertain tasks.

When cultivators first created the second Nascent Soul secret technique, the purpose was to serve as a substitute for tribulation, taking the place of the true self to face danger or tribulation; thus this ability of the second Nascent Soul is also called the Substitution Tribulation Technique.

Having completed all the preparatory steps for the second Nascent Soul, Yunhe did not immediately leave seclusion.

Although this outing yielded a decent harvest, it also made him aware of some of his current shortcomings.

The most obvious is that his killing power is insufficient.

Although he this time slew two early Fourth Level Abyssal cultivators, and even killed the early Nascent Soul Wei Haiyuan and the distinguished Xiao Wuxian, the killing power of the Five Elements Thunder Sword is not as overwhelmingly dominant against peers of the same rank as it is in the Jie Dan Stage; this is beyond doubt.

Moreover, this slaughter was also thanks to the Five Elements Thunder Sword's counteraction against Abyssal and Demonic Path cultivators.

If facing cultivators who do not practice Demonic Path techniques, the danger level might be greatly reduced.

Of course, if all five flying swords are unleashed together, they can still produce considerable killing power.

But if each time requires sacrificing the five flying swords, it indirectly gives Yunhe one fewer trump card.

Therefore, in his view, the Five Elements Thunder Sword perhaps needs to be reforged.

However, it would be best to wait until he fully condenses the Five Elements Spirit Body, so that this set of his natal magic treasures can better match his own cultivation method.

Moreover, reforging requires more Heavenly Thunder Gold Essence, which can only be found after the Demon Beast Body makes another trip to the depths of the Abyssal Gully.

As for obtaining the wutong wood, that remains very convenient.

However, this matter need not be rushed.

He took out the black gelatinous substance recording the Abyssal Clan's spiritual sense secret technique; he had obtained two copies of this spiritual sense secret technique.

For him, whose spiritual sense is already powerful and who has mastered the formidable secret technique Seeking Immortal's Fallen Divine Bestowal, cultivating these Abyssal Clan spiritual sense secret techniques is not difficult.

What's more, it is still used to enrich his means of using divine sense.

During this period, aside from arranging puppets to regularly feed the Corpse Soul Gu with Black Soul Crystals, most of the time was spent in cultivation.

If not practicing divine sense methods, he was studying formations or comprehending the Dragon Scale Pattern and the Wind Feather Pattern.

On one hand, to settle himself; on the other, to await changes in the conflict between the Abyss Clan and the Human Race.

Yao Shou Shijie

Yunhe played with the bronze ancient goblet in his hand, his face showing a hint of regret.

In the end, the artifact spirit of the Dead River Spring still refused to accept Yunhe as its new master, even though it watched Yunhe gradually wear away the imprint of Huangquan Laozu and could never sense Huangquan Laozu's presence, and still would not submit.

Left with no choice, Yunhe could only erase the artifact spirit of this fourth‑level upper‑grade spirit treasure.

To say he wasn't heartbroken would be a lie.

But a spirit treasure not used by himself, no matter how valuable, holds little meaning for him.

It would be better to simply erase the artifact spirit; although this causes the treasure's grade to drop directly from the fourth‑level upper‑grade spirit treasure tier to the fourth‑level lower‑grade magic artifact tier, the extraordinary materials used in its forging mean its power can still rival a fourth‑level middle‑grade magic artifact.

As a magic artifact to enrich his means, it is sufficient.

But the reaction of the Dead River Spring's artifact spirit also made him realize that a treasure born with self‑awareness shows loyalty to its master, and he somewhat looks forward to the time when the artifact spirit of his Five Elements Thunderbolt Sword gains consciousness.

It is merely a pity that a treasure can possess only one artifact spirit; even after erasing the original spirit, he cannot, as he said, seek a beast soul to replace it.

"Well, it's still better than an ordinary fourth‑level lower‑grade magic artifact."

"The Dead River Spring is a water‑earth dual‑attribute magic artifact, which matches his demon beast body's attributes very well."

"Rather, it would be better to first find a way to raise the Beast Soul Banner to the fourth‑level tier."

"As long as the Beast Soul Banner is raised to the fourth level and then the beast soul of the Lu Shan Turtle is refined, its power will surely surge, at least reaching the fourth‑level middle‑grade magic artifact tier, and as his magic artifact it will surely be able to exert a hundred percent of its power."

"Most importantly."

"With a fourth‑level Beast Soul Banner at his side, he now has enough confidence to explore the Abyss Ravine again."

"After all, that sound from the deepest part of the Abyss Ravine also comes from an unknown beast soul, and the Beast Soul Banner is quite effective against such entities."

"Even better, if luck is good, he might be able to incorporate that unknown beast soul into the Beast Soul Banner, which could boost the treasure's power by at least one level."

"Just wanting to reforge the Beast Soul Banner, a single Seven Sorrows Dead Soul Stone is not enough; this requires his cultivator body to seek more treasures."

Stowing the Dead River Spring, Yunhe flashed his form and arrived deep in the cave dwelling of Huanhu Dao.

Here, the spiritual energy is extremely mixed, yet the earth‑attribute spiritual energy is the strongest; without the Inverted Five Elements Formation sealing it, the spiritual energy of this place could even disturb the spiritual energy of the entire Huanhu Dao.

In the middle of this place, a yellow‑earth hued pearl floats, seemingly indifferent to the mixed spiritual energy here, rather "enjoying itself".

Earth Apricot Yellow Pearl!

Looking at this pearl, Yunhe approached with his hands behind his back; the pearl seemed spiritual and automatically attached itself.

Seeing this, Yunhe couldn't help but smile.

"Although we're using the same foolish method as the Lu Shan Turtle, my refinement speed seems much faster than his."

Now he has refined this pearl to about seventy or eighty percent.

Once this pearl is fully refined, he can use it as a starting point to try to refine the fragments attached to the earth veins; that is his true goal.

However.

Merely refining this pearl already benefits him greatly, increasing his cultivation speed, especially the speed of practicing the Camel Mountain Technique, by quite a bit.

Of course, it's not just his cultivation speed that improves; all aspects of him are enhanced, as if this pearl were not a magic artifact but a kind of body‑strengthening treasure.

But the more this is the case, the more curious he becomes about how great a benefit refining the fragments on the earth veins would bring.

Thinking of this, Yunhe's form blurred slightly, then returned to his original black giant turtle appearance.

He swallowed the pearl into his belly and began refining it again.

(End of chapter)