Chapter 347: Heart Demon Oath

Just as Zhang Nuo finished swearing the Heart Demon Oath in front of Baji Laomo, Chunyangzi's expression changed slightly. After the old demon finished transmitting the complete "Eight Extremes Demon Veins" cultivation method to Zhang Nuo, the Pure Underworld Divine Tree retracted into his palm. Only then did Chunyangzi say with a hint of worry:

"Kid Zhang, do you know the severity of the Heart Demon Oath?"

Hearing this, Zhang Nuo, who had just been immersed in the joy of obtaining the Demonic Arts, suddenly raised his head and shook it at Chunyangzi with a blank expression!

"Sigh! I guessed you didn't know! Otherwise, you wouldn't have agreed so easily!"

Sighing lightly, Chunyangzi frowned and said:

"For your current cultivation level, the Heart Demon Oath naturally doesn't have much use. But once you reach the Spirit Severing Stage, if you want to advance further, you will be troubled by Heart Demons and the Heavenly Tribulation. The Heavenly Tribulation is secondary; as long as your cultivation is high enough and your Magic Treasure is strong enough, you might be able to withstand it! But the Heart Demon is different! The so-called Heart Demon means that the demon is born from the heart. If you cannot fulfill the oath you made to the Heart Demon, it will be very easy to leave flaws in your state of mind when advancing in the future, leading to a backlash from the Heart Demon, which will cause your cultivation to be severely damaged, or even lead to your fall!"

After hearing this, Zhang Nuo was startled. He had never known about this before, and deep inside, he felt a faint sense of regret! Seeing Zhang Nuo's face change drastically, Chunyangzi sighed helplessly and only spoke after a long while:

"Things have reached this point, so we can only proceed according to the previous agreement and find a way to help Baji Laomo rebuild his physical body! Before that, you don't need to worry about the Heart Demon; even if you advance to the Nascent Soul Stage, the Heart Demon will not appear!"

After comforting Zhang Nuo a few more times, Chunyangzi returned to the alchemy room. Zhang Nuo sat quietly on the Putan and pondered the matter of the Heart Demon. Just as Chunyangzi said, that was a distant matter, and thinking about it more now would be of no use. He steadied his mind and began to contemplate the Demonic Arts he had just learned: Eight Extremes Demon Veins!

In a sense, these Eight Extremes Demon Veins should belong to a type of Body Refining technique of the Demon Sect, but it is not entirely focused on body refining. More precisely, the technique relies on Demonic Qi to open up eight hidden demonic meridians within the cultivator's body, causing their cultivation to advance greatly!

This "Eight Extremes Demon Veins" is very simple to understand literally. The so-called eight extremes are the eight peak forms; "Demon" means drawing Demonic Qi into the body; and the word "Veins" is even easier to understand—it can be interpreted as the cultivator's meridians! These eight demonic meridians are: the Rest Meridian, Life Meridian, Injury Meridian, Obstruction Meridian, Scenery Meridian, Death Meridian, Surprise Meridian, and Opening Meridian!

Therefore, the Eight Extremes Demon Veins technique only has eight levels. Opening one demonic meridian counts as completing one level, and the difficulty of opening the eight meridians increases in sequence. If one wants to open all eight meridians like Baji Laomo, who knows how many years it will take?

However, Zhang Nuo's immediate problem is just wanting to break through the shackles of the Golden Core Stage and enter the Nascent Soul Stage, and this Demonic Art can actually help with that!

But the most troublesome problem right now is how to allow the Divine Sea to accommodate Demonic Qi! After thinking for a moment, Zhang Nuo closed his eyes tightly and began to accumulate Demonic Qi in his body according to the cultivation method of the Eight Extremes Demon Veins!

Wisps of thin Demonic Qi were gathered into his body by Zhang Nuo, and after circulating slightly, they were injected into the Divine Sea! As soon as the Demonic Qi entered the Divine Sea, it immediately interacted with the Spiritual Qi within! Bursts of "hissing" sounds continuously emerged from the Divine Sea, and at the same time, the Spiritual Qi in the Divine Sea overflowed rapidly, as if it did not want to share the same space with the Demonic Qi!

Just as Zhang Nuo wanted to withdraw the Demonic Qi, a bizarre scene occurred. A ray of light flashed above the Divine Sea where the Demonic Qi was injected, and a phantom flew out from it. This phantom was neither demon nor Buddha, and it was exactly the thing that was hidden in the Skull Monk's prayer beads back then!

Looking inward, Zhang Nuo gasped. He had always thought there was something in the Divine Sea, but he didn't expect it to really be that! He saw the Demonic Qi on the surface of the phantom move, and it drew the wisp of Demonic Qi that had just entered into the Divine Sea. At the same time, its figure blurred slightly and returned to the bottom of the Divine Sea!

All of this happened very quickly; Zhang Nuo almost didn't have time to see the appearance of the phantom clearly! At the same time the phantom sank into the Divine Sea, the wisp of Demonic Qi inside it actually existed perfectly together with the Spiritual Qi and Yin Qi, and there was no sign of incompatibility between the three!

This made Zhang Nuo feel a burst of surprise! It seems that the Skull Monk's prayer beads must have something strange about them, especially the phantom inside the beads, which is even more unfathomable! Looking at the appearance of the phantom, it seemed to have no harm to Zhang Nuo's body, but having something of unknown origin sinking at the bottom of his Divine Sea made him feel a bit uncomfortable!

Helpless, Zhang Nuo could only seek a solution from Chunyangzi. After he told Chunyangzi everything, Chunyangzi was also very puzzled! However, according to his deduction, the phantom in the Divine Sea might have been in a state of half-Buddha and half-demon for a long time, which is why it caused the Divine Sea to be able to accommodate Demonic Qi!

Of course, this was just Chunyangzi's conjecture, and there was no conclusive evidence. However, since the problem of the Divine Sea was solved, Zhang Nuo could practice the Eight Extremes Demon Veins normally!

As for the phantom in the Divine Sea, he could only wait to discover the problem bit by bit in the future. Perhaps some problems could only be explained clearly by the Skull Monk!

When Zhang Nuo sat cross-legged on the Putan again, he calmed his mind and began to circulate the mental cultivation method of the Demonic Arts. In the blink of an eye, half a year later, when he opened his eyes again, a pitch-black Demonic Qi was swimming restlessly in the depths of his pupils!

Although there had been no progress in the Eight Extremes Demon Veins over the past six months, the Demonic Qi filling his body had increased quite a bit. Changing from Righteous path cultivation methods to Underworld cultivation methods, and finally to Demonic Arts, this kind of transformation really made Zhang Nuo feel a bit uncomfortable. However, thinking of the feeling of being able to perform three unique arts at the same time when the Demonic Arts achieved some success, a smile immediately appeared on his face again!

After thinking for a while, Zhang Nuo released the Pure Underworld Divine Tree and asked Baji Laomo for advice on some matters regarding the Demonic Arts. At this time, under the nourishment of the powerful life origin of the Pure Underworld Divine Tree, the old demon's spirit was much better than before. Plus, with the temptation of rebuilding his physical body, he told him everything he knew without reservation!

In this way, the problems that had troubled Zhang Nuo for many days were finally resolved, and he took fewer detours in his cultivation!

During this time, Chunyangzi had been helping Zhang Nuo prepare various Pills needed to impact the Nascent Soul Stage. For him, he might not be able to produce very profound Pills, but ordinary Nascent Soul Stage Pills were no problem!

Especially in another Stone Chamber of the Cave Abode, there was actually a Spiritual Medicine garden! The Spiritual Medicine plants grown there were almost all over ten thousand years old, and the medicinal power contained within them was extremely pure. The Pills refined from these materials had effects several times greater than normal Pills!

On the other hand, Zhang Nuo carefully sorted out the "Shangqing Sword Art" and "Immovable Underworld King" techniques. To successfully impact the Nascent Soul, these two techniques also needed to have breakthroughs! Especially the Shangqing Sword Art, which belonged to Zhang Nuo's basic techniques; every level of improvement would change his cultivation!

Calculated this way, plus the power of the "Eight Extremes Demon Veins", if all three techniques increased significantly at the same time, advancing to the Nascent Soul Stage would be just around the corner!

"Nanxuan! Hong Yu Niang! Wait until I succeed in advancing! Everything from before will be returned to you twofold!"

He held his breath in his heart. He had suffered too much anger from Nascent Soul Stage cultivators before, especially Hong Yu Niang's sneak attack, which almost cost him his life! It was precisely this unyielding spirit that made Zhang Nuo practice tirelessly every day!

Two years later, Chunyangzi placed a large pile of Pills in front of Zhang Nuo and told him one by one when to take which type of Pill.

Finally, Chunyangzi specifically called Baji Laomo over, and the two of them told Zhang Nuo their insights on condensing the Nascent Soul. The continuous infusion from two Great Cultivators from the Immortal World and the Demon Realm made Zhang Nuo feel his head swell for a moment. There were some things he didn't quite understand yet, but he forcibly memorized them!

The process of Shou Dan Jie Ying is very important. It is completely different from previous advancements. The most critical step in condensing the Nascent Soul is to shatter the Golden Core!

That is to say, after shattering the Golden Core, one must use the pure Spirit Power contained within it to condense the carrier of the primordial spirit: the Nascent Soul!

If one cannot endure the pain of shattering the core during this process and faints, then the subsequent things cannot continue. What is even more terrifying is that once the Shou Dan Jie Ying fails, the cultivator's own cultivation will regress. Being able to remain a Foundation Establishment Stage cultivator is already considered quite good; some cultivators even fall directly during the process of shattering the core!

Although Chunyangzi made many preparations for Zhang Nuo, the matter of condensing the Nascent Soul happened almost in an instant, but it was extremely dangerous. Success meant entering the Nascent Soul Stage, and failure meant a major drop in cultivation!

If the regressed cultivation wants to be practiced back up, it is not as simple as before! First of all, the damaged constitution will bring many inconveniences! When Chunyangzi and Baji Laomo were in the Immortal World and the Demon Realm, they had seen many genius cultivators who sank just because they could not cross the Nascent Soul realm!

Zhang Nuo took a deep breath. The formal impact had not yet begun, but there was already some pressure in his heart! However, being trapped in the Golden Core Stage was not a solution either! After all, the Golden Core realm has a lifespan limit; once the lifespan is reached, one will die just like an ordinary person!

"Fight it!"

After spitting out these two words heavily, a look of determination appeared on Zhang Nuo's face. Then, with his eyes closed slightly, he entered a state of meditation and began to formally impact the Nascent Soul Stage realm!

Chunyangzi looked at Zhang Nuo, whose face was full of determination! He couldn't help but secretly admire him! The kid in front of him always had a kind of resilience! He never retreated when encountering difficulties! This was exactly the reason why he appreciated Zhang Nuo!