Chapter 300: Devouring the Infant (Bonus Chapter—Request Subscription)

Several days later.

Inside a subterranean cave somewhere.

Fang Xing opened a jade box and saw within it a pale green essence pill the size of a fist; a faint smile appeared on his face.

Previously, he and Chu Chu Kuangtu had joined forces to slay the Azure Water Cold Cobra; he had taken nothing else except this essence pill and the "Azure Water Cold Flame."

The "Azure Water Cold Flame" was a fourth-rank flame, which Fang Xing directly cast into the "Green Yang Demon Lamp" to slowly absorb its origin and strengthen the power of the Soul Devouring Demon Fire.

The Green Yang Demon Lamp was itself an extraordinary treasure, capable of absorbing various spiritual flames and amplifying the power of its core flame seed.

After casting the Azure Water Cold Flame into the Green Yang Demon Lamp, Fang Xing paid it little further attention.

Now, his focus was entirely on this essence pill.

Inside the semi-transparent pearl, a miniature dragon lay curled up, appearing utterly listless.

"Perfect. I'll use this essence pill to test the Mu Wansheng Sect's 'Devouring Infant Technique'…"

Fang Xing sat cross-legged and slapped his forehead.

A dark glow flashed above his crown, and the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant appeared with a grinning face.

It extended its hands, repeatedly forming hand seals that transformed into fine black threads, sinking into the essence pill of the Azure Water Cold Cobra.

The miniature dragon seemed to sense impending doom, thrashing wildly in all directions—but to no effect.

The black threads wound endlessly around the dragon's body, like chains of darkness, until the green dragon could no longer move.

Seeing this, the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant's face lit up with satisfaction; it changed its hand seals.

Vast amounts of magical energy surged forth, enveloping the essence pill.

As ancient, archaic runes flickered one after another, the fourth-rank essence pill shrank steadily until it vanished entirely into the mouth of the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant.

After swallowing the essence pill, the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant immediately sat cross-legged, its magical energy flickering erratically, its aura unstable.

A flash of light!

Fang Xing's Sword Infant also emerged from its Lower Dantian, and streams of magical energy struck the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant, aiding its breakthrough.

Time passed slowly.

Several hours later, the fluctuations in the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant's magical energy finally stabilized.

Its body had also grown slightly more robust, slowly advancing from a false infant toward the early stage of the Nascent Soul…

But clearly, it still fell short—it had not yet reached the early Nascent Soul stage.

"Indeed… I still need one more Nascent Soul."

The Sword Infant returned to its Lower Dantian; Fang Xing opened his eyes and studied the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant: "This demonic method of the second Nascent Soul is truly perverse and extraordinarily difficult—no wonder no one in the Mu Wansheng Sect has ever mastered it…"

Although the Mu Wansheng Sect had a handful of cultivators who achieved a false infant, records of them still exist in history.

But no one has ever been recorded as achieving a true second Nascent Soul.

Clearly, the requirement to kill two Nascent Soul True Lords—or even capture one alive—to feed to the Ten Thousand Methods Nascent Soul is far too extreme.

If the Mu Wansheng Sect's Nascent Soul elders possessed such power, they could have already unified the entire Da Jing cultivation world!

"Still… this Devouring Infant Technique is indeed viable—though the side effects are rather severe…"

Fang Xing saw the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant open its eyes; its crimson gaze carried a hint of madness and malice—he knew the side effects of swallowing essence had begun.

The Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant's ferocity had been awakened; it could turn on its master at any moment.

Unfazed, Fang Xing seized the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant in his hand and activated the "Great Sun Tathagata Mantra!"

After refining the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant once more, it opened its eyes again—its gaze now clear yet bewildered, the previous ferocity gone.

"Indeed, even the most demonic Nascent Soul can be subdued by my Great Sun Tathagata Mantra."

Fang Xing exhaled slowly.

Having chosen to use the "Devouring Infant Technique" to elevate the Ten Thousand Methods Nascent Soul, he naturally had to endure its consequences: sudden power surges, the resurgence of demonic thoughts, even outright rebellion!

He had already devised the solution: suppress it with the "Great Sun Tathagata Mantra."

What is a mere madness from devouring a Nascent Soul's essence compared to the corruption of an Outer Demon God?

The evidence proved Fang Xing's guess correct.

Now, the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant's magical energy had surged dramatically; the Great Sun glyph on its forehead glowed even brighter, with no sign of rebellion.

"Excellent. I can keep feeding it Nascent Souls… even push it ahead of me, to advance to mid-Nascent Soul—or even late-Nascent Soul!"

Although the Mu Wansheng Sect's secret texts recorded that a second Nascent Soul enhanced by this Devouring Technique saw its rebellion probability spike at mid-Nascent Soul and become inevitable at late-Nascent Soul… Fang Xing, possessing the "Great Sun Tathagata Mantra," was not overly concerned.

More importantly… this was the fastest way to increase his power!

After reaching the Nascent Soul stage, Fang Xing had tried cultivating normally—and reached a somewhat despairing conclusion.

Even atop a fourth-rank spiritual vein, with his spiritual root talent, reaching the peak of early Nascent Soul magical energy would require centuries.

If he encountered a bottleneck, advancing to mid-Nascent Soul might take hundreds more years!

This was the norm for Nascent Soul True Lords; most of the Nascent Soul True Lords in Da Jing, whether orthodox or demonic, remained at the early stage.

What about learning from advanced experience and consuming vast quantities of pills?

The value of fourth-rank pills could no longer be measured in spiritual stones—even defective pills were enough to draw Golden Core cultivators like moths to flame.

Acquiring them in large quantities was virtually impossible.

What about refining them himself?

After scouring the Mu Wansheng Sect's treasure vault and doing a rough calculation, Fang Xing reached a conclusion.

To refine enough pills to reach the peak of early Nascent Soul, even an entire Mu Wansheng Sect was insufficient.

He'd need to destroy four or five more Nascent Soul sects to gather enough.

If all such resources were refined into fourth-rank pills, they might barely allow him to reach the peak of early Nascent Soul within ten years.

But if he possessed such power, wouldn't it be far more satisfying to simply unify the entire Da Jing cultivation world?

"In short… after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, the pace of magical energy growth slows drastically—often taking centuries… but early Nascent Soul won't cut it in the Hanhai Cultivation World. I must increase my power quickly!"

"Raising the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant is a sound plan… even if this ghost infant can never break through to the Divine Transformation realm, if I can push it to late-Nascent Soul, it will dominate the Hanhai Cultivation World…"

Late-Nascent Soul cultivators were known as "Great True Lords"; outside of Divine Transformation, they were the absolute pinnacle of the cultivation world.

Compared to advancing his own orthodox Sword Infant, Fang Xing felt the demonic path might be faster.

"Roughly speaking, one more Nascent Soul will allow the false infant to truly become a second Nascent Soul, reaching the early Nascent Soul stage…"

"Then, refining four to eight more Nascent Souls should allow me to break through to mid-Nascent Soul."

"After mid-Nascent Soul, refining another ten or twenty Nascent Souls might let me attempt late-Nascent Soul? But a second Nascent Soul enhanced by this demonic technique has chaotic foundations—it will inevitably go mad… and absolutely cannot break through to Divine Transformation, nor will it ever avoid rebelling against its master!"

"Fortunately, none of this is a problem for me."

After all, the second Nascent Soul is merely a temporary tool—it only needs to grant me the combat power of a Great True Lord.

To reach Divine Transformation, I must rely on my true Sword Infant. "Destroying dozens of Nascent Soul True Lords? That still seems difficult… better to first raise the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant to mid-Nascent Soul—that's more realistic…"

"Besides, all my estimates are based on early Nascent Souls and low-grade fourth-rank essence pills… if I obtain the essence of a mid-Nascent Soul True Lord—or even a late-Nascent Soul Great True Lord—one would easily equal four or five, or even ten or eight of the former."

"More crucially… the Ten Thousand Methods Nascent Soul grows incredibly fast, with almost no bottlenecks—so long as it devours enough Nascent Souls, it will inevitably reach late-Nascent Soul…"

Fang Xing had faced no bottlenecks during his Golden Core stage, but he now sensed that after Nascent Soul, progress became far harder.

Which Nascent Soul cultivator wasn't both extraordinarily gifted and blessed with endless opportunities and rare encounters?

Roughly half of them possessed heavenly-grade spiritual roots.

My own talent is only slightly better than a heavenly-grade root—it may not be enough.

"Whether it's high-rank cultivation techniques, fourth-rank pills, or the Nascent Souls and essence pills of cultivators… the Hanhai Cultivation World is far better suited for cultivation. It's time to leave."

Fang Xing stood up, retracted the Ten Thousand Methods Ghost Infant, and his expression turned wistful: "Back then, when I first transmigrated, I landed in the Savage Lands, then moved to the Tamed Lands… always wandering the Great Wilderness Cultivation World. Now… am I finally about to step into a higher-level cultivation world?"

In his hand, a jade slip appeared, bearing a rough map.

The cultivation world was immeasurably vast—even the Great Wilderness and Hanhai were but insignificant fragments, most of it shrouded in mist.

"To travel from the Great Wilderness Cultivation World to the Hanhai Cultivation World… even a Nascent Soul cultivator flying at full speed would take years… not to mention the many perilous forbidden zones along the way."

Fang Xing pondered: "I could bring a spaceship from the main universe—it could serve as a temporary dwelling and a vehicle…"

As long as he didn't bring the spaceship back to the main universe, he needn't fear any leaks.

"Even if the spaceship traveled at light speed, reaching the Hanhai Cultivation World would still take ages… damn it, is the length and width of this cultivation world measured in 'light-years'?"

"Indeed, this world and the main universe are entirely different realms!"

Realizing this, Fang Xing finally relaxed.

In the main universe, the Creator might awaken and settle everything.

Now, he was certain: this cultivation world—or rather, this cultivation universe—could be developed as a fallback.

…

Main Universe.

White Bird Star.

Star River Island.

Fang Xing lay on a beach chair, watching seashells washed ashore by the tide.

A hermit crab climbed and burrowed across the golden sand…

"A rare half-day of leisure…"

He stretched, took another sip of juice, and opened the virtual network to browse the spaceship store.

He had used his personal spaceship with great satisfaction and planned to buy another to send to the cultivation world.

He could also buy one equipped with a large biochemical laboratory, for research in the cultivation world.

"Besides, I must solve the mecha problem…"

"Biomechas—or rather, Demon God Mechas… their primary materials are Demon God offspring, even the flesh and bones of Outer Demon Gods…"

After swallowing all this information over many days, Fang Xing had finally barely understood Han Han Chunfeng's introductory guide.

At this moment, he fell into thought:

"The best target to strike, of course, is that demonic god world…"

"The whalefall formed after the death of a foreign demonic god… creates an ecological cycle model, quite fascinating."

"Too bad… the demonic god's offspring has already been born. If I go there again, it will surely target me…"

If it were the weakest type of demonic god offspring—with only Eighth Realm combat power—Fang Xing was not particularly afraid.

But if it were a Ninth Realm offspring like the Chaotic Offspring from his last rescue mission, the problem would be serious.

After placing an order on the virtual network, Fang Xing rose and went to the laboratory.

"Boss!"

A woman with wine-red hair, a shapely figure, and a secretary's outfit immediately stepped forward to greet him.

"Weijiali, anything new lately?"

Fang Xing took the document handed to him by his female secretary and glanced at it: "Hmm… the Chaotic Offspring's flesh has been delivered? Good news…"

"Mainly StarSea Corporation's business—our new inhibitor, as our flagship product, has no sales issues… most of the output goes to the Nine Swords Academy, and many companies have sent partnership invitations… a few require special attention; even if you refuse, it's best if the boss handles the communication personally…"

As a high-rank practitioner, Weijiali's mind worked swiftly, and she performed her secretary duties excellently.

"I see…"

Fang Xing glanced and his expression shifted: "Davies… he's come as a lobbyist too?"

Among the clients Weijiali highlighted were major companies under the Xu family and the university-affiliated enterprises of Blue Star University.

Indeed, these could not be refused outright—even if refusing, he had to appear in person.

It wasn't that he feared them; it was simply how human relationships worked.

Fang Xing thought for a moment, then dialed Davies' communication line.

"Haha… Fang, I had no idea you were not only an excellent martial artist but also a genius scientist and outstanding businessman."

Davies' hologram appeared, walking beside Fang Xing as if real, his gestures and expressions exaggerated: "StarSea Corporation's tax contributions alone now rival the top hundred enterprises on White Bird Star… I believe becoming the planet's number one is merely a matter of time."

"Thank you for your praise, Mr. Davies…"

Fang Xing smiled slightly: "You want to reserve a share of the inhibitor? Sorry… our company's output is limited."

"No, no, not me—my friend. He's a true tycoon, with over a hundred outstanding offspring. One of them, a mecha pilot, is considering a bio-mecha path and needs a bit of inhibitor for research… Trust me, Fang, he hasn't reached the stage of building a custom mecha, so he needs very little."

Davies named a number. Fang Xing listened, his eyes flickering slightly—he felt it could be satisfied.

After all, he controlled the raw material channels, so output was entirely his to decide.

Yet Fang Xing walked a few steps before raising another issue: "Davies, we're good friends… I'll help when I can, but I'd like to ask about the retirement and disposal of the Federation's aging mechas…"

(End of Chapter)