Chapter 562: Escape

"You've figured things out this far; aside from not knowing my true strength, what other tricks do you have?" Yan Buji snorted coldly and retreated along that light within the immortal formation.

Yan Buji felt sure that unless that person bore a blood‑deep grudge and insisted on killing him, they could never know he still possessed martial cultivation.

Upon careful thought, there weren't many who were his deadly enemies, and although this show of force looked big, it actually had no real effect on him. That's why Yan Buji dared to follow, to see what the schemer behind him really wanted to do.

Soon Yan Buji reached a patch of quicksand, frowned as the halted light faded away, as if it were guiding him to this place.

"What does that mean?"

Yan Buji furrowed his brows, staring at this stretch of quicksand.

His divine sense swept over, and Yan Buji suddenly realized something.

"Ah, I see!"

Immediately, Yan Buji didn't think further, leaping straight into the quicksand and slowly sinking.

At that moment, the attackers finally came to their senses, decided to join forces, and pursued him—but they could no longer see Yan Buji's trace.

"Damned thief!"

"He's actually a martial cultivator! Quickly inform all the temple abbots nearby!"

"Invite fellow cultivators, seal off this area, and be sure to kill that martial cultivator thief!"

Several Nascent Soul cultivators shifted their expressions, secretly glad the martial cultivator hadn't fought them to the death; otherwise they might have ended up like the Fire Core City Lord, whose skull was smashed by a single hammer blow.

As Yan Buji sank deeper into the quicksand, he suddenly spotted a ball of light, grabbed it and continued descending, immediately sensing what lay inside.

【Greetings, fellow cultivator. I am Huang Tian Shangren. If you can see this spiritual consciousness transmission, it means you can already escape. I still wish to explain: although the Fire Core City Lord and his men invited me to deal with you, I am actually not your enemy. I was merely asked to help; since you have a way out, I won't hinder you further. May you know we bear no grudge—mountains and rivers may meet again, but we shall not see each other after this.】

"Hmm?"

Yan Buji chuckled: "This Huang Tian Shangren is interesting—he actually figured out in advance that I would escape from here?"

Indeed, this quicksand links to the earth's veins; the immortal formation on the ground only seals the sky, but if the earth's veins are affected, just wait for heavenly thunder to strike your head.

So this fellow left this message in advance, knowing this place might become his only escape route, yet he dared not seal the earth's veins.

However, that guiding light earlier was probably his spontaneous move, fearing that after fighting those people to the death he'd come looking for trouble—showing how timid he is.

"It's best not to meet such clever people again." Yan Buji said lightly.

To be able to pinpoint his true identity and whereabouts in just a few months, mobilize so many to set up a heavenly net and earthly trap, even calculate his escape route—if he truly had to fight such a person to the death, even victory would come at an unimaginable cost.

Fortunately, the Huang Tian Shangren he encountered this time was cowardly, unwilling to deal him a fatal blow; otherwise Yan Buji couldn't guarantee he'd escape unscathed.

After descending all the way into the earth's veins, Yan Buji took out the Void Rift Stone and the Youming Book, attempting to link them.

"Indeed, it's somewhat different from before, but it seems to be positive feedback."

Yan Buji thought, recalled a place in the New Youming from his mind, and instantly vanished.

Soon, Yan Buji arrived at the place he remembered.

Sensing the familiar Yin Nether Qi, Yan Buji activated the Demonic‑Dispelling Breath Technique, taking on the face of an Asura, while his Asura Accumulation Armor began absorbing the Yin Nether Qi to strengthen its core.

The Asura Accumulation Armor is originally refined from Spiritual Material of the Youming Realm; although it can be driven by magical power, it works far better when driven by Yin Nether Qi.

"It's a pity I can't cultivate Yin Nether Qi; according to the techniques of those foreign cultivators in the Youming Realm, humans simply can't master it." Yan Buji said with a regretful expression.

This isn't a dual cultivation method; the difference lies in racial innate limits, like how birds are born to fly while humans cannot. Even if aided by external objects to fly, the fundamental use of that power is entirely different, so naturally it can't be called cultivation.

"First find a place to forge the spirit cannon and spirit spear, then we'll talk."

Yan Buji thought, since he had plenty of resources, he would first forge the accumulation device, then break through to late Golden Core.

Originally he planned to do this after gathering all spiritual materials and finishing his armaments, but it could also be done earlier.

"After all, I still need to refine the rift scepter and the Asura Accumulation Armor; this timespan is huge, and even going out to gather spiritual materials can't be done in a day or two—so let's boost our strength first."

Thinking it over, magical power is the foundation of strength; although Yan Buji also has martial cultivation, it's impossible to neglect the basics by focusing on forging armaments.

After all, his aptitude for magical cultivation is truly poor; after all that's happened, he needs to stabilize for a period before proceeding.

Moreover, upon entering the Youming Realm, the Seven‑Leaf Youlan within Yan Buji began to grow wildly, accumulating spiritual energy.

Yan Buji now returned to the cave where he had previously closed off for training; looking around, he saw no signs of activity. In the distance, the Rakshasa Tribe's Dragon Scale Division seemed to have grown larger, but to him it no longer mattered.

"Let's enter seclusion first."

First, Yan Buji would begin attempting to forge the spirit cannon.

The forging of the spirit cannon can begin together with that of the spirit spear, mainly because refining the spiritual materials takes a long time, and the designed components might encounter problems during sealing and forging that reduce the number of turns, so Yan Buji wanted to start refining them into accumulation devices early.

Through the refinement of Shocking Wave Fire, the speed of refining spiritual materials is quite fast; now that Yan Buji's strength has surged, the essence, qi, and spirit he pours into the materials won't make him feel tired.

Thus, Yan Buji refined spiritual materials in his cave, and in the blink of an eye two years passed.

Since the components of the spirit spear and spirit cannon are somewhat complex, Yan Buji's original design didn't intend to use just a few spiritual materials; instead, he used over a dozen different kinds, adjusting their proportions and merging them.

This also resulted in Yan Buji using a huge variety of spiritual materials to refine into accumulation devices; for the spirit cannon alone, nearly three hundred kinds of spiritual materials were refined by him.

Among them were more than ten kinds of Fivefold Transformation spiritual materials, fifty kinds of Fourfold Transformation spiritual materials, and auxiliary Threefold and Twofold transformation spiritual materials—too many to count.

The more complex the accumulation device, the closer its fundamental effect comes to the designer's original concept. However, correspondingly, besides refining into accumulation devices, there's also the step of combining components, which requires trying new things.

Just like adjusting the proportion of a component's formed accumulation, this step also troubled Yan Buji for over ten years before he made any progress.