Chapter 976: Underwater Secluded Cultivation

On the sea surface, Yan Buji sat cross-legged in a mass of grey mist. The Swallow Desire Pot hovered above his head, its body already turned dark red, with countless twisted faces appearing on its surface.

After three years of slaughter, over ten thousand cultivators have died at his hands. The desires within the Swallow Desire Pot have nearly solidified, and his cultivation has surged, reaching late Dao Union.

"Not enough......"

Yan Buji opened his eyes and looked into the distance. There lay the largest gathering place of wandering cultivators in the Dongxing Sea Region, Myriad Immortals Island.

Tens of thousands of cultivators were stationed there year-round, most of them low-level wandering cultivators, but their numbers were enough to make up for the lack of quality.

"It's time to cast the net."

He rose to his feet, and the grey mist condensed beneath his feet into a cloud, drifting toward Myriad Immortals Island.

At that moment, Myriad Immortals Island was still peaceful. The island's grand formation was active all day, patrolling cultivators shuttling back and forth, everyone feeling that with so many gathered together, even the "Huiwu Yanluo" would not dare to attack, no matter how frenzied.

Until——

The sky suddenly darkened.

"What is that?" a Foundation Establishment cultivator pointed at the sky.

Everyone looked up, only to see a grey cloud spreading at an astonishing speed, in the blink of an eye covering the entire sky.

"Oh no! It's Huiwu Yanluo!"

Panic erupted instantly. The cultivators scattered in flight, but it was too late. Countless tentacles stretched from the grey cloud, each precisely piercing a cultivator's dantian.

Bloodcurdling screams echoed through the heavens.

Yan Buji stood above the cloud layer, coldly watching all of this. The Swallow Desire Pot spun wildly, vast amounts of desire surging in like a tide. The bloody patterns on its body grew brighter and brighter, finally emitting a blinding crimson light!

"Boom!"

A column of crimson light shot up into the sky, dyeing the clouds red. All cultivators in the Dongxing Sea Region witnessed this scene, no matter how far away, they could feel the suffocating terror emanating from it.

"Finally...... it's complete."

Yan Buji gently stroked the Swallow Desire Pot, feeling the surging power within.

Three years of slaughter, the desires of a hundred thousand cultivators, finally allowed this natal immortal artifact to complete its transformation.

Through Yan Buji's innate essence, the Swallow Desire Pot carries his Extreme Desire Path; now, as it absorbs more and more desire, it can even upgrade its grade on its own without him needing to refine it.

Now, the Swallow Desire Pot has reached the Eight Revolutions Realm.

And Yan Buji no longer roams slaughtering cultivators; activating the Heaven Gate Law, he went to the boundless sea, found an uninhabited spot on the seabed, opened a cave dwelling, and began his cultivation.

Cultivating by absorbing desire is the essence of the Extreme Desire Path. Whether desire is strong or not depends on quantity; quality, in the end, is actually not important.

Keeping one's original heart from being drowned in the sea of desire, and turning these miscellaneous desires into one's own power, is likewise a form of cultivation.

The Extreme Desire Path represents a part of the wisdom law; in the current cultivation world, Yan Buji has never heard of anyone who has cultivated the wisdom law to completion, and it may be because the source of the wisdom law has been split apart, which is why he obtained a portion.

The grey mist dissipated, and Yan Buji stood on the surface of the boundless sea, beneath him deep, unfathomable dark-blue seawater.

He lowered his head to look at the Swallow Desire Pot in his hand; its body had shifted from dark red to deep purple, and the twisted faces on its surface seemed to come alive, silently howling on the pot's walls.

"The desires of a hundred thousand cultivators..." Yan Buji gently stroked the pot's body, feeling the surging power fluctuations within, "should be enough for me to break through the bottleneck."

He raised his gaze to the surroundings; this sea area is far from the main shipping lanes, even seabirds are scarce—an ideal place for closed-door cultivation.

Yan Buji formed hand signs and chanted incantations, his body gradually sinking into the sea.

The seawater automatically parted a passage for him, and he walked step by step toward the seabed as if on flat ground. The deeper he went, the darker the light became, until it was completely swallowed by darkness. But his divine sense had already locked onto an undersea mountain range, where a naturally formed rock cave lay.

After half an hour, Yan Buji stood before an undersea cave. Its entrance was half-covered by coral and seaweed, inside pitch black. He waved his hand, releasing a grey light that instantly pulverized the obstacles at the mouth.

"This is the place."

After entering the cave, Yan Buji successively set up thirty-six restrictions, completely sealing the cave dwelling from the outside world. Finally, he etched a complex formation on the floor of the central stone chamber—a combination of the Spirit Gathering Array and the Desire Locking Array—that would help him better absorb the desire within the Swallow Desire Pot.

With everything ready, Yan Buji sat cross-legged at the formation's center, placing the Swallow Desire Pot before him. He took a deep breath and began to circulate the Extreme Desire Heart Scripture.

"The sea of desire is boundless, with the heart as the boat..."

As the incantation was spoken, the Swallow Desire Pot began to tremble slightly, its lid opening automatically, and a thick purple mist gushed out. Within the mist, countless twisted faces could be faintly seen—these were the remnants of desire from the cultivators who had been devoured.

Yan Buji opened his mouth and inhaled; the first wisp of desire-mist drilled into his seven apertures. In an instant, his vision changed dramatically.

He found himself standing on the square of Myriad Immortals Island, surrounded by panicked cultivators fleeing.

A young female cultivator fell to the ground, looking at him in terror: "Senior, spare my life! I am willing to offer all my treasures..."

Yan Buji raised his hand expressionlessly; a tentacle of grey mist pierced the female cultivator's dantian. Her eyes shifted from fear to emptiness, then turned into pure desire—longing for life, pursuit of power, fear of death... these desires were drawn out and flowed into the Swallow Desire Pot.

The illusion shifted, and he saw himself hunting down cultivators in various places of the Dongxing Sea Region. Each slaughter extracted a portion of desire.

A hundred thousand cultivators, a hundred thousand desires, all at once surged into his sea of consciousness.

"Mere remnants of thought, dare to bite back?" Yan Buji snorted coldly, the Extreme Desire Heart Scripture operating at full force, crushing and absorbing these desires.

But the desires were simply too many and too mixed.

Gradually, he felt his sea of consciousness begin to swell with pain, as if millions of needles were pricking it. The resentment, fear, anger... of the devoured cultivators—all negative emotions began to coalesce, forming a vague black silhouette.

"Yan Buji..." the black figure hoarsely whispered: "You feed on others' desires—do you not realize you are merely a slave to desire yourself?"

Yan Buji's mind trembled; this was the "Desire-Thoughts Heart Demon," formed from the accumulated obsessions of a hundred thousand cultivators, a tribulation he must face in cultivating the Extreme Desire Path.

"A slave?" Yan Buji sneered in his sea of consciousness: "I am the master of desire!"

He actively went to meet the black shadow, and the two clashed fiercely within his sea of consciousness; each impact sent shards of memory flying.

A white-haired old man's dying curse: "You will ultimately be devoured by your own desire..." a group of cultivators joining forces to resist, only to be mercilessly crushed by the grey mist... a young cultivator, at his final moment, crushing a transmission jade slip in resolute defiance...

These memories surged like waves, striking Yan Buji's Dao heart.

Cold sweat beaded on his forehead, and his body began to tremble slightly.

Outside, the Swallow Desire Pot trembled violently, the bloody patterns on its body flickering bright and dim. The spiritual energy inside the cave dwelling began to churn, and the formation emitted a strained humming under the overload.

At the critical moment, Yan Buji bit his tongue tip hard, the sharp pain instantly clearing his mind.