Chapter 978: Heart Desire Unity

He cautiously cast a few detection spells, confirming there were no traps, then approached gingerly. Just as he bent down to gather, an anomaly suddenly erupted!

The blue flame suddenly surged, turning into gray mist that enveloped him. The purple‑robed elder reacted swiftly, instantly summoning a bronze Alchemical Furnace to shield his whole body, while twelve talismans flew from his sleeve, forming a defensive array.

"What rat‑like scum dares to ambush me?!" the elder roared.

A light laugh came from the mist: "The Dan Ding Sect's 'Azure Profound Furnace' truly lives up to its name."

The mist condensed, revealing Yan Buji's figure. He dropped his disguise, and the pressure of his mid‑stage Unified Dao unleashed without reservation.

The purple‑robed elder's pupils narrowed: "Gray‑mist Yanluo!" He immediately crushed a jade pendant at his waist, a golden light shot skyward, but was halted by an invisible barrier at a hundred meters altitude.

"Useless, this sea region has already been sealed by me." Yan Buji said calmly, "Surrender your desire, and I can give you a swift end."

"Arrogant!" the purple‑robed elder shouted, and the Azure Profound Furnace suddenly reversed, spewing a towering blaze.

That was no ordinary flame, but "Samadhi True Fire", which specifically eradicates evil spirits.

The gray mist hissed in the flames, indeed being suppressed a bit. Yan Buji frowned slightly; he hadn't expected the opponent's Samadhi True Fire to be so pure.

"You've got some skill." He sneered, and the Swallow Desire Pot floated up from above his head, its mouth aimed at the elder: "Too bad…"

Dark golden patterns on the pot's body flared brightly, a terrifying suction burst forth.

The purple‑robed elder was horrified to discover that his millennia‑long cultivated "Dan Fire" was uncontrollably surging toward the pot's mouth!

"No!" the elder's eyes widened to the brink of tearing; this Dan Fire was intertwined with his life, and if taken, his cultivation would plummet.

He gritted his teeth and pressed a seal, the Azure Profound Furnace detonated with a roar, and using the explosion's force he barely escaped.

"Trying to run?" Yan Buji's form flickered, already blocking the elder's path.

The purple‑robed elder showed despair, then suddenly sneered, "Let's die together!"

A dazzling red light ignited in his dantian, as if he intended to self‑detonate his Primordial Spirit!

Yan Buji's complexion shifted slightly, and he hurriedly activated the Swallow Desire Pot. Its mouth instantly expanded, swallowing the elder whole. The pot's body shook violently, its surface sprouting countless protrusions, as if something inside was rampaging.

"Hm!" Yan Buji formed seals with both hands, exerting full suppression.

After an hour, the Swallow Desire Pot finally calmed. Sweat dotted Yan Buji's forehead; this battle was far tougher than he had expected. Yet the gain was enormous—a desire of a Dan cultivator at the Unified Dao phase, equivalent to a hundred Nascent Soul Cultivators.

Just as he prepared to inspect the Swallow Desire Pot, the pot's body suddenly rotated on its own, the lid opening a slight crack, and a wisp of purple‑gold mist drifted out, coalescing before him into a phantom of the purple‑robed elder.

"You… will eventually… be devoured by desire…" the phantom emitted a broken, intermittent voice, then faded.

Yan Buji's heart jolted. This wasn't ordinary residual desire, but a self‑released emission from the Swallow Desire Pot! He quickly looked inward at the pot's interior and found that deep within its space, an unknown cluster of purple‑gold mist had formed, slowly rotating, like a nascent… core.

"Interesting." Yan Buji narrowed his eyes, "Are you also evolving?"

Returning to his temporary cave‑hall, Yan Buji laid heavy seals, preparing to refine this harvest. When he probed the Swallow Desire Pot with his divine sense, an anomaly erupted!

The purple‑gold mist suddenly expanded, pulling his entire divine sense into a bizarre space. There was no sky nor ground, only countless floating memory fragments.

Each fragment contained the dying memories of a devoured cultivator. One hundred thousand cultivators, one hundred thousand pieces of despair, all exploding simultaneously here!

"Return my life!"

"You demon!"

"Even as a ghost I won't let you go!"

A mournful howl rose from all directions. Yan Buji felt his sea of consciousness sear, as if ten‑thousands of red‑hot iron needles were piercing him. Worse, those memories began to mingle with his own…

Who am I?

I am the young female cultivator pierced by gray mist… I am the Dan Ding elder who failed to self‑detonate…

I am… Yan Buji?

Amidst Chaos, a clear footstep sounded.

Yan Buji strained to look up, seeing a person identical to himself standing before him.

"Are you lost?" the inner demon Yan Buji smiled and asked.

Yan Buji stared coldly at the counterpart, sneering.

The inner demon crouched, meeting his gaze: "The Extreme Desire Path—are you the one who masters desire, or is desire mastering you? Look at your Swallow Desire Pot; it has already begun to develop its own consciousness. Soon, you will become a vessel of desire, not its master."

Those words rang like thunder. Yan Buji suddenly realized that in recent battles, the Swallow Desire Pot had indeed become more 'active', sometimes attacking on its own without his prompting.

"No…" Yan Buji said calmly, "I am desire itself; how can I be mastered?"

The inner demon laughed loudly: "Well said! Then prove it to me."

The space shifted, and Yan Buji found himself standing in a sea of blood, countless corpses floating beneath his feet. Each corpse stared unblinking at him.

"Absorb them, or be devoured by them." The inner demon's voice echoed from above.

Yan Buji inhaled deeply, seated in the center of the blood sea, and began to circulate the Extreme Desire Heart Sutra. This time, he did not brutally crush these desires, but let them flow into his body, refining them drop by drop.

The pain was a hundred times stronger than before, yet he remained unmoved. Gradually, the blood sea began to swirl, forming a massive vortex, with him at its core…

"You know it." The inner demon's voice came: "Heart Desire Unity, you are I, I am you."

"Awaken!"

When the last drop of blood was refined, Yan Buji snapped his eyes open, finding himself back in reality.

The Swallow Desire Pot hovered silently before him, its dark‑gold patterns now turned purple‑gold, emitting an eerie glow.

More astonishing, his cultivation had directly leapt to the peak of the mid‑stage Unified Dao!

"So that's how it is…" Yan Buji lightly stroked the pot, enlightenment flashing in his eyes: "The true meaning of the Extreme Desire Path is not to suppress desire, but to embrace it, becoming it."

The Swallow Desire Pot quivered slightly, as if responding to his words.

Yan Buji suddenly laughed: "You want to grow? Fine, I'll give you more nourishment."

At this moment, Yan Buji's insight on the Desire Avenue surged forward dramatically, seemingly because the inner demon's appearance actually triggered a fundamental transformation in him, a mastery over the Extreme Desire Path…

Soon to ascend to the realm of becoming a Dao!

The Swallow Desire Pot is the primordial essence he uses to command the Desire Avenue!

He stood, lifted the cave‑hall seals, and the silhouette of another cultivation island flickered faintly on the distant sea horizon.

Gray mist churned, and the hunters set out again.