Chapter 739: Refining the Five Extremes Divine Light!

Broadly cultivate spells to accumulate magical power.

Li Yuan strictly adhered to his cultivation plan, devoting only a fraction of his attention to his shadow demon avatar while immersing the vast majority of his consciousness in cultivation.

The more dangerous the situation below the mountain became, the firmer his resolve for cultivation grew.

Relying on the Five Extremes Great Sutra to control objects, Li Yuan's progress, while not covering a thousand li in a day, certainly covered ten li daily.

In the third year after forging his Golden Core, the realms of the five Great Sutras he cultivated all advanced to the fourth level simultaneously and began progressing toward the fifth.

For ordinary cultivators, even for the true disciples of Mount Dongxuan Mountain throughout the ages, comprehending the Great Sutras was an extremely difficult task; their own cultivation realms were mostly higher than the levels of the Great Sutras they had mastered.

Take Qi Yun, for instance; hundreds of years after reaching the peak of the fifth realm, he had only just managed to cultivate the Green Emperor Longevity Sutra to the peak of its fifth level.

"Exhale!"

"Inhale!"

On the Qi Gathering Platform, Li Yuan closed his eyes and entered meditation while a host of Dao soldiers guarded outside, slaughtering demons attracted by incense offerings and skillfully skinning and dismembering them.

After forging his Golden Core, Li Yuan accelerated his demon-refining progress; whenever he practiced his arts daily, he would burn vast quantities of incense to lure more fourth-realm demons.

Incense is the convergence of the mental power of all living beings and holds great utility for creatures across the realms of Return to Void; thus, even fourth-realm demons, who already possess spiritual intelligence, are occasionally lured by it.

"Hmm?"

In an instant, Li Yuan opened his eyes as if sensing something.

A beam of divine light interwoven with five colors shot forth from between his eyebrows; with a sharp "hiss," a ferocious ape demon in the void was slain and fell to the ground.

"Roar~"

The ape demon roared in pain and fury, repelling the numerous Dao soldiers rushing to kill it, before ferociously lunging at Li Yuan.

But immediately afterward, it was pinned dead to the ground by the five-colored divine light that had reversed its flow.

"A Great Strength Ape Demon?"

Li Yuan expressed some surprise.

After this ape demon died, its body expanded to a hundred zhang in size; its aura was incredibly ferocious, indicating it was no ordinary ape demon but a rather rare Great Strength Ape Demon.

In the Demon Realm, demons are classified into upper and lower nine grades based on their potential; the Great Strength Ape Demon falls into the upper-middle grade, making it far more precious than ordinary fourth-realm demons.

"Quite lucky."

Raising his hand, Li Yuan drew the Great Strength Ape Demon into his Divine Realm and followed it inside.

The essence of a demon lies in its divine runes; as demons devour one another to advance, their essential divine runes continuously combine, and the fourth realm represents a critical threshold for them.

Any fourth-realm demon must have devoured a large number of other demons, meaning its essential divine runes must be capable of nurturing a relatively complete prohibition of a divine ability.

"Hum~"

On the Soldier-Nurturing Island, Jiu Ying, sensing something, opened the divine furnace; with a loud "bang," the Great Strength Ape Demon fell into the Fire Phoenix Furnace.

Having refined demons for nearly thirty years, the Fire Phoenix Furnace had undergone multiple transformations; classified by spiritual treasures, it was now nearly at the level of a divine treasure, capable of refining a fourth-realm demon in mere moments.

However, this Great Strength Ape Demon took a full half-hour to refine.

"Bang!"

When the divine furnace opened, a beam of gray light shot out; as if possessing spiritual intelligence, it tried to rush beyond the Divine Realm, but after being knocked down by Jiu Ying's tail swipe, it attempted to burrow into the earth instead.

"Indeed, it is very complete."

Li Yuan raised his hand to seize the gray light in his palm; focusing his mind slightly, he sensed it contained no fewer than tens of thousands of divine runes.

Although the vast majority were scattered and chaotic, within them lay a rather complete divine prohibition that faintly revealed an ape-like form.

"Roar~"

As if sensing Li Yuan's gaze, this divine prohibition actually emitted a threatening low growl.

"No wonder it is an upper-middle grade demon; the complexity of this divine prohibition is no less than that of a top-tier spell. Had I not killed it, this Great Strength Ape Demon might truly have nurtured a divine ability before reaching the fifth realm!"

Li Yuan clicked his tongue in wonder.

For cultivators, demons below the fourth realm pose no threat whatsoever, simply because their fragmented prohibitions cannot compare to a cultivator's spells.

However, starting from the fourth realm, things change; demons of the upper three grades can nurture a divine ability upon reaching the fourth realm, and these abilities are often extremely ferocious.

For instance, the "Five Declines of Heaven and Man" mentioned by Daoist Master Fufa.

This extremely bizarre great divine ability was initially forged by Daoist Wushuai when he was at the fourth realm.

"The quality is not bad."

After examining it for a moment, Li Yuan summoned a fourth-realm Skeleton Human Demon, flicked his finger to implant this divine rune into the latter's body, and then slapped it into the Fire Phoenix Furnace.

"Ignite the fire."

Receiving the order, Jiu Ying puffed out his nine cheeks and blew wildly, instantly engulfing the Skeleton Human Demon in flames.

Dao soldiers also need to be nurtured.

The most rudimentary Dao soldiers usually possess only three types of divine prohibitions and have limited power; for Li Yuan's Skeleton Human Demon soldiers, it takes over a hundred forming an array to fight a cultivator of the same realm.

But theoretically, a perfectly nurtured top-tier Dao soldier can match, or even kill, a cultivator of the same realm!

"It is said that before Daoist Baigu attained the Dao, the one hundred and eight Skeleton Human Demons he meticulously cultivated could each match a cultivator of the same rank, and when forming a great array, they could even resist cultivators one realm higher..."

Watching the Skeleton Human Demon roaring incessantly within the furnace, Li Yuan felt a sense of anticipation.

In his plan, magical power and spells came first, followed by spiritual plants and his innate treasure, with Dao soldiers last; but now that he had forged the Great Elixir, it was time to nurture Dao soldiers.

For many cultivators above the fourth realm, Dao soldiers are even more important than spiritual treasures, especially for those with substantial resources.

Simply put, Dao soldiers do not require the cultivator to expend additional magical power.

Furthermore, once a cultivator forges their Dharma Realm, they must begin exploring strange lands and even otherworldly dimensions; only in this way can the Dharma Realm rapidly expand to perfection.

Among the various methods for attacking strange lands, Dao soldiers are the most common.

"Roar!"

After about half an hour, accompanied by a low growl, the Skeleton Human Demon leaped out.

Normally, a fourth-realm Skeleton Human Demon has a silvery-white body, with internal divine prohibitions resembling meridians and blood vessels, showing faint signs of flesh beginning to grow.

At this moment, within the silver-white skeleton of that human demon, a faint layer of ash-black had stained through, and one could dimly see intricate divine prohibitions flowing, with the shadow of an ape demon flashing past from time to time.

"Roar!"

Li Yuan's mind stirred, and the Longhu Longhu Dandan he had been breathing in and out, absorbing killing intent to nourish himself, let out a howl and lunged at that white-boned human demon.

"Bang!"

That human demon pushed off with its feet, and with a tremendous crash it had already leapt from the ground, soaring into the air, its speed no less than that of an ordinary fourth-realm cultivator.

But it was still not as fast as the Longhu Longhu Dandan.

This mind-ape could wield all the spells Li Yuan had learned, and operate them as if by instinct; in a single bound, with various Dun Fa augmenting it, it arrived later but struck first, shattering that human demon with a single punch.