From the outside, Fallen Dragon Valley looked like a long, winding serpent deeply embedded in the earth. Its belly marked the true center of the valley.
There were two ways in.
One could descend directly from the air, or enter from the “tail tip” and explore inward step by step.
Wang Yu had long known that this place was home to Dragon Blood Vine Demons.
Naturally, he chose to start from the “tail tip,” first testing the strength of these demonic creatures. If he were to rashly push straight into the center and fall into an encirclement or a trap set by the demons, there would be nowhere to run.
Moreover, judging from the fact that even an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator had once come here and still returned empty-handed, obtaining the opportunity of this place required not only the strength to deal with danger, but also the intelligence to uncover it.
“Let’s test the waters first, Snowjade.”
The little fox noticed that she had been given more and more work lately. But when it came to battle, she could not help feeling excited. Her body rapidly expanded, transforming from a small fox into a gigantic snow fox over thirty meters long.
As her five tails danced wildly, a spherical magic treasure transformed from her life-bound demonic treasure, the Snow Fox Robe, floated between them.
A dreamy, misty blue light suddenly bloomed.
The Ice Charm Sphere, one of the five transformation forms of the demonic treasure.
This brilliantly flowing, icy beam possessed extremely strong mind-confounding properties, exerting dual influence on both spirit and body.
Simply put, it was not just a mental illusion technique.
Anyone stimulated by that beam would feel as if their body had been injected with a sedative, losing control over themselves. Used within this narrow passage, it was one method of luring hidden enemies into revealing themselves.
According to the intelligence, Dragon Blood Vine Demons excelled at ambushes.
Naturally, they had to be coaxed out first.
As the beam from the Ice Charm Sphere probed forward, only a few breaths passed before the ground suddenly trembled violently. Thick green-black vines, each as thick as a water vat, burst out from the earth and rock walls.
The most eerie part was that within the blood-red flower buds blooming at the vine tips were dragon heads made of flesh and blood. Their eyes glowed crimson as they hissed in unison at Snowjade.
They were like vine-dragons.
It was impossible to tell how long the portions buried underground truly were, yet they displayed astonishing aggression.
Streaks of blood-colored light wheels were spat out from the dragon heads.
They struck the Ice Charm Sphere and sent it flying away.
Snowjade cried out in distress.
“Master, every single vine blood dragon is at Core Formation peak.”
“I can tell.
“Use the sword form. Cut them off as close to the roots as possible. I have a use for these corpses.”
Hearing this, the Ice Charm Sphere swiftly transformed into a three-foot-long azure sword.
This sword was called the Heavenly Fox Sword. Its blade was slender, etched with blue ice patterns, looking more like a ceremonial weapon than an instrument of slaughter.
However, its power was not bad at all. The Heavenly Fox Sword qi it unleashed could take the form of a sword-qi snow fox, carrying a freezing effect. Among Core Formation cultivators, it could be considered properly accomplished.
Of course, given Snowjade’s own realm was still too low, facing so many Dragon Blood Vine Demons at once was still far too difficult, even extremely dangerous.
After observing for a short while,
Wang Yu raised his hand. The Ice Chi Pill Flame surged violently, transforming into a blazing pillar that shot out.
Although the Dragon Blood Vine Demons besieging Snowjade appeared to be third-rank peak, their methods looked as if they had been carved from the same mold.
They gave Wang Yu the impression of assembly-line products. Their attributes were all average, and they lacked demonic treasures or innate divine abilities.
In terms of combat power, they might frighten rogue cultivators, but they were not even sufficient against sect disciples, let alone Wang Yu.
Twisting his wrist, he swept the pillar of flame sideways.
The entrance of Fallen Dragon Valley was almost turned into a sea of fire. One vine after another was burned into charcoal, while vast stretches of ice crystals condensed all around.
With a single move, the Dragon Blood Vine Demons at the entrance were nearly wiped out.
Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, the tremors of the earth suddenly intensified, as if the ground itself were about to be overturned. An enormous number of vine demons surged out from underground like wriggling earthworms.
They pressed tightly against one another, making one’s scalp go numb just from looking.
Even if their individual quality was low, they were still third-rank peak. The sheer quantity was far too exaggerated. The spiritual vein grade of Fallen Dragon Valley was not high, and it was impossible for it to sustain so many demonic creatures.
Moreover, this was only the entrance. If one truly went deeper, would there be tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
Absolutely impossible.
As this thought flashed through his mind,
Wang Yu changed his hand seals. The pillar of flame transformed into an ice dragon, which hooked Snowjade, who was still slashing away, with a single claw. He then burst out of the tail tip of Fallen Dragon Valley, grabbing a few Dragon Blood Vine Demons along the way.
This brief exploration made him realize that forcing his way through was unrealistic.
He would have to return to his old specialty and operate through stealth. Only then would there be a chance to safely penetrate into the core of Fallen Dragon Valley.
After he withdrew from the entrance, the wildly thrashing Dragon Blood Vine Demons gradually calmed down.
With remarkable intelligence, they carried back all the shattered rocks and chunks of earth. From the dragon-head flower cores, streams of muddy yellow earth flowed out.
Just like that, the entrance was repaired.
It looked no different from when Wang Yu had first arrived. Even the charred corpses were all retrieved. Everything returned to calm, as if Wang Yu had never been there at all.
This behavior reminded him of two kinds of creatures.
Bees and ants.
“Could it be that these Dragon Blood Vine Demons are merely ant soldiers of some sort, with an ant-queen-like existence deeper in the nest?”
His thoughts raced.
Wang Yu carefully examined the few vines he had seized. He found no core like a demonic core, but the Dragon Blood within these plant-like fluids contained extremely rich vitality. It was even better than the Dragon Blood he had previously used when refining secret medicines, second only to the effect of a flood dragon inner core.
Moreover, it leaned more toward repairing and replenishing bodily vitality.
It was extremely suitable for extreme Body Refinement.
As the situation became clearer, Wang Yu decided to cultivate here for a period of time. He sent Snowjade off to dig out a temporary cave dwelling and continued living as a cave-dweller himself.
However, he ran into trouble right from the start.
With the body of a three-year-old child, using divine abilities in combat was fine and barely affected Wang Yu’s overall fighting strength. But when it came to tempering his physical body, things were different.
Short arms and legs aside, the opponents he faced were thick and powerful Dragonblood Vine Demons. It was extremely difficult for Wang Yu to experience the satisfying feeling of fists striking flesh. A full day of training could only be described as stifling.
Thus, Wang Yu began modifying the Demonic Dragon Fist.
He focused on condensing the qi-blood dragon manifested by the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art onto his limbs, transforming it into extensions of his body. In this way, the Mountain-Hurling Divine Strength could be fully unleashed.
Every few hours, Wang Yu would charge into Fallen Dragon Valley.
He engaged in repeated bouts of close combat with the nearly inexhaustible Dragon Blood Vine Demons. This sense of pressure, fighting countless enemies alone, was even more effective at honing his crowd-combat techniques.
When the vine demons lashed him, they left streaks of red marks across his body. They did not break the skin, but repeated strikes would still produce deep purple bruises.
At times, when bitten by the dragon-head flower buds, he would even be poisoned.
Under the condition of relying solely on physical cultivation, the deeper Wang Yu went, the greater the pressure became. Even though these vine demons were mass-produced third-rank peak existences, their raw strength was still formidable.
So many perfect sparring partners also ignited Wang Yu’s fighting spirit.
Each time, he would tear back several of the thickest Dragon Blood Vine Demons, drain their blood, and refine it into a pool of dragon-blood secret medicine to repair his bodily injuries.
Starting from the third day, his physical strength began to show slight improvements. He had fully entered the rhythm. Wang Yu then took out the Blood Fiend Crystals left over from feeding the Two Corpses and added fuel to the fire.
He drew down Lunar Fiend Qi from beyond the heavens to temper his body relentlessly.
The endlessly renewable Dragon Blood Vine Demons became his free suppliers of dragon blood. Even if a single vine could only refine one or two drops of essence blood, with such an enormous base number, he still ended up overindulging.
He could only endure lash after lash from the vines, allowing injury and cultivation technique circulation to reach a balance. Through the simple cycle of damage, repair, and strengthening, he further elevated his physical body.
During this process, the divine marrow filling his dragon spine grew increasingly condensed. The essence of this substance was, in fact, a result of Wang Yu’s own qi and blood. It was the very foundation of Body Refining cultivation.
It influenced every aspect of his physique, especially after the Heavenly Yin Blood and Corpse Demon Bones produced by the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art and the Corpse Demon Secret Technique underwent fusion reactions.
This cultivation art had been born on that very foundation.
The so-called Yin Nether Demonic Dragon was derived from these two elements. Describing it as a Corpse Dragon was not inaccurate either. If Body Refinement truly broke through to fourth-rank, this art would begin to fall short.
The optimal path forward was to complete the Corpse Demon Secret Technique to fourth-rank, using it as a guiding extension of the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art, or even to fully fuse the two, erasing any distinction between them.
As time passed, the divine marrow within the dragon spine grew ever more condensed, emitting strands of silvery light.
Body Refinement fourth-rank.
It was also known by another name, Silver-Blood Spirit Bones.
As the divine marrow turned silver, it scoured the limbs and skeleton, greatly increasing a cultivator’s total Qi and blood as if undergoing a complete blood replacement. From this arose a new realm-level phenomenon, Silver-Blood Divine Strength.
This was an advanced version of Mountain-Hurling Divine Strength.
Its most essential effect lay in an intangible “force domain” that could diffuse pure brute strength into a field.
One step could suppress a hundred miles. Two fingers could lift a towering mountain.
Every inch of the domain was equivalent to Wang Yu striking with his full power.
It enabled countless inconceivable feats, and could even be concentrated at a single point to unleash a berserk blow far exceeding the limits of the physical body. It could be called the culmination of the Body-refinement path.
The increase was even more exaggerated than before.
Moving mountains and filling seas was no longer imagination, but an accurate description.
The so-called Spirit Bones represented the second realm phenomenon. It evolved from the Vajra Body, and its full name was Immortal Bones.
From blood to bone, the ultimate goal had always been to forge an Undying Body. Strength was merely an incidental reward along this path, far from the final objective.
The Vajra Body allowed the soul to be housed within flesh.
At the initial stage, Immortal Bones could only condense a single bone. Only as the Body-Refinement realm advanced could it gradually spread throughout the entire skeleton, achieving complete evolution.
What it strengthened was vitality and the power of immortality.
Even if he were grievously injured to the point where only a skeleton remained, under the effects of the Undying Bone, flesh and blood could regenerate, allowing him to return to peak condition.
Its effect was extremely similar to the Corpse Demon Secret Technique, making Wang Yu suspect that this technique might have been created by Old Man Heavenly Crippled by using a fourth-rank Body Refining method as a reference.
From this perspective, the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art did indeed possess a viable path. By integrating the Corpse Demon Secret Technique, it could be deduced and advanced into a fourth-rank Body Refining cultivation method.
For now, Wang Yu was only thinking about it. To truly achieve that, he would first need to complete the Corpse Demon Secret Technique up to the fourth rank. He found the current Idle Slot progress far too slow, with poor cost-performance.
Thus, he decided to wait until after breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage before placing it again.
At that time, his life level would undergo another evolution, bringing comprehensive improvements to his foundational attributes. The Idle Slot duration would naturally be reduced by a large margin.
The abilities of fourth-rank Body Refinement, whether it was Silver Blood Divine Power or Undying Bone, were irresistibly tempting. They were like a carrot dangling before Wang Yu, driving him to keep pushing forward.
He could see it, almost touch it.
As long as he worked hard enough, he could truly sink his teeth into it. This powerful feedback stimulated Wang Yu to train even harder. At all times, scenes of that childlike body ferociously battling countless dragon-blood vine demons played vividly in his mind.
In the blink of an eye, a year passed.
Frequent injuries sustained in battle caused Wang Yu’s physical strength to rise rapidly, soon reaching the new limit opened up by the Innate Demonic Embryo.
Fallen Dragon Valley was truly a treasured land for Wang Yu’s cultivation. It was perfectly compatible with the Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art.
At the same time, the tempering of constant combat also affected his mana. Although he had slowed down his consumption of Human Core pills, after a year, his mana still surged to eight thousand strands.
Mana that should have become unstable was forcibly hammered back into solidity by him. His Qi sea gradually filled, already extremely close to the peak of the ninth layer of Core Formation.
On this day, Wang Yu briefly left Fallen Dragon Valley to retrieve messages sent by Wang Zhenghong and the others. Cultivation was important, but staying informed about external developments was equally necessary.
Otherwise, he might be swept into some major event without warning.
Over the past year, the Blood Reversal Sect had sent two pieces of intelligence to Maple Prefecture, both related to battlefields in the eastern and southern directions.
The southern battlefield was too far from Maple Prefecture. The reports only mentioned some battle results and completely avoided discussing failures. Every single piece of news was overwhelmingly positive.
For example, a certain Nascent Soul ancestor of the Joyous Union Demonic Sect who was famous throughout the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain had been defeated by the Exalted Sect, with large amounts of lost territory reclaimed. Or how some special strike teams had achieved merit.
As for truly useful information such as confirmed kill counts, there was none at all.
This easily led to unfavorable speculation. If no heavyweight figures were being eliminated, then the situation was being dragged out. The longer it dragged on, the worse it would be for the Blood Reversal Sect.
The eastern battlefield involved the Yellow Springs Monastery. The main combat zone lay in Cloud Ridge Prefecture.
That was the region of the newly established Chasing Moon Prefecture, where the struggle revolved around the ruins of Eastern Extreme Capital. Jade Spirit City, where Wang Yu had been removed from the position of city lord, also lay at the center of this battlefield.
This area was very close to Maple Prefecture. As such, the Exalted Sect had issued arrangements, ordering Maple Prefecture City to dispatch patrol teams and strictly guard the border regions.
Anyone daring to cross the boundary was to be killed on sight.
However, orders were one thing. Whether they could be implemented effectively was another matter entirely. Given the bloated administrative structure of Maple Prefecture City, its efficiency could be completely ignored.
They lacked a commander capable of making decisive judgments.
Naturally, the Exalted Sect had considered this as well. It was stated that Black Heaven Talisman Lord and the Earth Barbarian Old Demon of Barbarian Ghost Peak would be dispatched together to take charge of the overall situation.
This made it clear that the eastern battlefield was also far from optimistic.
The lightning-war strategy had failed, and tactics had to be adjusted. In particular, defenses along the Northern Severed Boundary Mountains had to be reinforced, with additional manpower assigned to every pass.
The two cultivators being sent to Maple Prefecture were both Nascent Soul cultivators at the third layer.
Black Heaven Talisman Lord needed no explanation. The Earth Barbarian Old Demon was also from the Zhuo clan’s main lineage, seemingly indicating that the Ghost Fang Zhuo clan was making its move.
But to Wang Yu, the key point was this.
If Black Heaven Talisman Lord was coming to Maple Prefecture, then where was Nine Evil Sword Lord?
This was something that absolutely could not be ignored.
“I need to speed things up.”
Coincidentally, the upper limit opened by the Innate Demonic Embryo had already been refilled by him. His physical body was now several levels stronger than before, and the silver threads within his divine marrow had grown increasingly numerous.
This gave him the impulse to break through directly.
But after thinking it through carefully, it was still better to first seize the opportunities within Fallen Dragon Valley. With breakthrough spiritual items, the success rate would be much higher, and even in failure, his life would be preserved.
When one was weak, taking risks was unavoidable.
Once strong enough, with the capital to increase success rates, there was no reason not to use it.
“Snowjade, back into the Human-Seed Pouch.”
“Coming.”
