The Dragon Blood Vine Demons on the outer perimeter still provided some tempering effect for him, but it was no longer worth remaining here to cultivate in seclusion.
If Black Heaven Talisman Lord were to arrive in Maple Prefecture, the Ice Demon Child’s identity would be exposed right under his nose. Fortunately, this identity was regarded by the world as that of an old Nascent Soul monster.
Although he also cultivated the ice path, he was notoriously fond of the Human Pill Art.
He was widely believed to be a rogue cultivator who had emerged from the territory of the Heaven Refining Demonic Sect. After all, that sect’s most famous maxim was… refining people, refining demons, and refining heaven itself.
They claimed that all things under heaven could be refined.
The traits shared between the Ice Demon Child and Wang Yu’s true body were only partially similar, and the probability of anyone seeing through it was genuinely very low.
After deciding to go deep into Fallen Dragon Valley, he simultaneously activated the Ice Transformation Secret Technique and an invisibility technique. Diving directly from high altitude could allow him to reach the core of the valley in one breath, but it would be difficult to ascertain the situation underground.
Thus, Wang Yu chose the main route he had explored countless times over the past year, advancing from the entrance at the tip of the dragon’s tail. At worst, it was just a bit slower.
But it was far safer.
Stealth and concealment techniques had always been his specialty. He might still have shortcomings in other areas, but when it came to infiltration, he was absolutely at a master level.
In this way, maintaining a low-altitude hovering state with his feet never touching the ground, he slowly advanced deeper into Fallen Dragon Valley. His divine sense transformed into strands of silk that probed underground. He could not recall which ancient text he had seen it in, but there was a saying.
Of all treasures, ninety percent were buried underground.
Fallen Dragon Valley fit this description perfectly. With divine sense clearing the way and his familiarity with this route, it took him only a little over half a day to reach the middle section of the valley.
Near the abdominal region.
This was the core area. The space was slightly broader than the outer regions, but still far from vast. The valley interior was utterly desolate, with not a blade of grass growing.
The soil was also of the hardened, near-sandified slab variety.
When his divine sense penetrated more than twenty meters underground, Wang Yu was shocked. Countless Dragon Blood Vine Demons were intertwined beneath the surface, writhing endlessly like a ball of mating serpents.
They formed an enormous underground vine layer.
It was also like a subterranean forest.
At first, Wang Yu had thought that the opportunity mentioned by Blood Axe might be something like the core of a fourth-rank Dragon-blood Vine Demon, or perhaps an existence akin to an ant queen.
But this bizarre sight made Wang Yu think of an ancient demonic entity.
The Dragon-Blood Demonic Tree.
Fallen Dragon Valley already had legends claiming that a top-tier dragon beast had once perished here. The emergence of a species like the Dragon-Blood Demon Tree was hardly surprising.
This type of demon, a single tree was a forest unto itself.
Those Dragon Blood Vine Demons were very likely just subsidiary offshoots separated from the main body, drawing nourishment from the earth veins and continuously growing. Because the main body was far too powerful, the offshoots could not develop into full tree forms.
However, they could continue to divide endlessly, until reaching the carrying limit of the earth vein they were rooted in. Since it was a demonic tree, it naturally fed on flesh.
When the main body could not move, these vine demons served as its predatory tentacles. That was why they appeared to be mass-produced third-rank peak existences. In essence, they were still part of the Dragon-Blood Demonic Tree.
From this, one could infer the strength of the main body. Early fourth-rank might not even be sufficient. There was a very high probability that it was a mid fourth-rank demon tree. Although this thing was indeed an opportunity, with Wang Yu’s current strength, it would be extremely difficult to defeat it, let alone seize this opportunity. No wonder even early Nascent Soul cultivators mentioned in the intelligence had retreated.
Fighting on the opponent’s home ground put him at an enormous disadvantage.
He even began to feel a hint of retreat.
“The Dragon-Blood Demonic Tree is rooted in the earth veins and is almost incapable of movement. Against this kind of stationary target, perhaps other methods can be tried.”
Murmuring to himself, Wang Yu rapidly rose in altitude.
Among the methods he possessed, the Ice Chi Pill Flame held the greatest advantage against the Dragon-Blood Demonic Tree. Fire restrained wood. If he could completely ignite Fallen Dragon Valley, then fighting in such an environment would greatly suppress the opponent. At that point, using the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppets to strike would further increase his chances of success.
To achieve this, however, he would need to think carefully.
His mana might not be sufficient, and he also could not instantly spread the Ice Chi Pill Flame across the entire Fallen Dragon Valley. If he gave the Dragon-Blood Demon Tree an opening, allowing it time to pull its roots out of the earth veins, it would transform from a target into a hunter, becoming extremely troublesome.
After leaving Fallen Dragon Valley, Wang Yu began rummaging through the storage rings of the several hundred Core Formation cultivators he had hunted in recent times. Although these cultivators were unimpressive individually, their combined wealth had still added a considerable amount of spirit stones to his reserves.
There were even more assorted spiritual items and magic treasures.
He now selected and categorized them one by one.
Using the Ice Chi Pill Flame, he melted down portions of various life-bound magic treasures, refining and restoring them into certain equipment treasure liquids, then fused them with some spiritual items.
Around the core region of Fallen Dragon Valley, Wang Yu used this composite spiritual liquid as ink and began laying out an extraordinary feng shui formation.
Among the four volumes of the Earth Mother Scripture, the Feng Shui Secret Arts Profound Chapter, the Golden Vision of Qi Observation Chapter, and the Dragon-Restraining and Vein-Fixing Detailed Explanation could all play crucial roles in this operation.
The Golden Vision of Qi Observation could observe the flow of earth veins.
The Feng Shui Secret Arts Profound Chapter could be used to arrange extraordinary feng shui formations.
The Dragon-Restraining and Vein-Fixing Detailed Explanation could help Wang Yu sever the connection between the Dragon-Blood Demonic Tree and the earth veins, cutting off its ability to draw earth-vein qi to resist the Ice Chi Pill Flame.
Such intricate knowledge was something Wang Yu would have found very difficult to apply in the past.
But he had possessed the Earth Mother Scripture for quite some time now. Although he did not study it frequently, his comprehension had steadily improved, and he had nearly reached the minor accomplishment stage in all of it.
When sparing no expense to scheme against a stationary target, he still had some measure of confidence.
If one could look down from high above, one would see the massive feng shui formation Wang Yu had laid out, enveloping the entirety of Fallen Dragon Valley. The cost was immense.
The core area was even more complex and mysterious.
Earth Masters inheritances had always been closely intertwined with formation arts, and thus were sometimes referred to as feng shui formation masters. However, the path they walked was an unconventional one, favoring the bizarre and the unorthodox.
They completely borrowed the power of mountains and rivers, requiring a certain period of accumulation before their effects could manifest. Unlike standard formations, which could unleash their full power the moment they were set.
At one key location after another, he separated portions of the Ice Chi Pill Flame to serve as formation nodes. Wang Yu set up a total of three hundred and sixty such explosive points.
All of his recent battle spoils were poured into this endeavor.
Thus, Several months after the feng shui grand formation took shape.
“This is the decisive moment.”
Taking the initiative to attack the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree carried enormous risk, but pressure from external circumstances left him no choice but to do so.
If he could use this opportunity to break through to fourth-rank Body Refinement, his confidence in entering the Endless Ice Plains would increase significantly. That place was a top-tier death zone, and without sufficient methods, long-term survival there was nearly impossible.
This time, he no longer cared about alerting the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree’s main body.
Wang Yu charged straight in from the air. Upon reaching the skies above Fallen Dragon Valley, he unleashed a Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal directly toward the core region. This was the first time he had driven this divine ability at full power since perfecting it.
As mana surged, a turbid yellow palm imprint nearly a thousand meters in size took form.
It slammed down violently.
In an instant, the already fragile ground completely collapsed. Countless vines erupted and writhed wildly, like the legendary Heaven-Piercing World Tree, stabbing straight toward the sky.
These vine-like demonic branches condensed into massive pillars and forcibly shattered the Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal, then continued extending toward Wang Yu’s true body at terrifying speed.
The Yellow Springs Demonic Sword shot out from his Qi sea, sword fiend qi raging.
Infused with Asura slaughter intent, it transformed into a massive crimson-yellow sword. Like cutting tofu, it shredded the entwined vine bodies into fragments. In an instant, black-green chunks of stems rained down across the sky.
Dragonblood splashed everywhere, falling like a rain of blood.
Wang Yu had always despised waste. The Lunar Yin Fiend-Nurturing Coffin opened in the distance, drawing in all the blood to be preserved as material for nurturing corpses.
After more than a dozen breaths, the Dragonblood Demonic Tree finally stirred awake.
The earth split apart as a colossal tree rose from the depths. Its trunk exceeded five hundred meters in diameter, and its canopy blotted out the sky.
Its form resembled a banyan tree. Vine-like subsidiary bodies hung down from the crown, while dragon-headed flower cores spat streaks of blood-red light toward Wang Yu.
On the main trunk itself grew a total of nine wooden dragon heads.
They launched their attacks simultaneously.
“Mid-stage fourth-rank!”
At this moment, Wang Yu fully confirmed the opponent’s strength.
With a wave of his hand, the still battered and incomplete Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet appeared before him. This thing was difficult to refine and even slower to repair, and every use consumed tremendous resources.
But its combat power was undeniably formidable.
Yellow Springs Calamitous World Spear!
Both arms detached from its body, transforming into two bone spears. One took an oblique angle and stabbed directly toward the Dragonblood Tree Demon’s main body. The other spun into a flurry of spear shadows, with turbid Yellow Springs currents flowing along the shaft.
All the blood-red light pillars were swallowed whole.
With each battle, Wang Yu’s control over the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet grew more refined. This level of coordination would have been impossible in the past.
At the same time, Wang Yu tossed the feng shui disk into the air. It instantly linked with the feng shui grand formation that had been accumulating power for months, temporarily severing the earth-vein energy outside Fallen Dragon Valley.
Hundreds of pale-white fire pillars roared skyward.
Ice Chi Pillar Flames!
The accumulated power of mountains, rivers, heaven and earth energy drove the Ice Chi Pillar Flames to their limit. A sea of fire instantly engulfed the entire Fallen Dragon Valley, with the central region receiving focused bombardment.
It looked like ice sealing a thousand miles, yet in reality it burned so fiercely that the Dragonblood Demonic Tree wailed in agony. Its subsidiary clone bodies were nearly wiped out in a single blaze.
With earth-vein energy cut off, the Dragonblood Demon Tree lost its greatest endurance advantage. Under the dual suppression of extreme cold and extreme heat, the power it could unleash was drastically reduced.
Even so, it was still not to be underestimated.
A head-on clash followed.
When the Yellow Springs Calamitous World Spear struck the trunk, a shrill metallic clang rang out. The trunk merely caved in slightly before being bitten off by a wooden dragon head extending outward.
Nine wooden dragon heads moved as if nine true wooden dragons had grown.
Some charged toward the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet. Some lunged at Wang Yu himself. Others went after the second Calamitous World Spear.
Wang Yu’s expression changed slightly.
“Yellow Springs Bone-Burial Curse Sword!”
One of the Earth Resentment Puppet’s most powerful techniques. Using the spine of a Yellow Springs demonic skeleton as a sword, it swept outward. The explosive roar shattered the air itself, along with three wooden dragons.
The Ice Chi Pillar Flames filling the valley responded to Wang Yu’s control.
Through the Ice Dragon Technique, they transformed into blazing Ice Chi Flame Dragons. The remaining six wooden dragons were incinerated, frozen solid, and shattered into fragments that littered the ground.
It appeared he had gained the upper hand.
Yet the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree possessed terrifying vitality. From the severed trunk, nine lush wooden dragons regenerated in only half a breath.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion rang out. The wooden dragons’ speed surged abruptly, slamming the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet deep into the mountainside. Blood-red light pillars mixed with emerald spiritual radiance swept over again.
Even though Wang Yu used the aurora escape technique to evade, he failed to avoid it completely.
He too smashed into the ground. Fine spiderweb cracks spread outward. Amid the billowing dust, Wang Yu wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and unleashed the Soul-Extinguishing Death Ray.
As the gray death ray fired, the Immobilization Mirror shot into the air.
Under their combined effect, even the Dragon Blood Demon Tree stiffened for an instant. Seizing this opportunity, countless black ice chains burning with Ice Chi Pillar Flames wrapped around the trunk.
Divine-Binding Chain curse patterns spread rapidly.
The Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet also rose into the air, its movements manifesting the phantom form of a Yellow Springs River as it swept violently toward the Dragon Blood Demon Tree.
Buzz.
Emerald spiritual light erupted once more, but this time it focused inward on the demon tree itself. A demonic eye nearly three zhang long opened on the trunk.
Its gaze swept outward.
All the ice chains shattered in an instant. The Yellow Springs River manifested countless branching phantoms, only to be forcibly crushed and detonated.
Wang Yu immediately sensed danger.
The Illusory Mist Ice Mirror rose before him, absorbing the entirety of that bizarre, imposed eye-curse technique. Before it could rebound the effect, it exploded in place, giving birth to a Dragon Blood Vine Demon.
Combining parasitism with curse-casting.
This was undoubtedly some form of bloodline divine ability.
“Too strong.”
Even after being weakened, the power displayed by the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree caused Wang Yu to suffer repeated setbacks. He could not even truly inflict heavy damage upon it.
Its mid fourth-rank strength was evident.
There was no visible hope of victory.
When he saw the vine demon that had just grown be instantly incinerated by the rapidly charging Ice Chi Pill Flame, Wang Yu realized that if he truly wanted to kill the Dragon Blood Tree Demon, everything depended on this fourth-rank spiritual flame.
Its innate attributes determined that even if it was one minor realm lower than the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree, it could still suppress it.
With a thought, he recalled the puppet to his side.
Second round. Begin.
This time, Wang Yu no longer provided direct support.
He let the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet entangle the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree, while his true body ascended into the sky and descended into a greatly enlarged Feng Shui Disk. This item was equivalent to a Earth Master’s life-bound magic treasure.
He intended to attempt the feng shui secret arts recorded in the Earth Mother Profound Chapter.
Reverse the Five Elements.
Compress the Wood element of this land to the extreme, elevating the status of the Fire element. Such manipulation naturally received the aid of heaven and earth. This was precisely what made feng shui esoteric arts so mysterious.
Human power altering earth power, reversing the auspices and inauspices of heaven’s timing.
As mana was poured in, one profound golden rune after another flew out from the Feng Shui Disk, escaping into the Five Directions and Five Elements.
Wang Yu forced streams of essence blood from his five fingers and flung them onto the formation disk.
Then he drove them in violently.
As if twisting a mechanical lock, the terrain of Fallen Dragon Valley was forcibly altered. The Wood element was suppressed to its nadir, while the Fire element surged to its extreme position. Instantly, boundless Fire-element spiritual activity began to converge between heaven and earth.
The Ice Chi Pill Flame seemed as though it had swallowed a supreme tonic.
The flames surged violently, leaping more than ten feet high.
The core region was completely enveloped in pale-white fire. The Dragon Blood Demonic Tree trembled violently. Its canopy, which had once blotted out the sky, became nothing more than a breeding ground for flames.
Its vitality was rapidly weakening.
This in turn reduced its recovery speed. At this moment, the previously suppressed Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet suddenly surged with power, wielding the Bone-Burial Curse Sword and slashing repeatedly, severing the now-fragile wooden dragons one after another.
Leaping forward, the skeletal greatsword plunged directly into the demonic tree’s trunk, causing it to erupt in a torrent of blood.
Thick, crimson dragon blood sprayed forth like a fountain.
Seeing the successful breakthrough, Wang Yu once again activated the feng shui secret art, suppressing four of the Five Elements’ statuses and allowing only Fire to reign supreme. This further weakened the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree.
However, Wang Yu himself also suffered considerable backlash.
His small face turned deathly pale.
Feng Shui Arts carried side effects. Otherwise, they would not be called arcane arts. Human strength had its limits. One could not overturn the structure of all things without paying a price.
Wang Yu had long been mentally prepared for this.
Even ominous consequences in old age were still far off.
He had finally seized the advantage.
Minor internal injuries were not enough to make Wang Yu stop. The Feng Shui Compass Disk emitted creaking sounds, as if it had reached its load limit.
The astral orbit instrument atop it began to rotate.
Once more using essence blood as a catalyst, Wang Yu invoked the power of one of the celestial stars of the Great Cycle, Yinghuo, projecting it downward.
With this, the advantage was completely stabilized.
Heavenly timing and geographical advantage were both secured. The Ice Chi Pill Flame erupted with power far more terrifying than when Wang Yu personally drove it. It was as though it had finally been allowed to demonstrate its full strength.
At this point, only one final factor remained to determine victory.
Human harmony.
On the battlefield.
Under the sweeping firestorm, the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree’s roots snapped on a massive scale. It had torn them free itself. Although plant demons found it difficult to awaken spiritual intelligence, they still possessed instincts to seek benefit and avoid harm. The environmental damage was too severe, driving it to desperately attempt to flee the soil it had inhabited for countless years.
How could Wang Yu allow that.
With a mental command, the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet erupted into action, swinging the Bone-Burial Curse Sword like a massive club and smashing downward, forcibly battering the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree back into the crater.
At this moment, the Ice Binding Divine Chain Curse layered with the Ice Chi Pill Flame was unleashed once more, making the demonic tree’s struggles even more labored.
The Yellow Springs Hand Seals executed by the puppet grew even more powerful. That sensation of annihilating all techniques completely tore through the demonic tree’s resilient bark, ripping chunks of its body apart.
After suffering a second heavy blow, the demonic tree crashed to the ground.
Through the exposed wound,
Wang Yu’s eyes suddenly blazed with light. He saw what the opportunity pointed toward.
“Demonic Dragon Tree Heart?!”
This was undoubtedly the spiritual item that could help him break through realms. That surging vitality and refined dragon blood essence could allow him to take the most critical step.
The opportunity Blood Axe had spoken of was very likely this.
As an ancient demonic tree spirit, it had lived for untold ages to finally nurture a Demonic Dragon Tree Heart.
“Blood Axe truly thinks highly of me, to point me toward such an opportunity. If I could not defeat it, would I not have simply become the demonic tree’s nourishment?”
Viewing this as a trial made far more sense.
When the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet had emerged back then, Blood Axe should have known. After all, that trump card had been refined by Wang Yu within the Blood Abyss.
By the same logic, if he won, it would prove that he possessed the qualifications to sit at the table. Wang Yu estimated that if he were to come to Fallen Dragon Valley after condensing a Nascent Soul, then with his own strength combined with the puppet, defeating the demonic tree would not be difficult. The suppressive power of the Ice Chi Pill Flame was extremely strong.
But if he came here first, the difficulty was hell-tier.
Only through clever exploitation could it be completed. Against other Nascent Soul cultivators or shapeshifted demon kings, feng shui arcane arts of this level would be completely useless.
To replicate the feat achieved by Long Yiran back then, he would first need a ready-made extraordinary terrain to exploit. Anything he arranged himself was still far too crude. Only after that came the level of mastery over the Earth Mother Scripture. The cost of using such extraordinary moves was simply too high.
Thus, in terms of true combat strength, he was still far from being a match for mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, let alone someone like the Nine Evil Sword Lord at the late Nascent Soul stage.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
Wang Yu descended from the sky.
The Dragon Blood Demonic Tree was not yet dead, merely suppressed. However, it had lost most of its methods and resistance. Any wooden dragons or vine demons it attempted to grow were incinerated by the Ice Chi Pill Flame before they could even reach him.
He intended to harvest the tree heart alive.
