The massive body of the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree was like a collapsed mountain range. The closer one approached, the more one could feel their own insignificance. Wang Yu acted with caution.
He first replenished the energy of the Yellow Springs Earth Resentment Puppet.
Only then did he follow the torn opening and step into the demonic tree’s interior. The Demonic Dragon Tree Heart was like a gigantic stone that had endured countless years of wind and rain, its surface covered in wrinkled layers of bark.
Strands of fiber-like filaments connected to it, continuously supplying energy to the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree. It was far larger than Wang Yu himself, so swallowing it directly was obviously not an option.
He drew the Yellow Springs Demonic Sword and severed all of those connections.
Opening his mouth, he exhaled boundless ice breath, completely freezing the interior of the demonic tree. The Glazed Iceheart Pagoda slowly rotated into existence, enveloping both Wang Yu and the tree heart within it.
Outside.
Having lost its source core, the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree’s life reached its end. Generally speaking, the lifespan of plants could not be clearly defined. Only spirit plants that had given birth to spiritual intelligence possessed the concept of a lifespan.
Even then, it merely symbolized the disappearance of personality and memory.
Taking the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree as an example, if it were to give birth to spiritual intelligence, the moment that personality formed, it would immediately become a shapeshifted great demon and acquire the lifespan corresponding to that realm.
That lifespan was sixteen hundred years.
After its fall, everything from before would vanish. The main body would once again revert to a Dragon Blood Demonic Tree, continuing to root itself in the earth and grow. After many years, it might awaken intelligence again.
But compared to its previous life, it would already be a completely different individual.
Like a seed sprouting anew.
Plants that become demons were also known as spirit monsters. They were entirely different from flying beasts demon race, walking beasts, or scaled creatures, and were closer in nature to stones, metals, and other natural objects.
Although the name Dragon Blood Demonic Tree contained the word demon, it merely referred to its bloodthirsty, ferocious nature. In essence, it was still just a tree.
To grow to such a size, it must have lived for an extremely long time.
Far more than a few thousand years.
For ancient trees like this to give birth to a living spirit was extraordinarily difficult. Yet the tree heart was a rare treasure, often possessing transformative, rebirth-like potential.
There was even a certain chance it could nurture a demonic spirit.
This was precisely why Wang Yu wanted to harvest it alive. With the puppet guarding the outside and the Glazed Iceheart Pagoda layered within, using his four-year-old body, it felt as though he passed through a thin membrane.
He directly stepped into the tree heart itself. Inside was a jelly-like demonic tree essence, likely a special condensation formed from rooting in this land and absorbing the power of the dragon corpse.
The moment he entered, surging vitality automatically poured in.
It healed the internal injuries he had just sustained. At the same time, waves of special power flowed into his body, forming interwoven red and green tree-like patterns across his skin.
This was the advantage of harvesting it alive.
Ever since condensing the Innate Demonic Embryo, aside from a massive increase in demonic-path aptitude and the amplification of demonic divine abilities and techniques through his spirit body,
he had gained nothing else.
This differed from the Spiritual Bodies Wang Yu understood. Even something like the Blood Demon Body possessed a special innate ability, namely a natural capacity to manipulate blood.
This ability seemed unremarkable on the surface, yet in internal struggles among blood-path cultivators, it could grant an absolute advantage. This was the true reason the Three Blood Nether Demons had been unable to defeat the sect master.
The Blood Demon Body created by the Blood Spring Evil Method was clearly incomplete.
It was like a corroded, rusted sword. It still retained some sharpness, but compared to its original form, far too much was missing.
Wang Yu believed that what was missing were the two words “innate.”
Simply put.
The Innate Demonic Embryo lacked one essential ability, something it should have possessed by nature. Much like how the demon race universally possessed bloodline divine abilities, it had none.
This had struck him as strange.
It was only after spending time in Maple Prefecture City that he gradually became aware of this issue. Later, he speculated that it might be related to the Heavenly Demon’s malignant thoughts, perhaps some kind of latent ability tied to emotions or the mind.
Yet the result was nothing.
However, there was no doubt that the Innate Demonic Embryo itself was complete. His bodily perception was absolutely clear on this point. There was no possibility of error.
It was not until he encountered the Dragon Blood Demonic Tree and saw the Demonic Dragon Tree Heart that enlightenment struck him.
All ancient trees possessed a chance to nurture a companion-born demonic spirit within their tree heart. The tree heart functioned like a womb capable of giving birth to life. This realization sparked an association in Wang Yu’s mind.
After the successful condensation of the Innate Demonic Embryo, did it still require growth?
Just as its name implied, a demonic embryo needed development before it could mature into a demonic body. Thus, he harvested the tree heart alive and personally entered it to experience the process firsthand.
The tree-like patterns appearing on his body at that moment were in fact one of the defining traits of a demonic spirit. After the Innate Demonic Embryo Physique absorbed this power, it reproduced the phenomenon perfectly.
It was like replication, yet also like a form of transformation technique.
This was the profundity of Spiritual Bodies.
He knew very little about the Innate Demonic Embryo, and since it was not something he had been born with, he lacked the instinctive familiarity that came with effortless control. He could only rely on himself to gradually comprehend and master it.
After experiencing this characteristic, Wang Yu suddenly recalled another trait of Heavenly Demons besides emotional manipulation and mental interference.
Heavenly Demon Myriad Transformations.
The innate ability of the Innate Demonic Embryo should lie in those two words, Myriad Transformations. As for how exactly to transform, that would require future exploration.
As he sensed the demonic spirit bloodline power fading, the changes to Wang Yu’s body rapidly receded. The tree patterns, pointed ears, emerald pupils, green hair, and the faint aura of demonic presence all vanished without a trace.
Yet he could still clearly feel that he could transform into a demonic spirit form at any time. This kind of appropriation truly lived up to the essence of a Heavenly Demon.
Perhaps it could eventually develop into a Myriad Transformation Demonic Body.
Of course, this was merely Wang Yu’s conjecture. The most urgent task was still to use the power of the Demonic Dragon Tree Heart to break through to fourth-rank Body Refinement. In such a short span of time, his injuries had already fully healed.
Wang Yu simply opened his mind completely and began absorbing with full force the spiritual essence enveloping his body. These refined life energies and dragon blood surged together into his dragon spine.
Divine marrow erupted with silver radiance.
His qi and blood began to skyrocket. That indistinct bottleneck grew clearer and more pronounced. The sound of raging rivers echoed within his body, which was in truth the roar of qi and blood surging through his flesh.
Boom.
After the flames extinguished, Fallen Dragon Valley was coated everywhere in thick layers of ice. At this moment, black clouds gathered in the heavens, gradually forming vortex-shaped thunderclouds.
Heavenly might blazed brilliantly. This was the sign of an approaching lightning tribulation.
This in turn proved just how smooth Wang Yu’s breakthrough was. His accumulated foundation was simply too profound, and he had repeatedly pushed his body beyond its limits.
From the perspective of a Body Refinement cultivator, his strength ranked near the top among those of the same realm. As such, the transformation of divine marrow into silver blood and the condensation of demonic bones along the dragon spine proceeded smoothly.
The Yin Nether Demonic Dragon Art was a body-refining demonic cultivation technique. The indestructible bones it condensed were naturally demonic bones, leaning toward corpse path and yin nether attributes.
The Demonic Dragon Tree Heart allowed him to leap from quantitative accumulation to qualitative transformation.
This fourth-rank breakthrough lightning tribulation escalated from three stages to nine stages, each bolt more powerful than the last.
Compared to his previous tribulation, Wang Yu now had absolute confidence in himself. He also coveted the opportunity to temper his body through the lightning tribulation, and thus made no preparations to evade it.
He intended to face the lightning tribulation head-on.
Boom.
Another thunderclap resounded. Within the swirling black clouds, dense lightning began to form, and the accumulated power surged rapidly.
Until a certain moment.
Bearing a four-year-old body, Wang Yu suddenly burst out from the demonic tree. At the same instant, the heavens split open with the first bolt of tribulation lightning.
The two collided midair, forming a sphere of crackling lightning that was blasted down into the ground by the impact.
Immediately after, the second and third bolts of lightning tribulation descended in succession.
