Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 201

To break this illusion, one must have unwavering determination, remain undisturbed by external distractions, and persistently pursue one’s ultimate goal. Only then can the illusion be overcome smoothly.

This was a perfect place to test one’s Dao Heart.

The prisoners’ line moved faster and faster, and Wang Yu finally saw the scene at the end of the queue.

There was a long table. Behind it sat a general wearing a crimson-plumed helmet, and beside him stood two soldiers distributing weapons.

Wang Yu narrowed his eyes.

It seemed he was about to become part of the cannon-fodder army, the first wave of expendable soldiers meant to wear down the enemy’s defenses. In other words, this city was facing an impending war.

He recalled the first time he touched the shackles and saw that mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

The two battlefields were not the same, but their nature was similar.

“To survive by following the rules should allow me to pass this illusion. Or perhaps… I should break the rules.”

Feeling the power in his body, Wang Yu fell silent. He seemed to have become an ordinary mortal once more, with no spiritual power within him. It had nothing to do with the collar around his neck.In this mind illusion, he was just an average adult male, and this war was merely a battlefield among mortals.

As cannon fodder, the weapon he received was a rusty, mottled spear, the spearhead and shaft still tangled with cobwebs.

There was no conversation or exchange. The situation simply pushed him forward. The prisoners around him trembled; fear filled their hearts.

“So I can only rely on mortal skills to survive this battlefield…”

There was little Wang Yu could do. He simply tried to sharpen his weapon by grinding it against the bluestone floor.

Two hours later.

Night fell.

The cooks brought a few buckets of thin porridge to feed the hundreds of prisoners in this crude barracks.

But before distribution could begin, the sound of war drums shook the heavens. A sudden night raid had begun. This time, the prisoner soldiers did not go up the walls.

Instead, they dismantled houses within the city, sending stone and timber to the base of the wall as defensive materials.

For the first time in a long while, Wang Yu felt the fatigue of sore waist and aching back.

A siege battle.

From time to time, stray arrows and fire-tipped bolts rained into the city. The air was full of shouts and screams. Even when the walls seemed about to collapse, the defenders remained orderly.

Supervision squads patrolled, scrutinizing everyone. At the gate, hundreds of heavily armored cavalrymen stood in formation, ready to charge out at any time to deliver a fatal strike.

Darkness receded, and dawn began to rise.

At daybreak, the city gate swung open. The cavalry charged forth and never returned.

Just as Wang Yu and the others lay down to rest, they were kicked awake again.

This time… they were to fight in open-field battle outside the city!

……

……

“Ugh—”

As expected, after being forced onto the battlefield, even with Wang Yu’s rich combat experience, it was hard to perform great feats with a mortal body.

Especially when surrounded by useless teammates, people who couldn’t be relied on, who got dizzy in battle, and might even stab your backside by mistake. He nearly wanted to kill them himself.

He could neither retreat nor advance.

With no armor on his body, before they could even reach the enemy lines, men fell like harvested wheat. Even in close combat, the ranks collapsed almost instantly.

Still, the strategy had value. They exhausted the enemy’s strength and weapons, and with luck, could disrupt their formation.

Wang Yu managed to kill twelve enemies before four spears pierced through his upper body. He was beaten to death on the spot.

When he opened his eyes, before he could recover from the pain—

He was back again in the prisoner queue.

Having gone through the process once, he now understood this illusion a bit more.

“So, the goal is to defeat the enemy army…”

Clenching his fist, Wang Yu decided to act proactively this time. He secretly climbed the city wall to observe the enemy’s movements and even beat the drums early.

This time, the siege ended much faster.

Even the heavily armored cavalry that used to charge out of the gate failed to do so because he had sabotaged the winches. His side’s advantage grew stronger.

By the next day, another field battle began.

This time, he hid at the very edge of the supervision team’s control, using the bodies of his comrades to block incoming attacks. He survived much longer and killed fifty-four enemies.

Then… he died again!

The third illusion cycle.

Wang Yu rubbed his head and sighed helplessly.

“The enemy has divine archers. I can’t stand out too much.”

As for contacting the high-ranking city defenders—impossible. He could not even find them.

This time, he played it even safer. Unless absolutely necessary, he did not act. But when all the prisoners had died and the allied troops began to advance, he had nowhere left to hide.

Fourth time, fifth time… eighth time.

Wang Yu was completely entangled in this war, and his killing techniques continued to evolve.

Meanwhile, in the real world—

With each cycle of death and rebirth, Wang Yu’s true body took one more step forward along a dark, narrow tunnel. Without a thousand such steps, there was no way out.

Inside the mind illusion, Wang Yu was deeply immersed in the killing fields. He neither panicked nor grew angry. Instead, he treated this as a trial. Once he passed, his state of mind would ascend to a new level.

Even if he ultimately could not pass, he still had a way to forcibly awaken.

In his ninth reincarnation, Wang Yu’s weapons kept breaking during battle. This forced him to rely on his bare fists to kill the enemy, which made things much harder. With just one punch, it was almost impossible to kill a soldier wearing armor.

Or rather, with such an ordinary mortal body, it was simply impossible.

By the tenth time, he began stripping equipment from the enemy.

By the fifteenth time, after dying five more times without giving up, he realized that even when he used the enemy’s weapons, they still broke. He finally understood that this was the rule of the illusion itself.

Weapons were forbidden. He could only find a way to make his fists harder.

After twenty times... thirty times... he had lost count of how many enemies he had killed. Having developed his own set of battlefield fist techniques, Wang Yu finally unlocked an Idle Slot.

He was done playing by the rules. It was time to cheat. Inside appeared a new slot option that stunned him.

[Battlefield Fist Technique (Can be placed / Lesser Asura Killing Fist)]

“This is...”

Wang Yu cleared the space previously occupied by the Corpse Refining Technique and instantly understood everything.

The so-called Battlefield Killing Fist was not something he had personally comprehended, but rather the condensed killing intent left behind by a powerful sword cultivator of the Immortal Dynasty.

After numerous reincarnations, the more people he killed, the stronger the transmitted information became, creating the illusion that he had discovered it on his own. Wang Yu’s expression turned strange.

“Sigh... so this is a lesser inheritance branch from the Asura Slaughter Sacred Scripture.”

Before he could finish his thought, the Idle Slot activated.

Every second, he could feel a strand of pure killing intent pouring into his mind. As before, there were no side effects.

It was as if this killing intent had been refined by himself—pure, powerful, and perfectly attuned to his being. Wang Yu was certain of it.

【Idle Slot 3: Lesser Asura Killing Fist (Divine Ability / Mental Force / Spirit Refinement)】

"Lesser Asura Killing Fist (0/100): 86 practices per day, master in 20 years."

Wang Yu was startled.

This was the first miraculous fist art he had encountered that trained itself once per second. He did not even need to move; everything happened in the realm of the mind. It was a True Divine Ability.

And it required only twenty years to reach perfection. Yet he could not ignore the terrifying number of repetitions—this was utterly insane.

More insights began to surface within his mind.

[Lesser Asura Killing Fist: Created by the ancient Immortal Dynasty expert “Venerable Asura,” who fused the paths of Mental Force and Spirit Refinement, taking the concept of Asura Killing Intent as the seed to develop the first dual-path divine ability.]

This was a seed.

In the current cultivation world, the mainstream method of cultivation seemed to be known in that Ancient Era as the Path of Spirit Refinement.

Although not a true mind/mental cultivation method, it still contained half of its essence and was an offensive divine ability.

In effect, it resembled the Taiyin Nether Eyes—training this divine ability could enhance one’s mental strength and even allow mastery of the mysterious concept of Asura Killing Intent.

One punch from it could probably scare the opponent into wetting themselves.

Wang Yu proudly named it: “The Ultimate Shame Fist—Strike of Simultaneous Urine and Fear.”

“Filthy... disgustingly filthy! I love it!”

He had found a small top-notch treasure while scavenging junk—pure fortune. After all, those who could break free from the illusion likely did not have the leisure to fight within it.

At worst, they would realize after several reincarnations that it was useless and simply break through using their trump cards.

Wang Yu’s timing was perfect. There were no competitors.

Naturally, he took his time, focusing on experience and training. With his decent comprehension, he grasped the foundation of the art and then used the Idle Slot to cultivate it rapidly.

After mastering this rare divine ability, although he lacked the mana to properly activate it, using true essence still produced a decent effect. Only the nearly tangible killing intent possessed true deterrent power.

Its current might was still weaker than Mysterious Yin Hand, but if he continued to leave it in the Idle Slot for more days—eventually perfecting it—he could likely unleash part of its true power through sheer mastery.

As he absorbed this secret art, the mental illusion finally shattered.

When Wang Yu opened his eyes again, he found himself only thirty steps away from the entrance, corresponding exactly to his number of reincarnations. The restriction patterns on the tunnel walls gradually dimmed, as though losing their source of power.

With a thought, he took out the Stone-Skin Book from his robes.

This time, the walls truly released the condensed Asura Killing Intent, turning into crimson mist that poured into the book.

Before long, all phenomena vanished. When he checked again, the pages from the seventh to the fourteenth were illuminated. Though the text was unrecognizable, he was sure it recorded the Lesser Asura Killing Fist—and even contained additional content.

Wang Yu imprinted each character into his memory, then reopened the Idle Slot with a brightened smile.

“As expected, even if I can’t read it, the Idle Slot can.”

He had done the same thing back at Black Bone Mountain, exploiting a bug to forcibly install the Soul-Devouring Demonic Armor Technique. This time was no different.

After a temporary replacement, there were now two available entries.

【Idle Slot 4: Sword of Killing Intent (Mind Power Secret Technique / No Rank)】

「Sword of Killing Intent (100/100): Beyond perfection.」

This was a secret technique that utilized Asura Killing Intent, more like a skill than a spell. Once learned, it was instantly mastered—like a human instinctively knowing how to punch.

The stronger one’s killing intent, the greater its power, without limit.

Just as Wang Yu’s physical strength determined the power of his punches, both concepts were the same, simple yet profound.

But the second entry...

Was far more interesting, and it made Wang Yu think of Jin Miaoshan.