Wasted Spiritual Root to Embark on Demonic Cultivation

Chapter 229

He naturally did not believe that Jin Miaoshan had truly fallen for him. Reality was not some romantic story. The moment this woman recovered her senses, she fully exploited her beauty.

She knew perfectly well how beautiful she was.

She wanted to leave a deep enough impression on Wang Yu’s heart.

After all, after one or two encounters and three days of close contact, she had confirmed that Wang Yu was different. The Core Formation realm could not restrain him, and even the Nascent Soul realm might not.

The potential he displayed was enough for Jin Miaoshan to take him seriously, especially since he had helped her solve a troublesome issue.

That kiss of hers was merely a hook.

Wang Yu sneered inwardly. He had been with countless women before, always indulging in lust and pleasure. How could a heaven’s proud daughter like Jin Miaoshan truly fall for him?

What she valued was only his potential.

“Tch. Women—”

After dealing with that matter, Wang Yu rested for another day before preparing to visit Senior Brother Han Jia at the Heaven Treasure Pavilion.Because Jin Miaoshan had left in a hurry, they had not yet discussed whether she was willing to continue operating the Golden Abundance Pavilion in Jade Spirit City.

The city still needed two large trading platforms to avoid monopoly and maintain healthy growth.

Multiple channels meant multiple opportunities.

Many of the spiritual herbs he needed were extremely rare. Even the City Lord’s influence could not always summon whatever he desired.

Some treasures could be sold anywhere.

Others were collected to prepare for future auctions, strengthening their influence, or expanding their reach. Continuously trading in rare goods was the foundation of every merchant guild.

Both righteous and demonic factions had countless cities, and both major merchant guilds had branches in them. It was impossible for either to cater solely to him.

In such a system, the influence and connections of each branch master determined their importance. Even within the guild, there was fierce competition.

Whoever held more powerful clients or esteemed guests had greater authority. Everything depended on results.

Of course, some second-generation heirs inherited vast resources from their predecessors, so they were not considered part of regular competition.

Han Jia True Personage, at least, was in the late stage of Core Formation.

He could fulfill most of Wang Yu’s needs. This visit was also because Wang Yu’s cultivation had reached a new phase.

He needed new spirit pills for his realm, both to learn and to acquire.

After all, he had already consumed seven supreme-grade Ice Spirit Pills. Another five would become ineffective. They could sustain him for at most ten years, just enough to transition into the next formula.

He also needed to prepare large quantities of Body-refining elixirs suitable for late second-rank cultivators. His third-rank Dragon Blood Essence had been completely used up, and the secret Dragon Blood Elixir had temporarily exited his resource pool.

The two supreme-grade corpse materials, Corpse Fiend and Corpse Demon—also needed to be refined. The first possessed the traits of a Demonic Corpse, while the second carried the attributes of a Thunder Corpse.

Both were rare variants. If disciples from the Heavenly Corpse Peak had obtained such fortune, they would spare no cost, even refining them into their own life-bound corpses.

Unfortunately, Wang Yu did not cultivate any corpse-refining technique. Merely controlling a single Lunar Yin Fiend Corpse through divine sense already strained him greatly. Refining two more third-rank corpses would cause his Niwan Palace to collapse.

To solve this, he decided to focus on Soul Essence Pills.

Once his divine sense reached the peak of early third-rank, he should barely manage to control a second corpse. Refining those two supreme-grade materials into third-rank corpses would take a long time anyway.

By then, they might already be usable, so he had to prepare early.

Pure Yin Blood, Yin Spirit Fragments, and various demonic materials were all required for the Demonic Corpse, with extremely high costs.

Chicken Demon Blood, Black Dog Demon Blood, Thunder Bird Essence Blood—these were the yang-based materials for the Thunder Corpse, even more expensive due to their rarity in the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain.

Only when there was market demand would collectors gather such items, and scarcity always raised the price.

If possible, constructing two blood pools, one Yin, one Yang—would be ideal. After soaking the materials for ten or twenty years, he would still need rare Demonic Fiend Qi and Thunder Fiend Qi to nourish them.

It was an arduous process. But when he thought of the formidable corpse dao techniques of the Lunar Yin Fiend Corpse, Wang Yu felt his motivation surge again.

Just these resources alone would cost several million spirit stones.

Fortunately, his recent harvest from Jade Spirit City was barely enough.

Afterward, however, he would need third-rank divine sense-boosting pills. The Soul Essence Pill had already begun forming a pill barrier, and he was now selling it as a specialty product of the City Lord’s Mansion in the marketplace.

He also had to continue collecting materials for refining his life-bound magic treasure.

No amount of money seemed sufficient.

And then there was the Exquisite Inner Pill material collection. He had written to Zhuo Shouqing, who helped him acquire the pill formula from within the sect, but the materials he had to find himself.

This pill was extremely rare—it could permanently enhance comprehension and induce a state of enlightenment lasting several days, making it crucial for his progress.

When Wang Yu finally met Han Jia at the Heaven Treasure Pavilion, the latter was shocked speechless by Wang Yu’s extensive list of spirit materials that stretched three meters long. After calculating carefully, he asked Wang Yu to pay one million spirit stones upfront.

Some items could be delivered immediately, others required Han Jia to use his connections to transfer goods from the Cloud Ridge Main Pavilion, while the rarest would take time to locate. Altogether, it would cost another three to four million spirit stones.

That was nearly the price of a high-grade Core Formation spiritual treasure.

Truly expensive.

After finishing these matters, Wang Yu entered a long waiting phase—for the materials to arrive and for the envoys from the Yellow Spring Monastery.

For now, his Body-refining would rely on the Purple Lightning Fusion Liquid from the Thunder Abyss Pit. With more than a hundred drops, it would sustain him for a while and allow another leap forward.

The Heaven Heart Scattered Thunder Tribulation-Avoiding Formation, with Lightning-Attracting Iron as its core, was being prepared in full swing. A formation master from the Heaven Treasure Pavilion had been specially invited to oversee the process.

As a formation treasure, this array could be used repeatedly.

After he finished using it in the future, it could be rented out together with his cave residence as part of a package deal. In order to earn more spirit stones, he was willing to go to any lengths.

As for the tribulation-avoiding treasure centered around the Heavenly Thunder Crystal Cluster, he still needed to find a suitable blueprint. It was not something he could refine just because he wanted to.

He had originally planned to use the excuse of compensation to have Master Tianshui personally refine it. After all, that master had exceptional experience in crafting treasures specialized for defending against heavenly lightning.

Unfortunately, Jin Miaoshan had left too quickly, so he could only wait for the next opportunity.

Even so, he still possessed the ancestral relics of True Personage Qingyang, so there was no need to rush.

Thus, time slowly passed. Wang Yu practically counted the days on his fingers. During his usual cultivation, the Three-Tailed Snow Fox loved to curl up beside him, resting together on the Profound Ice Bed.

The bed contained extreme cold energy, which seemed to purify the fox’s bloodline. After just a few months, it broke through to the fourth layer of the Foundation Establishment Realm, displaying clear progress.

Although its cultivation speed appeared slow compared to Wang Yu, it was actually quite fast. With a three-hundred-year lifespan at the Foundation Establishment stage, it had more than enough time to attempt Core Formation multiple times.

That alone already surpassed countless others.

With the long-term influence of the Profound Ice Bed, Snowjade might very well seize the opportunity during its next breakthrough to shatter its bloodline shackles once again.

Above a superior bloodline lay the Earth-Grade Bloodline.

Among demonic beasts, the Nascent Soul Seedlings of such bloodlines were rare. The legendary Heavenly-Grade Bloodline could even allow one to reach the level of Spirit Transformation. However, aptitude was only aptitude. Whether one could reach the limit was never guaranteed.

For true geniuses, limits existed only to be broken. Aptitude could not determine everything.

Wang Yu agreed with this deeply.

Then, he continued cultivating the Demonic Embryo Mysterious Origin Curse.

After reaching minor completion in this secret art, Wang Yu occasionally placed it into an Idle Slot, letting it absorb demonic malice and strengthen the very essence of the Demonic Embryo.

As expected, the Idle Slot allowed this talent-seizing secret art to advance to a higher level, though it required an enormous amount of time. Wang Yu used fragmented periods to simulate and deduce its operation.

He felt this would become the key factor in his future confrontation with Fu Xiao.

In the future, it might even permanently occupy one of his machine slots.

Late in the thirty-third year of Wang Yu’s carreer as an Deacon, at the end of the eighth month, the envoys from Yellow Springs Monastery arrived at the Jade Spirit City Lord’s Mansion earlier than expected.

The city lord, Wang Yu, who had long been anticipating this, immediately received the messenger.

“So, you are Wang Yu, the City Lord of Jade Spirit City?”

The envoy’s tone was rather cold, but that was merely the barking of a defeated dog. Wang Yu was happy to listen to it all.

“That’s right. I am. You’re here on behalf of Yellow Springs Monastery to repay your debt, aren’t you?”

The envoy’s expression darkened, and he casually tossed over a storage pouch.

“There are two million spirit stones inside. Please verify them, City Lord. Once transferred, they are no longer our responsibility.”

“Putting on airs, aren’t you? Must be painful to part with them.”

Wang Yu cursed silently but carefully scanned the pouch with his divine sense. Most of the payment had been taken by Cloud Ridge City, leaving him with only two million spirit stones. Still, that was acceptable.

He was currently in dire need of spirit stones, so he pocketed them without hesitation.

This scene made the envoy’s expression twitch. The storage pouch was a high-grade one and quite valuable. Worse yet, it was his personal pouch.

After all, the transaction had already been transferred once through Cloud Ridge City. His heart ached so much he could barely breathe.

But after some thought, he reminded himself that he represented Yellow Springs Monastery. Even if he only had Foundation Establishment cultivation, he could not lose face. Snorting coldly, he took out a contract.

“This is a Yellow Springs Contract Pact. Whoever violates it shall have their soul eternally consigned to the Yellow Springs.”

The Nether River and the Yellow Springs both appeared to be the final resting places of the dead, but in truth they were two entirely different spiritual systems. They both existed beyond the world and yet also within it.

No one had ever reached the Nether River, but many legends confirmed that cultivators of this realm had once ventured deep into the Yellow Springs. The Netherworld Grounds were said to be a special region of the Yellow Springs.

Thus, it was only natural that the cultivators of Yellow Springs Monastery used the Yellow Springs Pact.

After carefully examining the contract, Wang Yu found it contained a clause forbidding him from teaching the Earth Nether Finger to others. He was already prepared for this. Using his blood imprint, he signed the pact.

The envoy then tossed him a single-use inheritance jade slip and left in haste, his face showing no warmth from beginning to end.

Wang Yu, however, ordered someone to secretly follow him until he had left Cloud Ridge Prefecture. He had not forgotten their previous enmities. In particular, True Personage Dizang surely hated him to the bone.

He needed to stay cautious.

The Earth Nether Finger was merely a second-rank supreme spell, but when combined with the Mysterious Yin Hand, Wang Yu immediately sensed an extraordinary resonance between the two techniques.

Combining them into the divine ability [Yellow Springs Great Hand Seal] seemed effortless.

Within only ten days, Wang Yu had completely organized and comprehended this divine art. After reading through it from beginning to end, he finally understood why Yellow Springs Monastery believed he could not cultivate it.

This divine ability required one to communicate directly with the legendary Yellow Springs and to obtain a single drop of Yellow Springs Turbid Water as a catalyst. Moreover, it demanded a constant influx of Yellow Springs energy.

Such a domineering power could not be refined by ordinary cultivation methods. Only the Yellow Springs Azure Fall Sutra could accomplish this.

Within Yellow Springs Monastery, there was said to be a secret realm that connected directly to the Yellow Springs, drawing in a portion of its tributary flow. It was truly a heaven-defying means.

“Heh. Idle Slot, train it for me.”