novelraw Chapter 239
Chapter 239
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.”
In the depths of the dense forest, five rapidly spinning ice disks shot past, slicing a centipede over twenty meters long cleanly into six pieces.
Green blood flowed everywhere. Wherever it passed, the fallen leaves and branches withered instantly, and even the soil turned dark.
Wang Yu swiftly flew out from behind a tree. With a flicker of his divine sense, he extracted a green Poison Core from within the centipede’s body.
Its color leaned toward grayish-green, translucent in texture, with keratin-like protrusions and the faint shadow of an insect flickering inside.
This was the Demon Core of a second-rank mid-stage poison beast. Before reaching the third rank, a beast’s core still retained part of its physical traits—just like the one before him.
Immediately after, he released the Immaculate Jade Toad to devour all remaining toxins, then took out the Ghost-Weeping Flute to capture and enslave the beast’s lingering demon soul.
The entire process was practiced and efficient—almost a standard post-battle procedure for Wang Yu. He made use of every part of his enemies, wasting nothing at all.
By now, this was his twentieth day inside the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest. The formation master that the Ruan Family elder had mentioned never appeared, but he did encounter plenty of disgusting poisonous beasts.
Aside from a few unidentifiable poisonous plants, what troubled him most was a type of “Divine Sense Poison.” It merged with the toxic mists and drifted naturally along the wind.He had only discovered it because after perfecting the Ancient Soul Art, he gained the Ancient Soul, a mysterious power capable of resisting most spiritual abnormalities.
Even the Immaculate Jade Toad only noticed the poison once it was already infected. Its resistance to toxins came from its innate ability to devour poison for growth, not from any true poison-sensing gift.
Its ability to detect toxins was... merely average.
This strange “Divine Sense Poison,” and the fact that only the Ancient Soul could resist it, convinced Wang Yu that he had found the right place.
The ancient Heavenly Soul Sect might have used this natural barrier to form the outermost defense of their sect—or perhaps they themselves created this Divine Sense Poison.
Although Wang Yu lacked concrete clues, after noticing this anomaly, he followed the wind currents and circled an area on his map.
Now, he was heading toward the center of that circled region.
According to the information from Ten Thousand Poisons Town, the area ahead was a low-lying basin that many had explored before.
Apart from some poisonous spirit plants, that place was home to a white venomous serpent-type demon beast. It was extremely fast and its venom was fierce, but it could only strike once, with strength at best at the first-rank level.
However, this was already the inner region of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, where he could encounter third-rank intelligent poison beasts at any time. The danger was immense, so Wang Yu moved with utmost caution.
He constantly maintained the Breath-Concealing Spell to suppress his aura and scent.
“I remember... many of the poisonous creatures in this forest are highly beneficial to body refinement. There’s even a poison herb called the Black Sky Cordyceps that can enhance true essence.”
He muttered softly, pausing from time to time to cast his Mountain-Searching, Demon-Hunting secret technique.
“This is—”
As he pushed aside the obstructing grass with his true essence, Wang Yu’s eyes lit up.
A large toad, black-skinned with fiery red spots, was squatting atop a lava-like stone.
If he was not mistaken, that was a rare third-rank material—Crimson Flame Redstone.
Usually used as an inlay material, it could be embedded into other spirit artifacts to enhance fire power and add a corrosive fire poison effect.
This chunk was massive, enough to be divided into more than ten pieces.
Its value exceeded one million spirit stones.
And the toad itself—a Venomfire Toad—was a third-rank early-stage beast, though its aura showed that it had long reached the peak of that stage.
Below the third rank, demon beasts were weak and lacked intelligence.
But once they reached the third rank, everything changed. They awakened their bloodline divine powers and sometimes even possessed Life-bound Demon Treasures—usually remnants of their old bodies struck by heavenly tribulation, or organs shed during metamorphosis.
For example, horns, scales, or tails. A Three-Tailed Snow Fox that advanced might shed one of its tails and form a treasure. Depending on the species, such Demon Treasures were extremely primitive—and for cultivators, priceless supreme-grade materials.
Precisely because they were primitive, beasts could only refine them instinctively. Once obtained by humans and branded with their own spiritual imprint, such treasures became incredibly powerful.
The moment he saw the Venomfire Toad, Wang Yu instantly cast an Invisibility Technique, vanishing into the forest.
The toad turned its yellow horizontal eyes toward where he had been, blinking once before resuming its stillness—finding nothing amiss.
Meanwhile, Wang Yu had quickly shifted position and was formulating a plan in his mind. Back in the Black Mountain Demonic Lands, he had extensive combat experience against demon beasts, even capable of handling second-rank monsters with ease.
But the Venomfire Toad could not be approached recklessly. After some thought, he retreated a kilometer and released Snowjade.
The Three-Tailed Snow Fox emerged from the spirit beast pouch—shoulder height 2.6 meters, body length 5 meters, tail included over 12 meters. Since its breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage, its size had grown immensely.
It was now a majestic fox, its cultivation at Foundation Establishment fourth layer. It looked at Wang Yu with slight confusion.
“Snowjade, in a moment, I want you to summon a blizzard and blow it in that direction. Then retreat as far as you can.”
“Awoo.”
It recognized the tone—another bait mission. It had done this more than once before. Its beautiful, ice-pink eyes flashed with faint resentment.
Wang Yu chuckled softly, rubbing Snowjade’s silky fur.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”
“Awoo.”
Once Snowjade agreed, Wang Yu returned swiftly to where the Venomfire Toad was cultivating. There, he released the Lunar Yin Corpse and pressed his right hand on its back, extending both the Invisibility and Breath-Concealing Spells to cover it.
Such precise spell integration was only possible for someone whose mastery had reached perfection.
In less than a moment, a blizzard blew in from the north. The Venomfire Toad, which had been absorbing the fire-element spiritual energy of heaven and earth, suddenly shuddered violently, releasing the ferocious aura unique to demonic beasts.
Almost instantly, it locked onto Snowjade’s position. The Crimson Flame Redstone beneath it, which had been aiding its cultivation, was rubbed so hard it gleamed with oil-like luster. Overcome by rage, the Venomfire Toad directly swallowed the stone whole.
Then it leaped toward Snowjade’s direction, each jump spanning a thousand meters.
Wang Yu was stunned.
Its intelligence was indeed far superior to that of an ordinary second-rank demonic beast. Fortunately, he had anticipated such a situation when planning. The earlier release of the Lunar Yin Fiend Corpse had been prepared precisely for this moment.
Since it could not be stolen quietly, it would be taken by force.
Heavenly and earthly treasures belong only to those destined for them. The Venomfire Toad… was unworthy.
“Yin Corpse Descending Evil Curse.”
As the Venomfire Toad leaped into midair, its vision suddenly went dark. A dense lunar fiend energy descended from the void, weakening its physical attributes by nearly half.
Such a terrifying curse was unheard of. In its entire life after gaining sentience, it had never encountered anything like this, and panic immediately set in.
The venom sacs on its back swelled like miniature volcanoes, spewing lava-like fluid mixed with thick black smoke that ignited the damp trees nearby.
“Gwoooaaah!”
Snowjade’s voice came from afar. The sky darkened, clouds blotted out the sun, and freezing rain and snow fell together, reaching their peak intensity in an instant.
Seeing this, Wang Yu commanded the Lunar Yin Corpse to charge forward.
He stomped down and followed closely behind, forming a spiraling sword aura of ice while midair. The icy blade spun like a drill, thrusting toward the toad’s rear.
It was a massive ice sword over a hundred meters long.
Under the blessing of extreme cold and weather-based spell arts, the Venomfire Toad’s instinctive control over fire power was suppressed.
“Croaak!”
It would not simply await death. The toad spewed a thick, blazing black fire column, shattering Wang Yu’s spiral ice sword aura with unstoppable force.
The venom sacs on its back erupted further, spraying even more liquid that scattered the clouds above, transforming into a rain of fiery meteors that engulfed several kilometers of land.
“To neutralize my attack, dispel the environmental suppression, and even counterattack… indeed, a third-rank demonic beast is a completely different existence from anything below it.”
Having tested what he wanted, Wang Yu, empowered by the Frost Moon Escape Wings, easily dodged the falling fire rain.
At this moment, the Lunar Yin Corpse reached the toad’s back.
Its claws, surging with lunar fiend energy, struck down fiercely. The innate ability to devour blood from a distance activated, and the Venomfire Toad immediately felt its body being forcefully pulled.
It tried to move its lower body but was slightly too slow.
The corpse’s claws struck true.
“Croaak!!”
It screamed miserably.
At that moment, five spinning Ice wheels struck its pale belly. The rotating blades carved deep wounds, while extreme-cold true essence invaded its body.
Wang Yu quickly closed in and delivered a powerful axe kick, slamming the Venomfire Toad into the ground. Dust and bone fragments flew into the air.
The simultaneous blows to its belly and back made it retch violently.
It spat out the Crimson Flame Redstone.
In that instant, the Venomfire Toad completely understood the vile intent of this human. As it reached out a webbed claw toward the redstone, the Lunar Yin Corpse smacked it away, fearless of its fiery venom, grabbed its leg, and hurled it far off into the distance.
Taking advantage of the opening while the beast was flung away, Wang Yu formed a distant seal.
Lunar fiend energy erupted once more. The venom on the toad’s back dimmed as though frozen, unable to kindle flames again.
Wang Yu skimmed low through the air, retrieved the Crimson Flame Redstone, stored it within his Sea Heart Ring, and vanished entirely under the effects of Breath-Concealment Spell and Invisibility Art.
The Venomfire Toad leaped back in fury, its toxic flames fully erupting.
Centered on itself, a black-and-crimson fire ring spread outward, burning everything to ash. It sought to force Wang Yu out with a wide-range attack.
The blast covered nearly ten li.
“Found you!”
Although concealment arts were not invincible, Wang Yu had confidence in avoiding the toad’s perception. However, a wide-range attack left him no choice but to defend. Once his icy energy leaked, his position was immediately detected.
A pink tongue wrapped in poisonous smoke shot toward him in an instant. Wang Yu flicked his right hand, and a low-grade magical treasure, the Ghost-Weeping Flute, appeared in his palm.
Spinning once in midair, it unleashed five or six Weeping Heart Blades, each screaming as they slashed forward.
Yet the toad’s tongue, driven by its predatory instinct, was not only unbelievably fast but also incredibly tough. The Heart Blades failed to sever it.