novelraw Chapter 247
Chapter 247
A flurry of strikes sent Red Demon crashing down instantly.
Already gravely wounded and burdened by the Descending Evil Curse, her strength had dropped to its lowest point. Even the Ghost Dao Golden Core within her body had become unstable, injuring her very foundation.
As for White Demon, aside from the Golden Armored Corpse he released, all his Corpse Dao accumulation had been blasted to ashes by the Black Thunder Tiger. The Ancient Heavenly Soul Sect truly lived up to its reputation as a hegemonic force.
The transformation of the Earth Formation into a Human Formation displayed terrifying power.
As a life-bound corpse, once its master died, the Golden Armored Corpse also suffered heavy injuries. Yet, because of that, it gained freedom, transforming into a wild corpse. By logic, it should have immediately fled.
However, for some unknown reason, it lunged toward Red Demon instead. Wang Yu could not stand by.
With a sharp whistle, five pitch-black ice disks shot forth. His Frost Moon Wings unfolded behind him as he pursued alongside the Lunar Fiend Corpse.
What he witnessed next nearly made his eyes pop out.
He finally understood why Listening Wind Pavilion had classified the dual cultivation method of the Red and White Fiends as a demonic art. Even in the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain, this was considered perverse.
The Golden Armored Corpse embraced the Red Demon woman. Its golden corpse armor spread outward, encasing both of them within a cocoon-like golden shell covered in jagged scales.The five ice disks struck fiercely, producing a shower of sparks. Yet within two or three breaths, all of them shattered. The golden shell was covered by a hazy barrier, faint and indistinct.
Although it was sliced open by fine cracks, they swiftly healed in the next instant.
What shocked him most was the hazy scene within.
— They were copulating.
He had thought the dual cultivation of the Red and White Demon was a normal Daoist pair cultivation. In truth… cough, it was unspeakable.
In any case, the reason the Golden Armored Corpse tried to save her had become clear.
It acted out of instinct. Years of yin-yang fusion had produced a corpse-ghost demonic energy that transformed its zombie body.
Not only did it gain the instinct to protect Red Demon, but it also developed a twisted art that could merge with her soul.
Wang Yu took a deep breath.
He stepped into the air, as though standing upon the wind itself. His right hand drew back. Power rose from his feet, flowed through his waist, and twisted through his spine. His right arm snapped forward like a bow releasing its arrow.
A deep roar resounded.
His blood energy transformed into a Nether Demon Flood Dragon. This punch actually manifested a vicious dragon over twenty meters long. The Mysterious Yin Hand separated from his body, fusing with the dragon midair.
It was the perfect union of strength and technique.
The gray-black giant hand grew scales and became a dragon claw, descending with unmatched might.
The combined power of the strike, Wang Yu’s strongest attack outside of divine abilities, shattered even the defensive golden shell formed by the corpse armor.
The Golden Armored Corpse was slammed into the ground. The tattered body of Red Demon was torn apart, her Core Formation body not completely reduced to meat paste, yet her wounds were fatal.
Wang Yu swept the scene with his divine sense, sending multiple Soul Shattering Fingers straight toward the Golden Armored Corpse.
A deep groan echoed—it was a woman’s voice. “You… deserve death!”
A shrill scream cleared the dust. Only then did Wang Yu see that Red Demon’s body now had a gaping bloody hole through her chest, and her Golden Core was gone.
A Golden Core is a product formed at a certain stage of cultivation.
It is neither physical nor illusory;
digging it out by hand is meaningless—you cannot grasp anything that way.
Normally, only when the flesh body dies and the soul inhabiting the Core departs does the Golden Core take on tangible form.
However, such a core is a most prized treasure among demonic cultivators.
A technique known as Core Extracting Hand was once created by a Nascent Soul stage old demon and later spread throughout the Crimson Kite Demonic Domain. Loose cultivators could only dream of learning it.
It was an advanced technique of energy manipulation.
Wang Yu had, of course, learned it. Otherwise, he could not have extracted the Golden Core of the Flame-Spitting True Personage after killing him and erasing his divine soul.
Yet for a zombie to use such an advanced technique was bizarre. Seizing the corpse body caused severe backlash on Red Demon’s soul.
The heaven and earth fiendish energy was most harmful to souls, and as a corpse born of fiendish energy, she nearly lost all reason.
She roared madly and charged at Wang Yu.
At that moment, the Lunar Fiend Corpse finally arrived, ramming into her head-on. Its headbutt sent Red Demon flying, though it too was thrown backward.
A Fiend Corpse could not match a Corpse General’s body in strength, but it was more adaptable. The Red Demon, having seized a corpse, seemed to forget her methods as a cultivator, relying purely on brute force.
As she rushed again, the Descending Evil Curse descended once more.
The Lunar Fiend Corpse controlled the power of Lunar Yin, blasting apart the corpse armor of the Golden Armored Corpse piece by piece. Its supposedly indestructible flesh was flayed layer by layer, exposing gray-white tissue.
At that moment, Wang Yu activated his Ice Chi Pill Flame. The blue flames took the form of a dragon, one of his trump cards capable of fatally wounding a Core Formation cultivator.
His right arm was somewhat numb from his earlier full-force strike, so he fully unleashed the Pill Flame instead.
The surging flames combined with the Lunar Yin energy, creating a realm of ice and fire. Under the twofold assault, the Golden Armored Corpse fell to its knees.
With a cracking of dislocated bones, the Fiend Corpse howled skyward. Multiple corpse claws formed from Lunar Yin energy tore into the unarmored target, ripping open its abdomen.
Through compounded weakening, the Lunar Fiend Corpse completely suppressed the enemy.
Wang Yu seized the moment, darting forward. His divine sense flared fully, and a Soul Shattering Finger struck, scattering Red Demon’s consciousness.
His left hand’s index and middle fingers thrust into her abdomen, as if through flesh, pinching a still-warm Golden Core and pulling it out.
The Core’s unstable state quickly stabilized.
A faint image of Red Demon’s wailing face appeared upon it. Wang Yu snorted coldly, gripping it tightly as his killing intent solidified around his fist.
A few breaths later, the Core’s trembling ceased. Opening his palm, he saw that the once flawless Core had developed several cracks.
It was inevitable. Destroying the divine soul residing within would cause the Core to fracture.
Yet with the Golden Core as protection, neither the Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Technique nor the Ghost-Weeping Flute could extract her soul. It was a matter of trade-off.
The fiercest battle had finally ended.
Wang Yu looked toward the subdued Golden Armored Corpse and took out his Corpse Sealing Talisman Pouch. A dense series of talismans wrapped the corpse tightly, turning it into a mummy.
He then used the Soul-Suppressing Bell to lock the Golden Armored Corpse’s consciousness, overlaying the Ice Coffin Technique with a double layer of confinement, and finally placed it into the Lunar Yin Corpse-Nurturing Coffin.
He did not intend to raise such an ordinary armored corpse.
It would be better to feed it to the Thunder Corpse and help it step into the third rank.
This battle yielded little loot. Only the Red Demon’s corpse and her storage ring were worth something. The two corpses of the Wan brothers also provided minor gains.
Excluding artifacts and spiritual items, the total value of spirit stones was around six hundred thousand, most contributed by the Red Demon. Her storage ring contained the most peculiar and varied objects.
It was clear that most came from her slain victims, mainly second-rank cultivators, numbering at least over a dozen.
Her life-bound artifact was only of low grade, called Ten Thousand Ghosts Red Sleeve, but it had been heavily damaged by the Black Thunder Tiger, greatly reducing its worth.
Thinking of the Black Thunder Tiger, Wang Yu clapped his hands.
“Ah, I forgot about Formation Master Long.”
After a brief search, Wang Yu found her behind a massive boulder. Her aura was extremely weak, her entire body soaked in blood, with veins ruptured across her skin.
Though feeble, her life remained stable and unthreatened.
Touching the Sea Heart Ring on his finger, he hesitated whether to save her. Because of the contract, he could not directly harm Long Yiran.
Yet, if he did not save her, she would surely perish on this Ghost Mountain.
But recalling Long Yiran’s last words before fainting, “I found it,” he knew it was bait to lure him to save her. She clearly understood the risks of disturbing the geomantic formation here, yet she still did it—just like her name suggested.
“Yes, I still need her to help me locate the ruins of the Heavenly Soul Sect. She cannot die yet.”
Wang Yu murmured to himself.
He took out several second-rank supreme-grade healing spirit pills, fed them to Long Yiran, then carried her and temporarily left the Yin Ghost Mountain.
At the mountain’s edge, he burrowed underground and used a set of second-rank concealment formation flags to hide temporarily.
Several days passed. After Wang Yu fully recovered his peak state, Long Yiran finally awoke from her coma.
“Ugh…”
She clutched her aching head, feeling as if it would split open. Her Niwan Palace was empty, her true essence less than half, and her body was in constant pain.
Struggling to sit up, she spotted Wang Yu’s figure and quietly sighed in relief.
“Brother Wang… where are we? What happened to the Red and White Fiends?”
“They are dead. We are underground, at the edge of Yin Ghost Mountain.”
Wang Yu’s expression was complicated as he continued.
“Rest and recover. We will search again once you have healed.”
“Very well.”
Seeing her take out her own supplies to begin recovery, Wang Yu also moved to another corner to cultivate. After such a fierce battle, his true essence was abnormally active. Although mentally fatigued, he did not wish to delay further. He took out the Black Sky Cordyceps he had not yet finished refining and began silently refining it to increase his true essence.
The sixth Idle Slot continued to feed him insights and experience related to geomancy secret techniques. He remained very curious about Long Yiran’s ability to trigger a “formation node.”
If he could master even a little of it, it would grant him another hidden trump card.
It was especially suited for pursuit and escape, turning the tables in an instant, absurdly powerful.
Several months later, when the Black Sky Cordyceps was completely refined and Wang Yu’s true essence upper limit broke through to 3,300 drops, the frail Long Yiran finally recovered.
She then explained the question Wang Yu had long pondered.
“That ability can only be used by combining formation techniques with geomancy arts. You saw the consequences—divine sense exhaustion, true essence depletion, and severe physical damage.
“It is a backlash caused by the pressure of heaven and earth’s power. It can only be used once and only because this place is special, having been modified by a geomancer.
“That is why I could trigger it so quickly. In real combat, it is much harder to apply than you imagine.”
Hearing this, Wang Yu could not help feeling a bit disappointed.
The need for formations and specific terrain made the conditions too restrictive. Yet, if it were within ancient ruins...
He thought of the Ancient Ruins of the Eastern Extreme Capital. Such a place might also contain special geomantic formations. When his Golden Vision of Qi Observation reached minor completion, perhaps he could investigate upon his return.
Now possessing two ocular techniques, he found no conflict between them.
The Taiyin Nether Eye and the Corpse Demon Secret Technique were both transformation-type secret arts, stable and highly practical.
The Golden Vision of Qi Observation was purely a secret technique, effective only when activated, and since the two belonged to different types, they did not conflict.
At that moment, Long Yiran spoke again.
“We have delayed long enough. Now that I am healed, let us return to Yin Ghost Mountain. I know where the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins are.”
“How so?”