Chapter 601: Heavenly Star Positioning, Collecting the Four Ancestral Tablets (Part 2)

The area, which had turned into a hell of black flesh and blood, suddenly expanded. It grew like a balloon until it exploded in a burst of flesh, and a gigantic head of a Life Demon emerged from it. This was not its disguised human form, but the true demonic form of the Ancient Demons.

On its head were twelve pairs of demonic horns, growing from small to large. Half of them intertwined to form a crown, while the rest grew upwards like pipes for a segment, then curved backward along the skull, before finally soaring skyward. This gave it the appearance of a slicked-back hairstyle. Coupled with skin that was a weave of scarlet and dark black, it was too hideous to look at by human aesthetic standards. The gigantic head stared coldly at Ming Feng, a mocking smirk playing on its lips.

Clearly, even the Heavens-Reaching Spirit Treasure couldn't completely suppress it. This wasn't because the treasure was ineffective, but because Young Master Ming lacked the ability to unleash its true power. He should have been aware of this disparity himself, yet he still looked surprised and suspicious.

"How is this possible... Even if I can't fully unleash the power of the Nine Nether Crown, the Ancient Life Demon isn't in its complete form either. What's more, it has been suppressed by Kongkongzi for so long; theoretically, much of its power should have been worn away."

While his mind raced with complex thoughts, only a moment passed in reality. The instant their eyes met, Kongkongzi immediately understood the other's confusion. However, this was no time for idle talk. The Ancient Life Demon had used a cicada shedding its skin trick, abandoning most of its power and escaping with only its head. The immediate priority was to recapture it.

"Young Master You Shi, the Life Demon once absorbed some of the Blood Demon's power. It's different from the usual ancient demons that break their seals. Let's act together." With that, he transformed into a streak of purple light and pierced through the void in pursuit.

Ming Feng: "...You!" A torrent of curses was stifled in his mouth. He felt aggrieved because the target of his anger wasn't present, making any cursing meaningless. After a moment's thought, Young Master Ming still followed, as per their agreement.

The Ice Prison Realm, at the edge of the Chaos Layer.

Wang Yu stood tall at the edge of chaos. Even after several decades, the residual aura here remained potent, especially the parts related to refining the heavens. He was extremely familiar with it.

"According to the Ice Phoenix bloodline memories, a world with a chaotic edge indicates that it is still expanding, its full potential not yet realized, which is extremely rare."

The endless streams of chaotic Qi were a form of energy comparable to, and subtly even superior to, world power. Compared to the latter, which creates all things and generates myriad phenomena from a single origin, chaos was a power of creation and opening. Some had theorized that spatial power, when developed to its extreme, might generate chaos, but it still lacked another subordinate energy. Wang Yu's gaze swept across the surrounding area. He soon spotted the Wind Ancestral Token in the shallow chaos. This item was so resilient it could withstand chaotic erosion; he wondered what material the Earth Ancestor had used to refine it.

He activated a Feng Shui incantation, emitting an invisible pulling force that drew the Wind Ancestral Token back from the chaos. It smoothly embedded itself into a corner of Wang Yu's Feng Shui compass. With this, of the four elemental tokens—Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind—he now possessed three.

With his first objective achieved, Wang Yu flipped his hand, and a boat-shaped treasure, enveloped in a spatial bubble, floated into his palm. It was the precarious World-Breaking Divine Skiff. Before leaving the Void Dao Treasury, he had naturally taken everything he could. With the key's authority, he had recorded all ten thousand spatial secret arts from the Void Heaven Stele, including those that could stabilize the divine skiff. One of these, the Amber Secret Art, could stabilize the state of objects and even living beings. In the field of medicine, it was like summoning a soul from the underworld. Unfortunately, its successful application required the target to offer no resistance. Thus, it was temporarily unusable in combat. However, its superior technique, the Space-Fixing Seal, could be used in combat, but it demanded a level of comprehension of spatial laws that he had not yet reached.

As mentioned earlier, worlds with chaotic edges are incredibly rare. The Ice Prison Realm was an anomaly. Due to the rules of the Immortals, its world energy level had long since stagnated and had even been compressed. This caused the chaos to be bound by rules, making it difficult to open up more space and expand the world itself, permanently freezing it in a developmental stage. This also made these rare streams of chaotic Qi into invaluable treasures that could be utilized.

Another repair method, also learned from the Void Heaven Stele, was the Chaos Mending Heaven Secret Art. It possessed excellent restorative effects on artifacts. When cultivated to its perfected stage, it could even repair shattered worlds, ranking among the top-tier legacies recorded on the Void Heaven Stele. Its only limitation was the requirement for chaotic Qi. It must be said that the Void Heaven Stele significantly bolstered Wang Yu's foundation, causing his capabilities to skyrocket exponentially, making him capable of handling almost any situation. It was indeed worthy of being the legacy of the Nine Tribulations Rogue Immortal. Wang Yu had only just begun to master this secret art and hadn't chosen to delve deeper into its cultivation or comprehension. Using it to repair the World-Breaking Divine Skiff should be fine, as the art's primary limitation was the chaotic Qi itself as a material.

"Chaos Mending Heaven Art... Channel!" He pointed his fingers, making a pulling gesture, and saw a stream of Qi suddenly separate from the chaotic layer under the secret art's guidance, slowly pouring into the World-Breaking Divine Skiff. The cracks, which had almost covered its entire body, finally began to heal.

Wang Yu observed the progress and mentally estimated the time required. "For initial repairs, to make it usable, it should only take about ten days. However, completely restoring the cracks on the keel might require over a decade of effort. The Chaos Mending Heaven Art at its introductory stage is too inefficient."

Thoughts swirled in his mind. Although he was a bit reluctant to leave the chaotic Qi here, Wang Yu was pressed for time and couldn't spend over a decade on a complete repair. Besides, he had no means to store the chaotic Qi, so he couldn't take it with him anyway. The pressure from Kongkongzi was still immense.

Soon, Wang Yu made a decision. "Once the initial repairs are done, I'll leave. Then it's on to the last Fire Ancestral Token. Once I have it, I'll use the Moon-Returning Eye Art to ascend to the moon, enter seclusion, cultivate the Grand Yin Body Refining Scroll, and condense the first Grand Yin divine pattern as quickly as possible."

The environment on the moon would greatly aid his cultivation of the Star God legacy, making it the ideal place for seclusion. After that, he needed to find a way to lure out the hidden danger lurking within him—the Ancient Life Demon! Since discovering that the Life Demon was suppressed by Kongkongzi, the idea of a direct confrontation had naturally fallen through. Therefore, he had to find a way to draw out the "sleeper agent" within him. He suspected that attempting to cross realms with this creature might directly incur the wrath of the Immortal behind the Demonic Prison. If he, a mere ant, were to cross realms alone, the entry-level Jade Void Glazed Wall might still allow him to slip through unnoticed. But crossing with a portion of an ancient demon... the difficulty would be no less than ascending to heaven!

He needed to leave no loose ends. Otherwise, the consequences would be unbearable. The World-Breaking Divine Skiff's primary purpose was to traverse the cosmic sea, breaking through the barriers of various worlds. Its functionality overlapped slightly with the Grand Yin Nether Eyes. For him, at present, it was no longer a necessity. Perhaps it would be useful in the future, but for now... a preliminary repair to serve as a backup escape route was sufficient.

Having sorted out his plans for the near future, Wang Yu focused intently, continuously expending demonic essence to accelerate the operation of the Chaos Mending Heaven Art.

After about ten days, all the cracks on the divine skiff's surface had healed. Only the internal keel still had numerous cracks, but the treasure's aura had fully recovered. Wang Yu stayed for three more days, filling its energy with chaotic Qi, before tearing open space to return to reality. He then continued to use the Heavenly Star Positioning method to locate the last ancestral token.

"This direction is... Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain!"

As a renowned resource production area in the Scarlet Kite Demonic Domain, Wang Yu had passed by it many times but had never entered. As he pondered, he had already transformed into his Ice Phoenix form. He shot through the sky like an arrow from a bowstring, abruptly disappearing every short distance and reappearing hundreds of miles away. The Phoenix race was proficient in the Dao of Space. Phoenix patterns, furthermore, contained the secrets of the Great Dao of Space. This traversal ability was inherent to his bloodline. He could also learn some spatial evasion secret arts, but without modification, they could only be performed in his Ice Phoenix form, which was quite restrictive. Therefore, they were placed at the very end of his cultivation plan. He estimated it would be difficult to get to them.

Just as Wang Yu was steadily advancing into the final stages of his plan, heading towards Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain, in the Endless Ice Plains, three figures—two pursuing, one fleeing—rushed into the perpetually frozen land. The Life Demon had once again transformed into the appearance of a linen-clad youth, constantly burning its life force and leaving a long trail of blood-red shadows. It was so fast that even the two Harmonized Dao grand cultivators behind it couldn't keep up.

It had once devoured the Blood Demon's body. Although it hadn't fully merged with it and was later stripped away and sealed by Kongkongzi, as a nascent consciousness, it lacked the original entity's pride and self-esteem. Additionally, with fragmented memories and many lost methods for utilizing its power, it had stolen numerous blood path secret arts from the Blood Demon's body. It found the combination of these two paths incredibly practical. It could brazenly use the various blood path secret arts that involved burning vital blood and overdrawing life force, despite their severe side effects. It had no choice... it possessed endless vitality. It could burn through its life force from beginning to end, for hundreds or even thousands of years, and it still wouldn't amount to a ten-millionth of its true essence. Replenishing it was even simpler; it would naturally recover in a few breaths.

However, there was an upper limit to the burst power of the blood path secret arts. At most, they granted him combat strength comparable to that of a late Void Refinement stage cultivator, still not enough to contend with two Harmonized Dao cultivators, unless he could infect them with ancient demon rules. This had almost always been the plan in previous demon-sealing wars: deplete their origin, forcing human Harmonized Dao cultivators to refine the power of world spirits. After painstakingly sealing the ancient demon, they would then die without burial due to the backlash from the Heavenly Dao. But this time, he chose to seek help.

"Frost Demon, I'm here!"

Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain, the Nest of Ten Thousand Birds.

The demonic beasts here were once ruled by the True Spirit Vermilion Bird. Before the establishment of the ancient immortal dynasty, the Vermilion Bird had departed because the Ice Prison Realm was unsuitable for cultivating the Dao of Flame. Over the subsequent hundreds of thousands of years, over a hundred species of avian demon races had conquered this divine mountain, but unfortunately, all eventually declined. Then, in the ancient era, the divine mountain's core erupted with destructive lava, completely incinerating the area and transforming it into a high-temperature inferno. Only a few demonic beasts cultivating the path of ancient beasts occasionally survived. From the destruction, countless rare treasures of heaven and earth also emerged, making it a popular scavenging ground in Scarlet Kite.

The path of ancient beasts was an ancestral path for the demon race to constantly refine their physiques and purify their bloodlines. It was difficult for them to develop sentience; their consciousness was exceedingly primitive and bloodthirsty, acting solely on instinct. Their physiques would also skyrocket, with bodily strength surpassing even body refiners of the same rank, thus earning them the moniker "savage beasts." If such a creature were to gain sentience, its power would be terrifying. Only a few ancient beasts, capable of chewing iron and feeding on lava, survived on Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain; their numbers were extremely scarce. On this trip, besides the Fire Ancestral Token, Wang Yu could also capture some ancient beasts to use as blood sacrifices for his natal spirit treasures.

Half a month later, Wang Yu successfully arrived at Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain. Compared to the past, when escape lights filled the sky, only dead silence remained. Most cultivators in the Ice Prison Realm had returned to the embrace of heaven and earth. Aside from those who perished in mutual slaughter during the chaotic era, all others had died at Kongkongzi's hands. It could be said that, apart from a few mortals, the Ice Prison Realm had fully entered an era of Dao annihilation. The number of cultivators had plummeted dramatically, and the continuation of inheritances had become a problem. It was unknown how many years it would take for it to recover. Truly, like ants, they were wantonly slaughtered by the powerful.

For the future of the Void Dao lineage, they had to die. Kongkongzi's actions were, in fact, a measure taken by every successive Hell King Spirit Official once the native cultivators developed to a certain limit. This was to ensure the stability of the Demonic Prison. It wasn't just Wang Yu's generation that sought to break free from the cage. And because cultivation techniques were recorded on the Immortal Black Stele and could not be completely severed, the officials could only harvest them periodically to maintain the prison's stability. Such mass slaughter, even Wang Yu, a demonic cultivator, found despicable. He even had the gall to stand on moral high ground and condemn it, which showed just how utterly depraved the other party was.

Returning to the main topic: Upon arriving at the divine mountain, Wang Yu's eyes glowed with three feet of golden light, a manifestation of the Qi-Gazing Golden Pupils secret art. As soon as he arrived in this scorched land, he felt that something was amiss. Now that he looked, indeed! "The work of the Ancestor of Earth Masters."

Beneath Vermilion Bird Divine Mountain was a sea of crimson-gold lava. There were also clear traces of a wondrous Feng Shui formation. Therefore, the volcanic eruption in ancient times was very likely the result of the formation's collapse.

"No wonder the Fire Ancestral Token remained here. It seems this token was the core that maintained the normal operation of the wondrous formation, so it's normal for it to unleash such power."

Many conjectures flashed through his mind. Wang Yu directly burrowed underground from the summit. This place, once the Vermilion Bird's nest, was truly extraordinary. In his spiritual sense, he detected numerous fourth-tier ancient beasts living in the crimson-gold ocean, their silhouettes somewhat resembling anglerfish. One of them, with the strongest aura, had already reached the early fifth-tier level. "Barely qualified as blood sacrifice material for the Thirty-Six Grade Blood Lotus Furnace."

This was just one of his unexpected gains. And then there was... "Molten Earth Core Fire?" By now, Wang Yu's already powerful primordial spirit, combined with his exquisitely refined spiritual sense, quickly discovered a large quantity of rare treasures of heaven and earth, as well as a special Heavenly Spirit Flame nurtured within this environment. Although it was only third-tier, this quantity could at least fill half of the Blood Lotus Furnace's fire-storage space. He couldn't use it yet; he'd have to wait until the Grand Yin Fire inside his natal spirit treasure was fully digested. This was a good opportunity to spend some time cultivating it.

He took out a fire-gathering gourd and, while collecting the Molten Earth Core Fire, the Fire Ancestral Token was also drawn by his Feng Shui compass. It had been submerged deep within the crimson-gold ocean, which explained why it had never appeared for so many years.

Thus, with all four ancestral tokens gathered, they combined with his Feng Shui compass, immediately triggering further transformations. The unique woven structure formed by the four types of spiritual energy caused the treasure to begin its metamorphosis. Wang Yu observed it for a moment before putting it away. He then began stretching his limbs and flexing his muscles, evidently having set his sights on the ancient beasts in this area.