Chapter 374 - 362: Earth Element Spiritual Embryo

Chapter 374: Chapter 362: Earth Element Spiritual Embryo

After nearly half a month of continuous interception and decryption, the intelligence sent by the mole finally revealed a complete route.

The Dark Abyss Association’s flow of intelligence around the Ghost Mist Forest wasn’t sent directly to the spatial node deep within. Instead, it was first gathered at a transit liaison point, where it was organized and encrypted before being delivered to the node by a dedicated courier.

Li Yuan gradually narrowed the liaison point’s location down to a cluster of abandoned mines about two hundred and ten li northeast of the Ghost Mist Forest.

The mines had been abandoned during the early development of the Ghost Mist Forest. Once the veins were depleted, the area was forgotten. It was a remote location with a low density of surrounding Demon Beasts—an excellent hiding place.

Li Yuan spent an entire day on stealth reconnaissance.

With his Triple Obscurement fully active, the sensory net of his Dark Evil Insight blanketed the entire perimeter of the mine cluster.

The cluster consisted of seven or eight pits of varying depths, most of which had collapsed or flooded. Only the deepest mine retained its structural integrity, its entrance crudely camouflaged with withered vines and rubble.

At least three Foundation Establishment Stage Demon Cultivators were permanently stationed inside.

Judging by the intensity of their Demonic Qi fluctuations, their Cultivation levels were Early-stage Foundation Establishment, Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, and Mid-stage Foundation Establishment, respectively.

No spatial node for protection, no large-scale Array for cover.

It was an exposed, physical stronghold.

「That night, at Midnight.」

All was silent in the Ghost Mist Forest, the thick fog completely obscuring the moonlight.

Li Yuan silently approached from the perimeter of the mine cluster. His Triple Obscurement compressed his aura into nothingness. Under the cover of such dense fog, even someone standing face-to-face with him might not have sensed his presence.

He didn’t charge straight in.

Instead, he circled around to the mine’s only exit.

Five Divine Sense Lines fanned out. Three began carving the Array Patterns, one guided Evil Qi into the chain’s circuit, and the last monitored the Demon Cultivators’ movements inside.

The Netherworld Lock Array rapidly formed on the ground at the entrance. Array Stones were embedded in the soil and Array Flags were planted in the crevices between rocks, the grayish-black Array Patterns faintly visible beneath the surface.

The Array was set.

The entire process was silent, leaking not a single Spiritual Power fluctuation.

Their escape route was cut off.

Li Yuan turned to face the depths of the mine, Spiritual Power circulating rapidly within his body.

’Teleportation Skill.’

Space silently tore open a fissure before him. Li Yuan’s figure vanished, reappearing an instant later behind a corner about thirty zhang deep inside the mine.

He landed without a sound.

His Dark Evil Insight immediately fed back all the information from inside the mine.

Three Demon Cultivators were scattered throughout a natural cavern at the back of the mine. One leaned against the stone wall, resting with his eyes closed. Another sat cross-legged, cultivating. The third was at a stone table, flipping through something.

Li Yuan leaned out from the corner and, with a thought, equipped the Dark Demon Token.

The closest target was the Early-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator resting against the wall, about fifteen zhang away.

No prelude was needed.

Li Yuan raised his right hand, fully activating the effect of his Flame-Evil Unity trait. The Fire Spiritual Power in his palm condensed to its absolute limit, then instantly switched to Evil Qi, which was further compressed into an extremely fine cone.

Spirit-Breaking Sharp Blade coated it. The slowing effect of Netherworld Delay was poised to strike.

The Evil Qi Cone shot from his hand, silently traversing the fifteen zhang.

The Demon Cultivator leaning against the wall didn’t even have time to open his eyes before the Evil Qi Cone pierced his protective Demonic Qi and his throat. Spirit-Breaking Sharp Blade shredded the thin Demon Qi Shield, while the Netherworld Delay effect caused the remaining Demonic Qi in his body to instantly stagnate.

His body slowly slid down the stone wall.

The Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivator who was meditating reacted with incredible speed. The ripple of his companion’s death sent him leaping to his feet as Demonic Qi erupted from his body. His hands flew into a seal, conjuring a pitch-black shield wall of Demonic Qi.

Li Yuan gave him no time to stabilize his defense.

He used his Teleportation Skill again, vanishing from the corner and reappearing just three zhang to the Demon Cultivator’s side.

The distance was too short; the wall of Demonic Qi had not yet fully formed.

Li Yuan threw a punch. Empowered by his Iron Bones and Golden Body physique and the forty-percent boost to Magic power from Flame-Evil Unity, his fist—wreathed in flame and Evil Qi—smashed directly through the half-formed shield.

Spirit-Breaking Sharp Blade pierced the man’s protective Demonic Qi, and the punch slammed into his ribs.

The sound of cracking ribs echoed through the mine. Fiery Evil Qi flooded his body, incinerating his organs.

The Demon Cultivator’s body flew several zhang before slamming into the cavern wall, his life force extinguished.

The third Demon Cultivator at the stone table leaped to his feet and turned, sprinting frantically toward the entrance.

He hadn’t made it ten zhang before his feet were suddenly ensnared by grayish-black Spiritual Power Lock Chains.

The Netherworld Lock Array had activated.

The chains erupted from the ground, binding his legs tightly. Yin Evil Qi seeped into his body along the chains, and the circulation of his Demonic Qi plummeted. He struggled to activate an Escape Technique, but his Spiritual Power felt as if it were mired in a swamp, impossible to muster.

Li Yuan walked up to him.

A Void-Rending Slash shot from his fingertip, a three-chi-long spatial fissure that silently swept across the Demon Cultivator’s neck.

A head hit the floor.

Silence returned to the mine.

Three corpses lay scattered in different locations.

Li Yuan first collected the three storage bags, then walked over to the stone table.

On the table lay a dozen or so communication jade slips and a stack of thin silk sheets bound by a Demon Qi Seal. A palm-sized bronze mirror was pinned beneath the slips; its surface was dark and dull, and its back was inscribed with a ring of twisted Demon Patterns.

Li Yuan picked up the bronze mirror first.

A panel appeared.

[Detected equippable item: Bronze Mirror (Complete)]

[Equip Trait Preview: Dark Demon Cultivation (Green)]

[Effect: Reduces self-inflicted negative side effects from cultivating Demonic Qi by thirty percent; enhances the effectiveness of Demonic Qi-based Escape Techniques by thirty percent.]

[Permanence Condition Preview: Master three Demon Qi Skills to the Minor Achievement stage or higher (0/3)]

’Three Demon Qi Skills at the Minor Achievement stage or higher.’

’The Demon Essence Skill is a Cultivation Technique, not a Magic, so it doesn’t count. The Demon Qi Skills I currently have need to be organized and supplemented. I can’t rush this permanence condition.’

Li Yuan put the bronze mirror away, his gaze shifting to the communication jade slips and encrypted silk sheets on the table.

He hadn’t forgotten the storage bags. He broke the seals on them one by one. Aside from the usual Demon Dao pills and Spirit Stones, none of the contents triggered a trait reaction from his panel.

All three Foundation Establishment Demon Cultivators had Tier Two Cultivation. The permanence condition for the Dark Demon Token was to kill one Demon Cultivator at Tier Two. That condition was now met, and he could make it permanent immediately.

But Li Yuan didn’t.

’The physical form of the Dark Demon Token is likely an internal Identity Token for the Dark Abyss Association. When I was tracking that Demon Cultivator before, he used a similar token to open the entrance to the spatial node.’

’If I make it permanent, the token will disappear, and I’ll lose a potential key to the Demon Cultivators’ spatial node.’

The Dark Demon Token was placed back in the depths of his storage bag.

After looting everything of value from the mine, Li Yuan dismantled the Netherworld Lock Array at the entrance and restored the area to its original state.

He moved the three bodies to an abandoned pit on the outskirts of the mine cluster and used his Earth Escape Technique to bury them several zhang deep.

He retreated and returned to the marketplace.

Inside his stone house, Li Yuan spread the confiscated communication jade slips and encrypted silk sheets across his table.

The communication jade slips mostly contained routine contact logs and material lists of little value. The truly important items were the encrypted silk sheets.

The encryption method shared a source with the Demonic Qi code used by the mole, but it was two orders of magnitude more complex.

Li Yuan used his Dark Evil Insight to meticulously parse the frequency differences in the Demonic Qi fluctuations, combining this with the code vocabulary he already possessed to decrypt the text character by character.

It took him the entire night.

When the text on the final silk sheet was fully deciphered, Li Yuan sat at the table in silence for a long time.

The pieces of intelligence corroborated one another, revealing an extremely crucial fact.

Both the Primordial Yang Sect and the Evil Slaying Sect were searching for something in this region. The intelligence didn’t mention if the materials they had been collecting were related to this search.

The item they sought was a natural treasure called an Earth Element Spiritual Embryo.

The intelligence provided only a brief description of the Earth Element Spiritual Embryo, but a few key details were mentioned repeatedly.

This treasure was nurtured by absorbing a Spirit Vein and required an extremely long time to mature.

Its core function was to help Golden Core Cultivators achieve Nascent Soul Formation.

Profound Nether Sect Remnants.

Li Yuan’s gaze lingered on those four words for a long time.

’Profound Nether Sect Remnants.’

’The disciple’s journal recorded that the Profound Nether Sect Master, in his bid to break through to the Divinity Transformation realm and ascend, had drained the foundational Spirit Veins of Mozhou and was even planning to move on Liangzhou.’

’But the Earth Element Spiritual Embryo is for helping Golden Core Cultivators reach Nascent Soul Formation, not for ascending to the Divinity Transformation realm.’

’There’s an entire major realm separating Nascent Soul Formation and Divinity Transformation.’

’If the Profound Nether Sect Master’s goal was to ascend to the Divinity Transformation realm, what would he want with an Earth Element Spiritual Embryo?’

Li Yuan crushed the decrypted intelligence reports to ash in his palm.

’I can’t piece together the answer yet.’

’But one thing is certain: the Array directly beneath the large Spirit Vein of the Mist Forest Marketplace, the one constantly releasing the ghost mist, and that Jade Bead being slowly drained of its energy... they’re all most likely connected to the Earth Element Spiritual Embryo somehow.’