Chapter 513 - 467: Blood Sha Corpse Nurturing, Vajra Wolf King

Chapter 513: Chapter 467: Blood Sha Corpse Nurturing, Vajra Wolf King

Half a year slipped by in the blink of an eye.

Merely half a year seemed trivial for the Demon Suppression Islands, a place that had already endured decades of bitter warfare.

The Demon Suppression Islands still stood tall and imposing over the sea, a veritable fortress of bronze and iron, holding back the cataclysm that threatened the entire Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World.

As long as they couldn’t breach this fortress, the Profound Serpent Race could only gaze upon the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World and lament, no matter how much damage they sustained.

While mundane theories of warfare were difficult to apply to the conflicts of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, one fact remained undeniable: cultivators needed supplies. In wars between major powers, the demand for provisions was nothing short of a lifeline.

The Demon Suppression Islands had stood for many years, and with every Beast Tide, it became clear that a cultivator’s personal Combat Power was only a small part of the equation.

A single suit of Puppet Battle Armor could allow an ordinary Qi Cultivation Cultivator to unleash power far beyond the Qi Cultivation Realm. A high-quality Magical Artifact, or any of the countless offensive and defensive treasures within the Demon Suppression Islands, all placed immense demands on logistical supply lines.

Demon Beasts, by contrast, didn’t rely on external items like cultivators did. Yet, the Profound Serpent Race, by their strength alone, had thrown the entire Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World into turmoil, and their ferocious momentum remained undiminished even after years of brutal conflict.

The fundamental reasons for this were twofold. First, the sheer power of the Profound Serpent Race’s High Tier Great Demons. Second, of course, was the endless Beast Tide.

Without that endless Beast Tide, if it were only the Profound Serpent Race themselves, this cataclysm would have been far easier for the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World to handle. The war certainly wouldn’t have devolved into such a passive, defensive posture, like a turtle hiding in its shell.

And with the Demon Suppression Islands standing guard, the Profound Serpent Race could theoretically bypass them and strike the rear.

However, doing so would be akin to severing one of their own limbs. It would mean abandoning the Beast Tide, their most powerful and unstoppable weapon.

At this point, even if the Profound Serpent Race went to great lengths to circumvent the Demon Suppression Islands’ defenses, it would be largely meaningless.

After all, beyond the Demon Suppression Islands lay Chixia, another fortress. And beyond Chixia was the Southern Border Continent.

Furthermore, after a series of crushing defeats, the Vast Sea Chen Family had naturally prepared fallback positions. Behind the Demon Suppression Islands, both Chixia Island and the dense cluster of surrounding isles had been transformed and fortified at an immense cost of resources.

Across several hundred thousand miles of ocean, with the Demon Suppression Islands as the outermost bulwark, almost every island further in had been converted into another line of defense.

With such painstaking preparations, if the only threat were the Profound Serpent Race’s invasion, the Vast Sea Chen Family’s position would seem impregnable.

Yet, in just half a year, that seemingly impregnable defense had begun to visibly crumble.

Beset by a powerful enemy from without and great turmoil from within.

This was a perfect reflection of the current plight of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World—or, more accurately, of the Vast Sea Chen Family.

Beyond Earth Demon Island, nestled among underwater mountains, a faint crimson glow flickered. Crisscrossing Array Prohibition Inscriptions, also shimmering with that same bloody light, stretched for dozens of miles across the seabed.

At the very heart of this crimson light lay a Blood Pool, roughly the size of a small field. As the light pulsed, the endless Evil Qi accumulated from decades of slaughter and brutal warfare surged like a tide from the surrounding mountain ravines, converging on the pool.

Beside the Blood Pool, Chu Mu worked like a butcher. From a thick stack of Storage Talismans, he tossed one fresh Demon Body after another into the churning liquid. The bodies dissolved almost instantly upon hitting the crimson water, melting away to become one with the pool.

As the roiling Evil Qi surged, the churning blood was stained with inky-black wisps that were nearly indistinguishable from Demonic Qi.

The process lasted for nearly a full hour before finally coming to a stop.

One hundred sixty-eight Storage Talismans. Over sixteen hundred Demon Corpses. Fifty-eight cultivator corpses. Their grades varied—there were Tier Three, Tier Two, and a considerable number of Tier One.

He had acquired all of them by calling in favors with the Chen Family Golden Core cultivator in charge of logistics for the Demon Suppression Islands.

The price he’d paid was not insignificant, but compared to the allure of a successfully refined Corpse Puppet, the cost was trivial.

A Corpse Puppet with a physical body virtually invincible among Tier Threes was, for him, another Life-saving Talisman!

Chu Mu’s gaze burned with an intensity he couldn’t conceal, as if it could pierce through the viscous blood and see the massive Demon Body suspended at the bottom of the pool.

After half a year of Refining, the Demon Corpse’s appearance had changed drastically. Its once-demonic form was now increasingly humanoid, and he had completely reforged its two chilling Giant Blades, integrating them into its puppet-like body.

A dense, crisscrossing network of Inscriptions covered its Demon Body. As the Inscriptions flickered, it seemed to breathe, drawing in the viscous blood and roiling Evil Qi like countless small snakes burrowing into its flesh and vanishing.

As this absorption continued, the Corpse Puppet’s aura grew discernibly more terrifying, and its very form seemed to twist and distort.

Its Demon Body was savage, its Evil Qi monstrous. At a glance, the creature looked like an ancient Divine Demon, towering and imposing as if it could prop up the heavens.

’Half Corpse Puppet, half Puppet. Half-living, half-dead...’

Chu Mu muttered to himself, his gaze burning with an irrepressible fervor.

He hadn’t followed the traditional Corpse Refinement methods to the letter for this Corpse Puppet.

Instead, he had first modified it using Puppetry Skill, reforging all the imperfections from its original creation until it reached what he considered Perfection.

Then, because he was unfamiliar with the Demon Beast’s original, miraculous Body Refining technique, he had substituted it with the Demon Pattern Branding System.

Although he had studied the Demon Pattern Branding System back in the Demon Realm, he clearly lacked a systematic understanding of it.

Thus, the ’Demon Pattern Branding System’ was merely a placeholder name. In reality, it was a hodgepodge he had concocted by combining elements of that system with Immortal Dao Array Prohibition Inscriptions and Talisman Runes.

Though it was a mishmash, it complemented the Demon Beast’s inherently powerful and terrifying body quite well, proving to be a rather synergistic enhancement.

The final step was the Corpse Puppet refinement itself.

Which led to the blood-drenched scene before him.

Nourished by blood, tempered by Evil Qi!

Blood and Evil Qi—both were essential for the corpse.

This was precisely why he had gone to such great lengths to acquire so many corpses.

After all, despite the years of brutal warfare in this sea, any lingering Blood Qi was methodically cleansed every so often.

So he had to find his own source. As for Evil Qi, there was certainly no shortage of it here.

After decades of warfare and the deaths of countless Demon Beasts and cultivators, this stretch of ocean was practically overflowing with Evil Qi!

’Three days!’

Chu Mu roughly estimated the time, his thoughts steadying. He glanced around just as a streak of dark gold light shot through the crimson gloom from a nearby mountain ravine, heading straight for him.

Chu Mu showed no alarm. Instead, a rare smile, one he seldom showed to others, touched his lips.

WHIMPER...

The brilliant golden glow slowly faded, revealing the form it had concealed.

Its demonic form was like that of a golden-bodied arhat, with a nearly tangible dark gold luster covering every inch of its robust frame. It stood on four powerful limbs, its head held high as it looked at Chu Mu. However, the fawning, eager-to-please grin on its face completely shattered any sense of terror this Demon might have inspired.

A Tier Three Demon Beast, yet it was whimpering and nuzzling him, wagging its tail with that same fawning grin, just like a silly dog from the mortal world trying to curry favor with its master.

"You silly dog!"

"Don’t worry, I saved some for you."

Chu Mu laughed, ruffling the Tier Three Demon Beast’s head without a second thought. With a swipe of his finger across his Storage Ring, a Tier Three Demon Corpse fell before Wangcai.

WHINE...

Wangcai tilted its head, let out a couple of whimpers toward the Blood Pool, then looked back at Chu Mu as if trying to say something.

Chu Mu seemed to understand. He chuckled and gave the silly dog a playful kick.

"You silly mutt, what are you worried about? Relax, the blood-food is all yours. This ghostly thing won’t be competing with you for it!"

"This thing is just a Corpse Puppet, an evil creature. If it gets out of line, you can teach it a lesson for me..."

With that assurance, Wangcai finally seemed relieved. It opened its cavernous maw, chomped down on the Demon Corpse, and began to feast heartily.

Chu Mu glanced at the Blood Pool, then his gaze settled back on Wangcai.

He had spent half a year in near-total isolation to refine the Corpse Puppet. On top of that, the chaos in the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World often led to disruptions in the vast information network established by the Chen Family.

As a result, his contact with the Chixia True Understanding Pavilion was frequently severed.

He had originally expected that even if Wangcai’s bloodline transformation succeeded, it would still take several more years for it to advance to Tier Three.

But the outcome had far exceeded his expectations. A little over two months ago, Wangcai had suddenly broken through. After a Thunder Tribulation that shook all of Chixia, it had smoothly advanced to Tier Three.

Upon learning the news, he had arranged for the True Understanding Pavilion to send someone to bring Wangcai to him.

Upon inspection, he realized the unexpectedly rapid breakthrough was thanks to the profound foundation Wangcai had built up.

Following him all over the lands, it had consumed an enormous amount of blood-food and Elixirs.

Due to the limitations of its original bloodline, most of this consumed food had been difficult to convert into Cultivation. It was either wasted or left to accumulate within its body.

With such a foundation, once its bloodline successfully evolved into that of a Vajra Wolf King—a Celestial Tier Bloodline—the old restrictions at Tier Two and Tier Three naturally vanished. Its progress became astonishingly fast, and the breakthrough was simply a matter of course.

Moreover, based on his observations, Wangcai also seemed to be showing signs of awakening its Bloodline Divine Techniques.

It was just that the awakening Bloodline Divine Techniques seemed to still be gestating and hadn’t fully manifested yet.

After observing for a moment longer, Chu Mu withdrew his Divine Sense. Watching Wangcai feast so heartily, he couldn’t help but feel a strange sense of comfort.

The Immortal Path was long and arduous, and he had walked it alone. To him, Wangcai had long since ceased to be a mere helper or Spirit Beast. It was his emotional anchor, a being in whom he could place his absolute trust.

His other Puppets, and even the Corpse Puppet he was about to complete, were, in the end, nothing more than useful tools...

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