Chapter 105: Essence Exhaustion Technique

"Who exactly laid down this formation? And even raised an Eighth-Rank Demon Beast to cooperate with it?"

Jiuyou was secretly astonished.

After all, successfully raising an Eighth-Rank Demon Beast was no easy feat. Any great beast that had cultivated to the eighth rank—which one wasn't proud and arrogant? They would rather die than be enslaved by humans.

Therefore, one could only begin nurturing them from infancy, feeding them daily with Essence Blood, spending centuries of painstaking effort before earning their absolute loyalty.

A rogue cultivator simply couldn't afford such an endeavor. Only great sects or immensely powerful masters could personally intervene to possibly raise one.

Whoever was willing to abandon a centuries-nurtured Eighth-Rank Demon Beast here was simply squandering a treasure beyond measure. Even a Late Nascent Soul cultivator from a major sect wouldn't engage in such wasteful behavior. The more Jiuyou thought about it, the more convinced he became that Cold Ruins must conceal a tremendous opportunity.

At this moment, white mist had completely engulfed Jiuyou. The golden light emitted by the Golden Lotus Lamp protected his surroundings, repelling the pervasive white fog.

He violently extended his Divine Sense, but it was pushed back by the mist, barely managing to penetrate a few miles before it could go no further. This formation could actually isolate Divine Sense penetration—its grade was clearly not low. Finding the formation's eye would likely not be easy.

However, Jiuyou could also see clearly that these mists only served to confuse vision and obstruct Divine Sense. It was a high-grade illusion-killing formation, but that was all. Since that was the case, there was no need to find the formation's eye. He could simply break through the mist directly.

"Hmph, you think a mere illusion formation plus one Eighth-Rank Demon Beast can trap and kill this old man? Absolutely laughable."

A trace of disdain flickered through Jiuyou's eyes.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than a cold gleam flashed from the left side.

Jiuyou's eyes shimmered with dark light as he raised his hand and swiped violently in that direction. Golden Sun Mountain flew out with the motion, carving a golden rainbow across the air as it slammed fiercely into the attack.

The two collided with a bang, the cold gleam exploding outright while the leopard demon's phantom behind it shattered into pieces.

"An avatar, heh... a paltry trick. This old man would like to see how your paltry illusion-killing formation dares to contend with my Golden Sun Mountain!"

Jiuyou let out a cold laugh. He could sense demonic beast phantoms converging from all directions, openly wrapped in towering demonic aura, encircling toward his position, drawing closer and closer.

His fingertips swiftly formed hand seals. Golden Sun Mountain flew above his head and instantly expanded wildly in the wind. A golden blazing radiance spread outward, scattering the white mist in an instant. Golden Sun True Flame followed closely behind, burning the leopard demon phantoms clean away.

Golden Sun Mountain continued to grow. Jiuyou transformed into a streak of cyan light and flew into the mountain, now expanded to a hundred zhang in size.

In the moment the white mist had been scattered, his Divine Sense had already locked onto the location of the leopard demon's true body.

Hidden within the mountain, Jiuyou channeled his mind through his spiritual core, directing Golden Sun Mountain to charge straight in that direction. Everywhere it passed, white mist dispersed, cold light receded, and baleful energy withered away.

Seeing this, the Eighth-Rank leopard demon finally revealed a trace of terror in its eyes. It kicked its four limbs, preparing to flee far away—clearly, that gentle bump from Golden Sun Mountain earlier had left a shadow of fear in its heart.

But how could Jiuyou let this opportunity slip away?

A golden long whip shot out from within Golden Sun Mountain, faster than the leopard demon itself, directly entangling one of its hind legs and yanking it back hard. Just as it seemed about to slam violently into Golden Sun Mountain, the scorching golden flames had already scorched the fur on the leopard demon's body black.

The leopard demon roared in pain, its dark light replaced by a blood-red glow in its eyes. It let out a long howl to the heavens, its aura suddenly skyrocketing as it broke through its bottleneck in an instant, reaching the level of a Ninth-Tier Demon Beast.

With a violent surge of demonic power from its hind legs, it used its newly broken-through Ninth-Tier demonic power to forcibly shake off the golden long whip, leaping several steps away in an attempt to escape Golden Sun Mountain.

A flash of understanding crossed Jiuyou's face, quickly replaced by ruthless determination.

"So they're the ones who raised this beast. Then you deserve death even more."

As the harsh words fell, he pressed his palm down. Thirty-two Jinli Ember Moon Swords crazily assembled and spun behind him, waves of frenzied gold-cyan spiritual energy illuminating his back like a miniature sun, an awe-inspiring display of power.

With a single thought, all thirty-two Ember Moon Swords transformed into streaks of flowing light, surging forth from the sword formation, aimed directly at the Eighth-Rank leopard demon.

The terror in the leopard demon's eyes could no longer be hidden. It desperately fled into the distance.

But it had barely run a few steps when a blood-red light exploded hundreds of zhang away.

Within the crimson radiance, Jiuyou's figure appeared directly. The massive Golden Sun Mountain completely sealed off the beast's final path of retreat.

Caught between the two attacks, no matter how the "Ninth-Tier" leopard demon tried to defend itself, it was like an ant trying to topple a tree, a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

The Ember Moon Swords pierced over a dozen bloody holes straight through its body—a horrifying sight to behold—before Golden Sun Mountain slammed into it, sending flesh and blood flying everywhere, scattering into the falling snow as red and white chunks plummeted down. Even its Essence Soul was captured and sealed away by Jiuyou using the Golden Lotus Lamp.

To prevent the leopard demon's Essence Soul from causing trouble, Jiuyou specially gave it a proper "treatment" with Golden Sun True Flame, thoroughly taming it.

If this had been in the past, he would have swallowed the leopard demon's Essence Soul on the spot. But having just experienced the backlash of Obstruction Force, Jiuyou felt it wiser to be cautious. Especially with the upcoming breakthrough to Late Nascent Soul, he couldn't afford the slightest error.

The battle was over.

Jiuyou quickly collected the leopard demon's beast pill. Without its control, the surrounding white mist rapidly dispersed, vanishing completely in the blink of an eye.

He clearly remembered that in the instant the beast's body was shattered by Golden Sun Mountain, his Divine Sense had detected something else that seemed to shatter along with it—something like a formation plate.

Jiuyou quickly released his Divine Sense, carefully searching the entire canyon exit.

After a moment, he finally located six formation flags embedded in several canyon walls and beneath the ground. He then returned to the spot where the beast had died and found several fragments of the formation plate below. After carefully inspecting them and confirming there were no tracking Prohibition Marks, he stored them away.

Having cleaned up the aftermath, Jiuyou's gaze suddenly turned cold as he stared into the depths of Cold Ruins.

"Blood Abyss Sect... it really is them. I never expected they'd set a trap here. If any other Mid-Nascent Soul cultivator had come, they'd probably suffer a major loss—if not death, then at least severe injury forcing a retreat."

The reason he dared to assert this was the work of Blood Abyss Sect was naturally because he had recognized that the beast's sudden eruption to Ninth-Tier Demon Beast level came from casting another recorded secret technique of Blood Abyss Sect, the "Essence Exhaustion Technique."

This technique could draw upon a demon beast's Essence Blood, consuming its life essence, forcibly stimulating latent potential to allow it to fight at a minor realm higher in a short time.

It seemed Blood Abyss Sect's people had already entered Cold Ruins ahead of him.

Jiuyou quickly organized his thoughts and decided not to follow his original route, instead taking a different path.

The Blood Abyss Sect people had also approached Dong Yanwei and obtained the same map. Their planned route was likely largely the same—a safe path avoiding demon beasts and extreme cold zones.

Since that was the case, he would do the opposite and deliberately take the dangerous routes marked with "great beasts." This way, he could also avoid Nether Luo True Lord laying more traps along the way. With his concealment technique, as long as he didn't actively expose himself, even a tenth-level great beast couldn't detect him.

Decision made, Jiuyou glanced at his originally planned route. He transformed into a streak of cyan light and shot off toward another route he had hastily deduced.

The cold mist churned and swallowed his figure in an instant.