Chapter 260: Ruling the World (29) Spiritual Energy Pollution

They charged forward, carving a path of slaughter. The massive corpses of demonic beasts crashed heavily to the earth along the way, each riddled with hideous, bone-deep wounds. Gushing blood soaked the soil and stone, leaving a heavy stench of gore that refused to fade.

Bai Xuanyi held one hand half-raised, an ancient, azure gourd floating just above his palm.

This treasure was the Nine Dragon Gourd. Nine coiled dragons with distinct heads were carved into its ancient, weighty surface. He had spent centuries of painstaking effort refining it day and night to become his life-bound spirit treasure.

Sealed inside was pure Lunar Essence Water, a substance of boundless power he had condensed over countless years by extracting astral and lunar essence.

In battle, it could unleash nine thousand-zhang lunar water dragons that rampaged with overwhelming destructive force. Each dragon struck with the power of a Nascent Soul cultivator's full-force blow, tearing open deep, crisscrossing ravines wherever it crashed into the earth. Countless low-tier Blood Demons collapsed upon contact, instantly reduced to ash.

Beside him, Hongce's methods were even more varied and eerie. Having studied the Dao of Formations for millennia, he had long mastered the supreme ability to set up arrays in the void. He needed no array flags or formation plates; with a flick of his fingers, he could manifest restrictions directly out of thin air.

On top of that, he was a master of the Dao of Puppetry, wielding a profound ability that let him summon soldiers as easily as tossing beans. He also nurtured a wisp of life-bound spiritual fire in his hands. These three methods complemented one another flawlessly, blending offense and defense into a seamless whole.

Most terrifying of all, Hongce commanded a full six Nascent Soul Late Stage puppets. In the present-day cultivation world, where spiritual energy was withering, to forge and maintain six puppets of such a high tier was proof enough of the profound foundation he had accumulated over the ages.

These puppets possessed bodies as resilient as divine weapons and knew no fear of death. They charged at the very forefront of the beast tide, forcefully carving out a completely empty zone. Working in tandem with his array restrictions to slaughter everything in sight, they drew miserable wails from the countless Blood Demons dying around them.

In contrast, Jiuyou remained the most composed and detached of the three. With a mere thought, he activated his Natal Golden Separation Ember Moon Sword Array, sending a full eighty-one longswords into the air. Blazing flames surged over the blades, yet their light was chillingly sharp as they densely covered the sky. The entire sword array advanced and retreated with perfect rhythm, uniting offense and defense. Its fierce sword energy swept out, and with a wave of his hand, dozens of Blood Demons of varying cultivation levels were instantly slain.

Yet, he consistently kept his strength in reserve, never revealing his true trump cards. Spreading his divine sense, he quietly observed the rhythm of the other two men's attacks. He knew very well that Hongce and Bai Xuanyi were showing the same restraint. None of them were fighting at full strength.

These old monsters were shrewd to the extreme. Until they reached the core dangers of the mystic realm, no one wanted to expose their bottom-line methods too early. Furthermore, Tianyuan Mountain was inexplicably bizarre, and there was that faint, lingering sensation of being watched. No one could gauge the hidden dangers lurking in the dark; holding back strength for self-preservation was the safest way to survive.

Each wielding their respective methods, the three of them steadily advanced deeper into the chaotic tunnel. In the blink of an eye, they had pressed forward hundreds of thousands of li.

Jiuyou had set foot here a thousand years ago and still retained a vague memory of the original four tunnels. But after endless years, the four passages had completely merged into a chaotic maze. Combined with the fact that the Blood Demons had secretly altered the terrain and laid down eerie restrictions, this place was a stark reminder that things remain the same but people have changed. Just how much danger lay ahead, how many variables hid in the geography, and how long the tunnel actually was—even he could not guess anymore.

The deeper they went into the tunnel, the more dense and scarlet the surrounding Blood Demon energy became. This was not the foul, hostile blood aura left behind by ordinary beasts butchering one another, but an eerie demonic energy that shared the exact same origin as the ancient Blood Demon's main body.

If even a blood-path Great Grandmaster were to stand here, they could forget about drawing upon this blood energy to cultivate—lingering for even a moment would result in this tyrannical demonic energy corroding their soul and assimilating their Dao foundation. They would ultimately be reduced to a mindless, bloodthirsty puppet.

At first, the three of them paid it little mind, but as they pressed deeper, a heavy solemnity settled over them. This pure, tyrannical Blood Demon energy had actually completely polluted and assimilated the surrounding spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

As Deity Transformation Cultivators, they could normally command the spiritual energy within a thousand li with a casual wave of their hands. Yet here, drawing upon the world's spiritual energy had become incredibly sluggish, met with heavy resistance at every turn.

This realization sparked a faint sense of dread in the three old Deity Transformation monsters, despite all the storms they had weathered in their lives.

Whether fighting enemies, unleashing divine abilities, or maintaining their protective spiritual light, cultivators needed the support of spiritual energy for everything. The fact that the spiritual energy here was entirely polluted and isolated by the Blood Demon's power meant their natural supply had been cut off. Even with their heaven-defying cultivation, profound foundations, and countless reserves of miraculous pills and medicines, they would eventually exhaust their finite stockpiles. Once those personal spiritual resources ran dry, a Deity Transformation Cultivator without spiritual power would be no different from a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

All three were meticulous schemers who instantly saw through the fatal danger of their situation. They exchanged a glance, their eyes hiding deep apprehension, yet not a single one spoke a word.

This was especially true for Bai Xuanyi and Hongce, whose lifespans were already bordering on exhaustion, no different from Yuan Huang, Myriad Manifestations, and the others. They had cultivated bitterly for millennia, desperately waiting for a chance to break through their bottlenecks and find an opportunity to ascend. There was no retreating in this life. If they allowed cowardice to take hold today and turned back, they would spend the rest of their lives trapped in their current realm until they ultimately passed away in meditation, withering into nothingness and vanishing entirely into the river of time.

The two of them were burning with anxiety, but by silent consensus, they kept their mouths shut. They knew Jiuyou still enjoyed a long lifespan of a thousand years; his temperament was steady, and he had plenty of ways out. If they actually brought it up, there was no guarantee Jiuyou wouldn't weigh the pros and cons and withdraw directly.

Losing a single member of their group would cause their chances of victory to plummet when they finally faced the Blood Demon's true body and the ultimate perils of the mystic realm. Thus, both men harbored their own schemes and silently calculated their next moves, feigning composure as they fought the beasts, unwilling to upset the current balance.

Jiuyou took in every subtle shift in their expressions. His mind was as clear as a polished mirror, yet he did not choose to leave.

He too had his own obsessions and destined opportunities. For tens of thousands of years, past generations of mighty Deity Transformation experts had exhausted their entire lives without ever finding a path to ascension. The Blood Demon in the Mount Tianyuan Mystic Realm today was his one and only chance to break the deadlock. If he missed it, he would never get a second chance.

More importantly, he possessed the Heaven-grade Spiritual Treasure, the Heaven and Earth Ring. This treasure was endlessly profound; its control was not limited to spiritual energy and origin energy, but could govern all forces of heaven and earth. Blood energy, demonic energy, soul power, and the like—all of them fell under its sway.

The seemingly unsolvable pollution from the Blood Demon's foul energy around them might be a dead end for others, but to him, it was practically non-existent. Relying on the wondrous might of the Heaven and Earth Ring, he could easily strip away the filth of the blood energy and precisely extract pure spiritual energy, remaining completely unaffected by any restrictions in this place.

Because of this, even though the path ahead was fraught with lethal danger and surging with hidden currents, Jiuyou's state of mind remained placid. He closely followed the other two, taking steady steps toward the deepest reaches of the tunnel.

Of course, Jiuyou had never revealed the existence of this treasure, nor had he told the other two about it. From the way they were acting, they seemed completely unaware of the Heaven and Earth Ring. 'It seems that guy, Sacred Venerable Yuan Huang, didn't mention the Heaven and Earth Ring,' he thought. 'I wonder if it's to ease the tension between us, or if he still harbors ill intentions...'