Chapter 92: Return to Peak

Time flowed swiftly.

Within the cave dwelling, Jiuyou ceaselessly extracted Essence Blood from the two Nascent Soul cultivators' corpses day and night, determined to wring out every last bit of value from them.

However, when it came to corpse refinement, Jiuyou did relatively little of that, after all, he was a proper soul-path cultivator, and in the past, these cultivator bodies had been utterly useless to him.

Extracting the Essence Blood and fusing it into Essence Blood Stones was not particularly difficult. The true challenge lay in the second step, consuming the Essence Blood Stone and refining it into one's own Essence Blood.

After all, the blood of those two was not of the same origin as his own. Rather than refinement, it was more accurate to call it transformation. This process required extreme caution, for even the slightest mistake could disrupt the flow of qi and blood throughout the body, resulting in anything from bleeding from all seven orifices to immediate backlash and total ruin.

Fortunately, Jiuyou's mana was pure, his Divine Sense formidable, and he also had the qi and blood of other low and mid-tier cultivators to assist him. The entire transformation process proceeded in an orderly fashion.

He could clearly feel his Essence Blood recovering bit by bit, as if his entire being had been reinjected with vitality. Even his originally pale complexion had regained a healthy flush.

And so, five years passed.

In the second year of that period, Jiuyou had already completely refined the Essence Blood Stone and recovered to his peak state.

If he were to encounter an Early Nascent Soul cultivator like Yue Hao now, how could he ever give the man a chance to escape via earth escape technique? The moment he struck, his opponent would likely be dead on the spot.

After recovering his cultivation, Jiuyou was in no hurry to leave seclusion.

He dispatched a Soul Wraith Puppet to care for the Little Green Bottle, ordering it to nurture spirit herbs. Especially the Soul-Nourishing Wood, for the growth of the Soul-Eating Insects could not be delayed, and the spirit materials used to feed them absolutely could not run out.

Over the next three years, Jiuyou refined the nascent souls of those two Early Nascent Soul cultivators one by one.

Before refining Yue Hao's nascent soul, he even conducted a careful soul search.

This act would certainly damage the nascent soul's origin and greatly reduce the effect after refinement, but Jiuyou had no regrets. Through this Nascent Soul cultivator's memories, he could learn more information about Qian Prefecture, which was far better than stumbling through this world blind in the future.

And indeed, that proved to be true.

From Yue Hao's memories, Jiuyou obtained a great deal of useful information. Among it was a more detailed map of Dayong's power distribution, as well as information on some special terrains and resource locations within the nation's borders.

Aside from that, one other matter caught his attention.

Yue Hao had once traveled to the Dayong Imperial Court to attend a meeting, the topic of discussion being the barbarians of the Northern Plains. But what Jiuyou cared about was not that, but rather a location mentioned by the attendees, an ancient battlefield across from the Northern Plains.

That ancient battlefield lay in the extreme north, ancient beyond measure, predating even the descent of the Heaven Demon by countless millions of years.

No one knew what had happened there all those years ago.

All that was known was that it had originally been a place of extreme cold, and with countless ancient cultivators dying within its bounds, the resentment and baleful energy had accumulated and settled over the years, eventually forming an extremely dangerous land of Yin-sha energy.

After hundreds of thousands of years, it remained undispersed.

Jiuyou firmly committed this information to memory.

A land of Yin-sha energy, for a soul-refining devil cultivator like himself, was truly a holy ground of cultivation.

However, that ancient battlefield was perilous beyond measure. From the memories of the other man, even a Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator would not dare to set foot there alone. Thinking about this now was still premature, he could only wait until his strength was sufficient before exploring it.

Jiuyou suppressed his restless excitement and turned to enter the newly established Insect-Breeding Chamber.

Several years had passed, and the Soul-Eating Insect swarm was no longer what it used to be.

Now there were tens of thousands of adult insects, among which several hundred had undergone mutation. Their bodies were entirely pitch-purple, their carapaces covered in golden patterns, and their eyes black as ink, exactly like the Insect Queen that had mutated first all those years ago, only slightly smaller in size.

Jiuyou conducted a special test.

The results were quite satisfying to him. During the experiment, a single mutated Soul-Eating Insect's combat power was equivalent to five ordinary ones.

Now, this insect army, though not yet fully mature and unable to contend with Nascent Soul cultivators on its own, when used as support under his control, was enough to elevate his strength another notch. If he were to face a Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator again, even if he could not win, he would at least have some means to maneuver.

Jiuyou's expression remained calm, but inwardly he was quite pleased.

One day.

He was sitting in his cave dwelling with his eyes closed in meditation when his Divine Sense suddenly detected someone approaching.

Immediately after, a coquettish call came from outside the cave.

"Father, Huan'er has returned from her training trip."

It was only then that Jiuyou realized he had missed one fish that had slipped through his net.

But then again, who told him he had always been "kind-hearted"?

He never left his name when doing things, just like back at the Crystal Spirit Sect. As for this time, he was naturally more than happy to "see off" this one as well, allowing father and daughter to be reunited in peace sooner.

A few days later, another headless unsolved case appeared near the market town.

Jiuyou paid it no mind at all.

He spent several more months refining an ancient relic, a golden long whip left behind by that Grand Elder of the Crystal Spirit Sect. Although this item was not a high-grade ancient relic, it was a rare binding-type magic treasure. No one would ever complain about having too many methods at their disposal, having it was better than not.

Everything was ready.

Jiuyou took one last look at the cave dwelling he had occupied for several years, then silently departed from the market town, leaving no trace behind just as he had arrived.

Now, he had recovered to his peak state.

His next plan was to repair the Jinli Sword Formation.

He already had thirty-two flying swords in his possession, and the incomplete sword formation they formed possessed considerable power, but it was still lacking in certain aspects.

Jiuyou calculated silently to himself, if he could refine ten more Jinli Ember Moon Swords, bringing the total to forty-two, he could form a half-finished sword formation. Combined with his current strength, he might even be able to fight a Late Nascent Soul Grand Cultivator.

If he could advance further in the future, break through to Late Nascent Soul, and storm the Blood Abyss Sect to avenge the pursuit he suffered all those years ago, it might not be impossible.

At present, the greatest difficulty was the lack of the key material for refining the Ember Moon Swords, the Jinli Stone.

Jiuyou did not even know what kind of special location such a heavenly treasure would be born in. He had searched through the memories of those Golden Core cultivators, carefully reviewed Yue Hao's experiences, but had never been able to find any clue about the Jinli Stone.

It seemed he would have to go inquire at a larger cultivator city.

Jiuyou packed up all his belongings, left the cave dwelling, transformed into a pitch-black streak of light, and shot off toward the southwest.

Within a million miles in every direction, the largest and most prosperous cultivator city was called Thousand Leaf City.

There, cultivators gathered in droves, shops lined the streets, and information from all paths flowed and exchanged. Perhaps there, he could find what he was looking for.

The streak of light tore across the sky and vanished beyond the horizon in an instant.

Behind him, that unremarkable little market town gradually receded into the distance.

And ahead of him awaited an even vaster world.