Chapter 795: Finding Opportunity (I)

In the end, Li Xiang gritted his teeth and paid a painful five thousand high-grade spirit stones for Lin Zheyu's help. Since Li Xiang had paid nearly twice as much as the other cultivators, Lin Zheyu put more effort into the treatment, even if his methods were rougher.

Li Xiang's condition was far worse than that of the other demonic cultivators. Lin Zheyu figured he should not go too far with someone who had paid so much. This was a valuable client. He could not neglect him. He decided to remove 40% of the yao will in Li Xiang's body that could be removed.

Mm, I'm such a good person, Lin Zheyu thought with a smile.

This guy is a devil! Cao Hongchang could not help thinking as he watched Lin Zheyu remove the yao will from Li Xiang.

In the great hall, Li Xiang was already drenched in sweat. Every muscle and sinew in his body trembled uncontrollably. Agonized moans, strained almost to the point of madness, escaped his lips and echoed through the hall. As an old friend, Cao Hongchang knew Li Xiang's ferocity and madness well. The man was a lunatic. Pain usually stirred that savage side of him, making him more excited and his laughter wilder.

But there was no trace of excitement in Li Xiang now. His face was horribly contorted, and he looked close to breaking. He lay limp on the floor, his body spasming and twitching beyond his control.

Until I'm sure I can deal with this guy, I must never provoke him again, Cao Hongchang reminded himself, his cheek twitching at the sight.

After knowing Xiao Zhe for so long, Cao Hongchang had come to see him as petty and ill-tempered, but dependable enough. As long as no one provoked him, he generally would not make trouble for them. Li Xiang's current state, worse than death, showed what happened when someone did.

***

Lin Zheyu's expression remained calm. He paid no attention to Li Xiang's agonized moans or his wretched appearance. With one hand pressed to Li Xiang's abdomen and the other to the space between his brows, he guided his golden energy around the demon god's will fused with Li Xiang's soul. Then, with far less care, he began stripping away the yao will entangled with his soul and nascent soul.

"I see, I see... So this is how a demonic cultivator's nascent soul is formed..." Lin Zheyu murmured, a glimmer of understanding dawning on him.

This treatment had brought an unexpected discovery. Of the Nascent Soul-realm demonic cultivators Lin Zheyu had treated recently, all but Cao Hongchang had relied on the power of demon god to force a breakthrough. Cao Hongchang was a demonic cultivator in the purest sense. Gifted with extraordinary aptitude, he had forced his way into the Nascent Soul realm by simulating a Yao Demon Nest.

The others had also reached the Nascent Soul-realm with the aid of that power, but their nascent souls differed from Cao Hongchang's. The difference was so slight that even Lin Zheyu's powerful spiritual Heavenly Eye had been unable to pinpoint it before.

Now, however, the yao will had eaten so deeply into Li Xiang that his condition was extremely severe. As he repeatedly used the power of the demon god to suppress it, he had also come close to being completely assimilated by the demon god's power.

Together, these factors left clearer traces of the power of demon god in his nascent soul than in those of the other demonic cultivators. Drawing on everything he had observed and learned, Lin Zheyu finally caught the faintest trace of it within Li Xiang's nascent soul!

"I finally know where the difference lies... Those demonic cultivators from the demon god sects relied on demon god power to fuse their altered demonic patterns with the power of a separate cultivation system, transforming the result into a nascent soul. Cao Hongchang, on the other hand, used an imitation Yao Demon Nest to transform the altered demonic patterns within his body so they could merge into a nascent soul cultivated through the Immortal Dao... If I can find the fundamental difference between the two, I might find the opening I'm looking for..." Lin Zheyu murmured.

Insights kept bubbling up in his mind. As time passed, Lin Zheyu suddenly opened his eyes and sent a message to Cao Hongchang through his spiritual sense. "My friend, could you come over and lower the defenses around your nascent soul? Don't worry. It won't harm you. Next time, I'll remove the yao will from your body for free."

His insights had reached a critical point, and ideas were pouring into his mind. The opening that had once seemed impossible to find was finally beginning to take shape.

"All right!" Cao Hongchang replied after less than two breaths of thought.

So he really is using this chance to study other demonic cultivators' nascent souls. Could Fellow Xiao have found a path for demonic cultivators to reach the Deity Transformation realm? Cao Hongchang wondered.

Cao Hongchang was no fool. No one who had cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm was. Over the past few days, he had noticed enough oddities to form a few suspicions. From his perspective, Xiao Zhe was a powerful mid-stage Nascent Soul realm demonic cultivator. Thanks to his mysterious and formidable divine ability, Fellow Xiao might also suffer very little erosion from yao will.

Cao Hongchang therefore believed Fellow Xiao had a far better chance than he did of becoming a Deity Transformation realm demonic cultivator.

Xiao Zhe's behavior lately had been strange, too. Cao Hongchang had the faint impression that he was studying the nascent souls inside other demonic cultivators. Fellow Xiao had a nascent soul Dao Body of his own, but each person's techniques and opportunities were different, and so were the nascent souls they cultivated.

Studying someone else's nascent soul was usually of little use. A nascent soul was a unified whole, making it difficult to gain any useful insight from one even if a person tried. To Cao Hongchang, the likeliest explanation for Fellow Xiao's interest was that he had gained a new understanding of the yao path. Perhaps Fellow Xiao had discovered a secret of that path hidden within different demonic cultivators' nascent souls, a secret that might reveal how they could reach the Deity Transformation realm!

A glimmer of hope rose in Cao Hongchang's heart. If that's true, then by staying close to Fellow Xiao, perhaps I could...

The demon realm had invaded this world long ago, and demon arts had probably existed for more than ten thousand years. Over that time, quite a few demonic cultivators like Cao Hongchang had reached the Nascent Soul realm through their own efforts. Yet not one had reached the Deity Transformation realm! Most succumbed to the erosion of yao will by the middle stage of the Nascent Soul realm and became demon puppets.

Cao Hongchang had ambitions of forging a path to the Deity Transformation realm for demonic cultivators on his own, but he knew how likely that path was to end in death. Now, in Xiao Zhe, he saw a glimmer of hope. That was why he had agreed so readily when Lin Zheyu called him over.

Cao Hongchang stepped forward, lowered the defenses around his nascent soul, opened his mind, and said in a low voice, "Go ahead..."

Seeing how cooperative Cao Hongchang was, Lin Zheyu gave him an intrigued glance. He lifted his hand from between Li Xiang's brows and pressed it against Cao Hongchang's abdomen. His powerful perception spread outward as he pushed his spiritual Heavenly Eye to its limit. Following the faint clue he had just found, he examined the nascent souls within Li Xiang and Cao Hongchang again. The altered demonic patterns within them seemed to shed their veil of mystery, revealing secrets hidden deeper beneath the surface.

Time passed. The terrible pain of having the yao will removed left Li Xiang wishing he were dead. Cao Hongchang watched with a slight twitch of his cheek while cooperating fully with Lin Zheyu's examination. Lin Zheyu's eyes grew brighter and brighter. The corners of his mouth rose until he was smiling broadly.

"That should do it..." Lin Zheyu murmured, slowly withdrawing his hands from their abdomens.

He had seen enough. Lin Zheyu felt he had gathered all the insight he needed, and he now had a sense of the opening he had been searching for. Once he returned and spent some time in seclusion to absorb what he had learned, he was confident he could soon create the technique.