Chapter 114: The Hidden Enemy (1)

Away from the battle raging just outside the Black Desolation Sect, a full week passed in the quiet of the inner grounds.

During that time, Gu Yuan had reached the peak of the Spiritual Core Realm. Under normal circumstances, he would have taken some time to consolidate his cultivation before attempting a breakthrough, but with the demonic beast tide still raging, he had no intention of wasting that much time. He was going to break through into the Embryo Realm immediately and attract a Heavenly Tribulation.

Then, an idea suddenly occurred to him.

True Veil. The ability he had obtained from the Orb of Creation upon reaching the Spiritual Core Realm.

Didn’t it conceal him from Heaven itself? If so, what would happen if he concealed his cultivation before breaking through? Could he enter the Embryo Realm without triggering a Heavenly Tribulation?

Why not give it a try?

With that thought, Gu Yuan concealed his cultivation and began his breakthrough.

To enter the Embryo Realm, a cultivator had to condense their Spiritual Core into a seed, one that would eventually give birth to a void. Having learned the method from the Golden Mountain Scripture, Gu Yuan encountered no difficulties with this step.

He kept part of his attention on the sky above, waiting for the Heavenly Tribulation to gather. Yet even when his breakthrough was halfway complete, not a single tribulation cloud had appeared.

"So, I really don’t need to worry about Heavenly Tribulations from now on..." he muttered, feeling a little excited by the discovery.

He quickly put that excitement aside and focused on completing his breakthrough.

Ji Yan was holding the front line against the demonic beast tide. He wanted to join her as soon as possible.

One day later, Gu Yuan finally completed his breakthrough, reaching the First Stage of the Embryo Realm.

As his cultivation settled, he felt the familiar sensation that accompanied every major breakthrough. It seemed the Orb of Creation had granted him another ability.

What is it this time?

He was curious, but decided to investigate later. Right now, he had more pressing matters to attend to.

Gu Yuan rose to his feet and took a step into the sky. Before leaving, he glanced down at Ji Yue. The golden crystal within the formation had nearly fused with the Great Dao Fragment.

"Is she close to finishing, too?" he murmured before continuing on his way.

When Gu Yuan arrived at the battlefield, he first searched for Ji Yan.

She was in the sky, and she wasn’t fighting. She seemed locked in a silent staring match with the the enemies opposite her.

Seeing that, Gu Yuan turned his attention to the battlefield below.

At first glance, the Black Desolation Sect seemed to have the upper hand. The demonic beasts had suffered far heavier casualties than the cultivators defending the sect.

But that was only the impression one got at a glance. Even after losing so many of their number, the demonic beasts still vastly outnumbered the sect’s forces.

And there was something else wrong with the battlefield.

Whenever a demonic beast fell, the beasts nearby seemed to grow stronger.

A battle that should have been going in the cultivators’ favor was gradually becoming far less one-sided.

What’s going on?

Gu Yuan could tell that if things continued this way, the situation would only grow more dangerous. He immediately appraised one of the fallen demonic beasts.

[Ironhide Boar]

[Grade: Third Grade]

[Description: The corpse of a demonic beast bound by Bai Guquan’s Corpse Refinement Technique. As Decay Aura refines the corpse into a puppet, its remaining life force is siphoned away, with half transferred to its linked living targets and the other half to Bai Guquan, the caster. Once refinement is complete, the corpse will rise as a puppet one grade below what it was in life.]

Gu Yuan frowned as he read the description.

The situation was far more dangerous than he had anticipated.

Could all the fallen demonic beasts have been bound by this same technique? If the corpses suddenly rose again, even with their grades reduced by one, the situation could become hopeless.

Gu Yuan scanned the battlefield, searching for the Corpse Furnace Sect Master. Yet no matter how thoroughly he searched, even with the help of his Threads of Providence, he couldn’t find anyone among the enemies on the ground who appeared to be the man himself.

He shifted his gaze to the sky, where the seven transformed demons remained motionless, and began appraising them.

[Name: Cang Kui]

[Age: 513032]

[Demonic Core: Ninth Grade (Mid)]

[Bloodline: Black Mountain Ape]

[Providence: Low (High)]

[Special Note: Cang Kui, Demon Lord of the Ironridge Region, is known by the title of Black Calamity. Seeking to prove his worth to the Demon Court upon ascending to the Immortal World, he has allied with other Demon Lords and the Netherblood Palace to bring the Cangchen World under its jurisdiction, transforming it into a world ruled by demonic beasts.]

That was the information on the strongest demonic beast in the sky.

Gu Yuan didn’t linger on it. Cang Kui’s ambitions were troublesome, but they weren’t what he needed to figure out right now. He continued appraising the remaining figures, and soon, a different description caught his attention.

[Chensha]

[Grade: Sixth Grade]

[Description: The former Corpse Furnace Sect Master, now refined into a puppet by Bai Guquan. His body has been preserved and strengthened through corpse refinement, allowing him to serve as a Sixth-Grade Puppet.]

A puppet? Not the sect master himself?

Gu Yuan stared at the description, wondering where Bai Guquan could be. A technique like this couldn’t be performed from a great distance, after all.

If he couldn’t find the man himself, perhaps he needed to try another approach. He could store the corpses inside his Orb of Creation before their refinement was complete. It might not be the best solution, but it was the next best thing.

As Gu Yuan considered this, his gaze happened to land on a familiar figure among the Black Desolation Sect’s disciples.

Su Leishan, the spy from the Wei royal family.

Apparently, he had survived until now and was even fighting for the sect.

Yes, a spy was fighting for the sect.

Could the Corpse Furnace Sect Master be another spy as well?

With that thought, Gu Yuan began appraising the other disciples, and a moment later, he stopped moving altogether, unsure whether to laugh or cry.

"There are still this many spies left?" he muttered in exasperation.

After the previous war, Gu Yuan had assumed their numbers would have decreased. But had they really? Judging by what he was seeing, that hardly seemed to be the case.