Chapter 499

Wang Yu tossed the divine-sense jade slip containing his crude design or more accurately, his list of “requirements”—into the dusk sky beneath the ten-thousand-zhang clouds.

He then waited quietly at the side.

One incense stick of time later, Yan Ling finally arrived. Only after collecting the reward for clearing the second checkpoint did she turn to look at Wang Yu.

Since the two of them were far ahead of the others, Wang Yu shared the trick Jin Miaoshan had told him. Yan Ling immediately understood.

And so.

They waited a full three incense sticks of time until High Priest Youpeng arrived as the third person to clear the stage. He could not help sighing in admiration.

“Fellow Daoist Wang’s speed is truly lightning-fast. Among Nascent Souls, it ranks in the absolute first tier.”

“Brother Youpeng flatters me. It is merely that this checkpoint happens to suit me.”

“You cannot put it that way. True skill is true skill, especially when you also have this… Daoist companion with you.”

Yan Ling’s face flushed slightly. It was not from good health.

She was simply embarrassed by High Priest Youpeng’s hesitant words. The Nether Mountain Sect’s Nascent Soul experts had entered the Myriad Treasures Secret Realm many times before, so they naturally came prepared with meticulously designed artifact refining blueprints.

He too tossed his blueprint into the dusk sky beneath the clouds. The two of them began chatting about the situation on the righteous-demonic battlefield, pointing out various aspects and discussing with great enthusiasm.

Before long.

The fourth person cleared the cloud-path speed checkpoint.

Wang Yu had long heard of this individual, it was none other than the Yin-Yang Demon Lord of the Joyous Union Demon Sect. This man was extremely lecherous, skilled in corpse-control techniques and illusion divine abilities.

His cultivation had reached the eighth layer of Nascent Soul. He was one of the infamous great demon of the Crimson Kite, to the point where female cultivators would flee at the mere mention of his name. He was a true starving ghost in the realm of lust.

Wang Yu’s old friend from Thunderfire Temple, Lei Yao, had made it her lifelong wish to slay this demon. The grudge and entanglement between them had lasted several hundred years. Sooner or later, one of them would die.

The moment the Yin-Yang Demon Lord reached the finish line, his gaze naturally locked onto Yan Ling. Wang Yu frowned, stepped sideways, and shielded Yan Ling behind him.

The Yin-Yang Demon Lord immediately put on a friendly smile, walked to the side by himself, and tossed his prepared artifact-refining blueprint into the dusky sky.

Clearly, no matter how lecherous he was, he had still heard of Wang Yu’s deeds. The instant Wang Yu showed protective intent, he chose to back down without any thought of conflict.

This was the classic case of “a wise man submits to circumstances.”

Wang Yu sized the man up.

Sparse gray-white hair revealed a layer of dead, wrinkled, gray-black scalp covered in corpse spots, giving off a feeling that was both sleazy and nauseating.

His eye sockets protruded, eyes sunken deep within.

The lower eyelids were layered with wrinkles in a pale pink hue, resembling the folds of a “chrysanthemum,” which only made him appear even more disgusting. Combined with his triangular eyes and crooked nose and mouth, he could only be described as grotesquely ugly.

His looks were only slightly better than the Daoist Filth of Yellow Springs Monastery, yet he was far more repulsive.

A lingering stench of decay clung to his entire body, as though maggots were crawling all over him—utterly foul.

With an appearance like this, even a nine-lifetime courtesan would refuse him unless forced.

However.

Wang Yu vaguely recalled someone saying that this man used to possess peerlessly handsome features, the kind that made women flock to him. It seemed he was currently using an illusion technique to disguise his true face.

He also had several children, some dead and some still alive.

At this moment.

The Yin-Yang Demon Lord suddenly spoke in a sinister tone.

“Fellow Daoist Supreme Law has been staring at this old man for quite a while. Could it be that you find my appearance ugly?”

Wang Yu immediately sneered.

“Ugly? You disgrace your entire sect. Just how ugly must your father have been to sire a face like yours? You’ve single-handedly dragged down the average looks of all Crimson Kite cultivators.

“If I were your father, I would have drowned you in the bath the moment you were born.”

Wang Yu’s words were packed with maximum aggression.

The Yin-Yang Demon Lord was stunned into silence. He had deliberately used a sinister tone to test the waters, never expecting the other party to show zero fear and instead start provoking him outright.

Remembering that the other was merely a junior, the Yin-Yang Demon Lord trembled with rage.

High Priest Youpeng was also startled by the situation.

After a brief moment of thought, he immediately stepped to Wang Yu’s side. Dark demonic essence surged in his hand, clearly saying: if you dare make a move, I will end you.

Yan Ling felt a secret surge of warmth in her heart. She thought Wang Yu was standing up for her, since that disgusting gaze earlier had made her extremely uncomfortable.

After a short standoff, the Yin-Yang Demon Lord gave a cold snort, walked even farther away, and set up a sound-isolating barrier to block outside interference.

Wang Yu nearly laughed out loud.

Right now, it was as if four huge words were carved all over his body:

Secret Realm Tyrant!

As time passed, more and more Nascent Soul cultivators arrived at the third checkpoint. Half a day later.

When the final person to clear the stage tossed his artifact-refining blueprint into the dusk sky, spatial ripples suddenly rose beneath the sea of clouds, as though a third space was opening.

Wang Yu, Yan Ling, and two unknown early-stage Nascent Souls—four people in total were enveloped by the spatial ripples and vanished from everyone’s sight in an instant.

The Yin-Yang Demon Lord fiercely flung his sleeve, scattering a large swath of clouds. Extremely unwilling, he turned and left. He had been the fourth to clear the stage, yet only the first three received the Thousand Treasures Liquid.

This trip had essentially cost him several supreme-grade spirit stones for two measly drops of Hundred Treasures Liquid. A complete loss.

Aside from the top three, the other Nascent Soul participants who had not caught the eye of the Myriad Treasures Pool’s artifact spirit had basically come for nothing.

The scene shifted.

After a brief blur before their eyes, a vibrantly colored treasure pool appeared in front of the four. Nine-colored flames burned above the pool.

A flame spirit leaped out from within.

Its voice was young and tender, yet it carried the powerful, majestic pressure of a Spirit Transformation Venerable’s subordinate.

“Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow, Ice Lotus Sword, Heaven-Measuring Ruler, Mountain-Chasing Whip… your ideas are quite good. Who wants to go first?”

Wang Yu tilted his head to signal Yan Ling to go first, then turned to look at the other two early-stage Nascent Souls. Both of them shuddered.

“We greet Supreme Law Profound Pill Demonic Lord. The two of us are rogue cultivators from the South Sea, heavily hired by Golden Abundance Tower. The refining opportunity does not belong to us.”

Upon hearing this, the interested gleam in Wang Yu’s eyes instantly dimmed… so much for being the secret realm tyrant. Sure enough, Golden Abundance Tower still secretly sent their own people.

With their enormous wealth and sphere of influence, they still resorted to such petty tricks over a single Myriad Treasures Secret Realm. It really was rather small-minded of them.

Internally, Wang Yu felt a pang of regret, yet his expression remained completely calm. “You’ve misunderstood. Since you are people from Golden Abundance Tower, you are not outsiders. Please, go ahead first.”

“We wouldn’t dare, we wouldn’t dare. Senior Supreme Law should go first.”

After a round of polite pushing and yielding, Wang Yu was temporarily placed in the second slot. Although it was a pity he could not seize two refining opportunities, he was not left idle.

The cluster of nine-colored flames floating above the Myriad Treasures Pool was actually one with the pool itself, yet the aura and characteristics it emitted far exceeded any single type. It did not match any of the heaven-and-earth spiritual flames Wang Yu knew. It felt more like a fused product. His heart stirred, and he probed it even more carefully with his divine sense.

“Vibrant green flames full of life force, white flames like thunder that make all evil retreat, explosive crimson flames…”

Nine colors, nine distinct properties, perfectly fused together with the Myriad Treasures Pool to form this fifth-rank supreme-grade spiritual treasure.

Seeing Yan Ling pay out of her own pocket to provide materials, the artifact spirit generously supplied three types of fourth-rank supreme-grade materials in return. This gave Wang Yu a clearer understanding of the Myriad Treasures Pool’s mechanics.

The reward for reaching the third checkpoint was probably these freely provided materials.

“Three types… that should be enough.”

And so.

After several months of quiet waiting, a sword with an ice lotus shaped hilt suddenly shot out from the colorful liquid in the treasure pool — precisely the Ice Lotus Sword Yan Ling had requested.

“Fourth-rank supreme-grade. Passable.”

Wang Yu’s comment was not that the sword was mediocre, but that Yan Ling had failed to seize the best opportunity. This was clearly not the limit of the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit.

Yan Ling, however, was quite satisfied.

“This magic treasure can temporarily serve as my life-bound treasure. It is more than enough for me to use for the rest of my life.”

If she had no potential to break through to Spirit Transformation, this sword was indeed qualified. It would also greatly increase Yan Ling’s combat strength, allowing her to barely contend with mid-stage Nascent Souls.

Having witnessed the capabilities of the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit, Wang Yu stroked his Seaheart Ring. A dense pile of rare treasures and materials instantly filled the sky above the Myriad Treasures Pool. Every single item was fourth-rank at the very least.

The Myriad Treasures artifact spirit’s spirit visibly lifted.

Every material gave it new design inspiration. Brilliant ideas sprouted like bamboo shoots after rain. The small hand formed from nine-colored flames continuously reached out and gathered them.

Stellar Sand, Lunar Silver Marrow, Great Sun Golden Essence, Extraterrestrial Profound Iron, Flowing Light Divine Silkworm Silk… everything he selected was fourth-rank supreme-grade without exception.

More importantly, Wang Yu also tossed out the batch of “scrap metal” he had obtained from the ancient Human Emperor’s secret vault. Though they appeared useless, after remelting they could yield many extinct rare materials — the perfect supplements.

All four people could feel the artifact spirit’s excitement. After it finished selecting Wang Yu’s materials, the small hand waved once more and actually took out an extremely rare fifth-rank treasure material.

[Phoenix Parasol Tree Heart!]

The parasol tree was also known as “Phoenix Wood,” but not every parasol tree possessed such divinity. Only a true phoenix wood that had been roosted upon for years by a genuine phoenix or fenghuang could nurture such wondrous effects.

The parasol-wood flooring laid in the immortal officials’ medicine vault in Eastern Extreme Capital had been genuine phoenix wood once briefly occupied by True-spirit phoenixes! However, most of it had been third-rank, with only the top layer being fourth-rank. The fifth-rank parasol tree heart now taken out was clearly intended as the main material for the Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow.

This also meant… a fifth-rank spiritual treasure was about to be born right here.

Wang Yu held his breath and focused.

He watched as the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit manipulated the nine-colored flames, separating the green life-force flame and the crimson explosive flame to begin preliminary processing of the materials. The colorful liquid in the Myriad Treasures Pool also served as a supreme-grade cooling liquid.

Amid the butterfly-like dance of artifact-refining hand seals, a demonic bow containing powerful fluctuations gradually took shape. Midway through, Wang Yu provided massive amounts of demonic essence, his own blood, and essence blood as requested by the artifact spirit.

It used a lost blood-refining method to continuously increase the compatibility between Wang Yu and the nurturing spiritual treasure, allowing the soon-to-be-born spirituality to naturally recognize him as its master.

As time passed, Wang Yu’s serious gaze suddenly sharpened. Although he could not steal the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit’s refining method, he keenly sensed an advancement opportunity for the Ice Chi Pill Flame from the way the nine-colored spiritual flames separated and merged.

This pill-flame technique had originally been only third-rank. Even after the Idle Slots pushed it to fourth-rank, its potential had reached its limit. But now, having accidentally obtained the heaven-and-earth rare Gu known as the Iceflame Butterfly, Wang Yu had once again glimpsed a path to advancement.

If he could fuse the iceflame power of the Gu insects, the two combined might have a chance to break through to fifth-rank. Once it crossed the major grade barrier, slowly nurturing it to the fifth-rank limit would not be difficult at all.

Absorbing extreme cold qi and grinding it with time would suffice!

The only flaw was that the Iceflame Butterflies were still too weak. They would need to be raised to the peak of fourth-rank as a group before there was any real chance of nurturing fifth-rank iceflame.

After the Myriad Treasures Secret Realm trip ended, he could postpone the next secret realm schedule. With over thirty years left until the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm, if he could master a fifth-rank iceflame in advance, he would be the undisputed number one below Spirit Transformation in the Endless Ice Plains. He might even briefly contend with a Spirit Transformation cultivator, just like the scene when the Yellow Springs Monastery Lord had faced Crimson Heaven Demon Venerable.

Achieving that level would be no problem at all. In fact, with his lack of obvious weaknesses and multiple advantages, he could do even better than the Yellow Springs Monastery Lord.

This kind of improvement was far greater than anything the secret realm could offer.

It was absolutely worth spending time to fight for even bigger gains.

Several months later.

After spending a full year inside the Myriad Treasures Secret Realm, the spiritual treasure that Wang Yu had been longing for was finally completed. The Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow had been successfully refined by the artifact spirit.

At that moment.

Above the Myriad Treasures Pool, within the gradually dissipating nine-colored flames, a fiery-red longbow revealed its true form. The bow body measured half a zhang, 1.6 meters, nearly as tall as a person.

It was an imposing giant bow. The bow arms were engraved with the totem of a phoenix spreading its wings, burning with an inextinguishable phoenix trueflame. This flame was a secondary spiritual flame nurtured by the parasol tree heart.

It lacked the terror of genuine phoenix trueflame and was missing the boundless fire source, so its decorative value outweighed its practical power.

Four silver-bright gems resembling the stars of the heavens were inlaid on the front and back of the bow body, like phoenix eyes, radiating lunar chill.

One must not forget.

The Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow had been designed from the beginning as a cold-attribute spiritual treasure. During refining, large amounts of yin-cold materials had also been added.

Therefore.

Although it looked like a flaming longbow on the outside, the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit had actually employed a lost reversal engraving technique that could convert high temperatures into cold qi.

The higher the temperature, the heavier the chill.

While there were some differences from Wang Yu’s original vision, it was still an excellent offensive spiritual treasure, more than enough to become his new killing method.

The only downside was that it had lost compatibility with his life-bound divine ability, the Guanghan Twelve Phases. One gain, one loss, such was fate. There was no need to pursue perfection in everything.

Reaching fifth-rank mid-grade was already quite satisfying for Wang Yu.

Just as he was about to receive the Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow and communicate with its spirituality to claim ownership, the Myriad Treasures artifact spirit waved its small hand once more. A large amount of colorful treasure liquid surged out.

At a visible speed it compressed into a single drop of nine-colored treasure liquid.

With a flash, it merged into the Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow.

“This is…”

Wang Yu’s eyes shone brightly. He was both surprised by the artifact spirit’s generosity and moved by his own good fortune. If he guessed correctly, that drop of nine-colored treasure liquid was the long-lost supreme spiritual material that had not appeared in the Myriad Treasures Secret Realm for several thousand years, [Myriad Treasures Liquid]!

Its effect could be inferred from the Hundred Treasures Liquid and Thousand Treasures Liquid he had obtained before: it could raise a fifth-rank spiritual treasure by one full grade with no side effects whatsoever.

Thus.

When the Sun-Piercing Demonic Bow landed in Wang Yu’s hands, it had already reached fifth-rank superior-grade.

A massive profit!