135: Dragon Horse Ink Calamity, Mysterious Embryo Phenomenon

More than half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

May, Year 26 of the lunar calendar.

The Yao-Demon Lesser Thousand World.

A taiyin demon puppet, nearly fifty zhang tall, stood towering over the land. Beneath its feet were piles of demon corpses, and rolling waves of crimson blood-colored Evil Qi surged into the puppet's body, strengthening its form.

A moment later.

After the blood essence of the hundreds of demons beneath its feet had been sucked dry, the taiyin demon puppet opened its eyes.

Its overall appearance hadn't changed much, aside from becoming increasingly hideous and terrifying.

Its strength had already reached the Peak of the Second-Order.

From the moment Yu Xuzi arrived in this Yao-Demon Lesser Thousand World and began refining the taiyin demon puppet until now, a total of barely a year had passed!

Its strength had spanned the entire Second-Order, equivalent to a century of cultivation for an ordinary Cultivator—dozens of times faster than Yu Xuzi's own cultivation speed!

How exaggerated was that?

This was the terrifying aspect of the method of Refined Corpses.

As long as there was enough flesh and blood, its strength could expand at an inconceivable speed.

The drawback was that it was prone to losing control.

"This won't do, it can't swallow any more!"

High in the sky.

Yu Xuzi opened his eyes, his brow furrowing slightly.

The taiyin demon puppet's strength was expanding too rapidly; if he wasn't careful, it could lose control immediately.

Now at the Peak of the Second-Order, his Divided Soul could feel a "self-will" constantly sprouting within its body at every moment, which he then ruthlessly extinguished.

"It seems I should wait until I Breakthrough to the Late Dao Foundation Realm before I can hope to control a Third-Order Corpse King?"

Yu Xuzi murmured to himself.

A Third-Order Corpse King possessed its own self-will. Though it was still muddled, it was worlds apart from a Second-Order Refined Corpse.

He was currently at the Peak of the Mid Dao Foundation Realm. His innate Aptitude was excellent, and coupled with a never-ending supply of precious Medicinal Pills, Spirit Stones, and other Resources, his cultivation speed was naturally not slow.

In a year at most, Yu Xuzi was confident he could successfully Breakthrough to the Late Stage.

Before then, it was best for the demonic puppet not to swallow any more flesh and blood. If it were stimulated into breaking through to the Third-Order, that would be disastrous.

"However, I can go and test the waters first."

...May 5th.

The Qingyuan Realm, Central Continent.

"The Qingyuan Sect... a behemoth of the past, but now it seems to be nothing more than this."

A hundred miles away, on a certain mountain Peak.

Yu Xuzi, having used a simple spell to hide his form, looked at the Qingyuan Sect's mountain gate in the distance where everything seemed normal, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

After witnessing the "grand scenes" in the Cangmang Realm, returning to the small pond of the Qingyuan Realm inevitably felt strange.

Even though this was his native world.

"Awooo—"

A strange roar rang out, sounding like both a dragon's cry and a horse's neigh.

Today, Yu Xuzi was not riding Embracing Star or Soaring, but a black dragon-horse.

It stood with its head held high, like a tower of dark iron, two zhang long and about a zhang tall.

Its four sharp claws gripped the ground, and its entire body was covered in ink-jade scales. Each scale was as hard and cold as profound iron, with deep, dark light flowing over them under the sunlight.

On its head, craggy twin horns pierced out from its forehead. A pair of golden vertical pupils burned within deep-set sockets, its nostrils exhaled air currents laced with sparks, and the short, reverse-growing beard beneath its jaw quivered like steel needles.

It was the leader of the group of Black Scale Horses in the Grotto-Heaven.

With the help of Dragon Blood Pills that Yu Xuzi had refined using the blood of the former Black Flood Dragon Demon King, it had successfully broken through to become a Second-Order Yao Beast and increasingly took on the appearance of a true dragon-horse.

Yu Xuzi named it: Ink Calamity.

At this moment, Ink Calamity was snorting unhappily as it paced back and forth. The thin spiritual essence environment here made it very uncomfortable.

"Alright, stop making a fuss."

Yu Xuzi gently patted its neck.

Ink Calamity immediately shut its mouth, not daring to roar again.

The concentration of spiritual essence in the Qingyuan Realm had dropped again.

And the speed of the decline was accelerating.

Yu Xuzi could feel that the concentration of spiritual essence in the Qingyuan Realm was now even lower than that of the Fei Chen Realm, which had suffered through a demon calamity.

"So many years have passed, yet he still hasn't emerged from seclusion. Could he really have died inside?"

A mysterious yellow vortex dispersed in front of him, and the shrunken figure of the taiyin demon puppet stepped out. Under the control of Yu Xuzi's Divided Soul, it flew toward the Qingyuan Sect.

"Let me just—"

"Hmm?"

Yu Xuzi let out a light sound of surprise, and the demonic puppet that had just started moving suddenly stopped.

He felt it—an abnormal flow of Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence.

"No way... could it really be such a coincidence?"

He stopped his movements, somewhat speechless.

Forget it.

It wasn't bad to watch the excitement of a Breakthrough; he could even use it as a reference for his own future Breakthrough... A moment later, the Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence within a radius of hundreds of miles began to slowly pour back toward the Qingyuan Sect.

Thousands of milky-white air currents could be vaguely seen being forcibly stripped from streams, ancient trees, and Spiritual Veins, trailing light like comet tails as they surged forward, resembling an inverted funnel.

This was the phenomenon of a Profound Fetus condensing!

"Rumble!!!"

As the phenomenon grew more magnificent, a deafening roar resounded through the sky.

Above the Qingyuan Sect.

A spiritual essence vortex a thousand zhang in diameter was like a high-altitude storm. From the center of the vortex, clear sounds similar to the cracking of glass rang out, and brilliant spiritual light began to slowly bloom.

"Profound Fetus Phenomenon!"

"This is the Profound Fetus Phenomenon! Is the Sect Master about to succeed?"

"Over ten years of seclusion, I thought... Hahaha~"

"Great, this is great!"

"..."

The hundreds of Disciples throughout the Qingyuan Sect were wild with joy. They walked out of their respective Immortal Caves and looked up at the spiritual essence vortex hanging high in the sky.

The phenomenon grew more and more magnificent.

The range it affected also became wider and wider.

Generally speaking, this was a good thing.

Because the larger the heavenly phenomenon and the wider the range, the more Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence was being absorbed, and the more powerful the condensed Profound Fetus would be!

The Profound Fetuses condensed by Cultivators were divided into four grades: Profound Fetus, spirit fetus, immortal fetus, and Saintly Fetus.

Looking at the current spiritual essence vortex phenomenon, which drew from a radius of hundreds of miles, it should normally be at least a spirit fetus, or even potentially an immortal fetus Aptitude.

However, anyone who knew the inside story would know that this was impossible.

With Venerable Weiyun's Aptitude and the Resources the Qingyuan Sect could provide, it would be a stroke of luck if he could condense even the lowest-grade Profound Fetus.

For this situation to occur, there was only one possibility.

Insufficient Heaven And Earth Spiritual Essence!

The Qingyuan Sect's Spiritual Veins and environment were simply not enough to support a Cultivator condensing a Profound Fetus!

Out of necessity, the phenomenon he triggered would only get larger and larger.

The intention was to absorb spiritual essence from the outside world.

But given the environment of the Qingyuan Realm, the spiritual essence in the outside world was even thinner; no matter how large the range triggered, it was useless.

"Lacking follow-through strength, the situation doesn't look good."

Yu Xuzi watched the distant horizon with interest.

The people of the Qingyuan Sect were still cheering, but he had already seen through it—the operation of the spiritual essence vortex was becoming increasingly strained.