83: Mirror Demon Stealing Skills

Underground Mo City, central Formation core.

Mo Yuan sat cross-legged, his aura faintly resonating with the Thunder Talisman Network covering the three counties.

Tens of thousands of light points flickered in his consciousness, allowing him to see every subtle movement within the territory.

However, this extreme sense of control did not make him indulgent.

Cold reason constantly reminded him—the Foundation of power lies in the perfection of one's own Dao.

Although the Thunderous Genesis Longevity Incantation had already mended the shortcomings of vitality, greatly increasing the endurance of the Sequence Legion, its core remained the Thunder Evolution Art, which he had derived through brutal devouring and deduction based on his Chaos Lightning Body.

This technique was extremely rigid and violent; while strong, it lacked flexibility and change. Especially in the subtlety of energy circulation, adaptability to Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi in different environments, and the concealment of one's own power, it had shortcomings that could not be ignored.

Like a strong man with immense strength but clumsy Moves, he was easily caught off guard by opponents with truly exquisite techniques.

His consciousness swept through the countless information streams fed back by the Thunder Talisman Network, precisely filtering and excluding them.

Suddenly, a piece of information from the border region caught his attention—a pure, agile fluctuation of Five Elements spiritual energy, carrying a clear Sect imprint, was attempting to evade the perception of the Thunder Wood Demon and sneak into the Black Stone County controlled by the Mo Sect in an extremely clever way!

"Early Stage Golden Core... Cultivation Technique aura... long and mellow... Five Elements circulation... endless cycle..."

"Yellow Maple Valley..."

Mo Yuan made a judgment instantly.

A Righteous Path Sect Elder who excelled in Five Elements Dao Spells and was famous for escape arts and Formations.

A scout? Or did he have other motives?

It didn't matter.

What mattered was... the Five Elements Escape Technique he was cultivating was exactly the shortcoming Mo Yuan needed to mend most urgently right now!

"Target locked... Yellow Maple Valley Elder."

"Instruction... Mirror Demon... deploy."

"Task... copy his Cultivation Technique movement trajectory... analyze the mysteries of the Five Elements Escape Technique..."

The cold instruction reached a special confinement unit deep within Mo City instantly through the Soul link.

There, a squirming, shape-shifting mercury Mirror Demon was soaking in energy liquid refined from a large amount of Spirit Stone, maintaining the minimum level of existence.

Upon receiving the instruction, the Mirror Demon's mercury-like body fluctuated violently, conveying emotional waves mixed with excitement and immense pressure.

Copying the complete Cultivation Technique of an Early Stage Golden Core Cultivator was a huge burden for it, but it was also... food of extreme temptation.

"Energy supply... maximize." Mo Yuan was not stingy; more High-Grade Spirit Stone were thrown into the unit.

The Mirror Demon let out a silent shriek. Its mercury-like body contracted and condensed violently, finally forming a transparent phantom with an extremely vague, rough human outline, completely merging into the surrounding energy liquid and stone walls, as if it had never existed.

Etherealization, its innate ability activated!

The next moment, it had passed through the gaps in the underground rock layer, moving in a way that was almost like spatial jumping, following the coordinates locked by the Thunder Talisman Network, and stealthily moved towards the location of the Yellow Maple Valley Elder.

The speed was far beyond conventional escape arts, and it left almost no energy traces.

On the edge of Black Stone County, above a dense forest of Iron Wood, which was unusually lush due to the influence of spiritual dew.

An old man wearing the unique cyan-yellow Daoist robe of Yellow Maple Valley, with a gaunt face and vigilant eyes, was stepping on a wood-grained Flying Sword. His body was enveloped in a layer of extremely faint spiritual light that perfectly blended with the surrounding Wood-attribute Spiritual Qi.

He was calculating with his hands, his brows tightly locked.

"Strange... This place is full of Spiritual Qi, but it is deathly silent... The Mortal craftsmen's movements are stiff and numb, as if their Souls have been extracted... There are strange bee shadows passing through the air, and their lightning light actually contains Death Qi... And those vines..." The old man muttered to himself, becoming increasingly shocked as he looked on, "This Mo Sect is definitely not kind! I must send the intelligence of this place back to the Sect!"

He decided not to go deeper. He changed his hand seals, and the spiritual light around him flowed, intending to cast the Wood Escape technique to merge into the forest below and flee a thousand miles away.

Just as his Cultivation Technique was running, the Five Elements spiritual power in his body was circulating according to the specific trajectory of the Five Elements Escape Technique, and was about to resonate with the Wood Spirit Qi of the outside world!

In the shadow of an Iron Wood behind him, the air rippled slightly like water waves.

The transparent phantom transformed by the Mirror Demon appeared silently. Those "eyes" without pupils were locked tightly onto the smooth-running, exquisite Five Elements spiritual power trajectory in the Elder's Dantian and Meridians!

"Copy!"

Inside the Mirror Demon phantom, countless silver runes flashed, combined, decomposed, and reassembled at an unprecedented speed!

Like the highest-speed spiritual energy scanner, every subtle change, every energy node, and every mystery of attribute conversion in the old man's Cultivation Technique operation was copied and recorded without a single error!

This process was extremely energy-consuming!

In the confinement unit, the mountain of High-Grade Spirit Stone turned gray at a speed visible to the naked eye!

Mo Yuan coldly watched the crazy consumption of energy through the link, not even frowning.

Investment must be made willingly.

The Yellow Maple Valley Elder was, after all, a Golden Core Cultivator, and his spiritual perception was extremely sharp!

Just as the Mirror Demon was copying, he suddenly felt an inexplicable palpitation, as if his underwear had been seen through!

A chill shot straight from his tailbone to his crown!

"Who?!" He turned back sharply, his Divine Sense sweeping across the forest behind him like a storm, but he found nothing!

The Mirror Demon's etherealized state perfectly avoided Divine Sense detection.

But the old man was experienced in combat. Although he couldn't find the enemy, he interrupted his escape art without hesitation. The spiritual power in his body instantly turned into defense, a thick earth-yellow light shield rose instantly, and at the same time, a message jade Talisman in his sleeve was about to be shot out!

"Interference... stop the message..." Mo Yuan's instruction arrived simultaneously.

The Mirror Demon phantom trembled violently, and the copying was temporarily interrupted.

Its mercury-like body instantly spread out, turning into an extremely thin and faint invisible force field, slamming towards the message jade Talisman that was about to be activated!

Sizzle!

The spiritual light on the jade Talisman was instantly chaotic and dim, like charcoal splashed with cold water, failing to send and becoming invalid!

"What kind of ghost is this?!" The old man was horrified. The opponent could actually approach and interfere with his Magical Artifact silently?!

He immediately realized that he had encountered an extremely strange and difficult opponent. He dared not stay any longer. A flash of lightning on his Flying Sword, he was about to desperately break through!

"Continue copying... until finished." Mo Yuan's command was cold and ruthless.

The Mirror Demon condensed again, ignoring the old man's panic and defense. Its eyes locked onto the spiritual power in his body that was running more violently due to stress—this actually exposed more details of the Cultivation Technique!

Copying continued!

Spirit Stone continued to consume crazily!

The old man was scared out of his wits. Various attack Spells and defensive Talismans were thrown around like they were free, but they hit nothing, unable to touch the etherealized Mirror Demon at all!

He felt like a frog being held down and dissected by an invisible hand, all his secrets being stripped away at high speed!

This sense of powerlessness and fear almost made him collapse!

He finally gave up all counterattacks, screamed, and his Golden Core spun wildly. Regardless of damaging his Origin, he used the Blood Escape technique, turning into a shrill blood light, fleeing for his life at three times his normal speed!

The Mirror Demon's phantom followed like a shadow, sticking tightly behind the blood light, copying until the old man completely escaped the Mo Sect territory, then stopped.

Task... complete.

The Mirror Demon phantom dissipated instantly, returned directly to the underground confinement unit through the Thunder Talisman Network coordinates, transformed back into that violently fluctuating, silver-flashing mercury object, and transmitted back a massive amount of Cultivation Technique information that almost made it explode, as well as... a weak signal of energy being completely exhausted.

In the unit, the mountain of Spirit Stone had all turned into powder.

The cost was huge! It consumed enough High-Grade Spirit Stone to support a small Sect for several years!

But, the harvest... was extremely rich!

Mo Yuan's consciousness instantly took over this vast and exquisite information flow.

Countless exquisite methods regarding Five Elements circulation, spiritual energy conversion, hiding and concealing, and borrowing power to neutralize force poured into his Sea of Consciousness, forming a distinct and cruel contrast with the violence of the Thunder Evolution Art.

"So that's how it is... Five Elements mutual generation is not isolated..."

"The wonder of escape arts lies in resonance, not brute force..."

"The efficiency of spiritual energy conversion can actually be improved like this..."

The cold deduction proceeded at a terrifying speed under the blessing of the Chaos Lightning Body.

He did not directly copy the Five Elements Escape Technique, but used its essence as a mirror to reflect the shortcomings of his own Thunder Evolution Art, and used it as nutrients to devour, absorb, and transform!

The Thunder God Arm raised, and green-gold arcs jumped on his fingertips. But this time, the trajectory of the arcs became more agile and efficient. Even on the edge of the lightning light, there was a faint colorful glow of Five Elements circulation, and the affinity with the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi instantly increased by a grade!

The flaws of the Thunder Evolution Art were further mended by this stolen Five Elements essence!

It became more harmonious, more powerful, and also more... unfathomable!

Mo Yuan slowly opened his eyes. Deep in his pupils, amidst the Chaos gray light, it seemed that the phantom of Five Elements birth and death flashed and disappeared.

"Yellow Maple Valley..."

His cold gaze swept across the direction of the old man's escape on the holographic map.

"This 'generous gift'... I will accept it."

"Your Sect... one day... perhaps can suffer less pain."

The value of the tool had been squeezed dry. Next, it was time to consider how to digest this bonus and convert it into more powerful combat power for the Sequence Legion.

Stealing the Cultivation Technique was just the first step.

The real value lay in how to turn it into his own thing.