Chapter 258: Five Poison Demon, Heading to Blood Abyss

"Finally, I escaped."

Wang Yu did not return to Wandu Town. Instead, he circled northwest towards Ye Qiong State, which was under the jurisdiction of the Sacred Sect.

He could not possibly go back to the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest.

He planned to recover from his injuries in Ye Qiong State. Once healed, he would make an appearance in the Northern Divide Mountain Range to the west of that state.

This was to mislead Jin Miaoshan's intelligence network, as she knew he possessed a fragmented inheritance from the Heavenly Soul Sect. Appearing subtly without raising suspicion was a skillful task.

After being slapped twice by the Blood Demon Ginseng, he was seriously injured.

He needed a good period of recuperation.

Having escaped danger, Wang Yu was about to release Xueyu and let it carry him for a while.

To his surprise, the Pristine Jade Toad, which he kept in his embrace, suddenly croaked twice. Puzzled, Wang Yu pulled it out. It had absorbed too much poison from the venomous beasts.

The Jade Toad's white jade-like color had turned purplish-black.

After this ordeal, it might undergo its final cocooning to transform into its complete form. Once fully transformed and providing protection, 99% of the poisons in the world would have no effect on him.

It could be considered a blessing in disguise after the venomous beast army had passed.

"What's wrong?"

The Pristine Jade Toad yawned, then extended its tongue and licked behind his shoulder. A green, oily insect mark was drawn out and swallowed into its belly.

It closed its eyes and simply fell straight asleep.

Wang Yu's expression, however, changed.

"A tracking mark?!"

He didn't know exactly when it had happened.

But by deduction, he could guess it must have been during the conflict between the Yellow Springs Temple and the Spirit Reversing Blood Sect. Only then was Wang Yu's full attention focused on the immediate situation.

If someone malevolent in the dense forest had secretly placed a tracking mark on him at that time, there was a certain probability he wouldn't have noticed.

"The Pristine Jade Toad consumes poison. Is this a Core Formation master who cultivates the poison path?"

He made a judgment in his mind.

Wang Yu immediately fled towards Ye Qiong State, feeling helpless as he looked at the Jade Toad, which had fallen asleep, its body beginning to secrete mucus and form a cocoon.

And precisely at this moment!

Against poison cultivators, its role was far greater than that of a lightning corpse. With his internal injuries unhealed, his body refinement cultivation could not be fully utilized.

It seemed he could only rely on his two third-rank refined corpses.

As he pondered, Wang Yu's spiritual sense transformed from his glabella into strands of shimmering blue light, carefully sensing the condition of his chest and abdomen.

The technique of transforming spiritual sense into threads was highly practical. Using it now, he meticulously reassembled the shattered bones in his chest, binding them with threads of spiritual sense.

It was like a delicate surgery.

After about half an hour of this, Wang Yu activated the Yin Blood Pill secret art from the Corpse Demon secret method, instantly erupting with a large amount of Yin Corpse blood energy to help him recover from his injuries.

Simultaneously, the divine marrow within his dragon spine also began to take effect.

The formidable vitality brought by his Vajra Body, combined with the superimposed secret arts, led to an extremely fast recovery, much quicker than the months of recuperation he had anticipated.

Wang Yu quickly understood.

This was because the Blood Demon Ginseng had used brute force when hitting him, not its inherent plant-based magical power or blood demon power.

With no external forces invading his body, his physical recovery was rapid; he would be fully healed in three or four days.

This was one of the few pieces of good news from his trip to the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest.

"—Who?!"

While healing, Wang Yu was also using his Frost Moon Wings to flee, moving at a considerable speed. Yet, something was still closely trailing him.

At that moment, hearing his shout, a mass of black and green poisonous mist leaped out from among the trees. On its bald head was a crooked character for 'poison'.

A ring of grey-white hair grew around its temples. Its features were incredibly hideous: droopy eyebrows, mismatched eyes, an upturned nose, and outwardly everted lips revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth.

Not to mention cultivators, even among mortals, such an unusual appearance was rare; it was ugly to the extreme.

Its body was gaunt and hunched, leaning on a five-venom staff.

Five venomous insects crawled all over its tattered robes.

Wang Yu knew in his heart that this was likely the Core Formation cultivator of the poison path who had left the tracking mark, and he had seen mention of him in the Listening Wind Tower's intelligence reports.

Ranked second, the Old Demon of Five Poisons, a seventh-level Core Formation cultivator!

He had once annihilated a third-rate sect. The Listening Wind Tower believed his strength was comparable to an inner-gate Core Formation cultivator of the Sacred Sect, not just an outer-gate one.

This clearly indicated his power.

"Heheheh—"

"Boy, hand over what you got from that ruin, and I might consider giving you a quick death."

"Oh?"

Wang Yu raised an eyebrow.

"Aren't you afraid of retribution from the Yellow Springs Temple, you old ugly demon?"

The Old Demon of Five Poisons was not angered by the junior's insult. Instead, he chuckled strangely and said, "Although I don't know why a single divine ability can prove your identity, the direction you're fleeing is certainly not Youzhou."

A pitch-black centipede with fiery red markings crawled out of his mouth and hissed at Wang Yu.

"For a rogue cultivator, mere words are useless. Your escape direction doesn't lie; you are not from Yellow Springs Temple!"

Wang Yu stopped arguing. The opponent's reasoning was too clear; he had his own theory and deeply believed in it.

It seemed there was no escaping now.

"Boy, I'll say it again: the treasure... hand it over!"

"What treasure? That Medicine King is just standing there. If you're truly capable, why don't you try to capture it?" "Heh, you'll learn what it means to wish you were dead."

After delivering his threat, the Old Demon of Five Poisons pointed his staff hand towards Wang Yu. The fiery-spotted centipede quickly scuttled forward, spitting a line of fire mid-way.

Simultaneously, the Ice Dragon Dan Flame erupted from Wang Yu's palm. As a third-rank spiritual flame, it instantly pushed back the fire line spat by the fiery-spotted centipede.

The insect's body was covered in blue flames, and ice crystals froze it inch by inch, while inside, it was screaming in agony from the burning.

"Banban!"

To the Old Demon of Five Poisons' surprise, the staff in his hand flew out, transforming mid-air into a hairy snake that charged fiercely, enveloped in poisonous smoke.

Wang Yu felt something was off.

Low-level rogue cultivators might have all sorts of flaws.

The Old Demon of Five Poisons had survived to reach seventh-level Core Formation; he must have been battle-hardened. Why would he use such a simple spell?

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—"

In an instant, five black ice wheels flew out, spinning rapidly and cutting the hairy snake into six segments. The opponent was incredibly weak.

Indeed.

"Are you a decoy... or a clone technique?"

Hearing this, the Old Demon of Five Poisons' distorted expression suddenly calmed, and he gazed at Wang Yu, saying:

"You figured that out quickly~"

"Boy, even if you run to the ends of the earth, you won't escape, heheheh!!!"

With that, the Old Demon of Five Poisons suddenly exploded into a black and green mist, forming a skull that cackled and charged forward.

Wang Yu first tried to burn it with the Ice Dragon Dan Flame to defend, but it failed.

He then tried with the Yellow Springs Hand Seal. The suppression this divine ability had over spells indeed significantly reduced the size of the poisonous skull, but due to his insufficient cultivation and lack of spiritual power, it wasn't enough.

Ultimately, the poisonous skull caught up.

It left a conspicuous mark on the back of his hand, clearly another tracking method.

The opponent's main body was not here.

Thinking carefully, perhaps the Old Demon of Five Poisons had used a clone when he went to Yin Ghost Mountain, which explained why he chose to track Wang Yu until his presence was called out.

This meant that the opponent's main body was planning a delayed attack, perhaps waiting to ambush him somewhere ahead.

"What intricate scheming."

Ye Qiong State was now out of the question. Wang Yu gritted his teeth and continued to circle north. He would take a long detour from the southwest of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, moving upwards from the west, to reach Youzhou in the east.

If the memories between the Old Demon of Five Poisons and his clone were not constantly synced, the opponent wouldn't know the content of their conversation.

They would only know that an encounter had occurred, and Wang Yu had been hit by the Five Poisons Tracking Mark. Given the dangers of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, taking a long detour was not incomprehensible.

When he truly encountered the Old Demon of Five Poisons' main body, he might still be able to leverage the Yellow Springs Temple's reputation.

Of course, this was only the ideal scenario.

Formerly Yin Ghost Mountain.

Now the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins.

A half-day long battle had concluded, not with the complete defeat of one side, but at most, a mutually destructive stalemate. However, the Transformation Stage venomous beast behind it had achieved its goal.

On the venomous beast side, the fourth-rank Moon Devouring Toad was swallowed by the Blood River and had now become the mount of the Sky-Reaching Demonic Sunflower.

That black sun, which overshadowed everything, was rooted in the Moon Devouring Toad.

The blood corpse side fared no better. Ordinary blood corpses were almost entirely annihilated, turning into limbless dried corpses, forever left on this land.

More than half of the blood corpse giants were casualties, but a new fourth-rank Blood Corpse King was born, its status seemingly higher than the four Blood Demon Medicine Kings.

After the Blood Demon Fleeceflower was carried away by a fourth-rank Poisonous Flood Dragon, the Blood Corpse King let out a soul-stirring roar. From then on, all the blood demon monsters collectively moved southwest, no longer fighting the venomous beasts to the bitter end.

Their direction of advance was precisely towards the mountain gate of the Spirit Reversing Blood Sect... or rather, the slightly offset sacred land of the Blood Dao—the Blood Abyss!

The venomous beasts did not pursue the retreating blood dao monsters.

Just half a day later, a colossal shadow, obscuring the sky, plunged its hand into the earth and forcibly uprooted the super spirit vein from the ground.

It carried it into the deeper parts of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest. From beginning to end, this colossal shadow never revealed its true form; judging solely by the hand, it strongly resembled a dragon's claw.

This activity sparked another surge of excitement.

More factions from nearby regions arrived at the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest. Once both sides had withdrawn, the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins became an excellent place for exploration.

Slaughter, plunder, and betrayal... successively unfolded in this place.

It was clear that the death toll here was far from reaching the expected standard.

The blood dao monsters' advance was too massive; they moved towards the heartland of the Spirit Reversing Blood Sect, bringing boundless slaughter wherever they went.

The cities along their path all fled at the mere sight of them.

This had a massive impact, especially on their prestige.

Several days later, outside Blood Abyss State, the Sacred Sect's Nascent Soul cultivators began to gather and dispatched a team to bypass the blood demon monsters and occupy the ruins in the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest.

The Yellow Springs Temple's response was no less effective, but their strategy was precisely the opposite of the Sacred Sect's.

The Nascent Souls of Yellow Springs Temple focused on the Heavenly Soul Sect ruins, with only two late-stage Nascent Soul grand cultivators continuing to track the Blood Demon Medicine Kings.

The three factions were about to meet!