Chapter 325: Great Calamity Strikes, Everyone Flees; Jujube Tree

“Freeze!”

The mirror flipped, and as Feng Yan rapidly retreated, he tried to immobilize Wang Yu again, but this time it wasn't as easy to succeed.

A powerful burst of aurora erupted, and in the dazzling halo of light, Feng Yan completely lost sight of Wang Yu, his heart sinking further into despair.

Crackling—

Thunder rolled, and after the other person chose to flee, the Lightning Corpse did not pursue. Instead, it joined Wang Yu in attacking Feng Yan.

The Wind-Fire Token counterattacked, unleashing a wind-fire tornado that violently collided with the scattered lightning. Roaring sounds filled the air, and the cave continued to collapse.

Just then, Wang Yu arrived instantly, delivering a spinning kick with his right foot.

Demonic Dragon’s Tail Whip!

Empowered by the Malice Dragon Armor and accompanied by the Ice Serpent Elixir Flames, the kick directly struck Feng Yan's lower back, followed by a crisp cracking sound.

His body seemed to fold in half, exposing his spinal bones and flesh. Blood gushed out, and then the Netherworld Qi-Blood and Elixir Flames permeated the wound.

He had almost completely lost the power to resist.

“I…”

Just as he was about to speak, Wang Yu decisively drew out the Yellow Springs Demonic Sword, beheaded him with a single stroke, and then instantly plunged his Pill-Harvesting Hand into the man's Dantian.

He extracted a complete Golden Core, which had a red base and wind patterns.

A localized death ray, capable of destroying souls, emanated from the man's glabella. Killing, pill-harvesting, soul-destroying... it was all done in one smooth, practiced, and swift motion, without wasting any time.

Wang Yu recalled the two corpses, gathered the spoils, and with one hand, telekinetically drew the mentally shattered individual towards him. He then activated his Aurora Escape Technique to full power, chasing after the fleeing person.

On the way, he conveniently performed a soul search on the person in his hand.

A cultivator's divine sense realm improves with their fundamental cultivation realm, but without cultivating specific divine sense techniques, their divine sense is only considered average among peers of the same level.

Therefore, even though Wang Yu's divine sense had not yet reached the peak of the third stage, it still held an overwhelming qualitative advantage, not to mention that this person's mind was shattered and he had no self-awareness whatsoever.

Performing a soul search presented almost no difficulty.

Memories, appropriately detailed yet concise, flooded his mind, and he immediately found the information he was looking for.

“So that's how it is... the Blood Jujube Tree?”

This object was the main body of the root system, a spiritual item born under the influence of Blood Dao power. The Feng clan had utilized it, transforming it into a devil cultivation farm.

This method also caused the tree to bear even more fruits.

It was truly utilized to its fullest extent.

Blood Jujubes can increase the qi and blood limit of living beings' physical bodies, making them excellent for boosting body cultivation. Now that he knew the true nature of the root tree, Wang Yu was in no hurry to deal with it.

Having let the Nether Valley sisters escape twice, he realized that he needed to change his combat strategy within the Blood Abyss Sacred Land, focusing primarily on the Ice Chain Binding Soul Spell.

First restrict, then engage in combat!

It would also be best to learn a secret technique similar to the Blood Talisman Space Lock. These individuals possessed too many trump cards for escape, and without a reusable restriction method, they were genuinely difficult to kill.

The spatial displacement techniques derived from talismans were too hard to counter.

At present, he was using the Aurora Escape Technique to pursue the last Core Formation peak cultivator, Feng Yan. In their chase and escape, they completely left the underground cave system.

“Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

After Feng Yan burst out of the Devil Cultivation Cave, he instinctively rushed towards the core of the Blood Abyss—the Blood Devil Sea, where members of the Wei clan, who collaborated with the Feng clan, were located.

They would surely be able to lend him a hand.

Wang Yu's power was terrifying; he had crushed them on the spot with overwhelming force. This reminded Feng Yan of the fear he felt when dominated by Zuo Qiuye back then.

That person, too, was like Wang Yu, capable of crippling a late-stage Core Formation cultivator with a single move, and killing them was no harder than snapping a blade of grass.

This overwhelming emotion nearly crushed his spirit.

“Faster, even faster!”

Whoosh—

The air shrieked. A murky yellow longsword, shot from afar, made Feng Yan tremble all over, his hair standing on end. The fierce wind enveloping him was dispersed by the sword's baleful energy.

He also fell from his wind-transformation escape light form.

“No!!!”

The Yellow Springs Demonic Sword, an upper-grade magic treasure forged from a malefic root using the Ice Soul Demonic Sword's refining method as a base, specialized in offensive and divine abilities, possessing unparalleled destructive power.

At this moment, with a tremor of the sword, a person-sized Yellow Springs Hand Seal, condensed from the sword's baleful energy, abruptly lunged towards Feng Yan. He clenched his teeth and was forced to counter with his magic treasure, the Storm Spirit Fan.

However, he saw that the sword's baleful energy was, in fact, Yellow Springs sword baleful energy.

“My life is over…”

With this final thought lingering in his mind, he watched as the Yellow Springs Sword Baleful Hand Seal tore the Storm Spirit Fan into tatters.

It then eroded his physical body, swiftly corrupting his skin and flesh.

A Golden Core escaped from his lower abdomen, and just as it streaked away, it was firmly grasped by a powerful hand, and a death ray spread over it.

The frantically trembling Golden Core completely stilled.

The one who arrived was none other than Wang Yu!

By now, except for the Nether Valley Twin Beauties, all the reinforcements they had called were dead. After his divine sense swept the surroundings, confirming no cultivators were secretly observing, Wang Yu once again escaped back towards the Devil Cultivation Cave. The Blood Jujube Tree hadn't been collected yet, and it was surely laden with fruits.

On the way, he took the opportunity to examine the three individuals' storage rings. From the previous person's memories, Wang Yu learned that during their two centuries in the Blood Abyss Sacred Land, besides regularly harvesting batches of devil cultivators and collecting myriad spirit blood essence for cultivation, they spent almost all their remaining time on the edge of the Blood Abyss, searching for small rift passages to specifically capture cultivators who had entered the Blood Abyss by chance.

The number of illicit entrants was actually quite high.

Although the devil cultivation farm primarily consisted of female cultivators, there were also some male cultivators. This cultivation method essentially absorbed power rather than biological genetic material. Therefore, the gender requirement wasn't strict.

Though these individuals were at the peak of Core Formation, their true strength was mediocre. Their spiritual power was unstable and their foundations shaky, which was a result of refining too much myriad spirit blood essence.

Although their natal magic treasures had advanced to the upper-grade alongside their cultivation realm, their strength was insufficient. This area almost exclusively produced blood-dao treasures, lacking suitable materials for their specific needs.

Consequently, their natal magic treasures were not sturdy enough.

Otherwise, the Wind-Fire Token alone would have been enough to suppress the Lightning Corpse, instead of being repeatedly knocked away.

Simply put, they were all weaklings, with power levels comparable to the Old Demon of Five Poisons, who was a rogue cultivator and only at the seventh layer of Core Formation.

Wang Yu's assessment of them showed just how weak they truly were.

“In the end, it was still a waste of time. Even if these weaklings obtained the Blood Infant Fruit, it would be useless to them.”

He muttered to himself for a moment, then continued to inventory the spoils of war.

Three upper-grade natal magic treasures: the Wind Aura Annihilation Pearl, the Storm Spirit Fan, and the Wind-Fire Saint Token! These... could only be sold at a high price if cultivators practicing the same or specialized cultivation methods were found.

Otherwise, their value would drop by a grade, as other people's natal magic treasures were not as convenient to use.

Wang Yu had reason to suspect that the Demonic Dao might possess secret techniques to eliminate such side effects, but these were not circulated externally. He could inquire about them later.

Otherwise, he would have to repeatedly sell his most valuable natal magic treasures for cheap.

His heart ached!

The supplies in the three storage rings were completely empty; every pill bottle was barren, and not a single talisman remained.

However, there were many blood-dao spiritual materials. The lowest grade they considered was second-tier, and they had accumulated a good amount of third-tier blood-dao spiritual materials. Wang Yu transferred all of them to his Sea Heart Ring.

Then, it was time for the main event: Feng Yan's mid-grade magic treasure, the Imprisonment Mirror.

This mirror was typically oval-shaped, edged with bronze relief carvings, and quite heavy. Its style suggested it might be a magic treasure from the Taihu Spirit Domain.

Wang Yu was not deeply skilled in the art of artifact refining.

He didn't understand how its immobilizing effect was achieved, but that didn't prevent him from using it. The Imprisonment Mirror's effect could coincidentally counter the Spatial Escape Talismans used by those influential youths.

For sneak attacks, it was absolutely guaranteed to be effective!

The only pity was that this treasure was only mid-grade, could only be used one-on-one, and its energy consumption was not low.

After understanding this magic treasure, Wang Yu planned to refine it and integrate it into his combat system, where it should prove remarkably effective.

The number of spirit stones in the three storage rings was relatively small, totaling less than a million, likely due to heavy consumption over the years. However, there were many jade bottles filled with myriad spirit blood essence.

Considering the pathetic state of those three, using this treasure required restraint; he couldn't refine all of it without limits.

Wang Yu intended to leverage his advantage as an alchemist to refine this blood essence into pills, thereby eliminating any hidden dangers within.

His next destination, named Drunken Immortal Lake, was a lake of blood-brewed spirit wine. This wine was only first-tier, and occasionally, in its depths, third-tier "blood-brewed wine stones" would form, though they weren't of high value.

It was an unpopular exploration spot.

He planned to go to Drunken Immortal Lake for a period of closed-door cultivation, both to enhance his strength and to wait for Zhuo Shouyun to lower his guard, ideally until he divided his forces.

Only then would he have a chance to defeat them one by one.

If the situation proved unfeasible, before leaving the Blood Abyss, he would still have to forcibly assault Zhuo Shouyun's team, killing as many as he could. This was one of the terms of the new contract.

It was a condition for canceling the mandatory terms of the previous contract.

There was no avoiding it.

Therefore, enhancing his own strength was crucial. Wang Yu believed he needed to at least break through to the late Core Formation stage to confidently deal with Jian Nanxing and Long Xingyun simultaneously.

Cautious, cautious, and even more cautious!

Not long after, returning to the underground area of the Devil Cultivation Cave, after burning a passage with his Ice Serpent Elixir Flames, Wang Yu followed the tree roots embedded in the blood river, exploring upwards.

This Blood Jujube Tree was at least several hundred meters tall, growing in the dark underground where no sunlight reached.

When Wang Yu reached the actual treetop, he was immediately surprised. The blood jujubes he saw were all plump and round, each about the size of a fist.

Their crystalline, blood-red skin, like jade, emitted wafts of subtle fragrance.

“What a treasure.”

After a period of harvesting, Wang Yu collected a total of twenty-one Blood Jujubes. Combined with his existing body cultivation resources, this was enough to gradually advance his body cultivation to the peak of the third stage.

Resources in this aspect were now overflowing; all that remained was diligent cultivation.

If he wanted to further increase his body cultivation speed, he would need to rely on advantageous terrains like “Malice Pits” or fourth-tier body cultivation spiritual items for acceleration.

However, this was merely a thought; fourth-tier resources were far more precious.

They were not something he could easily lay his hands on, and the production of such resources was also a major issue. With more wolves than meat, competition would only intensify.

Wang Yu left the Blood Jujube Tree untouched, allowing it to continue growing in that location.

After dealing with matters here, he departed towards the northeast, in the direction of Drunken Immortal Lake.