Chapter 514: Breakthrough—Ninth Layer of Nascent Soul

The entire Eight Gates Sky Escape Array was inextricably linked to the palace area. It was both dangerous and a place of great opportunity.

The situations of various cultivators varied, but most were in trouble. After Wang Yu decided to enter the formation to investigate, he chose the Rest Gate, one of the auspicious gates. As spiritual light flickered, Wang Yu's vision abruptly shifted, and he found himself on a plaza.

This area was still covered by a flesh and blood mycelium, but the difference was that the special life force in the environment, capable of causing fleshly deformities, was much weaker. Witnessing this scene for the first time, Wang Yu was equally astonished. What came to his mind, however, was the Ancient Demon of Life—a legendary being said to be suppressed directly beneath the Sword Sect's floating mountain, possessing a life force capable of demonic transformation. He had reason to suspect that the true core of the Eight Gates Sky Escape Array wasn't a mere imitation of one of the legendary Heavenly Stratagems, but rather a mimicry or a utilization of the Ancient Demon of Life's power through some means, thus forming such a bizarre and unique formation.

Seeing humanoid monsters growing from the fleshly carpet, Wang Yu stopped observing and tentatively absorbed a wisp of the demonic life force with his finger. In just a few breaths, the flesh on his finger swelled several times, forming numerous tumors that then burst open, revealing yellow eyes staring back at him. Wang Yu was speechless. With a thought, his demonic energy transformed into sharp threads, peeling off all the flesh from his finger, using the bone as an axis.

He hadn't expected that even with his own physique, he couldn't resist such a grotesque transformation. After experiencing it firsthand, a realization dawned on him. If the human body naturally repels harmful substances, this repulsion can be seen as a form of resistance. However, the essence of this demonic life force was an extremely vigorous life energy. Its infusion would only benefit the body. Just as sugar can make people feel happy and comfortable, excessive consumption can lead to increased fat, weight gain, blood lipidization, and a host of similar issues. This life force was similar, but it possessed an additional inductive property, capable of causing erratically growing flesh to form true new limbs, or even gain certain special powers, as if suddenly acquiring a bloodline talent.

His gaze inadvertently swept over the bizarre creatures, and upon seeing many monsters develop scales, sharp claws, or even plumage, an idea suddenly sparked in Wang Yu's mind. "These are characteristics of the demon race!"

After realizing this crucial point, Wang Yu quickly ran around the plaza, choosing not to engage these monsters for the time being. Instead, he observed them more closely. These monsters lacked intelligence and mostly acted on instinct, and the inherent bloodline instincts of the demon race were actually quite easy to discern. By observing their habitual attack patterns, one could make an accurate judgment. "These are just wolves... these are birds, and fish spirits?"

After a thorough observation, Wang Yu understood the situation. His rapidly moving figure suddenly stopped. With him as the center, an intensely cold temperature rapidly spread, and black frost instantly covered the entire plaza. All the monsters were frozen into ice sculptures, and then sharp icicles shot up from the ground, impaling the monsters like blood gourds, leaving them hanging silently. They looked like works of art, possessing a strange beauty.

Only then did Wang Yu have time to examine his injured finger. He saw thread-like structures growing on his Immortal Spirit Bone, a clear sign of the demonic life force's invasion. This "for your own good" yet truly deadly, bizarre attack pattern was something the body simply couldn't resist, unless every drop of blood was infused with Wang Yu's will. Only then could he actively repel this power. With his current body cultivation, he could only temporarily infuse his instinctive consciousness into his flesh and blood, unable to actively control or influence it. Only with a major breakthrough in body cultivation could he achieve a true integration of will and body, controlling every drop of his blood with his own will.

Unfortunately, this method wouldn't work; his instinctive consciousness wouldn't reject this special life force that nourished the body. The longer he stayed in the Eight Gates Sky Escape Array, the higher the chance of him undergoing demonic transformation, ultimately losing himself and becoming raw material for the flesh monsters of this place.

"A way to break the situation..."

The Innate Demonic Embryo Body!

Realizing that all the monsters here possessed characteristics of the demon race's bloodline, Wang Yu directly drew a corpse towards him. A nearly materialized Heavenly Demon's evil will surged from his glabella, vaguely forming a gaping maw, eager to devour, and completely swallowed the corpse. Wang Yu then closed his eyes, sensing this unique form, a mixture of various demon race bloodlines.

An incense stick's time later, Wang Yu, sitting cross-legged, suddenly found his clothes vanish. His pale body was quickly covered by writhing flesh, and he soon transformed into a one-eyed, dragon-clawed demon. Yet, he hadn't lost his sanity. This was the ability of the Heavenly Demon's Myriad Transformations; with his physique complete, he could directly acquire the underlying bloodline form by devouring corpses or bloodline cores.

In this state, Wang Yu actually fooled the formation's discerning ability, being regarded as one of the mutated monsters. The demonic life force in the environment also ceased to persistently try to enter his body. However, after the transformation, he faced a new problem. In his demonic form, the demonic life force still existed within him, even more abundantly than what had infiltrated his Immortal Spirit Bone. It just seemed to have lost its "interest" in inducing further grotesque transformations. It merely circulated normally within him, no longer altering his flesh and blood form.

That's right, this thing was ultimately controlled by the formation. Since his "mutation" was complete, it naturally wouldn't expend this energy for further alteration. Formations without active controllers operate this way; only rigid rules continue to function. Finding their flaws is the goal of cultivators.

In this state, Wang Yu had a sudden idea. He swiftly began to circulate his fundamental cultivation technique, the "Ice Soul Demonic Scripture," which was at the fifth-tier perfect realm! He attempted to move this demonic life force and... refine it!

As time passed, Wang Yu, in his one-eyed demon form, suddenly experienced an abnormal flush rising to his face. He could barely contain his excitement, laughing softly. After circulating it through a Grand Cycle, all the demonic life force within him had transformed into his demonic essence, at least two thousand drops. This meant that if he maintained this state, at most, five Grand Cycle circulations would allow him to condense one demonic essence crystal.

He was only nine demonic essence crystals away from the fifty-crystal limit for his Qi Sea required to break through to the ninth layer of the Nascent Soul stage. In other words, by absorbing the demonic life force from forty-five more corpses, he could complete a new breakthrough, reaching the ninth layer of the Nascent Soul stage and truly touching the peak of this realm. This was truly an unexpected bonus.

"I didn't expect to find so many surprises here before even starting the treasure hunt. It truly lives up to its reputation as the Ice Prison Realm's foremost secret realm," he muttered to himself. Wang Yu couldn't help but draw another corpse towards him. This time, he didn't need to use the devouring ability of the Heavenly Demon's Myriad Transformations; he simply placed his hand on the corpse. His "empty" state within would naturally attract the demonic life force to spontaneously flow into his body. Soon, Wang Yu entered his second round of refining cultivation. As for whether this act would bring any side effects, from his current assessment, there were none for the time being!

Moreover, the refined demonic life force retained its essence, and Wang Yu's vitality also began to increase, having more or less a life-extending effect. Furthermore, because he was still young, this life force was mostly converted into physical vitality, significantly boosting his physical potential, and enhancing his recovery ability and organ activity. Simply put, his body cultivation aptitude and potential had both improved, with excellent results and no apparent upper limit. To be more specific, his physical body became increasingly tough and difficult to destroy, and his combat power limit was rising with each round of refining cultivation, as if he had entered an "easy mode." He cast all other matters aside, focusing solely on increasing his strength.

"—Run!"

The Sky Roc King's shout abruptly roused the demons. Once the Fire Crow King's true flames dispersed, they all followed Huo Wuji through a passage on one side of the plaza. The Thunder-Qilin King hesitated greatly, still pondering whether to trust this scoundrel. After all, when they entered the secret realm, the Northern Demon Clan had suffered heavy losses, with at least half of their experts forever trapped in the mental illusion. Not many experts of his Thunder-Qilin Beast race remained. But at that moment, the Fire Crow King came over, patted his shoulder, and said with a grim expression, "At this point, we can only trust Wuji one more time. As humans often say, 'A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit.' I believe he will learn his lesson."

"Let's hope so..." The Thunder-Qilin King sighed deeply and eventually followed them.

After more than a dozen transformed great demons passed through a long passage, they arrived from one plaza to another. The scene here was almost paralyzing. An ancient Azure Luan, resembling a corpse, had lost all its feathers. Beast claws grew irregularly on its body, slimy tumors dripped fluid, and its brain was split open, filled with bizarre serrated edges. It was alive in such a strange form, truly an eye-opener!

In addition to this, there were also many ancient demon beasts whose flesh had been demonically corrupted: the Xiezhi, famed for distinguishing truth from falsehood; the Suan Ni, skilled in lightning arts; the Zhu Yan, possessing transformation techniques... all of them fierce beasts extinct since ancient times. Most of them possessed the bloodline level of primordial relict species. Each one was a Divine Transformation seed. Faced with such a terrifying and moving sight, how could these demons, whose bloodlines were at most of the Heaven grade, possibly cope?

"So... this is the Death Gate!"

The moment this thought arose in Huo Wuji's mind, he found his body lifted into the air, his throat seized by the Thunder-Qilin King, who forcibly hoisted him up. Seeing the murderous intent in the other's eyes, Huo Wuji, like the other demons, fell into deep despair. After all, staying in the previous plaza still offered a path to survival; those monsters were generally only Tier 3 in strength, and their abilities meant they could stay there indefinitely without issue. Only the danger posed by the environment itself was the real reason they were forced to leave quickly.

But here... although these fierce beast corpses had severely declined in strength due to the effects of time and death, they generally possessed Tier 4 power. How were they supposed to deal with this? Considering the Thunder-Qilin King's reputation for brutality, Huo Wuji felt certain he was doomed. Even the Fire Crow King might not be willing to protect him. A panic-stricken group needed a "sacrifice" to calm their fears. And who could be more suitable than him, the culprit who had led everyone into this desperate situation?

The existence of these fierce beast monsters could actually be easily deduced, provided one knew the true nature of the Ice Phoenix Saint Lord and was aware of the sinister effects of the Eight Gates Sky Escape Array. Given the Ice Phoenix Saint Lord's immense prestige in ancient times, it would have been simple to secretly arrange the corpses of deceased demon race fierce beasts within the Heavenly Palace Secret Realm. She would have had plenty of means to deceive everyone. If she had been bolder and openly stated her intention to use corpses to set up a secret realm for future generations to train and gain opportunities, she would have even received approval from many ancient demon elders of that era.

The danger level of this place immediately escalated. No demon mentioned again that the secret realm "waking up" might be a good thing. Many of the keen-minded experts among them realized that this place's malice towards the demon race far exceeded that towards other beings. This might have been a deliberate setup by the Ice Phoenix Saint Lord, fearing retaliation if her deception were exposed. Whether intentional or not, they had indeed stumbled upon it.

The battle between the ancient demon-corrupted fierce corpses and the experts of the Northern Demon Clan quickly commenced. The battle situation was relatively balanced; for some reason, the bodies of these fierce corpses were unexpectedly fragile. Although their recovery ability was greatly enhanced and their flesh regeneration was almost instantaneous, it still prevented the Northern Demon Clan from being directly crushed. This created a strange balance. However, more and more broken flesh and severed limbs piled up on the plaza. The demons looked as if they had been fished out of a sea of blood, each one covered in gore. The intensity of the battle was too high; they didn't even have time to clean themselves.

Half a quarter of an hour later, facing an increasing number of demon-corrupted ancient fierce beast corpses, just as the Sky Roc King was about to speak, an expert from the Thunder-Qilin Beast race suddenly let out a roar. He revealed his true form, a massive four-legged thunder beast, roaring at the sky! His body immediately began to mutate. This was clearly caused by an excessive accumulation of demonic life force within him. His sanity instantly vanished, and he began to furiously attack his nearby companions. That crazed demeanor indicated he was fighting with his life.

"—Damn it!"

Three days later, Wang Yu, sitting cross-legged on the ice-sculpture plaza, suddenly experienced a surge of aura within him. The amount of demonic essence in his Qi Sea had broken through its limit, leading to a realm breakthrough, which simultaneously boosted his three treasures: essence, vital energy, and spirit. His divine sense and physical body, already at the peak of Tier 4, advanced further. His divine sense was constrained by his Nascent Soul; it couldn't break through independently before transforming into a Divine Soul. His physical body, however, had no such restriction. This fundamental realm advancement made Wang Yu feel the existence of that bottleneck, and the Immortal Spirit Body was precisely the shortcut to breaking through it. As long as he obtained a breakthrough treasure for body cultivation, he was confident he could be the first to break through his physical body to Tier 5.

After his fundamental realm reached the ninth layer of the Nascent Soul, the effect of the demonic life force on him weakened slightly, but it could still play a considerable role. In the long run, if he stayed in the Eight Gates Sky Escape Array for a few years, he should be able to reach the peak of the Nascent Soul realm. However, Wang Yu still chose to give up. His reason was the same as when he was on the Extreme Frost Hell Road. The secret realm was filled with treasures that could defy fate and change destiny; there was no need to pick up sesame seeds and lose watermelons. Besides, the core of this array was definitely related to the Ancient Demon of Life. His intuition told him that this might be the key to his breakthrough to Tier 5 body cultivation.

Therefore, after calming himself, maintaining his one-eyed demon form, Wang Yu formally began his exploration of the flesh-covered palace area.