Chapter 355: Spirit Stone (I)

Roar!

A beast's roar shook the mountains and forests. The self-detonation of the half yao set off a terrifying demon essence storm. This sinister and bizarre demon essence possessed an extremely powerful corrosive effect on living beings. The ferocious beasts charging through the woods sensed the aura and scattered to avoid it.

The air was filled with violent fluctuations of demon essence qi. Lin Zheyu immediately held his breath as the golden blood qi within his body surged rapidly, restoring his injuries. His back had borne the brunt of the explosion, so the injuries there were the most severe. Fortunately, his physique was formidable. Only his skin and muscles were damaged, while his bones remained intact. Such minor wounds would have healed quickly if not for the erosion of demon essence.

"The battle consumed less than a third of my blood qi power, yet the demon essence storm from the half yao's self-detonation forced me to expend nearly half of it. What a bizarre energy."

Feeling the rapid depletion of blood qi within him, Lin Zheyu deeply understood the power and strangeness of demon essence. It was an evil force even more troublesome and uncanny than Baleful Yin force. Even Gu Ye, a Force Transformation realm martial artist, had to expend considerable effort to purge the remnants of demon essence power from her body.

Fortunately, the golden blood qi within Lin Zheyu was far stronger than ordinary blood qi. Otherwise, this situation would have been far more dangerous. Martial artists of the Marrow Refining realm possessed very few effective methods when facing demon essence, which was more sinister and powerful than Baleful Yin force.

Sizzle, sizzle.

Black smoke continuously rose from Lin Zheyu's body. The areas corroded by demon essence gradually lost their purplish hue and returned to normal. After a brief inspection, he confirmed that aside from the region on his back struck by the explosion, the other affected areas involved only the surface layer of skin. His muscles and tendons had not been touched. Beneath the skin, a thin gauze of blood qi had blocked the infiltration of demon essence.

Fortunately, this veil existed. Otherwise, restoring the corroded areas would have been far more difficult. As for his back, the explosion's shockwave had shattered his defenses, allowing demon essence to invade directly into the muscles and tendons. Around the wound, demonic patterns identical to those on the half yao began to appear.

"My physique is still not strong enough." Feeling the sinister chill spreading from his back, Lin Zheyu frowned slightly.

Without true strength energy to defend him, the flesh on his back was torn and mangled, and the gauze of blood qi had been shattered. As a result, demon essence corroded his back most severely. The flesh around the wound had completely lost sensation. A vast surge of golden blood qi flooded into his back, resisting the erosion. Lin Zheyu reached his right hand behind him and lightly clawed, tearing away the corrupted flesh in one motion.

"What terrifying corrosiveness. It directly transformed me into a yao-demon state." Lin Zheyu's expression turned grave as he examined the flesh he had torn from the wound.

The flesh was evolving toward a demon puppet form, similar to what he had once seen in Daba Mountain, when a ferocious beast left within a Baleful Yin force formation gradually transformed after some time. However, that beast had required prolonged exposure to dense Baleful Yin force before any change began. Moreover, its strength had been feeble. Its physique could not compare in the slightest to Lin Zheyu's current body.

Even without relying on blood qi, Lin Zheyu's current physique rivaled that of the weakest Force Transformation realm martial artist. Yet under the erosion of demon essence, his flesh had transformed in mere moments. The demon essence carried by the half-yao was far more uncanny than Baleful Yin force.

Without hesitation, Lin Zheyu drew a dagger from his robes and reached behind to carve away the numb flesh surrounding the wound. Instantly, blood mixed with thick purplish-black fluid streamed from the injury. Soon after, he controlled the muscles in his back to contract, halting the bleeding at once and leaving behind a savage gash. Large quantities of golden blood qi poured out and covered the wound as purple-black smoke rose with a sizzling sound.

𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Fortunately, it was only a half yao and did not possess much demon essence. If it had been a true yao, the sheer amount of demon essence alone would have been enough to overwhelm me,

Lin Zheyu thought to himself.

As a half-yao, Duan Ping did not contain much demon essence. The majority of the energy within him was a peculiar force formed by fusing Baleful Yin force with blood qi, life essence, and various other energies. Yao martial artists and half yaos did not possess true strength within their bodies. They had only blood qi and life essence.

No one knew what method they used to combine blood qi, life essence, and Baleful Yin force, maintaining a delicate balance to fuse them into a powerful energy comparable to true strength. This was also the energy most abundant within half-yaos. If all of this energy were fully converted into demon essence, that would likely mark the moment they completely became true yaos.

After briefly tending to his wound, Lin Zheyu did not linger. He quickly went to the corpse of the yao martial artist. From Zhang Mo's body, black-red energy continued to seep out, still retaining its activity. After rummaging for a moment, Lin Zheyu stuffed everything he found into his waist pouch and turned to leave. As for the half yao, the explosion had long since destroyed everything on him or blasted it who knew where.

Roar, roar!

Beastly roars rang out continuously nearby. Lin Zheyu turned into a shadow, weaving swiftly through the herd of ferocious beasts. The strongest among them were only around the Marrow Refining realm, which posed no real threat to him.

"Something's not right..."

After dashing more than ten meters, Lin Zheyu frowned slightly and turned back. He inspected the devastated battlefield, erased the traces of the fight, then grabbed the yao martial artist's corpse by the back of the head and departed. Once he disposed of the body, he lingered a moment before finally returning to Soaring Serpent Mountain.

"Martial Uncle!"

"Martial Uncle is back!"

At the foot of Soaring Serpent Mountain, the disciples locked in battle cried out excitedly upon seeing Lin Zheyu. Three Marrow Refining realm disciples formed a battle formation and rushed toward him, intending to provide support.

"No need to come over. I am fine," Lin Zheyu called out loudly.

Although he looked somewhat disheveled, his clothes shredded by the half yao's self-detonation, he had not suffered overly serious injuries. Only the spot on his back that bore the direct blast was a mass of torn flesh. Passing through the charging beasts, Lin Zheyu returned to Soaring Serpent Mountain. When Jiang Huo saw him back, the tension in his heart finally eased.

"Martial Uncle, are you alright?" Jiang Huo asked anxiously as he stepped forward.

Lin Zheyu looked far too battered to seem unharmed.

"I am fine. It's just a minor injury. You may have to handle things here on your own," Lin Zheyu said weakly, his face somewhat pale.

"Rest assured, Martial Uncle. Leave this to us. Please return and rest. I have already sent out a distress signal. Reinforcements should arrive soon," Jiang Huo hurriedly replied.

This beast tide was particularly fierce. He had sent the distress signal some time ago, yet no support had arrived. Clearly, other areas were equally stretched thin.

"Very well. Act cautiously. If it cannot be held, abandon this line and retreat to the second defensive line," Lin Zheyu instructed.

After giving his instructions, he turned and walked up Soaring Serpent Mountain. Jiang Huo watched his departing figure, the horrific wound on his back still emitting faint black smoke, and felt deeply shaken.

"Martial Uncle suffered such severe injuries. To escape alive from a Force Transformation realm yao martial artist truly befits an expert ranked fifty-three on the Hidden Dragon List. No, even someone ranked fifty-three might not manage it."

These thoughts flashed through Jiang Huo's mind, but he did not dwell on them. The beastly roars pulled him back to reality. Frowning, he swallowed two Essence and Qi Pills and vanished with his blade in hand.