C825 Enter the Demon Embryo
Yu Yuan was venturing into the Spawn of Chaos for the second time. This realm, shrouded in darkness and filth, served as the foundation for the Blood Altar. As soon as he stepped inside, a deluge of psionic powers assailed him like a tempestuous sea, throwing his senses into disarray and disrupting his vitality. His bones creaked and groaned under the strain.
Within this maelstrom, the soul threads of fallen human cultivators, the dark will of Terra Fiends, the shattered bones of evilkind, the powdered pearls from ocean depths, the cosmic dust from the far reaches of the Star River, the Ice Shards from the darkest recesses, and fragments of Divine Weapons all swirled together. This bizarre amalgamation of psionic residues and luminescence transformed the blue shadow into the most tumultuously chaotic place in existence.
The experience was starkly different from his previous foray. Last time, although the Spawn of Chaos was teeming with a variety of psionic powers, each contained only a minimal amount of energy. Now, the energies within were not only more diverse but each one surged with a force tens, even hundreds, of times greater than before. It was clear to Yu Yuan that, having broken free from its seals and expanded into the depths of the Star River, the Spawn of Chaos had amassed a more formidable and terrifying power.
What's more, the Blood Altar had been refined by Cao Jiaze, now bound to a master. With an owner, the true power of the Blood Altar could be harnessed, allowing for the separate or combined use of the Blood Altar and the Soul Altar to maximize their potential.
"Puff! Crack!" Inside the Spawn of Chaos, Yu Yuan attempted to invoke the Evil Body Refining technique, only to cough up a mouthful of blood. The blood formed a bubble that fused with the myriad forces within the Spawn of Chaos, altering his expression dramatically.
The body refining spell of the Terror Claws had once been shown to constrain the Spawn of Chaos, enabling one to temper their physique within it and emerge stronger. The practice of Evil Body Refining involved drawing in various powers to first break down the body, then repair it, ultimately fortifying the meridians and bones to be more resilient.
However, when he attempted the technique once more, he immediately realized that the psionic power within the Spawn of Chaos surged toward him like an overwhelming ocean.
He felt like a small boat caught in a tempest, utterly unable to withstand the onslaught.
In a mere moment, his bones splintered, and his flesh and organs seemed on the verge of bursting. He was gripped by the terrifying sensation that he was about to explode and perish, forcing him to cease his efforts.
Bearing the stabbing pain in his body, Yu Yuan furrowed his brow and thought it through. He soon grasped the cause.
Evil Body Refining still had an effect within the Spawn of Chaos, but because it was saturated with immense power from the extraterrestrial Star River and covertly manipulated by Cao Jiaze, the moment Yu Yuan employed Evil Body Refining, Cao Jiaze would detect it. Consequently, Cao Jiaze would infuse a force into Yu Yuan's body that far surpassed his endurance limit.
The power that Evil Body Refining naturally drew was the most suitable for him.
With Cao Jiaze's meddling, the power he gathered surged a hundredfold!
Such a ferocious force was more than he could handle, resulting in immediate injury. Should he persist, he faced the obliteration of his body, with his flesh and soul dissolving into the energy of the Spawn of Chaos.
"What can I do?"
This thought barely formed when he noticed his consciousness beginning to blur.
His spiritual connection with the Crucible of Evil had also vanished the moment he entered the blue shadow.
He had an inkling that the cauldron spirit of the Crucible of Evil was being suppressed by the Soul Altar.
Armed with the "Tears of the Azurefiend," it had become immensely formidable. In the past, deep within the Embers Sea, he could channel the Crucible of Evil to absorb the psionic light from the Spawn of Chaos, bolstering the crucible's power and amassing psionic light within its little world for his ongoing body tempering.
But now, with Cao Jiaze in the picture, he found himself utterly powerless.
Even the simple act of moving freely within the Spawn of Chaos had become exceedingly difficult.
His body was like a fly trapped in amber, and his soul mired in a deep quagmire.
"Soulforge Pool."
"Root of the Lunar Meridian."
He attempted to use his soul to connect with the enigmatic pool within the Moonfall Sanctuary and the will deep beneath the Land of Terror. Yet, he quickly discovered that his efforts were futile.
The Spawn of Chaos, a confluence of a hundred types of psionic power, was the most peculiar place of corruption in the world, impervious to the harsh, penetrating cold winds from outside.
His remnant soul and consciousness were unable to breach the Spawn of Chaos, failing to establish a spiritual link with the Soulforge Pool or the Root of the Lunar Meridian.
Gradually, he was forced to confront the reality that he was utterly constrained.
Even the Altar of Rebirth within his little world of vitality fell eerily silent upon his entry, refraining from absorbing even the slightest bit of vitality.
This led him to realize that the residual vitality within the Spawn of Chaos, tainted with a mélange of toxins, remnant souls, and impurities from the Star River, made the Altar of Rebirth hesitant to harvest recklessly.
The Altar of Rebirth could only assimilate pure vitality, uncontaminated by remnant souls, poisons, or fine gold.
Introducing such pollutants to the Altar of Rebirth would only hinder its operation and disrupt its wondrous nature.
Yu Yuan, feeling helpless, continued his efforts to find a way out of the Spawn of Chaos.
Meanwhile, in the outside world.
Cao Jiaze of the Ebon Star Sect's eyes, once alight with an unusual gleam, soon dimmed.
His gaze returned to a state of tranquility, and he chuckled, "Yu Yuan, you've underestimated me. You entered the Spawn of Chaos without a desperate struggle, surely believing you could replicate your past feats from the Embers Sea, right?"
Having refined the Blood Altar, he was aware of Yu Yuan's past actions within the Spawn of Chaos.
Yu Yuan had tempered his body with the Evil Body Refining Technique and used the Crucible of Evil to cleanse a corrupted land, seizing the hidden psionic power deep within the Spawn of Chaos and transferring it into the crucible's little world.
It was also through the Spawn of Chaos that Yu Yuan had acquired chunks of Sunsorrow from the Abyssal Leviathan.
Indeed, Yu Yuan's first venture into the Spawn of Chaos had been a resounding success, returning with spoils aplenty.
The cauldron spirit of the Crucible of Evil had informed Yu Yuan that his "Evil Body Refining Technique," along with the cauldron, could stand up to the Blood Altar of the Sky Fiend when they were in the Star River of the extraterrestrial realms. The Spawn of Chaos, the weapon of doom for the Blood Altar, was precisely what the masters of the Terror Claws could exploit.
Holding onto this conviction, Yu Yuan, upon encountering the Tears of the Azurefiend once more, refrained from resisting as he drew it into the Spawn of Chaos, believing he could still hold his ground as he had in the past.
"This object, once refined by me, will hardly serve your purposes as you wish," he mused.
Cao Jiaze chuckled, "With my consciousness at the helm, every time you employ the Evil Body Refining, I'll inflict harm upon you. You seek to absorb a mere 10% of the psionic power to temper your body, but what if I were to give you 90%, even 100%? That would no longer be cultivation."
"That would be your undoing," Yu Yuan whispered to himself. He then turned his attention to the Soul Altar and sent forth a thread of thought.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
White Bone and Luo Yue, immobilized by the Soul Altar, transformed into a swirl of white and green light, a burst of rainbow luminescence plummeting from the Soul Altar above straight into the Spawn of Chaos. As the light was snuffed out, the two Ghost Kings were abruptly overwhelmed by a myriad of psionic powers.
In the Land of Terror, the enigmatic Soul Altar's activation would instantly provoke a frenzied backlash from the Root of the Lunar Meridian. The River Styx, corresponding to the two Ghost Kings, would relentlessly channel strength into White Bone and Luo Yue.
Refining the souls of the two Ghost Kings at the Soul Altar was akin to engaging in a war of attrition with the Root of the Lunar Meridian. The Root of the Lunar Meridian, the subterranean sovereign presiding over the cycle of life and death in the vast Everlands, was growing stronger with each passing day, fueled by the conflicts within the Everlands, the fall of the mighty, and the deaths of mortals.
To wage a war of attrition against the Root of the Lunar Meridian was tantamount to seeking one's own demise. Thus, Cao Jiaze had White Bone and Luo Yue, like Yu Yuan, enter the Spawn of Chaos to be temporarily confined, biding time until the power of Dhoreus could be fully restored.
Dhoreus would unleash a force in accordance with the rules of the Land of Terror to obliterate White Bone and Luo Yue.
