Chapter 151: The True Demon Subduing Technique of the Five Viscera Reappears!

"Let this time not be a fake one."

Hearing Dahei's message, a土黄色 (earth-yellow) spiritual radiance erupted from Shen Lian's body, and he plunged straight into the earth.

All over the mountains and plains, the black-horned ants traversed the Thousand-Pillar Mountain Range, digging soil and unearthing pits. Finding places with spiritual energy was effortless for them.

Over the past few days, he had already harvested more than two hundred kinds of various medicinal herbs, including thirteen of the second rank.

He had also discovered two small medicine gardens planted by cultivators, though he did not go so far as to steal other people's herbs—they were merely some first-rank spiritual herbs.

It was not really the black-horned ants' fault; these little creatures had low power and could only conduct preliminary investigations. Places with dense spiritual energy and restrictions were beyond their reach.

However, wherever they made a discovery, they were bound to unearth something. Their treasure-hunting skills were top-notch.

The place where a discovery was made this time was a valley surrounded by spiritual energy, where nearly a hundred houses of various styles were built, forming a small settlement.

After inspecting it, Shen Lian found that this small market had a second-rank medium-grade array set up, and nothing else seemed out of the ordinary.

The only drawback was that this dwelling had also been sacked by demonic cultivators, leaving the array in tatters.

The entire valley was permeated with the stench of blood and lingering demonic Qi.

In recent days, although he had been searching for the earth-dragon root in the mountains, he had focused on places rich in spiritual energy, and places rich in spiritual energy mostly became cultivators' dwellings.

This was already the fifth place he had found that had been ravaged by demonic cultivators.

Wherever demonic cultivators appeared, everything would be swept clean, not even sparing the bones of the cultivators.

As for the number of demonic cultivators, Shen Lian already knew there were only two fellows. Their strength should be at the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment, otherwise they would not dare to meddle with the family members of a Core Formation True Person.

However, their specific location was unknown; the Thousand-Pillar Mountain Range was too vast. Every time Dahei finished communicating with his subordinate black-horned ant clan members, the two demonic cultivators had long since relocated.

After a brief inspection of the environment, he controlled the spiritual puppet to sink deep into the earth, searching for the core gathering point of spiritual energy.

The spiritual veins in the Thousand-Pillar Mountains were scattered, but every place where spiritual energy gathered had a spiritual power eruption point, much like a spring.

A spiritual energy spring was equivalent to a small opening exposed on a spiritual vein.

Since a small dwelling could be built here, it meant there was a spiritual energy spring here.

The market stretched from northeast to southwest, overall about four or five miles long, and the houses were built along the terrain of the valley.

Before long, the spiritual puppet discovered the spiritual energy release points deep underground—not just one, but a string of them, each spewing out gushing spiritual energy like a spring, nourishing the region near the valley like irrigation.

Beside the largest spiritual energy spring in the middle stood an ancient towering tree that shielded a large portion of the dwelling above, while below, its gnarled roots like dragons plunged into the soil in all directions.

At the edge of the area covered by the ancient tree's roots, there was a dark-yellow section resembling a tree root, its entire surface similarly covered with dense rootlets, quietly rooted in the soil and absorbing spiritual energy.

Beside this rootlet, there were also some scattered, fragmented ores wrapped by the dense rootlets.

The spiritual puppet grabbed this large rootlet from the soil, dragging out the surrounding earth along with it.

"Ore."

When Shen Lian held the earth-dragon root in his hand, he casually examined the soil and rubble brought up with it. The pebble-like fragments in his hand were crystal clear, some emitting a golden light, others radiating earth energy.

"They say earth-dragon roots love to grow in places of a hundred spirits; sure enough, it is true."

Carefully examining these fragmented ore particles, he found that the types of ore included were quite diverse, numbering more than thirty kinds.

This made Shen Lian fall into deep thought. Speaking of ore content, looking across the Southern Heaven Continent, there was no place with more than Mount Tianzhu.

This earth-dragon root was less than a foot long, with the thickest part about the size of an infant's arm. Its medicinal age should be less than a hundred years, barely reaching the second rank.

Just as Shen Lian had put away the earth-dragon root and was about to leave, within the range of his divine sense perception, he sensed a rich smell of blood.

In another direction of the valley, beneath a stone house near the edge, a faint scent of blood lingered.

Beneath the house was a secret chamber, housing two figures.

To say these two were bold, they had even set up a breath-concealing array inside the secret chamber beneath the stone house.

To say they were cautious, they still dared to sit down and divide their spoils after thoroughly sacking a place.

...

Inside the secret chamber, the cultivators from the dwelling who had just been hunted down were piled together. Two demonic figures sat cross-legged among the bones and bloody water, cultivating demonic arts.

Streams of blood-red Qi, like bloody serpents, were drawn into the bodies of the two cultivators.

During the cultivation process, the two flush-faced men had a faint layer of black Qi lingering around their bodies.

Within the black Qi, ferocious faces emerged, roaring angrily, attempting to pounce on the two, but in the end, they were shattered into a puff of smoke by the blood Qi.

The bones, drained of their blood Qi, withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Soon, one of the figures was the first to wake from cultivation.

"A bunch of Qi Refining trash, how are they enough for our cultivation needs? Going on like this, wanting to advance to Core Formation is a remote and distant dream."

A voice like a broken gong sounded. This man grabbed a drained skeleton and crushed it into dust.

The other figure also woke from cultivation, opening his mouth to inhale the last wisps of blood Qi in the secret chamber into his belly.

"Junior Brother Luo, this time we hunted four Foundation Establishment cultivators, which is almost enough. Master's task is the top priority."

Junior Brother Luo grinned, revealing a smile, but his smile carried a fierce and ferocious undertone.

"Senior Brother Zhong is right. Without Master, where would we be? Being able to hunt four male Foundation Establishment cultivators on this trip can already be considered a worthwhile journey."

Senior Brother Zhong said nothing more, standing up and casting a ball of blood fire to sweep away the remaining bones in the secret chamber.

"Alright, we had better bring back the female cultivators needed for Master's cultivation as soon as possible. Otherwise, if Master blames us, both of us know the terror of Demonic Fire Refining Soul. Don't tell me you want to try it again."

Junior Brother Luo shuddered. "Senior Brother is right. Master's cultivation of the *Yin-Yang Five Organs True Demon Art* has reached the third stage, and this Yin Qi must by no means fall short."

"Pity that the two of us have no affinity for this supreme demonic art."

Hearing his junior brother muttering behind him, Senior Brother Zhong's eyes narrowed slightly, but they soon returned to normal.

The *Yin-Yang Five Organs True Demon Art* was a cultivation method pointing straight to Deity Transformation. Yet that damned old demon practiced it alone, leaving them, his disciples, to cultivate other demonic arts.

Other demonic arts were fine, but compared to the *Yin-Yang Five Organs True Demon Art*, the difference was like that between a firefly and the bright moon.

For other demonic arts, even breaking through to Core Formation was difficult, whereas the *Yin-Yang Five Organs True Demon Art* could easily shatter the Nascent Soul bottleneck and point straight to the realm of Deity Transformation.

With such a divine art, wanting to cultivate it naturally entailed numerous conditions, not to mention that now the old fellow had already reached the Core Formation realm and was preparing to condense a Nascent Soul.

Given the old demon's temperament, if he could not feel a hundred percent control over disciples like them, he would definitely not allow them to break through to the Core Formation realm.

However, the problem was not too big. Female cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage were already scarce, but the Yin Qi in their bodies might not be enough. He believed the old demon's reach would surely extend to female cultivators at the Core Formation stage.

Female cultivators at the Core Formation stage were even scarcer. When the time came to hunt down Core Formation females, that would be the opportunity for disciples like them to advance to Core Formation.

The two demonic cultivators casually tidied up the quiet room, then swept out of the valley and flew away.

...

"Yin-Yang Five Organs True Demon Art."

Accidentally intercepting the conversation between the two demonic cultivators, Shen Lian stood deep in the jungle, watching the two demonic figures depart.

Indeed, they were demonic cultivators at the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment.

"Could it be the upper and lower volumes?"

Without much thought, Shen Lian considered this possibility.

The *Five Organs True Demon Art* from the Lianzhen Old Demon in his possession could lead directly to Great Circle Core Formation, with a thirty percent probability of condensing a Nascent Soul.

What did a cultivation method with a thirty percent probability of condensing a Nascent Soul represent? The present Shen Lian was no longer the little Qi Refining practitioner of yesteryear.

Take the Cloud-Ascending Sect for example: through generations of single-inheritance Nascent Soul cultivators, looking across the entire South Sea region, cultivators were as numerous as crossing carp, and on the surface, there was only one Nascent Soul cultivator, Ancestor Molong.

With so many cultivators in the entire South Sea region, they could only prop up a single Nascent Soul cultivator like Ancestor Molong. That probability was lower than being struck to death by lightning.

The old demon's *Five Organs True Demon Art* required devouring the five organs of five-element cultivators during the Qi Refining stage, and incorporating blood-stained five-element spiritual objects during the Foundation Establishment stage.

The Core Formation stage was not described, which seemed to mean it was incomplete.

These two demonic cultivators capturing female cultivators to refine Yin Qi made it very easy to deduce Yin and Yang Qi.

After all, Yin and Yang and the Five Organs had always been inseparable.

Pondering over it, Shen Lian felt that this must be a great arch-demon whose fortuitous encounter was even better than that of the Lianzhen Old Demon.

The Lianzhen Old Demon only obtained the upper half, while this person might have obtained a complete upper and lower set.

However, while this cultivation method was formidable, its restrictions were far too great. He was already starting to capture Foundation Establishment female cultivators now—would he have to hunt down Core Formation female cultivators in the future?

Terrifying indeed.

In the future, this fellow's end would surely be the same as that of the trouble-making True Monarch.

...

Watching the two demonic cultivators walk away, Shen Lian's thoughts turned to the jade box left behind by the Lianzhen Old Demon.

As for the earth-dragon root, he had also gained some inspiration from the one he had just found.

If we talk about places where spiritual veins gather, it had to be Mount Tianzhu. Its mineral resources were bound to be countless times richer than those in the Thousand-Pillar Mountain Range.

Mount Tianzhu was sure to have high-grade earth-dragon roots.

Instead of wasting time here, it would be better to head straight to the Mount Tianzhu mining area, searching for mineral materials while looking for earth-dragon roots.

...

Three days later.

A thousand miles outside the Thousand-Pillar Mountain Range, in an inconspicuous little jungle.

Inside a subterranean immortal cave, after setting up his defenses, Shen Lian took out a storage pouch from his storage ring and poured out a jade box.

His divine sense had now reached thirty-eight hundred zhang, which should be about the same as a True Person who had just entered Core Formation.

He might as well try to see if he could open this jade box.

He had no idea what kind of treasure the Lianzhen Old Demon had sealed and preserved with such solemnity actually was.

Before breaking the seal, Shen Lian first used talisman papers such as the Escaping Armor to establish an independent small space and placed the jade box inside it.

Even if it exploded, he would still have time to react and flee far away.

His divine sense carefully landed on the seal of the jade case. The seals carved on this jade case were not very delicate, nor was the technique particularly exquisite.

The reason Shen Lian could not break it before was because the sealing power was too strong, and his divine sense had not reached the level of tearing apart the seal.

"Buzz—"

He first carefully and comprehensively inspected the seal, found a breakthrough point, and spent half an hour tearing open the first seal.

Although the speed was a bit slow, Shen Lian was not in the least bit anxious; his divine sense was already capable of grinding away the seal.

Decades had passed, and he had no idea what kind of surprise the original first treasure-delivering old demon could still bring him.

Hopefully, it wasn't some demonic object; he had already collected a Myriad-Lord Demonic Banner.

After the first seal was broken, Shen Lian's speed also became faster and faster, but there were rather a lot of seals, and the whole process would take quite a bit of time.

Half a day later, he stopped his actions.

After sitting in meditation and resting for a few days, he took out his alchemy furnace, retrieved the newly acquired earth-dragon root, and prepared to refine Yellow Dragon Pills.

The grade of the Yellow Dragon Pill was determined by the quality of the earth-dragon root; the better the quality of the earth-dragon root, the higher the grade of the Yellow Dragon Pill.

As for the supplementary materials for refining the Yellow Dragon Pill, there were no particular restrictions; it only required five spiritual herbs of good spirituality, representing the complete five elements.

When he was in Southern Cliff Immortal City, Shen Lian had also made inquiries about the Yellow Dragon Pill from the side, but none of those pill pavilions or houses possessed this pill, and alchemists did not even know its name.

No wonder no one searched for earth-dragon roots; it was possible that the alchemy knowledge passed down in the South Sea region was incomplete.

Half a month later, he ignited the furnace to refine pills.

In total, he refined twenty-seven second-rank lower-grade Yellow Dragon Pills: nineteen of superior quality and eight of medium quality.

Feeling drowsy once again after breaking the seal, Shen Lian swallowed a superior-quality Yellow Dragon Pill.

As the pill entered his mouth, the melted medicinal power transformed into wisps of yellow smoke, bringing a numb sensation to his flesh and blood before surging into his sea of divine sense.

The divine sense power that he previously felt was depleted was rapidly replenished.

With one Yellow Dragon Pill down, the fatigue of his divine sense, which previously required over ten days of rest to recover, quickly vanished.

If his divine sense power were exhausted in a life-or-death battle and could be rapidly replenished, it would be equivalent to being able to cast the Soul-Detention Seal two more times to deal a fatal blow to an opponent.

Shen Lian understood that if his divine sense power were not comparable to Core Formation, the efficacy of this pill would have been even stronger.

In short, the medicinal age of the earth-dragon root was still too low.

"In the future, when I reach Mount Tianzhu, it would be even better if I can find an earth-dragon root with a medicinal age of five hundred years."

...

Two months later.

With his nerves taut, Shen Lian focused on the jade box within the small space of the Escaping Armor talisman. Only the last three seals remained; at the slightest sign of abnormality, he would flash away.

"Buzz!"

The very instant the final seal shattered.

A flash of earth-yellow light flickered on Shen Lian's body, and he had already bolted a thousand zhang away.

Inside the cave, a puppet paper figure stood blankly in place.

"Hoo."

Shen Lian flashed back once more. Just as he thought, the Lianzhen Old Demon wouldn't go so far as to guard against even himself.

Click.

The jade box opened.

Contrary to Shen Lian's imagination, this jade box turned out to be a storage magic tool.

Upon opening it, the internal space was about ten zhang in size.

The contents inside were quite numerous indeed.

A jade slip, a scroll, a folded animal skin, a jade plate, and three small blood coffins sealed with third-rank talismans on the outside.

And, a jade coffin about one zhang in size.

The jade coffin was wreathed with dense death Qi and demonic Qi.

A sweep of his divine sense revealed the figure lying inside the jade coffin: its expression stiff, eyes wide open, with a look of grievance in death.

One arm was still raised, pointing forward with a single finger.

"Lianzhen Old Demon?"

Shen Lian felt it couldn't be the old demon. If the old demon could calmly arrange his own physical body, he wouldn't have ended up seizing the body of a low-bloodline speckled snake.

Moreover, the figure inside the coffin had heavy injuries; deep claw marks were visible on the chest and abdomen, exposing white bones, and the area below the neck was bruised as if poisoned.

Even in death, its aura still made him shudder, and casting his divine sense upon it gave him a sense of extreme suppression.

He picked up the jade slip and let his divine sense sink into it.

After a long while, Shen Lian withdrew his divine sense.

In an instant, he mentally patched together a serial drama of master-disciple mutual slaughter in the demonic sect.

This jade slip recorded quite a bit of information. It was recorded by the old demon out of fear that his memories would become corrupted after seizing a body and reincarnating, specifically noting down important matters to prepare for his return through possession.

The old fellow in the jade coffin with grievance in death was the Lianzhen Old Demon's master.

Before seizing a body, the Lianzhen Old Demon was called True Person Xuehun, and his master was a demonic Nascent Soul cultivator.

Known as True Monarch Meishan.

A Core Formation cultivator killing their Nascent Soul master—he had to admit, that was truly formidable.

The Lianzhen Old Demon's master, Old Demon Meishan, had successively accepted over a hundred disciples. Counting the Lianzhen Old Demon, three had advanced to the Core Formation level.

The tradition of demonic sects was to first hand over a wisp of divine sense to the master upon entering the sect.

Only by holding your little life in his hands could the master properly cultivate you, and could you properly work for the master.

Old Demon Meishan's disciples continuously perished, and eventually, the Lianzhen Old Demon became the senior martial brother ranked first.

Demonic cultivator backlash was a common occurrence, so one couldn't entirely blame the master for taking a disciple's wisp of divine sense upon accepting them.

The root of this matter lay with the earliest demonic cultivators, who had brought bad practices to the industry.

By later times, demonic cultivators could only accept a disciple's divine sense when taking them in.

Otherwise, even the most honest disciple stepping onto the path of cultivation would have to navigate a daily storm of blood; no matter how firm their willpower was, it would eventually become warped.

In Old Demon Meishan's eyes, disciples and slaves were no different. The Lianzhen Old Demon had cultivated all the way to the Core Formation stage, yet he still spent his days trembling in fear under Old Demon Meishan's hands.

On one occasion, Old Demon Meishan accidentally obtained the *Five Organs True Demon Art* and began plotting a plan to retrain in this cultivation method.

He began making his disciples prepare various required spiritual objects.

Yet after employing various methods, they all ended in failure.

This demonic art unexpectedly required starting cultivation entirely from scratch. Since Old Demon Meishan was already at the Nascent Soul stage, the risk of seizing a body and starting over was by no means small, unless it was truly a moment of desperate crisis to be used as a last resort.

It was also at this time that the Lianzhen Old Demon, while searching for relevant spiritual objects for his master, managed to piece together some information.

As he learned more and more relevant information, the Lianzhen Old Demon solidified the idea of killing his master and seizing his body.

He was reluctant to part with Old Demon Meishan's Nascent Soul, but he was at the Core Formation stage and under the old demon's control; neither reality nor his own situation allowed him any possibility of advancing to Nascent Soul.

Rather than that, it was better to kill his master and seize his body to start anew.

The body found for his master to possess was better left for him to use.

However, after preparing everything related to possession, Old Demon Meishan made no movement. Lianzhen understood that his master was hesitating, and he could only quietly wait for an opportunity.

At last, Heaven does not disappoint a master-killer; he truly saw his opportunity.

That day, Meishan suffered severe injuries and went into hiding, notifying his disciples to search for relevant spiritual herbs and send them to a specific location.

Regarding his master's lack of trust, the Lianzhen Old Demon did not find it strange at all—such was the demonic tradition of mutual suspicion between master and disciple.

He deliberately leaked the news, pointing out all the possible places where his master Meishan might be healing his injuries.

Sure enough, his guess was right.

Dragging his injuries, Master Meishan had no choice but to flee once more. Running for his life continuously finally gave him the opportunity to approach the hiding place of Old Demon Meishan.

...

The subsequent records in the jade slip ended there, but judging from the old demon's exile in the barren wilderness, the master-killing operation had succeeded, yet it had also failed.

Instead of seizing a body according to the established preparations, he had instead fallen into the body of a small demonic snake.

Besides recording the events before and after the old demon's master-killing, the jade slip also recorded several locations hiding several spiritual objects.

They were all third-rank spiritual objects collected by the old demon, among which was also a third-rank upper-grade Inviting Moon Myriad Stars Disk—a heritage magic tool plundered from the annihilation of a declining Core Formation sect, which he had hidden in a place called Mount Qianyun.

Shen Lian speculated that the Lianzhen Old Demon's detailed recording of his master-killing process was mostly because Ancestor Meishan had left too deep an impression on him.

He could sense the suppressed excitement between the lines of the text recorded by the old demon.

Especially when he was about to make a move later on, that excitement was almost bursting at the seams.

That's about ten thousand words for today's two updates; my hands are getting a bit too tired to type anymore.

(End of this chapter)