“Is this the first site of the incident?”
“Yes, City Lord.”
Wang Yu sat astride the increasingly massive Three-Tailed Snow Fox, spreading open the map in his hand. The location marked on it was indeed strange.
Under the Blood Reversal Sect’s control, four prefecture existed. Every five-year cycle, the sect tribute was first delivered to the respective prefecture city, and from there, sent to the mountain gate of the sect. For city lords like them, their duty ended once they escorted the tribute safely to the prefecture city.
The Cloud Ridge Prefecture City lay northeast of Jade Spirit, along a route that passed through Mount Wisteria, the Silt adow, and the Thunderfall Deep Abyss. After crossing the Three-Hundred-Mile One-Line-Sky Canyon, one would reach Cloud Ridge Prefecture City.
The place where the incident occurred was located exactly between the Silt adow and the Thunderfall Abyss. The adow stretched vast and open, with no obstacles to block one’s sight.
As for the Thunderfall Abyss—it was said to be the place where an ancient beast nad Ji ng had once revealed its divine might.
Legend had it that in ancient tis, during storms of thunder and rain, there appeared a strange beast with the head of a dragon, a human body, and bird claws, with feathers growing from its arms. It descended lightning pillars to punish those burdened with grave karmic sins. This beast was Ji ng.
The Thunderfall Abyss was rumored to be where a Demonic Path cultivator at the Spirit Transformation stage was struck dead by heavenly lightning. The exact identity of that cultivator was unclear, and even ancient records avoided ntioning it. Wang Yu only regarded it as a myth.
Now, the couriers who carried the sacred tribute were found dead halfway along this route. There were no traces of battle—no spiritual fluctuations, no destruction—almost as if they had vanished into thin air. Wang Yu had every reason to suspect that there was a traitor within their own ranks.
Perhaps an enemy’s spy had infiltrated. His recent order to search the Bai Clan ancestral estate and wipe them out was not only a purge but also a deliberate act of baiting.
After all, whether the Bai Clan remnants still existed remained uncertain, though the possibility was high. The tribute escort team had consisted of only three mbers.
One from Jade Spirit City, at the late stage of Qi Refining.
One from Cloud Prefecture City, at the peak of Foundation Establishnt.
One from the Blood Reversal Sect, at the early stage of Core Formation.
The team’s structure was sowhat unbalanced, but this was common among newly appointed city lords. Things usually stabilized after forty or fifty years.
“From the terrain, the Thunderfall Abyss is a better place for an ambush. Xu Ruzhou.”
“Subordinate is here.”
“Has the Thunderfall Abyss been investigated?”
“It has, my lord. No traces were found.”
“Take there.”
The Thunderfall Abyss was a colossal sinkhole with a diater exceeding a hundred miles. Its rocky walls glead black and reflective, as if the stones had been vitrified by imnse heat and then weathered over countless ages.
The abyss was bottomless. Tossing a stone down, one could wait half a day without hearing it land. Every year, during the rainy season, thunderbolts would erupt upward from its depths—lethal enough to obliterate a Foundation Establishnt cultivator with ease.
Many cultivators had once ventured inside seeking fortune, but most went missing. The few survivors told conflicting stories: so said there was nothing below, others claid to have seen monsters, while others described an underground labyrinth.
Because of these tales, countless rumors persisted, and even now, cultivators continued to enter, exploring and searching for treasures.
The nearest city was called Thunder Rain City.
With no clues nearby, Wang Yu ordered Xu Ruzhou to take a group to Thunder Rain City to gather intelligence and check for suspicious figures.
He remained by the abyss alone, motionless, as if waiting for sothing.
Half a day later, a faint smile crept onto Wang Yu’s face. The Demonic Embryo within his body was beginning to stir. Since devouring Wang Wu, he had only planted demonic intent three tis—on Xu Ruzhou, the Bai Clan’s Grand Elder, and the talisman master Luo Chen.
Whether Luo Chen had succeeded or not remained unknown, but now that Xu Ruzhou had left for Thunder Rain City, the presence that had suddenly entered his perception was obvious.
“Since you’ve co, why keep hiding?”
“Wang… Yu!”
From a swirl of gray mist not far from the Thunderfall Abyss, a familiar figure erged—it was none other than the Bai Clan’s Grand Elder. The technique he used was the signature secret art of the Yellow Spring Monastery: Yellow Spring Ghost Mist.
Without showing any reaction, Wang Yu quietly activated his Searching Mountain and Hunting Demons secret art.
When he confird that the elder was alone, he swiftly sent a voice transmission to True Personage Qingyang, instructing him to remain hidden. Then, he said aloud:
“It has been years since we last t. I thought the Grand Elder would have broken through to Core Formation and returned to seek revenge. Never thought you’d still be stuck at the peak of Foundation Establishnt.”
“Hmph! You little brat, how could you understand the gulf between realms? Even if you were born under the Blood Reversal Sect, it doesn’t an you can surely reach Core Formation. Today, I, this elder, will slay you to avenge my Bai Clan’s annihilation!”
Wang Yu smiled faintly, mocking him.
“You truly disappoint . It seems your dual spiritual roots are of the lowest kind. Even burdened with such hatred, you still failed to break through. What use is your life then? Besides, this was your Bai Clan’s own doing. Look at the Guan and Jiang Clans of Jade Spirit City—aren’t they doing quite well now? Their influence has grown by at least twenty percent compared to before.”
“Silence!”
The Bai Clan’s Grand Elder seed to have his reverse scale touched. The demonic seed’s influence twisted his rage even further. In that mont, he saw a reflection of his past self—uttering those foolish words, ‘I have a plan.’
Fury consud him.
In an instant, hundreds of massive fireballs—each the size of a water tank—rained down toward Wang Yu. The elder possessed dual spiritual roots of Fire and tal, sothing Wang Yu had long since investigated thoroughly.
At this mont of close combat, he already had a plan in mind.
Snowjade was the first to strike. With a flick of her three tails, a frigid wind howled across the battlefield, weakening most of the incoming fireballs before she retreated to the side.
She successively cast Snowfall Technique, Freezing Rain Technique, and Extre Cold Domain. This was her role, to assist him by lowering the battlefield’s temperature.
With the temperature dropping, Wang Yu’s ice-attribute spells, already formidable, instantly grew even more terrifying in power.
A simple wave of his hand unleashed an ice sword aura hundreds of ters long. It looked as if even the heavens might freeze over.
After sweeping away all the incoming fireballs, he pulled his palms apart, and two rotating ice discs whirled into the air with a whistling sound.
The Grand Elder of the Bai Family saw this and was utterly shocked by Wang Yu’s cultivation. “In just a little over twenty years, you have reached the sixth layer of Foundation Establishnt. I cannot let you live.”
He imdiately summoned a second-rank supre-grade magic tool, the Molten Gold Spear.
Though his body was aged, his movents remained swift and practiced. As his True Essence surged forth, the spear swept out, shaping the power of a spell.
Two magma dragons spiraled along the Molten Gold Spear and roared forward.
But the next instant, both were neatly severed in half by the twin ice discs. The discs’ power lessened slightly but still pressed on under Wang Yu’s control, hurtling toward the Bai Family’s Great Elder.
The old man finally realized how dire the situation was.
His cultivation was not especially high, but his mastery of perfected techniques was astonishing. The City Lord Wang had cultivated for only a few decades, yet his spell control was so refined it defied belief.
Raising his spear, he struck one ice disc aside using the artifact’s power, then swept the second one away with a crossguard motion. Ice and sparks exploded simultaneously.
“Clang, clang, clang, clang.”
The Grand Elder barely lifted his head when Wang Yu’s figure appeared before him in a blur.
Grinning viciously, Wang Yu grabbed the Molten Gold Spear and delivered a fierce side kick.
As the roar of a dragon echoed, the Grand Elder felt his whole body crumble. That brutal force nearly shattered the defensive inner armor beneath his robes.
“Ugh…”
He collapsed to the ground, vomiting a mouthful of blood. When he looked up again, the Molten Gold Spear had already been taken and sealed into Wang Yu’s Sea Heart Ring. In the blink of an eye, Wang Yu appeared right in front of him.
The Grand Elder’s eyes widened in rage and fear. At last, he rembered why he had co.
“Wait… Wang Yu! I ca to negotiate terms.”
“Now you speak of terms after losing? If you could sacrifice yourself for the Bai Family, I would think better of you. But now… heh, you may as well serve the Blood Reversal Sect in the afterlife.”
“You—”
Defeated in battle and crushed by words, the demonic seed within him fed on his emotional despair. The Grand Elder’s eyes turned blood-red as he gritted his teeth.
“The Yellow Spring Monastery knows that you have cultivated their core inheritance, the Mysterious Yin Hand.”
“If you wish to obtain the counterpart technique, Nether Earth Finger, join the Yellow Spring Monastery. You will imdiately beco a direct disciple. When both techniques are combined, you can cultivate the sect’s core divine ability, the Yellow Springs Great Mudra.”
“Oh?”
Wang Yu smiled faintly.
“So, the reason you ca to after hearing I intended to wipe out the Bai Family’s remnants was to deliver a ssage from the Yellow Spring Monastery?”
Though he spoke lightly, his thoughts turned elsewhere.
Years ago, when he received the Mysterious Yin Hand from Su Qingshan, he had wondered why the man possessed the Yellow Spring Monastery’s core inheritance.
At that ti, he suspected Su Qingshan was a spy.
Now it seed more likely to be part of a grand recruitnt sche. The monastery spread the Mysterious Yin Hand widely to lure talented cultivators. Once those talents gained fa or approached Core Formation, they would reappear with the matching Nether Earth Finger to tempt them.
The resulting divine ability, Yellow Springs Great Mudra, was extrely famous among the demonic path.
Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would treat it as a reliable trump card.
If cultivated into a life-bound divine power, its might would be astonishing. The temptation was imnse. Any talented cultivator from humble origins would find it hard to refuse.
After all, in one’s own sect, a person born with Wasted Spiritual Roots would rarely receive such a supre-grade divine technique even after forming a Core.
Had the Yellow Spring Monastery approached him imdiately after he killed Su Qingshan, he might have accepted. He never felt any loyalty to the Blood Reversal Sect.
But now... he had already beco one of the Four Young Masters of the Blood Reversal Sect. How could he throw away everything for a single top-tier divine ability?
“I refuse.
“Old man, you will serve as nourishnt for instead.”
In an instant, Wang Yu’s hand gripped the Grand Elder’s head. The Mysterious Origin Demonic Embryo stirred, and the old man instantly lost all ability to resist. His Essence, cultivation, and life force were drained away.
“No... Wang Yu... City Lord Wang, please spare the Bai Family. This is all my greed’s fault. The matter of the sect tribute has nothing to do with them, I beg you…”
His voice grew weaker and weaker. Unable to resist the mature demonic seed inside him, his life reached its end.
Wang Yu coldly refused.
“You wish to avoid responsibility? Every man must pay for his own mistakes.”
Finally, all of the Grand Elder’s Essence poured into Wang Yu’s Spiritual Roots.
The roots beca more vibrant than ever. As eerie whispers filled the air, the old man’s body turned into a dried corpse and collapsed.
Wang Yu narrowed his eyes, savoring it as if tasting so exquisite delicacy.
The Mysterious Origin Demonic Embryo devoured the massive gift of spiritual essence bit by bit.
Within him, Wang Yu’s own Spiritual Roots began to grow rapidly, especially the tal Root, which soon caught up with the others.
His Five Wasted Spiritual Roots, aside from the mutated Water Root that gained Yin and Ice attributes reaching the level of a triple root, had all advanced.
Fire, Wood, and tal had all ascended to dual-root level, while the Earth Root remained weak and incomplete.
These roots, however, held little use until they reached the level of Heavenly Spiritual Roots.
His true cultivation talent ca from the Demonic Embryo itself. No matter what attribute he cultivated, as long as it was of the demonic path, he could achieve the equivalent of dual-root aptitude.
This aptitude was determined by the highest quality among his existing roots.
Even if he were to devour a Heavenly Earth Root, his Ice-attribute techniques would still advance at Heavenly Root speed.
But—
The Bai Family’s Grand Elder was not of his bloodline. Why then did the devouring effect remain perfect?
Wang Yu fell silent. He looked toward the featureless face of the Mysterious Origin Demonic Embryo within him, unable to comprehend it no matter how he tried.
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