Chapter 239
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.”
In the depths of the dense forest, five rapidly spinning ice disks shot past, slicing a centipede over twenty meters long cleanly into six pieces.
Green blood flowed everywhere. Wherever it passed, the fallen leaves and branches withered instantly, and even the soil turned dark.
Wang Yu swiftly flew out from behind a tree. With a flicker of his divine sense, he extracted a green Poison Core from within the centipede’s body.
Its color leaned toward grayish-green, translucent in texture, with keratin-like protrusions and the faint shadow of an insect flickering inside.
This was the Demon Core of a second-rank mid-stage poison beast. Before reaching the third rank, a beast’s core still retained part of its physical traits—just like the one before him.
Immediately after, he released the Immaculate Jade Toad to devour all remaining toxins, then took out the Ghost-Weeping Flute to capture and enslave the beast’s lingering demon soul.
The entire process was practiced and efficient—almost a standard post-battle procedure for Wang Yu. He made use of every part of his enemies, wasting nothing at all.
By now, this was his twentieth day inside the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest. The formation master that the Ruan Family elder had mentioned never appeared, but he did encounter plenty of disgusting poisonous beasts.
Aside from a few unidentifiable poisonous plants, what troubled him most was a type of “Divine Sense Poison.” It merged with the toxic mists and drifted naturally along the wind. He had only discovered it because after perfecting the Ancient Soul Art, he gained the Ancient Soul, a mysterious power capable of resisting most spiritual abnormalities.
Even the Immaculate Jade Toad only noticed the poison once it was already infected. Its resistance to toxins came from its innate ability to devour poison for growth, not from any true poison-sensing gift.
Its ability to detect toxins was... merely average.
This strange “Divine Sense Poison,” and the fact that only the Ancient Soul could resist it, convinced Wang Yu that he had found the right place.
The ancient Heavenly Soul Sect might have used this natural barrier to form the outermost defense of their sect—or perhaps they themselves created this Divine Sense Poison.
Although Wang Yu lacked concrete clues, after noticing this anomaly, he followed the wind currents and circled an area on his map.
Now, he was heading toward the center of that circled region.
According to the information from Ten Thousand Poisons Town, the area ahead was a low-lying basin that many had explored before.
Apart from some poisonous spirit plants, that place was home to a white venomous serpent-type demon beast. It was extremely fast and its venom was fierce, but it could only strike once, with strength at best at the first-rank level.
However, this was already the inner region of the Heavenly Demon Bone Forest, where he could encounter third-rank intelligent poison beasts at any time. The danger was immense, so Wang Yu moved with utmost caution.
He constantly maintained the Breath-Concealing Spell to suppress his aura and scent.
“I remember... many of the poisonous creatures in this forest are highly beneficial to body refinement. There’s even a poison herb called the Black Sky Cordyceps that can enhance true essence.”
He muttered softly, pausing from time to time to cast his Mountain-Searching, Demon-Hunting secret technique.
“This is—”
As he pushed aside the obstructing grass with his true essence, Wang Yu’s eyes lit up.
A large toad, black-skinned with fiery red spots, was squatting atop a lava-like stone.
If he was not mistaken, that was a rare third-rank material—Crimson Flame Redstone.
Usually used as an inlay material, it could be embedded into other spirit artifacts to enhance fire power and add a corrosive fire poison effect.
This chunk was massive, enough to be divided into more than ten pieces.
Its value exceeded one million spirit stones.
And the toad itself—a Venomfire Toad—was a third-rank early-stage beast, though its aura showed that it had long reached the peak of that stage.
Below the third rank, demon beasts were weak and lacked intelligence.
But once they reached the third rank, everything changed. They awakened their bloodline divine powers and sometimes even possessed Life-bound Demon Treasures—usually remnants of their old bodies struck by heavenly tribulation, or organs shed during metamorphosis.
For example, horns, scales, or tails. A Three-Tailed Snow Fox that advanced might shed one of its tails and form a treasure. Depending on the species, such Demon Treasures were extremely primitive—and for cultivators, priceless supreme-grade materials.
Precisely because they were primitive, beasts could only refine them instinctively. Once obtained by humans and branded with their own spiritual imprint, such treasures became incredibly powerful.
The moment he saw the Venomfire Toad, Wang Yu instantly cast an Invisibility Technique, vanishing into the forest.
The toad turned its yellow horizontal eyes toward where he had been, blinking once before resuming its stillness—finding nothing amiss.
Meanwhile, Wang Yu had quickly shifted position and was formulating a plan in his mind. Back in the Black Mountain Demonic Lands, he had extensive combat experience against demon beasts, even capable of handling second-rank monsters with ease.
But the Venomfire Toad could not be approached recklessly. After some thought, he retreated a kilometer and released Snowjade.
The Three-Tailed Snow Fox emerged from the spirit beast pouch—shoulder height 2.6 meters, body length 5 meters, tail included over 12 meters. Since its breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment stage, its size had grown immensely.
It was now a majestic fox, its cultivation at Foundation Establishment fourth layer. It looked at Wang Yu with slight confusion.
“Snowjade, in a moment, I want you to summon a blizzard and blow it in that direction. Then retreat as far as you can.”
“Awoo.”
It recognized the tone—another bait mission. It had done this more than once before. Its beautiful, ice-pink eyes flashed with faint resentment.
Wang Yu chuckled softly, rubbing Snowjade’s silky fur.
“Don’t worry, it’ll be fine.”