Becoming a Saint From the Iron Armor Skill

The inner stone chamber was much smaller than the outer one, less than a hundred feet square.

The recent clash between the Corpse Demon and Jiang Huaijin had wrecked the entire chamber. The fierce and tyrannical Power from their exchange had caused the hard stone walls to collapse and shatter, the wooden boxes to explode, and various Medicinal Materials to scatter across the floor.

There wasn’t a single piece of gold, silver, or jewelry to be found.

There were almost no Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects!

There were many Medicinal Materials, all of them extremely valuable and rare—things like Thousand-year-old Mountain Ginseng and Lingzhi were everywhere. However, a lotus flower was planted on every single one.

These lotuses were different from the pearly white ones in the outer chamber. They were completely black and faintly radiated Demonic Qi.

The Demonic Qi seeped into the Medicinal Materials through roots that had pierced them, causing the entire plant to take on a dark, inky hue.

Chen Cheng picked up one of the herbs. After carefully sensing it, he couldn’t help but shake his head in slight disappointment.

The herbs contained not only Demonic Qi but also a dense Yin Evil Qi and a bloody Evil Qi. Combined with the herb’s own natural aura, these different energies were tangled together, severely contaminating it.

The most important quality of Medicinal Materials was their pure medicinal potency. Once contaminated, they were completely useless to a Martial Artist.

’That can’t be right!

Even if Ghostly Wound was cultivating these Black Lotuses, his ultimate goal was to replenish his body’s Innate Origin and extend his lifespan.

That would give him more time for Cultivation, to break through to the Innate Realm and extend his life even further.

He would have definitely needed all sorts of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects for that.’

Since the Medicinal Materials were useless, Chen Cheng could only search for Heaven and Earth Spiritual Objects.

With a wave of his hand, heavy ripples pulsed outward as the aura of the Great Power Realm filled the chamber.

The scattered stones and fragments of the wooden boxes all floated into the air, then flew toward a corner of the room and piled up together!

The messy chamber instantly became much tidier.

Chen Cheng’s figure flickered as he quickly searched every corner of the room, and he finally made a discovery.

At the bottom of the massive, relatively intact stone coffin, he found a hidden compartment. Inside was an exquisite, three-foot-square mahogany box.

He opened the box to find its interior lined with luxurious silk brocade. Resting inside were three Source Crystal Jades, an egg-sized Ink Crystal Stone, a dark green Jade Bottle, and a Beast Hide Scroll that emanated an ancient aura.

’Whoa! So Ghostly Wound wasn’t so shabby after all!’

Overjoyed, Chen Cheng swept his hand over the Source Crystal Jades and the Ink Crystal Stone, storing them away first.

Next, he picked up the Jade Bottle but couldn’t open the cap. It seemed to be sealed by some kind of Array.

Since Ghostly Wound had treasured this Jade Bottle so much, its contents must be extremely precious. He didn’t have time to study it now, so he simply put it away.

The *Secret Technique of Daoxin Demon Planting*.

This was the Secret Technique recorded on the Beast Hide Scroll.

The Beast Hide Scroll was clearly an ancient artifact. The script on it was quite different from the common script of the Great Yu.

Chen Cheng had specifically studied ancient scripts in the Demon Suppression Department’s Library Pavilion, so he was able to recognize the characters.

"All great Daos under heaven, all techniques return to one... Yin and Yang are the way of heaven and earth, the guiding principles of all things...

A Martial Artist uses the body as a furnace and their Qi and Blood as fuel to temper the physique... Use the bloodline of a Demon Beast as a guide to return to the ancestral truth... A Demon absorbs Qi, devours and transforms it, reversing Yin and Yang...

Different paths lead to the same end... The Dao Heart Demon Seed is the path to Chaos..."

This Secret Technique was profound, obscure, and extremely mysterious. However, after a quick read-through, Chen Cheng still managed to grasp some of its key points.

The so-called Dao Heart Demon Seed was actually a type of Body Tempering Method that required one to use Demonic Qi for Body Tempering.

When using Qi Blood Power for Body Tempering, the Human Race’s physique had its limits. Once a certain level was reached, further tempering was impossible.

But by using Demonic Qi for Body Tempering, one could break through this limit, allowing the physical body to reach a new level—the legendary Chaos Body.

This physique was incomparably powerful, even capable of withstanding the True Qi of an Innate Realm Expert with the physical body alone!

With just physical strength, one could be invincible below the Grandmaster level!

Martial Artists of the Human Race, when Cultivating the Martial Dao, were naturally repulsed by Demonic Qi, making this method difficult to practice.

This Secret Technique provided a solution: the Dao Heart Demon Seed. First, one had to condense a Demon Seed, use it to gather Demonic Qi, and then use that Demonic Qi for Body Tempering.

’Whoa! This is ridiculously overpowered!’

Chen Cheng didn’t have time to study it in detail, so he put the Beast Hide Scroll away.

He searched carefully again and found a hidden compartment in the box. Inside was a Lotus-Shaped Jade Token, on which were engraved seven small words.

"Black Lotus Sect, Su State Sub-Branch, Gui Xiaobao."

Besides this Lotus-Shaped Jade Token, there was also a Dark Stone Tablet engraved with the words "Demon Venerable Black Wind 13."

The Jade Token must be Ghostly Wound’s Identity Token. The Black Lotus Sect’s presence deep in the Great Wilderness Mountain Range was apparently just one of the sect’s sub-branches.

As for the Dark Stone Tablet, it belonged to a Demon Venerable named Black Wind.

Chen Cheng had learned a few things about Demon Venerables from the books in the Demon Suppression Department.

Creatures like the demonized Wang Xuanjiu or the Corpse Demon refined by Ghostly Wound were merely Tier Six Demons.

The Demonic Qi cultivated by a Tier Six Demon had a might comparable to the Innate True Qi of an Innate Realm Martial Artist.

In general, however, a Tier Six Demon’s Demonic Qi was limited. Lacking a Demonic Thought, they often had little Spiritual Wisdom, making them a notch weaker than an Innate Realm Martial Artist who had comprehended a Realm.

Only a Demon of Tier Seven or higher could use its Demonic Qi to generate a Demonic Thought. Possessing a certain degree of Spiritual Wisdom, its strength could finally match that of an Innate Realm Martial Artist. These beings were known as Demon Venerables.

To gather Demonic Qi more efficiently, a Demon Venerable would often split off a Demonic Thought and implant it into a Corpse, cultivating it into a Tier Six Demon before having it return to the main body.

This was the so-called "demon planting," and a Corpse containing the Demonic Thought of a Demon Venerable was its Demon Seed.

Every time a Demon Venerable split off a portion of its mental energy to plant a Demon Seed, its Demonic Thought would be depleted, causing its strength to naturally decline. Only when the Demon Seed cultivated into a Tier Six Demon and returned to the main body could the loss be recovered.