Chapter 31

This time, the demonic aura mixed into the spiritual energy condensed within his body, and it was unknown how much effort it would take to completely expel it!

Yang Junshan sighed inwardly. This was a matter of necessity. Originally, he had planned to accept the inheritance of the eight Mountain Lord diagrams on the stone wall after successfully casting the "Blood Refinement Spirit Summoning Technique" and advancing to the Spirit Summoning Immortal stage. This way, even if he had to absorb demonic aura as a medium to accept the mysterious inheritance of the eight diagrams, with his cultivation at the Spirit Summoning Immortal stage, it would be much easier to expel the demonic aura mixed into his body.

Unfortunately, Yang Junshan had almost pushed his physical body to the brink of collapse by casting the "Blood Refinement Spirit Summoning Technique" twice in succession. To smoothly activate the Earth Spirit Technique within his body, Yang Junshan had no choice but to absorb the demonic aura emitted by the stone wall and forcibly accept the body-strengthening inheritance of the Mountain Lord diagrams, saving his nearly collapsing physical body.

These mysterious demonic inheritances, though Yang Junshan had never been fortunate enough to obtain them in his previous life, he had heard about them more than once. The method for cultivators to obtain these demonic inheritances was extremely simple: they needed to absorb a certain amount of demonic aura into their spiritual energy during cultivation, thus impersonating a demonic cultivator to gain the recognition of the inheritance.

However, demonic aura was fundamentally different from the heaven and earth spiritual energy absorbed by cultivators. Human cultivators were not demonic beasts. In the short term, the demonic aura mixed into the cultivator's body might not be noticeable, but as the cultivator's cultivation improved, the demonic aura would grow like a parasite within the cultivator's body, making it increasingly difficult to expel. Until the cultivator transcended the Martial Human stage, the demonic aura would completely merge with the cultivator, turning them into a half-human, half-demon monster.

As Yang Junshan cultivated according to the inheritance of the Lying Tiger diagram, the originally slow-moving Earth Spirit Technique became much smoother. The continuous flow of spiritual energy finally managed to open a tiny gap under the immense pressure when passing through the two Immortal Spirit Points located at the gallbladder and vertebrae, allowing for communication and circulation.

Perhaps because a trace of demonic aura had been integrated into his body, as Yang Junshan continuously moved the spiritual energy within his body, the Earth Spirit Technique became even more fluid.

When the Earth Spirit Technique completed a full cycle within Yang Junshan's body, he suddenly felt a tremor within his body. Two dense and heavy streams of spiritual energy, like melting snow on a mountain, rushed down from the top and collided with the two Immortal Spirit Points with a "bang."

The dense spiritual energy surged like a mountain flood, but the two Immortal Spirit Points remained immovable, shattering the surging spiritual energy and causing it to scatter along the meridians, disrupting the orderly flow of spiritual energy within his body.

This collision shook Yang Junshan's mind, nearly causing the complete cycle of spiritual energy he had painstakingly established within his body to collapse.

However, Yang Junshan was not alarmed but rather delighted. He quickly gathered his mind and did his best to maintain the circulation of spiritual energy within his body. At the same time, he used the power of the Earth Spirit Technique to integrate the two dense streams of spiritual energy that had entered the meridians, significantly increasing the amount of spiritual energy accumulated within his body.

With the addition of this stream of spiritual energy, the operation of the Earth Spirit Technique within Yang Junshan's body became even more powerful. Each time the Earth Spirit Technique completed a cycle, two surging streams of spiritual energy would surge from the two high-quality Immortal Spirit Essences implanted in his body, launching an attack on the Immortal Spirit Points. After being shattered, they would disperse into the meridians and merge with the spiritual energy being moved by the Earth Spirit Technique, gradually strengthening the spiritual energy within his body.

The spiritual energy essence contained in the two high-quality Immortal Spirits was being dissolved by the Earth Spirit Technique within Yang Junshan's body, indicating that he had successfully awakened the Immortal Spirits. His cultivation had successfully reached the second level of the Mortal Realm at this moment.

However, because the two Immortal Spirits Yang Junshan had awakened were high-quality, although each cycle could integrate a dense stream of Immortal Spirit Essence into his body, the two Immortal Spirits still felt like mountains compared to the spiritual energy flowing within his body. It seemed that to completely dissolve the two Immortal Spirits and reach the perfect stage of the Spirit Summoning Immortal, it would be a long and arduous process.

Originally, the process of awakening Immortal Spirits involved the cultivator holding or containing the Immortal Spirits in their mouth, then slowly refining them using the cultivation technique they practiced, gradually integrating the essence contained in the Immortal Spirits into their body's spiritual energy.

Although this process was slower compared to the secret technique Yang Junshan had used, it was more gentle, not directly impacting the spiritual energy within the cultivator's body, and did not cause the series of disturbances that Yang Junshan was currently experiencing, where each time the Immortal Spirit Essence was dissolved, it would launch an attack on the Immortal Spirit Points, and the returning Immortal Spirit Essence would cause a series of upheavals when integrating into the body's spiritual energy, posing a risk of losing control.

However, if Yang Junshan could properly handle the risks brought by the secret technique during the process of awakening the Immortal Spirits, it would bring significant benefits to his future opening of the Immortal Spirit Points and advancing to the third level of the Mortal Realm.

The third level of the Mortal Realm, the opening of the Immortal Spirit Points, could be considered a threshold for the improvement of a cultivator's cultivation. If a cultivator did not accumulate a sufficiently powerful surge of spiritual energy during the Immortal Spirit Awakening stage, attempting to break through the barrier of the Immortal Spirit Points and fully open them would be a futile dream.

Many cultivators could quickly refine the Immortal Spirits and reach the perfect stage of the second level after advancing to the Spirit Summoning Immortal stage, but they would fail when trying to break through to the third level of the Mortal Realm and open the Immortal Spirit Points. They would have to spend more time nurturing their spiritual energy and accumulating strength to break through to the third level of the Mortal Realm.

By using the secret technique to integrate the Immortal Spirit Essence into his body, each time the Immortal Spirit Essence was dissolved, it would launch a powerful attack on the Immortal Spirit Points. When the Immortal Spirit Essence was completely dissolved and Yang Junshan's cultivation reached the perfect stage of the Spirit Summoning Immortal, the Immortal Spirit Points, which had been repeatedly attacked by the Immortal Spirit Essence, would already be on the verge of loosening. At that time, with the two high-quality Immortal Spirits, Yang Junshan could accumulate a sufficiently powerful surge of spiritual energy, making the process of opening the Immortal Spirit Points much more efficient.

When Yang Junshan woke up from his cultivation again, a day had already passed. At this point, there were only four days left before the closure of the Bai Que Mountain hunting ground. Yang Junshan's luck was good, and the cave where he was located had not been discovered during his weakest period.

At this time, although Yang Junshan's body was still weak, it was no longer as exhausting to move as it was yesterday. He had managed to get through it.

Yang Junshan bent down to check the two wounds on his body. The wound on his abdomen had only left a blood scab about an inch long, and the tiger fang Immortal Spirit on his back, which had previously been exposed, seemed to have shrunk a bit when touched.

Yang Junshan sighed in relief. It seemed that the secret technique had been quite successful, but this was also thanks to the assistance of the Lying Tiger diagram. Otherwise, it would have been impossible for Yang Junshan to recover so quickly.

Turning around to look at the eight Mountain Lord diagrams on the stone wall, Yang Junshan pondered for a moment and ultimately decided not to immediately accept the inheritance of the other seven diagrams. His body had not fully recovered, and accepting the inheritance of the other seven diagrams at this time would inevitably absorb more demonic aura. Since he was already here, it didn't matter whether he did it a little earlier or later.

On the grass mat beside him, the little tiger cub was sound asleep. Yang Junshan could clearly feel the faint demonic aura emanating from the stone wall surrounding the little tiger cub, slowly seeping into its body with each breath.

This was the instinct of demonic beasts to cultivate. As time passed, the demonic aura accumulated in the little tiger cub's body would eventually fully awaken its intelligence, making it a demonic cultivator capable of self-cultivation.

In his previous life, there were rumors that all the famous native great demons in the cultivation world had already awakened their intelligence and started cultivating before the great change in the heavens and earth. Although the little tiger cub was only recently born, it had already started absorbing demonic aura and cultivating instinctively. There were still several decades before the great change, and it was unknown whether this demonic clan sworn brother of his would become a powerful demon in the future.

Two more days passed, and with the assistance of the Lying Tiger diagram, Yang Junshan's body recovered very quickly. Although his face was still somewhat pale from blood loss, he had already thoroughly consolidated his cultivation at the second level of the Spirit Summoning Immortal. The wound on his abdomen had only left a shallow red line, and the tiger fang Immortal Spirit in the wound on his back was slowly dissolving and had completely sunk into his skin. Although it still caused pain when he moved, compared to when he had used the secret technique, Yang Junshan could now completely ignore it.

The Earth Spirit Technique within his body was operating, and a much more powerful surge of spiritual energy was flowing through his meridians. Yang Junshan immediately felt a surge of strength throughout his body. He was certain that once the two wounds on his body were completely healed, his physical strength would reach a new level.

However, at this moment, Yang Junshan was looking at his sworn brother with a face full of annoyance. The little thing was lazily lying on the grass mat, its posture exactly the same as the Lying Tiger diagram on the stone wall.

However, Yang Junshan was not annoyed by this. Instead, he was annoyed by the mess his backpack had been turned into. The three bear paws that were originally in the backpack were now only two, and the missing one had clearly been eaten by the little tiger cub with its innocent eyes.

"You, you, you little rascal, one bear paw is worth at least one stone of spirit grains, or at least ten jade coins! How could it end up in your stomach like this!"

Yang Junshan moved the grass mat under the little tiger cub, and a few leftover bones appeared. The little guy seemed a bit embarrassed and "growled" a couple of times.

It was also Yang Junshan's own negligence. To seize every opportunity to cultivate and consolidate his cultivation at the Spirit Summoning Immortal stage, he had not taken care of the little tiger cub for three whole days.

Without the ability to hunt, the little tiger cub, driven by hunger, could not resist the temptation of the bear paws in the backpack. The fact that two bear paws were left was only because the little tiger cub could not eat any more.

However, a plump bear paw weighed at least a dozen pounds, almost as much as the little tiger cub itself. How could it have eaten so much in just two days?

But seeing the little guy's belly round and its body length almost reaching a foot in just two or three days, it seemed reasonable that it had eaten a plump bear paw.

"Alright, now we need to go out for a walk and make some preparations to leave Bai Que Mountain!"

Putting the backpack and quiver back on, Yang Junshan, holding the carved large bow, said to the little tiger cub.

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