Chapter 18: I Want to Challenge My Own Weak Point

“Since that’s the case, you should first choose your caves.”

“For now, your strength is weak. You may only move about on the main mountain. If you set foot in other places and get caught by elders or protectors and refined into human pills, don’t blame senior brother for not having warned you.”

Han Changsheng reminded the six of them once more.

If they ran around and discovered there were no so-called Heavenly Demon Peaks and Earth Demon Peaks, wouldn’t that be a loss of face?

“Yes!”

The righteous spies and Xu Gu all nodded.

After Han Changsheng left, Xu Gu and Huan Caiyi each went off to look at their own caves.

But before that, Xu Gu brought the white fox over.

“This is our cave?” The white fox looked at the cave in front of them in excitement. Although the environment of the Demon Cavern was not as good as Little Cool Mountain, the spiritual energy and yin baleful qi were extremely dense.

In this regard, the Demon Cavern, as a holy land of the demonic path, was fully qualified.

Xu Gu took out a pitch-black jade token. This had been given by his guide Xiao Bitian. It was his identity token. Inside the Demon Cavern or out in the demonic world, showing this token would give him considerable privileges.

Of course, if he ran into the righteous path or the officials, he must never show it.

Otherwise, the sentence would start at ten years and have no upper limit.

The pitch-black jade token had been soaked in hundred-filth blood with spiritual stone marrow as its base, exuding an evil power. The two characters “Xu Gu” were carved on it. It had many uses. It could serve as a communication token, a storage bag, and even a recording device.

It was truly a high-grade item. Even some protectors and non-standing elders did not have one, let alone ordinary disciples.

This was Han Changsheng’s idea.

How could he make these heaven-sent demonic children feel the Demon Cavern was strong? The answer was simple: bring out the best things for their daily use, giving them the illusion that these treasures were completely commonplace in the Demon Cavern.

It had to be said, his idea was very successful. Li Shaobai and the others were already calculating whether they should notify the righteous path to make a move and confiscate the Demon Cavern.

Xu Gu placed the jade token into the groove in the stone wall beside the cave. Black light spread out, the cave door opened, and what entered his sight was an unimaginably luxurious cave.

The moment he stepped inside, Xu Gu felt his body grow warm, as if countless warm hands of young girls were massaging him all over.

The white fox was even more comfortable, letting out a soft moan.

If the spiritual energy and yin baleful qi outside were ten times denser than on Little Cool Mountain, then inside this cave they were a hundred times denser.

The cave was large, several hundred square meters, but the furnishings were simple: just a table, a meditation cushion, a jade bed, and a few storage cabinets.

But the materials of these objects were all top-grade.

Even some Nascent Soul ancestors would hardly be qualified to enjoy them.

On the table lay a stack of booklets, a short section listing matters new disciples should pay attention to. The rest was an extremely long Demon Cavern map.

On the map, the Demon Cavern occupied tens of thousands of li. Besides the main mountain, there were thirteen Heavenly Demon Peaks, seventy-two Earth Demon Peaks, and a large area of territory marked as reserved to be opened, so vast it was hard to imagine.

The white fox was astonished. “How can the Demon Cavern be this big? Why have I never heard of it before? Could it be they used high-level spatial arrays to hide most of the territory?”

“Fake,” Xu Gu said calmly.

This was meant to fool idiots.

They wanted to create, in the minds of Demon Cavern disciples, an image of the Demon Cavern as extremely powerful, so that the disciples would feel fear and awe toward the sect.

But looking at it now, it would probably have the opposite effect.

“Good grief!”

“This Demon Cavern isn’t just this prosperous on the surface, it even hides such a huge tract of land! This far exceeds my imagination!”

“Even my master was fooled!”

“We must report back. The sects must take every demonic force seriously and treat the matter sternly!”

In their sound-transmission channel, everyone was already lively.

Xu Gu listened without any reaction. The day’s examination, constantly deducing inside the illusion, had drained his mind. He lay down on the jade bed and soon fell asleep.

When he woke the next day,

Xu Gu discovered he had actually broken through a minor realm.

He had advanced from early great perfection of the seventh level of Qi Refining to peak of the middle stage of the seventh level of Qi Refining.

Besides that,

[White word-bar fragment *1]!

He had also obtained a white word-bar fragment.

Besides completing life achievements, word-bar fragments could also automatically condense in places where spiritual energy was rich and Dao-rhyme thick.

On Little Cool Mountain, it would take at least two or three months to get a single white fragment. Inside this cave, he could get one a day.

“Worthy of being a holy land of the demonic path,” Xu Gu sighed. He had really come to the right place.

In a place like this, he could level up just by lying down.

He washed up briefly, took the white fox, and prepared to go to the Scripture Pavilion to find a demonic technique to cultivate.

The demonic art he had learned from Gray Bone Daoist was too crude and did not even have content beyond the Foundation Establishment stage.

“New here?”

Xu Gu looked at the flustered demonic cultivator at the entrance of the Scripture Pavilion who seemed not to know how to do his job and asked.

“How fresh. Not just me, even this Scripture Pavilion is newly built,” the senior brother demonic cultivator muttered, then said to Xu Gu, “Show your identity token.”

Xu Gu did as told.

The demonic cultivator senior brother froze for a second, then looked at Xu Gu in surprise and hurriedly straightened up:

“In this Scripture Pavilion, your privileges only allow you to step onto the first floor. The second, third, fourth, and even fifth floors are all off-limits.

“At the same time, these books are very precious. You must not dirty them, much less damage them. Otherwise you will have to compensate at full price.

“Also, you may borrow at most three books at a time.”

He had no choice but to be solemn. It was said this entire Scripture Pavilion had been built for these few people, not to mention him, the one guarding the door.

“I understand.” Xu Gu nodded, took back his identity token, and walked inside.

Inside the Scripture Pavilion, there were few people.

In the spacious building, there was only the rustle of pages turning and the occasional sound of footsteps.

The books here were dazzling in variety and number: all kinds of strange skills and tricks, hundreds of recipe collections, as well as cultivation manuals and experience notes on Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core, and so on.

Xu Gu was dazzled.

“If the first floor is already like this, then the second floor, third floor, even the fourth and fifth floors must be like ascending to the heavens!”

The white fox narrowed his eyes, his face full of happiness and longing.

Xu Gu said nothing.

Because he knew clearly: there was simply no such thing as anything above the second floor.

“This is…”

While Xu Gu was searching for a suitable replacement technique, he suddenly stopped and walked over to a booklet whose cover was particularly domineering, full of an ancient and simple aura.

He was attracted by its title.

“Dragon Phoenix Transformation”!

“I finally found it!” Xu Gu’s face lit up. This was the legendary must-learn technique of the demonic path, the dual-cultivation harvesting technique!

It could break the shackles of spiritual roots, shatter the limits of the human body, rapidly increase cultivation through seeking stunning furnace cauldrons for dual cultivation, and possess power enough to destroy heaven and earth.

When he picked up the booklet, he even faintly heard the moans of dragons and phoenixes.

Combined with the title, it seemed this was indeed a dual-cultivation method created jointly by the dragon and phoenix races.

Xu Gu became even more expectant.

“You also want to learn this book?”

At that moment, the demonic cultivator senior brother from the entrance had somehow walked over and asked quietly.

His expression said he had found a kindred spirit.

“Yes.” Xu Gu raised his head to look at the senior brother and showed a smile all men understood. Sure enough, they both knew what was good. He returned a subtle expression that all men understood and seriously asked, “Is it decent?”

“Decent, of course it’s decent!” The senior brother praised it endlessly. “This is a technique jointly created by the dragon race and the phoenix race!”

“Lots of illustrations?”

“Of course.”

Xu Gu nodded, knowing what he needed to know. He marveled that the Demon Cavern did have some foundation, to bring out such a demonic art. That was really spending blood.

But then he heard the senior brother sigh:

“My advice is, you’d better not learn it. Although this technique is indeed an excellent one, it is extremely difficult to cultivate, because it easily affects the minds of others, making it hard to concentrate on cultivation. It is very hard to get started.”

Xu Gu pondered for a moment and felt that this was indeed the case.

“I want to challenge my own weak point.” After thinking it over, he still made up his mind.

He was confident he had the willpower to run his technique with full focus even in that kind of situation.

(End of this chapter)