Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

The death of Lin Yuanzi dampened the joy following the great victory, and the atmosphere suddenly became somber.

Han Xuan straightened up, turned to look at everyone, and said solemnly, "Senior Brother Lin Yuanzi single-handedly held off the Demon Saint's divided soul, truly the mainstay of this battle, and his merits are beyond description."

"Once the elders arrive in person, I, Han, will certainly report the merits of my senior brother Lin Yuanzi truthfully."

"Although the demonic aura has dissipated, we have not yet fulfilled the elder's request. We urge all fellow disciples to clean up the mess immediately and not delay."

The crowd readily agreed and dispersed.

Xue Huai Ren was left to collect Lin Yuanzi's body and also put away the mangled black-robed puppet, intending to present it to Elder Su later.

Han Xuan had been leading this battle because he had gathered disciples from both peaks, and with Lin Yuanzi dead, no one could shake his position.

Chen Yuan suddenly spoke up: "I would also appreciate it if Senior Brother Xue could collect this demon king dragon corpse and hand it over to Senior Brother Lin Yuanzi's disciple."

Xue Huai Ren hesitated for a moment: "It seems a bit inappropriate that Junior Brother Chen erased the fragment of the Cold Shadow Demon Saint's soul and had me take his body away..."

Chen Yuan said solemnly, "If it weren't for Senior Brother Lin Yuanzi's willingness to burn his soul as a torch and sacrifice himself to block the Cold Shadow Demon Saint's divided soul, allowing him to come and take it at will, we would surely have been defeated."

"I only delivered the final blow. As for the credit, I would never dare to claim a place above Senior Brother Lin Yuanzi."

Xue Huai Ren was still somewhat hesitant, but Han Xuan said, "Since Junior Brother Chen has spoken, Senior Brother Xue need not hesitate, just accept it."

Xue Huai-ren clasped his hands in a bow, his face showing gratitude: "On behalf of my fellow disciples, I thank Junior Brother Chen."

This is not a simple corpse of a demon king; it is clearly mixed with the true blood of the Cold Shadow Demon Saint, and it also exudes the aura of Ao Pan. The blood of the two true spirits are mixed together.

Not to mention that the demon saint's divided soul possessed this dragon corpse, which must have been carefully refined, and the demon materials on its body were also extraordinary.

Moreover, Chen Yuan's words were merely a humble remark, which Xue Huai Ren knew perfectly well. If it weren't for Chen Yuan's decisive statement, even if Lin Yuanzi dragged things out for a long time, it would be useless.

Xue Huai Ren went to collect the dragon's corpse, and Han Xuan said, "Junior Brother Chen's noble character is admirable."

“But Junior Brother made great contributions in this battle, and in addition to the sect’s rewards, he should also receive a share of the spoils.”

“Junior brother needs the blood of the true spirit, but the Zhongding demon core has been scattered by the wind, so I will make up for it with the Ao Pan demon core. Please accept it, junior brother.”

Chen Yuan's eyes flashed as he looked at Yuan Shuheng: "Ao Pan was mainly held back by Senior Brother Yuan and Fellow Daoist Wei. After his death, his demon core and treasures should belong to Senior Brother Yuan and the Wei family."

Yuan Shuheng shook his head: "Junior Brother Chen is mistaken. If it weren't for Junior Brother slaying the two demon saints' divided souls, we would all be dead by now."

"We two barely managed to hold off Ao Pan, and it was only after my junior brother intervened that we were able to kill him. How can we possibly share his treasures?"

"Ao Pan's possessions should rightfully belong to Junior Brother; do not refuse."

Chen Yuan voluntarily gave up the corpse of the Azure-White Flood Dragon in exchange for Ao Pan's demon core.

Seeing that Yuan Shuheng also had the same attitude, he stopped refusing.

Although the demonic materials on the Azure-White Flood Dragon were precious, the two kinds of essence blood in its body were too thin. The jade pendant only emitted a faint red light and was slightly warm, which was of little use to Chen Yuan.

He clasped his hands in a bow and said, "Then I, Chen, will respectfully accept your offer, but I only need Ao Pan's demon pill."

"His body and the treasures in his hands should be given to the Wei family members to make up for the regret of Wei's death."

Han Xuan smiled slightly: "Junior brother is very righteous."

As the son of a Integration Elder, Yuan Shuheng had no shortage of treasures and had no objection to this.

Chen Yuan descended with his escape light, took out Ao Pan's demon core, and stored it in his internal space.

He handed over the Mustard Seed Ring and Ao Pan's corpse to the Wei family cultivators. They were very grateful to learn that Chen Yuan had given them up voluntarily and thanked him solemnly.

The Nascent Soul cultivators and the Cloud Soaring Realm dragon people moved extremely quickly, and the battlefield was soon cleared away.

Someone brought Chen Yuan the corpses of two demonic beasts, both of which he killed using the final power of his True Blood Sacrifice Dao Divine Power.

The treasures in the hands of the high-ranking demon general held no appeal for Chen Yuan, and he was not short of demon cores, so he did not accept them but left them to the disciples of the Tai Xuan Sect.

The great formation set up by the demon race was also broken by the crowd. The formation was empty, with nothing left except for dozens of simple stone houses and palaces.

The demon race was already weak, and in this battle they sent out their entire force, leaving no one to guard the formation.

After the last dragonman corpse was collected, the group returned in a grand procession to the valley's great formation to recuperate and heal their wounds.

……

Chen Yuan returned to his temporary residence, set up an array, sat cross-legged, and disregarded the injury of his torn meridians. He first took a few Qingqu Pills to restore his true essence.

Following the incantation recorded in "The Nine Revolutions of True Spirit," he cleaned the remaining blood of the Crimson Dragon from the True Blood of the Vermilion Bird, eliminating the hidden danger.

Relieved, Chen Yuan took several more healing pills to restore his meridians and, with the help of his indestructible body, he was fully recovered in a few days.

He took out Ao Pan's demon core, examined it carefully, and then put it away with satisfaction.

The Azure Dragon True Blood within Ao Pan's Demon Core is extremely pure and contains the power of the Wood Element Law, which Chen Yuan has never mastered.

After refining it, he will be able to master the fourth True Spirit Bloodline, and the bottleneck of the Void Refinement stage will be greatly loosened.

After that, he refined all the high-level demon general cores in his hand into pills, raised his cultivation to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, and then he could start to break through to the Void Refinement stage.

Chen Yuan then took out the Bell and Cauldron Mustard Seed Ring, retrieved all the treasures inside, and roughly sorted them out.

As a descendant of a true spirit and the son of a demon saint, Zhong Ding was extremely wealthy.

There were over a thousand top-grade spirit stones alone, as well as numerous medicinal herbs and spiritual materials, enough to make even high-ranking demon generals drool, but they were of little use to Chen Yuan.

He stored only one bottle of eight-thousand-year-old body-tempering elixir, several kinds of body-tempering spiritual items, and three immortal spirit stones into his internal space.

Because of their bloodline, the descendants of the True Spirits naturally possess the power of the laws. They only need to focus on tempering their physical bodies and breaking through the bottleneck of the Demon King realm to advance their cultivation level.

However, body tempering is not something that can be accomplished in a day. Whether it is a body tempering elixir or other spiritual objects that have the effect of body tempering, the spiritual energy contained within them is violent and fierce.

Only then can one rapidly enhance their physical body at a speed ten or a hundred times faster than the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.

Even for a true spirit descendant, progress cannot be achieved overnight; one must proceed step by step, using body-tempering spiritual items to slowly accumulate strength.

If one is impatient for quick success and instant benefits, at best the foundation will be damaged, and at worst the physical body will collapse, leading to death and the dissipation of one's spiritual path.

Only someone like Chen Yuan, who could draw upon the power of the stars in the heavens to temper his body even in his mortal form, possessing an incredibly solid foundation, could refine body-tempering pills without any scruples and enhance his physical body.

But even Mahayana cultivators cannot achieve such a feat, let alone a mere demon general.

While it might not be difficult for a Mahayana cultivator to draw upon the power of the celestial bodies, weakening it to a level that even mortals could easily bear, and then gradually adapting to changes in cultivation level, is an incredibly difficult task.

Of course, this is in comparison to Chen Yuan, who possessed the jade pendant.

Compared to human cultivators, the descendants of true spirits possess powerful bloodlines and have no shortage of spiritual materials for tempering their bodies, allowing them to cultivate much faster. They can often advance to the Demon King level in just a thousand years, becoming the backbone of the resistance against the Spirit Realm's army.

The heavy hammer in Zhong Ding's hand, like the black armor he wore, was a second-grade spiritual treasure.

Lingbao possesses its own spirituality, but before the spirit of the artifact takes form, it can be forcibly subdued, though it takes a long time to wear it down.

With the Zhu Yan True Fire at his disposal, Chen Yuan avoided this trouble and left his divine imprint in a short while.

The heavy hammer was damaged by the Azure Sea Halberd, its spiritual essence was diminished, and its power was greatly reduced.

Chen Yuan already possessed three magical treasures and divine weapons, so he had no need for this heavy hammer and put it away.

However, the black armor remained intact. Although it was only a second-grade spiritual treasure, far inferior to the Xuan Yin Armor, it was also not as conspicuous. The Spirit Realm also had a distinction between righteous and demonic paths, but the righteous path was extremely prosperous, far surpassing the demonic path.

The Tai Xuan Sect is a legitimate branch of the Xuanmen sect, and not a single disciple in the sect practices demonic arts.

Although the Tai Xuan Sect does not restrict its disciples from using demonic magic weapons, the Xuan Yin Armor is so powerful that it attracts a lot of attention.

Chen Yuan made up his mind to use the Ink Armor as his primary defensive artifact, while using the Profound Yin Armor only as a trump card.

He stored the magical treasure in his dantian, nurtured it slowly, and continued to meditate and regulate his breathing, waiting for Han Xuan to summon him.

Two days later, a sound transmission talisman flew in through the formation.

Chen Yuan raised his hand and listened intently, for it was Han Xuan inviting him to come over for a while.

Chen Yuan smiled slightly, dispelled the formation, got up and walked out of the stone house, arriving at Han Xuan's residence, where Yuan Shuheng had already arrived.

Han Xuan greeted them at the door and led them into the hall, where they were seated as host and guest.

Han Xuan asked with concern, "How is Junior Brother Chen's injury recovering?"

Chen Yuan said, "Thank you for your concern, Senior Brother. I am fine now..."

After exchanging pleasantries for a while, Han Xuan and Yuan Shuheng had plenty of healing pills, and their injuries had mostly healed.

Chen Yuan then inquired about the condition of the others, and Jiang Wangchen also said that his injuries had fully healed.

Zhou Lang practiced the fire element technique and thrived in the deepest part of the Ten Thousand Flame Mountains.

He spent three days wiping away the remaining sword energy from the wound, then took some medicine to heal himself, and his right eye limb grew back, though his energy was slightly weak.

Most of the other injured cultivators and dragonmen, except for a few with particularly serious injuries, have recovered.

The dragon people of the Yingmo and Yingmang tribes followed the Supreme Elder in abandoning darkness and embracing light, placing them in a somewhat awkward position and assigning them the responsibility of patrolling.

Zhuang Buhui has visited Chu Weicai several times in the past few days to apologize for past grievances.

At first, Chu Weicai refused to let him in, citing the need to recuperate and heal his injuries, but later accepted the apology gift.

Faced with an unprecedented upheaval in the Xuanli Realm, the four cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Realm finally put aside their past grievances and worked together.

After some casual conversation, Han Xuan said seriously, "I invited my two junior brothers here today to discuss how we should proceed next."

"We have killed almost all the demon generals who entered the Xuanli Realm. Although a few escaped, they are terrified and have no power to summon the demon saint. We don't need to pay them any attention."

"Of the five major tribes in this realm, Feng Zhihe of the Yingtian tribe has died and all his elders have been wiped out. The other four tribes are loyal to our sect. We have completely taken control of the situation in the Xuanli Realm."

"We now face two paths: one is to destroy the Dragon Breath Platform and invite the three elders to descend."

"Secondly, we will first break through the True Dragon Cave Formation and investigate the situation before inviting the three elders to descend."

"This matter is of great importance and cannot be decided by Han alone. I would like to ask Senior Brother Jiang, Senior Brother Xue, Senior Chu and others to discuss it together."

"But before that, our Huayu Peak lineage must first reach a consensus and advance and retreat together."

"There are no outsiders here, so you two junior brothers don't need to be reserved and can speak freely."

Yuan Shuheng spoke first: "Of course I will follow my senior brother's orders."

Han Xuan nodded slightly, then looked at Chen Yuan again: "What does Junior Brother Chen think?"

Chen Yuan pondered for a moment, then asked instead of answering, "I wonder what Senior Brother Han's thoughts are?"

Han Xuan's expression turned solemn: "With the True Dragon Cave ahead, how can we retreat empty-handed from such a once-in-a-millennium opportunity? We must explore it thoroughly."

Chen Yuan's eyes flashed, and he said, "Since Senior Brother Han has made a decision, I will naturally obey."

Han Xuan smiled and bowed with his fists clasped: "This time, breaking the formation will still require your help, junior brother."

"If there are any treasures in the cave, as long as they do not involve the Integration Realm, Junior Brother may choose them first."

Chen Yuan's expression was slightly solemn: "I will do my best, but the True Dragon Cave Formation is not easy to break, and there may be a second layer of formation. I don't know what dangers it may pose."

"We still need to persuade Senior Brother Xue, Senior Brother Jiang, and Senior Chu to join forces before we can possibly break the great formation."

He has already achieved his goal of entering the Xuanli Realm. With the True Spirit Blood in hand, he can summon the elders of the Tai Xuan Sect to enter the Spirit Realm at any time. He has no attachment to the True Dragon Cave.

The elders of the Tai Xuan Sect will arrive sooner or later. Even if they do their best to find the True Dragon's Relic Treasure, they will not be able to leave it behind.

But he wouldn't stop Han Xuan from exploring the True Dragon Cave.

If there are indeed treasures belonging to beings at the level of a combined entity in the cave, it would be a considerable gain.

Han Xuan said, "Junior brother, rest assured. This concerns the true dragon's legacy, as well as the thirty-six Dragon Breath Platforms. There is absolutely no way they will retreat now."

"My two junior brothers, please come with me to the council hall. I will invite them here to discuss this matter."

He sent out several communication talismans, and the three of them left the stone house and headed towards the council hall.

The three did not have to wait long before Jiang Wangchen and the others arrived one after another and greeted each other.

One of the Wei family cultivators also arrived, named Wei Zhaoning. She was a woman with a delicate and gentle appearance, but her cultivation was quite remarkable. She took over the affairs of the Wei family after the death of the Wei patriarch.

The group treated Chen Yuan with great courtesy, even showing a hint of respect, and invited him to sit in the seat of honor on the left.

Although Chen Yuan's strength in that battle was not comparable to that of a true Void Refinement cultivator, it was still far above that of a Nascent Soul cultivator.

In the cultivation world, strength is paramount. Even when facing the divided souls of two great demon saints, one must address them as "senior" to show respect for their cultivation.

Regardless of one's origin, whether human or demon, anyone who embarks on the path of cultivation is a seeker of the Dao.

On the path of cultivation, those who have attained the highest level are the first to go, and those with higher cultivation levels take the lead and deserve the title of "senior".

If one's cultivation level is not high, but one's strength is higher than that of other cultivators of the same level, it can be considered as taking a half-step ahead.

After this battle, Chu Weicai and the other cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Realm began to address Chen Yuan as "fellow Daoist," and Yuan Shuheng and the other two would no longer regard him as a cultivator of the same level.

Not to mention that Chen Yuan possesses more than one kind of True Spirit Blood within his body. Although Jiang Wangchen, Xue Huai Ren, and Chu Weicai and others are not body cultivators and have limited knowledge, they do not know what kind of heaven-defying thing this is, but they can still sense that it is extraordinary.

Otherwise, the two demon saints' divided souls would never have repeatedly tried to persuade Chen Yuan to surrender.

After everyone exchanged greetings, Han Xuan repeated his speech to Chen Yuan and Yuan Shuheng, with slight modifications, and asked for their opinions.

As Han Xuan had predicted, none of them wanted to leave and they wanted to explore the True Dragon Cave.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Han Xuan proposed that regardless of whether they could enter the True Dragon Cave, they should destroy the Dragon Breath Platform, disrupt the Xuanli Realm Array, and lure in Nascent Soul cultivators.

After some hesitation, the four cultivators at the Dragon Transformation Realm agreed.

However, they also demanded that if they could break through the great formation, they should immediately use the pure dragon energy from the thirty-six Dragon Breath Platforms to break through the bottleneck, which Han Xuan readily agreed to.

He concluded by saying, "Then it's settled. In three days, we will join forces to break the formation."

"This is a grand formation set up by a true dragon. There may even be a second layer of formation within the cave. We don't know what kind of restrictions exist there."

"You must all obey my orders and not act on your own."

"If anyone triggers the restrictive formation and drags other fellow cultivators into danger, I, Han, will not let them off lightly!" (End of Chapter)