What I teach you is real stuff.

The leaves of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree of the Tianmo Luo Clan were not given away for free. Lu Yuan's disciple, Jiang Ming, had recently fought with many of his peers within the Tianmo Luo Clan and had become quite famous within the clan.

This matter naturally could not escape the ears of the higher-ups of the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan, which once again refreshed their understanding of Lu Yuan.

This person is not only powerful himself, but also skilled at training disciples; none of his disciples are weak.

Therefore, the gifts sent by the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan were not only to do Lu Yuan a favor, but also to win over Lu Yuan's disciples.

While the leaves of these Golden Soul Ancient Trees are precious within the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan, they are still something that can be offered.

Lu Yuan figured he might as well accept it; since they had already sent it over, he would take it all.

Feng Wu Lao Zu exchanged a few more pleasantries.

Lu Yuan casually inquired about the extraterrestrial crystals, and when the conversation turned to the puppets of the Heavenly Demon City, Lu Yuan inquired about the raw materials.

The Tianmo Luo Clan is a large tribe in the outer world. If their tribe has a large amount of outer world crystals and other materials for crafting puppets, it will save Lu Yuan the trouble of going out to get them himself.

"Pot Crystal, is this one of the materials used to refine the puppets of the Heavenly Demon City? That's rather troublesome."

Feng Wu Lao Zu explained: "Although the pot crystal is not very precious in the outer realms, it is extremely difficult to mine due to its special nature. Moreover, apart from its hardness, it has no great use. In our outer seas, we only mine a portion of it to mix into building materials to enhance their hardness when casting buildings."

As a peculiar mineral from outside the region, pot crystal possesses an extremely high hardness, which is precisely why it is difficult to mine.

Although it has its own unique characteristics, many large tribes are unwilling to go to great lengths to mine this thing, mainly because it is too difficult to mine, time-consuming and laborious, and it is not something irreplaceable.

As a major tribe in the outer seas, the Tianmo Luo Clan does indeed have some pot crystals stored in their inventory, but the quantity is not large, and it is definitely far from enough to reach the amount that Lu Yuan wants.

Feng Wu, the old ancestor, did not expect that refining the puppet of the Heavenly Demon City would require a large amount of pot crystal ore, which was indeed beyond his expectations.

However, he quickly came to his senses. There had long been rumors that the Heavenly Demon City tribe had gone to great lengths to mine crystal ore, but outsiders didn't know what they used it for. Many cultivators from other regions even thought that their tribe's special cultivation techniques required crystal ore.

This explains why those crystal goblets weren't for cultivation, but for crafting puppets. No wonder the Heavenly Demon City was collecting things that other tribes discarded like trash.

However, without the method for making the Heavenly Demon City puppets, even knowing that pot crystals are the main material for refining Heavenly Demon City puppets is of little use.

But now that Lu Yuan has also mastered the crafting method for the puppets of the Heavenly Demon City, the situation is quite different.

The Heavenly Demon Luo Clan also wanted to mine the crystal pots to supply Lu Yuan for refining the Heavenly Demon City puppets.

Feng Wu Lao Zu said, "I understand. I will arrange the matter of the crystal pot."

Mining crystals to allow Lu Yuan to refine puppets for the Heavenly Demon City is not only Lu Yuan's own business, but also the business of their Heavenly Demon Luo Clan.

After all, the power of the Heavenly Demon City puppets is well-known in the outer realms. The Heavenly Demon City tribe has a small number of members, but its strength is extremely powerful. It is able to consistently rank among the top three of the 36 major tribes in the outer realms, mainly because of its puppets.

If the Tianmo Luo Clan also mastered the crafting method of the Tianmo City puppets and cultivated a group of powerful puppets like those of the Tianmo City tribe, surpassing the Tianmo City tribe would be a piece of cake.

Feng Wu, the patriarch, took his leave and went back to discuss this matter with the other patriarchs.

After Feng Wu left, Lu Yuan took out the things Feng Wu had brought.

First, there was that box of leaves from the Golden Soul Ancient Tree. While its effects couldn't compare to those of the new branches, it still contained extremely powerful divine soul energy.

Lu Yuan took out a leaf and looked at the peculiar patterns on it. He tried to refine one.

After refining a leaf, Lu Yuan indeed felt a rather pure divine soul power being injected into his divine soul.

What the leader of the Ten Thousand Immortals Sect said earlier was indeed true. This Golden Soul Ancient Tree truly lives up to its reputation as one of the innate spiritual roots of the outer world; its effects are indeed remarkable.

Just a single leaf did indeed strengthen Lu Yuan's spiritual power, achieving an effect comparable to a thousand years of arduous cultivation.

However, this amount of energy was still insufficient for Lu Yuan.

If Lu Yuan were an ordinary Golden Immortal, the leaves of this Golden Soul Ancient Tree would be incredibly effective for him. Unfortunately, Lu Yuan's spiritual power has always been stronger than his physical cultivation.

Although his cultivation level was at the Golden Immortal realm, his spiritual power was comparable to that of a Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Therefore, the leaves of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree, which can be compared to those that have cultivated for a thousand years, have a relatively weak effect on him. Of course, a weak effect does not mean no effect; in fact, strictly speaking, the effect is still quite significant.

However, it would be difficult to help Lu Yuan advance to the next level unless he refined thousands of leaves from the Golden Soul Ancient Tree in one go, which is of course impossible.

Leaving aside whether the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan has enough of thousands of Golden Soul Ancient Tree leaves, even if they do, the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan would never give them all to him; they wouldn't even dare to do that in broad daylight.

Let's save these leaves for Xiao Huang and the others. It's a bit of a waste for Lu Yuan to use them; they're not particularly effective for him.

What Lu Yuan truly valued was that million-year-old new branch of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree, which was packaged in an extra box made of Chaos Gold.

He opened the box made of Chaos Gold again, stroked the cool Chaos Gold, and couldn't help but say, "So much Chaos Gold is an astronomical number. The divine soul power and blood energy contained within it are also terrifying. The Heavenly Demon Luo Clan is really generous, giving me such a large piece of Chaos Gold directly."

Originally, Lu Yuan thought Feng Wu would take back the Chaos Golden Box, since the box itself was a priceless treasure. However, he didn't expect that the other party would give him the Chaos Golden Box and the million-year-old new branch together.

Lu Yuan felt a little embarrassed, but freebies are always tempting, and since the other party was willing to give it to him, he had no reason not to accept it.

Set the Chaos Golden Box aside for now; Lu Yuan mainly wants to take out the new branch of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree.

This is the most important thing; it's the true treasure of the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan.

Originally, given his status and strength, obtaining something like a million-year-old new branch would have been impossible. After all, he wasn't a true member of the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan. Although he had some value to the clan, they wouldn't give him such a precious item without him making any contribution. Moreover, even if Lu Yuan had made a contribution, this wasn't something he could simply obtain at will. This time, he actually benefited from the Heavenly Demon City puppet, whose value in the outer realms was far greater than Lu Yuan had imagined.

Because Lu Yuan said he could refine the puppets of the Heavenly Demon City, he directly gained the approval of the Sage, who set a precedent by bestowing this million-year-old new branch, which can also be considered as strengthening Lu Yuan's divine soul.

Now that he had the million-year-old new branch in his hands, Lu Yuan examined it closely.

"This thing is indeed much more powerful than the spiritual energy contained in the previous leaf. It's like the difference between the bright moon and a firefly."

The spiritual power contained within the new branches is inexhaustible, while the power contained within the leaves of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree is far too weak in comparison. One can imagine how much one's spiritual power would expand if one could refine these new branches for one's own use.

"By refining this new branch, my spiritual power might break through to the Great Luo Golden Immortal realm ahead of schedule and reach the Quasi-Saint realm."

It's not impossible, but before that, Lu Yuan needs to upgrade his Mara Death Scripture first.

According to Ancestor Feng Wu, the Golden Soul Ancient Tree and the Demon Luo Death Scripture are both products born from the chaos outside the realm. The refining of the new branches of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree has a failure rate, which their Heavenly Demon Luo Clan had already tested before.

The new branch and the Mara Death Scripture have a symbiotic relationship. The higher the cultivation level of the Mara Death Scripture, the higher the success rate of refining the new branch.

If the new branches of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree are like a sapling, then the cultivation realm of the Demonic Death Scripture is like a fertile soil within the human soul.

Only with sufficiently fertile and expansive soil can the new branches of the Golden Soul Ancient Tree be transplanted and survive.

The requirements for a million-year-old new branch are particularly strict, so Feng Wu Lao Zu suggested that Lu Yuan should raise the level of the Demonic Death Scripture to the seventh level before refining it, as this would increase the success rate.

Lu Yuan held the new branch in his hand, pondering it over.

"The seventh level of the Mara Death Scripture can increase the success rate of refining a million-year-old new branch. If I cultivate to the eighth or ninth level, the success rate will definitely be even higher."

"But Old Ancestor Wu didn't say what the success rate of refining the new branch would be after cultivating the Demon Luo Death Scripture to the seventh level..."

Lu Yuan was unsure of himself.

After all, the new branches of the million-year-old Golden Soul Tree are extremely precious. This time, obtaining them is a precedent that the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan has never achieved even after tens of millions of years.

If I fail to refine this million-year-old new branch in my own hands, wouldn't I be losing a fortune?
Lu Yuan was hoping this thing would help him elevate his soul power to the Quasi-Saint realm ahead of schedule, so of course he was unwilling to take the risk.

Although Ancestor Feng Wu suggested that he refine the Demonic Death Scripture after raising it to the seventh level, he didn't specify the success rate.

It's possible that Lu Yuan only has a 50% success rate in refining it now, but the success rate will increase to 60% when he upgrades it to the seventh level of the Demonic Death Scripture. If that's the case, then Lu Yuan feels that the risk he's taking is still too great.

After all, what's the difference between a 60% success rate and giving it away for free?
He absolutely cannot accept such a low success rate, as even the slightest mistake could ruin everything.

So, just to be on the safe side, Lu Yuan decided to cultivate the Demon Luo Death Scripture all the way up. Anyway, he would be staying in the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan for a long time, so it didn't matter where he cultivated.
To maximize the success rate, one should first elevate the Mara Death Scripture to its maximum potential before refining the new branch.

Without a 100% success rate, Lu Yuan was still uneasy, so he didn't want to take Feng Wu's advice and decided to bury himself in the arduous cultivation of the Demonic Death Scripture first.

So for the next period of time, Lu Yuan went into seclusion within the Tianmo Luo Clan to begin comprehending the Demon Luo Death Scripture.

Furthermore, because he is now within the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan, Lu Yuan no longer needs to bury himself in exploration or reinvent the wheel when he encounters parts he doesn't understand or can't comprehend while studying the Demon Luo Death Scripture.

Since there are several Quasi-Saints within the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan, and they all cultivate the Demon Luo Death Scripture, Lu Yuan can simply seek them out to discuss the Dao.

The Quasi-Saints of the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan were initially not quite used to it. After all, Lu Yuan was, to put it bluntly, an outsider. It was normal for them to be unaccustomed to an outsider who cultivated their Heavenly Demon Luo Clan's Demon Luo Death Scripture and came to discuss the Dao with them. However, they soon discovered that Lu Yuan's understanding of the Demon Luo Death Scripture was quite astonishing.

During their discussions with Lu Yuan, even several Quasi-Saints gained new insights. Over time, these Quasi-Saints went from being somewhat unwilling at the beginning to actively seeking out Lu Yuan to discuss Dao with him.

Naturally, these quasi-saints had far richer insights into cultivation than Lu Yuan, and Lu Yuan also benefited greatly from discussing the Dao with them.

Just half a month later, Lu Yuan completed the breakthrough from the sixth to the seventh level of the Demonic Death Scripture. According to Ancestor Feng Wu, Lu Yuan in this state was already capable of refining the new branch of the million-year-old Golden Soul Ancient Tree.

But Lu Yuan wasn't in a hurry; he felt he could still improve further.

Two months later, he broke through to the eighth level. His speed of advancement and his comprehension and development of the Demonic Death Scripture amazed even the quasi-saints of the Heavenly Demonic Clan.

Because no one knows better than them how difficult this cultivation technique is. It took them countless years to reach their current perfect state, while Lu Yuan so easily reached the level that they could only achieve after thousands of years of arduous cultivation. The difference between people is greater than the difference between people and pigs.

However, they have no choice but to accept it, because this is talent. This world has never lacked geniuses, and Lu Yuan is a genius among geniuses. There is no need to be jealous of him.

After breaking through to the eighth level of the Demonic Death Scripture, Lu Yuan seemed to have seized some opportunity. He stopped continuing his debate with the Quasi-Saint of the Heavenly Demonic Clan and chose to go into complete seclusion.

With no one to disturb him, Lu Yuan devoted himself entirely to understanding the Book of the Dead.

Three hundred years have passed in this way. During these three hundred years, the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan has even chosen a holy maiden to marry Lu Yuan, but he has not yet emerged from seclusion.

But the quasi-saints of the Heavenly Demon Luo Clan couldn't do anything about it. After all, Lu Yuan was in seclusion, and they couldn't disturb him at this time. They could only wait.

During his secluded cultivation retreat, Lu Yuan's soul underwent a tremendous transformation.

For the past three hundred years, he has devoted himself to comprehending the ninth level of the Mara Death Sutra. At first, he thought that after comprehending the ninth level of the Mara Death Sutra, he would reach the perfect state and the ultimate.

But after reaching the threshold of the ninth level of the technique, Lu Yuan realized he was wrong.

Because when he stepped over that threshold, he saw a whole new world.

This Book of the Death of Mara seems to have no limits, nor any true perfection. (End of Chapter)