I am a mortal who has achieved enlightenment through burning my secrets

Chapter 174 Demon Clan - Han Li
Xiao Wuji stood in the weapon-refining hall, watching the rare metals continuously melting in the Red Dust Furnace, a hint of anticipation flashing in his eyes.

All the systems in the Heavenly Palace were running smoothly, and Xiao Wuji began preparations for his ascension. His second primordial spirit had even ascended to the Spirit Realm through a spatial node before him.

After he finished refining this last item, he prepared to ascend to heaven.

Xiao Wuji took out a golden-blue vine over a hundred meters long and tossed it into the Red Dust Furnace. The moment the vine touched the flames in the furnace, it instantly released bolts of lightning, shattering much of the flames.

These vines are the Thunderous Hell Vine that I obtained long ago, and they were also the body "he" once possessed. In this world, they would be the body of an extremely powerful demon beast.

With its mid-stage Qi Refining cultivation and perfected Body Refining cultivation at the Purple Mansion level, even if it doesn't cultivate a Celestial-rank technique and its Purple Mansion is much smaller, it's still definitely at the late-stage Nascent Soul level.

Most importantly, this body is completely identical to his soul aura, making it easy to refine it into something similar to an external avatar or a spiritual treasure dharma body.

However, Xiao Wuji did not intend to do so, because the upper limit of these two incarnation methods was too low and not enough to help him at all.

But an incarnation won't work, but a puppet certainly will, especially a puppet that can continuously grow.

The lingering resentment on the body was the same as his primordial spirit aura. Moreover, although the corpse had no soul, it was still alive and well, so there was no need to use flames to expel the lingering resentment and corpse aura within it.

He made two openings in the vine's purple palace and lower dantian, and then placed a level nine Thunder Whale Demon Soul and a Heavenly Demon Phoenix Demon Core that he had painstakingly cultivated into them.

Liquid metal poured down, penetrating deep into every fiber of the Thunderous Hell Vine along with the flames. Ultimately, they became indistinguishable.

If the flames were removed now, they could directly obtain a ready-made human-demon puppet. But Xiao Wuji would never be satisfied with that.

His divine sense probed into the cauldron, causing the flames within to trace eerie runes on the vines. A single glance was enough to captivate the soul.

These runes were obtained by "him" through comprehending and devouring the Ancestral Symbol. They were runes that had barely stepped into the Dao, possessing a trace of the power to devour the Ancestral Symbol. This power was still extremely rudimentary and could not possibly be applied to cultivation, but if used on a puppet, it could eliminate many potential problems.

After the runes covered the vines, a bead of sweat appeared on Xiao Wuji's forehead.

The puppet-making process was not yet finished. Xiao Wuji's hands moved rapidly in front of him, forming hand seals, and a small, light blue lightning array was forced out of his body from his dantian.

Forcing unwanted supernatural powers out of one's body and refining them onto magical artifacts is a unique method of artifact refining in the world of immortality. Some artifacts can only be refined using this supernatural power formation.

To achieve this, Xiao Wuji abandoned his previous cultivation of thunderous divine abilities and instead cultivated the Purple Lightning Yin Thunder Blade. With the combined assistance of hundreds of Nascent Soul cultivators, he mastered it, enabling the puppet to unleash divine powers in the future.

By the time he finished, Xiao Wuji was drenched in sweat. However, the Red Dust Furnace could handle the rest of the operation on its own, so there was no need for him to push himself any further.

This puppet shouldn't be too strong at first, probably only at the early to mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, but as long as he's willing to use lightning to smash it, it should grow stronger very quickly.

With this puppet, he could easily deal with the tribulation lightning in the spirit world.

"Give the order to gather all personnel and prepare for ascension!"

……

This time, Xiao Wuji did not plan to bring too many people with him, as those with low cultivation levels were of no use in the Spirit Realm.

After careful selection, Xiao Wuji finally gathered 123 late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators and 26 Deity Transformation cultivators into his spatial birdcage. Of course, "things" that were not human, such as human puppet mounts, were also indispensable.

Most of these people were his women, and they were all quite capable, at least they wouldn't hold him back. They were all the kind of people who could earn him Extinction Pills.

Of course, if his plan were to come to fruition, then he would hardly need any Dust-Extinguishing Pills.

Just as Xiao Wuji was preparing for his ascension, at the bottom of a bottomless abyss, Han Li stared at the strange altar before him, speechless with shock.

It was an altar about a thousand feet in circumference, with a blurry sculpture at its center, shrouded in mist and unable to be clearly seen. But Xiao Wuji was certain that this sculpture was definitely not the so-called City God, much less the fearsome "Xiao Wuji." The sculpture was clearly that of a woman, and she had no horns on her head.

Over the years, he had wandered around the Great Jin Dynasty and seen countless statues of city gods. Every time he saw such a statue, it reminded him of his nominal master, Xiao Wuji. Over the years, Xiao Wuji had almost become his inner demon.

Han Li was overjoyed to finally encounter another statue, even if it was a golem.

"This seems to be a place where ancient demonic cultivators worshipped ancient demons in ancient times?"

"But why do ancient texts say that this place is related to ascension?"

Han Li was filled with confusion. He had clearly come here following the clues to ascension, so how did he end up in front of an ancient demon altar?

"That's because this place is truly related to ascension!"

A seductive voice came from behind him, sending a chill down Han Li's spine. But before he could react, he felt a tremendous force slam into the altar, tumbling him to the ancient demon sculpture.

"Want to ascend? As long as you can withstand the demonic energy infusion and become a member of my Holy Clan, I will personally guide you!"

Irrigation?

A look of fear flashed in Han Li's eyes. In recent years, he had learned about some ancient matters. It was true that the so-called infusion of demonic energy into the body could allow him to ascend to immortality, but the terrifying probability of death made him hesitate.

But the woman seemed to give him no choice. Rolling demonic energy emerged from beneath the altar, gathered on the demonic statue, and then rushed into Han Li's body.

Han Li's body swelled up at a visible speed. He knew that he had to consume the demonic energy in his body as soon as possible, otherwise he would explode and die. However, he was unable to move at the moment, so the only way to consume the demonic energy was to absorb it.

Pain, suffocation, despair, and all sorts of despairing emotions came rushing in. The magic power in his body was instantly corrupted into demonic energy, which then grew rapidly and uncontrollably attacked the bottleneck of the Nascent Soul stage.

Once, twice, three times...

Finally, the bottleneck that had been holding him back for so long shattered, and he finally broke through to the Nascent Soul realm. The pain lessened considerably, but Han Li felt no joy at all.

Because he discovered that his body was beginning to mutate uncontrollably, his limbs were becoming thicker, his fingers were turning into claws, he felt something growing on his head, and a layer of dark red blood crystals was growing on his skin.

Even without a mirror, Han Li could imagine how ugly he looked. A violent emotion surged into his heart, making him want to tear everything in front of him to shreds.

Within his dantian, the seventy-two Green Bamboo Bee Cloud Swords, each crafted from six pure bamboo stalks, simultaneously emitted a shimmering light, instantly eliminating any distracting thoughts that could interfere with Han Li's life.

This reaction also made Han Li somewhat fortunate. He was fortunate that he waited until he reached the Nascent Soul realm before he began to refine his natal magic weapon, and that he used a top-tier magic weapon like the Six Roots Purification Bamboo, so that he would not be tainted by demonic nature and suffer a qi deviation.

The infusion of demonic energy continued, but the danger was much less than before the breakthrough.

Han Li began to accept the infusion of demonic energy into his body, and then took the opportunity to directly switch to cultivating demonic techniques. Since he couldn't resist, he could only accept it. After all, this was also a way to ascend to immortality, at least he wouldn't have to worry about his lifespan anymore, and he wouldn't have to see his strange master again.

……

(End of this chapter)