Yuantian Pidao

Chapter 408 Treasure of the Divine Soul
At Mirror Lake, with the Soul-Suppressing Hall high above, a battle over the inheritance of the Illusionary True Man has begun.

Overcoming numerous obstacles, the cultivators from the Nian, Yan, and Xia families seemed to have gone mad in their struggle for the inheritance of the Illusionary True Hermit. While breaking through the inheritance barriers, they also fought each other, even resorting to ruthless killings.

“Something’s not right. I almost turned on my own family just now.”

With blood on his hands, he walked out of the second level and looked at the inheritance palace that was so close at hand. Suddenly, he remembered everything that had happened before. The joy on Nianhua's face faded and a chill unconsciously rose in his heart.

At the beginning, even when faced with the inheritance of the Illusionary True Hermit, the three cultivators were able to maintain a certain degree of restraint. However, as time passed and they got closer to the inheritance palace, the struggle between the three families became more and more intense.

In order to pass the checkpoints and for the treasures and secret techniques within, the three cultivators kept lowering their standards. They not only attacked the other two families, but also showed no mercy to their own.

"If I were to turn against my own family for the sake of preserving the family tradition, would I still be myself?"

Upon examining one's own heart, the face of youth turned pale.

Born into the direct line and raised by the family from a young age, he has a very high degree of belonging to the family. In his heart, he would not harm his family members for some benefit. A major purpose of his cultivation is to protect the family.

Should we leave?

His mind wavered, and realizing something was wrong, Nianhua began to consider giving up the inheritance of the Illusionary True Hermit.

However, at this moment, the image of the ancestors of the Nian family failing to break through to the Purple Mansion due to the lack of inheritance and falling in sorrow began to echo in Nian Hua's heart, instantly extinguishing his thoughts of giving up.

"The legacy is right before my eyes, I must not give up."

With a resolute expression and without further hesitation, Nianhua entered the third stage.

The Nian family's inheritance is incomplete, making the breakthrough to the Purple Mansion realm extremely dangerous. A slight misstep could lead to failure due to issues with the soul. However, the inheritance of the Illusionary True Hermit contains a secret method for tempering the soul, which can perfectly complement the Nian family's inheritance.

At this moment, Nianhua had only one thought in his mind: to find the legacy of Huanzhen Sanren and fill the gap in the Nian family. This was his responsibility as the next head of the family. However, he did not notice that wisps of black energy were already emerging deep in his soul.

In fact, it wasn't just him; as they delved deeper, more and more cultivators were corrupted by the demonic thoughts of the Soul Suppressing Palace. The so-called passing three trials to obtain the inheritance was a deception from the very beginning; it was merely the demonic thoughts selecting puppets.

As they become deeply entangled in illusions and their desires are fully aroused, they will become puppets of demonic thoughts. With the help of these puppets, demonic thoughts can truly break into the Soul Suppressing Hall, open the core restrictions, and sever all shackles. At that time, perhaps one or more Illusionary True Hermits will appear in this world.

As time went by, more and more cultivators entered the third level. By this point, almost everyone was corrupted by demonic thoughts, including several core figures from the Xia and Yan families.

Meanwhile, outside Mirror Lake, a figure silently watched this scene, completely unaffected by the Soul Suppressing Palace. Neither the demons nor the cultivators noticed his presence.

"I never expected that there would be a Purple Mansion inheritor hidden here. It's truly beyond my expectations." With dark gold eyes, the Golden Eagle Demon King manifested a divine thought using his natal feather.

"Xia Wuyan is a good-for-nothing. His half-demon blood is indeed too inferior. He was tasked with besieging Jiang Chen, but he was blinded by the inheritance. However, this is not entirely a bad thing. If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have known that there was a rare soul treasure here."

With the help of Xia Wuyan's eyes, he was able to see part of the origin of the Illusionary True Inheritance. The dreamlike palace was actually a treasure of the soul, which made him feel a little greedy.

As a Purple Mansion Demon King, his cultivation level was not very high, but ordinary treasures were not worth his attention. However, treasures of the soul were different.

Once a cultivator reaches the Purple Mansion level, they need to strengthen their Dao foundation and cultivate their inner Purple Mansion. This requires a higher level of spiritual power. Only a sufficiently strong spiritual power can allow a cultivator to calmly combine the three treasures of essence, qi, and spirit, outline their inner landscape, and carry the true meaning of the Dharma.

A single soul treasure is enough to influence the cultivation of a Purple Mansion cultivator to a certain extent. It can be said that having a soul treasure to suppress oneself will make the cultivation of a Purple Mansion cultivator much smoother. However, soul treasures are rare, and the vast majority of Purple Mansion cultivators in the world do not possess one.

"This is not to be missed! If Jiang Chen is to be destroyed, I want this divine soul treasure too."

With a sudden thought, the Golden Eagle Demon King activated his secret technique.

In that instant, an invisible spiritual light spread out, gradually affecting the entire secret realm. Under the influence of this spiritual light, as if receiving guidance, all the demons affected by the true blood of ten thousand beasts began to spontaneously gather towards Mirror Lake.

Previously, due to the True Blood of Ten Thousand Beasts, these demons lost their minds and went mad, but they unexpectedly avoided the influence of the Soul Suppressing Hall and did not participate in the competition for the inheritance.

High in the sky, watching this scene, the Golden Eagle Demon King revealed a smug smile.

Since he gave away the True Blood of Ten Thousand Beasts, he must have had a backup plan. As for Xia Wuyan, he was just a pawn to be discarded.

After experiencing a series of failures, the Dark Feather Sect, having learned its lesson, conceived the idea of ​​recruiting human cultivators. In their view, perhaps only humans were the most suitable to deal with other humans, and it was for this reason that the half-demon secret technique was born.

If the anthropomorphic secret technique allows demons to take on human form, then the half-demon secret technique transforms humans into demons. Xia Wuyan was originally just an ordinary cultivator, but he joined the Dark Feather Sect and was fortunate enough to fuse with a decent demon bloodline, which is why he later became known as a genius.

However, although this half-demon secret technique is miraculous, it is ultimately flawed. Xia Wuyan has already reached his limit as a half-demon. Let alone breaking through to the Purple Mansion realm, he will not live much longer. It is precisely because of this that the Dark Feather Sect chose to abandon him.

It's important to understand that fusing high-grade demon blood is not easy. Xia Wuyan is one in ten thousand. Most human cultivators can only fuse with low-grade demon blood. Even so, they still cannot avoid the erosion of demon blood, but it is easier to suppress it. The Dark Feather Sect already has a relatively mature method for this.

Of course, to some extent, this is also one of the ways the Dark Feather Cult controls these half-demons; it is a shackle on these half-demons, preventing them from easily rebelling.

(End of this chapter)