Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

Upon returning to the mine, Gou An made an excuse and hurriedly left.

Shortly after Gou An left, in a cave chamber in the mine, Hei Jiao was kneeling on one knee, reporting to the blind tiger, Jin Yang Shan Jun, who was sitting on a stone chair.

"Aside from his outstanding alchemy skills, that yellow-haired dog is really nothing special in other aspects." Black Horn carefully described the results of today's test to Blind Tiger: "I hit him with my stick and sent him flying. If I hadn't stopped in time, that kid would be dead."

After hearing the description, Blind Tiger frowned slightly and asked, "You mean, he was passively taking hits the whole time, yet he didn't get hurt at all? And he didn't even lift a finger?"

"Uh...uh...uh!" Black Horn was stunned for a moment upon hearing this, and then added, "The brothers all held back for fear of hurting him, and it's normal that he didn't have a chance to fight back when facing a group of us attacking him."

"Your trick is too simplistic!" Blind Tiger shook his head. "Anyone with a brain could see the anomaly."

"Your subordinate is dull-witted!" Upon seeing this, Black Horn quickly lowered his head, sweat beading on his forehead.

"Never mind, I'll find another opportunity!" After saying that, the blind tiger's figure blurred and turned into a black gust of wind, flying directly out of the cave and disappearing from sight.

Seeing the blind tiger leave, Blackhorn swallowed hard and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Gou An, who had left, returned to his courtyard, closed the gate, and refused to leave, intending to appear to the outside world that he had been frightened.

At this moment, Niu Cuihua came up with a bowl of freshly brewed spiritual tea: "Master, please have some tea!"

Gou An nodded, picked up the teacup, took a sip, and savored the rich aroma of the tea.

"I plan to go into seclusion for the next few days!" Gou An put down his teacup and said to Niu Cuihua, "If anyone looks for me, tell them that I had an accident while delivering pills at the mine, and I was so frightened that my mind is unstable. I'm currently recuperating."

Niu Cuihua nodded immediately after hearing this: "I understand!"

Gou An nodded and waved to Niu Cuihua, "Alright, you can go out now. Don't let anyone bother me these next few days!"

"Yes!" Niu Cuihua quickly left the room and closed the door.

Once he was sure no one would disturb him, Gou An walked to the futon beside him, sat cross-legged, and took out a storage bag full of spirit stones from his palm space, preparing to replenish the demon power he needed for the final breakthrough.

As Gou An absorbed the spirit stones one by one, his demonic power increased rapidly.

After several days of continuous seclusion, he finally accumulated the last bit of demonic power.

[Current Realm: Early Stage of Demon Transformation]

[Demon Power Value: 3000050/3000000]

[Demon power points have been fully accumulated, automatically breaking through...]

As Gou An felt a surge of heat at the demon core in his chest, he could clearly feel that his demon core was undergoing changes.

By examining one's own body, one can discover that the originally crimson demon core now has several golden lines on its surface, clearly indicating that the demon core is developing towards becoming a golden core.

With the breakthrough complete, the demon power value panel in my mind has also changed.

[Current Realm: Mid-stage Demon Transformation]

[Demon Power Value: 50/6000000]

Six million!

The increase isn't significant; at the current rate, it would only take 20,000 to 30,000 spirit stones to collect them all.

If one persists in absorbing spirit stones every day, one can break through again in less than a year.

[Congratulations on successfully breaking through to the mid-stage of Demon Transformation. You can choose one of the following options.]

[Option 1: Choose any learned sorcery to upgrade and make it more powerful.]

[Option 2: Randomly select three learned sorcery skills to upgrade, making them more powerful.]

[Option 3: Refine your Five Elements foundation and choose two physiques from Green Wood Spiritual Body, Fiery Sacred Body, Earth Spiritual True Body, Golden Edge Sacred Bone, and Water Spiritual Meridian to obtain the full effect.]

Option 4: Directly obtain three million demon power points!

Looking at the four new options, Gou An immediately fell into deep thought.

Upgrade the sorcery you've already learned? That sounds good, but the fact that you can only choose one option is giving Gou An a headache.

The second option allows you to upgrade three spells, and if you're not too unlucky, the effect should be better than the first one.

Option three is also very attractive. Although the Five Elements Mixed Base has half the effect of these five special constitutions, some constitutions are actually rarely used.

If he had to choose this option, Gou An would want to keep both the Flame Saint Body and the Green Wood Spirit Body.

If having half the strength is already so effective, then having the full physique would be even more powerful.

However, exchanging five halfs for two ones still seems like a bit of a loss.

As for the last option, number four, although it seemed good, Gou An eliminated it outright.

Three million demonic power can be accumulated over time. There's no rush to break through on your own, and there's absolutely no reason to waste an opportunity.

Finally, Gou An's gaze settled on option two and option three.

After careful consideration, Gou An finally chose option two, which was to randomly upgrade three sorcery spells.

Gou An was mainly curious about the effects of upgrading his sorcery.

If the upgrade is to a higher-level transformation technique, will it become a perfect transformation technique?

After making his selection, all the sorcery he had learned appeared before Gou An's eyes and began to spin rapidly in a jumbled manner.

After being randomly shuffled for a long time, the names of three sorcery spells jumped out and lined up in front of Gou An.

Phantom Assault, Giant Monster Body, Carrion Eater Expert.

Of the three randomly assigned sorcery spells, Gou An didn't particularly like the last one, the carrion expert, but he was quite looking forward to the upgrade effects of the other two.

As three sorceries were randomly selected, their names began to glow with white light, enveloping them.

As the white light slowly dissipated, all three sorceries had been upgraded.

【Phantom Clone: ​​Can create afterimages to confuse enemies, or consume more demonic power to create a physical clone.】

[Demon Essence Dharma Form: Activates demon essence to expand the physical body, greatly increasing strength and defense, and can also condense demonic energy to form a Dharma form.]

[Master of Carrion Consumption: Consuming rotten flesh, feces, and other filth grants ten times the demonic power.]

Seeing the three upgraded sorceries, Gou An felt both joy and sorrow.

The good thing is that the effects of the two upgraded sorcery spells look pretty good.

The brief afterimage transforms into a physical clone; this skill can undoubtedly be considered a life-saving artifact.

The Demon Essence Dharma Image looks even better; in addition to retaining its original effects, it can also condense into a Dharma Image.

Tragically, the expert on scavenging became a master of scavenging.

It looks like it's been upgraded, but it still has to eat filthy things. Upgrading or not upgrading doesn't really make any difference.

If we could upgrade this by replacing it with a shapeshifting technique, that would be perfect.

With the breakthrough and choice complete, Gou An finally opened his eyes again.

After reaching the mid-stage of the Demon Transformation Realm, Gou An felt much more relaxed and at ease.

He then got up, ready to try out his newly upgraded sorcery.

With a thought, Gou An unleashed his phantom clone.

The next second, a blurry image separated from itself and landed beside it, quickly transforming into a physical clone.

Gou An stepped forward, reached out and pinched it; the texture was exactly the same as his own.

Furthermore, the clones can be controlled at will, appearing as if they were looking in a mirror.

"That's amazing!"

Gou An couldn't help but sigh.

After repeated attempts, Gou An had fully understood how to use this sorcery.

In addition to still being able to conjure afterimages without a physical form, multiple clones can also be created simultaneously.

However, the more clones one creates, the greater the drain on Gou An's energy. Furthermore, if a clone dies, although the original body remains unharmed, the soul will be damaged.

Therefore, the idea of ​​using clones to casually die is not feasible.

In addition, there is the Demonic Essence Dharma Form. After activating this demonic technique, Gou An's muscles immediately tightened and enlarged, and he could freely adjust the size of his physical expansion, unlike before when it would expand to its maximum size whenever used.

Furthermore, after the Dharma form solidified, a humanoid red light enveloped Gou An, as if he were wearing a suit of red light armor.

Furthermore, this form can freely switch between human and animal forms, which is truly amazing.

As for the third master of carrion, Gou An licked his lips, hesitated for a long time, and still decided not to try.

I will eat something like this at least once in my life.

After completing the test, Gou An looked out the window; it was almost dawn.

So Gou An stretched, his bones cracking, then pushed open the door and went out into the courtyard, ready to breathe some fresh air.

As soon as Gou An arrived in the yard, he saw Niu Cuihua pulling weeds and tidying up the flower beds.

"You're already working so early?" Gou An asked.

Upon hearing Gou An's voice, Niu Cuihua was startled and quickly stood up, bowing to Gou An: "It's getting late. We've already been working for an hour at this time back at the mine."

It was just past the hour of Mao (5-7 AM), around 5 AM.

According to Niu Cuihua, the slaves in the mine had been working for more than an hour, meaning they started their day's work around 3 p.m.

"When do you rest at night?" Gou An asked curiously.

"It's past midnight!" Niu Cuihua replied.

Gou An calculated that he worked from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, with only five hours of rest each day.

With such arduous labor, it's no wonder that so many demon slaves die of exhaustion every day.

What good would it do them to exhaust so many demon slaves to death?

If we use it sparingly, it will last longer, right? This puzzled Gou An.

Gou An didn't press further, but simply said to Niu Cuihua, "You don't need to get up so early here anymore. Just focus on completing the tasks I assign you. Nothing else matters."

"I understand!" Niu Cuihua nodded respectfully.

Life in the mine terrified her, and she was also very worried that she might not have done something right and would be sent back to the mine.

Gou An patted Niu Cuihua on the shoulder and prepared to go out for a stroll.

Just then, Niu Cuihua suddenly called out, "Master, someone was looking for you yesterday."

"Who?" Gou An turned around.

"It's Elder Wenxu!" Niu Cuihua quickly reported, "He said that after you come out of seclusion, he wants you to go find Protector Cangxuan. It seems there's something he needs you to do."