Mortal: Even with a Heavenly Spiritual Root, I still have to try and get my hands on the Little Gree

In terms of the number of lives taken, Mu Yu has not killed as many as Han Li.

After all, Han Li had killed demonic beasts for decades in the Chaotic Star Sea, so his aura of malevolence was naturally exceptionally strong.

However, in terms of quality, Mu Yu's murderous aura was far stronger than Han Li's, making it much more intense and dangerous.

After all, the vast majority of Mu Yu's killings were against enemies of higher levels, and sometimes the difference wasn't just one level, but he had killed enemies of higher levels quite a few times.

When those cultivators died, a considerable amount of exceptionally stubborn baleful energy naturally clung to Mu Yu's body.

Under normal circumstances, these baleful energies would not have any effect on cultivators, but if something like the Blood Demon Sword is used, the situation would be quite different.

However, since the two only used the Blood Demon Sword once, the situation of evil energy entering their bodies was not serious, and they had at least nearly a hundred years to ignore it.

However, the prerequisite is that one cannot severely damage one's vital energy or blood, or to use the Blood Demon Sword, an evil treasure that requires the consumption of vital essence and blood, again.

Mu Yu was well aware of this, but he didn't take it seriously.

Han Li clearly hadn't realized that Mu Yu was well-prepared for this, and had even already made a plan for the next step.

But since Mu Yu was already prepared, Han Li was naturally not in a hurry.

After asking a few simple questions, Han Li prepared to follow Mu Yu's advice.

After all, Mu Yu had never been wrong.

Next, Mu Yu took some time to complete the setup of his cave dwelling on the Spirit Turtle Island, and then began his secluded cultivation.

Han Li, on the other hand, went to a place called Ling'ao Island with Nangong Wan. With the pills provided by Mu Yu for cultivation, the two made rapid progress.

Meanwhile, Linghu Laozu stayed on the third spirit island controlled by Huangfeng Valley, preparing for his seclusion to break through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Whether it will succeed or not, nobody knows.

Even with something like the little green bottle, it's still very difficult to gather enough pills for Nascent Soul stage and above. Even with Mu Yu's best efforts, he only managed to find four or five of them.

Moreover, they were all for the early and middle stages of the Nascent Soul realm; there were none of the pills that could help break through to the late Nascent Soul realm.

Therefore, whether or not he can successfully advance to the late-stage Nascent Soul realm depends on the fate of Elder Linghu himself.

After three years of secluded cultivation, the ancient demon's fragmented soul, which had been refined into the Myriad Souls Banner, finally merged completely with the banner.

Furthermore, because of the demonic energy carried by the divided soul, this soul became a demonic spirit after being refined, so Mu Yu didn't need to refine it at all.

Even so, Mu Yu still took the Myriad Soul Banner deep into the Demon Abyss, preparing to use the extremely pure demonic energy within to complete the final catalysis.

In essence, the difference between demonic energy and spiritual energy is not that great; it's just that demonic energy contains some rather strange elements.

Therefore, the ancient demons in the demon realm are able to demonize the entire human realm and even invade the spirit realm every once in a while.

Such things are still too far away for Mu Yu, but the pure demonic energy contained in the depths of this enormous demonic abyss is already not much weaker than that of the demon realm in terms of quality.

In other words, Mu Yu's treasure refining this time was almost equivalent to taking place in the Demon Realm.

In this way, as long as the Myriad Souls Banner is successfully refined, it can be considered the number one treasure in the human realm.

Hmm... We have to put aside those treasures passed down from the spirit world, and we can't even include my own Azure Origin Sword Formation.

Mu Yu couldn't stay in a place like the Demon Abyss for too long, but it didn't matter. The Myriad Soul Banner wasn't just for holding souls; it could also absorb a lot of demonic energy.

Once the initial tempering of the Myriad Soul Banner with demonic energy is completed, the conversion of the remaining individual souls can be carried out slowly back home.

Mu Yu would go to the depths of the Demon Abyss every week to spend several hours tempering the Myriad Soul Banner.

It took two years to refine the Myriad Soul Banner. After that, Mu Yu only needed to fill the space inside the Myriad Soul Banner with pure demonic energy every three months.

At the same time, the Xuan Yin Scripture, which is cultivated by the Nascent Soul of the Demonic Path, can be used as a transitional material using the demonic energy in the magic weapon.

As long as the amount of demonic energy absorbed is controlled properly, it will not cause any harm to the Nascent Soul stage of the demonic path.

During this time, Han Li's Six-Winged Frost Centipede grew to a usable level, and Mu Yu borrowed it to accelerate his refining of the Azure Ice Flame.

His daily routine after that consisted of cultivation, occasionally delving into sword techniques and sword skills.

After about twenty years, Mu Yu successfully broke through to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

At the same time, the Myriad Soul Banner was completely corrupted by demonic energy, and all the souls within it were transformed into demonic spirits. These spirits possessed powerful combat strength comparable to ghosts of the same level and had initially acquired immortality, able to automatically regenerate as long as they were not damaged too much.

After successfully breaking through to the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm, Mu Yu received two more pieces of good news.

The first piece of good news is that Ancestor Linghu has successfully broken through to the late stage of the Nascent Soul realm, and his lifespan has increased by about two hundred years.

Linghu Laozu did not want to reveal his breakthrough, so everything proceeded as usual, without any grand ceremony or anything like that.

Because at this moment, with Mu Yu, who has twice killed late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators, Huangfeng Valley has developed too rapidly.

If Yellow Maple Valley expands again, it will easily attract the attention of both the righteous and demonic factions.

In fact, Huangfeng Valley has become quite a mixed bag now, and no one can tell which traitors from other sects are in the sect.

In the coming period, it is estimated that Patriarch Linghu will focus his attention on managing the sect.

Mu Yu thought about it and decided not to try to persuade him.

Unlike Mu Yu, although Linghu Laozu also possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root, he still endured many hardships in his cultivation.

Reaching the Nascent Soul stage is practically the pinnacle of cultivation in the human realm. Without some extraordinary stroke of luck, it's impossible to reach the Deity Transformation stage.

This applies even to those with celestial spiritual roots.

Rather than letting him live the life of an ascetic in the future, it's better for him to be more carefree.

Of course, Mu Yu also hinted that he had a chance to find the True Water of Rejuvenation for him, and that if he worked hard to cultivate, there was a chance that he could break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

Linghu Laozu did not respond to this.

As for what he would choose, Mu Yu didn't have time to care.

Although he was born in Huangfeng Valley, Mu Yu was more like a rogue cultivator and didn't care much about the development of the sect.

Besides the fact that Ancestor Linghu broke through to the late Nascent Soul stage, the second piece of good news was that Mei Ning finally broke through to the Core Formation stage.

The day after learning the news, Mu Yu emerged from seclusion.

After absorbing the spiritual energy from the Jade Phoenix Marrow Body from Mei Ning, Mu Yu felt that the spiritual power in his body had become purer, and the five-star rotation between the five nascent souls in his body had become much smoother.

"As expected of one of the seven most refined spiritual energies in the world, even with my current cultivation level, I feel it is of great benefit."

After taking Mei Ning's primordial yin, Mu Yu said with some emotion.

Mei Ning was also somewhat dazed at this moment. The thing she had been waiting for for decades had finally come to pass. She didn't know whether she should feel ashamed and angry or feel fortunate.

"Brother Mu... I thought you had forgotten me."

In the end, Mei Ning still uttered these words, which carried a hint of complaint, with a touch of unease.

Although Mei Ning has now fulfilled her youthful ambition, she has managed to find a high-level cultivator of good character to rely on, thanks to her Jade Phoenix Marrow body, so that she can obtain enough resources for cultivation.

But after this idea was actually realized, Mei Ning found herself wanting to be even more greedy.

At this moment, Mei Ning was really worried that Mu Yu would completely forget her after taking all the spiritual energy.

After all, in the years since Mei Ning joined Huangfeng Valley, she has only seen Mu Yu a handful of times.

However, she wasn't the worst off.

I heard that two female cultivators who were brought back by Mu Yu didn't even get any titles, and they hadn't seen Mu Yu even once in decades.

At this moment, the people Mei Ning was frantically thinking about were Yuan Yao and Yan Li.

In other words, Mu Yu was unaware of what Mei Ning was thinking at that moment.

Otherwise, he might have told Mei Ning a cruel truth: one of these two women he didn't pay attention to was far more important than her.

"Forgot? How could that be? It's just that your cultivation level was too low back then, and you couldn't understand the concept of time of high-level cultivators."

"Now that you have reached the Core Formation stage, you will experience in the future what it feels like to be in seclusion for several years or even more than a decade at a time."

"Do you remember what I said back then?"

"If your cultivation levels are equal to or even surpass mine, then you can become formal dual cultivation partners with me."

"So, let go of those distracting thoughts and focus on your cultivation."

"I don't want to emerge from seclusion one day to find the cruel reality that you've already exhausted your lifespan."

Hearing Mu Yu's words, Mei Ning felt a sense of bewilderment welling up inside her.

She knew that Zi Ling had been working hard to cultivate, and had even switched to demonic arts. Her dedication and hard work were comparable to those of ascetic cultivators.

but……

"With my aptitude, am I really capable of cultivating to the Nascent Soul stage?"

Mei Ning murmured, her tone devoid of any confidence.

Coming from a small sect, her ability to form a core was already near the pinnacle; she had never even considered forming a nascent soul before.

"Ability...is not important! You need to understand your own heart: are you truly willing to simply exhaust your lifespan and die?"

……

After spending a month with Mei Ning, Zi Ling also emerged from seclusion.

Mu Yu simply took them to the most interesting place in the entire Tiannan region to play, which could be considered as an attempt to relax from the long journey of cultivation.

After indulging in such unrestrained pleasure for a whole year, Mu Yu left the two women with the corresponding pills and returned to Spirit Turtle Island to prepare for continued seclusion and cultivation.

Before this seclusion, Mu Yu returned the remaining half of the Azure Ice Flame Pearl and the Six-Winged Frost Centipede to Han Li and inquired about his cultivation progress.

Sure enough, it became difficult to surpass Han Li after the Nascent Soul stage, and Han Li was only a short distance away from breaking through to the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

Next, Mu Yu began refining the Tongbao Technique on the Void Heaven Cauldron.

The power of this Void Heaven Cauldron isn't particularly strong among spiritual treasures, but it's sufficient for the current stage.

Once you reach the late Nascent Soul stage, it will probably be of little use.

After briefly testing the Void Heaven Cauldron's abilities, Mu Yu put it away and then took out nine Demon Marrow Diamonds to begin refining the Demon Dragon Blade.

The forging process of the Demon Dragon Blade is not too difficult. The power of the newly forged Demon Dragon Blade is equivalent to that of some ordinary ancient treasures, such as Han Li's Thousand Peaks.

However, this thing has a very peculiar characteristic: the more lives that die by this blade, the stronger its power becomes.

Therefore, Mu Yu is still somewhat interested in this treasure.

Next, Mu Yu used one of the heads of the Ancient Demon Blood Flame, combined with two Demon Marrow Drills, to forge a Blood Demon Flying Needle for Han Li.

This treasure also has the effect of increasing power through killing.

However, this treasure's effect requires storage, and there is a certain storage limit.

However, if released at its maximum power, the strength of this Blood Demon Flying Needle is estimated to be not much weaker than that of the Demon Dragon Blade.

After the release is complete, you need to kill people again to accumulate blood energy.

Despite the limitations, Mu Yu was already very satisfied with this magical artifact.

Next, Mu Yu tried to refine some other types of magical artifacts. Although their power was decent, they did not satisfy Mu Yu.

So, Mu Yu began to figure out how to refine the half-finished Seven Flame Fan.

In the storage bag of that ancient relic, more than half of the materials for crafting the Seven Flames Fan had been collected; the remaining materials were long extinct in this era.

As the saying goes, even a skilled cook cannot cook without rice. No matter how strong Mu Yu's ability to refine magical artifacts is, it is useless without suitable materials.

Therefore, Mu Yu decided to take a different approach.

Currently, Mu Yu possesses several types of spiritual flames, namely the Azure Ice Flame, the Asura Sacred Flame, and a wisp of blood flame seed discovered within the Ancient Demon Blood Flame.

Although the extremely Yin Heavenly Capital Corpse Fire is gone, Mu Yu still possesses a Corpse Demon, three Nascent Soul stage refined corpses, and the Divine Transformation stage physical body of an ancient demon.

Five corpses at the Nascent Soul stage should be enough to refine a powerful Heavenly Capital Corpse Fire.

It's a pity that the second half of the Six Extremes True Demon Art is missing, otherwise I could have tried to refine the sixth-level Holy Demon Art.

After ascending to the Spirit Realm, he might be able to cause some trouble during the demonic calamity.

Let's talk about it later. As for now...

After temporarily dealing with the five Nascent Soul stage puppets, all that's needed is for the demonic Nascent Soul to be nurtured with Nascent Soul Fire for a period of time, and then some Heavenly Capital Corpse Fire can be collected.

These five Nascent Soul stage corpses were mostly evil beings, so Mu Yu didn't need to cultivate their corpse energy. He only needed to use his methods to squeeze out the corpse energy from their bodies.

We'll check its power later. If it's good, we'll continue cultivating it. If it's too weak, we'll just use the fire seed as a material for crafting magic weapons.

Four kinds... Four Flame Fan doesn't sound very good!

After thinking for a moment, Mu Yu remembered the azure spiritual flame of the Mulan Sacred Bird and decided to talk to the divided soul of the Mulan Sacred Bird before setting off.

……

Having quietly left Spirit Turtle Island, Mu Yu donned the Spirit Concealment Veil and used the improved Invisible Escape Technique to infiltrate the Mulan Grassland.

In previous years, the Mulan people suffered a crushing defeat in their battles with the Tuwu people, ceding almost all of the Mulan grasslands to the Tuwu tribe.

However, some places have been preserved by the Mulan people.

For example, this time Mu Yu secretly sneaked into the sacred ground of the Mulan clan...

Along the way, Mu Yu naturally encountered many formations, but with Mu Yu's current mastery of formations, it was still possible to sneak in, albeit with some difficulty.

However, the simplest method is naturally to disguise oneself as a Mulan person.

After casually grabbing a mage of around the Core Formation stage and completing the soul search, Mu Yu roughly located the corresponding location.

This time, Mu Yu encountered a stronger defensive formation, making it impossible for him to sneak in.

However, this formation has no defensive capabilities; it is merely a safety reminder.

So, Mu Yu simply revealed his true form and swaggered in.

"Looks like you're living quite comfortably."

Almost the instant Mu Yu stepped into this place, the higher-ups of the Mulan people immediately noticed that there were seven or eight Nascent Soul stage or higher magicians rushing over.

Among them, there was even the aura of a Mulan Divine Master.

"It's you!!!"

The moment Mu Yu stepped into the palace, a girl in green robes suddenly raised her head amidst the many female cultivators at the Core Formation stage and recognized Mu Yu's identity.

"As expected, you are a fragment of a demonic cultivator from the spirit realm who escaped here."

"So now I only have one question left."

"Can you... still contact your original body?"

"Be careful not to lie, as this concerns the demonic calamity in the spirit world and the safety of your physical body."

Mu Yu's series of questions completely baffled the little girl.

At that moment, Mu Yu disappeared in a flash of lightning and reappeared beside the girl, standing quietly with a black sphere in his hand.

"Please don't misunderstand, I'm just here to ask you some questions about the so-called Sacred Bird of Mulan."

"Right now, I don't really want to face the pursuit of Mulan and her group."

When the little girl in blue saw the object in Mu Yu's hand, she was quite upset.

"Lei Zhenzi! How could such a thing still exist in the human realm? You…"

Suddenly, the little girl in green realized what was happening and quickly called out to the arriving Divine Master Mulan:

"Don't come any closer!"

Upon hearing the voice of the little girl in green, the newly arrived Master Mulan hesitated for a moment, but ultimately directed the others to leave, while he himself remained.

"Fellow Daoist Mu, we can talk about anything, but don't hurt her, or the entire Mulan clan will fight you to the death!"

The divine master Mulan spoke harshly, but Mu Yu didn't care at all.

Seeing that the Mulan Divine Master had not left, Mu Yu spoke again to the Mulan Sacred Bird:

"Alright, this Sacred Bird of Mulan... are you sure you want this person to hear our conversation?"

Upon hearing the words "Sacred Bird of Mulan," the little girl in green frowned and spoke to the Mulan Divine Master outside the hall:

"You should leave too. If I die, you must use all the strength of your clan to hunt him down."

"When necessary, I can draw upon the power of my true form in the spirit world."

"besides……"

At this point, the little girl in blue looked very upset and shouted:

"From now on, when you summon me, don't talk to me again!!!"