Chapter 498 - 470: Permanent Spirit Demon Void Containment

Chapter 498: Chapter 470: Permanent Spirit Demon Void Containment

After returning to the outer islands of Kun Peng, Li Yuan did not go straight back to Spirit Platform Palace.

He found a deserted reef on a remote coastline at the southern end of the main island and set up a Concealment Array.

The conditions for making Spirit-Demon Void Accommodation permanent had been weighing on his mind.

There were two paths to making this purple trait permanent: break through to a major realm while in a state of Spirit-Demon Unity, or complete a full clash of Spirit-Demon Dual System Magic within a spatial rift.

The first path was unattainable in the short term. The second was impossible to achieve before obtaining the Red Core.

But things were different now.

The Red Core gave him the ability to walk freely within spatial rifts, impervious to spatial damage, and even open independent spaces at will. As long as he created a spatial rift himself and completed the Spirit-Demon clash within it, the condition would be met.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the reef, closing his eyes to regulate his breathing for a moment. He restored his reserves of both Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi to their peak.

Then, he opened his eyes.

He lifted the index finger of his right hand, and Spiritual Power surged from its tip, following the path of spatial perception granted by the Red Core.

The void before his fingertip split open without a sound.

A gray rift, about three feet long, appeared in mid-air, its edges flickering with an unstable glimmer. It was much wider than the one he had tentatively torn open in the rock cave last time, wide enough for a person to squeeze through sideways.

With a flicker of his body, Li Yuan stepped into the rift.

The familiar sense of nothingness descended once more. There was no light, no sound, only gray mist churning all around.

There was no solid ground beneath his feet, but the effect of the Red Core allowed him to float steadily in this temporarily created void interlayer.

His Spiritual Power began to drain slowly, and his Demonic Qi was also being consumed. However, after fusing with Myriad Spirits Return to Veins, the passive replenishment efficiency of his thirteen personal Spirit Veins had greatly increased. The gap between the rate of loss and the rate of recovery was even smaller than last time.

’It’s enough to last until the magic clash is complete.’

Li Yuan took a deep breath and raised both hands simultaneously.

He gathered Spiritual Power in his left hand.

The blue trait, Flawless Spiritual Power, had raised the purity of his Spiritual Power to a terrifying level. The ball of light gathered in his palm was like a miniature sun, emitting a piercing, white-blue glow.

He gathered Demonic Qi in his right hand.

His Mid-grade Demon Pill operated at full speed. Deep purple Demonic Qi surged from his Dantian, congealing into an inky-black vortex in his right palm. The traits for Demon Qi Condensation and Demonic Art Enhancement activated simultaneously, pushing the concentration and purity of the Demonic Qi to their limits.

The two diametrically opposed energies hovered in his left and right palms respectively. Though separated by less than a foot, they were already generating a violent repulsive reaction. The gray mist in the void interlayer was stirred into a frenzy by the two forces.

Without hesitation, Li Yuan thrust both palms forward.

Several feet in front of him, the two masses of energy violently collided.

A silent shockwave blasted out in all directions.

The instant the Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi collided, they produced an extremely violent annihilation reaction. White-blue and deep purple light intertwined, corroding, tearing apart, and devouring each other. The boundaries of the void interlayer trembled violently under the impact, and a huge hole was blown through the gray mist.

Li Yuan stood at the center of the storm, the effect of the Red Core isolating all spatial damage from his body.

But the clash wasn’t over.

The first collision had only dispersed the Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi; it hadn’t formed a complete magic clash.

Li Yuan focused his hands once more. This time, it wasn’t just simple Energy Balls, but true Magic.

Left hand: Ice Seal Skill. A Water Element Spiritual Power spell at the Perfection realm. The extreme cold qi condensed in the void, forming an ice-blue pillar of light with a diameter of several dozen feet.

Right hand: Dark Corrosion Finger. A Demon Qi Skill at the Adept realm. Three shadowy beams of light shot from his fingertips, carrying the power of corrosion and penetration.

The two spells were cast simultaneously, colliding head-on about thirty feet in front of him.

The ice-blue and shadowy-dark lights entangled, letting out a piercing SSSHHHIIIIII. The extreme cold and the corrosive Demonic Qi penetrated each other, forming an energy vortex that was both extremely chaotic and faintly orderly.

The traits for Spirit-Demon Same Origin and Spirit-Demon Void Accommodation activated at the same time, guiding the fusion of the two energies within his body.

At the center of the vortex, the boundary between Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi began to blur.

Li Yuan gritted his teeth and poured the last shred of his Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi into the vortex.

BOOM.

A silent explosion.

The void interlayer shuddered violently, and the gray mist was completely dispersed in that instant.

The system panel popped up.

[Spirit-Demon Void Accommodation (Purple) Permanence Condition Met: Complete one full clash of Spirit-Demon Dual System Magic within a spatial rift.]

[Spirit-Demon Void Accommodation (Purple) has become a permanent trait.]

A purple light exploded in his sea of consciousness, and at the same time, a vision flooded his mind.

’The hidden information from making it permanent.’

The vision was of an extremely ancient stone chamber. The stone walls were densely carved with runes and Array Patterns, so ancient that a thin layer of Spirit Dust had formed on their surface.

In the center of the chamber, an elderly man sat cross-legged.

The old man’s Cultivation was extremely profound, his aura as vast as the sea. He was undoubtedly in the Nascent Soul Realm.

But his condition was extremely strange. Two completely opposing forces were clashing violently within his body. Spiritual Qi occupied the left half of his meridians, while Demonic Qi occupied the right. The two were clearly demarcated, constantly colliding and repelling each other at their boundary in the center of his Dantian. Each collision made the old man’s expression twist a little more.

’Like fire and water.’

The old man opened his eyes, a trace of unwillingness showing in his cloudy gaze.

"It’s highly unlikely to succeed now," the old man’s voice was hoarse and low, as if he were talking to himself. "But I won’t be satisfied unless I try."

He raised a withered palm, and a tiny Jade Bead appeared in it. Within the bead, faint spatial fluctuations could be seen.

"I hope the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm will be a success," the old man said slowly, looking at the jade bead in his palm.

"The Spirit Ruins Secret Realm may be small, but its essence is extraordinary. Perhaps after it’s destroyed, it can succeed."

The vision then jumped forward a great length of time.

In the next segment, the old man was gone, and the stone chamber was empty. But the runes and Array Patterns on the walls were still glowing, like a silent codex recording a massive amount of experimental data and theoretical deductions about fusing Spiritual Qi and Demonic Qi through spatial compression.

A sea of information flooded Li Yuan’s mind.

The vision faded.

Li Yuan opened his eyes, stepped out of the void interlayer, and landed back on the reef.

The sea breeze on his face pulled his thoughts back from that ancient memory.

’That Nascent Soul elder was probably the Sect Master of the Profound Nether Sect from back then.’

His words echoed repeatedly in Li Yuan’s mind.

The Spirit Ruins Secret Realm may be weak, but its essence is extraordinary. Perhaps after it’s destroyed, it can succeed.

’Did that old man want to use the energy released by the destruction of the Spirit Ruins Secret Realm to achieve Spirit-Demon fusion? Or was it something else? And why wasn’t it destroyed?’

Li Yuan temporarily set this clue aside and focused on digesting the information that came with making the trait permanent.

The research data on fusing Spiritual Qi and Demonic Qi through spatial compression was extremely valuable. Although the old man ultimately failed, his centuries of accumulated experimental records and theoretical framework would be of great reference value for Li Yuan in further increasing his degree of Spirit-Demon fusion.

After collecting his thoughts, Li Yuan dismantled the Concealment Array and returned to the island.

While passing through a temporarily constructed market street for Loose Cultivators, Li Yuan stopped in front of a sundry stall.

The stall displayed miscellaneous talisman-making tools and small array components. Within a three-foot range, his trait perception triggered, and two gray glows lit up.

Li Yuan reached out and picked up a heavily worn old ink stick and a set of chipped bamboo counting rods.

[Equippable Item Detected: Old Talisman Ink Stick (Intact)]

[Equip Trait Preview: Ink Stability (Gray)]

[Effect: Ink lines become more stable during talisman crafting.]

[Equippable Item Detected: Bamboo Counting Rods (Intact)]

[Equip Trait Preview: Rod Calculation Subtlety (Gray)]

[Effect: Slightly increases the precision of array calculations.]

’Gray traits. Make them permanent directly.’

[Ink Stability (Gray) has become a permanent trait.]

[Rod Calculation Subtlety (Gray) has become a permanent trait.]

Making both permanent triggered their hidden information, but the visions that flooded his mind were exceedingly dull. One was the tedious scene of a talisman-crafting apprentice grinding an ink stick day after day, and the other was the repetitive sight of an Array Master using counting rods to repeatedly calculate node coordinates.

There was no valuable intelligence, only some basic crafting methods and calculation techniques.

Li Yuan tossed some Spirit Stones to the stall owner, put away his new items, and turned to leave.

He returned to his guest room at Spirit Platform Palace and activated the Concealment Array.

Li Yuan sat cross-legged on the stone bed, his gaze fixed on the trait list on his system panel.

After Spirit-Demon Void Accommodation became permanent, the degree of fusion between his Spiritual Power and Demonic Qi increased again. The conversion between the two energies within his body became even smoother, almost without any lag.

Then, Li Yuan took out the set of Spirit-Demon fusion notes he had obtained from the Profound Nether Sect ruins from his storage space and flipped to a key record.

Among the failed experiments of the Profound Nether Sect’s Sect Master, there was a theoretical path that was repeatedly mentioned but never verified: fuse a Spiritual Power embryo with a Demon Pill, or conversely, fuse a Demonic Qi embryo with a Spirit Pill. Through the collision and merging of two Golden Cores within the Dantian, one could achieve true Spirit-Demon Unity.

An ordinary Cultivator could only form a core once in their life, so they could only fuse an embryo with a Golden Core or a Demon Pill.

But Li Yuan was no ordinary Cultivator.

Closing the notebook, Li Yuan returned it to his storage space.

’The auction starts in five days. I’ll handle the auction first, get what I need, and then find a safe place to shatter my core and re-cultivate.’