Chapter 1 The Undying Demon General – Evil Soul of the Scorched Earth

[Undying Demon General – Evil Soul of the Scorched Earth]

[A human who transformed into a member of the Banyan Undying Wood family through a secret ritual, a completely metamorphosed soul.]

[A non-human evil soul entangled with countless curses and grudges.]

[After use, it can increase the regeneration speed of the flesh and the toughness of skin and muscles.]

[It can also be spiritually tempered into an enchantment of ‘Scorched Earth Demonic Poison,’ which can be attached to all equipment and props.]

[Cannibalism has always been a taboo of taboos. Demon General – Scorched Earth once hesitated, but eventually indulged in that supreme pleasure.]

[As long as it is no longer human, then it is no longer a taboo, right? Thinking so, it transformed into a non-human demon and devoured flesh and blood.]

"Scorched Earth Demonic Poison, a spiritual poison so potent that even ‘Undying Demon Soldiers’ can be paralyzed… The efficacy of the evil soul is truly straightforward and useful."

Inside the mountain belly’s divine weapon forging ground, Su Zhou roughly examined the scarlet evil soul that only he could see before storing it in his soul space, to accompany the Tree of Wisdom’s spirit, which had been quiet recently: "I just wonder, what is the efficacy of the ‘Undying Demon Emperor’s’ soul, and what does it taste like?"

While contemplating these matters, Su Zhou's mental fluctuations carried a near-substantive 'curiosity,' as well as killing intent. Yala lazily said, "At least, it should be several levels stronger than the souls of these ordinary demon generals—after all, he was an extraordinary individual who almost slaughtered a great nation. Perhaps even spiritual weapons, or even ‘talent skills,’ can be condensed."

"Is that so… Thanks, Yala."

Nodding thoughtfully, Su Zhou then gazed intensely, as if watching a blockbuster movie or a game CG, at the divine weapon forging ground before him!

At this moment, the divine blade had already begun to be forged. Everyone else remained at the very edge of the forging ground, watching the Grand Artisan and the various artisans control a total of twelve true qi furnaces, injecting their Yang Flame True Qi to activate the connected refined steel mechanical creations, as well as the various talismans and true words inscribed upon them.

If the Taibai Volcano crater was an 'eight'-shaped horn, then the divine weapon forging ground was located in the middle section of the horn, less than a hundred meters away from the magma, within the inner belly of the volcano.

The true qi furnaces resembled giant alchemic furnaces. The middle was loaded with spiritual objects for combustion, and the operators needed to touch them closely, using their internal power to stimulate the activated Heaven and Earth Yuan Qi within, unleashing power far exceeding that of the martial artists themselves.

This power could be used for attack, but because it was vast and unconcentrated, it was generally used as an energy source for other large-scale mechanisms, such as the massive iron hammers, each weighing tons, and the mechanical arms controlling them, which were only controllable by using true qi furnaces.

One could see that the true qi furnaces were operating, using raising and lowering cauldrons to lift pot after pot of magma from the black and red molten lake below, injecting it into the furnaces themselves, as well as into the large pool of molten iron in the center of the forging ground—and just now, the Undying Roots of the Scorched Earth Demon General and the other sixty-plus demon soldiers had been turned to ashes in this large pool, with wisps of invisible wood spirit qi diffusing before being burned away by the fire spirit qi brought by the lava.

In a world with spiritual energy, magma represents not only hot molten material, but also the 'blood of the earth veins.' Each pot of magma injected brought waves of surging fire and earth spirit qi, providing power to the furnaces while also condensing sufficient pure spiritual power.

And just as the forty-ninth pot of magma was placed into the large pool, nearly filling it, the Grand Artisan's muscles bulged, and he silently controlled his true qi furnace, using this true qi marvel as an amplifier, operating the 'Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation Technique' to directly grab the spiritual object 'Earth Vein Flame Iron' from the center of the molten iron pool!

Earth Vein Flame Iron!

Although it was called iron, it was only because its appearance was similar to iron, and it often occurred alongside earth vein spiritual iron ore, which was why it was named as such—in reality, it was a transcendent crystal born from the mixture of earth vein qi and fire spirit qi, using iron as a carrier!

The Yin Obscured Spiritual Energy Crystal that Su Zhou possessed, if allowed to fully grow in the earth veins and condense into some kind of ice crystal using water as a carrier, would be a transcendent spiritual object of the same level as this Earth Vein Flame Iron.

Grabbing this spiritual object, the Grand Artisan's expression was not relaxed. When using inner energy to control transcendent substances, the structure of secret techniques was always corroded and destroyed by the energy fluctuations of the spiritual object itself. If one was not an Innate Martial Saint, it would be impossible to accomplish this, but with the blessing of the true qi furnace, he still steadily fixed it in place.

At this moment, the other artisans also controlled their own furnaces, and two giant refined steel mechanical arms held large iron blocks, slamming them hard against the Earth Vein Flame Iron from the left and right—with a loud boom, a scorching heat wave surged out. The iron blocks acting as hammers directly turned red on one side. If all the artisans weren't at least Postnatal First or Second Realm experts, and the mechanical arms weren't ten or more meters away from the Earth Vein Flame Iron, everyone nearby would have died instantly in the heat wave!

These two iron hammers needed to cool down, and there were other hammers that could be used. As the hammers, either left and right, up and down, or forward and backward, were aimed at the Earth Vein Flame Iron that the Grand Artisan was forcibly fixing in mid-air with his inner force for forging and processing, the original crystalline spiritual object gradually turned into an iron bar about four feet long.

Su Zhou, along with Grandmaster Li Daoran and Grandmaster Han, stood at the very front, more than fifty meters away from the forging center. When a heat wave surged over, he subconsciously raised his hand to block the hot wind. Perhaps a few sparks were mixed in the wind, because his cuff immediately caught fire.

"This heat, it truly lives up to the name of a ‘Transcendent Stage’ spiritual object."

Su Zhou extinguished the small fire with a single thought. This level of temperature wasn't enough to make him uncomfortable, but even so, it was enough to see the extraordinariness of the spiritual object.

If there wasn't the true qi furnace to amplify inner force, and there weren't the ingenious mechanical arms made with mechanism secret techniques that allowed people to forge from dozens of meters away, the forging of a divine weapon like the 'Blade of Annihilation' would be extremely difficult to achieve.

"The next part is where things get interesting."

Regarding Su Zhou's exclamation, Li Daoran wanted to stroke his beard, but only touched the bag used to protect it—after all, not everyone was like Su Zhou, whose hair had already become transcendent and could resist high temperatures. The vast majority of people wore special hats and masks to avoid scorching their appearance while watching the show.

Su Zhou smiled and continued to concentrate on the forging center—all the key points and essence of the Grand Artisan's Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation Technique were being displayed here. When else would he learn if not now? After eating the Fruit of Wisdom, he should properly 'learn from those around him' and learn wherever he went!

With the rough forging of the divine blade complete, the next step was precision machining.

Su Zhou saw the Grand Artisan controlling other spiritual objects placed next to the iron pool, such as Western Region Star Astral Sand, and various spiritual irons and spiritual stones, throwing them all into the iron pool and intensifying the fire to bake them.

Within the iron pool, cloud pattern talismans flickered, and the spiritual objects that entered it quickly melted and shattered in the high temperature, turning into clouds of mist, then slowly floating towards the 'blade' floating in mid-air, 'condensing and crystallizing' upon it!

How to describe it? It was like stalactites growing naturally in caves, or crystals clustered in underground cavities. The mist formed from the mixture of these numerous spiritual materials surrounded the blade, naturally condensing into runes that entered it, changing its material properties!

"The most dangerous step has been completed."

Nearby, Grandmaster Han nodded with a serious expression. He breathed a sigh of relief, then explained to Su Zhou, who didn't quite understand, "This kind of 'Qi Forging' method is only recorded in the supreme secret technique of the former [Five Weapons Gate], the [Five Elements Five Forging Method]—Metal Forging and Fire Forging are the most common, which are strengthened versions of the methods used by ordinary blacksmiths. You should also have seen Water Forging, which is often used for special materials, such as spiritual energy crystals, which easily dissipate Yuan Qi. As for Earth Forging and Wood Forging, one is more like planting vegetables, suitable for forging wood attribute spiritual weapons, and the other is like parasitism, using the heartwood of spiritual trees to nurture spiritual weapons…"

"As for this Qi Forging, you should understand by now, right? It is the ‘divine weapon technique’ of condensing objects from nothing and forging weapons with qi!"

"Amazing, truly a supreme secret technique!" Su Zhou nodded repeatedly, his face full of conviction, but he also raised a question: "But isn't this the sixth type? Qi Forging isn't one of the Five Elements—and why is everyone so clear about such a secret technique?"

"Who would reveal their key abilities in the name itself?"

The old Grandmaster Han smiled: "It's like the core cultivation method of the Daoist ‘Celestial Extremes Four Symbols Sect,’ which, in addition to the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermilion Bird, and Black Tortoise, also has a set of ‘Celestial Lightning Qilin Technique,’ which is passed down through the lineage of the sect leader and is never easily shown to others. And the Legalist’s ‘Five Punishments Sin Swords’ are also the same. In addition to the five major punishment swords on the surface, there are also two sets of ‘Heavenly Punishment’ and ‘Earthly Punishment’ as fundamental secret techniques, passed down only to the sect leader."

"As for why we all know…" Speaking of this, Grandmaster Han's smile turned into a sigh: "Because if we continue to be so secretive and treasure our own things, this Hundred Families Righteous Army will be crushed to pieces by the Demon Court, which is united by the Divine Wood Bloodline."

"I see, indeed." Hearing this, Su Zhou couldn't help but nod with a heavy expression… The Demon Court initially had great power, shattering all the pride and selfishness of the Hundred Families, forcing these sects and factions to unite together, forming the huge organization that it is today, complex but not chaotic.

Thinking about it, the Hundred Families of the Zheng Nation on Earth must have united together for the same reason back then.

Divine weapon forging had already entered the right track—the Qi Forging method emphasized the concentration of spiritual energy in the location. If it were outside, it would probably take forty-nine days, but because this place was a volcano with extremely strong Earth Vein Scorching Qi, and the mountaintop in the sky could also gather the breath of the High Heaven Azure Wind, it was enough to compress the time to a quarter.

Of course, the giant hand-cranked generator was also quite important—Su Zhou's hand-cranked generator from Earth gave the Grand Artisan and the ingenious craftsman Mo Ganxiu great inspiration. The two of them joined forces to modify a true qi furnace, specializing in generating electricity.

The fire and lightning power required for the divine weapon, especially the lightning, was the most troublesome. Heavenly lightning was too powerful to use and also required the heavens to cooperate, so lightning-struck wood needed to be tempered for a long time before it could be used to match the blade, but now it was no longer needed. As long as an artisan controlled the true qi furnace and continuously produced electricity, they could greatly accelerate the tempering speed of the lightning-struck wood.

"In about ten days, the divine weapon ‘Blade of Annihilation’ will be completely condensed!"

Li Daoran's voice carried suppressed joy and tension: "But the two demon generals, ‘Life Hunter’ and ‘Beast Master,’ will inevitably choose a time in between to attack the mountain—their numbers are close to five hundred, which is vastly different from the last attack on the mountain!"

"At that time, some of our people will have to be separated to maintain the true qi furnaces, and the enemy's combat power is several times greater than before… This is probably the tribulation brought by the forging of the divine weapon."

That being said, the previous complete victory gave everyone great confidence.

Moreover, if the enemy had reinforcements, wouldn't the Hundred Families have them too? Through spirit pigeon communication, everyone knew that the Hundred Families' reinforcements were currently on the way, a total of five Grandmasters and two hundred and twelve Postnatal martial artists, who would arrive soon on true qi airships.

Although their numbers seemed smaller than the Demon Court's, when counting high-end combat power, they actually exceeded them. If they really fought, the Hundred Families would definitely have the advantage.

The part worth watching had ended, and Su Zhou left the forging ground along with the other martial artists.

However, just as he was preparing to return and think about the details of today's battle to optimize his combat rhythm and skills, Zhou Buyi and Grandmaster Han approached him at the same time.

The former came to deliver a bottle of 'spiritual pills' sealed in a small celadon bottle, which was the task reward the Hundred Families had agreed to give him.

The latter, however, came to give him a 'secret technique.'

An [Innate Secret Technique].