Chapter 1001: Grand Refining of Magic Treasures (Part 1)

Chapter 1001: Chapter 1001: Grand Refining of Magic Treasures (Part 1)

A vast Blood River hung down from Yinsu Mountain, and countless fierce Demon Soul Generals crawled out from the river, slaughtering in all directions.

The ordinary Heavenly Demons were beneath Shen Mo’s notice; he was too lazy to waste mana on refining them, and simply let the Demon Soul Generals kill them. Only those demons with decent strength and potential were forcibly dragged into the Blood River to be refined into Demon Soul Generals... Even so, Shen Mo barely managed to refine them by connecting his mana with nature’s spiritual energy, with the number of Demon Soul Generals in the flag skyrocketing by hundreds of thousands daily.

He wasn’t worried that a Seventh Rank Great Demon, comparable to True Immortals, would come to find trouble over this matter.

A considerable number of True Immortal figures were gathered in the western Dongjie Continent, and they were far more ruthless than Shen Mo in killing Heavenly Demons; a single spell could slay hundreds of thousands, even millions of Heavenly Demons, so a Seventh Rank Great Demon would first seek them out for trouble.

However, under such rapid slaughter, the proportion of high-class Heavenly Demons decreased greatly, while Class I and Class II Heavenly Demons continued to rise and even began spreading to other regions of Dongjie Continent.

And this situation can be traced back to the birth method of Heavenly Demons.

The reproductive methods of creatures in the world are diverse: some, like the Human Race, are born from the union of Yin and Yang, some, like Flower Fairies, grow from the Mother Tree, some, like the Longevity race, divide themselves, and some, like Thousands Insects Evil Corpse, are formed by countless entities converging and transforming;

The Celestial Demon Clan is born in the void, more accurately, from within the heaven and earth of a Demon Zone that naturally transforms.

The Seventh Rank Great Demons who descended to Dongjie Continent refined the entire Heavenly Demon Realm into an existence similar to "cave paradise" or "forbidden land", and brought it together to the Immortal Realm, forming nests that incubate Heavenly Demons; within these Demon Zones, everything is tainted by the primality of Heavenly Demon, and mountains, trees, spiritual qi, minerals, seawater, and more can all nurture low-class Heavenly Demons. Unless completely destroyed or purified, they will continuously give birth to Demon Sons and Daughters!

Once Heavenly Demons are killed, demonic primal intent will also be dispersed, polluting everything nearby like the Demon Dyed Divine Power, until normal world becomes a Demon Zone.

So, in demon calamities, low-class Heavenly Demons become more numerous the more they are killed, whereas high-class Heavenly Demons need demon corruption and consuming bloody sustenance to grow, and thus their numbers don’t recover quickly and decrease significantly after slaughter.

Killing Heavenly Demons below the Seventh Rank isn’t difficult, but clearing demonic primal intent is time-consuming and strenuous. If the demon calamity continues for hundreds or even thousands of years, even the western Dongjie Continent would completely turn into a Demon Zone, with billions of Heavenly Demons being born each day, continuing to spread and form new Demon Zones!

By then, pacifying the demon calamity could earn greater achievements, and Divine Immortals might also take action.

And Shen Mo, along with Jade Spring Fairy and others, intending to quell this demon calamity, must first destroy the nests that incubate Heavenly Demons, and before that, they have to slay all Seventh Rank Great Demons!

The strength of Seventh Rank Great Demons varies, and the one named Chunyang Zi in the intermediate Seventh Order is the strongest, comparable to Divine Immortals, so Jade Spring Fairy and other Earth Immortals plan to set up a killing array to ambush it; once that high-ranked demon is dealt with, the remaining Seventh Rank Heavenly Demons will be easier to handle.

"One Great Demon is called Chunyang Zi; I wonder which world’s righteous path cultivator was corrupted by demonic influence!"

Native Heaven Demons, once they corrupt other creatures, will inherit all from the original host, including their true name and Dao title. The original Chunyang Zi, by name alone, was evidently someone of the righteous path, yet ended up as a True Immortal Demon poisoning billions of creatures, truly sorrowful and lamentable.

With the cultivation level and means of Jade Spring Fairy and other Earth Immortals, even without magic treasures like the Mountain-moving Whip, they could still relocate Immortal Mountains to set up formations, and this process would last several years or even more than a decade.

Thus, Shen Mo was not in a hurry to forge the Mountain-moving Whip, planning first to strengthen the power of the Demon Soul Generals in the flag and improve the might of the Soul Generals Array.

However, due to the Soul Refining Flag being a demonic artifact with a strong backlash capability, Shen Mo cannot indefinitely refine Demon Soul Generals...

Years ago, he reshaped the sequence of Soul Generals in the flag, granted top-tier Demon Soul Generals partial authority, allowing them to bear the backlash from low-class Demon Soul Generals, thus achieving a very high limit; with his current cultivation level, if all that were refined were low-class Heavenly Demons, he could probably support around three billion Demon Soul Generals.

Yet, there is one pressing issue to resolve before that.

Refining numerous low-class Demon Soul Generals is meant to expand the array base and enhance the power of the God Slaying Array, but the more Demon Soul Generals there are, the greater the complexity in setting up the grand array, and the longer it takes!

For an array of merely millions or tens of millions, with his profound knowledge of the Array Path and powerful sense, Shen Mo could still maneuver as he wished; if the array reaches billions, it becomes somewhat taxing, and forming all the soul bodies and setting up the array alone would take several shichen, while even simple alterations to the array formation would require one or two incense sticks’ time, entirely unsuitable for magic duels with True Immortal level experts.

"Demon Soul Generals exist in soul form within the flag, and only when needed, are soul bodies condensed from the Soul General’s origin power. If they could exist from the start in Soul General form, it would save this step. Moreover, formations could be arranged within the blood flag, maintaining the configuration of the God Slaying Array, which would save much effort during magic duels with formidable enemies..." Shen Mo’s thoughts raced.

His idea was to open a realm similar to "cave paradise" within the Soul Refining Flag, allowing all Soul Generals to exist in tangible form and be arranged in formation style;

At that time, merely waving the Soul Refining Flag would unfold the realm, enveloping the enemy’s heaven and earth in all directions and then kill them with the Soul Generals Array!

The overall effect is somewhat similar to his Skill [Universe in the Sword].

However, although the skill is strong, its power only relates to his own cultivation level; it’s overwhelmingly beneficial in Formless Realm, but killing a True Immortal figure is arduous indeed.

Shen Mo’s conceived method could instead improve the strength of Demon Soul Generals, expand the scale and hierarchy of the God Slaying Array, significantly enhancing its killing power; although in terms of coercion it may not compare to [Universe in the Sword], it surpasses the skill in destructive power and growth potential.

Thinking of this, his sense penetrated the Soul Refining Flag, thoroughly inspecting it inside and out.

"Through these years, this demonic artifact has also grown to the extent of a high-grade spiritual treasure, capable of enduring my antics!"

The Soul Refining Flag isn’t an ordinary magic artifact and thus hasn’t birthed an Artifact Spirit, or rather, the millions of Soul Generals in the flag are its Artifact Spirit themselves, and the treasure is nurtured by the origin power of all Soul Generals within; the more soul generals refined, the faster the quality ascends; even though Shen Mo never put it in his dantian, it has risen from a mediocre profound artifact to a spiritual treasure level, outpacing the Demon Slaying Sword many times over.

Had Shen Mo’s cultivation speed not been faster, and had he not reshaped the soul general sequence, he might have long been unable to suppress the backlash from this demonic flag!

"Opening a realm isn’t particularly difficult; the hard part is not destroying the original characteristics of the Soul Refining Flag, and ensuring the realm perfectly integrates with the blood flag. Additionally, giving it effects similar to [Universe in the Sword] is a significant challenge..."