The true key lies in what power he is about to employ, and where that power will lead him.
With his mind set, Gu Xuan no longer hesitated.
His figure moved like a phantom; with a few leaps, he vanished into the ruins of Gray Kiln Market, speeding toward the depths of the continuous mountain range in the north.
He needed a place absolutely hidden and rich in Yin Energy to bear the initial display of might from the colossal Demon Suppression Hall.
Half an hour later, he selected a deep, secluded valley shaped like the mouth of a giant beast.
The valley was filled with jagged rocks and pervasive miasma, never seeing daylight, making it a naturally supreme Yin location.
"This is the place."
Gu Xuan swept his divine sense, confirming there were no living presences within ten miles, then formed hand seals and chanted incantations.
Using himself as the array core, he summoned the Demon Suppression Hall from his Spirit Sea, drawing out wisps of pure, malevolent Yin Energy from the Hall.
The streams of energy, dark as ink, swirled around his fingertips before shooting out violently toward the eight cardinal directions.
The eight streams of black energy struck the ground, transforming into eight pitch-black array flags. The flags moved without wind, flapping loudly, faintly carrying sounds of ghostly wails and demonic howls.
A massive black light shield inverted and descended, enveloping the entire valley.
This was the "Six Yin Spirit Suppression Array," which could not only isolate internal and external auras but also suppress all energy fluctuations within the array, preventing the phenomena of artifact refinement from alarming the outside world.
With the formation set up, Gu Xuan finally relaxed, sinking his divine sense into his Spirit Sea, his intent directed straight toward the main hall of the Demon Suppression Hall.
In the center of that ancient and majestic hall, there was a deep groove on the floor, shaped exactly like a wide-open single eye.
Gu Xuan no longer hesitated, taking out all three portions of Essence Fluid obtained from the Red-Eyed Sow.
The liquid, viscous like mercury, hovered before his consciousness, exuding a heart-palpitating scent of blood and resentment.
"Go!"
Following his command, the three portions of Essence Fluid descended like three blood-colored meteors, falling precisely into the groove.
Rumble—!
The moment the source fluid touched the bottom of the groove, the entire Demon Suppression Hall trembled violently, as if an ancient, primordial beast awakened from eons of slumber was being roused by this scalding fresh blood!
A pillar of blood-red light, thick as a sky-supporting column, shot up from the groove, piercing the roof of the hall and dyeing the entire Spirit Sea a bizarre crimson.
A distant, muffled bell tolling sounded from the depths of the main hall, seemingly crossing endless time and space to strike directly upon Gu Xuan's soul.
Dong! Dong! Dong...
The tolls came one after another, each louder and more urgent than the last, sounding nine times in total—nine soul-urging strikes!
After the nine tolls, the shaking of the entire Demon Suppression Hall abruptly ceased.
The blood-red light receded, and the ground where the groove lay slowly cracked open. A bronze giant furnace, three *zhang* high, rose from the ground amidst a roar!
The giant furnace was ancient and desolate, standing on three legs. Its walls were inscribed with countless lifelike totems of monstrous beasts from the mountains and seas, snarling ferociously as if about to burst through the metal.
Above the furnace mouth, black energy swirled, condensing into three grand, flowing ancient seal characters—Alchemy Workshop!
The Alchemy Workshop was officially open!
Gu Xuan’s spirit was firmly captivated by the giant furnace.
He could feel a marvelous connection being established between him and this giant furnace.
With a slight movement of his intent, the beast totems on the furnace walls seemed to come alive, and countless streams of information flooded into his mind.
He saw that the interior of the giant furnace was not empty but contained countless fist-sized orbs of light. Each orb represented an option for refinement materials, dazzling and categorized: Bone, Blood, Soul, Hide, Scale, Feather...
This was the authority granted to him by the Demon Suppression Hall; as long as he possessed the corresponding materials, he could perform refinement here!
Gu Xuan suppressed the excitement in his heart, and with a movement of his divine sense, he retrieved his largest spoils from this trip from his storage space—the glowing Bone Spike of the Boar-Hog, the venomous fangs of the Shed-Skin Python still retaining their potent poison, and the broken fragment of the Fallen Horn Deer's single horn, which, though severed, still held residual Spiritual Energy.
As soon as the three items appeared, they were drawn by an invisible force, hovering before the Alchemy Workshop.
【Detected synthesizable materials: Boar-Hog Bone Spike （Low-Tier ）, Shed-Skin Python Venom Fang （Low-Tier ）, Fallen Horn Deer Horn Fragment （Mid-Tier ）...】
【System is deducing optimal synthesis plan...】
【Plan generated: Forgeable—Obstacle-Piercing Dagger （Primary ）. Commence forging?】
"Yes!" Gu Xuan confirmed without hesitation.
As the command was issued, the bronze giant furnace roared to life.
The three materials were sucked into the furnace, but instead of ordinary flames rising from the bottom, clusters of dark, shadowy flames ascended.
These flames were chillingly cold—they were Yin Flames ignited by the Yin Energy from the mysterious Black Water Pool at the bottom of the Demon Suppression Hall!
The black fire licked at the three materials. The Boar-Hog Bone Spike melted first, turning into a pool of bone liquid shimmering with metallic luster.
Next, the Shed-Skin Python Venom Fang began to deform; wisps of venom were tempered by the Yin Fire, transforming into pure Fu Wen runes that broke through restrictions.
Only the Fallen Horn Deer's horn fragment stubbornly resisted the black fire, refusing to melt for a long time.
The three components could not blend perfectly, and the forging process immediately stalled.
Just as Gu Xuan frowned, contemplating a countermeasure, the whisper that seemed to come from the Nine Hells sounded again in his Spirit Sea without warning:
"Add a little of your blood... Use your vital essence blood as the catalyst, otherwise... it will not recognize you as its master."
That voice again!
Gu Xuan’s eyes narrowed, a cold glint flashing through them.
He clearly remembered that it was this voice that lured him to touch the Black Water Spring, causing the aberration in the Demon Suppression Hall.
"You claim to want to help me, but I see you are only trying every way to make me touch that spring and absorb its power." His tone was icy and full of vigilance.
However, the whisper in his Spirit Sea carried a faint trace of mockery: "You are already on this boat; do you think you can disembark midway? Without power, you won't survive the next second. Believe it or not, after you die, the Demon Suppression Hall will find a new master, and your bones will become the first material in his furnace."
A threat, a naked threat!
Gu Xuan fell silent.
He knew what the other party said was the truth.
In this cannibalistic world, power was everything.
After a moment of weighing his options, he
He brought his fingers together like a blade and lightly sliced his left wrist.
A line of blood appeared. A drop of his vital essence blood, containing all his vital energy, was forcibly expelled by his intent, transforming into a crimson bead that pierced the void and dripped precisely into the core of the Alchemy Workshop furnace!
Boom—!
As the blood bead entered the furnace, it was like a drop of water splashing into boiling oil. The entire giant furnace instantly erupted with an unprecedented, terrifying aura!
The shadowy Yin Fire surged violently, instantly engulfing and melting the stubborn deer horn fragment!
The three materials of different origins began to merge and reorganize frantically at an unprecedented speed, harmonized by Gu Xuan's essence blood!
In an instant, the light receded, and the furnace fire extinguished.
A strangely shaped dagger floated quietly in the center of the furnace core.
Gu Xuan reached out, and the dagger transformed into a streak of light, landing in his hand.
The dagger was entirely black, as if carved from obsidian, about one foot and two inches long.
On the blade surface, dark gold patterns flowed slowly like living things, each circulation seeming to devour the surrounding light.
Most startling was its hilt, which appeared to be pieced together from miniature vertebrae. It felt cold and slick to the touch, and at the end was a ferocious miniature skull, two faint red lights flickering in its eyes.
【Forging successful!】
【Generated: Sucking Soul Dagger （Pseudo-Lingqi ）】
【Attached Trait One: Suck Soul and Corrupt Spirit—Attacks can directly wound the enemy's Soul and absorb a portion of Soul Power to replenish the self.】
【Attached Trait Two: Obstacle-Breaking Barrier—Possesses extremely strong penetration and destructive effects against all types of formations, shields, and barriers.】
Pseudo-Lingqi!
Gu Xuan’s heart jolted.
This had surpassed the scope of a mundane artifact; it possessed a trace of "spirituality"!
Holding this malevolent weapon named "Sucking Soul Dagger," a feeling of blood connection arose spontaneously.
He needed to test its power!
His gaze sharpened, and Gu Xuan looked toward a cyan boulder, half the height of a man, a hundred paces away.
He did not use any Spiritual Energy, merely swinging his arm purely, as if to strike.
A bizarre scene unfolded!
Before his blade edge was even extended, before his arm was fully swung, a fine crack appeared on the surface of the hundred-pace-distant boulder with a "crack" sound!
Immediately following, an incomparably shrill scream echoed from within the rock. A massive Earth Subterranean Spider, covered in stone-like carapace, shrieked as it drilled out of the crack!
However, the moment it poked its head out, its body instantly stiffened, as if its throat were seized by an invisible giant hand.
A phantom thread, almost invisible to the naked eye, was forcibly drawn from the top of its head and shot into the blade body of the Sucking Soul Dagger like lightning!
The Earth Subterranean Spider’s massive body crashed to the ground, its aura completely gone, its soul dispersed.
Gu Xuan’s pupils contracted, and he felt a chill in his heart: "This isn't ordinary obstacle breaking... this is direct consumption targeting the divine sense level! Across the rock, purely through killing intent and the weapon's inherent malevolence, it directly extracted its Soul Thread!"
The tyranny of this Sucking Soul Dagger far exceeded his imagination!
Just as his spirit was stirred and he prepared to put the Sucking Soul Dagger away, a faint sound of a child crying suddenly came from the depths of the Alchemy Workshop.
The cry was ethereal and sorrowful, filled with endless terror.
Gu Xuan spun around sharply. He saw the black energy condensing above the furnace mouth of the Alchemy Workshop, and a blurry afterimage slowly materialized.
It was a young boy with a topknot, his features indistinct, his form illusory—it was the Mountain Ghost Child who had briefly appeared in Gray Kiln Market!
He did not look at Gu Xuan but pointed at the furnace core, which was still radiating residual warmth, and spoke haltingly in a crying voice:
"Don't... don't refine anything with an 'eye'... That's... that's the catalyst for a living sacrifice..."
Before the words finished, the child's afterimage scattered like dust blown by the wind, vanishing instantly.
Catalyst? Living sacrifice?
Gu Xuan’s fingers tightened around the Sucking Soul Dagger. His gaze swept over the skull at the dagger's pommel, its eyes flashing red, and a chill rose in his heart.
That night, the valley was silent.
Gu Xuan did not rush to leave but instead cleaned up the spoils of this trip within the formation.
He had a more important task to complete—drawing up a truly personal Atlas of Desolate Beasts.
He sat cross-legged, sinking his divine sense into the Demon Suppression Hall.
The Aberrations he had refined, including the Red-Eyed Sow, the Earth Subterranean Spider, and others, had their memory fragments already collected by the Demon Suppression Hall.
Gu Xuan extracted and sorted these fragments one by one, compiling them into the preliminary form of a mental scroll.
While organizing this information, he made a shocking discovery that sent a chill through him.
He found that deep within the soul origin of every demonic beast he had hunted and refined, there existed an extremely faint "residual imprint."
These imprints varied in form—some looked like a cloud, some like a lock, some like an eye—but their core structure held an ineffable, secret resonance with the three ancient characters, "Cultivation Court," in his Spirit Sea!
Even stranger, when moonlight filtered through the gaps in the Six Yin Spirit Suppression Array and fell upon him, he could feel the demonic beast imprints, which had already transformed into pure streams of information, faintly pulsating within his Spirit Sea, as if they were still receiving instructions from some unknown source in the shadows!
"So that's how it is..." Gu Xuan slowly opened his eyes, a cold sneer curling his lips. "The dogs of the Pastures are all being marked."
The so-called wilderness was merely a giant pasture.
And these demonic beasts were nothing more than livestock raised by others.
Hunting them was equivalent to touching the owner's property.
At midnight, when the darkness was deepest.
Just as Gu Xuan's thoughts churned, a faint azure light appeared silently outside the camp.
It was not an illusion but a real, tangible ancient bronze lamp, floating quietly in mid-air.
The lamp shade was ancient, and within it burned a cluster of azure flames, casting the surrounding night into a ghostly realm.
On the lamp base, a line of tiny, ant-like characters was inscribed: "If you wish to forge a blade capable of slaying gods, go to 'Charcoal Iron Ridge' and seek the 'Forging Heart Anvil'."
Gu Xuan stood up, holding the Sucking Soul Dagger, and walked slowly closer.
Just as he was less than three steps from the Green Lantern, the cluster of azure flame flickered violently, and a cool, familiar voice emerged from it—it was Ye Xi!
"I am not a savior, I just don't want to see you die too soon. The road ahead is perilous; take care of yourself."
As soon as the words fell, the entire Green Lantern burst into flames from the inside out with a "whoosh," the azure flames instantly turning into pale gray ash that scattered everywhere.
Only a cold iron token fell to the ground with a "clatter" from amidst the ashes.
Gu Xuan bent down to pick it up. The iron token was extremely heavy. The front was engraved in raised seal script with four large characters—South Furnace Sect—and the back had two smaller characters—Admission.
South Furnace Sect Admission Credential!
The darkness before dawn was the deepest; the morning mist enveloped the entire forest like a gray veil.
Gu Xuan stood at the valley entrance, the cold morning wind stirring his hair.
His gaze swept over the layers of mountains before him, looking toward the distant north, toward that unknown place called "Charcoal Iron Ridge."
A hunter must hunt not only beasts but also rules. And his hunt had only just begun.
No one knew that at this moment, deep within his Spirit Sea, beneath the Yin Fire burning in the furnace at the bottom of the majestic Demon Suppression Hall, a black thread thinner than a strand of hair was silently breaking through the soil, growing quietly like a plant's root—it was the whisper from the spring, which, along with that drop of essence blood, had quietly planted a "seed" that had deeply integrated into the foundation of this divine-demonic furnace.
Far above the ruins of Gray Kiln Market, the strange old man known as Old Scale Head, covered in corpse spots, squatted amidst a patch of Scorched Earth.
Using a sharp bone-carving knife, he slowly drew a new pattern on the ground: a blurry human figure, holding a fierce dagger, standing proudly atop a hall; beneath his feet were thousands of kneeling, bowing ghosts; and above his head, the Nine Heavens were cracking apart.
The old man’s wrinkled lips moved, murmuring words only he could hear:
"The tenth one... the tenth contract holder has finally appeared... This time, the Gate... is about to open."