Eternal Life: I Can Control My Essence Qi-Chapter 200 - 166: Source of Chaos, Secret of Light_2

"Hoo..."

Zhang Yao took a few deep breaths, suppressing the turbulent waves in his heart, and immediately decided to hide this ancient book securely, not letting a single word leak out.

He took out a jade box, placed the book inside, sealed it with the lid, and affixed over a dozen talismans around it, wrapping it tightly and placing it in his most closely worn storage bag.

After accomplishing all this, Zhang Yao finally breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the corpse of the old Daoist, who had youthful features and a crane-like hair, dressed in a simple Daoist robe.

"How did Daoist Wanhe, from the Jing Kingdom, end up here?"

Zhang Yao raised an eyebrow, carefully observing the state of Daoist Wanhe's corpse.

Having gone through the "Spiritual Root Origin Flow Theory," he became increasingly interested in Daoist Wanhe's true background.

No matter how thoroughly he examined, he couldn't find any signs of demonization on Daoist Wanhe, not even a flaw, nor could he sense any demon qi.

"Really curious..."

Zhang Yao clicked his tongue in amazement, his divine thought constantly sweeping through.

Daoist Wanhe was a demon cultivator, yet after all these years of death, he still retained a human form without revealing his true body, which was truly surprising to him.

A quarter of an hour later, under his powerful divine thought's relentless investigation and meticulous scanning, he finally discovered a slight disharmony.

"Reveal!"

Zhang Yao utilized his magical power, casting a spell to destroy the remaining magical effects on Daoist Wanhe's body.

In an instant, a purple glow flashed, and Daoist Wanhe underwent a drastic transformation, growing two horns on his head, his skin taking on a texture and color resembling fragmented rock, with deep-set eye sockets and a wide mouth, his body still lean but full of explosive power.

"Turns out he was an old ox..."

Zhang Yao squinted and gestured, summoning Daoist Wanhe's storage bag from his waist.

He rotated his magical power, easily breaking through the remaining imprint above, and his divine thought swept through it, instantly revealing a hint of joy.

"There really is!"

With a wave of his sleeve, seven or eight small metal bottles appeared in front of him, evidently containers for holding demon blood.

Given Daoist Wanhe's identity and cultivation level, the demon cultivator essence blood he treasured must be of the Foundation Establishment Stage, and with such a large quantity, Zhang Yao had a high probability of achieving his desire.

After all, most demon blood belongs to the five elements, and Zhang Yao only needed it to have a water attribute, without demanding specific lineage.

"Crack, crack..."

Zhang Yao opened them one by one and was pleasantly surprised to find that two of them were indeed water attribute demon blood.

But unfortunately:

One of the demon blood types was the same as the one he had scavenged from a Hu Family demon cultivator.

"What a pity..."

Zhang Yao lamented deeply, sighing helplessly.

To obtain Six-sided True Blood, six different water attribute Foundation Establishment demon blood types are needed; duplicates don't count, meaning he essentially acquired only one new type.

"Still, obtaining one is quite decent."

"Just one more type left to complete the Six-sided True Blood!"

Zhang Yao thought it over and revitalized his spirit, waving his sleeve to gather the numerous metal bottles.

He turned and left the quiet chamber, searched through the entire Wanhe Cave Mansion, and gathered numerous treasures, spiritual artifacts, and ancient books before finally leaving the cave.

"Since I've taken your benefits, I'll also bury you to prevent further disturbance from others."

After exiting the cave mansion, Zhang Yao cast a golden light, striking upon the mountainside.

The overwhelming rumbling caused the entire rocky wall to collapse, thoroughly entombing the mansion within.

"Boom!"

After demolishing the cave mansion, Zhang Yao finally withdrew the Thousand Change Glaze Qi and rode the escape light straight away.

He didn't even bother with the Li Clan folks outside, despite Li Changlin suspecting his connection with "Zhang Qing." But since Zhang Qing was merely a fake identity, it didn't matter.

If the two Li Clan Foundation Establishment folks died unexpectedly, it might trigger chaos in the cultivation realm of Li Kingdom, potentially drawing attention and exposing his current identity.

"Let's go."

The white escape light traversed above the sea of clouds, quickly leaving behind the vast mountains and valleys, heading northward.

And more than half an hour later:

The four people lying on the ground gradually awoke, experiencing phases of panic, disbelief, and silent mutual longing, before finally calming down.

"What should we do now?"

Li Yuanying felt a deep bitterness, unable to restrain himself:

"Uncle Nine, according to what you said, that person's strength is overwhelmingly strong and might be a late-stage Foundation Establishment expert."

"And now that Wanhe Cave Mansion has been breached by him, we've ended up with nothing, wasting over a decade of effort, and on top of that, we have to swallow our pride..."

"Sigh!"

Li Changlin sighed and shook his head, saying:

"What's done is done, no point in dwelling on it."

"This world is inherently survival of the fittest; we can only take this loss silently."

Even though he suspected that the person might be connected to Zhang Qing, he lacked the courage to pursue this lead further, choosing instead to let the matter rest.

"Why don't we move the cave mansion and take another look?"

Li Yuanying was still a bit unwilling:

"There might be something he overlooked that we can find..."

"Alright, just don't entertain that thought anymore."

Li Changlin patted his shoulder and spoke:

"The legacy of Daoist Wanhe is not a trivial amount, and being a demon cultivator, even their corpse is a treasure. Should we really expect anyone to leave us any treasures?"

"Let's go, don't linger here, and let's hasten back to Mang Mountain..."

......

Heading north.

Days later, Zhang Yao quietly returned to the Cangjiang Water Mansion without alerting anyone.

In his own cave mansion deep within the Water Mansion, Zhang Yao finally retrieved Daoist Wanhe's storage bag, carefully counting his gains from this harvest.

"Hmm?"

When counting spiritual artifacts, Zhang Yao came across something unexpected.

"Isn't this the 'Taiyi Bright Light Shield'?"

Zhang Yao held a translucent, light-golden shield in his hand, showing an expression of surprise.

He had previously obtained a similar one, a war trophy from Suiyu Mountain, belonging to the old Hu Family demon cultivator, and it had played a significant role during the Water Mansion raid.

After he took control of the Haihe Commerce Association, he sold the Taiyi Bright Light Shield through commercial channels and exchanged it for a better protective spiritual artifact.

Unexpectedly, today he found another identical, same-specification Taiyi Bright Light Shield among Daoist Wanhe's relics.

"No, there's still something different..."

Zhang Yao observed it carefully for a long time and discovered an imprint deep within the restriction spirit pattern from divine thought feedback.

This wasn't a functional imprint but rather some sort of symbol composed solely of spirit patterns, akin to personal marks left in some Artifact Refining Master's works.

Yet, the Taiyi Bright Light Shield from the old Hu Family demon cultivator, which he had previously refined and used, didn't have any similar features.

"Nine thirty-five... is this some sort of serial number?"

Zhang Yao furrowed his brow and pondered for a while without any leads, deciding to put the item aside for now and continue counting.

Only when he encountered the numerous ancient books collected by Daoist Wanhe did he discover another familiar cultivation technique—"Taiyi Mingguang True Record."

"...I knew it felt familiar!"

Zhang Yao only then realized that the names of the two items were remarkably similar.

One was a widely circulated top-level technique and the other an ordinary, common early-stage spiritual artifact, usually unrelated besides the name, which is why he didn't make the connection right away.

Given the vastness of the cultivation realm, entities and people often shared names, and he had seen or heard of many with identical Daoist titles or names.

Yet among Daoist Wanhe's collection was this top-level technique, evidently revealing an unusual connection between them.

"But the 'Taiyi Mingguang True Record' is a orthodox Human Race Qi Refining method, not a Demon Race cultivation technique."

"Why did Daoist Wanhe collect this? He can't merely be using it for show, can he? After all, top-level techniques aren't cheap..."

Zhang Yao's thoughts flickered, and upon briefly perusing it, he realized this 'Taiyi Mingguang True Record' was actually a complete edition—

Containing content from Qi Refining to Golden Core, continuing all the way to Nascent Soul Realm, more comprehensive than the version he possessed, on par with the "Benefiting All Living Beings Great Technique" obtained from the Celestial Capital Secret Collection.

"What secret is hiding behind all this..."