It's a trap!
A thought surged through Yun Ze's mind. Without hesitation, he retrieved the Snow Plum and Immortal Shard from his Sumeru Ring.
As the first sonic rune sounded, countless formations erupted once more, and a figure charged forward!
Yun Xiao and Dan Chenyu also made their move.
One provided support, the other attacked fiercely, and combined with his long-range attrition, it seemed like a perfect arrangement.
But as the zither's melody descended with the sword energy, the surrounding purple lights showed no reaction. Instead, one of the purple lights raised a hand and pressed down, shattering nearly a hundred formations instantly!
Almost simultaneously, Dan Chenyu, who had just reached the purple light, was suppressed.
The zither's melody and the sword energy dissipated together!
They were completely suppressed.
Yun Ze couldn't help but frown.
Putting aside other factors, with two third-tier spiritual treasures in his hands, coupled with the paths of sword and zither, his power was enough to kill a Core Formation stage cultivator, but unfortunately...
Among the demons before them, there were clearly more than just Core Formation cultivators!
Golden Core!
At least late Golden Core!
Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to suppress the three of them so easily.
However, judging by their actions, it seemed they were merely suppressing them and had no intention of directly killing them.
This was a blessing in disguise.
"Why are there only three of you?"
One of the demons spoke slowly. Although his mouth movements were clearly different from the language of the Nine Profound Heavens, as the sound entered Yun Ze and the others' ears, it transformed into words they could understand.
Was this... a more advanced existence than humans?
Yun Ze's brow furrowed. He lowered the Immortal Shard in his hand again, intending to try and break free once more.
But a jolt like an electric shock suddenly struck him!
It forced him to let go, and the Immortal Shard landed on the zither's body.
"Human, do not attempt any tricks."
Another demon looked at Yun Ze and warned him before turning to the first demon: "This should only be one squad. I can sense that the main human force should still be far away."
"Mm..."
The demon turned and glanced at the four of them, then turned and walked deeper in. "Since we've captured them, let's not waste them. Throw them into the Sacred Pool for transformation."
"Yes."
One of the demons replied respectfully, then cupped his hands: "Farewell, honored one."
As soon as the words fell, a purple mist wrapped around Yun Ze. He felt all his spiritual energy solidify!
Let alone sword energy, he couldn't even mobilize his spiritual energy now. Apart from his slightly stronger physique, he was no better than an ordinary person.
Yun Ze looked at Yun Xiao and Dan Chenyu. He could read the information from their eyes; their situations were similar.
This... was the method of the demons?
It was too terrifying!
Yun Ze frowned, and could only put away the Immortal Shard and Snow Plum. Just then, four purple lights appeared in the distance.
One demon walked up to Yun Ze, glanced at him, and then placed a hand on his shoulder. "Go! This way!"
The three of them were clearly no match for these demons now, so they could only go along with it, see what they wanted to do, and look for an opportunity.
Sacred Pool...
This thing was likely not good.
Yun Ze and the other two, including the unconscious Ji Xiu, were led by a Golden Core stage demon towards the deeper west.
The further they went, the more Yun Ze felt a chill down his spine.
Demons appeared one after another before their eyes. They seemed to be preparing for battle!
Some were refining spiritual artifacts, some were refining pills, some were practicing spells, and some were even absorbing demon liquid to cultivate.
Apart from the faint purple light that enveloped them, they were otherwise indistinguishable from humans.
"Hey."
As Yun Ze observed, the demon leading him asked, "What are you good at? After you come out of the Sacred Pool, I can assign you to a group."
"Good at?" Yun Ze was confused.
"Yes."
The demon continued, "After you come out of the Sacred Pool, we will be fellow kin. To ensure combat readiness, we will naturally assign you to work based on what you are familiar with."
Yun Ze's brow furrowed, but he did not reply.
From the demon's words, it was not difficult to deduce that the so-called Sacred Pool was something that could transform humans into demons!
Once they came out of it, humans would become demons!
In other words, these demons before them were likely originally humans who had been transformed from the Sacred Pool.
How could they fight this!
The human side would only dwindle with each battle, while the demons could maintain their combat strength by continuously transforming humans.
Yun Ze roughly scanned the surroundings. The number of demons before him was at least tens of thousands!
The lowest cultivation level was at the ninth level of Qi Refining, just one step away from Foundation Establishment, and the highest... as far as they could see, it was the Golden Core demon they had seen.
This lineup would require at least two Nascent Soul cultivators to deal with.
"Hey, I'm asking you!"
The leading demon, seeing Yun Ze's silence, spoke again. "You can only play the zither, right?
Don't worry, even if you can only play the zither, it's fine. Just say it boldly. At worst, I'll apply for a separate work group just for playing the zither to soothe the weary hearts of our warriors!"
Yun Ze still did not reply.
He looked at the demons beside Yun Xiao and Dan Chenyu. They seemed much less talkative than the one beside him.
"...Boring."
Seeing Yun Ze continue to remain silent, the demon hesitated for a few seconds, then waved his hand. "You won't say it now, but I'll see if you say it after you're transformed!"
After about fifteen minutes of walking.
Yun Ze and the others were led by the demon to the rear of the gathering place. The demonic energy here was extremely dense, and demon liquid occasionally condensed from the air.
Not far ahead, there was a pool formed from demon liquid. Several ordinary humans, with no cultivation at all, were soaking in it, yet the purple mist on their bodies was extremely dense, almost comparable to normal demons!
This pool was not very large, at most ten meters square, but the demon liquid inside was extremely pure!
The demon liquid that fell from the sky, after entering the Sacred Pool, would undergo a purification process. Just looking at it would make one feel restless and uneasy.
The effect was even more unpleasant than the demon liquid that had just been sprinkled on them!
Wait... no!
When they were ambushed earlier, a lot of demon liquid had been sprinkled on him, so why was he unaffected now?
Yun Ze quickly looked up at Dan Chenyu in front of him.
When she was ambushed, she had also been splashed with demon liquid. She had been silent all along, but a purple glow was faintly appearing on her body!
But... why was he okay?
"We're here."
The demon beside him said, and then pushed Yun Ze forward. "Go in and queue up."
Yun Ze took the opportunity to dart forward and came to Dan Chenyu's side. "Junior Sister, are you alright?"
Dan Chenyu did not answer, but looked up at Yun Ze. Her eyes were slightly tinged with purple, and there was a murderous intent in her gaze.
As expected, something had happened!
"What's wrong?"
Yun Xiao was also pushed over. She had been behind earlier and had been wearing demon ox hide, so she hadn't been affected.
Before Yun Ze could answer, Dan Chenyu had already turned to look at Yun Xiao.
With just a glance, Yun Xiao understood what had gone wrong. She frowned slightly, but then turned to look at Yun Ze. "Why are you unaffected?"
She didn't hide it.
This was because when the four of them lined up in front of the Sacred Pool, the demons naturally retreated.
It seemed they were afraid to absorb the demon liquid that fell into the Sacred Pool, so they could only retreat to a distance and watch.
However, if Yun Ze and the others made any attempt to escape, they would strike immediately.
"I don't know either."
Yun Ze replied, pointing to his Qi Sea and guessing, "But it might be related to the things here."
Immortal Jade!
Yun Xiao naturally knew what Yun Ze was referring to.
She looked at the Sacred Pool in front of her and then glanced around. Apart from the demon who brought them, there were no other demons.
Since that was the case...
Yun Xiao leaned closer to Yun Ze. "The situation is out of control now, and Xiao Yu cannot be in danger, so you cannot pretend to be dead. Since you have that thing protecting you, do you dare to take a gamble!"
"Gamble? How?" Yun Ze frowned.
"The Sacred Pool."
Yun Xiao then uttered two words, her gaze falling on the surface of the pool. "Didn't I say that this demon liquid is like spiritual liquid to demon cultivators? If you are not afraid of the side effects, then absorb it as spiritual liquid.
With the current amount, if you can drain it, it will be enough for you to break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage. By then, even if you don't form a core, you will have enough confidence to fight a Golden Core, and then you can break this predicament."
"Drain the Sacred Pool?"
Yun Ze was stunned.
This thing didn't look big, but it was ten meters square!
Although he didn't know how deep it was, judging by the humans soaking in it, it was at least 1.5 meters, possibly even deeper!
Even if they calculated it as two meters, that would be two hundred cubic meters of pure spiritual liquid!
Enough to burst two hundred late Core Formation cultivators!
Even Yun Ze, with his Circulatory Qi Sea, couldn't be sure if he could swallow it all, let alone whether he would still be human after swallowing it.
As he was contemplating, the cultivators who had been soaking in the Sacred Pool earlier floated up from it.
Judging by the purity of the purple mist on their bodies, they should have been transformed into demons.
And in the next moment!
The aura on their bodies began to surge wildly!
In just an instant, they transformed from mortals into the peak of the ninth level of Qi Refining! Just one step away from Foundation Establishment!
"Congratulations, fellow kin!"
The demons waiting outside shouted in unison.
The talkative one even stepped forward and said to the three, "Fellow kin, hurry to the Foundation Establishment grounds. The Foundation Establishment ceremony for this batch should begin soon."
The three who had just become 'demons' cupped their hands and walked towards the area where the Qi Refining stage demons were concentrated for cultivation.
They were going to mass-produce Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Even though these people's foundations were unstable, and they were all forced to become Foundation Establishment cultivators, they were still Foundation Establishment cultivators!
Even the most ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator could instantly kill a ninth-level Qi Refining cultivator. Even if they couldn't compare to geniuses who cultivated the Qi Sea realm, how many true geniuses were there?
Among humans, it was extremely rare to raise the Qi Sea to the third realm or higher. Ordinary cultivators, at most, had a two-realm Qi Sea!
In the face of absolute numbers and realms, what did the difference of a two-realm Qi Sea matter?
And this was not the most terrifying part.
The most terrifying thing was... transforming humans into demons did not depend on their aptitude at all!
Even an eighty or ninety-year-old man, with one foot in the grave, could step into the ninth level of Qi Refining by entering this Sacred Pool!
Who the hell would cultivate anymore!
Ordinary spiritual liquid could not achieve this!
"It's your turn!"
The talkative demon spoke again. "Go in, and once you enter, you will all feel the glory bestowed by the Sacred Race!"
Almost instantly, Dan Chenyu, who was already affected by the demon liquid, leaped into the Sacred Pool without hesitation!
Yun Xiao followed closely behind.
She naturally wanted to see what was so miraculous about this Sacred Pool.
Seeing this, Yun Ze could only jump in.