Chapter 214: demon gods heart!

"Old Hag, what on earth did you put into the pool?!"

"Dong—"

This muffled heartbeat seemed to span endless years, exploding directly deep within Gu Lan's mind.

It was not a simple sound, but an extremely terrifying substantive sound wave!

Gu Lan only felt as if his heart had been ruthlessly grasped by an invisible giant hand, and then forcibly pulled along with the frequency of that "Dong".

His vision suddenly darkened, his ears instantly went deaf, and two streams of blood uncontrollably spurted out from his nasal cavity, which were instantly swallowed by the surrounding demonic liquid before they could dissolve into the black water.

"Holy shit… What the hell is this?!"

Gu Lan roared in shock within his heart.

The vortex of the Demon Essence Pool, which was originally rotating regularly around him, completely fell into a berserk state after this heartbeat!

The originally calm and viscous black lake surface was now like boiling water, stirring up black giant waves more than ten zhang high.

Those liquids transformed from pure extreme Yin demonic malice crazily pulled Gu Lan's body, forming an enormous suction force that was completely irresistible, forcibly dragging him toward the deepest part of the lake!

"Gu Lan!"

Standing on the shore, Ye Hongzhuang's incomparably beautiful face, which had always remained unchanged even if Mount Tai collapsed before her, showed extremely obvious shock for the first time.

She knew far too well what was sealed beneath this Demon Essence Pool.

Passed down by word of mouth from past masters of the Heavenly Demon Palace, the reason why Wanmo Cave could continuously produce extreme Yin Devilish Qi was because beneath those nine ancient stone pillars, half of a surviving "ancient demon gods heart" was suppressed!

But that heart had been dormant for tens of thousands of years; even when the founding Ancestral Master of the Heavenly Demon Palace secluded himself here back then, it had never made any movement at all, just like a dead object.

Yet now, it had actually beaten?!

Was it because the Top-grade Pure Yang Qi within Gu Lan's body stimulated it? Or was it because the Cultivation Technique cultivated by Gu Lan triggered some surviving will of the ancient demon god?!

Ye Hongzhuang had no time to think carefully at all; she could not watch helplessly as the "Top-grade Cauldron" and perfect undercover agent she had cultivated with such difficulty perished like this at the bottom of the pool.

"Get out for this seat!"

Ye Hongzhuang let out a soft cry, her terrifying cultivation base of the Soul Transformation Stage bursting forth without reservation.

She suddenly reached out her right hand, her five fingers forming a claw.

In mid-air, a massive amount of Devilish Qi instantly condensed into a black giant hand the size of a house, carrying the might of tearing apart the Void Realm, ruthlessly grabbing toward Gu Lan who was being sucked into the depths of the vortex.

However.

Just at the moment when that Devilish Qi giant hand was about to touch Gu Lan.

"Clatter—"

The nine black stone pillars standing in the center of the lake, reaching a height of a hundred zhang, suddenly trembled violently.

On the thick iron chains connected to the stone pillars, those mottled ancient demonic patterns simultaneously erupted with dazzling blood-red light!

A huge defensive barrier intertwined by blood light enveloped the entire Demon Essence Pool without any dead angles.

"Bang!!!"

The Soul Transformation Stage demonic hand condensed by Ye Hongzhuang fiercely crashed into the blood-red barrier, and surprisingly, like an egg hitting a stone, it was shattered on the spot by the shock, dissipating into black smoke filling the sky.

The strong rebound force was transmitted back along the Void Realm, causing Ye Hongzhuang to let out a muffled grunt, her footsteps staggering as she retreated three steps in a row, an unnatural flush appearing on her incomparably beautiful cheeks.

"Dammit! How could this Seal Formation be completely activated?!"

Ye Hongzhuang bit her silver teeth tightly, her phoenix eyes filled with unwillingness and anxiety.

This Nine-Pillar Demon Sealing Formation was left behind by ancient mighty figures; even with her current Soul Transformation Stage cultivation base, wanting to forcefully break it open was no different from daydreaming.

She could only watch helplessly as Gu Lan struggled in that violent black vortex for a moment, after which his entire person was completely sucked into the bottomless pitch-black lake bottom, disappearing without a trace.

"Gu Lan… If you dare to die inside, even if this seat has to dig three feet into the ground, I will still pull out your Soul and refine it into a sky-burning lamp!"

Ye Hongzhuang stared fixedly at the rolling lake surface, her hands clenching tightly in her sleeves, her fingernails sinking deeply into her flesh.

…

At this moment, Gu Lan was facing the greatest life-and-death crisis since his Transmigration.

He felt as if he were a ragdoll thrown into a front-loading washing machine.

Terrifying water pressure squeezed in from all directions, and those viscous black demonic liquids crazily drilled into his ears, nasal cavity, and even pores.

If it weren't for the fact that he had been tightly sealing his facial features with his Nascent Soul Early Stage Divine Sense, his internal organs would have long been corroded into bloody water by this extreme Yin demonic malice.

"Calm down! You must calm down!"

Gu Lan roared frantically in his heart, forcing himself to compose himself.

His body was still falling rapidly.

The surroundings were pitch black where one could not see their own fingers, and even when his Divine Sense probed out, it felt like walking through a quagmire with immense resistance.

Just when he felt that the air in his chest was about to be exhausted and his blood vessels were about to be crushed by the water pressure.

The downward trend suddenly slowed down.

Gu Lan opened his eyes with difficulty.

In the darkness ahead, a faint, highly rhythmic dark red light appeared.

As he was slowly rolled closer by the water current, the source of that dark red light finally presented itself before his eyes.

That was a heart.

A living heart that was shockingly, outrageously huge!

It was as tall as two stories, and its surface was covered with black blood vessels as thick as an adult's thigh.

The texture of the heart looked like some kind of translucent dark red crystal, yet it was undeniably alive!

"Dong—"

The heart thudged once more.

Along with its beating, a dark red ripple visible to the naked eye diffused in the black water.

Gu Lan bore the brunt of it; swept by this ripple, the bones throughout his body instantly emitted a teeth-aching "crack, crack" sound, as if he had been struck head-on by a large iron hammer.

"Pfft!" Gu Lan spat out another mouthful of blood, directly staining a patch of water in front of him red.

Surrounding this giant heart were nine crimson chains forged from unknown metal, tightly entwined around it.

These chains plunged deeply into the flesh and blood of the heart, while their other ends connected to the nine black stone pillars above.

This was the source of all abnormal changes!

"What the hell level of monster left behind spare parts like this…"

Gu Lan looked at this heart, which remained full of vitality suppressed under the chains, and felt his scalp go numb.

Just as Gu Lan prepared to risk his life to mobilize his different fires and attempt to swim upward.

That giant demon gods heart seemed to have finally confirmed the "prey" before it.

The black blood vessels on its surface suddenly wriggled violently, and immediately after, at the very center of the heart, a drop of dark golden blood was squeezed out.

This drop of blood was only the size of a fingernail, but the moment it appeared, the black demonic liquid at the entire pool bottom seemed to solidify.

An ancient demonic might that surpassed the Soul Transformation Stage and even carried a few hints of Dao Laws descended with a boom!

Ancient Demon God True Blood!

"Whoosh!"

That drop of dark golden Demon God True Blood traced a dazzling trajectory in the water, moving so fast that even Gu Lan's Nascent Soul-grade Divine Sense could not react in time.

With a "sizzle" sound.

This drop of True Blood unexpectedly penetrated Gu Lan's resilient Physical Body without any hindrance, shooting directly into the center of his brows, and then along the extraordinary Meridians, rushing towards his Dantian all the way with unstoppable momentum!

"Ah——!!!"

Although he could not make a sound underwater, Gu Lan's Divine Soul let out a heart-rending scream.

Pain!

This was worse than death in the true sense of the word!

The energy contained within this drop of Demon God True Blood was simply too massive and too tyrannical!

It was not nourishing Gu Lan's body at all, but rather carrying out a brutal plunder and assimilation!

It wanted to occupy this Top-grade Pure Yang Body and obliterate Gu Lan's Soul!

"Get the hell out!"

Gu Lan's eyes instantly bloodshot, turning entirely crimson.

Inside the Dantian, the embryonic form of the Purple Extreme Golden Core that was undergoing its final transformation began to shake violently under the impact of this external force, the purple light on its surface flickering dim and bright, carrying the danger of shattering at any moment.

The two different fires hidden within Gu Lan's body were completely infuriated at this moment!

Green Lotus Core Flame and Red Lotus Karmic Fire sensed the impending doom facing their host.

They didn't even need Gu Lan to intentionally urge them; they erupted with a roar directly from inside the Golden Core!

The cyan and red flames turned into a sea of fire within the Dantian Qi Sea, tightly surrounding that drop of dark golden Demon God True Blood in the middle, launching a crazy burning and refinement.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

Extreme confrontation played out within Gu Lan's body.

A large amount of blood beads began to ooze from the surface of Gu Lan's skin, his muscles bulging lump by lump, and his green veins seeming as if they were about to burst apart.

His body uncontrollably convulsed at the cold pool bottom, his entire person looking like a keg of gunpowder that could explode at any time.

"Hold on! I cannot be assimilated by it! I am a human, not some fucking Demon God Puppet!"

Gu Lan clenched his teeth tightly.

He recalled the character taught to him by Li Taixuan—"Hide".

"Fire in the Stone, without revealing its sharpness, refines all things!"

Gu Lan compressed his powerful Nascent Soul Early Stage Divine Sense to the extreme, like an extremely precise scalpel, forcefully cutting into the battlefield of the different fires and the Demon God True Blood.

He did not choose to force this drop of True Blood out of his body—because under that kind of terrifying energy, it was simply impossible to do so.

He chose an extremely crazy approach: he wanted to directly and forcefully fuse this drop of ancient Demon God True Blood into his own Golden Core!

"Absorb for me!!!"

Gu Lan's Divine Sense turned into thousands of wisps, guiding the cyan and red different fires, just like a blacksmith forging iron, smashing that drop of irritable dark golden True Blood piece by piece, and then penetrating it drop by drop into the forming Purple Extreme Golden Core.

Every single penetration made Gu Lan feel as if someone was scraping his bone marrow with a steel knife.

But he did not retreat.

He was gambling! Gambling that his Top-grade Pure Yang Body and the two different fires could withstand this wave of cross-dimensional energy infusion!

Time lost all concept amidst the endless pain.

A day might have passed, or perhaps only half an hour.

That drop of Demon God True Blood finally had its temper completely ground down by the different fires and the Golden Core.

The tyrannical surviving will of wanting to carry out Possession contained within it was burned completely clean by the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, leaving behind only the purest Demonic Path Origin power!

"Rumble——！！！"

Inside Gu Lan's Dantian, a loud noise akin to the creation of heaven and earth erupted.

The Golden Core, which was originally the size of a dragon's eye with purple light flowing on its surface, abruptly shrank in volume by a circle after absorbing the Demon God True Blood, becoming only the size of a walnut.

But its color changed from purple-black to a noble dark purple-gilded color that people dared not look at directly!

And on the surface of the Golden Core.

One, two, three…

Demonic patterns representing the highest talent of the Demonic Path began to emerge one after another.

Until it condensed to the ninth demonic pattern, that power still showed no signs of stopping.

Under Gu Lan's shocked Divine Sense gaze.

That Origin power fused with the Demon God True Blood unexpectedly and slowly condensed a faint, extremely subtle dark golden tenth demonic pattern outside the nine demonic patterns!

Ten demonic patterns!

Ten-out-of-ten perfection, a perfect Golden Core that surpassed limits!

At the very instant when the tenth demonic pattern completely stabilized.

An unprecedentedly vast power, like a breached Milky Way, gushed forth from this dark purple-gilded Golden Core, instantly flowing through all of Gu Lan's limbs and bones.

The Meridians and bones that were damaged due to squeezing and tearing instantly healed under the nourishment of this power.

Gu Lan only felt that his Physical Body strength underwent a qualitative leap at this moment.

He suddenly opened his eyes!

Within his originally pitch-black pupils, two clusters of purple-gold flames burned up.

In the dark and profound bottom of the Demon Essence Pool, they resembled two guiding beacons, emitting a might that made even that giant heart tremble in fear.

"That feels good…"

Gu Lan stretched his body underwater, his bones emitting a series of popping sounds.

He now felt that even without using different fires, relying solely on this Physical Body and the magical power of this ten-pattern purple extreme golden core, he could press a Golden Core Great Perfection Cultivator to the ground and rub them!

He raised his head and glanced at the black lake water above that was still rolling.

"It's time to go up; that Old Hag is probably stamping her feet in anxiety up there."

Gu Lan's mouth hooked into a wicked smile.

He slightly bent his legs, running less than ten percent of the true yuan in the ten-pattern Golden Core within his Dantian.

"Bang!"

An annular water wave visible to the naked eye exploded at the pool bottom.

Gu Lan's entire person was like a torpedo emerging from its tube, breaking through the resistance of heavy water pressure and soaring toward the lake surface at an extremely terrifying speed.

…

On the shore.

Ye Hongzhuang stood before the Demon Essence Pool, her brow furrowed tightly, her complexion so gloomy that it seemed water could drip from it.

Nearly two hours had already passed.

The riot across the entire lake surface had subsided, and the blood-red Formations of the nine stone pillars had once again faded into concealment, but the lake water remained pitch black, without any sign of life from Gu Lan.

"Could this brat… really have been swallowed by the remnant will of the demon god?"

Ye Hongzhuang gripped her fingers tightly.

She was somewhat regretful; knowing this earlier, she shouldn't have let him shoulder that level of pressure all by himself.

If she lost Gu Lan, this Top-grade Cauldron of Pure Yang, when her internal cold poison flared up, her pain would double yet again, and it might even affect her breakthrough to that higher Realm.

Just as Ye Hongzhuang grew irritated and prepared to disregard the backlash to forcefully break open the Formation and enter the water to fish people out.

"Splash——！！！"

A massive splash suddenly burst open on the calm black lake surface.

A slender and upright figure broke out of the water, kicking up a string of black water droplets in mid-air, and then steadily landed on the black rocks by the shore.

Ye Hongzhuang raised her head abruptly.

The moment she saw the newcomer clearly, her phoenix eyes, which were originally filled with majesty and coldness, widened slightly involuntarily.

The aura of Gu Lan standing before her had undergone earth-shaking changes.

The sharpness on his body had completely converged, replaced by a bottomless and heavy demonic might.

That pure Demonic Path aura even made Ye Hongzhuang feel a trace of inexplicable palpitation.

But this wasn't the main point.

The main point was…

After the extreme high-temperature burning and water impact at the bottom of the pool just now, the shorts Gu Lan wore before entering the water were long gone, not even leaving ash behind.

At this moment, he was stark naked, standing brazenly in front of Ye Hongzhuang.

On those nearly perfect muscle lines, wisps of steaming hot air were still venting outward, and a few purple-gold demonic patterns that had not yet completely faded still lingered on the surface of his skin.

As soon as Gu Lan landed, before he had time to strike a handsome pose, he felt an extremely aggressive gaze scanning up and down his body.

He looked down.

The air suddenly quieted down.

"Cough…"

Gu Lan's old face blushed, and he instinctively reached out to cover his vital parts, the peerless Devil Head aura of invincibility from just moments ago instantly collapsing.

"Um… Exalted One, can you lend me a piece of clothing to wear first?"

Ye Hongzhuang did not turn around, nor did she shift her gaze away even by half a fraction.

She looked Gu Lan up and down, her red lips slightly hooking into a meaningful arc, walking two steps closer to him with a half-smile.

"Clothing?"

Ye Hongzhuang walked up to him, stopped, her gaze extremely provocative.

"This seat thinks that this look of yours… is actually quite good-looking. Why bother rushing to wear any?"