Chapter 250: Demon Essence Body Tempering! Venerable One, can you please stop staring at me?

"Jump down."

Ye Hongzhuang's voice echoed in the vast, dead underground space, leaving no room for negotiation.

Gu Lan stood by the black Demon Essence Pool, looking down at the churning, mercury-like viscous black liquid.

Even without contact, he could sense the chilling coldness radiating from the surface of the pool—cold enough to freeze the Soul—as well as the extremely violent destructive energy hidden deep within.

Where was this a pool? This was clearly a gigantic, acid-filled meat grinder!

"Venerable One, this water looks a bit dirty."

Gu Lan swallowed hard, turned his head, and tried to make a final struggle.

"This subordinate is your Sword-Wielding Envoy after all. If I jump down and melt into a puddle of black water, who will serve you tea and water, warm your bed, and fan you in the future?"

"Cut the crap."

Ye Hongzhuang crossed her arms over her chest, a flash of cold mockery passing through her deep phoenix eyes.

"Every single drop of liquid in this Demon Essence Pool is transformed from the blood and bone marrow of past Demon Gods and our sect's predecessors. Those demonic cultivators outside wouldn't even be qualified to smell the scent here, even if they broke their heads kowtowing."

"I am telling you to go down to give you the immense fortune of reshaping your demonic bones and condensing a Purple Extreme Golden Core. If you are afraid, you can scram back right now and continue being that trash who cannot even withstand a single finger of the Soul Transformation Stage."

The two words trash stung Gu Lan.

He gritted his teeth.

In the Heavenly Demon Palace, having no strength meant having no life.

Ye Hongzhuang was protecting him now because he still had value; once he lost his potential for growth, this madwoman would undoubtedly throw him into a true purgatory without hesitation.

"Jump it is!"

Gu Lan hardened his heart, reached out to grip the hilt of the soul-devouring sword at his waist, preparing to dive in together with the sword.

"Hold on."

Ye Hongzhuang suddenly spoke up to interrupt him.

"The corrosiveness of this Demon Essence Pool is extremely strong. The magic robe you are wearing and the demonic sword at your waist, once stained with the pool water, will instantly be assimilated or destroyed by the violent Devilish Qi. Do you want to destroy the scabbard I gave you?"

"Take off your clothes. Leave not a single piece."

Ye Hongzhuang's tone was plain, as if she were ordering the most ordinary of trivial matters.

"Ah? Strip naked?!"

Gu Lan widened his eyes, his hands instinctively covering his belt.

"Venerable One, this… this isn't very good, right? In this remote wilderness, a lone man and woman… if this subordinate is stark naked, in case you lose control…"

"Aren't you overestimating yourself a bit?"

Ye Hongzhuang sneered and took a step forward.

Her tall and graceful figure approached Gu Lan, bringing a suffocating sense of oppression.

"For those who practice demonic cultivation, the flesh is merely a vessel to carry power. What kind of scenes haven't I seen? Would I lust over your few pounds of flesh?"

"Strip quickly. Don't force me to strip you bare myself."

Looking at Ye Hongzhuang's attitude of 'I am a hooligan, who am I afraid of', Gu Lan knew he couldn't dodge it today.

"Fine, strip it is! Since you insist on looking, don't blame me if you get styes in your eyes!"

Gu Lan hardened his heart and quickly untied the belt at his waist.

He carefully placed the soul-devouring demon sword along with the extremely precious black scabbard on the dry rock at the shore.

Afterwards, his black-gold robe, undershirt, and trousers were stripped off piece by piece and thrown aside.

A cold, dreary wind blew past.

Gu Lan stood stark naked by the Demon Essence Pool.

Due to his Top-grade Pure Yang Body, his skin emitted a faint, lustrous glow on the surface.

His broad shoulders and well-defined yet unexaggerated muscles looked like a perfect young god of war statue in the dark underground space.

The Qi and blood in his body operated automatically due to the cold, causing wisps of heat to rise from his entire body.

Ye Hongzhuang stood less than three chi away from him.

She did not turn around, nor did she avoid suspicion.

That pair of slender, alluring phoenix eyes scanned Gu Lan up and down without any restraint.

Her gaze slid from his Adam's apple down to his pectoral muscles, then traveled all the way down his abdominal muscles, finally lingering for a few seconds.

"Your assets are indeed not bad."

Ye Hongzhuang licked her red lips, making no attempt to conceal the appreciation in the depths of her eyes, even carrying a hint of satisfied scrutiny.

"No wonder you could charm that little girl of the Righteous Path so thoroughly."

Gu Lan's old face flushed red under her direct gaze, making him feel completely uncomfortable.

He hurriedly covered his vital parts with both hands, hunching over like a wronged young wife.

"Venerable One… have you seen enough? If you've seen enough, I'm going down."

"Scram down."

Ye Hongzhuang waved her hand and stepped back half a step.

"Remember, the demon essence liquid just needs to submerge your chest. Make sure it never goes over your head. Otherwise, the massive resentment will instantly crush your Sea of Consciousness, turning you into a madman who only knows how to kill."

"Hold onto your Pure Yang Qi, use it to devour and to fuse! Without breaking, there is no establishment!"

"Yes!"

Gu Lan took a deep breath and hesitated no longer.

He turned around, clenched his teeth, directly spread his legs, and walked into that pitch-black Demon Essence Pool.

"Hiss——!!!"

The moment his feet touched the black liquid.

Gu Lan's pupils shrank violently, and an extremely suppressed miserable groan escaped his throat.

Pain!

This was simply not water!

This felt like countless red-hot sharp knives, or tens of thousands of cold, poisonous ants, frantically biting and tearing at his skin!

The extreme yin coldness mixed with an all-corroding tyranny instantly destroyed the nerves on Gu Lan's epidermis.

He forcefully resisted the instinctive urge to turn tail and flee back to the shore, stepping out a second and third step.

The black demonic liquid submerged his knees and his thighs.

With every inch deeper he went, the pain multiplied exponentially.

Gu Lan's originally smooth skin had now completely turned an eerie cyan-black.

Countless strands of black Devilish Qi, as if they had lives of their own, drilled through his pores into his blood vessels, roaming wildly within his Meridians, and even protruding through his skin as hideous black lines.

"Plop!"

When he walked to where the pool water submerged his waist, Gu Lan could no longer stand.

His legs went soft, and he directly sat cross-legged in the shallow water area at the bottom of the pool.

The viscous black demonic liquid happened to submerge his chest, leaving only his head and shoulders above the water surface.

"Ah——!!!"

Gu Lan tilted his head back, the veins on his forehead bulging one by one, and finally could not help but let out a shrill scream.

Too terrifying!

This power was simply going to tear him apart completely from the inside out!

"Run your Cultivation Technique! Guard your spiritual platform to the death!"

Ye Hongzhuang shouted sharply from the shore, her gaze also becoming extremely solemn.

"Do not resist it! Accept it! Release your Pure Yang Qi and clash head-on with it!"

Gu Lan bit down hard on his back teeth, blood seeping from his gums.

He obeyed Ye Hongzhuang's words, no longer attempting to stubbornly resist with his Physical Body.

"Heavenly Demon Creation Art! Rotate for me!"

Gu Lan roared frantically in his heart.

He completely released the suppression on the Pure Yang Qi within his body.

Boom!

Scorching Pure Yang Qi and blood, like a breached volcano, instantly erupted from his Dantian, flowing along his limbs and bones, violently crashing against the extreme Yin demonic liquid surging into his body!

The collision of ice and fire! The slaughter between extreme Yin and ultimate Yang!

Gu Lan's body instantly turned into a high-pressure battlefield.

His left half-body formed a thick layer of black hard ice, exuding a bone-chilling coldness; while his right half-body was as red as a branding iron, with wisps of white smoke even rising from the surface of his skin, frighteningly hot.

His muscles were constantly being torn apart, and then rapidly reorganized under the nourishment of the Pure Yang Qi and blood.

Every time it was torn and reorganized, he could feel his Physical Body becoming even more formidable, and his Meridians being widened.

Yet the pain inside his body intensified accordingly.

"Not enough… still not enough!"

Gu Lan's eyes were bloodred.

He knew that the energy contained in this demon essence liquid was simply too massive; relying solely on Pure Yang Qi and blood was completely insufficient to fully devour and fuse it.

If he could not suppress these demonic liquids in a short time, his Dantian would be completely blown apart!

"Fire in the Stone! Grind them to pieces for me!"

Gu Lan sank all his Divine Sense into his Dantian.

That Purple Extreme Golden Core disguised as a black stubborn rock began to spin wildly under the impact of the massive amount of demonic liquid.

The extremely restrained purple-red flame at the center, representing the Fusion of the Green Lotus Core Flame and the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, transformed into an invisible giant millstone.

All the extreme Yin Devilish Qi rushing into the Dantian, once it touched this stubborn rock, was like being thrown into a meat grinder, being ground and purified little by little, and finally transforming into the purest Origin demonic power to feed back into the Golden Core itself.

"Crack… crack…"

Fine cracking sounds constantly echoed inside Gu Lan's body.

Under the scouring of the massive energy, the black disguise on the outer layer of that Half-step Golden Core began to flake off in large areas.

One, two, three…

Dark purple demonic patterns began to emerge on the surface of the gradually forming Golden Core.

On the shore.

Ye Hongzhuang watched the drastic changes happening in the Demon Essence Pool, brilliant colors flashing repeatedly in her phoenix eyes.

She saw that centered around Gu Lan, the originally dead black lake surface actually began to slowly rotate.

A black vortex was taking shape, and massive Devilish Qi was being pulled out like peeling silk from a cocoon, transforming into a visible black tornado that continuously poured into Gu Lan's chest.

"What a terrifying devouring speed."

Ye Hongzhuang muttered to herself, the corners of her mouth turning up.

"This brat's Pure Yang Body is simply like a bottomless pit. Ordinary demonic cultivators would explode after soaking in this pool for the time it takes to burn an incense stick, yet he can forcibly absorb the demonic liquid to perform Body Tempering on his Golden Core."

Just at this moment.

Gu Lan's body suddenly trembled violently.

He let out a roar like a trapped beast, his eyes suddenly opening, filled with terrifying bloodshot veins, and even faintly revealing a trace of crazy killing intent.

The Pure Yang Qi and strange fire inside his body were stimulated to the limit by the extreme Yin demonic fiend, and began to run amok out of control!

"Kill… kill everything…"

A low roar unlike that of a human issued from Gu Lan's throat.

His hands abruptly lifted from the black water, and he actually wanted to pull out the soul-devouring sword on the shore.

His mind was eroded by the Demon God's resentment!

"Oh no! Absorbed too fast, demonic obsession backlash!"

Ye Hongzhuang's expression changed slightly.

Gu Lan's current state was extremely dangerous.

If his rampage was not forcibly suppressed, he would immediately suffer Qi Deviation and turn into a monster that only knew how to kill.

Ye Hongzhuang did not hesitate at all.

With a wave of her hand, she took off the heavy snow-fox cloak on her body.

Immediately following.

Barefooted, revealing her fair and slender calves, she actually stepped directly into the Demon Essence Pool churning with black demonic liquid!

"Since you want to go crazy so much, this seat will go crazy with you."