Under the blood net, just as it was about to envelop the black ant, the black ant suddenly turned and inhaled with its large mouth. Instantly, like a spider spinning silk in reverse, it was sucked into the ant's maw.
"Young friend, your pet is quite formidable. It can deal with this Spirit Slaying Array as easily as slurping noodles," Xue Daoguang exclaimed. Ye Yun, however, felt incredibly wronged. The black ant was as hard as iron, and its weight was causing him pain.
Fortunately, the black ant soon flew up, swiftly devouring the demon essence within the Spirit Slaying Array.
It was like a bottomless pit. After absorbing strands of demon essence, the black ant showed no discomfort. Instead, a large mass of demonic energy surged from it, entering Ye Yun's body.
However, the demonic creatures paid no heed. Wielding various weapons, they transformed into streaks of black afterimages and charged at Ye Yun.
"Danger! Retreat, withdraw!" General Ba Shan shouted, his face paling as he looked at the dazzling red clouds. He instantly flashed a hundred meters away.
Meanwhile, countless fire rains descended from the sky, covering an area of over a kilometer, like bullets sweeping across the ground.
Despite Ba Shan's warning, many demonic creatures, unable to retreat from the fire rain's attack range, perished on their escape route.
*Boom...*
Under the onslaught of countless fire rains, the statue of the Great Yan Demon Emperor crumbled. Fragments of giant stones scattered in all directions.
At this moment, Ye Yun's body erupted in fierce flames, instantly turning him into a man of fire, burning away all the surrounding demonic energy. Even falling debris was incinerated to ash before it could approach Ye Yun.
"Damn it, this really hurts," Ye Yun lay on the ground, engulfed in flames. His body was encased in a layer of black demonic energy, which was the essence absorbed by the black ant from the demonic creatures and fed back to Ye Yun.
Demonic energy and true essence were two fundamentally different types of energy. The biggest difference was that true essence focused on the internal, such as utilizing heavenly and earthly energy, spirit, and divine consciousness. Demonic energy, on the other hand, focused on the external, like the physical body and strength.
The 'Heaven Burning Art' was indeed a divine fire cultivation technique. Even the demonic energy refined and purified by the black ant was being compressed and further purified by Ye Yun's flames. Xue Daoguang watched with envy.
"Kid, you have too much demonic energy at once. Why not try to guide it into your dantian? Based on your understanding of the 'True Understanding Chapter,' you might be able to use this demonic energy for yourself," Xue Daoguang suggested.
Try?
Ye Yun blinked, instinctively drawing the demonic energy from his body into his dantian. Instantly, the flames around him surged by another three meters. The searing heat could be felt by the demonic armies hiding a kilometer away.
Pain! It was more than ten times, a hundred times more painful than before. The demonic energy and true essence were like two armies clashing within Ye Yun's body, with his body as their battlefield.
"Based on your understanding of the 'True Understanding Chapter,' open your mind and embrace it, integrate it!"
"Endure it. As long as you endure, you will be the first human to successfully possess two energy systems!" Xue Daoguang shouted at Ye Yun ceaselessly.
Meanwhile, the fire rain had passed, and the black ant and the demons were engaging in close combat. Demons killed by the black ant were devoured one by one, and more demonic energy flowed towards Ye Yun.
"Damn it, you son of a bitch!" Ye Yun gritted his teeth until his gums bled. He was in so much pain that he had no mind to guide anything. Moreover, as more demonic energy poured into his dantian, the pain intensified, making Ye Yun feel as if his dantian would explode.
The Heaven Burning Art circulated rapidly within his body, requiring no control from Ye Yun himself.
Half an hour later, Ye Yun lay on the ground, covered in dirt, looking utterly disheveled. His consciousness was beginning to scatter, but the flames on his body had turned a peculiar dark red, like solidified blood.
Ye Yun felt his consciousness rapidly descending, yet simultaneously felt himself soaring endlessly.
"Young friend?"
"Ye Yun?"
Xue Daoguang called out several times but received no response from Ye Yun.
"Damn it, the boss is here! Don't go AFK!" Xue Daoguang exclaimed, channeling his spiritual energy. Under the impact of Xue Daoguang's spiritual energy, the prone Ye Yun jolted, leaped from the ground, and then promptly fell back down.
"Senior, you can't play like that," Ye Yun said with a wry smile, watching the black ant still slaughtering around him.
"You brat, don't mistake good intentions for ill. If I hadn't shouted at you, would you have let your consciousness sink away like that? Do you know that's a bottomless abyss, and as you sink, your life will rapidly drain away?" Xue Daoguang said with some seriousness.
"On the path of cultivation, everyone will experience some sort of enlightenment into a certain power. However, once you enter that state of enlightenment, you must always maintain your true self, or you'll easily get lost in it."
"Even if you die in reality, your enlightenment will persist, merely transforming into a fixation, or even resentment."
"That serious?" Hearing Xue Daoguang's words, Ye Yun felt a chill of fear. No wonder novels always emphasized that cultivators must guard their minds during cultivation.
The flames on Ye Yun's body gradually subsided. Ye Yun clearly felt that the energy within these flames was more than three times stronger than before. Most importantly, Ye Yun no longer felt the sharp pain from the beginning; he seemed to have grown accustomed to it.
At this moment, the black ant was locked in combat with Ba Shan. Demonic creatures swarmed around Ye Yun, but the flames emanating from his body were too scorching. Even those demons with Rank Five or Six strength could not get within a hundred meters of Ye Yun. Further away, more ordinary demons were gathering.
Ye Yun roughly estimated that there were fifty thousand demons surrounding him, with more continuously emerging from the Great Rift Valley. Clearly, the Great Rift Valley created by the Great Yan Demon Emperor had become a sacred site for many low-level demons to worship and seek enlightenment.
As time passed, the pain in Ye Yun's body gradually disappeared. Ye Yun discovered that there was no longer a clear distinction between black and white like a yin-yang fish symbol. Instead, the originally pale golden true essence now had a hint of gray, making it feel like half a drop of ink had been added to a clear bottle of water. However, the true essence was more condensed and of higher quality than before.
"Senior, why does my true essence feel like it's been polluted?" Ye Yun asked, not understanding.
"You should just be happy, boy. This is a sign of your true essence evolving," Xue Daoguang said, not without envy.
What did that mean?
True essence could evolve? All this was manifested from the game. If it manifested further, wouldn't it lower the quality of his true essence in reality?