I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 323 - 187: Divine Skills - Heart Demon Substitute_2

Chapter 323: Chapter 187: Divine Skills - Heart Demon Substitute_2

"I can use the Outer Elixir Method in conjunction with the Inner Core Skill to create Qi seeds, and I can do the same with the Heart Demon," Gu Shanhai mused.

"Just in time, to practice a new Divine Skill."

"By combining the Heart Demon’s characteristics, I can gain a special type of Divine Skill that allows me to replace death and injury with something else."

"It’s a pity I won’t encounter the Heart Demon anymore; otherwise, a few more would guarantee even better results."

Once his technique was completed, to the entire world, he would appear to be a possessed Heart Demon, not himself, which would categorize him as discarded data in the world’s grand database. This way, he wouldn’t be judged by the tribulations of fate.

Moreover, with the Heart Demon patch, he had completely taken control of the port, forming a stand-alone local network that could connect and disconnect at will. During this period, he could also disguise himself as discarded data to ensure his own safety.

He was indeed capable of severly severing his own data to form a personal server, but doing so would be conspicuously noticeable. After all, such a large void moving around is easy to detect as something amiss. Instead, it would be better to hide in plain sight.

"The patch is packaged and completed; the next step is to send it out."

"And then there’s this dark space to deal with. If I leave it behind, I’ll have to stabilize it myself, but I can’t bear to just watch it decay."

Gu Shanhai was uploading the Heart Demon patch into the Qi seeds while contemplating what to do with this dark space.

Under normal circumstances, after slaying the Heart Demon, the heart-space filled with darkness would also shatter.

"I’ll keep it; if I’m going to disguise, I might as well go all out."

Previously, the existence of the Heart Demon maintained the space, so Gu Shanhai didn’t need to worry. Now it was different; the Heart Demon had been uploaded as a data patch, so he had to maintain it himself.

"Let’s see if I can turn it into a Divine Skill later on."

This ability was quite superfluous because it was the Heart Demon’s space, lacking any physical form. He could come and go, but he couldn’t store anything. Of course, he could also manifest various items and environments, as he had done during his experiments.

This ability was originally the Heart Demon’s, but after suppressing it, Gu Shanhai gained the control.

Being able to manifest objects sounded powerful, but in reality, there were limitations. Many precise instruments couldn’t be manifested, and some special materials were also unmanifestable. Even if they did manifest, they were just empty shells and couldn’t meet experimental requirements.

Now Gu Shanhai understood why because of insufficient mana and lack of understanding.

Previously, the consumption of mana was on the Heart Demon, so the Heart Demon’s mana was the limit. Now that it had shifted to Gu Shanhai, the limit had increased, but the mana consumption hadn’t decreased.

That’s why Gu Shanhai deemed it superfluous.

After dealing with the Heart Demon space, the Heart Demon patch upload was also complete.

At that moment, eerie patterns began to emerge on the surface of the Qi seed, and even the two jade bands of the Yin Yang Two Qi Divine Abilities were touched by that aura.

However, at the vaguely illusory center of the Qi seed, the silhouette of a human figure was emerging and gradually merging.

This was his new Divine Skill, the Heart Demon substitute, which could bear injury and exempt him from death once. Recovery required negative emotions and various desires, after all, it was transformed from a Heart Demon.

"It’s done; I’ll test the dosage first."

After the figure fully merged, Gu Shanhai knew the data overlay was complete. Then he could clearly sense the entire state of the Qi seed.

"The lifespan required for the life-extending process has dropped by nearly a thousand times. This world is really ruthless!" Gu Shanhai’s method of verification was, naturally, divination and deduction of fate.

"So, there’s no need to worry about calamities anymore. Now I’m one of our own, but this method does have a certain time limit."

If only a small portion of people used this method to deceive the world, then it could last a long time, but once it spread widely, the world would inevitably detect the problem.

It was clear that cultivators possessed by Heart Demons were everywhere, so why hadn’t the consumption stopped but was instead still on the rise? This would lead to the emergence of a new patch targeting the issue.

Therefore, it could work on a small scale, and those with too much power also risked exposure.

This method could only be used by Gu Shanhai. For others, they would have to resort to derived techniques for concealment.

"Fortunately, I can cultivate normally now, it’s just that the type of my qi seems a bit off the orthodox path." Gu Shanhai glanced at the qi seed between his eyebrows, feeling a sense of being a demon cultivator.

This world did not have demon cultivators, because everyone was of the predatory kind, which became the orthodox path, and their aura did not seem as strange.

"The patch is pretty good, it just affects the temperament of the qi seed. I should be able to continue my cultivation without steering towards the bizarre direction, right?" Gu Shanhai pondered that although he was indeed a player on the Evil Path, he still needed to face others when going out; he still had to claim to be an orthodox knight. However, if he were to appear with an aura of evil, no one would believe he was an orthodox knight.

"Never mind, I’ll deal with it later." Gu Shanhai immediately started cultivating his qi seed.

As spiritual energy was transformed into mana, the Heart Demon’s substitute in the middle of the qi seed also repeatedly operated, swallowing and reinforcing the mana to strengthen itself.

The Heart Demon substitute was inherently capable of growth. Right now, since it had just been born, it could hardly withstand much damage. He estimated that if it sustained injuries above a severed limb, the Heart Demon substitute would instantly perish and wait to be reformed.

Since it was not an Innate Divine Power of the qi seed, unlike the innate Yin Yang Two Qi, it could grow along with his own cultivation progress.

There was no need for deliberate cultivation. The Heart Demon substitute inherited the abilities of a Heart Demon and would automatically draw mana from the qi seed to strengthen itself, but this stunted the growth of the qi seed.

It wasn’t a big deal for Gu Shanhai to lose a bit of mana. After all, he currently had three energy storages in addition to his qi seed: the Marked Druid’s natural mark, the Green Knight’s Azure Dragon, and the "Green Emperor Longevity Scripture’s" Dantian—especially his own Dantian, which had a vast capacity.

The first round of cultivation finished quickly, and Gu Shanhai confirmed that there were no issues with either the qi seed or Heart Demon substitute. All the data matched his experimental results.

"The Heart Demon substitute isn’t a complete entity yet; it can still be further strengthened. However, other inner conflicts are needed for enhancement, so I can only proceed step by step."

Among inner conflicts, the Heart Demon Tribulation was the most ferocious, followed by the five tribulations of greed, hatred, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt, all of which could affect one’s emotions and could easily give rise to a Heart Demon.

Conversely, if Gu Shanhai’s Heart Demon substitute could absorb the boost from these tribulations, it, too, would naturally grow stronger. Essentially, his Heart Demon substitute was still a Heart Demon, just refined into a Divine Skill by Gu Shanhai.

It wasn’t difficult to induce these five inner tribulations; the problem was he couldn’t do it anymore.

In the eyes of the world, his identity was a Heart Demon, so there would be no calamities. Moreover, as someone in the Qi Refinement Realm, he wouldn’t be able to induce them; he needed to at least reach the Spirit Origin Stage.

With his current progress, who knew when he would reach that level—ten years? Or twenty?

Using someone else’s was even less realistic—these things couldn’t just be borrowed.

"Time to research other people’s situations and see if I can ’download’ directly through the qi seed port." Gu Shanhai had another thought; if they wouldn’t give it to him, then he’d just download the data himself.

It might be more difficult, but no matter, that’s the normal process. After all, he still had to research methods to avoid disasters and calamities, so he definitely needed to study others.

Even if he fully researched the data, it could only apply to himself. Applying it to others would surely not work since his body structure, soul composition, and so on differed from the original inhabitants of this world.

If he succeeded by randomly applying it, that would be incredibly lucky. If nothing happened, it would be a stroke of good fortune; but failure was the norm.

"But then again, why is the protagonist of this world also a human cultivator?" Gu Shanhai was rather puzzled.