The poorest member of the Imperial Guard, the Empress begged me to embezzle.

The demon race's cultivation techniques, gifted by Yinglong's remnant soul, contained specific methods for absorbing spiritual energy to cultivate.

Chu Xiu first let out a long breath, then circulated the imperial energy in his middle dantian to protect all the meridians in his body. Then, he opened all 365 acupoints in his body in one breath, allowing the demonic energy outside the body to flow into his entire body.

As the demonic energy entered his body, Chu Xiu immediately felt unwell.

There was even a sense of impending doom.

Chu Xiu's body trembled, and he instantly spread his imperial aura throughout his body, expelling all the demonic energy that had invaded his body before closing all the acupoints and returning to normal.

"Something's not right... I can't use the demon race's cultivation methods recorded in the scroll to directly absorb and refine demon energy."

Chu Xiu frowned slightly, and soon he remembered the purple pill that Venerable Wunian had shown to everyone earlier.

"Could it be that only by killing the monsters within this secret realm and obtaining the purple pills dropped by them can one refine the purple pills to absorb pure energy for cultivation?"

Chu Xiu stood atop the mountain, suddenly looked up, and fixed his gaze on the distance.

In the distance, several enormous birds of prey were rushing toward them, their killing intent palpable.

Chu Xiu probed with his divine sense, and every single bird revealed the aura of the early stage of the Qiankun Realm.

But upon closer inspection, something seemed amiss.

Chu Xiu condensed several sword energies with his imperial aura, and with a wave of his hand, the sword energies swept towards the birds and passed right through them.

In just one glance, those birds suddenly exploded and died.

Chu Xiu frowned: "He has the aura of the early stage of the Qiankun Realm, but lacks the corresponding strength?"

The sword energy he condensed from imperial aura could only kill someone in the mid-stage of the Reincarnation Realm in one move. Anyone with the strength of the late-stage Reincarnation Realm who wanted to resist would not be able to die directly from the sword energy.

This shows that the demonic beasts within this secret realm possess demonic power, but lack the corresponding strength.

This is probably related to the dense demonic energy in this place that cannot be directly absorbed or refined.

Just as Chu Xiu was pondering, a dark figure suddenly appeared behind him, its eyes flashing with a fierce light.

A giant eagle, larger than the previous bird, flapped its wings behind Chu Xiu, and countless invisible wind blades attacked Chu Xiu's neck.

"The aura of a mid-stage Qiankun Realm cultivator..."

Chu Xiu turned around, letting countless wind blades smash into his body. A cloud of smoke rose and then dissipated. The wind blades scraped his body, but they didn't even damage his clothes.

This time, Chu Xiu used his physical defenses to discover the true strength of the monsters in this area.

"The demonic energy of the mid-stage Qiankun Realm can only unleash strength roughly equivalent to the late-stage Reincarnation Realm. The demonic beasts here are truly of unstable cultivation levels..."

Chu Xiu shook his head helplessly, casually conjured a sword, and severed the giant eagle's head.

The giant eagle's corpse did not fall to the ground as expected, but instead shattered into energy in mid-air, and then slowly coalesced into a purple pill.

Chu Xiu reached out and beckoned, and the purple pill flew into his palm.

Unlike the ethereal realm of the giant eagle, the energy contained within this purple pill is equivalent to its true strength.

Chu Xiu swallowed the purple pill in one gulp and immediately refined it, but he could not feel the slightest increase in his spiritual power.

"Could it be that... only purple pills dropped by demonic beasts of equal strength can enhance one's spiritual power?"

Chu Xiu frowned. So, he would have to hunt down demonic beasts whose appearance and aura were at the late stage of the Qiankun Realm or even the Great Perfection of the Qiankun Realm.

The purple pills dropped by monsters below this level are of no use to him.

Chu Xiu once again used the Observation Technique to spread his divine sense three thousand miles around him. This time, the purpose of the detection was to find the aura and location of the demonic beast.

Within a three-thousand-mile radius, he sensed no other presence. The number of demonic beasts at or below the mid-stage of the Qiankun Realm was immeasurable, perhaps even countless.

However, there are only a handful of demonic beasts with the aura of the late stage of the Qiankun Realm.

There are none above the late stage of the Qiankun Realm.

Fortunately, this secret realm is extremely vast, and even if Chu Xiu extended his divine sense in a straight line for tens of thousands of miles, he still could not perceive its end.

Chu Xiu locked onto one of the demonic beasts that exuded the aura of the late stage of the Qiankun Realm, and then used his escape technique to rush towards its location.

Traveling two thousand miles, Chu Xiu encountered tens of thousands of early-stage Qiankun Realm demonic beasts blocking his path along the way.

Although with their true strength at the mid-stage of reincarnation, he could kill them with just a single sword strike.

However, there were simply too many of these demonic beasts, which greatly annoyed Chu Xiu.

It wasn't until he summoned the Azure Flame Cone and unleashed the Emperor's Domain, then condensed dozens of qi swords that circled the domain and charged forward, killing any monsters with true mid-reincarnation strength that touched them, that he was able to move unimpeded.

After the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, Chu Xiu saw the demonic beast that revealed the aura of the mid-stage Qiankun Realm.

A lithe black cat is hunting a monster weaker than itself.

The monsters here seem to be able to directly devour the demonic energy within their prey.

This is something that outsiders like Chu Xiu cannot do.

Before the black cat could finish devouring its prey, Chu Xiu took a step forward, his figure flashed, and he appeared above the black cat's head, stomping his foot down hard.

The void beneath their feet shattered inch by inch, and a tremendous force struck the black cat's head.

The black cat didn't even have time to react before its head shattered with a loud bang, sending blood and flesh flying everywhere.

To Chu Xiu's surprise, the black cat did not die as a result.

Instead, a flash of black light appeared, and a perfectly intact head grew back on its body. Then it turned and fled.

"That's clever of you."

Chu Xiu smiled slightly. Although the monsters here had no normal origin and were almost devoid of intelligence, the black cat in front of him did have some intelligence. Knowing that it was no match for the person in front of it with its own strength, it simply ran away.

But with its strength, how could it escape Chu Xiu's grasp?

Chu Xiu reached out and grabbed the black cat, instantly freezing it in place. No matter how much it struggled, it couldn't escape Chu Xiu's grasp.

Chu Xiu clenched his fist, and the black cat instantly exploded and died, but its body returned to normal in the next moment.

After repeating this six times, the black cat finally gave up struggling and collapsed on the spot, utterly despondent.

"What? They say cats have nine lives, and now you only have one left?"

Seeing this, Chu Xiu stopped what he was doing and looked curiously at the black cat, which was displaying a dejected, anthropomorphic expression.

The black cat glanced at Chu Xiu with its dull eyes, and even Chu Xiu could sense its despondency.

Chu Xiu raised an eyebrow, not expecting this black cat to be so intelligent.

This gave him other ideas.

Chu Xiu reached out and pulled the black cat's body to his front.

"Can you understand what I'm saying?"

The black cat nodded slightly.

"Can you speak?"

The black cat meowed weakly a few times, its tone gradually changing. Finally, a child's voice came from the black cat's mouth: "Yes..."

Chu Xiu raised an eyebrow and continued, "If you can answer my questions, I'll spare your life, how about it?"

The black cat's eyes lit up, and it sat up, nodding repeatedly.

Chu Xiu pondered for a moment and then asked, "Where is this place?"

From beginning to end, he did not know the name of this secret place, only that the depths of this secret place led to the legendary Mount Sumeru.

Since it is connected to Mount Sumeru, this secret realm must be no ordinary place.

"Hmm... let me think, this place used to be called something like... Sheng Shenzhou."