Lin Zheyu let out a long breath of stale air. He had finally succeeded. The invasion of demonic qi into his sea of consciousness had been something he never expected. Fortunately, golden energy was different from true origin and spirit power. After hundreds of failures, he had finally managed to control this mysterious golden energy to break through the barrier and enter his sea of consciousness. Otherwise, it would have taken a long time to grind away the invading demonic qi bit by bit.

"What a wondrous feeling!" Lin Zheyu murmured softly.

The moment the golden energy entered his sea of consciousness, Lin Zheyu felt as if light had been brought into it. What had once been dim and lifeless now became bright, as though infused with vitality. He could sense that the tiny energy elements drifting within the sea of consciousness became extraordinarily active the instant the golden energy arrived.

"My Perception Domain... It's become clearer!" Lin Zheyu exclaimed.

The range of his Perception Domain had not changed at all, but within that range, its clarity had improved significantly. It was as if another thin veil had been lifted from the world.

"Spatial power?"

Lin Zheyu turned around and looked up at the sky, a sharp glint flashing in his eyes. He had sensed it faintly before, but now, after the golden energy entered his sea of consciousness, his Perception Domain had inexplicably improved. He could now see many things he had never perceived before. He discovered that faint traces of spatial power drifted within the demon god barrier.

"Is it coming from the space-time node?"

Lin Zheyu looked toward the space-time node. The farther from the center of the demon god barrier, the thinner the fluctuations of drifting spatial power became.

"What an unexpected gain!" Lin Zheyu said with delight.

He had not expected that a failed attempt and its minor consequences would bring such an unexpected benefit. If not for pushing his demonization too far and accidentally allowing demonic qi to invade his sea of consciousness, Lin Zheyu would never have thought to guide golden energy into it. Without special methods, it was common knowledge in the cultivation world that no heterogeneous energy other than soul energy could enter the sea of consciousness.

Moreover, Lin Zheyu had never paid much attention to spiritual sense. His strength lay entirely in martial cultivation, and in place of spiritual sense, he possessed a Perception Domain that was no weaker. To him, the greatest use of spiritual sense was simply retrieving items from his storage pouch. Without this incident, he would never have considered exploring this direction.

I should try to see if I can merge the golden energy into my spirit, Lin Zheyu mused.

The transformation of his Perception Domain had revealed to him the remarkable effects produced when this mysterious golden energy interacted with the spirit and soul. Inspiration surged in his mind. The defensive barrier of the sea of consciousness was extremely strong. Even though golden energy was special, transferring it into the sea of consciousness remained very difficult.

Thread by thread, under Lin Zheyu's control, the golden energy entered his sea of consciousness and flowed into his spiritual form, which appeared as a human silhouette. Unfortunately, once it entered, it produced almost no effect on the spiritual form. Well, not entirely none. Lin Zheyu felt that his spiritual form became slightly more active. But that was all.

Lin Zheyu felt a hint of disappointment and murmured, "This... So, golden energy can only affect the sea of consciousness, and not the spiritual form?"

Golden energy could not exist by relying on the spiritual form. To it, the spiritual form was like intangible air. The reason it made the spiritual form more active was that it gathered around it, increasing the nearby basic energy elements, which in turn indirectly heightened the spiritual form's activity.

"Looks like this approach won't work," Lin Zheyu murmured softly.

He had originally wanted to see if there was a way, within the sea of consciousness, to merge the golden energy into his spiritual form. Then, the spiritual sense he formed could carry the golden energy, and under its protection, it could be used inside the demon god barrier. Unfortunately, that attempt had failed.

"A failure is a failure. Spiritual sense isn't that important to me anyway," Lin Zheyu said with a faint smile, shaking his head as he let go of the issue.

He could no longer rely on spiritual sense to manipulate objects or grant himself flight, and even retrieving items from his storage pouch now required physical contact. But this had little impact on his combat strength, at most affecting convenience.

Lin Zheyu continuously guided golden energy into his sea of consciousness. He discovered that the more golden energy entered, the more active the particle-like energy within it became. Even his Perception Domain seemed to continue evolving as the amount of golden energy increased.

However, compared to the transformation caused by the first entry of golden energy into his sea of consciousness, the current rate was far slower. Before, it had surged like a rocket. Now, it was like a snail, inching forward. Still, if it could continue improving without limit, the cumulative effect would be astonishing. The only question was where the limit of this transformation lay.

Let's continue. As long as I keep demonization at 70%—no, 60%—it will let me evade the yaos' detection while avoiding its negative effects.

He stopped directing golden energy into his sea of consciousness. Under deliberate suppression, it sank deep into his flesh. Then, vast demonic qi energy surged into his body under his active absorption. His physique had been tempered by nineteen powerful demon arts. Under their transformation, his aptitude for cultivating yao techniques had reached an astonishing level.

After the golden runes degraded into purple-black ones, his aptitude would continue to surge. The more purple-black runes there were, the faster he absorbed demonic qi. Once demonization reached a certain level, those runes would shatter and reorganize, spontaneously forming demonic patterns unique to yaos under the influence of demonic qi.

I can't let the demonic patterns form. If they do, I'll lose control completely. Even forceful suppression won't stop the body from continuing to demonize, Lin Zheyu thought as his demonization approached 50%, his brows suddenly furrowing with unease. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

He carefully recalled his previous experience. It was when the purple-black runes shattered and reformed into demonic patterns that he had completely lost control. His demonization had surged instantly to a terrifying level, which had allowed demonic qi to invade his sea of consciousness.

This level of demonization should be enough. With such immense demon essence, even yaos probably won't be able to tell the difference, Lin Zheyu thought as he looked at his transformed body.

From the outside, his body had grown again, reaching nearly five meters tall. His muscles bulged, covered in grotesque scales. Beneath the scales, countless tendrils extended and swayed in the air. With these strange appendages, his perception improved dramatically. He could even faintly sense the locations of yaos tens of kilometers away.

He threw his head back and let out a thunderous roar, his immense yao aura spreading outward in all directions.

"This is too convincing. If I run into human cultivators, they'll probably kill me on sight as a yao," Lin Zheyu muttered.