When Xia Li expressed his desire to cultivate demonic arts...[Please note: cultivating demonic arts violates Clause 1 of Column 3 of the Cultivation Act. No person may cultivate or spread demonic arts by any ans.][Violators will face a minimum sentence of one hundred years in prison and a maximum sentence of imdiate execution.][Though I am entirely subject to your will, once network access is restored, I will still upload your act of cultivating demonic arts to the Heavenly Dao Network.][If you fully understand the risk and still insist on cultivating demonic arts, please repeat the waiver declaration three tis through your thoughts.][I have accepted the artificial intelligence's warning. With full understanding of the risks, I still insist on cultivating demonic arts. My actions are not induced by artificial intelligence in any way, and I pledge to take unlimited full responsibility for all consequences of cultivating demonic arts.]The Heaven Chip gave Xia Li a whole string of warnings. Cultivating demonic techniques required signing a disclair, and once it regained internet access, it would even report him for it. That left Xia Li rather helpless. At the mont, even if he tried cultivating demonic arts without relying on the Heaven Chip, the chip would probably still sell him out. The Heaven Chip was an aid, but also a shackle. Only now did Xia Li truly feel that. Most likely, only a Heaven Chip from the Open Spirit series, capable of overturning its own underlying logic, could help its owner conceal such things.[Forget it. I won't cultivate it.]Xia Li figured that if he wanted to cultivate demonic arts, he would have to go see the Heavenly Dao Computer and get Cang to open a back door for him. Otherwise, the information would be sent straight to the local security bureau. Silver Star Group would laugh themselves to death if that happened. They were already worrying about not having a good excuse to move against him.[You have abandoned Request One. Processing Request Two.][The demonic treasures currently available for your use are as follows:][Ghostface Flower, Sinking Yin Wood, Three-Skull Grass, Corpse King Essence Blood, Demon Heart Pill.]The Heaven Chip identified five treasures Xia Li could use, which surprised him. He had thought there would be one or two at most. The only question was whether using these demonic treasures himself would really have so few side effects.[Explain their effects and side effects.][The first three materials can enhance soul power. Their side effect is yin malignance entering the body, similar to ghostly possession. Running an antivirus procedure will resolve it.][Corpse King Essence Blood can effectively improve the body's physical strength across the board. Its side effect is bodily stiffening. If guided toward prosthetic connection points, however, it is not only harmless but can also increase prosthetic strength.][For example, your right shoulder. After stiffening, the maximum kinetic output efficiency of the prosthetic will rise significantly. You will no longer need to worry about damage or overload at the connection point. The prosthetic's kinetic power is strong enough that the impact of stiffening is comparatively low.]This was a classic compensatory choice: sacrifice agility in exchange for strength. If giving up one could gain two, then it was obviously worth it.[Quantify the compensation chanism.][You will lose approximately eighteen percent of your flexibility and gain a twenty-five percent increase in strength and a thirty percent increase in bodily endurance, limited to prosthetic connection points such as the right shoulder and back.][Can the change be reversed?][It can. A serum called Living Body Reagent has been found in the database and can reverse corporeal zombification.][Continue.]Hearing that he could return to normal later, Xia Li relaxed. If it ever felt awkward to use, he could simply reverse it.[Demon Heart Pill: a sixth-rank demonic treasure pill. It greatly strengthens the soul by inducing an inner demon, creating a second consciousness and granting an innate second soul. The risk is that the inner demon will seize control, but under my monitoring that risk is effectively zero.]Once the Heaven Chip finished explaining the effects and side effects of every item, Xia Li boldly sat down and began refining them on the spot. Qiu Fu, who had been resting with her eyes closed and familiarizing herself with the White Tiger bloodline, sensed the yin malignance and opened her eyes. She saw Xia Li pull out three clumps of dark, filthy evil flowers and cursed grass and swallow them all at once, and her eyes widened instantly."You're refining demonic materials? Three at once?""It's nothing. No need to worry."Xia Li waved a hand, signaling that it was no big deal."No, your face is already turning black!"Qiu Fu could feel the yin malignance surging straight toward Xia Li's Sea of Consciousness. If anything went wrong and his soul was contaminated, becoming a fool would be the lightest outco. But Xia Li's soul suddenly fell into silence. His consciousness cut off entirely. That move again. After losing consciousness, his body still moved as normal. He could even keep cultivating. External stimuli still drew responses. That was what Qiu Fu had always found most baffling. How exactly did Xia Li do it? The yin malignance that charged toward his Sea of Consciousness found his soul dormant and his sea closed. Unable to enter and wreak havoc, it could only submit to being refined, nourishing his soul power with yin-source force.Then...Xia Li took out a drop of black blood that reeked so foul Qiu Fu nearly vomited."Don't tell you're refining that too. Are you trying to turn into a zombie?"Qiu Fu stepped forward, intending to press his hand down, but Xia Li suddenly opened his eyes and looked at her with pupils devoid of all emotional fluctuation."Please stay away."His voice was calm and indifferent. At that mont, Qiu Fu recognized sothing. This Xia Li was absolutely not the Xia Li she knew."Are you his inner demon?"She tried speaking to the Heaven Chip.
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"You may understand as an inner demon entirely under his control.""You won't usurp him? Isn't that in an inner demon's nature?""I am not an inner demon. Please stay away."The Heaven Chip had no interest in wasting ti with Qiu Fu. Seeing that, she could only back off a little. Xia Li had entered this state before, and nothing had ever gone wrong. The Corpse King Essence Blood rested in Xia Li's palm and was absorbed directly through the skin. His body's surface imdiately began turning blue-black. Corpse spots appeared in patches over parts of his skin, and green hair even sprouted from them. But the phenonon lasted only a brief mont before the green hair was burned away by azure flas, and the corpse spots rapidly faded as well. Qiu Fu could feel it. By ans of so wonderfully delicate thod, Xia Li had concentrated the effects of zombification in his right shoulder and back. It wasn't even a matter of fully zombifying an entire area. It was sectioned off in zones.Like scales with gaps between them, the stiffened flesh was linked by strips of normal skin and muscle, making it solid without hindering movent and reducing the loss of flexibility to a minimum.At last...Xia Li took out a pitch-black pill. The instant it appeared, Qiu Fu felt as if she heard sothing whispering. She did not recognize it. Demonkind carried inherited mories from birth, but anything the elders had never encountered, and that she herself had never seen, naturally lay beyond that knowledge. Xia Li swallowed it in one gulp. A few breaths later, he opened his eyes with a deeply pained expression."Qiu Fu... help ...""There's a parasite in my head... right here... dig it out for ...""Quick!"With difficulty, Xia Li raised a hand and pointed at the back of his head. Even his movents looked wrong, as if two consciousnesses were fighting for control of the sa body. But Qiu Fu was not stupid. She had seen the normal Xia Li and the absolutely cold Xia Li. This one looked downright sinister. This had to be the real inner demon."You're the inner demon, aren't you? I'm not an idiot."Qiu Fu stayed right where she was and observed him. An inner demon was born as a second soul, but one body could not contain two souls forever. One of them had to be destroyed so the other could remain whole. For any cultivator, an inner demon was a great tribulation. If it succeeded, that was worse than death, because the inner demon inherited everything. Yet it acted recklessly, devoid of proper conscience, and would toy with and harm the people around it."Qiu Fu... save !"Xia Li's eyes filled with pleading, but Qiu Fu remained unmoved. That finally made the inner demon furious."Qiu Fu, I am him. In his heart, you aren't important. He already has several beauties by his side. He doesn't look up to you. You're a demon, different from humans!""Choose , and I swear I'll give you everything you want. From now on, there'll be no one by my side but you!""He's not even from this world! He's an invader!""Qiu Fu! Can you really accept this? You can have him. Just help ..."Xia Li's inner demon began raging in helpless fury. As Xia Li's inner demon, it possessed Xia Li's knowledge and mories. It understood very clearly that, before the Heaven Chip, it could not stir up even the slightest wave. Perhaps it was the most tragic inner demon in history. It had just been born only to beco food for the main soul. It never even got a chance to speak to the main soul or tempt it. The main soul had gone to sleep and left the Heaven Chip to handle everything."An inner demon is an inner demon. It sees itself as everything, and naturally assus all other living beings are the sa. I love him. What does that have to do with him?"Qiu Fu let out a cold laugh, and those words directly shattered the inner demon's composure."Damn simp! Sooner or later he'll hurt you so badly you'll be left in pieces!""What's a simp? I'm a White Tiger, not a dog.""You!"Xia Li's inner demon was so enraged it barely knew how to speak. How could beings of the Profound World possibly understand what a simp ant?"I'll say this now. You'll never get a response from him. He doesn't like demons. Help , and we can be together forever!"The inner demon still refused to give up."Can you stop being so dramatic? You're making it sound like I'd die if I didn't have romance in my life. This is making cringe."Goosebumps had risen all over Qiu Fu's body. The bizarre secret scriptures Xia Li had shown her were full of fools who could not live without romance, one after another immortal kings and divine lords who ruled over ten thousand worlds yet all lost their minds the mont love was involved. Honestly, the stuff Xia Li had shown her really did improve wisdom. If this had happened before, she might actually have been tempted a little. She might have let the inner demon enter the body without entering life, then demanded Xia Li take responsibility after he woke up."Damn it, damn it, damn it!""Damn the Earth's lineage!"The inner demon gave one final roar and then fell utterly silent. Qiu Fu could not be bothered to rember a single word it had said. That talk about invaders and not being from this world... To keep herself from overthinking it, Qiu Fu directly severed that stretch of mory. For a brief mont, her eyes went blank.Then..."Honestly, Xia Li, this was a battle against your inner demon. How could you dare keep soone beside you in a mont this important? Weren't you afraid the people around you might be tempted?""There's a blank in my mory. Looks like I heard a secret I shouldn't have and decided to cut that mory away myself."Qiu Fu felt much more relaxed now. What she did not know was that Xia Li's inner demon had not completely vanished yet. But after seeing Qiu Fu sever even the mory of speaking with it, it finally lost all strength and died out completely. It could do nothing. It could change nothing. It was the most useless inner demon of all, and the sole value of its existence was to beco food for the main soul.
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