Chapter 229 Tracing the Origins of the Demon Book

Chen Mu ignored Lu Dachuan's clamor and walked straight to his bunk; the warmth from the ancient demon seal in his bosom was no longer obvious, and he needed some quiet time to ponder.

Seeing him ignore them, the barracks gradually quieted down; Lu Dachuan, tired from his fussing, lay back down and groaned, while Ling Xiaoning was called away by Feng Qing to help organize arrows, leaving no one to pay attention to Chen Mu anymore.

Chen Mu sat cross-legged, placed the ten thousand demon catalog on the bed board, and took the ancient demon seal out from his bosom.

The two items were placed side by side: one was a heavy, yellowed old book, and the other was a dull, lusterless ancient seal; under the faint sunlight filtering in, they appeared unremarkable.

Chen Mu stared at them for a moment, then reached out and pressed the demon seal onto the cover of the book.

Nothing happened.

He then flipped open the pages and placed it under the demon seal.

Still silent.

"Could it really be an illusion?"

Chen Mu frowned slightly, but he refused to believe it in his heart; he was extremely confident in his own perception, and the throb of the demon seal back at the Demon Archive Division was definitely not unfounded.

He sat cross-legged, spread the ten thousand demon catalog across his knees, and carefully flipped through it page by page.

The book was very thick, written in tiny regular script, interspersed with some simple sketched patterns; the recorded content, just as Zhao Jin had said, was incredibly complex, ranging from mountain spirits and wild monsters to river demons, and from plant spirits to ghostly specters—all sorts of things; some were described in meticulous detail, while others were vague.

He read extremely fast; his eyesight and mental power had undergone a qualitative leap after his Breakthrough to the Heart-Awakening Realm, allowing him to read ten lines at a glance and possess an eidetic memory, but even so, it would still take quite some time to memorize this thick ten thousand demon catalog entirely.

Chen Mu suddenly had a thought.

The System could infuse Lifespan to Cultivate Cultivation Techniques, so could it... infuse Lifespan to directly master the knowledge in this book?

Once the thought arose, he couldn't suppress it; if it worked, wouldn't it save a huge amount of tedious effort? In future battles, knowing himself and the enemy would allow him to plunder more efficiently.

Thinking this, he concentrated his spirit, attempting to wrap his consciousness around the book in his hand, just like when triggering an infusion for a Cultivation Technique.

[Item Discovered: ten thousand demon catalog]

[Hint: Not a martial arts Secret Manual, not a Magic Treasure core, not an infusible Legacy carrier; cannot directly infuse Lifespan for comprehension or enhancement.]

The cold notification sound instantly extinguished Chen Mu's little thought of taking a shortcut.

Chen Mu twitched the corner of his mouth; that was true, if the System could even infuse the ability to read and learn, that would be too Heaven-Defying.

He was purely acting out of desperation, driven by this brick-thick book and the secrets that might be hidden within.

Helplessly, he resigned himself to opening the pages, intending to slowly chew through this brick of a book, when his gaze inadvertently swept over the System notification text and suddenly froze.

Item?

The System seemed to have its own classification standards for the things it identified; martial arts Secret Manuals, plundered Lifespan, and his own status were all resident pages, and when he first obtained the ancient demon seal, there had been a notification classifying it as a "Special Item."

With another thought, Chen Mu concentrated his spirit again to observe the book in his hand; this time, he didn't attempt an infusion, but instead looked at the System's definition of it, much like how he would look at his own status.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, beside the System panel, a new line of small text quietly appeared in an inconspicuous corner.

[Special Item: ten thousand demon catalog (Unknown Associated Object)]

Special Item?

Chen Mu's spirit lifted; as for Special Items that the System listed separately, he had only ever seen the ancient demon seal and the bear paw gloves, yet this ten thousand demon catalog was actually classified in this category, and it even marked an Unknown Associated Object.

Associated Object... associated with what?

Almost as if struck by inspiration, he immediately took out the ancient demon seal again and placed it side by side with the ten thousand demon catalog in front of him; this time, he didn't use his naked eyes to probe, but purely used his consciousness to lock onto both items simultaneously, closing his eyes to sense if the System had any new reaction.

[Combinable items detected: ancient demon seal, ten thousand demon catalog]

[Perform combination?]

As expected.

A sharp glint flashed in Chen Mu's eyes, and without the slightest hesitation, he decisively chose yes.

The moment he made his choice, both items vibrated slightly; immediately after, a layer of faint, ghostly light flowed across the surface of the demon seal, as fast as lightning, then vanished, while the cover of the ten thousand demon catalog beside it seemed to dim for an instant, as if some sort of Life Qi had been drained from it.

Both items soon returned to calm and looked no different from before, but within Chen Mu's Sea of Consciousness, the System panel had changed; the two lines of text that were previously labeled separately had disappeared and were replaced by an atlas-style icon.

[Special Combined Item: source-tracing demon tome]

[Function: Slay the demons in the demon tome to infuse Lifespan and attempt Deduction; there is a small probability of obtaining the demon's innate abilities or related Cultivation Techniques.]

[Deduction cost: Minimum of five years of plundered Lifespan per infusion; success rate is affected by factors such as the gap in strength between both parties and luck; after each failure, the Lifespan cost for the next Deduction doubles.]

[Warning: Deduction carries risks; failure yields no benefits; please choose carefully.]

Chen Mu's pupils constricted slightly.

Deduction? Obtaining demon innate abilities or Cultivation Techniques? This function was unprecedented.

His heart beat a few times faster than he would have liked, but he quickly forced himself to calm down.

The System description was very clear, but the restrictions were also numerous; first, it must be of Demon King level; second, it must be recorded in the catalog; finally, the success rate was not one hundred percent, and the cost would grow by doubling with the number of failures.

This was less of a function and more of a gamble.

Chen Mu suppressed the agitation in his heart, sank his consciousness into his Sea of Consciousness, and carefully flipped through that illusory source-tracing demon tome.

The atlas was no longer dense text, but vivid illustrations floating in the Void Realm. Each picture depicted a demon of different forms, with delicate brushwork that captured every fine detail, while the demon's name, main characteristics, and weaknesses were concisely noted below the image.

This was far more intuitive than flipping through the heavy book.

Chen Mu browsed quickly and soon discovered that this source-tracing demon tome did not contain all the demons from the ten thousand demon catalog, but only those that had reached the Demon King level were included within it.

The so-called Demon King did not refer solely to a Realm, but to a status.

A hegemon of a region, ruling over a group of demons, with strength far exceeding its peers, an existence capable of causing devastating threats to human towns.

Although the Black-Scaled Demon Snake of Shi Town was fierce, it was far from reaching the level of a Demon King, while the pair of Python-Dragons in Youxu Valley, although not yet fully transformed into dragons, already possessed the might of a Demon King—especially that Male Dragon; if the Jade Bell Guard had not arrived in time, the entire Team C would likely have been buried in its maw.

Chen Mu's thoughts stirred, and he searched within the source-tracing demon tome; soon, an illustration caught his eye.

The picture showed a giant python covered in pale green scales, with a short horn on its forehead and a swollen belly; it was precisely the Mother Dragon from Youxu Valley that had given birth. Next to the illustration was a note: "Green-Scaled Python Dragon, half-dragon body, adept at water-element demon power, scales are solid, has a reverse scale on its throat, which is its vital point; most vulnerable when giving birth, yet also most ferocious."

Found it!