The Rat Cultivator

Chapter 138: Seizing Spirit and Refining Artifact

Trapped in the stone egg, the Mosquito Mother’s voice turned shrill with panic.

“Rat King! Rat King, spare me!”

“I acknowledge you as my Master! I swear it on my soul!”

Wu Yuan chuckled lightly, tossing the egg in his palm. “Didn’t you just say it was impossible for you to submit? That you’d rather self-destruct?”

“I was wrong!” The Mosquito Mother screamed. “I will hand over my soul and Essence Blood to you right now! With a single thought, you can decide my life or death! I am an Ancient Rare Insect—my bloodline is noble! I am absolutely useful for your cultivation! Don’t destroy me!”

Wu Yuan ignored her begging. Instead, he asked a pointed question.

“You’re a new individual formed from a resurrection egg laid a long time ago, aren’t you?”

The Mosquito Mother paused, anxious, but answered truthfully in hopes of buying time. “That’s right. My predecessor laid the egg in the Azure Radiance Grotto-Heaven when it was unowned. I only recently revived.”

Sensing Wu Yuan’s hesitation, she hurriedly added, “My predecessor was a peak Golden Core cultivator! She stirred up a Blood Calamity of no small scale and left treasures hidden all over the region. I know many secrets! I even know where the core of the Grotto-Heaven is located!”

Wu Yuan chuckled again, shaking his head.

“Even at death’s door, you’re still trying to deceive me.”

He was certain this Mosquito Mother was a blank slate. If she truly retained her predecessor’s memories, she wouldn’t have been stumbling around at the mid-stage of Qi Refining. She would have rebuilt her empire in silence instead of arrogantly provoking him.

“Goodbye.”

Wu Yuan threw the resurrection egg into the blazing Blood Fire of the Corrupt Water Pool.

NO!

The Mosquito Mother let out a miserable, soul-tearing scream.

Inside the flames, the gray stone bead began to change. It turned milky white, its surface emitting a desperate, faint glow. The Mosquito Mother was trying to force a premature revival.

But she was a step too late.

The egg sank into the boiling blood-slurry. Instantly, it was stained a crystal-clear, translucent red, resembling a dazzling ruby. Through the surface, one could see the silhouette of a Blood-Winged Black Mosquito frantically trying to form.

Before it could solidify, the churning blood water swept over it, dissolving the shell and merging the embryonic fluid into the pool.

Wu Yuan shouted in excitement.

“Activate the formation at full power!”

“Extract the Spirit! EXTRACT!”

RUMBLE!

The formation groaned under the strain. Boundless Heaven and Earth Baleful Qi surged into the blood water like thousands of invisible hooks. They latched onto the dissolving essence of the Mosquito Mother and pulled.

With a tearing sound audible only to the soul, a dense cluster of blood-red spirit runes was dragged out of the liquid.

The runes clumped together in the shape of a mosquito, fluttering their textual wings in a futile attempt to break free from the shackles of the Baleful Qi.

Wu Yuan listened nervously to the high-load cracking sounds of his formation flags. He stared intently at the struggling runes, his eyes gleaming.

“These resemble Bloodline Spirit Runes… No, that’s exactly what they are!”

“Among Demon Beasts, bloodline is the essence. The Mosquito Mother is no exception!”

Under Wu Yuan’s expectant gaze, the spirit runes were finally ripped free from the egg’s remains.

Wu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. With a wave of his hand, he drove the mosquito-shaped runes into the floating flesh ball he had prepared earlier.

Infused with the high-grade runes, the flesh ball began to writhe and transform. Slowly, it lost its spherical shape, flattening and expanding until it took the form of a miniature pool.

“Begin Spirit Refinement!”

The surrounding black totem pillars emitted a dim, ominous light. The Blood Baleful Spirit Refining Fire blazed fiercely, tempering the artifact.

The shape of the blood pool became clearer. From a distance, it looked like a perfect replica of the Corrupt Water Pool—black-red rock containing a thin layer of blood water at the bottom. But upon closer inspection, the “water” and “rock” were composed entirely of densely packed spirit runes exuding a terrifying bloody aura.

“This Ancient Rare Insect is truly extraordinary,” Wu Yuan muttered, rubbing his claws together. “If this really was the last Mosquito Mother in the world, then this artifact is unique.”

He reached into his storage bag and pulled out handfuls of red crystals.

These were crystallized droplets of his own blood, collected by the Spirit Mulberry Tree over the months. For a body cultivator like Wu Yuan, drawing ten pounds of blood a day was trivial. He threw them all into the artifact.

Supplemented by Wu Yuan’s blood, the water level in the artifact began to rise. The spirit runes within twisted again, finally converging into the shape of a rat.

Wu Yuan looked at the gradually filling pool. He gritted his teeth.

Slash!

He tore open his own chest with his claws. Reaching inside, he gouged out a piece of his own living heart.

Wu Yuan’s face went pale, his aura fluctuating wildly.

“Stomach Stores Spirit! Absorb!”

His innate ability kicked in, rapidly healing the heart tissue and stopping the bleeding, allowing him to catch his breath.

He threw the chunk of heart—still beating and dripping with Essence Blood—into the rat-shaped spirit runes within the artifact.

Hum!

The runes immediately became lively. They devoured the heart fragment and transformed into a red rat shadow that looked identical to Wu Yuan.

“The spirituality of the Lifebound Magical Artifact is finally refined!” Wu Yuan gasped. “But it still lacks a soul…”

Golden light surged at the tips of his claws—the Creation Power derived from the Emperor Fluid.

“Awaken the Spirit!”

Wu Yuan silently recited the mantra.

Flecks of golden light drifted into the rat shadow. Its spirituality exploded, becoming abundant and real. Blood-red hairs became visible on its body. It no longer looked like a shadow; it looked like a living rat made of blood.

Wu Yuan’s eyes grew glazed. His consciousness merged with the artifact.

His vision turned into a sea of blood, raging and roaring. He became intoxicated by the sheer power at his command.

Then, he sensed something below—something deep within the earth that called to him.

Following his will, the blood water in the artifact swept out, resonating with the actual Corrupt Water Pool.

BOOM!

A pillar of spiritual light shot into the sky. The Blood Water Pool began to madly extract everything from the formation—Spiritual Qi, Baleful Qi, Resentment, Blood Qi, Killing Intent. It swallowed it all like a greedy leviathan.

Then, it went deeper.

The earth around the Corrupt Water Pool began to collapse. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground as the artifact forcibly extracted the Spirituality of the land itself.

Originally, the Corrupt Water Pool was a vital organ of the Azure Spirit Mountain Range, designed to purify filth. Now, Wu Yuan was ripping that organ out.

Normally, a Qi Condensation cultivator couldn’t touch Earth Vein Spirituality. But inside this formation, isolated by the Killing Intent of Heaven and Earth, the laws of reality were thin. And since the artifact was refined from the pool’s own materials, it shared the same origin.

It was a perfect, cannibalistic match.

In his daze, Wu Yuan saw a giant cyan hand reach down from the void. It pulled a golden spirit rune from the wreckage of the Corrupt Water Pool and cast it into his artifact.

With that final theft, the Corrupt Water Pool died.

The sky turned gloomy. Howling winds swept through the valley. The lush green vegetation surrounding the pool instantly withered, turning a sickly gray as their vitality was drained.

Wu Yuan sensed something was wrong. He hadn’t expected to completely destroy the geomancy of the area.

But he had no intention of turning back.

“One final step! The blood water has a spirit, but it lacks a vessel!”

“Condense!”

The spiritual light from the shattered pool converged. The rubble and rock compressed, fusing with the blood water to form the physical body of the artifact.

The massive pool shrank rapidly, condensing until it was small enough to fit in a hand.

Wu Yuan laughed heartily, catching the object as it fell.

“Success! I’ve succeeded!”