I Have a Golden Crow

"Don't think of the Demon Soul as something too mysterious."

"You just need to remember two points. First, refine the Demon Breath to the extreme; that's the embryonic form of the Demon Soul."

"Secondly, integrate your emotions into the embryonic form of the Demon Soul to obtain the true Demon Soul."

Du Yu sat cross-legged on the ground, listening to the earnest teachings of Senior Brother Fu Jianzhou.

He asked perplexed, "Integrate emotions into it?"

"Exactly!" Fu Jianzhou nodded, "You can think of the Demon Soul as a concrete manifestation of the soul.

Your temperament, character qualities, including your understanding and attitude towards the world, collectively shape the mature Demon Soul.

But these are things to consider later. Right now, you need to refine the Demon Breath into the embryonic form, and then try to integrate joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness into it.

Let this wisp of Demon Soul become an extension of your thoughts."

Du Yu only partially understood, preparing to take one step at a time: "How should I refine the Demon Breath?"

Fu Jianzhou: "First, find a point within your body, and compress the stored Demon Breath there to its extreme, causing a qualitative change. Let the Demon Breath transform into a higher quality existence."

"Here, here~" called Little Fen Yang.

Clueless Du Yu was about to gather a Demon Soul, which was undoubtedly a huge step forward; Little Fen Yang was very happy.

Inside his body, the Little Black Gold Bird flew out from the Forehead Acupoint, heading all the way down to the navel point—the Shenque Acupoint.

Within the Shenque Acupoint, the Demon Breath was abundant, but it wasn't the home of the Demon Pet, so its scale wasn't very large.

"Compress." Du Yu murmured, slowly closing his eyes, and viewed the environment of the internal meridians.

"Let's imprison the Demon Breath first." Little Fen Yang whispered.

As soon as those words fell, Du Yu felt that the Shenque Acupoint nestled within the 'Great Flowing River' had lost connection with the entire Ren Meridian.

Little Fen Yang spoke and acted, truly isolating the Shenque Acupoint, resembling the stance of closing the door to attack the dog.

Fu Jianzhou patted Du Yu's shoulder: "Refining the Demon Soul is a long process.

Especially when refining the Demon Soul for the first time, it might take several days, so avoid impatience."

"Understood." Du Yu said taciturnly, his complexion stiffening noticeably.

Seeing this, Fu Jianzhou stopped disturbing him, got up, and walked to the side, planning to take care of a few playful Demon Pets.

In fact, it was quite safe here, not needing special care.

Fu Jianzhou was mainly concerned that the little ones would damage the Bamboo Grove environment; he didn't want to be chased away disgracefully.

"Hello?" Fu Jianzhou paused his step, turned his head to gaze deep into the bamboo forest, and then clasped his hands together, slightly bowing.

A Chi Bear over two meters tall, wearing a conical hat woven from Red Bamboo Leaves, walked upright towards him.

Though its size was also huge, it still fell within an acceptable range for humans.

The Chi Bear also clasped its hands, returned the salute, and then a phantom silhouette broke away, and rushed towards Fu Jianzhou.

"The Clan Leader has ordered me to take you two from the Human Race to a quiet place for focused cultivation."

Fu Jianzhou: "Thank you, Fire Bamboo Race Leader, for the kindness."

"Follow me."

Fu Jianzhou nodded immediately, turning to head back to Du Yu.

Only to see Du Yu's expression extremely stiff, with a faint orange-red glow flowing beneath his skin.

It was evident that the junior brother exerted all his strength.

For a moment, Fu Jianzhou hesitated, unsure whether to interrupt Du Yu.

"He's refining the Demon Soul." The gigantic Demon Soul of Chi Bear enveloped Fu Jianzhou, silently watching Du Yu.

"Yes."

"A novice?"

Fu Jianzhou nodded lightly: "Yes, he just recently advanced to Demon Tamer last night."

Chi Bear: "Then bring him along, let's go."

This Chi Bear was undoubtedly experienced, knowing that refining the Demon Soul required a long time; just waiting like this might take two or three days.

Meanwhile, Du Yu was compressing the Demon Breath within the Shenque Acupoint, and the repeatedly oppressed Fire Demon Breath now resembled a layer of condensed thin sheet.

He had a peculiar feeling, always feeling like the Fire Demon Breath was about to be squeezed into liquid...

"Good, good~" Little Fen Yang guarded the entrance to the acupoint, preventing the outside Demon Breath from pouring in, and also personally backed Du Yu, "Let me help you."

As the Little Black Gold Bird flapped its wings, a surge of Fire Demon Breath surged in.

The Fire Demon Breath which was supposed to integrate into Du Yu's acupoint seemed to come from another faction, furiously pressing the 'fellow origin,' forcing the indigenous to continually condense.

A thin sheet gradually got rolled into a small spherical bead.

"Huh...huh..." Du Yu's breathing became short and rapid, exhaling strands of Fire Demon Breath.

Under the strenuous refinement of the Demon Soul, Du Yu's internal Ren Meridian-like river, circulating back and forth, lost its usual order, becoming somewhat chaotic.

"Oh?" Chi Bear blinked its eyes, and the Demon Soul enveloped Fu Jianzhou, while its body also stepped out from the bamboo forest.

Seeing this scene, Fu Jianzhou inwardly clicked his tongue.

Regarding the Paper Crane Disciples' outstanding talents, this was an undisputed fact; however, witnessing their talent first-hand each time always felt incredibly unreal.

This group of Paper Crane Disciples seemed to be dispatched by heaven to subvert people's understanding of Demon Taming!

Little Fen Yang: "Alright, let's mix emotions into it."

"How to mix?"

This was the second step of the operation, as Senior Brother Fu had only taught the first step, gathering the embryonic form of the Demon Soul.

"Focus on it, recognize it, become it."

Du Yu felt the small spherical bead within the Shenque Acupoint, his expression growing increasingly bizarre.

In ancient times, there was Zhuang Zhou dreamt of being a butterfly; today, Prince Du becomes the bead!

"Crack~" A faint breaking sound echoed within his body.

The small spherical bead seemed unable to withstand the insult and got crushed.

In fact, it wasn't so; once Du Yu established a connection with the embryonic form of the Demon Soul, the small spherical bead underwent a qualitative change, breaking away from the existing form of Demon Breath, shattering into a wisp of Residual Soul.

"Yoohoo~" Little Fen Yang suddenly cheered, "Success!"

As Little Fen Yang cheered, the acupoint gateway was breached, and endless Fire Demon Breath surged into the acupoint, engulfing that wisp of Residual Soul.

Du Yu opened his eyes, staring blankly at his abdomen.

Fu Jianzhou wore a curious expression: "Succeeded?"

"Ah." Du Yu touched his navel with one hand and gently pulled outward.

In an instant, a wisp of Residual Soul appeared in a phantom thread, pulled out by Du Yu.

"You..." Fu Jianzhou hesitated for quite a while before speaking, "Your understanding is quite good."

After all, Fu Jianzhou had focused mainly on explaining how to gather the Demon Soul prototype, only briefly mentioning the qualitative change required afterwards.

Du Yu's fingertips grazed over the wisp of Residual Soul, creating a peculiar sensation akin to "left hand touching the right hand."

He looked pleasantly surprised, turning to glance at Fu Jianzhou, but then his face fell.

Fu Jianzhou asked with concern, "What's wrong?"

Du Yu gazed at the massive Chi Bear Demon Soul enveloping Fu Jianzhou and then at his own face where the thin Residual Soul was drifting.

Oh dear...

How many wisps of Residual Soul does it take to piece together a real Demon Soul?

If the Chi Bear's Demon Soul in front of him were an ocean, then his wisp of Residual Soul wouldn't even count as a river, at most a small stream!

Fu Jianzhou suddenly spoke, "His name is Du Yu, he made a Contract with your tribesmate yesterday, over there."

The Chi Bear looked down to see Xiaohua and Little Tai Sui each hugging one of Xiaoyan's large tails, happily swaying up and down with the tail's motion.

"Hello." Du Yu calmed himself, stood up, and nodded towards the Conical Hat Chi Bear.

Although he had arrived here just a day or two ago, Du Yu had already noticed.

Among the Tai Sui Fire Bamboo Tribe, any Chi Bear wearing a conical hat had relatively high status.

Seeing Du Yu was okay, Fu Jianzhou relaxed significantly: "Let's go, Hongye is arranging a place for us to cultivate quietly."

"Hongye?" Du Yu looked up at the red bamboo leaves swaying in the wind like layers of beautiful red clouds.

He couldn't help saying, "It's a very nice name."

The giant Chi Bear Demon Soul silently watched Du Yu without responding.

"Let's go, Xiaoyan, let's change places." Du Yu called out, realizing he should follow the arrangements while on their turf.

Du Yu mentioned only one name, yet he gathered a wealth of Demon Pets!

As Xiaoyan rushed over, he embraced Princess Consort Yan along with Xiaohua and Little Tai Sui.

It was a bountiful return, overflowing with happiness!

"Mew~"

"Mew!" Seeing the little ones flopping around in Du Yu's arms, especially Xiaoyan softly mewling and affectionately nuzzling Du Yu's face, even Hongye's gaze softened slightly.

Her resistance to the clan leader's orders decreased a bit.

As Du Yu caught up, the massive Demon Soul enveloping Fu Jianzhou silently shifted several meters, covering Du Yu.

Du Yu looked up to find himself surrounded by phantom lines on all sides, the sensation was quite wondrous.

Like sitting inside a mech...

"Hmm?" Du Yu vaguely sensed something, uncertainly saying, "Yes, I just leveled up yesterday afternoon, didn't you know?

Last night, the tribe even held a celebration banquet?"

Hongye was unaware of Little Fen Yang's existence, or perhaps Little Fen Yang didn't intend to communicate with the Chi Bear.

Hongye: "I'm not from this tribe."

"Huh?" Du Yu received information unilaterally, looking through the phantom Demon Soul at the guiding Chi Bear ahead, "Then you are?"

Hongye: "In the Bamboo Grove, there's a tribe near each Tai Sui Bamboo, I come from a more southern tribe."

Du Yu asked skeptically, "Then where are you taking us? To your tribe?"

"No, just nearby."

"Oh." Du Yu hugged his Demon Pet tightly, "The relationship between your tribes is pretty good, huh? Are you visiting?"

The entity Hongye slightly turned her head, her bear eyes under the red conical hat glanced at Du Yu.

While the Hongye Demon Soul enveloping Du Yu transmitted a message again: "Our tribes are united, yet we compete against each other, growing together.

All in pursuit of better defending our home and fulfilling our racial dreams."

Upon hearing this, Du Yu nodded inwardly.

A very wise decision!

For the Bamboo Grove is well-protected by the Human Race!

There are not only no enemies, even daily meals are delivered to the Chi Bears by the Human Race.

Such a comfortable environment can greatly wear down one's fighting spirit.

If there's no competition within the tribe, undoubtedly, this place would gradually become stagnant.

Du Yu was curious and asked, "How do your tribes compete?"

Hongye: "Every six months, a contest is held, with all tribes sending warriors to participate."

"Oh?" Du Yu's interest was piqued, "When is the next contest?"

Hongye: "In five months."

Du Yu: "..."

Hongye: "You seem a bit disappointed."

"Yeah, I wanted to experience your unique culture and witness the strong Chi Bears in action!"

"You can watch me."

Du Yu: "What?"

The entity Hongye paused her steps, lifting her hat slightly with her bear paw, gazing at the bamboo courtyard constructed overnight in the distance.

The Demon Soul Hongye enveloping Du Yu spoke: "I, Spirit List's first."