0147 Improving the Formation (Second Update!)

Bairu offered no resistance whatsoever, instead proactively pressing her chest slightly closer toward Jiang Feng's hands.

With his mind completely focused on a single task, Jiang Feng paid no attention to any extraneous matters.

His expression was grave as his spiritual energy penetrated Bairu's chest and reached straight for her core seed of clarity.

Almost instantly, Bairu's face paled slightly, and her gaze grew somewhat unfocused. Yet, completely unaware of it herself, she continued to gaze wholeheartedly at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng's expression grew even more solemn. The nature of his spiritual energy was exceptional, possessing superior compatibility with other forms of spiritual energy, meaning it practically encountered no resistance when entering another person's body to investigate.

Thus, he immediately spotted Bairu's core seed of clarity and discovered a stream of black Qi swirling around it, attempting to infiltrate it!

Resembling a black tadpole, its head had already burrowed inside, leaving only a short black tail outside. Most terrifyingly, the core seed of clarity surrounding the tadpole had transformed into a transparent structure, as if it might vanish at any moment.

Jiang Feng instantly recalled Wansifuyu's fate. Her heart vanished, her core seed of clarity vanished, and she died an unnatural death without even feeling a thing while it happened.

Could Bairu become the next Wansifuyu? And what was this "tadpole"? Could it be the legendary demon seed?

Jiang Feng had no time for hesitation. Operating his spiritual energy with utmost precision, he immediately split off two tentacle-like fine threads and wrapped them around the tadpole's tail.

The tadpole trembled slightly, and Jiang Feng let out a sigh of relief. Indeed, his spiritual energy was able to make contact with it. The threads coiled around its tail, and with a mental command from Jiang Feng, he immediately exerted force to drag the tadpole backward.

Bairu let out a muffled groan, a look of pain crossing her face.

Jiang Feng said in a deep voice, "Listen to me, a foreign force has appeared near your core seed of clarity. It is very likely a substance called a demon seed." A flash of an image crossed his mind, and he continued, "It must have been planted inside you last night by that demon named Chaofeng."

"It is currently devouring your core seed of clarity. Can you see it?"

Within the span of those two sentences, the tadpole suddenly unleashed its power. It whirled around, a split opening up on its head like a large mouth, and viciously bit down on Jiang Feng's thread of spiritual energy, snapping it in an instant.

The moment it broke the thread, the tadpole bolted further inward without looking back. At that moment, a thin membrane suddenly appeared on the surface of Bairu's core seed of clarity, blocking the tadpole's path.

Jiang Feng breathed a sigh of relief. Evidently, Bairu had heard his words and had begun to counterattack automatically.

This "tadpole" was extraordinarily fierce. Opening its wide mouth, it viciously bit into Bairu's defensive barrier. It seemed to possess a special corrosive effect against spiritual energy; a single bite caused a crack to appear in the defense barrier, and two more bites completely breached her line of defense.

However, having delayed it for this brief moment, Jiang Feng's spiritual energy threads struck again from behind. This time, they transformed into two sharp spikes, stabbing toward the tadpole's head and piercing right through it in one go!

The tadpole remained unfazed, turning to bite back and snapping the spiritual energy threads once more.

Just as it was about to continue its advance, another two threads struck. This time, the threads approached from a different angle, piercing through the tadpole while simultaneously nailing it completely in place.

Jiang Feng let out a breath, dragged out the corpse of the tadpole, wrapped it in spiritual energy, extracted it from Bairu's body, and held it up before his eyes.

It was a mass of black power composed of numerous demonic energy threads, assembled into an intricate yet simple structure.

Jiang Feng's final attack had completely destroyed it, but its structural characteristics were still discernible.

The Heavenly Secret Cube had already swung into action, swiftly providing feedback.

This structure served three primary functions: concealment, destruction, and replication.

Upon seeing the final function, Jiang Feng's expression changed drastically. He looked at Bairu and found her lips tightly pressed together, uttering not a word while her face was dreadfully pale.

Thanks to Jiang Feng's timely discovery, he had dealt with the suspected demon seed just as it officially launched its attack.

However, it had already damaged Bairu's core seed of clarity. The core seed of clarity was the foundation of a martial cultivator; the moment it was injured, the cultivator would suffer a severe blow to their vitality. Having awakened her bloodline the previous night and not yet recovered from the aftereffects, Bairu was now suffering injuries compounded upon injuries, leaving her completely collapsed in her chair.

There was a cushioned daybed by the table. Jiang Feng helped her over to it and said, after a moment of hesitation, "The situation is critical right now; I must leave first."

Looking at him with eyes full of trust, Bairu smiled weakly and said, "Go ahead, I'll be fine."

Gritting his teeth, Jiang Feng summoned the drop of golden blood he had forced out earlier, had Bairu open her mouth, and let it float inside.

The moment the drop of blood touched her lips, Bairu's expression changed instantly. She closed her eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

Probing with his spiritual energy, Jiang Feng discovered that although she was unconscious, her aura was growing increasingly steady, and her core seed of clarity was recovering at a rapid pace. Most astonishingly, the sweet fragrance emanating from her body was fading, and her innate alluring charm seemed to be weakening as a result!

Jiang Feng breathed a sigh of relief, glanced at the purple drop of blood nearby, compressed it into a pearl of blood using his spiritual energy, and stored it inside his leather pouch. Afterward, he left a note for Bairu, stepped out of the basement, and, just to be safe, locked it from the outside.

Moving at top speed, he ran wildly and returned to Thousand Lions Bridge shortly after. Neither Hua Su nor Wen Liangji was present; only Gan Fuxing remained in the bridge pavilion.

The moment Gan Fuxing saw him, he was about to ask about Bairu, but noticing the grim look on Jiang Feng's face, he immediately asked, "What is it? What happened?"

Jiang Feng handed the mass of black power wrapped in spiritual energy directly to him, saying in a deep voice, "Master Gan, take a look at this!"

Gan Fuxing stared at the mass of black energy, the longer he looked, the more shocked he became. "Such an intricate structure... What is this?"

Since the affairs of Chong Jiangtian involved internal matters of the Chong family, Jiang Feng avoided details concerning him and instead explained the matter of the demon seed to Gan Fuxing.

Right at that moment, a carriage drove onto Thousand Lions Bridge and stopped in front of the pavilion.

Wen Liangji jumped down from the carriage and waved to Jiang Feng, calling out, "Come over here."

When Jiang Feng walked over and looked inside, he discovered that Chong Jiangtian was sitting in the carriage. He was bound hand and foot without any courtesy, his mouth tightly stuffed with a cloth gag. Panic and anger mingled in his eyes, but he could only make muffled "mm-mm" sounds without being able to speak a word.

Jiang Feng had not expected Wen Liangji's so-called "handling" to involve such crude methods, but his arrival was timely. Jiang Feng brought the mass of black energy directly before Chong Jiangtian and asked, "What is this?"

The moment Chong Jiangtian saw it, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. An expression of utter horror surfaced in his gaze, and he struggled frantically backward, as if trying to flee from this mass of energy.

With this reaction, no further words were needed. Jiang Feng nodded to Wen Liangji and said, "That's right, this is a demon seed."

Wen Liangji breathed a sigh of relief. "I brought him here precisely for this matter. As for the rest, I will force the truth out of his mouth; the Chong family will certainly give an explanation for this!"

His words thoroughly demonstrated the stance of the Chong family.

No matter what the faction represented by Chong Jiangtian might think, the main branch of the Chong family, including Chong Fan, still stood firmly on the side of all humanity!

The carriage sped away, and Jiang Feng returned to the bridge pavilion.

Gan Fuxing, who had not gone out, looked thoughtfully at Jiang Feng and said in a low voice, "It's best not to get too deeply involved in the affairs of the major clans."

Jiang Feng smiled in gratitude and replied, "Yes, I know."

The two exchanged a glance, leaving much unsaid between them.

Jiang Feng steered the conversation back to the main topic. Pointing at the mass of black energy, he said, "This is indeed the demon seed. Master Gan, what do you suppose the demons intend to use it for?"

Gan Fuxing replied, "I must run some tests on it first."

The anti-demon treasured artifact had already reached the next stage of practical implementation. Gan Fuxing only needed to oversee the overall situation, leaving the meticulous work to be handled directly by others. He pushed everything else on the stone table to the side, pulled a box from his bosom, and opened it. Inside lay an exquisite treasured artifact; though small, it was extremely profound, and Jiang Feng could only discern a portion of its workings.

Gan Fuxing carefully placed the mass of energy inside and operated the device. Various beams of light emerged from all corners of the box, refracting into a multitude of complex patterns in midair.

Jiang Feng could not make sense of any of it, but Gan Fuxing examined the patterns step by step with great familiarity.

His expression grew increasingly unsightly, until he finally slammed his hand down on the table and roared in fury, "The demons are utterly insidious and vicious!"

He pointed to the contents of the diagrams and explained them to Jiang Feng. "This demon seed can rapidly self-replicate, spreading from one person to more people and quickly infecting a massive crowd. Furthermore, it has different functions depending on the target. For martial cultivators, it can destroy spiritual energy defenses and devour their core seed of clarity. For ordinary humans, it can erode their consciousness and turn them into puppets of the demons."

He took a deep breath and said angrily, "If this thing were to erupt in a full-scale contagion, all the strength in Taicang City would be completely hollowed out, turning the entire place into a demon lair!"

This assessment was quite similar to the Heavenly Secret Cube's judgment, albeit more detailed. Jiang Feng nodded and said gravely, "Moreover, all of this happens with extreme subtlety, making it very difficult to detect."

Without hesitation, he stated, "Then the most urgent task at hand is to build a detection device capable of quickly identifying who has been infected by the demon seed."

Gan Fuxing added, "At the same time, we must also complete a defensive treasured artifact and an offensive treasured artifact. On one hand, to prevent the demon seed from infiltrating; on the other hand, to kill any dormant demon seeds."

He smiled bitterly and said, "Coming up with three treasured artifacts all at once, and under such urgent circumstances, is a bit troublesome..."

Jiang Feng fell silent, his gaze flickering as his mind raced. Decisively, he said, "Leave the detection and attack functions to me! Master Gan, I will have to trouble you with the artifact for defending against the demon seed."

Gan Fuxing asked in surprise, "Are you confident?"

Jiang Feng nodded. "Yes, I already have some ideas."

Gan Fuxing looked at him in astonishment, then laughed heartily. "Good! We artifact masters never shy away from challenges!"

Looking solemnly at Jiang Feng, he said, "If you can accomplish these two tasks, I will definitely propose to the Provincial Artifact Masters Association to award you a Heavenly Secret Medal!"