Subduing the Demonic Treasure

This time, once again, Zhang Baichi had escaped the illusion conjured up by the Demonic Treasure.

However, that did not mean that the danger had passed; On the contrary, his situation was still incredibly bad!

Right now, the Demonic Treasure was held in Zhang Baichi's hand, and even coiled around his arms and shoulders.

Demonic Qi, and an evil aura were still pressing down on him, Yu Hao, and Lu Zheng like a tall mountain.

While Zhang Baichi had escaped the illusion, and survived until now, he was still far from subduing the Demonic Treasure!

Less than a few seconds had passed since he broke free. He had barely enough time to pull the Demonic Treasure back and stop it from coiling around his throat.

He had realized what was happening, and seen Yu Hao and Lu Zheng, but the demonic Qi was already pressing down on him again, trying to cloud his mind once again.

"You two, get away…!", Zhang Baichi spoke through gritted teeth, glancing at his two friends. His focus turned back to the Demonic Treasure. 'System, put it into my Inventory!'

[Ding! Unable to execute Host's command! An object that has developed spirituality must be willing to enter the Inventory. The Demonic Treasure is still resisting.]

'It's not possible, even for the system?', Zhang Baichi complained in his mind, but didn't linger on the matter.

The Demonic Treasure was still vying for supremacy with him and trying to wrest control over his body away from him.

If he did not concentrate, he might lose his mind and body to the Demonic Treasure, turning him into nothing more than an empty shell and a puppet.

He closed his eyes and focused on his own thoughts.

Currently, there were many clashing thoughts running through his head, and while Zhang Baichi realized that these bloodthirsty intents were the Demonic Treasure's doing, he could barely suppress them.

It took a few seconds before Zhang Baichi entered a curious state of mind; He felt as if he was standing in a void of nothingness, completely empty, but filled with nothing but thoughts at the same time.

He could not describe this feeling, but he immediately knew that this was his own Soul Space. The name, description of this place, and even how it worked in detail were immediately apparent in his mind.

Every cultivator had a Soul Space, but it was usually impossible hard to access it. Under normal circumstances, only peak Core Condensation Realm cultivators would access their own Soul Spaces.

That was because opening ones own Soul Space was one of the requirements to be able to take the next step and reach the legendary Nascent Soul Realm!

While ordinary cultivators at the Body Forging Realm, Qi Condensation Realm, Essence Sea Realm and even the Core Condensation Realm trained their bodies, Qi, and martial arts, a Nascent Soul Realm cultivator trained to own soul to elevate their own powers even further!

Being able to open his Soul Space early meant that Zhang Baichi was already destined to reach the Nascent Soul Realm in the future as long as his cultivation improved to the peak of the Core Condensation Realm.

Once he reached that level of cultivation, he would be able to immediately make his breakthrough into the Nascent Soul Realm without even the slightest bottleneck!

But before that, Zhang Baichi would still have to deal with the Demonic Treasure.

His Soul Space had just opened up for him, but it was already on the verge of collapsing due to the Demonic Treasure's continuous assault; And once it collapsed, it would be impossible for Zhang Baichi to ever open it again, forever ending his path of cultivation!

A deep crimson aura had suffused into his Soul Space, representative of the Demonic Treasure's influence, and Zhang Baichi could only try and erase these points of influences one by one.

Thankfully, the Soul Space alone was enough to stop the Demonic Treasure from taking over his mind and body, at least for the time being.

Like this, he could concentrate on reorganizing his own thoughts and expel the Demonic Treasure's traces within his mind.

A minute had passed in the outside world. Then, an hour. Then, an entire day.

Yu Hao and Lu Zheng did not speak, as each of them was injured, and both of them focused on recuperating as fast as possible.

Both of them could still remember the terrifying power of the Demonic Treasure; They were walking on stairs in the sky, on their way to meet with the Dragon God. They had nearly forgotten themselves while climbing the mountain of skeletal remains.

Unlike Zhang Baichi, the two of them were unable to escape the illusion on their own. Only when Zhang Baichi touched the Demonic Treasure and was entranced by it alone did the two of them come back to their senses.

They saw the mountain of skeletal remains, and, like Zhang Baichi, understood what was going on.

Shortly after, they saw that Zhang Baichi had fallen under the Demonic Treasure's control, and could only fight him, two against one.

Luckily, the Demonic Treasure was not able to use Zhang Baichi's martial arts. Neither did it possess the same battle senses as Zhang Baichi, or his incredibly powerful Black Heaven Qi.

It fought solely by relying on Zhang Baichi's physical strength, as well as its own suppressive, evil aura. Even then, after having much of their vital blood essence absorbed, both Lu Zheng and Yu Hao were incredibly weakened, barely able to resist the onslaught together.

Yu Hao opened his eyes first; He had mostly recovered, the wounds on his body already healed for the most part. The True Dragon Blood coursing through his veins increased his physical abilities and healing abilities to an outstanding degree, and he was even able to recover most of his vital blood essence.

It could be said that he was already at 90 percent of his peak condition after only a single day.

He glanced at Lu Zheng, who was still struggling to recover. His injuries were healed to a certain degree, and wouldn't hinder him much during a fight, but Yu Hao could tell that his aura was still very weak.

Unlike Yu Hao, Lu Zheng did not have the ability to quickly recover his own vital blood essence, and he would most likely suffer for the next month or so, unless he found Natural Treasures or alchemical pills to aid in his recovery.

Zhang Baichi's situation seemed even worse to Yu Hao. His body was shrouded in the evil, crimson aura of the Demonic Treasure, while cold sweat drenched his back and forehead. His face was pale, and the Demonic Treasure in his hand was struggling to escape his grasp.

It was clear that Zhang Baichi was still in an intense confrontation with the Demonic Treasure, but Yu Hao had no way to tell how he was faring. He could only wait and hope for the best.

However, unlike Yu Hao's worry, Zhang Baichi was actually doing quite well. After a day of struggling, he had erased most of the Demonic Treasure's traces influencing his mind.

A few more hours passed, and Zhang Baichi's Soul Space had returned to perfect tranquillity. Right now, thanks to the enormous boost in mental and spiritual strength Zhang Baichi got after opening his Soul Space, the Demonic Treasure was unable to invade his mind.

It is a Spiritual Ascension Realm treasure, but unable to affect him after opening the Soul Space, which was a requirement for Nascent Soul Realm cultivators. Even Zhang Baichi could tell that the Demonic Treasure must be heavily weakened after being imprisoned in the Beastwilds Mystic Realm for an immeasurable amount of time.

Now, with his mind clear and Soul Space in perfect condition, Zhang Baichi's focused shifted from his own mind to the Demonic Treasure.

Thus far, the Demonic Treasure has had the upper hand, but now it was time for Zhang Baichi to bring the battlefield to its doorstep!

'System, help me confront the Demonic Treasure now.', he gave a command in his mind. The system had already told him that the only way to subdue the Demonic Treasure was to treat it the same way as a Spiritual Jade.

That meant Zhang Baichi would need a Divine Sense to engage it, which he did not have. However, since the system could help him with Spiritual Jades, he was confident that it could help him with engaging the Demonic Treasure as well!

[Ding! Please focus your mind on the Demonic Treasure, Host.]

Zhang Baichi did as he was told, and in just a moment, he felt his consciousness shift; His own Soul Space was an empty void of pure white, a blank canvas for him to mold as he saw fit.

However, the next moment, he found himself in a world of pure crimson and evil. It was similar to the Soul Space, but felt different and unnatural, as if it was artificial. This was the world within the Demonic Treasure.

[Ding! Within this mental world, Host can use his own mental strength to imprint your own mark on the Demonic Treasure, binding it to yourself and subduing it completely.]

Even while reading, Zhang Baichi could feel the Demonic Treasure trying to resist him, but its resistance was so weak that he did not even need to commit any effort to deal with it; He could just passively resist it without having to worry!

"Obey!" With a loud shout, Zhang Baichi's mental strength roared out like a raging storm, tainting the crimson world within the Demonic Treasure in white.

The crimson, evil aura was shredded to bits and pieces by the raging mental powers of Zhang Baichi, reduced to the point where they could not resist; With just a single command, Zhang Baichi had perfectly subdued the Demonic Treasure!