Fang Xing’s True Spirit no longer existed within the Sea of Consciousness. Only that three-headed, six-armed demonic spirit was there, floating in the air. Its malice spread out like an ocean alongside roaming black clouds to fill up the entirety of the surrounding area, causing the Sea of Consciousness to more closely resemble a demonic region. The demonic spirit itself was floating in the center as though in a daze, its gaze blank despite its madness and malice—as though it had lost its sense of direction.

　　A demonic spirit was born with only one goal: devouring the True Spirit. The typical ending involving a demonic spirit and a True Spirit was mutual destruction before everything was dissolved back into the heavens and earth, yet—bizarrely—Fang Xing’s True Spirit had vanished while this demonic spirit remained.

　　Time stretched on, until this blank-faced demonic spirit suddenly became crazed once more. A golden light shot out from its forehead as though trying to break through the boundary of its malice and reach towards the nine heavens above.

　　In the world outside, the old Wanluo stared at Fang Xing in a daze. Blood stained the corner of his lips and his appearance was haggard and worn. All nineteen of the lanterns had been extinguished, signifying Fang Xing had perished.

　　Old Wanluo had put all of his hopes in Fang Xing. He hadn’t imagined not even the first step could be taken….

　　” Aiii , perhaps my Dao theory was wrong? Perhaps I caused this to happen to the boy?” A rarely seen trace of confusion appeared in Wanluo’s eyes and it even seemed as though his path of Dao began to waver.

　　Such a thing was extremely dangerous for a Golden Core grand elder. The heavens and earth might be grand and important, but one’s Dao was most important of all. If one’s Dao was destroyed, it would be the same as planting a large garden yet having no source of water to sustain it. The garden’s destruction would be just within sight….

　　When it came to this skill, it could be said the risks the old Wanluo had taken weren’t any lesser than Fang Xing’s. He’d prepared himself in advance for any failure, yet he hadn’t expected it would come in the very first step. ” Aiii ….” A long and hopeless sigh later, the old Wanluo waved his hand and prepared to unlock the formation.

　　It was at that moment, however, that something strange began to occur.

　　Poof ….

　　A bronze lantern lit up on its own, and the flame shifted from dim to bright—perhaps even brighter than it had been in the first place. Wanluo’s eyes lit up at the sight, looking at it with disbelief.

　　Poof poof poof ….

　　Once the first lantern was relit, the flames within the other bronze lanterns began to appear one after the other. In mere moments, all nineteen lanterns were fully relit, illuminating the surroundings so thoroughly it was like stepping out into broad daylight.

　　The old Wanluo’s eyes couldn’t move away. Despite his knowledge as a Golden Core Stage cultivator, he was left baffled by the current situation. “What… just what did this kid do to cause such a strange phenomenon?”

　　Right at that same moment, an excited and arrogant voice rose up within Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness. “Hahahahaha, your little grandpa won in the end, right?” The voice seemed to come from inside the demonic spirit while a countless number of golden rays began to shine out from its body. The demonic spirit tried to struggle, but it had no way of escaping as the golden light grew more and more abundant. Strands of purple mist even began to coil around the demonic spirit, trapping it in place.

　　After a long while, the muddled eyes of the central head closed shut, only to be filled with intelligence upon reopening. If someone familiar saw it, they would have recognized the gaze within those eyes as belonging to Fang Xing—they were bright, potent, and had traces of banditry within….

　　“Looks like your little grandpa here made a good gamble.” Fang Xing—or perhaps more accurately, the demonic spirit—lowered his head to look at himself and was very satisfied with his new style: three heads, six arms, and even a pair of wings growing from his back. The entire body was clad in black smoke, and only the head in the middle seemed to have any intelligence, as though the other two were false.

　　After carefully feeling out his surroundings, he discovered the malice that had filled the entirety of the Sea of Consciousness was connected to his spirit sense now. With only a movement of his thoughts, the malice could be used as he pleased with as little effort as moving his own limb.

　　After this, Fang Xing shifted his thoughts and flew towards where his Dao tower was and sat inside just as he would if he were a True Spirit. The tower of Dao had been completely contaminated by the malice, and the foundation’s coloration—once gold with a hint of purple—was now utter black. Within the black foundation sat a black demonic spirit, and within the body of this demonic spirit was a sacred and intelligent True Spirit. This True Spirit—a vibrant gold color with strands of purple surrounding it—was precisely Fang Xing’s True Spirit.

　　The old Wanluo’s strange method had been to first suppress the demonic spirit before instilling Fang Xing’s seal into its body in order to control it, yet Fang Xing had ended up using an even stranger method. During his battle, he’d realized how difficult it was to defeat, so he went all-in on a gamble to turn his True Spirit itself into a seal. He’d shot himself into the body of the demonic spirit like an arrow and then used his True Spirit to control it from within.

　　Simply put, the demonic spirit had originally been an existence living within Fang Xing’s Sea of Consciousness, yet today Fang Xing had reversed the situation and began living inside the demonic spirit instead. Such a method was extremely risky and even a small amount of carelessness meant he would’ve lost everything, yet he’d managed to win in the end.

　　Demonic spirits were beings without intelligence, even akin to demonic shells without an owner to a certain degree. This was why the old Wanluo had devised the method of controlling and suppressing it through the use of a seal, but not even he had considered what Fang Xing had done. Fang Xing was more thorough and had entered the demonic spirit directly, becoming its controller and turning this demonic shell into something that protected his True Spirit within.

　　In the outside world, the old Wanluo creased his brows and looked at Fang Xing with great curiosity. He sensed there was some kind of change to Fang Xing, but after careful scrutiny, it seemed the changes were all still from the same origin. And yet there seemed to be a vague, abnormal sense of malice spreading out from Fang Xing’s body….

　　‘What exactly did this kid do?’ Wanluo couldn’t help but to wonder to himself. Suddenly, he considered a possibility that startled even him. ‘Perhaps the demonic spirit devoured his True Spirit and rebirthed itself after repossession?’ The more he thought about it, the more nervous he became, and his white brows even began to quiver after a bit of time.

　　After an indefinite period of time passed, Fang Xing finally began to slowly open his eyes. A trace of demonic aura flashed from the corners of his eyes before they became peaceful and tranquil once more.

　　A flash of light appeared as the old Wanluo leapt into the formation. He held up his large hand and placed it only three inches above Fang Xing’s head, preparing to slam it down and take the boy’s life at any moment. “What are you?” he yelled.

　　“What are you , you old turtle egg of a bastard!” Fang Xing cursed back in a daze.

　　Wanluo let out a sigh of relief; such a vile and mischievous temperament had to belong to the boy. After a brief moment of surprise, he quickly recollected himself and thwacked Fang Xing on the head. “A little bastard like you dares to curse at me?” he angrily replied.

　　Fang Xing held his head. “Who told you to give me a method that doesn’t work?”

　　“How doesn’t it work?”

　　“The first step you mentioned was to be upright and frank without allowing any chance of deviation in the process. I was supposed to use my True Spirit to suppress the demonic spirit before sending a seal into its body, turning it into something like a second incarnation so I could utilize its power. But that doesn’t work; the demonic spirit is so strong my True Spirit was completely thrashed; my True Spirit wasn’t its opponent at all….”

　　Wanluo considered it deeply. “This step is indeed very difficult, but I still firmly believe it can be done!”

　　“Firmly believe my *ss! I can’t beat it and that’s that!”

　　Speechless, Wanluo raised his hand as though to hit him once more, but he was worried the boy’s body was weak after just waking up. It would be very bad if a thwack like this actually killed him, so he restrained his anger and asked, “Since you’ve woken up, it means the problem has been solved, right? How’d you do it?”

　　“I moved into the demonic spirit!” Fang Xing answered with pride. “It’s now my second foundation!”

　　This left the old Wanluo completely surprised. After a long while, he finally asked, “A second foundation? What do you mean?”

　　“The foundation nurtures the demonic spirit, and the demonic spirit nurtures me….” Fang Xing explained the method he’d used earlier, and it left even the old Wanluo amazed.

　　“So, can you use the demonic spirit’s power of malice and the True Spirit’s power at the same time?” Wanluo asked seriously after some time had passed.

　　“Nope,” Fang Xing sighed before opening up his palm to activate some of his Foundation Stage power. Black malice appeared at the center of his palm and turned into a small black ball filled with a terrifying demonic power.

　　Wanluo’s expression was heavy. “Have you fallen onto the demonic Dao paths?” Before he could speak further, however, Fang Xing suddenly smirked. The black malice in his palm suddenly began to show hints of gold, and the malice disappeared as the Qi began to grow. The black ball of malice was replaced completely with an extremely pure golden Qi similar to a tiny sun, composed of the highest purity of Qi lacking any malice whatsoever.

　　“Because the demonic spirit has no more power, the power within me is all mine now!” Fang Xing proudly replied, as though letting everyone in the world know that everything in his territory belonged to him alone.

　　The entire point of being a bandit was to take everything owned by other people and make it your own! What kind of joke would it be if a bandit didn’t own something in their own territory?

　　The old Wanluo’s method was to suppress the demonic spirit before taking control of it and using the power for the owner. Fang Xing, however, had used a method never seen before: turning the power of the demonic spirit completely into his own.

　　“You… you really do have the golden foundation?” The old Wanluo was so surprised it defied description, especially when he saw the changes happening in Fang Xing’s palm. Such a pure golden Qi, it was undeniable he truly had the golden foundation.

　　“I told you ages ago I had a golden foundation!” Fang Xing answered in annoyance. He technically had a purple foundation thanks to the Qi of the immortals coiled around it, but this purple immortals’ Qi had coiled around his True Spirit to become a buffer between the demonic shell and the True Spirit inside it. It prevented his True Spirit from being contaminated and kept things under control, so he didn’t dare to move it whatsoever. With the purple Qi occupied, his foundation appeared as pure gold.

　　The old Wanluo asked for a few more details afterwards, and the answers caused him to become even more surprised. Although this boy’s methods would work in theory, Wanluo himself had never imagined actually doing it before—it was simply too dangerous and too unimaginable. He would have never thought of doing it in such a manner, yet after hearing how Fang Xing had accomplished it all, he vaguely felt such actions were still somewhat in line with his Dao theories….

　　“Outer demon, inner saint. Using the power of the sacred to fend off the profane….” After a long pause, the old Wanluo tapped on Fang Xing’s shoulder and lightly sighed. “You’re not simple, boy!”