Shen Yi summoned the faintly cracked golden bead. He had Qinghua keep guard nearby, ready to become the golden dharma form at any moment. Then he opened the panel and mobilized demon lifespan to pour into the Heaven-Devouring Core-Consuming Art.

Perhaps there existed some technique to refining a spiritual root. For instance, a master who'd personally observed a disciple's spiritual root and path infant, then created a refinement method tailored to it. But Shen Yi knew full well he certainly didn't have that privilege. Wutong Mountain plainly had no intention of taking in more disciples; Xuanguang Cave had held some possibility before, but after he'd personally slain a Spirit-Transformation cultivator of theirs plus two upper-tier Mixed Origin Grandmasters, that road too counted as thoroughly severed.

Grind at it slowly, then.

【Year 1 — you sink into inner contemplation, earnestly studying the Heaven-Devouring demon infant. This heaven-and-earth creature born from within your inner core has had its body wholly occupied by your consciousness, heart and blood linked as one; you might say you know it inside and out.】

【The killing-force-polluted True-Yang Kirin Stone originally had nothing to do with the demon infant, but once it was polluted by killing-force, the two can, of all things, barely manage to get along in harmony.】

【You've not grown careless, but carefully feel out the shifts in the aura upon the True-Yang Kirin Stone, guarding against any accident.】

Shen Yi watched the demon lifespan drain away, unhurried and unruffled in his heart. In matters touching on his life, however much demon lifespan it cost was necessary. Formidable and young though his mortal body was now, no one could guarantee that once something went wrong with the path infant, it wouldn't affect the mortal body too.

A Mixed Origin Grandmaster's cultivation was measured in units of a hundred years. Merely observing a stone had already cost Shen Yi several hundred years of demon lifespan.

【Year 630 — you interact with the Kirin Stone using your own aura. In your perception, it has gradually turned from a dead object into a childlike existence rather fond of you.】