"A ninth-grade lifebound treasure, just one step away from becoming an Immortal Artifact."

Su Yuan turned his attention to the hammer held in the corpse's other hand.

This hammer had reached ninth-grade, barely missing the Immortal Artifact threshold. Originally, it could have advanced alongside its master to immortal status, but now that opportunity was lost forever.

As a lifebound treasure without an artifact spirit, it would slowly develop one over time without an owner, eventually transforming into a ninth-grade spiritual treasure.

Old Qian gulped audibly: "Should I... devour this?"

"Can you even digest it?" Su Yuan raised an eyebrow.

"I can now, though it'll be slow. But once it starts developing spiritual awareness, I won't be able to refine it anymore! This is a critical window - with ninth-grade treasure's potential, it could develop spiritual awareness within moments!" Old Qian urgently explained.

Su Yuan frowned. Consuming a ninth-grade treasure seemed wasteful, but since he couldn't refine it himself, this was the next best option.

"Fine, go ahead and devour it."

Old Qian was overjoyed.

The Myriad Treasures Heaven-Earth Cauldron flipped upside down, its opening facing the ninth-grade lifebound treasure as it exerted a powerful suction force.

The masterless ninth-grade thunder hammer floated up and was drawn into the cauldron.

The cauldron suddenly became immensely heavy, crashing to the ground before sinking deep beneath the surface.

"So heavy!" Xiao Li frowned. "Master, should we throw it out?"

"Throw it beneath Cave #6," Su Yuan nodded.

Su Li promptly tossed the cauldron into the spiritual vein below the cave dwelling.

Old Qian didn't care about his location - he was already fully focused on refining the ninth-grade treasure.

Meanwhile, Su Yuan remained deep in thought, staring at the Thunder Spirit Giant's corpse.

With a flip of his hand, a scripture appeared - "Seven Extremes Sect Secret Transmission: Second Nascent Soul Record".

Xiao Li's eyes widened: "Master, are you thinking of...?"

Su Yuan looked at the Thunder Spirit Giant elder's corpse: "Exactly. I want to cultivate a second Nascent Soul and attempt to possess this Thunder Spirit Giant."

Xiao Li gasped sharply: "But...this is a ninth-grade being!"

Su Yuan smiled faintly: "Who's already dead. And whose soul has perished while the body remains perfectly intact!"

Xiao Li remained stunned, but upon reflection, realized this plan actually had remarkable feasibility!

Activating his [Work-Life Balance] trait, Su Yuan quickly comprehended the Second Nascent Soul technique.

This extremely difficult method required splitting one's soul in half to cultivate a second Nascent Soul - an excruciating process that could cause severe damage if recovery couldn't keep pace.

Reading the scripture, Su Yuan's enhanced comprehension from [Work-Life Balance] immediately allowed him to derive an optimized version of the technique!

In one step, he exited the cave treasure and arrived at Cave #6.

In the medicinal fields stood a thriving Soul-Nourishing Wood. Under constant nourishment from the Big Dipper's starlight over years of cultivation, it had reached lower fourth-grade.

Su Da hurried over.

"Master, is there a problem with the Soul-Nourishing Wood?"

Su Yuan waved his hand: "No, you've cultivated it well."

With a beckoning gesture, a soul entity identical to Su Yuan emerged from the wood, radiating Nascent Soul-level spiritual energy.

The moment the soul emerged, Su Yuan activated the Second Nascent Soul technique!

Complex mystical patterns materialized, imprinting onto the soul entity. Within moments, the second Nascent Soul was preliminarily completed!

Su Yuan's consciousness split in two, gaining dual perspectives - one from his main body, the other from the soul entity in his hand.

The dormant soul awakened, opening eyes that met Su Yuan's main body's gaze.

Both original and second Nascent Soul smiled simultaneously.

"Who knew the sliver of soul I left in the Soul-Nourishing Wood would develop into a complete soul entity after years of nurturing! With minimal refinement, it became my second Nascent Soul - since it was originally part of me anyway!"

With a sigh, Su Yuan extracted another soul fragment from his main body and implanted it into the wood.

"Instructing Su Da: "Continue cultivating this. It's one of my lifelines - don't slack off. This task is critically important, understand?"

Su Da's expression turned solemn: "Master, I swear to protect the Soul-Nourishing Wood with my life!"

Su Yuan smiled. The wood's safety wasn't really in question under his watch - he'd just given Su Da a sense of purpose.

Nodding, Su Yuan returned to the cave treasure in one step.

Placing the second Nascent Soul into his dantian, he began elevating its cultivation.

Channeling his own spiritual energy and the power feedback from Little Cai into the second Nascent Soul, it rapidly transformed from a Nascent Soul entity toward a full Nascent Soul form.

"The technique states second Nascent Souls can't advance independently - why is that?"

"If possessing another body with high innate cultivation, would that affect the second Nascent Soul's advancement?"

Difficulty advancing second Nascent Souls was common knowledge, but the underlying reasons remained unexplored - either ignored or beyond ordinary cultivators' ability to investigate.

This piqued Su Yuan's interest as potential future research.

While reading the technique, he'd noticed this limitation. Though his trait state offered no solution, he'd discovered that possessing a high-level body wouldn't restrict the second Nascent Soul from reaching that body's original cultivation.

Before him lay a perfect vessel - a near-immortal body meaning his second Nascent Soul could theoretically advance all the way to pre-immortal levels.

After half a day, the second Nascent Soul reached Nascent Soul level under massive energy infusion.

Taking a deep breath, Su Yuan had his second Nascent Soul leave his body and approach the Thunder Spirit Giant elder's Thunder Source Core.

The second Nascent Soul plunged inside.

The powerful physical defenses couldn't stop this soul-level invasion.

The second Nascent Soul successfully entered the core and began merging with it - an unexpectedly smooth process.

The original soul had been completely scrubbed away by the eighth-grade demonic cultivators, leaving no remnants. Su Yuan's hostile takeover proceeded without resistance.

At a certain moment, Su Yuan's consciousness successfully took over the Thunder Spirit Giant elder's body.

A massive finger twitched slightly... then nothing more.

Su Yuan's main body smiled awkwardly: "Success! But the body's too powerful - the Nascent Soul needs time to adapt!"

He could clearly sense his second Nascent Soul advancing at astonishing speed, nourished by the Thunder Spirit Giant's energy!

Another half day passed.

The Thunder Spirit Giant finally stood up slowly!

Su Yuan felt the incredible power of his new body, eyes shining with brilliant light!

"Such energy depletion!" An intense hunger struck him - the body was completely drained after successive battles.

Suddenly remembering something, Su Yuan's consciousness spanned vast distances to see Elder Lei Yan still fleeing across the sea!

The descending Thunder Sea above him gradually approached the surface!

Countless creatures fled in panic, but none could escape the Thunder Sea's massive range quickly enough.

Su Yuan's eyes lit up: "Perfect energy replenishment opportunity!"

Activating [Mind Echo], part of his consciousness appeared on Dragon Transformation Island in the Immortal Origin Realm.

Seven true dragons miserably calculated the Big Dipper's patterns, expressions utterly defeated.

"Why's the master making us learn this? Shouldn't we just eat and sleep to advance?" one dragon complained.

Little Thirty-Six smacked its head: "Idiot! That just makes you power's slave! True dragons who can't control their strength are bad students!"

"Oh..."

The dragon extended five claws, staring at the Big Dipper while calculating... until it fell asleep mid-calculation.

Su Yuan watched speechlessly as all seven dragons soon succumbed to sleep.

Then he activated [World Traveler]!

Instantly, a massive Thunder Spirit Giant body materialized above Dragon Transformation Island!

Terrifying ninth-grade pressure erupted, jolting all seven dragons awake.

"Master, save us!"

"Dragon slaughter!"

"Waaah!"

Their panicked cries went ignored as Su Yuan immediately reactivated [World Traveler], making the Thunder Spirit Giant avatar vanish.

But in the next instant...

A massive dragon claw appeared, snapping at where the giant had been - just missing as Su Yuan teleported away.

The residual consciousness Su Yuan left behind shuddered violently.

Then...

An enormous dragon head emerged from clouds - several miles tall, attached to hundreds of miles of serpentine body undulating through the clouds!

In the Immortal Realm, achieving such size indicated unimaginable power!

"Hmm?" The dragon sounded surprised anyone could evade its grasp.

"Thunder Spirit Giants dare trespass on Dragon Transformation Island?"

The mighty dragon snorted coldly: "A mere Heavenly Immortal-level race - I'll exterminate half your kind as warning!"

Its claw pierced through void space, striking down across unimaginable distances.

When withdrawn, it held countless Thunder Source Cores.

Chewing them contentedly, the dragon nodded: "Not bad."