Under the moon, the Forbidden Forest looked breathtaking.
White Imperial Flowing Nectar fell from above, mixed with moonlight and starlight, ethereal and beautiful.
The only flaw—
Was the sight of enormous beasts opening countless blood-red demon eyes, turning the forest into a hellish domain.
Even the system text turned ragged and blood-red, as if it were describing a world-shaking battle.
You wield your sword against demons. From all sides, demonic haze blots out heaven and earth, devil flames surge to the nine skies. You are like a reef in the tide, stubbornly resisting the demonic waves.
Blood drips—on your body, and on your sword.
Your vision blurs. Your mana seems reduced to mere drops. Your forged body aches beyond endurance; everything is at the brink.
Yet you still fight. An invincible Dao-heart supports you—today, even if you die here, you will drag more demons down, adding one measure of clarity to the mortal world.
The demons draw near again—then—kill!
At this moment, Theodore wore the same iron-green expression as the system described.
"What is wrong with you lot?"
"Drink!"
"Drink all of it!"
"Who hasn't finished their assigned amount?"
"Who spat it into the grass?!"
"Make it up—every last drop!"
"This beverage reflects your character—your spider character!"
"You wouldn't want to be low-grade Acromantulas, would you?"
The Acromantulas—no, the Hundred-Eyed Demon Spiders now—lay trembling on the ground, their countless eyes filled with terror, wailing and begging.
"We can't drink anymore! Really!"
"It's too nourishing—we can't absorb it!"
"Please… spare us…"
Theodore bared his teeth in a grin.
"You can still talk, can't you?"
"If you can talk, that means you can still drink."
"Who begged just now? You two."
"Drink more."
As he spoke, he forced open the mouths of two Hundred-Eyed Demon Spiders and poured more nectar in.
More eyes split open on their bodies.
Theodore clapped in approval.
"Excellent. Truly excellent."
"Prime pill material."
In the next instant, with a casual refining gesture—
Both were turned into two fresh, crimson Blood Pellets, joining the pile in Theodore's hand.
There were already more than twenty.
It wasn't that the Hundred-Eyed Demon Spiders were "cowardly."
They had tried.
Once enough Acromantulas had evolved, they launched a sudden attack on Theodore—
But every spider that dared strike him was refined instantly.
The terror of that scene crushed their will completely.
From then on, they could only be harvested like livestock.
Now Theodore looked at the number of Blood Pellets and nodded in satisfaction.
Imperial Flowing Nectar truly worked.
After being forced into Hundred-Eyed Demon Spiders, their ferocity far exceeded their prior state.
The Blood Pellets refined from them were clearly far stronger than the earlier ones made using Fluffy's blood.
If he used these as the core material for Demon-Refining Pills, the potency would be vastly higher.
That said—draining the pond to catch the fish was bad business.
From what Theodore remembered of biology, populations recover fastest when reduced to about half their carrying capacity.
Leave roughly half alive, let them breed, and he could harvest another batch soon.
Demon-Refining Golden Pill freedom was close.
So Theodore finally withdrew the oppressive aura around him and released his suppression.
"Alright. That's enough drinking for tonight."
"Next time, we'll drink again."
"Go back."
The spiders fled as if pardoned, racing deeper into the forest, eight legs whipping wildly, gratitude and terror mixed into one.
"Too terrifying—Hogwarts little wizards are too terrifying now!"
"It's always us eating humans—how is it humans eating us now?!"
"He said his name was—Theod—"
But the moment one spider almost spoke it, the others stared at it in horror.
"Are you insane?!"
"Do you want to die?!"
"How dare you say his name?!"
"What if you call him back?!"
The spider that nearly blurted it clamped all its legs over its mouth.
"Right, right—can't say it!"
"Then what do we call him?"
The spiders looked at each other, then reached an agreement.
"Let's call him You-Know-Who… the one whose name cannot be spoken."
"But wasn't there already a You-Know-Who? The Dark Lord?"
One spider answered decisively:
"Him? Voldemort?"
"Little Voldemort."
"He's nothing."
"Does he deserve to be called You-Know-Who?"
"As the sky has only one sun, the wizarding world has only one Dark Lord—now we know who it really is!"
At that moment, far behind them, in the region they had fled—
A strange blood light shot into the sky.
Above, dark clouds began to gather.
The spiders shuddered.
"That You-Know-Who… is doing some evil magic again."
"Run—run!"
They fled even faster, not daring to linger.
Meanwhile, on Theodore's System Interface, lines appeared again.
Your vision clears. You live—but your body is stained with demon blood.
Compared to demons, you seem more like a demon yourself—only your eyes reflect a Dao-heart that never regrets death.
Demons fear. Devils tremble.
They do not know how many lives they must pay to kill the exhausted-looking you. No demon wishes to become another corpse beneath your sword.
They retreat.
At last, you can no longer hold on—you stumble and collapse.
Theodore clicked his tongue.
He wasn't "collapsing."
He was sitting down cross-legged—
Because he was about to refine pills.
Shaking his head at the system's usual blindness, Theodore let countless alchemical mysteries flow through his mind.
With the Heavenly Demon Treasure Refinement Art—and with Dao-Through-Alchemy—his pill-making skill had surged again.
The ordinary cauldron the Room of Requirement produced was no longer of much use to him.
For a pill formula like Demon-Refining Pills—low difficulty, and using materials that weren't spiritually awakened heaven-and-earth treasures—
He could refine directly.
He raised his hand.
A mass of Heavenly Demon Fire ignited, its heat warping the air around it.
First, he threw in the several pots of Venomous Tentacula he'd brought—made even sturdier after drinking Imperial Flowing Nectar.
Green light shimmered.
Several Vegetation Pellets formed.
Next were several stones nearby that Theodore had deliberately watered with Imperial Flowing Nectar.
They had quietly sprouted tiny legs and tried to crawl away while he wasn't looking—
But escape was impossible.
Theodore beckoned, smiling, and the stones with newfound spirit were refined into Metal-Stone Pellets.
Then he took a deep breath.
The Blood Pellets refined from the many Hundred-Eyed Demon Spiders also sank into the demon fire.
A pillar of blood light shot upward.
Faintly, one could even hear demonic wails.
The sky itself changed.
Thick clouds began to gather.
Even the system text took on despair.
After the blood battle, demonic qi surges into the sky, staining half the heavens red.
From the clouds, blood rain falls—strange and ominous.
Then thunder booms—dark clouds gather, lightning flickers. Heaven senses calamity, preparing thunder to slay demons!
And the one locked by tribulation lightning… is the host, drenched in demon blood, nearly indistinguishable from a demon.
Is fate at its end? Is heaven about to cut you off? Host, I see a small grove nearby—run at once, perhaps you can scrape out one thread of life—
Wait—host, what are you doing?!
Theodore looked up at the storm clouds—then licked his lips.
His Adamantine Undying Body had been nourished by massive spiritual energy and was no longer what it once was.
And with the Eight-Nine Mystical Art now at the entry level, his physique had strengthened again—this art was famously best at evading calamities.
Besides, the "tribulation" of the wizarding world couldn't be compared with the Primordial World's heavenly lightning.
To Theodore, this was practically a delivery of vast thunder-aspected spiritual energy—rare nourishment in a poor world.
In the next instant, he flicked a finger.
Sword-qi surged to the heavens, stabbing directly into the thunderclouds.
"Come."
The system went silent in shock.
Host raises his blade to heaven—so what if you are drained of qi, so what if you are covered in wounds?
If demons block you, you kill demons. If devils block you, you destroy devils.
If heaven blocks you—then you will take heaven.
Your invincible Dao-heart still fights!
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