NOVEL NEXT Chapter 172: Living Corpses
Translator: Cinder Translations
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Song Wen turned and left, a hint of an imperceptible gleam in his eyes.
Just now, he had sensed a trace of corpse energy from the mouse-eyed man.
TL: mouse-eyed man probably refers to Zhao Dapeng’s brother...
Corpse cultivators, corpse puppets, or dead bodies all emit corpse energy.
The mouse-eyed man’s breathing was normal, and his heart was beating strongly—he was definitely not a dead body.
Moreover, the mouse-eyed man’s dantian was destroyed, and without rare treasures to restore it, it was impossible for him to cultivate again. So, there was only one possibility...
A living corpse?
The corpse energy on the mouse-eyed man wasn’t actively absorbed or refined; it had been forcibly infused into his body.
Song Wen’s lips curled into a cold smile. The righteous world was far more interesting than he had imagined.
Although Zhao Dapeng was just a steward of the Beastmaster Sect's outer gate, managing a street in the city, there was still a lot of profit to be made.
With backing and spirit stones, living a risky life in the city, and practicing demonic arts—what exactly was Zhao Dapeng’s goal?
......
Song Wen pushed open the door to Courtyard No. 36. The courtyard was somewhat messy, as Sun Daxiong had left behind many daily items when he departed, strewn haphazardly around the small yard.
After tidying up the courtyard a bit to make it somewhat presentable, Song Wen didn’t bother with it further, as he wouldn’t be living here anyway.
Entering the kitchen, he moved the water tank to reveal a long green stone slab beneath.
With a few quick moves, Song Wen pried open the long stone slab, exposing the brown soil underneath.
Song Wen took out an iron shovel and began digging. All the soil he excavated was stored in his storage ring.
He had previously dug an underground chamber in the opposite courtyard, so this was a task he was quite familiar with.
In less than an hour, Song Wen had excavated a chamber 20 meters long and 10 meters wide, about a meter deep.
Before returning to the city, Song Wen originally planned to set up the Nine Palaces Yin Array and the Spirit Concealment Formation in the underground chamber of the opposite courtyard. With these two formations, he should be able to hide from the spiritual sense of Golden Core cultivators.
Song Wen planned to practice some techniques that were not easily shown to others in the underground chamber.
As for demonic techniques, Song Wen wouldn’t be practicing them for now. The Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique required a large amount of corpse energy or yin essence, which was hard to obtain in Donghua City. Only a small amount could be bought in the mountain stream ghost market, but it was barely enough for Song Wen.
Before leaving the Corpse Demon Sect, Song Wen had stocked up on a lot of corpse energy and yin essence. He had also obtained some yin essence from killing Wu Ren, but that was used up little by little. Song Wen had no intention of using it for now, keeping it in reserve for emergencies.
What he didn’t expect was that the opposite courtyard had been re-rented by Zhao Dapeng.
The Spirit Concealment Formation had to be retrieved; he couldn’t let Ji Ruxue discover the corpse beast within the formation.
For the next few days, Song Wen stayed in the house, refining pills and practicing the Longevity Technique.
At the same time, he sent out a Black Armor Gu to monitor Ji Ruxue’s movements. As soon as she left the courtyard, he planned to retrieve the Spirit Concealment Formation.
This waiting lasted for four days.
That night, Ji Ruxue, dressed in black tight-fitting clothing and covering her face, left the courtyard.
Worried that Ji Ruxue might suddenly return, Song Wen sent a Black Armor Gu to follow her from a distance.
He himself slipped into the opposite courtyard.
Song Wen released his spiritual sense and walked slowly toward the kitchen. The entrance to the chamber was also under the water tank in the kitchen.
Just as he reached the kitchen door and was about to push it open, Song Wen’s spiritual sense detected a thin transparent wire tied to the door.
The transparent fine thread was extremely tough and sharp. If an ordinary Qi Condensation cultivator had come and not noticed the fine thread, they might have been sliced in half by it.
"It seems Ji Ruxue is not someone to be trifled with," Song Wen mused.
Although Song Wen couldn’t identify the transparent fine thread as any specific magical item, he was certain it was no ordinary thing.
Carefully avoiding the fine thread, Song Wen entered the kitchen.
The kitchen was very neat, with only a thin layer of dust on the stove, giving the impression that it hadn't been used for a long time.
There were no cooking necessities like firewood, rice, oil, salt, or even bowls and plates in the kitchen.
In other words, no one had cooked in this kitchen for a long time, and Ji Ruxue had no intention of cooking.
Ji Ruxue was only at the Qi Condensation stage, and her reluctance to cook was somewhat strange.
Song Wen moved the water tank and pried up the green stone slab to reveal the entrance to the secret chamber.
Entering the chamber, he saw that the Spirit Concealment Formation had already been activated. A wolf demon corpse beast lay within the formation, looking listless.
The wolf demon corpse beast had been in the formation for several months, and its corpse energy had not been replenished, nearly running out.
Song Wen used the formation plate to control the formation, opening one corner of it and quickly slipping inside.
He took out a low-grade magic item, a corpse-raising coffin, and stored the wolf demon corpse beast inside, then retracted the Spirit Concealment Formation.
Returning to the entrance of the chamber, Song Wen took out a storage ring from his robe. With a thought, the storage ring spewed out a large amount of soil, rapidly filling the chamber.
Restoring the kitchen to its original state, Song Wen swiftly exited the courtyard and headed towards Courtyard No. 36.
At this moment, the Black Armor Gu monitoring Ji Ruxue sent back news.
Ji Ruxue had suddenly accelerated, breaking through the speed limits of a Qi Condensation cultivator and vanished from sight.
The Black Armor Gu, with only the strength of a Qi Condensation ninth layer, couldn’t keep up with Ji Ruxue’s speed, which was comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s.
Song Wen was astonished. Ji Ruxue had concealed her cultivation level and was at least a Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Even his spiritual sense, comparable to a late-stage Foundation Establishment, couldn’t detect her hidden cultivation. Either her cultivation was above late-stage Foundation Establishment, or she possessed an item that could alter her aura, blocking his spiritual sense.
Song Wen couldn’t help but feel relieved that he hadn't chosen to forcibly break into the opposite courtyard during his initial visit. Otherwise, his identity as a corpse cultivator might have been exposed. After all, without using corpse techniques, it would be challenging to defeat a Foundation Establishment sword cultivator.
Upon entering the underground chamber of Courtyard No. 36, Song Wen set up the Spirit Concealment Formation and then laid out the Nine Palaces Yin Array around it. With these two formations, at least Golden Core cultivators wouldn’t be able to detect any anomalies in the chamber.
Song Wen took out three storage rings and one storage bag, beginning to inspect the items belonging to Lei Hong and the others.
First was Lei Hong’s storage ring.
As the acting head of the Lei family, Lei Hong’s storage ring contained a significant amount of spirit stones—over 80,000. When Song Wen killed Wu Ren, he had only obtained seven high-grade spirit stones, over a hundred mid-grade spirit stones, and several thousand low-grade spirit stones from Wu Ren’s storage ring, totaling just over 80,000 low-grade spirit stones.
Of course, the value of the other items in Wu Ren’s storage ring was far greater than Lei Hong’s. Just the treasure-grade mourning flag alone was worth at least several hundred thousand spirit stones.
Other items included various medicines, spirit herbs, a few jade slips, and a flying sword.
The flying sword was a high-grade spiritual weapon, which Song Wen, with his current early Foundation Establishment cultivation, couldn’t use yet. He would need to reach at least late Foundation Establishment to fully utilize its power.
Among the jade slips, one of them greatly delighted Song Wen.
The jade slip was named Thunder Canon, recording various lightning techniques, including Thunder Palm, Five Thunders Technique, Thunder Spear Technique, Thunder Shield Technique, and others, totaling twelve lightning techniques.
It also included the first two divine thunder techniques from the Lei family’s nine great heavenly thunder secrets: the Polar God Thunder and the Great Cave God Thunder.
Although the Thunder Canon Song Wen obtained was evidently not a complete version, he was very satisfied with it.
(End of the Chapter)
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