The First Immortal of Destiny

While the Ghost Bride was trapped in the Sword Array and her sight obscured, the Spirit Storage Rat transformed into a crimson flash, swiftly sneaking into the grand estate.

Though Shen Mo's Mana had transformed into Purple Knack Spiritual Qi, surpassing the average Layer II of the Qi Gathering Realm in both quantity and quality, activating The Big Dipper Array was nonetheless Mana-intensive.

"GULP!"

He took out two Qi Coalescing Pills and swallowed them whole without chewing.

Feeling his Ocean of Qi Dantian rapidly fill with Mana, Shen Mo summoned the seven sword embryos of The Big Dipper Sword back to his side. At the same time, maneuvering the Dragon Sparrow Sword, he fled into the distance.

Seeing the red sedan levitating and chasing after him, a smile crept onto Shen Mo's face. He didn't know what grade of magic artifact the sedan was, but it was completely undeterred by slashes or chops. Continuing this impasse would only deplete his Mana with no other benefits.

"Senior Sister Chen, collect the relics as quickly as possible!"

Shen Mo conveyed this message to her through a Sound Transmission Talisman. Without stopping, he led the Ghost Bride further away from the region.

Other immortal sect disciples and rogue cultivators, seeing this situation, scurried to escape. In the end, someone wasn't fast enough to hide and was exposed to the Ghost Bride's gaze. Instantly, blood streamed from his seven orifices, he fell utterly dead, and transformed into a living corpse chasing after the sedan. Then, the unfortunate man was swarmed by the fleeing cultivators and torn to bits. The Universe Bag and other items he left behind sparked a frantic scramble.

"Bright Vision, Focus!"

Shen Mo muttered to himself as a purple glow lit up in his pupils. Only after activating this Special Destiny did he see that the large red sedan was subtly connected with the grand estate in the distance.

This sedan might not be a magic artifact, but a part of a Formation Prohibition, he speculated.

The seven sword embryos whirring around him shot out once again, forming a Sword Array that trapped both the red sedan and the Ghost Bride inside.

Messages from the Spirit Storage Rat and Chen Mengze arrived one after the other.

Through the Spirit Pet Contract, the Spirit Storage Rat communicated directly with his Divine Sense, "Master, I've got the treasure."

Chen Mengze's voice also echoed from the Sound Transmission Talisman, "I've collected all the relics of the fallen cultivators. But now I'm being watched. Once I get rid of these hyenas, I'll meet up with you."

"Alright, be careful!" Shen Mo replied.

He paused for a moment before transmitting again, "Senior Sister Chen, you can spread the word that a massive amount of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures is stored in the estate. It requires the combined force of numerous cultivators to break the Prohibition..."

Firstly, this could divert the attention of the greedy cultivators and ease Chen Mengze's pressure. Secondly, Shen Mo was eyeing the Ghost Bride!

The Spirit Storage Rat had already succeeded. It informed Shen Mo that there were still some treasures in the estate, but they definitely weren't Heavenly Materials or Earthly Treasures, just ordinary items. Their combined worth didn't even come close to a fraction of the value of the treasure it had obtained.

Now that they had those items and the relics of the fallen cultivators, Shen Mo naturally had no further concerns. Consequently, he set his sights on the Ghost Bride!

If he could refine her into a Soul General in the Soul Refining Flag, given her strange talent of killing with a glare, the power of the Soul Refining Flag would certainly soar. Anyone below the Spirit Sea Realm who hadn't practiced external magic would find it very hard to resist her eerie techniques. If an unsuspecting late-stage Qi Gathering Realm cultivator was met by the Ghost Bride's glare, they would certainly suffer a great loss! Let alone the even weaker Qi Gathering Realm cultivators. Even if they didn't die instantly, they would be knocked unconscious for a while! At that time, hundreds of Soul Generals from the Soul Refining Flag would swarm out, wreathed in bloody light... Just imagining this sent chills down one's spine!

While the idea was promising, the execution wasn't straightforward. The Ghost Bride sat inside the red sedan and hadn't come out at all. The sedan was part of the mansion's Prohibition. By himself, Shen Mo could never break the red sedan, let alone refine the Ghost Bride! So, he thought of using other cultivators to break the mansion's Prohibition and, in doing so, damage the red sedan, which would help him refine the Ghost Bride.

With this in mind, Shen Mo shifted his Sword Array.

"The Big Dipper Array, Conversion!"

The seven sword embryos moved in response, changing their positions.

A series of strange sounds arose!

The radiance of the Sword Array intensified as it shifted from a killing array to a trapping array. Its Killing Power greatly diminished, all of it transforming into a suppressive force!

Initially, Shen Mo could not damage the red sedan, nor harm the Ghost Bride inside. The Ghost Bride's Death Glare Skill could not harm Shen Mo either, and beyond that, she hadn't revealed any other abilities. Neither party could do anything to the other. If the Ghost Bride wanted to leave, she could have!

But now, with The Big Dipper Array trapping her, it was essentially using a Sword Path Formation to counter the strange Prohibition! If the Ghost Bride wanted to leave, it would not be a quick process, unless Shen Mo, who had deployed the Sword Array, exhausted his Mana and could no longer maintain its operation.

Let's wait it out! Let's see who can last longer, Shen Mo thought.

He pulled out a line of jade boxes from his Universe Bag and arranged them in front of him. They were filled with elixirs to restore Mana, both Grade I and Grade II. Shen Mo had been prepared for this ever since his experience with the Qi Restoring Pill.

「Time continued to tick away.」

When the Spirit Storage Rat appeared before Shen Mo with a pitch-black finger bone in its mouth, the Ghost Bride suddenly became restless. She continually maneuvered the red sedan, darting left and right, trying to break the Sword Array and reclaim that finger bone.

"Stay still!"

Shen Mo shouted lightly, his Mana surging from his body like a bursting dam. He managed to resist the red sedan's charge with the sheer power of The Big Dipper Array.

"Alright, here's some jerky for you. Good job."

After taking an elixir from a jade box and swallowing it, Shen Mo took the dark finger bone from the Spirit Storage Rat, giving it a piece of jerky in return.

Even with all his experience, he couldn't recognize what this finger bone was! However, he could still feel an intense, irreducible Extreme of Dark emanating from it.

Great! After dealing with the Ghost Bride, I can try to meld this object into one of the sword embryos, helping it form completely! Shen Mo was pleasantly surprised.

He hadn't known previously that the treasure in the Ghost Bride's mansion contained such a rich Extreme of Dark. Otherwise, he would have ignored the "dangerous" warning on the jade slip map and barged in directly.

Now, having obtained a Heavenly Material and Earthly Treasure containing the Extreme of Dark as he wished, his journey to the Ghost Nation Ruins was halfway complete.

With this Extreme of Dark being so dense, after integrating it into a sword embryo, it might even allow the sword to evolve to the high-grade profound level. This saves me a lot of effort! The Extreme of Light is relatively rare, but Extremes of the other five elements occasionally appear in auctions. As long as I gather enough Spirit Stones, there's still hope of bidding for them, Shen Mo calculated joyfully.

Suddenly, he saw shafts of light emanating from the direction of the grand estate.

Chen Mengze's Sound Transmission Talisman message arrived at the perfect moment, "I've convinced about twenty or thirty cultivators. We are forcibly attacking the Ghost Mansion's Prohibition."

"However, this Prohibition is formidable. To completely break it might take quite some time."

"Once the commotion here attracts more cultivators, the speed of breaking the Prohibition should increase significantly."