Chapter 164. The Mysterious Corpse (1/2)
Of the four major sects, only the Corpse Sect had returned to Hou Fen after the rank 4 cultivation country came and cleared out the fire beasts.
This move confused many people. Although the fire beasts had been cleared out, the spiritual energy there was too violent to cultivate. As a result, the entire country was a dead zone for cultivators.
The Corpse Sect didn’t give any explanation and just disappeared one night.
The Corpse Sect was very mysterious in the eyes of the other three sects. Although they didn’t have many Nascent Soul cultivators, every time the Nascent Soul cultivators gathered, they could feel a terrifying power within the Corpse Sect’s Nascent Soul cultivators.
Taking that into consideration, the three major sects just kept silent and didn’t attempt to stop them.
In the western part of Hou Fen, below the erupting volcanos, there was a huge cave leading into a network of interconnecting tunnels and caves that formed its own underground world.
Compared to Zhao’s Corpse Sect, the structure was fairly similar, only it was a bit larger.
The current Corpse Sect’s sect head, Zhao Chuanliang, was down on one knee before an irregularly-shaped crystal made of many intersecting crystals.
Zhao Chuanliang was being very respectful. Hints of fear would occasionally surface and then disappear from his face. He whispered, “Shang Zong, please give me just a few more days and I promise I’ll find out what happened to soul number 4876.”
“If I give you a few days, then who will give me a few days? Soul number 4876 is a disciple of the Tian Gang Sect of Tian Gang, which is where I’m in charge, and now they have come looking for him. According to calculations, soul number 4876 should have already finish possessing the body. What am I going to tell them?”
Zhao Chuanliang secretly cursed. His face revealed a look of panic and he quickly said, “Shang Zong, I have already found some clues and found where soul number 4876 disappeared. From analysing the clues, it seems like a disciple of the War God Shrine named Ma Liang is related. I have received news that he recently appeared in Xuan Wu, so I have sent people over. As long as you give me ten days, I’ll definitely be able to find the truth.”
The face of the person inside the crystal became a little more relaxed as he looked at Zhao Chuanliang and sighed. “Chuanliang, I’ll give you ten days to find it because it’s “that” body. However, if you still show no results in ten days, don’t blame me for reporting this to the rank 5 cultivation country division. With how they work, they will definitely take away your right to choose a body after you have been possessed.”
With that, the face in the crystal slowly disappeared.
Zhao Chuanliang slumped to the ground and bitterly smiled. “If that soul number 4867 is someone from Tian Gang, then wouldn’t it be better for him to just posses a body there instead? Why must he be thrown to me, ah?!” However, in his heart he understood that when someone needed to possess a body, they would always do it in another country.
A cold voice came out from Zhao Chuanliang. “Forget about your chance to choose a body, Zhao Chuanliang. You seem to be in a bad situation!”
Zhao Chuanliang sighed and asked, “Ye Zizai, what should I do?”
“What to do? I don’t know either, but as Zhao’s former Corpse Sect sect head, I have encountered a similar situation. The situation with my junior disciple was similar, but slightly different too. Soul number 4876’s soul lamp hasn’t gone out yet, meaning he is still alive. If you can find him, it will be for the best, but if you can’t, then you will be in danger.”
“However, I’m very curious. Shang Zong said that he would give you ten days because it’s this body. What is your relationship with the former owner of that body?”
Zhao Chuanliang calmly said, “It was my younger brother. Both of us entered the Corpse Sect 400 years ago. His talent was better than mine, so he was picked by Shang Zong.”
Ye Zizai sneered. His voice was filled with discontent. “If it wasn’t for the fact that the perfect body I had prepared for myself was found by the rank 5 cultivation country and taken away from me, I would have already recovered my cultivation and finished the possession.”
Zhao Chuanliang took a deep breath as he placed a piece of jade on his forehead. After a few moments, he threw the jade.
“All Core Formation and above cultivators, follow me on a trip to the Hou Fen Union!” With one order, all of the disciples of the Corpse Sect opened their eyes. A ghostly light appeared in their eyes.
As for Wang Lin, although the Divine Path was indeed extraordinary, it was not fitting for him to cultivate. He pondered for a bit before letting out a sigh and began to leave. What surprised Wang Lin was that the Divine Path now remained in his head instead of disappearing like normal.
However, when Wang Lin attempted to make a copy of it, he still couldn’t do it. It felt like there was an invisible force preventing the Divine Path from being recorded.
Wang Lin pondered for a bit before giving up on writing it down. He looked around at the water mirror doors. All of them were dark and looked exactly the same.
He pondered for a bit before spreading out his divine sense, but there seemed to be a layer of protection on the water mirror doors that would bounce his divine sense back. Wang Lin’s eyes lit up and he looked at the entrance. The red-faced old man was just probably outside that door.
He jumped and landed before one of the water mirror doors. He reached into the water mirror door with his hand and felt the cool sensation. Soon, he reached a stone wall.
Wang Lin withdrew his hand and began to ponder. He quickly took out the jade containing the War God Shrine’s refining methods and began to search through it.
The three main parts of the War God Shrine’s refining method were extract, melt, and fuse. All magic treasure refining followed these three processes. Wang Lin quickly found something called reverse refining in the jade.
Reverse refining was originally meant for cultivators to exchange refining methods. To reverse engineer the magic treasure to find out how it is created and then recreate the same magic treasure.
Long term practice of reverse refining can increase one’s refining capability. To reverse refine other people’s products, to learn their methods, and to use those methods to refine your own treasures.
However, this kind of reverse refining can only be used on a treasure that is created through extract, melt, and fusion.
Wang Lin carefully looked at the process before putting the jade away. He put his hands together before his chest and sent spiritual energy into them. When he moved his hands, there were threads of spiritual energy connecting his two palms.
Wang Lin shouted, “Go!”
The threads were cut down the middle. The broken ends drilled into the water mirror door with the other ends still connected to Wang Lin’s hand. As Wang Lin poured spiritual energy into his hand, more and more threads appeared until there was enough to wrap around the entire water mirror door.
The fusion part of the refining process was similar to balancing the spiritual energy and formation inside a magic treasure to reach a mysterious balance.
The reverse refining process requires the exact opposite, as the first step was to break this balance. Once it succeeded, the balance would be broken. Wang Lin kept pouring spiritual energy in with a calm expression, but his gaze was locked onto the water mirror door.
His expression suddenly changed as the threads coming out of his hand began to tremble and a very bright ring of light appeared at the center of the water mirror door. This ring released soft crackling sounds until it completely shattered. The moment it shattered, the the light expanded to the edges of the temple and disappeared.
The water mirror door became dim. Wang Lin knew that the balance inside had been broken. What was next was to split the materials and the spirit core that were used to make the door in the melting process.
Wang Lin’s expression was serious as he slowly withdrew the threads of spiritual energy.
As the thread was withdrawn, the water mirror door began to shake and the edges of the temple began to shine. The light slowly withdrew from the edges of the temple and became a ball of light.
There were countless threads on the ball of light, all of which were connected to Wang Lin’s hand.
Wang Lin shouted, “Withdraw!”
The ball of light was pulled out of the door as Wang Lin quickly shook his hand and the thread disappeared back into his body.
Wang Lin looked at the ball of light with a smile on his face. He completed the second step of reverse refining, which was to split the melting process. The spirit core had been split from the other materials of the treasure.
Wang Lin took a deep breath and looked back at the entrance. He didn’t know how long he had been in here, but these water mirror doors cut off divine sense and spiritual energy, so no matter how much of a commotion he created in here, no one outside would notice.
In addition to that, the red-faced elder didn’t believe that Wang Lin could break the water mirror door with only his Core Formation cultivation, so he didn’t wait inside.
This gave Wang Lin a chance, but he knew that he had to be quick, otherwise the red-faced elder would suddenly come in. Everything would be for nothing if he did.
Thinking about this, he quickly took out the reaction furnace he had made in the 14th valley. He carefully put the spirit core inside the reaction furnace and placed a seal on it. Then the reaction furnace immediately began to spin. It was slow at first, but then it went faster and faster.
After sending out the seal, he walked toward the door.