Divine Blood Sect

Song Wen performed Soul Searching on Wan Rou to sift through her memories, wanting to understand Shi Shou's usual behavior, find out which sect cultivators he associated with, and, most importantly, learn whether Shi Shou knew the female cultivator stationed at the Foundation Establishment Scripture Transmission Hall.

Song Wen had gone to great lengths to get close to Chen Feihe solely to obtain an Elder Token from him. Now that he had killed Shi Shou, he naturally had one in his possession.

This was also why Song Wen had not devoured Shi Shou's soul. Once Shi Shou's soul dissipated, the strand of his soul aura left within the Corpse Demon Sect would also vanish.

If the Corpse Demon Sect discovered Shi Shou was dead, his Elder Token would naturally become useless.

In truth, performing Soul Searching on Shi Shou would have been ideal, but before Song Wen could even cast the Soul Binding Art, Shi Shou had foolishly rushed into his Sea of Consciousness to seek his own doom.

Furthermore, Song Wen's soul power was not much stronger than Shi Shou's. Although Shi Shou's soul was currently trapped in his Sea of Consciousness and unconscious, a forced Soul Searching would certainly awaken him.

Once Shi Shou regained consciousness, though he could not escape the Sea of Consciousness, he could choose to disintegrate his own soul, which would result in a net loss.

Wan Rou was different. Her soul power was weak, allowing Song Wen to search her memories at will.

Through Wan Rou's memories, Song Wen learned that Shi Shou was an exceptionally cold and solitary man who rarely interacted with other cultivators apart from his dao companion.

Yet this was normal. Among demonic cultivators, few were not cold and detached.

After all, the demonic path was rife with those who betrayed their masters, destroyed their ancestors, slaughtered their disciples, and murdered their friends. How many demonic cultivators dared to truly befriend another?

This realization gave Song Wen the possibility of disguising himself as Shi Shou to enter the Foundation Establishment Scripture Transmission Hall.

Having been subjected to a forced Soul Searching, Wan Rou's soul was severely damaged and her spirit scattered, leaving her in a witless state.

Song Wen looked at the woman before him with a trace of pity.

She was the only person who could be considered kind whom Song Wen had encountered since entering the world of cultivation, yet she had been betrayed by her closest companion.

Song Wen shook his head, dismissing the somewhat laughable thought from his mind.

Shi Shou was undoubtedly cold and ruthless, but Song Wen knew he was no saint either. His only advantage over Shi Shou was likely that he had no close relatives in this world, meaning he could never betray them.

"Perhaps, from the moment I crossed over into this world, I was destined to be alone for a lifetime."

A faint sorrow arose in Song Wen's heart.

Yet his hands did not hesitate in the slightest. With a sudden burst of strength, Wan Rou's head shattered, and her aura instantly vanished.

Song Wen originally intended to spare this pitiful woman's soul and let her enter reincarnation.

But he suddenly jarred himself awake. How could a demonic cultivator indulge in such soft-heartedness?

He realized that from the moment he killed Shi Shou, his mindset had quietly undergone a subtle shift.

Previously, the threat of Shi Shou had forced him to cultivate without a single moment of rest, and nothing could shake his determination to grow stronger.

The moment Shi Shou died, the intense urgency in his heart suddenly dissolved, causing his vigilance to drop accordingly.

"I must never relax my guard. Since I have stepped onto the path of cultivation and entered the demonic sect, there is no such thing as peace. There will only ever be deception and hidden dangers!"

"To survive in this cultivation world, one must always tread on thin ice and remain exceptionally cautious."

Song Wen's gaze turned resolute and cold as he instantly devoured Wan Rou's soul.

He began processing the nine corpses. Among them, only Shi Shou wore a Storage Ring; the others did not even possess Storage Bags, which had likely been confiscated by Shi Shou beforehand.

Song Wen slipped Shi Shou's Storage Ring into his robes, piled the nine corpses together, and reduced them to ashes with a burst of fierce flame.

He then cast the Gale Wind Technique to scatter the ashes completely.

Next, he drove his Cold Moon Blade to destroy the formation lines on the ground, stopping only after a full layer of rock had been scraped away to his satisfaction.

Song Wen turned to look at the two nearby Puppet Corpses.

His own Pseudo-Tier 2 Puppet Corpse was no longer in human shape.

Half its head was crushed, one arm torn off, a leg snapped, and its chest cavity hollowed out. However, the core damage was not too severe-it was slightly better than he had anticipated. It could be restored after he returned and refined it anew.

Shi Shou's Tier 2 Puppet Corpse stood there completely unscathed.

......

It was just after nightfall when Shi Shou had captured Song Wen, and by the time he returned to his cave dwelling, the sky was already growing bright.

Entering the residence, Song Wen walked over to the corpse miasma well, where wisps of gray energy drifted outward.

By now, the natural output of the well could no longer satisfy the needs of Song Wen's cultivation; the corpse miasma energy he required had to be entirely purchased.

Song Wen climbed down the mouth of the well. After descending a few meters, he pressed against the stone wall, shifting a two-inch square stone block aside.

A tiny niche appeared before him, containing a green ring-Ying Ni's Storage Ring.

This niche was where Song Wen used to hide his collected essence blood. The Dharma Artifacts, pills, and techniques obtained from the secret realm that were currently inconvenient to sell, along with the bulk of his Spirit Stones, were temporarily stored here.

Storage Rings and Storage Bags emitted no spiritual fluctuations when not actively used. Combined with the masking effect of the well's corpse miasma, it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to discover this hidden niche unless they intentionally climbed down to perform a meticulous search.

On his way back, Song Wen had already inspected Shi Shou's Storage Ring.

He had found the genuine text of the Corpse King Blood Refining Art, which was recorded inside a palm-sized, blood-colored token.

The manual within the token contained the complete cultivation technique from the Qi Refining stage all the way to the Core Formation Realm. This meant Song Wen would not have to worry about finding a core technique before reaching the Nascent Soul stage.

Aside from this, there were no other techniques.

The techniques and secret arts Shi Shou cultivated had all been obtained from the Corpse Demon Sect's Scripture Transmission Hall. To prevent techniques from leaking, the hall utilized disposable jade slips.

To Song Wen's slight surprise and disappointment, Shi Shou actually possessed no offensive Spirit Weapons. His only Spirit Weapon was the small shield he had deployed during their battle.

Even the flying sword Shi Shou used for Sword Riding was merely a High Grade Dharma Artifact.

As for the flying boat Song Wen had ridden when he was first forced into the Corpse Demon Sect by Shi Shou, it was nowhere to be found. It was unclear whether Shi Shou had sold it in recent years due to a lack of funds or if the vessel had never belonged to him in the first place.

It was highly possible he had borrowed it from the sect and returned it after completing that specific assignment.

The small shield was called the Turtle Snake Shield. It was unknown where Shi Shou had acquired it, but its quality was extremely high, rating as a Middle Grade Spirit Weapon.

With Song Wen's current cultivation level, he lacked the capacity to truly drive the shield. He estimated he would need to reach at least the mid Foundation Establishment stage to unleash a portion of its true power.

This was likely why Shi Shou could only use the Turtle Snake Shield for basic physical defense when fighting Song Wen, unable to stimulate any of its latent power or manifest any spiritual phenomena.

Beyond these items, the Storage Ring contained standard goods-pills, Spirit Stones, and various cultivation materials.

Song Wen took out a portion of the pills and corpse miasma resources he could immediately use, leaving the rest inside the ring.

After placing the Storage Ring back into the niche, Song Wen returned to the upper chamber of his cave dwelling.

Holding the blood-colored token containing the Corpse King Blood Refining Art, he began to carefully review the details of the technique.

Word by word, from beginning to end.

He worried that Shi Shou might have tampered with the version of the Corpse King Blood Refining Art he had been given previously, so he dared not be careless in the slightest.

After finishing the Qi Refining chapter, Song Wen felt relieved.

The version he had previously cultivated had no inherent issues; it simply lacked the subsequent instructions on how to truly refine corpse miasma energy.

Thinking over it, Shi Shou had forced Song Wen to cultivate the Corpse King Blood Refining Art specifically to devour his spiritual energy and essence blood to break through his own bottleneck. Naturally, he wouldn't tamper with the foundational technique.

According to the introductory outline of the manual, Song Wen discovered that the Corpse King Blood Refining Art was passed down from an ancient sect known as the Divine Blood Sect.

It was a sect Song Wen had never heard of, likely one that had long vanished into the river of history.

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