Tier 3 Silver Corpse

An advanced cultivation technique required a Golden Core before it could be practiced. This was because only cultivators at or above the Core Formation Realm possessed enough vital blood essence to execute the Blood Escape Technique.

If a Foundation Establishment cultivator forced themselves to practice it, they would only drain their vital energy and die.

For Song Wen, however, this problem did not exist. The vital blood essence within his body was already comparable to that of some Core Formation cultivators.

Before coming to Donghua Market, Song Wen had found a desolate mountain where Spirit Qi was sparse and where no cultivators would ever go. He had entered secluded cultivation there for a month and successfully mastered the Blood Escape Technique.

The furthest distance he could travel in a single burst was roughly eighty li.

However, after executing the Blood Escape Technique once, the vital blood essence in his body would be completely exhausted. To use it again, he would have to replenish his blood essence.

Another technique was called the Ghostly Book of the Malice Dao. It allowed a cultivator to condense the corpse malice within their body into various forms, which could be used for both attack and defense. For now, the corpse malice within his body was still insufficient to practice it.

Within Wu Ren's Storage Ring, there was also a ghastly white mourning banner. It was a Dharma Treasure that sealed a vast ocean of ghost Qi, and its power was quite remarkable. However, Song Wen had not yet formed his core and had not cultivated True Essence, so he was unable to refine and use it.

Aside from that, there was Wu Ren's corpse.

Wu Ren had been a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator during his lifetime. If refined properly, his body could be turned into a Tier 3 silver corpse comparable to a Core Formation expert.

To successfully refine a silver corpse, one needed a massive amount of various rare spiritual resources. Furthermore, with only a Foundation Establishment cultivation, Song Wen would not be able to command a Tier 3 silver corpse.

Taking the next best option, Song Wen planned to follow Wu Sui's example and refine Wu Ren's corpse into a pseudo-Tier 3 Puppet Corpse.

This way, the Puppet Corpse would possess enough strength to suppress Foundation Establishment cultivators, and given Song Wen's current cultivation level, he would actually be able to drive it.

When Song Wen first learned that the Orthodox Sects were going to besiege the Corpse Demon Sect, he had spent a massive sum of Spirit Stones to purchase a large quantity of various spiritual materials.

Yet, he still had not expected that he would need to attempt refining a silver corpse so soon. To successfully refine a pseudo-Tier 3 silver corpse, he was still missing a crucial Yin-attribute material: a Tier 3 spiritual material known as Xuan Yin Stone.

Currently, Song Wen had only cultivated the Everlasting Longevity Art to the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Being in the territory of the Orthodox Sects, he only dared to display a cultivation level of the fourth layer of Qi Refining. Finding a Tier 3 spiritual resource under these conditions was truly no easy task.

The plan to refine the pseudo-Tier 3 Puppet Corpse was temporarily shelved.

After entering Donghua Market, Song Wen did not dare to practice any techniques related to the demonic path. He had been consistently cultivating the Everlasting Longevity Art.

As the most widely circulated orthodox technique, the Everlasting Longevity Art was practiced by many people, the vast majority of whom were rogue cultivators.

Its greatest advantage was its ability to extend one's lifespan. After all, the ultimate purpose of cultivation was simply to live longer. However, the drawbacks of this technique were also very obvious: the Spirit Qi it produced did not possess any elemental attributes, making it extremely disadvantageous in combat.

Generally speaking, when executing techniques or activating Dharma Artifacts that matched the attribute of one's cultivation technique, the power would be significantly enhanced. For instance, those who practiced fire-attribute techniques would often see a noticeable boost in power when using fire techniques or fire-attribute Dharma Artifacts.

Furthermore, the cultivation progress of the Everlasting Longevity Art was exceptionally slow.

This caused many people, especially the arrogant disciples of great sects, to view it as a piece of garbage and cast it aside like a worn-out broom.

Song Wen, however, did not look at it that way. What attribute could possibly be more important than living longer?

If you cannot defeat your enemy, you can outlive them. Dancing on your enemy's grave when the grass grows three feet high is also a form of revenge.

Yet, only after he actually began practicing the Everlasting Longevity Art did he truly realize just how slow it was.

The concentration of Spirit Qi in Donghua Market was abundant, and he did not lack Spirit Stones or pills. But even after practicing diligently for two full months, the growth of his Everlasting Longevity Art True Essence remained extremely sluggish.

Song Wen estimated that breaking through to the fifth layer of Qi Refining would take at least three to five years. And this was under the condition that he possessed a sixth-grade spiritual root. No wonder most rogue cultivators, who possessed inferior aptitudes, could rarely break through to the late stage of Qi Refining in their entire lives.

During his cultivation, Song Wen also discovered another phenomenon: the righteous Qi of heaven and earth cultivated from the Everlasting Longevity Art and the turbid Spirit Qi cultivated from the Corpse King Blood Refining Art were both stored within his Dantian, yet they remained clearly demarcated and did not interfere with one another.

They resembled the Taiji diagram from his previous life-one black and one white, one righteous and one evil, as distinct as the Jing and Wei rivers.

There was another extremely vital reason why Song Wen chose to cultivate the Everlasting Longevity Art.

It was the only technique available for purchase in the shops of Donghua Market that contained a complete path of cultivation from the Qi Refining stage all the way to Foundation Establishment.

In Donghua Market, aside from the Everlasting Longevity Art, no other Foundation Establishment techniques were sold. Song Wen suspected this was a deliberate move by the Orthodox Sects to recruit powerful rogue cultivators who managed to reach Foundation Establishment.

Once a rogue cultivator reached Foundation Establishment, if they wished to obtain a subsequent technique, they would be forced to join a sect and serve them. Otherwise, a lack of matching techniques would mean their cultivation would stagnate forever.

Since progress with the Everlasting Longevity Art was so slow, Song Wen turned his thoughts toward Blood Qi Pills, deciding to use them to aid his cultivation.

Back then, taking the Blood Qi Pills refined by Ji Yin had caused his cultivation to surge rapidly. The only drawback was that it consumed a massive amount of vital blood essence, which happened to be the one thing Song Wen lacked least.

In his Storage Ring, he still had a hundred and sixty bottles of vital blood essence. Even after deducting what the Black-armored Gu required daily, it was enough to sustain his cultivation for a very long time.

......

The house Song Wen rented consisted of three main rooms and a kitchen.

Of the three main rooms, the middle one served as the living room, the right side was the bedroom, and the left side was set up as a talisman room.

Song Wen walked into the talisman room, picked up ten completed talismans from the table-nine Fireball Talismans and one Flight Talisman-and left the courtyard.

Perhaps because of the war between the righteous and demonic factions, many disciples of the Beast Taming Sect had gone to the front lines, and many rogue cultivators had also been conscripted. The streets of the market looked somewhat deserted.

Song Wen stepped into a talisman shop and sold his ten talismans.

The nine Fireball Talismans fetched four Spirit Stones, while the Flight Talisman sold for five, bringing him a total of nine Spirit Stones.

Leaving the talisman shop, Song Wen arrived at a medicinal pill pavilion.

Seeing Song Wen enter, the shopkeeper, who had been dozing off due to the abysmal state of business, instantly perked up and trotted over to him.

"Fellow Daoist, what are you looking to buy?"

"Do you have Blood Qi Pills?"

"Of course we have Blood Qi Pills. How many do you require, Fellow Daoist?"

"May I examine the pills first?" Song Wen asked.

"Certainly," the shopkeeper replied with a beaming smile.

The shopkeeper tapped the Storage Bag at his waist, and a jade bottle appeared in his hand.

"Honored guest, please take a look. The pills inside this jade bottle are precisely Blood Qi Pills."

Song Wen took the jade bottle, pulled out the stopper, and extended his Divine Sense inside. He detected a single pill within the bottle.

The pill was blood-red. In terms of appearance, it did not differ much from the Blood Qi Pills refined by Ji Yin, but Song Wen felt that the medicinal potency of this pill was considerably weaker than the ones Ji Yin had produced.

Song Wen frowned slightly. Why did it feel like the standard Blood Qi Pills refined by orthodox alchemists in the cultivation world could not even compare to what Ji Yin had blindly thrown together on his own?

Perhaps noticing Song Wen's dissatisfaction, the shopkeeper asked, "Is Fellow Daoist not satisfied with the pill? This was personally refined by Master Ma Quan. It is absolutely a high-grade product among Blood Qi Pills."

Song Wen completely ignored the shopkeeper's self-praise. That so-called Master Ma Quan was merely a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator who could only refine Tier 1 pills; he was nowhere near worthy of the title of an alchemy master.

"How much is this Blood Qi Pill?" Song Wen asked.

"Ten Spirit Stones per pill."

"So expensive?" Song Wen was slightly surprised.

The shopkeeper explained, "The Blood Qi Pill carries a very small chance of helping a cultivator break through the bottlenecks of the early Qi Refining stage, so it is naturally not cheap. However, this pill cannot be consumed in large quantities, or else one risks depleting their own vital energy and blood."

Song Wen nodded. It seemed the standard Blood Qi Pills in the cultivation world also consumed vital blood essence, though their medicinal potency was not as volatile as the ones Ji Yin refined. Consequently, their effectiveness in increasing one's cultivation would likely be vastly inferior as well.

Then again, ordinary cultivators probably wouldn't dare to consume the Blood Qi Pills Ji Yin refined. Those weren't pills meant to aid cultivation; they could practically be considered lethal poisons.

"Give me two, then."

Song Wen handed over twenty Spirit Stones.

The shopkeeper accepted the Spirit Stones, placed two Blood Qi Pills into the jade bottle, and handed it over to Song Wen.

"We look forward to your next visit, Fellow Daoist."

Song Wen walked out of the shop, inwardly lamenting how expensive the medicinal pills in Donghua Market truly were.

He knew the formula for the Blood Qi Pill. None of the spiritual herbs required were particularly rare; gathering a full batch of ingredients would cost no more than two Spirit Stones. A standard refinement run would yield about five pills, meaning the profit margin was over twenty-fold.

The extent to which the Orthodox Sects exploited rogue cultivators was clear for all to see.

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