Clever Taking and Bold Seizing

Wu Sheng looked at Song Wen with an arrogant smirk, a faint trace of disdain flashing across his face, as if he had Song Wen completely figured out.

He was already at the third layer of Qi Condensation. Furthermore, with his family lineage, he believed his techniques and methods were far superior to those of a mere rogue cultivator like Song Wen.

However, his cultivation was not his greatest reliance.

His true trump card was the iron corpse standing motionless behind him. This iron corpse was an heirloom left by his father, capable of unleashing combat power equivalent to the mid-stage of Qi Condensation. Because its body was as hard as iron and carried a thick, highly toxic corpse fiend Qi, ordinary mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivators were simply no match for it.

Song Wen felt as if he had swallowed a fly, his mind filled with a thoroughly rotten mood.

He had barely stepped foot into the Corpse Demon Sect, and he was already being subjected to standard sect bullying.

Did people in the cultivation world lack brains entirely? Making enemies so needlessly!

But on second thought, it made sense. Wu Sheng was only sixteen or seventeen-an age ripe for youthful arrogance. He was also the strongest among the six new recruits, so it was only natural for him to act without restraint.

As the iron corpse unabashedly released waves of dense corpse fiend Qi, a cold shiver ran down Song Wen's spine.

This iron corpse was definitely not something he could contend with at his current level.

Song Wen made his decision instantly. Presenting his token with both hands, he bowed lower.

"It is my honor that Senior Brother Wu has taken a liking to my cave dwelling. If Senior Brother wishes to stay there, please, take it."

Wu Sheng nodded smugly, snatching the token from Song Wen's hands before passing his own cave dwelling token over.

"Junior Brother Ji Yin, you are a sensible man who knows how to adapt. Follow me from now on. I hold a few connections within this Corpse Demon Sect."

"Thank you for your guidance, Senior Brother."

"Mm." Wu Sheng gave a dismissive grunt, turned on his heel, and walked toward Cave Dwelling Bing Twelve, strutting with all the pomposity of a local tyrant.

Song Wen watched his departing back, silently noting the name in his mental ledger.

A gentleman takes revenge even if it takes ten years.

Once his strength was sufficient, he would repay today's humiliation in full.

And if his strength remained insufficient... well, then fellow sect brothers simply ought to help each other out.

Song Wen glanced at the token in his hand: Bing Ninety-Seven.

Looking around to find it, he finally spotted his assigned cave dwelling situated near the edge of a steep slope.

At that moment, he finally understood why Wu Sheng had gone out of his way to snatch his cave.

This place sat at the outermost periphery of the outer sect disciple residential zone. The Spiritual Qi here was far thinner than at Bing Twelve, which would undoubtedly drag down his cultivation speed.

Song Wen's resentment toward Wu Sheng deepened a fraction more.

Holding the token, he easily passed into the cave dwelling.

The space inside was quite spacious, spanning several dozen square meters and furnished with various daily necessities.

However, right in the center of the cave lay a bottomless vertical shaft. A constant stream of corpse fiend Qi wafted up from its depths, making one's entire body feel uncomfortable.

This was an arrangement left by the ancestors of the Corpse Demon Sect to aid the disciples' cultivation. They had established the Grand Corpse Refining Miasma Array deep within the mountain belly, using countless corpses of mortals, cultivators, and spirit beasts to generate this corpse fiend Qi, which was then funneled directly into the disciples' quarters.

Song Wen began inspecting the contents of his Storage Bag. Inside were the robes of an outer sect disciple, five low-grade Spirit Stones, and two bottles of pills.

One bottle contained three Inedia Pills, each capable of sustaining a person without food for ten days.

The other bottle contained three Corpse Blood Pills, used to assist cultivators in condensing and refining corpse fiend Qi.

However, Song Wen noticed a peculiar detail. While the others had received a book titled Corpse Fiend Art, his Storage Bag contained no books at all. Instead, there was a single jade slip.

No longer a novice to the cultivation world, Song Wen knew that jade slips were a much more advanced method of recording information. By pressing it to the space between his eyebrows, one could use mental energy to view the contents.

"Why is my cultivation method different from the rest?"

An uneasy feeling swelled in his chest. He recalled the secret voice transmission exchanged between Shi Shou and Du Qiu before they parted.

The anomaly must have occurred then.

In other words, this jade slip had been deliberately given to him by Shi Shou.

Why would the Elder hand him this specific manual? Could there be something unique about his aptitude that caught Shi Shou's attention?

Pressing the jade slip against his forehead, he began to examine the cultivation art.

Instantly, a massive torrent of information flooded his consciousness.

Corpse King Blood Refining Art!

That was the name of the technique within the jade slip.

It was a body-refining cultivation art, a rarity in the cultivation world.

The slip recorded the complete instructions from the first layer to the ninth layer of Qi Condensation.

According to the information in his mind, the Corpse King Blood Refining Art carried a strict prerequisite: only those who possessed all five elements in their spiritual roots could cultivate it.

"Is this why Shi Shou passed this method to me?"

According to the general overview, the Corpse King Blood Refining Art was an extraordinary body-refining technique. If cultivated to its absolute pinnacle, one could forge the physical body of Jiang Chen, the progenitor of all zombies.

It promised to transcend the five elements, exist outside the three realms, and achieve an existence that never aged, never died, and never perished.

Of course, this was merely the boastful introduction of the manual. Since Song Wen only possessed the Qi Condensation portion, he had no way of verifying its validity.

Though he couldn't discern what scheme Shi Shou might be running, Song Wen knew he had no choice but to cultivate it. He absolutely could not practice his original Everlasting Longevity Art-at least not for the time being.

He was currently inside the Corpse Demon Sect, where the entire sect was filled with people reeking of dense corpse Qi and sinister ghost energy.

If he stubbornly chose to practice the righteous and noble Everlasting Longevity Art here, it would be no different from courting death.

Demonic cultivators relished using the souls of righteous cultivators to refine Dharma Treasures, their bodies to craft corpse puppets, and their essence blood to fuel secret arts. To them, every part of a righteous cultivator was prime material for increasing power.

With his current low cultivation, it was fine. But if his cultivation grew and he wandered among demonic cultivators radiating righteous Qi, he would look no different from Tang Seng walking blindly into a horde of demons.

After gaining a basic understanding of the Corpse King Blood Refining Art, Song Wen set it aside for the moment. Cultivation could wait a few hours.

He pulled out the booklet containing the Corpse Demon Sect rules. If he wanted to survive in this place, he needed to read the regulations thoroughly.

Half an hour later, Song Wen closed the booklet.

The text not only detailed the rules but also provided a general overview of the sect's structure, allowing him to gain a basic understanding of the Corpse Demon Sect.

To his slight relief, despite being a demonic sect, the Corpse Demon Sect explicitly prohibited private combat between disciples. With this rule in place, his basic safety within the sect grounds was somewhat assured.

Why only "somewhat" assured?

Because the sect didn't completely ban internal conflict.

Those who struck a fellow disciple would be fined 200 low-grade Spirit Stones.

Killing a menial disciple: fined 500 low-grade Spirit Stones.

Killing an outer sect disciple: fined 3,000 low-grade Spirit Stones.

Killing an inner sect disciple: fined 10,000 low-grade Spirit Stones.

Killing a core disciple: fined 100,000 low-grade Spirit Stones.

Killing a Foundation Establishment Elder: fined 1,000,000 low-grade Spirit Stones.

As long as one could afford the fine, violating the sect rules carried no further penalty. In fact, if a disciple killed enough and paid up consistently, the sect would even reward them for generating revenue.

However, if one committed the crime and couldn't pay the fine, the consequences were horrific.

Their essence blood would be completely drained, their soul extracted and refined into a resentful ghost, and then sealed back into their own corpse. They would spend eternity as a living corpse, bound to another's will, barred from ever entering reincarnation.

The rules of the Corpse Demon Sect were, without a doubt, thoroughly demonic.

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