The Eerie Female Corpse

Holding the jade bottle, Song Wen sensed the pure, flawless essence blood within.

He was highly satisfied.

This was currently the only method he could think of to quickly earn Spirit Stones.

Yesterday in the market, Song Wen had noticed that refined essence blood commanded a hefty price.

The essence blood he forced out was pure, singular, and free of the slightest impurity or mottled aura. Anyone inspecting it would believe it was the result of completely refining the essence blood of a late-stage Qi Refining righteous path cultivator.

Song Wen estimated that if he set up a stall in the market, this half-bottle of essence blood would fetch at least eighty to a hundred Spirit Stones.

Putting the jade bottle away, Song Wen took out the corpse miasma Qi he had purchased yesterday. He swallowed a Corpse Blood Pill and began cultivating the Corpse King Blood Refining Art.

As for the Divine Restriction Technique, he planned to wait until the soul fragments in his Sea of Consciousness approached saturation again before attempting to cultivate it.

In the blink of an eye, over ten days passed. With abundant vitality and blood, the corpse miasma Qi, and the aid of Corpse Blood Pills, Song Wen's cultivation progressed at an astonishing rate. He had already broken through to the mid-stage of the second layer of Qi Refining.

Such cultivation speed could be considered advancing by leaps and bounds, even within the Demonic Path, which was already known for its rapid early progress.

For the past ten days or so, Song Wen had continuously siphoned essence blood from the Corpse Dismemberment Cave. However, he did not dare devour it as brazenly as he had on the first day. He kept his daily absorption of vitality and blood strictly within a range he could comfortably control.

Even so, he had already condensed three full bottles of essence blood.

He planned to visit the market after finishing today's dismemberment duties to discreetly dispose of these three bottles.

At the third quarter of the Shen hour, Song Wen finished his work for the day. He took the results of the dismemberment to Yuan Cheng's cave dwelling.

After handing over the Storage Bag, he was just about to leave when Yuan Cheng called out to him.

"Ji Yin, wait a moment."

"Senior Brother Yuan, what are your orders?"

Song Wen had to stop. He forced a respectful smile onto his face as he asked.

"I have a corpse here that needs to be processed immediately. Junior Brother Ji Yin, I'll have to trouble you to dismember this one first."

As he spoke, Yuan Cheng handed over a Storage Bag.

Although unwilling, Song Wen did not dare show it.

When standing under another man's eaves, one had no choice but to bow their head!

He nodded with a smile. "No problem, Senior Brother Yuan."

Song Wen took the Storage Bag and turned back toward the dismemberment platform.

"Junior Brother Ji Yin, when you dissect this corpse, be a bit more careful and meticulous."

Yuan Cheng's voice echoed behind him. Song Wen suddenly felt that he had agreed too quickly, as if he had missed something crucial.

If it were an ordinary corpse, Yuan Cheng wouldn't be in such a rush to have it processed today; it could easily wait until tomorrow.

Insisting it be done today meant that leaving the corpse until tomorrow might lead to unforeseen complications.

But what could possibly go wrong with a corpse?

Could it undergo a corpse mutation and rise?

Even if it did mutate, what kind of waves could a newly transformed corpse make here, in the Corpse Demon Sect-a place literally specializing in manipulating the dead?

Unable to figure out the reason, Song Wen could only turn back and look at Yuan Cheng in confusion.

Yuan Cheng, however, said nothing more. He had already closed his eyes to meditate, acting as if the warning he just issued hadn't come from him at all. He completely ignored Song Wen.

Seeing that the other party was unwilling to elaborate, Song Wen had no choice but to continue toward the platform with unease. Inwardly, his guard was raised high against this particular corpse.

At the same time, he felt a flash of annoyance. If he hadn't been the last person finishing up his quota, Yuan Cheng wouldn't have snagged him for this task.

Song Wen did not immediately open the Storage Bag. Instead, he pulled out a pair of leather gloves and a thick leather apron from his own Storage Bag.

This was a trick he had picked up from observing others over his two months working in the Corpse Dismemberment Cave.

Some veteran Corpse Dismemberers would wear gloves and aprons for protection when dismantling certain specific corpses. A few even used Magical Artifact-tier protective gear.

Magical Artifact-tier gloves were beyond Song Wen's means, so he had to settle for leather substitutes.

Even if he sold those three bottles of essence blood right now and could scrape together enough to buy the lowest-grade Magical Artifact gear, he wouldn't dare. Doing so would definitely attract unwanted attention.

Where would a completely unbacked Novice, who had been in the sect for less than three months, get the Spirit Stones for Magical Artifacts?

Never expose your wealth; never reveal your true intentions!

This was Song Wen's absolute first rule of survival in this dangerous world.

Upon seeing the corpse dumped onto the stone slab, Song Wen did not immediately start cutting. He observed it closely first.

The corpse belonged to an old woman. She appeared extremely elderly, her frame hunched and the wrinkles on her skin deep and pronounced. She looked like an ordinary mortal who had simply died of old age.

The body was covered in water stains left behind by melted ice, and scattered, unmelted ice crystals still clung to the flesh.

The fatal wound was on the back of the head-a bowl-sized hole, as if someone had crushed her skull with a single claw strike.

Inside the gaping cranial cavity, a large cluster of ice crystals remained unmelted.

Clearly, she had been killed first, then frozen with an ice-attribute technique.

Since the killer had already ended her life, why waste Magic Power freezing her?

Song Wen couldn't help but wonder.

If the old woman had been frozen alive, the ice crystals wouldn't have formed deep inside the wound in her skull; they would only cover the surface of her body.

Song Wen took out his bone-scraping knife and carefully began slicing away the old woman's robes.

The seemingly thin layer of ice crystals on the corpse was exceptionally hard, providing tremendous resistance.

Seeking out the thawed patches, Song Wen finally managed to cut the clothes open and peel them away.

'Were these ice crystals left by a Foundation Establishment cultivator?' Song Wen thought, inwardly shocked.

A frail, skeletal, and entirely bloodless corpse was revealed. It looked exactly like the body of a severely malnourished elder who had suffered from long-term starvation.

Naturally, Song Wen didn't believe for a second that someone worthy of being killed by a Foundation Establishment expert would actually lack food.

Rather, the old woman's flesh looked as if something had been parasitically draining her essence blood over a long period, resulting in a severe deficit of vitality.

The ice crystals on the body weren't overly abundant and hadn't fused into a solid sheet. Song Wen could still find gaps between the frost to insert his blade.

However, the extreme cold had left the flesh incredibly stiff. Furthermore, the old woman's cultivation in life must have been profound-Song Wen estimated she was a Foundation Establishment expert herself, meaning the intrinsic toughness of her physical body was terrifyingly high. Both factors drastically increased the difficulty of the dissection.

Logically speaking, a corpse of this caliber was prime material for refining into a corpse puppet. Yet, for some inexplicable reason, it had been sent down to the Corpse Dismemberment Cave to be butchered for essence blood.

Song Wen found this completely incomprehensible.

'If only I could refine this body into a corpse puppet.'

Ever since acquiring the Ghost Corpse Technique, he hadn't found a suitable candidate to refine. To dismantle such an exceptional specimen now felt like a tragic waste.

Still, hovering merely at the second layer of Qi Refining, Song Wen knew exactly where he stood. The decisions of the Corpse Demon Sect's upper echelon weren't his to question. His only job was to follow orders and flay the meat.

Given the myriad of bizarre anomalies surrounding the corpse, Song Wen did not dare siphon a single drop of its essence blood. He meticulously began the dissection, praying silently that nothing unexpected would happen.

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