Three Corpses City

"That is impossible. This place is a full thousand li away from the swamp spirit fields. Ji Yin is only at the third layer of Qi Condensation. How could he cross such a vast distance in a single day?" Yan Gao immediately denied.

Yan Qiu also found it somewhat incredible, but on second thought, since Yan Feng and the other five pursuing Ji Yin had all died, Ji Yin must have hidden his cultivation level.

If Ji Yin possessed a mid-stage Qi Condensation cultivation and had the assistance of travel talismans, covering a thousand li in a day would actually be reasonable. Yan Qiu voiced her inner speculation.

Upon hearing this, Yan Gao said, "What you say is not impossible. Then what should we do?"

Yan Qiu replied, "Our current plan is for Third Uncle and me to continue pursuing Ji Yin, while the others take Gui San back to the clan and deliver the news about Ji Yin. In case the two of us fail to catch him, the clan needs to have a contingency plan."

Yan Gao, who possessed brawn but lacked brains, could not offer a better suggestion. He nodded in agreement. "Very well, we will proceed accordingly."

With a wave of his hand, he brought out a flying vessel and said, "Xiao Qiu, come aboard. We will take the flying vessel to pursue Ji Yin." The two boarded the flying vessel and headed toward the Corpse Demon Sect to search.

The others, escorting Gui San, also boarded a flying vessel and returned to the Yan family estate.

...

After putting considerable distance between himself and Gui San, Song Wen dared not slacken in the slightest, maintaining a full-speed journey.

He knew that since he could randomly run into Gui San, the members of the Yan family could catch up to him at any moment. Now was not the time to relax.

Thus, he traveled at maximum speed, constantly using Swift Movement Talismans and executing the Blood Evasion Art to rush forward at top speed.

As the sun gradually sank into the west, a small city appeared ahead of Song Wen. This city was named Three Corpses City, and it was under the direct jurisdiction of the Corpse Demon Sect.

Three Corpses City was rich in profound iron ore. The mortals within the city were almost entirely mining slaves subjugated by the Corpse Demon Sect, extracting profound iron ore for generations with no hope of ever bettering their lot.

To ensure a continuous supply of mortal mining slaves, the Corpse Demon Sect even selectively bred them, choosing naturally tall and large men to violate female slaves, forcing them to give birth to offspring. For these mining slaves, suffering had no end; whether living or dead, it was nothing but agony.

Even after death, these slaves were fully utilized. Although they suffered endlessly and barely any essence blood could be squeezed from their bodies, they could be thrown into the Great Corpse Refining Fiend Transformation Formation to refine corpse fiend Qi, aiding the cultivation of Corpse Demon Sect disciples.

In other words, Song Wen himself was tainted by the karma of these mining slaves. The Corpse King Blood Refining Art he cultivated required far more corpse fiend Qi than that of ordinary disciples, and a large portion of this corpse fiend Qi came from the shaft within his cave dwelling.

The souls of the mining slaves would also be extracted to refine various insidious magical artifacts.

Song Wen planned to spend the night inside Three Corpses City. The reason he did not travel through the night was because he knew the Yan family would certainly mobilize all their forces to search for him tonight. Traveling at night when there were few cultivators on the road would instead increase his risk of exposure.

Three Corpses City was only a little over two hundred li away from the Corpse Demon Sect, with a massive number of Corpse Demon Sect disciples and rogue cultivators traveling between the two locations. Consequently, large flying vessels shuttled between them. Song Wen intended to take a flying vessel back to the Corpse Demon Sect tomorrow.

With the Yan family possessing only a single Foundation Establishment cultivator, their power was far from enough to influence the large merchant vessels belonging to the Corpse Demon Sect.

From afar, Song Wen spotted that outside the gates of Three Corpses City, there were not only city guards but also several Yan family cultivators. His brow twitched involuntarily, wondering if his whereabouts had been compromised.

Then, his gaze fell upon his chest, where the six storage bags he had plundered from Yan Feng and the other five were tucked away. In the cultivation world, cultivators could split a portion of their mental energy and attach it to junior disciples or objects, forming a spiritual imprint. A cultivator could use this spiritual imprint to perceive the general location of their juniors.

However, since Song Wen dared to keep the six storage bags on his person, he had naturally come prepared.

The mental energy of a Qi Condensation cultivator, and even the divine sense unique to Foundation Establishment cultivators, were essentially forms of soul power. As long as it was soul power, it would be devoured by Song Wen's physical body, turning into nourishment for his sea of consciousness.

When Song Wen first heard about spiritual imprints, this hypothesis had formed in his mind. To verify it, he had previously tested it using Chen Yi and Senior Brother Xu. Without exception, the spiritual imprints they left on the objects were easily devoured by Song Wen. When he held the items bearing their spiritual imprints, he could clearly feel the mental energy within being swallowed by himself.

Later, he had confirmed with both of them that they had indeed lost their connection to the items. Testing it with Chen Yi was because they were well-acquainted, making it easy to ask. Testing it with Senior Brother Xu was because his strength surpassed his own. These two tests-one strong, one weak-fully proved that his hypothesis was flawless.

Calming his mind, and relying on his confidence in his cheat, Song Wen dismissed the stray thoughts from his head.

"The appearance of Yan family cultivators in Three Corpses City means they have likely discovered the traces of Yan Feng and the others' deaths. They must have roughly calculated my speed and come to conduct a strict inspection here."

Before entering the city, Song Wen used his physical body's control over his aura to fully display a cultivation level of the fourth layer of Qi Condensation while completely concealing the corpse Qi across his body. Then, relying on a mundane disguise technique, he altered his appearance, taking on the guise of a middle-aged cultivator.

In this way, not only did Song Wen's appearance change, but his aura became completely different as well. Even if Guo Tao, who had spent many days with him, were to come, he would find it hard to recognize him.

Song Wen did not present his Corpse Demon Sect outer disciple token to enter the city. The higher-ups of Three Corpses City had clearly been infiltrated by the Yan family; showing his outer disciple token would only expose his identity.

Adopting the persona of a demonic rogue cultivator, Song Wen smoothly entered Three Corpses City after paying a single spirit stone.

People bustled within Three Corpses City. There were quite a few cultivators, along with many mortals. Most of these mortals were scantily clad and emaciated to the bone; these were the mining slaves long exploited by the Corpse Demon Sect.

Yet, not all mortals were impoverished; there was no shortage of well-dressed, healthy individuals among them. No matter the era, the human race never lacked treacherous sycophants who betrayed their own kind for personal gain. These splendidly dressed mortals were precisely that sort of people.

They abetted the wicked, helping the Corpse Demon Sect enslave mortals. They bowed and scraped before cultivators, yet ordered around their fellow mortal mining slaves, treating them like swine and dogs.

Song Wen watched all of this with an indifferent expression, feeling neither anger nor pity.

He walked straight into a cultivator inn, spent one spirit stone to request an ordinary room, and settled in.

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