Chapter 128: Evil Art to Nourish Wood (Please Subscribe)

Drip, drip...

Thick plasma dripped onto the ground, brushing past the pitch-black, desolate land that lay hidden away.

Du En had already swiftly buried Zhao Jinlin's corpse, completing the act of destroying the body.

There was no need to dispose of all the splashed plasma, because he had relied entirely on his physical body while acting, and he had been refreshing his Breath Concealment Art, so there were simply no traces left behind that could lead back to him.

"Moreover, such a brazen scene is perfect for misleading them and successfully framing an evil cultivator..."

It was the same old routine: turn the matter into a cold case and pin the blame on an evil cultivator.

In any case, this was something they were capable of doing, so Du En wasn't exactly wronging them for no reason.

Next, he brought the other corpse to a different location; after a moment of thought, he did not dig a pit to bury it, but instead used a Fire Ignition Art to burn it away, then cleaned up the remaining traces.

But the state of these remains contradicted this process, appearing very unnatural.

It was a first-tier magical tool jade scroll, recording various information regarding the comings and goings of the camp's logistics warehouse.

It grew exceptionally well, with a straight trunk one zhang tall; its bark was green with red showing through, like veins clinging to and embedded within it, pulsing slightly as it absorbed nutrients, looking as if it were alive and carrying an eerie, evil aura.

Du En looked up and saw only a pile of demonic beast corpses, some fresh and some decayed, stacked to form a patch of fertile soil, with a tree growing right in the center.

Maintaining his Breath Concealment Art and having long since retracted his divine sense, he walked along until he abruptly stepped into a patch of misty white fog.

As for now, it was likely that they didn't want to let Du En be idle and needed him to do more work, which was why they had him bury the corpses.

It was very obvious that it had been planted and cultivated by human hands.

Having the ability to gather so many demonic beasts to pave the ground as soil, combined with the task of having Du En bury corpses, and the many remains scattered throughout the forest... all of this pointed to one fact!

Xiang Tao was secretly cultivating a spirit tree in an evil, bloody manner; it was highly likely to be an evil art!

A formation?

"A strong sense of déjà vu..."

"Xiang Tao has clearly gone a step further, using that kind of evil method to cultivate it; the grade of that Evergreen Tree has evidently reached the peak of the second tier. Its longevity-extending effects should be enhanced, and it might even be used to break through to the Golden Core stage?"

However, the records specifically pointed out that if someone practicing the Evergreen Art, a mid-grade wood-element cultivation method, utilized it through special techniques, they could to a certain extent extend their life and remain evergreen.

A moment later, he walked out of the white fog.

At the same time, as the camp master of the outpost, it was impossible for him to leave this place, and naturally, he could not help someone to the end by letting Ren Li collect it to climb the social ladder.

This was it!

Why did Xiang Tao, this camp master, insist on having him drag over and bury those ordinary corpses that were easy to handle?

A dignified outpost camp master, who should have been here to warn against and guard against evil cultivators, turned out to be an evil cultivator himself?

Dharma power, blood essence, life force, fleshly spiritual resonance, etc. —the corpses of Foundation Establishment cultivators could retain many things, and due to the differences in their properties and the different cultivation methods they practiced while alive, there would inevitably be a natural dissipation process with a clear order.

After finishing these tasks, his focus shifted to the matters he hadn't investigated before.

Evergreen Tree!

Seventy years ago, five had been supplied here; it was a second-tier low-grade spirit tree that wasn't particularly special.

Further back was the Corpse Yin Grass; that's right, it was the spirit herb that Ren Li had commissioned Du En to collect not long after he was parachuted in to serve as the corpse-burying supervisor.

As for the déjà vu Du En had just felt, it was because he had seen similar scenes in two other places.

Although it was mainly based on demonic beast corpses, the cultivators' corpses were just convenient additives, and their share in it was actually very small.

"So, this place is actually more like the Corpse Yin Grass... Sensing it carefully, the traces emitted as a spiritual object are indeed quite similar to the Corpse Yin Grass, which is why, even though it was very obscure and hidden by this white fog maze, I was still able to detect and capture it."

A thick, bloody stench and the foul odor of decay suddenly rushed toward his face!

Its growing ground was paved with white bones and corpses, using them as soil for its growth.

The record ledger of the camp's logistics department!

Du En sifted through it and quickly found the corresponding entry.

"Although this camp master acts cruelly and arbitrarily, his strength cannot be underestimated; there is a clear difference between him and the other patrol guards, which I imagine has something to do with raising this Evergreen Tree."

In other words, his perfected Breath Concealment Art was actually quite miraculous and difficult to accurately grade, belonging to the ranks of secret arts.

Information was still very scarce.

"The state of these remains is very similar to what was discovered over by the Snake Banyan Flower; they were all drained of the remnants of their corpses by something..."

Then, he took out one of the spoils of war that had just dropped.

He did not know its specific grade, or rather, it was hard to grade; it should belong to the category of secret arts, and Du En's Breath Concealment Art had absorbed a portion of this source when it reached its culmination, further refining it to the point of absolute perfection.

"Comparatively speaking, the spirit tree Great Banyan was clearly starving and indiscriminate; it wasn't that type of 'eater' by nature, so the conversion rate was very low, causing it to be drained and ruined."

Thinking about it this way, the person who provided the Corpse Yin Grass growth area to Ren Li back then was very likely Xiang Tao!

However, even a mosquito's leg is meat, so in the past, when it came to the corpses of his colleagues, he would just discard them in the surrounding mountains and forests as fertilizer.

"Right, if it were..."

Then, nothing happened; this white fog maze did not detect his intrusion.

Although it looked like just a low-grade spell, it was actually quite different; as early as the proficient stage, it could deceive He Bo, who was in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, let alone now that it was at absolute perfection.

So he continued to follow the trail of traces he had grasped, carefully venturing deeper.

Even without refining and imprinting it, he could still flip through it.

Moreover, were the remains in the forest that tripped people up related to this?

Now that Du En's cultivation had made a breakthrough and his strength had increased significantly, it was time to go and investigate!

So he began to explore.

Then, he first roughly checked the spoils of war, destroying and eliminating everything suspicious that might expose him.

His evil method of cultivating spirit trees showed clear traces of referencing the Corpse Yin Grass.

The reason for this was that the spell originated from an evil art called the Breath-Concealing False-Death Art!

Looking with his eyes, searching for spiritual traces, and after walking a certain distance, combined with the coverage of his divine sense, the three forces working together soon found quite a few cultivator remains, either exposed or half-buried, on the edge of the camp.

Du En paused his steps and observed with vigilance.

Du En stopped in his tracks to observe this tree.

Recently, over at the Snake Banyan flower side, a second-tier spirit tree, the Great Banyan, had been struggling with all its might to absorb nutrients due to the parasitic Snake Banyan flower, consuming both humans and livestock, yet it still could not make ends meet and had been drained down to the first tier, long since ruined.

However, one thing was certain: if Xiang Tao found out that he had discovered this matter and had even investigated it deeply, then he would definitely not let him off!

"I didn't trigger or set anything off just now, nor did I leave any traces, so this problem isn't that big, but besides continuing to grind and practice, perhaps I should also..."

They looked already rotten and dilapidated, and based on observation, it could be judged that the actual times of death varied greatly; the most recent was a few years ago, the earliest possibly seven or eighty years ago, almost naturally buried into the soil, with only a section of arm bone sticking out, looking like they were struggling before death.

Therefore, at this moment, Du En's intrusion did not trigger any changes.

Du En's mood was calm; he had already figured out the reason why Xiang Tao made him bury the corpses.

Because his Breath Concealment Technique was at the ultimate perfection.

As Du En thought and thought, he remembered something else, so he did not linger here, slowly and carefully retreated along the original path, and then moved further away in the mountain forest before stopping.

He continued to advance along the traces he had detected.

"If it really is like this, then there's nothing to be surprised about; after all, that guy is not a good person."

Because he had already broken through to the middle stage of Foundation Establishment and had actually tested his hand against Zhao Jinlin.

With a bottom line in his heart, Du En pondered as he began to return, finally returning to the camp as if nothing had happened from the position where he had left.

(End of this chapter)