Chapter 132: Corpse Achieved!

Pain, a piercing pain.

It felt as if someone were using pliers to peel off his scales piece by piece, and a hammer to smash his turtle shell into fragments.

"Why didn't I pass out?"

This was the first thought that flashed through Yunhe's mind.

Intense pain kept assaulting his consciousness, yet he showed no sign of wanting to faint from the pain.

Is it because his Demon Sense is too strong?

No.

"You idiot, it's because this pool water has a self-repair function—not just healing the body, but also the consciousness and the sea of awareness."

So, although he was in excruciating pain right now, the struggle caused by the pain was quickly repaired.

Put simply, in one second he felt like dying from pain, the next second he recovered to peak condition, then the next second intense pain returned, cycling endlessly, making it impossible for him to faint.

Thus, at this moment Yunhe could discover by inwardly viewing with his Demon Sense.

Each beat of his heart was accompanied by the rapid writhing of blood throughout his body, while also driving a large amount of unknown liquid into his body; the collision of the two liquids inevitably caused pain, and naturally came with repeated compression and extraction.

And in his qi sea dantian, the floating inner elixir, as it rotated over and over, became stained with thread after thread of subtle black.

"Ang!!"

Yunhe couldn't help but let out a roar.

He gradually realized that the efficacy of this "Wash Demon Pool" depended entirely on how long the demon beast entering it could endure.

So, he must endure.

As a turtle, he felt he should be relatively able to endure.

Well, he needed to distract himself.

The world of cultivation.

One year later.

Inside his cave dwelling, Yunhe sat cross-legged on a futon, black light glimmering in his eyes, cradling in his palm a milky-white, translucent, jade‑like, worm‑like creature about half a palm wide, surrounded by threads of yin‑evil corpse qi.

If any other cultivator of the Qingzong Sect saw him, they'd likely think he was a demonic cultivator and would execute him on the spot.

"Yin‑evil, sever soul, cut pulse, beg primal, return spirit, arise!"

He lightly lifted his finger.

Before him, a corpse refined by burning, its features unrecognizable, suddenly sprouted countless thin, black, hair‑like insects that swarmed densely, completely covering the corpse.

But as his finger bent slightly, the corpse strangely rose to its feet, eye sockets hollow, movements stiff.

"Hide!"

As Yunhe formed another seal, the black insects covering the corpse's surface receded like a tide.

If one looked closely, one would see that the insects hadn't disappeared; they had burrowed into the corpse.

At the same time, as the insects concealed themselves, the corpse's originally unrecognizable, ugly appearance gradually recovered—muscle tissue rebuilt, the skin filling out.

Soon it took the form of a sturdy man whose complexion and skin were overly pale.

Were it not for the thick corpse qi still clinging to him, plus his excessively pale skin and vacant gaze, one might even believe he was a living person.

Then Yunhe turned his palm over; the plump body of the corpse‑insect mother worm quickly withered and curled up.

In the end it became a ring with no trace of aura, like a dead object, which he slipped onto his little finger.

He still seemed a bit uneasy, so he cast a seal, and threads of wood‑spirit essence condensed from his palm, winding around the ring.

Thus, even someone with powerful divine sense couldn't notice its difference unless they took the ring off and examined it closely.

With the wood‑spirit essence wrapping it, at most it would be taken for a decent spiritual artifact.

Having done that.

Yunhe closed his eyes and sat in meditation to restore his mana.

When he opened his eyes again, his mouth was slightly open.

A hazy white ball of light, about the size of an egg and indistinct, flew out of his mouth.

The Heaven‑Capital Insect Corpse standing opposite him seemed to sense something, its mouth opening as well, and that white hazy light sphere immediately shot inside.

When the light sphere entered, the corpse's formerly dull, vacant eyes flashed with a hint of spirit, then quickly concealed it.

But upon looking again, one could see that its gaze, while still unclear, was no longer as dull and vacant as before; at most it appeared somewhat simple‑minded.

It was more like a person now.

In fact, that white hazy light ball he had spat out earlier was a thread of his divided spirit.

This is the method for controlling refined corpses described in the Corpse Soul Classic.

Although the Heaven‑Capital Insect Corpse is not a "half‑living corpse" like Black Wood's Silver Armor Corpse, the means of controlling it are largely similar.

Speaking of which, Yunhe's decision, after reading the Corpse Soul Classic, to try controlling this Heaven‑Capital Insect Corpse was also due to the divided‑spirit corpse‑control method recorded therein.

Ordinary spirit‑splitting techniques forcibly sever a small portion of the cultivator's original divine sense; how many splits one can make depends entirely on the strength of that sense, and once split it cannot be restored.

But Yunhe, who has cultivated the Thousand Insects Myriad Bugs Technique, is different.

Because the insect‑controlling method of the Thousand Insects Myriad Bugs Technique is fundamentally the division of divine sense to command insect swarms.

After cultivation, the Thousand Insects Myriad Bugs Technique can expand one's primordial spirit, divine sense, and consciousness, allowing the cultivator's divine awareness to rival those born with exceptionally strong divine sense; then, with even finer divine‑sense and divine‑sense control methods, he can command bee swarms.

In short, it is also a form of spirit‑splitting control, and it does not greatly affect the cultivator's divine sense or primordial spirit.

It is similar to the divided‑spirit corpse‑control method in the Corpse Soul Classic.

By borrowing the concept and swapping in some intermediate techniques and secret arts, Yunhe can still make such adjustments.

Put simply.

It is that he took some techniques from the Corpse Soul Classic, applied them to the Thousand Insects Myriad Bugs Technique, and used the insect‑controlling method to command the Heaven‑Capital Insect Corpse—giving him a firmer grasp while causing little loss to himself.

Yunhe already belongs to those with strong divine sense, and having cultivated the Thousand Insects Myriad Bugs Technique to expand his primordial spirit and divine sense, he split off merely a small thread of divided spirit, which can be fully restored in at most one or two months.

And the split spirit that had just burrowed into the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse was one he had separated out several months ago, so it now has no effect.

"'With strong divine sense, one can indeed do as one pleases.'"

Yunhe felt somewhat pleased with himself.

"With the 'Corpse Gu' plus the 'Corpse Soul Scripture,' I should be able to control the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse."

He put away his self-satisfaction, muttered softly, and lightly formed a hand seal.

The Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse before him suddenly moved; although its body and movements still looked somewhat stiff, that is precisely the characteristic of a refined corpse.

However, if he consciously controls it, he can still largely make up for this shortcoming.

"Corpse formed!"

Watching the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse move, Yunhe's face lit up with great joy.

After spending so much time and paying a considerable price, he finally got this Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse, comparable to an early Golden Core cultivator, moving again.

Immediately, with a thought, the Corpse Gu and split spirit inside the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse both took effect; working in tandem, after the corpse's form blurred slightly, it appeared in another corner of the cave dwelling.

"Indeed, it can be controlled; the sluggish feeling is unavoidable, but it's not a big problem."

Muttering, Yunhe formed another hand seal.

He saw the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse's pupils flicker slightly, its mouth open a crack, and a pallid flame wrapped in thick corpse qi spew from its mouth.

This is the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse's most powerful technique, and it is also where this type of refined corpse gets its name.

"Heavenly Capital Corpse Fire!"

Even a Golden Core cultivator touching this flame would feel a headache.

Meanwhile, as his control over the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse became more practiced and his understanding deeper, Yunhe found within its body a grayish-white corpse pill entwined with rich corpse aura.

He had both the split spirit and the Corpse Gu attach to it.

At the same time, on this corpse pill he sensed an extremely tiny hole.

"It's probably left over from the 'Heaven Corpse Gu' back then."

In his mind arose an image: the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse spat out its corpse pill to launch its strongest attack, but the Golden Fire Centipede saw through it, causing the subsidiary Gu attached to it to be damaged; after the corpse pill returned to the body, magical power was exhausted and the subsidiary Gu perished on its own.

Thus this Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse barely survived, while another one completely lost any chance of repair.

"This hole could be used, but this corpse pill is ultimately still damaged."

Think of a way; there should be a chance to repair it.

His confidence comes from the batch of materials gathered by the Demon Beast Body in the fetid swamp—not just the 'Corrupt Toxin Fruit,' but also various other spiritual plants, which to some extent let the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse gain benefits, even strengthening it.

"However, Yunming True Person's snatching of corpse refining is worth guarding against; we must leave enough backup on the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse, lest we encounter some old monsters very familiar with corpse refining—having them destroy our corpse refining would be bad enough, but if they seize it and turn it against us, that would be the biggest trouble."

But to leave sufficient backup, he likely needs to temporarily halt his cultivation and go out for a trip.

Although the outside is chaotic now, with the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse protecting him plus his own strong magical power and divine sense, even if he runs into an early Golden Core old monster, escaping should be safe.

"Perfect; I can now refine second-stage upper-grade elixirs. I'll try to obtain formulas for cultivation base and magical power advancement to speed up my own breakthrough."

No matter how much external aid the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse provides, improving one's own cultivation base remains forever the top priority.

Yunhe clearly understands the principle of not putting the cart before the horse.

"Moreover, the Wind-Fire Boat is destroyed; see if we can buy a higher-tier flying spiritual artifact; if not, we'll just try to craft one ourselves—refining a lower-grade spiritual artifact should be no problem."

"However, the elixir furnace for alchemy must be replaced."

Many things have actually piled up needing attention, but Yunhe has set them aside according to their urgency.

"We also need to prepare a corpse-nourishing coffin for the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse, and at the same time we can try to gather information about the essence blood of metal- and wood-attribute spirit beasts."

That's the thought up to this point.

Yunhe waved his hand to put away the Heavenly Capital Gu Corpse, then cleaned out all corpse qi and anything related to demonic cultivators from the cave dwelling.

He walked out of the cave dwelling.

A strand of golden sunlight shone on his body, a warm feeling filling him entirely.

"Staying with corpse refining for too long makes my body feel somewhat uncomfortable." Yunhe muttered with a laugh.

Feeling slightly sentimental, he flickered his body and vanished from the spot.

(End of chapter)