Chapter 360: Miraculous Machinery

Ye Liuyun surveyed the area and discovered it was actually a Grand Hall. He and that corpse were standing on a large platform. All around, metal machinery was slowly operating. Some metal tubes were connected to ten light shields.

He didn't dare to reveal himself, instead hiding to the side and silently observing. He activated his Golden Pupil and Divine Sense, saw no people, and detected no Divine Sense fluctuations.

The metal machinery that had been moving slowly suddenly accelerated, producing a booming rumble, and a constant clack of metal collisions echoed.

From above their heads, two metal claws suddenly extended, one reaching for Ye Liuyun, the other for the corpse.

Ye Liuyun flashed away, slipping into the void; the metal claws missed and withdrew. The corpse, however, was seized by the metal claws and moved toward a light shield.

Ye Liuyun reappeared, and more metal claws descended from the sky. So he had to slip into the void again; when he emerged, he was already near that light shield, away from the platform. This time no claws reached him.

Ye Liuyun's Golden Pupil detected that at the instant the corpse was thrown into the light shield, a dazzling flash of intense light flickered inside, spewing a massive amount of Divine Soul Power, annihilating the remaining Divine Soul Power.

"Probably Mingshe's Divine Sense was extinguished here," he thought silently.

Then a metal tube attached to the light shield began to vibrate, and from that tube a blue liquid surged out, immersing the disciple.

Afterwards, another metal tube also suddenly vibrated. Ye Liuyun's Golden Pupil watched as the disciple's essence blood was drawn into the tube.

Subsequently, Ye Liuyun saw the blue liquid start to boil; the disciple's body emitted a puff of Qing Yan, beginning to dissolve. When the disciple completely vanished, the blue liquid was reabsorbed, leaving only a Storage Ring inside the light shield.

Immediately the bottom of the light shield opened again, and the Storage Ring fell. The floor cracked open, swallowing the Storage Ring, then sealed again.

Ye Liuyun continued along the tube that was absorbing essence blood, fixing his Golden Pupil on the blood inside. He discovered that the essence blood had undergone multiple refinements and purifications, finally landing in a crystal pool. Inside the pool were several batches of purified essence blood.

Then Ye Liuyun saw the essence blood in this crystal pool being compressed and condensed again, becoming Divine-grade Essence Blood, then flowing along a concave groove into a small bottle handed over by a metal arm, each bottle holding exactly one drop. The small bottles were then taken by another metal arm and stacked together.

"So this is how the Divine-grade Essence Blood we use is obtained!" Ye Liuyun manifested his form and shouted. Qiong Qi was also released by him. In fact, when he first saw those bottles containing Divine-grade Essence Blood, he had already guessed it.

"Uh… you haven't stopped absorbing other people's essence blood either, right? Here it's extracted mechanically, you extract directly; what's the difference!" Qiong Qi argued with him.

He then exclaimed, "There must be a Mechanism Master here. The design of this machinery is simply perfect! As for that blue liquid, you don't need to look at it; it should be refining the Five Elements Qi."

While the two were debating the merits of this method, a sudden "whoosh—" clamor erupted, as if some stones were poured into metal pipes, rolling down from above.

Ye Liuyun quickly activated his Golden Pupil, looked there, and saw some Corpse Demon Crystal Cores being sent down. Following the pipe, Ye Liuyun saw those Crystal Cores enter a large furnace, being completely melted into gaseous energy, then passing through several differently colored water pools for purification, then entering a low-temperature chamber, cooling into liquid, then being compressed again, finally flowing through an extreme cold space, freezing into blocks of Spirit Stone, which were dumped among a pile of Spirit Stones, awaiting collection.

"This machinery is awesome!" Qiong Qi exclaimed, "It's literally turning decay into wonder!"

Ye Liuyun was also stunned; it could operate like that!

No wonder every time Corpse Demons appear, the Alliance shows up; they rely on these Crystal Cores to sustain spiritual energy!

Although he also absorbs essence blood, even Soul, he still finds it hard to accept the Alliance's method of extracting essence blood and Five Elements Qi.

"Think about it, these people are dead anyway; if we don't use them, how will the Alliance provide resources? Without resources, who would hunt Corpse Demons? Without Corpse Demon Crystal Cores, the Alliance can't operate. Now that I think about it, the Alliance's designer is definitely a genius!" Qiong Qi kept marveling at the Alliance's design.

"By your own words, aren't you even more cruel? You even absorb Souls! That's worse than this machinery!" Qiong Qi finally used his Killer Palm.

"I only kill those who deserve death! Can that be the same?" Ye Liuyun retorted.

"How can you be sure the ones you kill deserve death? Those who want to kill you should die? Those who don't want to kill you shouldn't die? They're just waste being utilized. So tell me, is it better to waste good things, or to use them?"

Qiong Qi's string of rhetorical questions left Ye Liuyun speechless.

"Martial cultivation is like this: competing for resources with people, competing for resources with Heaven! If the whole world could utilize waste like this, strength could rise another level, and Corpse Demons would be driven back long ago. Where would there be any space for Alien Evil Artifacts to survive?"

"And don't forget, the Alliance only appears when Foreign Tribe invasions occur. That means they only resort to this method in desperate times, to boost Martial Cultivator strength and protect the continent's civilians!"

Qiong Qi finally asked, "Humans face extermination and 'waste' utilization; which outcome do you think is better?"

Ye Liuyun thought for a moment, feeling Qiong Qi had some points. He just couldn't accept the method at that moment; it seemed a bit like a demonic crooked path.

"Compared with those inactive Sects and families, I think the Alliance is far stronger; at least they take eliminating Corpse Demons as their mission! It's just that resources are limited, so they must recycle in this way."

"Alas!" Ye Liuyun sighed. Unable to figure it out, he stopped pondering. As long as the Alliance isn't a Corpse Demon faction, he's more at ease.

Finally Qiong Qi reminded him, "Now you know the Alliance isn't colluding with Corpse Demons, so you can rest easy. It's hard to get in, so take all these resources! If you don't take the freebies, what are you waiting for!"

Ye Liuyun, prompted by this reminder, snapped out of it. In front of him lay plenty of Divine-grade Essence Blood, Five Elements Qi, and Spirit Stones; not taking them would be wasteful!

"Collect!" Ye Liuyun resolved. Gather resources, improve himself, kill more Corpse Demons. Without Corpse Demons, the Alliance would disappear, and such situations would never recur!

Thus, Ye Liuyun packed all the Divine-grade Essence Blood, Five Elements Qi, and Spirit Stones he could see into his Storage Ring.

But suddenly, both Ye Liuyun and Qiong Qi felt a spatial disturbance behind them.

"Bad! We've been discovered!" Ye Liuyun's heart jumped; he immediately sealed Qiong Qi into the Storage Ring.