Chapter 513: Jin Feng

Just as Song Qingming's voice fell, the corpse suddenly floated up out of thin air, rotated a few times in the air, and slowly stood up. The eyes that had been tightly closed slowly opened, shooting out two green, oily gazes.

Although the corpse had opened its eyes, the green eyes in its eye sockets had no luster at all, very different from a normal living person, like a humanoid puppet that had lost its soul.

Seeing that the corpse in front of him had successfully transformed into a corpse puppet, Song Qingming also revealed a satisfied smile. Being able to succeed once without having to find a way to get another corpse could be considered saving himself a bit of trouble.

To obtain a Jin Dan corpse puppet, one must first prepare the corpse of a cultivator who has just died, refine it into an ordinary Qi Refining stage corpse puppet, then refine the Ghost Core obtained from the third-tier Ghost King into the corpse puppet's body using a secret technique, and then slowly cultivate it with spiritual objects for a period of time to raise the corpse puppet's strength to the Jin Dan stage.

After the "Yin Wind Ridge" mine began to operate, in order to save labor costs, the Xiaoyao Sect sent some sect disciples who had made mistakes, as well as some family cultivators and rogue cultivators who had offended them, to be used as free labor to mine ore there.

Some of these people had lighter crimes and could go out after three or five years, while those with serious crimes might even have to stay there for a lifetime. This was also the Xiaoyao Sect's style of conduct for many years. The outcome of all the cultivators on the mountain after the Liu family of Mount Jingyuan in Qinghe County had an accident was that they were sent to such mines by the Xiaoyao Sect.

The corpse in front of Song Qingming, its original owner was a rogue cultivator who had offended the Xiaoyao Sect by causing trouble in the market, was caught by them, and finally sent to "Yin Wind Ridge" to mine ore.

After this person stayed at "Yin Wind Ridge" for a few months, he once took advantage of the guards' laxity and ambushed a guard cultivator, wanting to escape from the mine. Unexpectedly, he failed in the end. The Foundation Establishment cultivator of the Xiaoyao Sect stationed at the mine, in order to deter those cultivators who had also made mistakes and were mining there to redeem their sins, directly executed this person in public.

It just so happened that he needed a cultivator's corpse to refine a corpse puppet. After Song Qingming learned of this, he arranged for Song Yuanli to send the corpse back to Mount Funiu.

Refining corpse puppets, because it must use the physical body of a cultivator who has just died, some sects that were good at this way long ago, in order to facilitate finding physical bodies, not only opened graves and dug tombs, but some even acted like demon cultivators, killing people directly to take their corpses for no reason.

After refining this corpse puppet, Song Qingming directly cast a spell to operate the "Soul-Splitting Technique," slowly splitting a new split soul from his own soul, and then took this split soul into the corpse puppet in front of him.

As a green ball of light slowly merged into the corpse puppet's forehead, a trace of luster immediately appeared in the corpse puppet's eyes. Under Song Qingming's control, it slowly blinked its eyes and began to move its limbs, gently moving its body.

Just after refining the Ghost Core, Song Qingming immediately felt that the aura on the corpse puppet in front of him instantly began to change, and its cultivation base soon broke through from the mid-stage of Qi Refining to the late-stage of Qi Refining, and was still rising rapidly.

After planting his own split soul, Song Qingming could already control this corpse puppet at will. However, the corpse puppet's cultivation base was only at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, which did not have much use. Even if controlled by Song Qingming, a Jin Dan cultivator, it could not beat a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator head-on.

When casting the "Soul-Splitting Technique," it would cause a tearing pain in the cultivator's own soul. When Song Qingming completed this step, his face was already somewhat pale, and his forehead was covered with sweat beads the size of beans.

This step is the most important step in refining a Jin Dan corpse puppet, and also the most difficult step. If one is not careful, once the only Ghost Core on Song Qingming's person fails to be refined, then all of Song Qingming's long preparation and investment will be lost, directly going down the drain.

Later, some righteous sects in the cultivation world, in order to rectify this bad atmosphere in the cultivation world, suppressed several large sects that were good at this way, destroyed many secret techniques for refining corpse puppets, and treated these acts of stealing corpses as demon cultivator behavior. This made these sects that were good at this way restrain themselves a lot and dare not collect corpses outside casually anymore.

After the "Soul-Devouring Art" broke through to the third layer, Song Qingming's soul was much more powerful than ordinary cultivators of the same tier. He soon got used to it, and it didn't take long before he could control the split soul he had split out at will.

For this reason, Song Qingming also summoned twelve points of spirit, repeatedly pondered the "Corpse Puppet Secret Technique" in his hand a dozen times, before he began to prepare for the next step, spending over ten days to steadily refine the Ghost Core into the corpse puppet's body.

After completing the split soul refining of the corpse puppet, Song Qingming spent another few days slowly learning to control the split soul on the corpse puppet. Only after he was very familiar with controlling this physical body with his split soul did Song Qingming begin to refine the Ghost Core he had already prepared into the corpse puppet's body according to the corpse puppet refining secret technique in his hand.

Seeing this, Song Qingming immediately activated the spirit-gathering formation he had already set up on the side to supplement the corpse puppet with spiritual energy. In order to allow it to swallow sufficient spiritual energy, Song Qingming also prepared over a thousand spirit stones in the spirit-gathering formation in advance, increasing the supply of spiritual energy in the cave dwelling.

Time passed quickly for a few days, until the corpse puppet's cultivation base successfully broke through to the Foundation Establishment stage, and the speed of its cultivation base rising slowly dropped. Seeing the results in front of him, Song Qingming also revealed a satisfied smile.

Three years later, the door of Song Qingming's cave dwelling slowly opened. A middle-aged man in a black robe removed the formation restriction at the entrance and walked out of his cave dwelling in large strides.

This black-robed middle-aged man carried a faint layer of light, and his cultivation base had reached the Jin Dan stage. However, judging from his appearance, it was not Song Qingming, but rather like a strange Jin Dan cultivator.

The black-robed person looked around at the entrance of Song Qingming's cave dwelling, picked up a few elixirs placed on the ground, and slowly walked back into the cave dwelling, coming to Song Qingming, who was sitting cross-legged and meditating, standing motionless beside him.

A moment later, Song Qingming, who was sitting on the ground, slowly opened his eyes, took the elixirs from the black-robed person's hand, took a look, nodded with satisfaction, and directly put them into his storage bag.

Song Qingming gently patted the black-robed person's shoulder and said with a smile: "Your cultivation base has already reached the Jin Dan stage. Taking this kind of second-tier elixir can no longer improve much magic power. When I am better off in the future, I will get you some better elixirs!"

This black-robed person was precisely the corpse puppet Song Qingming had refined with his own hands two years ago. After more than two years of cultivation, this corpse puppet's cultivation base had now successfully broken through to the Jin Dan stage. Apart from not yet being able to practice a life-bound magic treasure, it was now no different from an ordinary Jin Dan cultivator.

The humanoid corpse puppet's appearance was similar to an ordinary cultivator, and it was difficult to distinguish it without looking closely. At this moment, this corpse puppet and Song Qingming stood side by side, just like two Jin Dan cultivators with similar cultivation bases.

Successfully cultivating a high-tier Jin Dan stage corpse puppet, Song Qingming was also extremely happy. With this guy helping on the side, he would be much more stable in the future when encountering battles with Jin Dan cultivators of the same tier.

"Following me every day without a name is not very convenient. Since you were surnamed Jin in your previous life, let's call you Jin Feng for now. If I can think of a better name in the future, I will help you change it."

After saying this to Jin Feng in front of him, Song Qingming took out his own "Green Willow Sword" and handed it to him.

A Jin Dan stage corpse puppet can refine and control magic treasures to fight enemies just like an ordinary Jin Dan cultivator. Song Qingming did not have many magic treasures on him, so for now, he could only wrong Jin Feng by letting him use this magic treasure he had used before.

Apart from successfully refining this Jin Dan corpse puppet, the Song family also welcomed a few happy events in these three years.

First, Song Qingyu's injuries were finally healed a year ago, and she broke through her own cultivation base to the ninth layer of Foundation Establishment, already walking to the edge of core formation. Song Qingming was also very satisfied with this and personally handed the "Jade Dust Pill" he had obtained from the State of Wu a few years ago to her.

Secondly, Huang Siyuan, who had switched to practicing alchemy skills, had been supplied with sufficient spiritual herbs since obtaining a batch of spiritual herbs Song Qingming brought back from the State of Wu. Huang Siyuan's alchemy skills also advanced by leaps and bounds, finally advancing to the second tier and becoming a second-tier low-grade alchemist.

The elixirs that Jin Feng brought in from outside Song Qingming's cave dwelling just now were actually refined by Huang Siyuan recently. Now that the family had a second-tier alchemist, the Song family did not need to spend more money to buy this kind of Foundation Establishment stage elixir to improve cultivation elsewhere.

Alchemy is the most popular among the hundred arts of cultivation. The family having an additional second-tier alchemist immediately caused a sensation in the Song family, and many young cultivators began to try to learn alchemy.

Apart from Huang Siyuan, the second-tier alchemist, the Song family also had several alchemists whose alchemy level had reached the first-tier high-grade. It is a pity that the family invested many precious materials in them, but they were still unable to let them break through their alchemy skills.

As long as there is sufficient resource supply, alchemy is not very difficult to get started compared to other cultivation skills. However, wanting to raise alchemy skills to the second tier is not so easy, and it still requires a certain alchemy talent. On this point, the Song family cannot be anxious and still needs to patiently and slowly find suitable people to focus on cultivating.

After leaving Jin Feng in the cave dwelling to refine the "Green Willow Sword," Song Qingming walked quickly to outside Huang Siyuan's cave dwelling in a happy mood. After sending a sound transmission talisman inside, Huang Siyuan soon walked out to meet him.

"Seeing you so happy, could it be that you had a great harvest after coming out of seclusion this time?"

Song Qingming took out a bottle of elixirs and threw it to Huang Siyuan, then nodded with a smile: "That guy's cultivation base broke through to the Jin Dan stage a few days ago. I can no longer use these elixirs, so I should return them to you first!"

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 514 =====