The troubling events finished. Dracs had rescued the two disciples and brought them back to the shelter.
Farek and Feina were now recovering, lying in beds. While taking care of their injuries, Dracs discovered under the broken mask a beautiful girl in her early twenties.
As for Farek, he was not much older.
Dracs knew their recovery was fine, thanks to the system. However, they have been heavily depleted of their mental energy and they would not awake for a few days.
He had little to do, so it was the perfect moment to review his new stats.
During the previous fight, the system unlocked the Mysterious Trickster Body technique and included it in Dracs.
This new body technique was an external cultivation technique that transformed all kinds of qi into a formless one, deprived of heaven and earth quality.
It was expected to be exactly what he needed. Obviously, the system designed this technique especially for him and knew better than Dracs how to cultivate it.
Now that the system integrated this new technique into his cultivation methods, Dracs felt no issue cultivating with it. In fact, it was as natural as breathing air.
There was also the corrupted winged sword, the connexion with it was even more potent than the one with the captain.
The sword played a huge role during the previous fight. It was said a heavenly realm treasure wasn't to be underestimated, and Dracs understood it was his luck in being able to get it.
If not for that mighty weapon, he knew things could have turned for the worse.
Smiling at his new status window, Dracs opened the shop to check for new stuff. To his surprise, all was locked, it was very disappointing.
Truth being told, that was not that bad. He already had numerous skills, techniques and other martial arts but he lacked the experience to display their full power.
What he needed right now was diligent training.
However, he understood the dangers of the ruins and what lurked in this dark place. The malevolent beings were everywhere and ready to kill any living trespassing their territory.
Pondering about this problem for a moment, Dracs slowly prepared his plan. Now that he experienced how powerful he could really be, he wanted to purify as much corruption as he could and investigate the nature of the deep ruins.
There was something wrong in the Mausoleum, this part of the Holy Ground was not normal at all, on the contrary it was degenerated till the point of corroding the upper levels of the structure.
"I shall talk with my Teacher when we'll back to the temple," he thought.
Not wanting to stay in the shelter without anything to do, he took a piece of paper sheet from the furniture and wrote a message in case the two disciples woke up while he was out.
It was time to hunt and fill the Prison Body! His goal was none other than to subjugate at least a thousand ghosts and more if possible.
A while later, Dracs was in the middle of the ruins, exploring each house and building, hunting down every malevolent ghost he found.
With the virtual map and the Death Vision, it was a child's play to find and fight those low cultivation creatures. Even those at the Earth Realm level were a joke to him, but that was not a reason for being overconfident and he continued advancing step by step.
Purify was used scarcely in order not drawing too much attention from the potential source, but it was continuous and the amount of corruption points was always increasing.
As he ventured deeper and deeper into the corrupted fog, he was soon forced to use Purify around him to prevent the miasma from attacking Taidian's body.
Every now and then he would encounter aberrations, like monsters made of bones and ghosts at the Earth Realm Peak stage.
The fights that followed were tough and Dracs had to work to coordinate perfectly all the attacks he had learned from the last fight between the system and the abomination in order to emerge victorious, which was not an easy task!
More enemies came out of the ruins and Dracs felt his control getting better after having defeated them.
Moreover, each fight brought new ghosts and bones to his Prison Body and inventory, helping in strengthening his technique.
A little later, Dracs arrived in a district that looked like a shopping district. There were many buildings carved into the rock with different symbols above their entrance.
Here, the miasma was too dense for any low cultivator, it was like he was underwater and made it difficult to breathe. It was obvious that without his special abilities, Dracs would have never been able to come here.
Knowing the danger about this corroding miasma, Dracs was a bit hesitant entering there but his curiosity was at its peak and finally he just entered the nearest building.
Inside, there was nothing except dust, not even a ghost hiding in the wall or under the floor. To Dracs surprise, all the other buildings were in the same state and he started understanding that something was amiss.
It was like someone had already cleaned the entire place empty! There wasn't any loot…
Without other choices, he left this area and adventure in the alleyways of this strange underground city. More ghosts were hunted and refined into the Body Prison and more bones were collected on his way.
During his journey, he never let go of his Purify skill, continuously absorbing more and more corruption all around.
After a while, he finally arrived at a whole different location. In front of him stood a gigantic palace door carved into the rock and well decorated with many statues. Here, the corruption was so dense that it became fully visible and he knew that it was an area of dangers.
The White Fog was all around him, at first he didn't pay too much attention but now he knew it was too late because he was already in it.
If the words of Farek were true, that White Fog wasn't only made of gathered corruption but was also a kind of sentient being.
Curiously, Dracs didn't feel any presence in it but he knew he couldn't be careless and became hesitant.
In the end, he chose to advance and look at what was inside the palace. After all, he was already dead one time and this new life was a complete mess. All in all, that was good for him, even if he signified his end, so be it.
Passing through the majestic door, the White Fog was everywhere and it was impossible to see at two meters. Fortunately for Dracs, his senses were not normal and his virtual map was of good use in this kind of situation.
However, that wasn't without risks and he soon began displaying more power in the Purify shield to resist the corroding corruption.
The main hall was empty and the following rooms were exactly in the same condition. Since the White Fog was the principal inhabitant of this place, it was obvious that it had eaten all the things inside the palace.
Dracs was eager in finding some treasure to add to his inventory, unfortunately it seemed not so easy to find something in the ruins.
An hour passed without him seeing something new, but when he began to think of retreating from this place, he felt a different kind of power, like a pulsing heart resounding with his own.
The feeling was scary and exciting at the same time and he felt pulled toward that source.
A minute later, he found himself standing in a chamber filled with mirrors and his jaw almost dropped on the floor.
Right in front of his very eyes, in the center of all the mirrors, a dark pond filled with an eerie blood like substance was reflecting the sight of the place while beating slowly like a giant heart.
It gave him goosebumps and he gulped a mouthful of saliva.
*Gulp*
Dracs didn't dare move an inch, his senses were in full alert and worse than that, the system didn't respond!
"What is this?" He couldn't help asking in his mind.
At this moment all the mirrors shook in unison followed by a surge of immense power that forced Dracs to kneel, then two big eyes like dark abysses opened slowly and focused their gaze on him.
A couple of seconds later, a deep voice spoke.
"Interesting little thing, to be able to come into my home, you have some abilities. Hm, What should I do with you?"
Dracs was at loss, this time it wasn't a confrontation he could win, whatever or whoever was in front of him, it wasn't an entity he had the power to compete with!
In front of this monster, the Ancestor Jikoudian Akran or even his teacher were like ants!
Dracs was almost suffocating and not only the body of Taidian, but his very self. It was the first time he felt really threatened since he reincarnated, as if he was right now in the presence of a god!