Translator: Cinder Translations
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The advancement of cultivation techniques requires Golden Core level to practice. This is because only cultivators above the Golden Core stage have enough blood essence to perform the 'Blood Escape Technique.'
Foundation Establishment cultivators are strong but can only die from exhaustion of their vital energy.
For Song Wen, this issue does not exist as his blood essence is comparable to some Golden Core cultivators.
Before coming to East Huafang Market, Song Wen found a remote and sparsely populated area, where no cultivators would go, and secluded himself for a month to practice the 'Blood Escape Technique.'
His maximum escape distance was approximately eighty miles.
However, after using the 'Blood Escape Technique' once, his blood essence would be completely depleted, and he would need to replenish it to use the technique again.
Another technique, called 'Devil Slaying Ghost Book,' allows him to gather and form various shapes of corpse and demonic energy within his body, which can be used for offense or defense. Currently, the amount of corpse and demonic energy in his body is insufficient to practice this technique.
In the storage ring from Wu Ren, there is also a pale-white funeral banner, which is a magical artifact containing a massive amount of ghostly energy. It is quite powerful but still in the form of a Golden Core artifact, which Song Wen has not yet cultivated the ability to refine and use.
Additionally, there is Wu Ren's corpse.
Wu Ren was a mid-Golden Core cultivator. If properly refined, it could be made into a Third-Stage Silver Corpse comparable to a Golden Core expert.
To refine a Silver Corpse, a large number of various spiritual treasures are needed, and with Song Wen's current Foundation Establishment cultivation, he cannot control a Third-Stage Silver Corpse.
As a compromise, Song Wen plans to follow Wu Sui's approach and refine Wu Ren's corpse into a pseudo-Third-Stage corpse puppet. This way, the puppet would have the strength to suppress Foundation Establishment cultivators and can be controlled by Song Wen with his current cultivation level.
When Song Wen learned that the righteous sects were about to besiege the Corpse Demon Sect, he spent a fortune on various spiritual treasures.
However, he did not expect that he would need to start attempting to refine a Silver Corpse so soon. To achieve this, he is missing a crucial dark attribute spiritual treasure, the Third-Stage spiritual material, Xuan Yin Stone.
Now, Song Wen is only at the Fourth Layer of Qi Refining with his 'Longevity Technique' cultivation. Being in the righteous sect's territory, he could only display his Qi Refining Fourth Layer cultivation, making it difficult to find Third-Stage spiritual materials.
Thus, the plan to refine a pseudo-Third-Stage corpse puppet was put on hold.
Since entering East Huafang Market, Song Wen has avoided practicing techniques related to demonic cultivation and has focused solely on the 'Longevity Technique.'
The 'Longevity Technique,' as the most widely spread righteous technique, has many practitioners, mostly loose cultivators.
Its greatest advantage is extending lifespan, which is what most cultivators aim for—to live longer. However, the technique's drawback is that the spiritual power cultivated does not carry any attributes, making it very disadvantageous in combat.
Generally, when using techniques and artifacts that correspond to the attributes of the cultivation method, their effectiveness is greatly enhanced. For example, when practicing fire attribute techniques, the effectiveness of fire-based spells and artifacts is significantly increased.
The 'Longevity Technique' also progresses very slowly.
This makes many people, especially proud disciples of major sects, regard it as a worthless technique and discard it.
But Song Wen does not see it this way. What could be more important than living longer?
If he cannot defeat his enemies, outlasting them and dancing on their graves is also a form of revenge.
However, when he truly began cultivating the 'Longevity Technique,' he realized how slow its progress was.
In East Huafang Market, where the spiritual energy is abundant, and with ample spirit stones and pills, Song Wen had practiced for a full two months, but the spiritual energy growth from the 'Longevity Technique' was still extremely slow.
Song Wen estimated that breaking through to Foundation Establishment with the 'Longevity Technique' would take at least three years, which is still under the condition that he has a Sixth-Rank Spiritual Root. It is no wonder that most loose cultivators with poor qualifications rarely reach late-stage Qi Refining.
Song Wen also discovered that the 'Longevity Technique' produces pure righteous energy stored in the dantian, while the 'Corpse King Blood Refinement Technique' produces turbid energy, which are distinct and do not interfere with each other.
It's like the old Eight Trigrams: one black, one white; one righteous, one demonic.
Another crucial point for choosing the 'Longevity Technique' is that it is the only technique available in the East Huafang Market that includes complete content from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment.
In East Huafang Market, apart from the 'Longevity Technique,' no other Foundation Establishment techniques are for sale. Song Wen speculates that this is a deliberate strategy by the righteous sects to attract loose cultivators to join the sect.
Once loose cultivators reach Foundation Establishment, they must join a sect to obtain Foundation Establishment techniques and serve the sect, or their cultivation will stall due to lack of techniques.
Due to the slow progress of the 'Longevity Technique,' Song Wen has shifted his focus to Blood Qi Pills, deciding to use them for cultivation.
Previously, using extremely dark refined Blood Qi Pills had significantly boosted Song Wen's cultivation. Although they required a lot of blood essence, Song Wen had an ample supply of it."
"In his storage ring, he still had one hundred sixty vials of blood essence. Aside from the daily needs for the Black Armored Gu, it could support his cultivation for a long time.
...
The house rented by Song Wen had three main rooms and a kitchen.
Among the three main rooms, the middle one served as the living room, the right side as the bedroom, and the left side as the talisman room.
Song Wen walked into the talisman room, picked up ten talismans from the table—nine Fireball Talismans and one Flight Talisman—and left the courtyard.
Perhaps due to the righteous and demonic battle, many disciples of the Beast Control Sect had gone to the front lines, and many loose cultivators were also recruited by the sect, making the market streets appear somewhat desolate.
Song Wen entered a talisman shop and sold the ten talismans.
The nine Fireball Talismans were sold for four spirit stones, and the Flight Talisman for six spirit stones, totaling nine spirit stones.
Leaving the talisman shop, Song Wen went to a pill shop.
Upon seeing Song Wen enter, the somewhat drowsy shopkeeper, due to the shop's dim business, immediately perked up and ran to Song Wen.
"Fellow cultivator, what would you like to buy?"
"Do you have Blood Qi Pills?"
"Of course, we have Blood Qi Pills. How many do you need?"
"Can I take a look at the pills first?" Song Wen asked.
"Certainly," the shopkeeper replied with a smile.
The shopkeeper reached into his waist storage bag and took out a jade bottle.
"Please take a look, the pills inside this jade bottle are Blood Qi Pills."
Song Wen took the jade bottle, opened the cap, and used his spiritual sense to examine it, sensing one pill inside.
The pill was blood-red and looked very similar to the Blood Qi Pills refined by Ji Yin, but Song Wen felt that this pill's potency was considerably weaker than that of the Ji Yin's Pills.
Song Wen frowned slightly. Why did the orthodox Blood Qi Pills in the cultivation world seem inferior compared to those he had refined with the Ji Yin Technique?
Perhaps noticing Song Wen's dissatisfaction, the shopkeeper asked, "Fellow cultivator, do you find the pills unsatisfactory? These are made by Master Ma Quan himself and are definitely high-quality Blood Qi Pills."
Song Wen ignored the shopkeeper's self-praise. Master Ma Quan was just a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator who could only make first-grade pills and was far from deserving the title of a pill master.
"How much are these Blood Qi Pills?" Song Wen asked.
"Ten spirit stones each."
"So expensive?" Song Wen was somewhat surprised.
The shopkeeper explained, "Blood Qi Pills have a very small chance of helping cultivators break through the bottleneck of early Qi Refining, so they are naturally not cheap. However, they cannot be taken in large quantities, as there is a risk of depleting one's blood essence."
Song Wen nodded. The Blood Qi Pills in the cultivation world also consume blood essence, but their potency was not as strong as those refined by Ji Yin, which would significantly reduce their effectiveness in increasing spiritual power.
However, the Blood Qi Pills refined by Ji Yin were likely too dangerous for ordinary cultivators to use; they were not supplementary pills but rather could be considered deadly poison.
"I'll take two."
Song Wen handed over twenty spirit stones.
The shopkeeper took the spirit stones, filled two Blood Qi Pills into the jade bottle, and handed them to Song Wen.
"Fellow cultivator, welcome to come again next time."
As Song Wen left the shop, he lamented how expensive the pills were in East Huafang Market.
He knew the formula for Blood Qi Pills, and the spiritual herbs were not particularly precious. The cost of gathering a batch of herbs would not exceed two spirit stones. Normally, a batch of pills would produce about ten pills, making the profit margin over twenty times.
This reveals the exploitation of loose cultivators by the righteous sects."
(End of the Chapter)
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