Translator: Cinder Translations
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In the ghost market, information shop.
The old man at the counter, whom Song Wen had met once before, sat behind the counter.
Seeing Song Wen enter the shop, the old man did not stand up and asked indifferently, "Friend, what information do you need?"
"The latest information on the war between Righteous and Demonic."
"One hundred spirit stones."
Song Wen felt a slight disappointment in his heart.
This price is too cheap!
Such a low price can only mean one thing.
The old man's information about the war between Righteous and Demonic was basically the same as what was circulating in the cultivation world, and it wasn't worth much.
Song Wen handed over one hundred spirit stones and received a jade slip in return.
He probed his spiritual sense into the jade slip and quickly scanned through it.
Sure enough, as Song Wen had expected, the information in the jade slip was essentially consistent with what A Yao had said, with not much valuable content.
"Is there any recent information about the Corpse Demon Sect?"
"Five hundred spirit stones," the old man quoted again.
After paying five hundred spirit stones, Song Wen received another jade slip.
According to the information in the jade slip, the Corpse Demon Sect had been rebuilt, reclaiming all of its original territory, and had joined forces with the Nine Palace Sect to occupy a large spirit mine in the Mixed Yuan Temple.
After the war between Righteous and Demonic, the Corpse Demon Sect only lost two Golden Core elders and forty-one Foundation Establishment cultivators.
As for the Qi Refinement disciples, the casualties were quite severe.
The information estimated that the Corpse Demon Sect lost over ten thousand Qi Refinement disciples, with the servant disciples almost entirely dead or injured.
Besides the significant loss of low-level disciples, the high-ranking combat power of the Corpse Demon Sect suffered very little damage. Overall, their strength had not been significantly weakened. Due to the joint occupation of a large spirit mine with the Nine Palace Sect, their strength had subtly increased.
The siege of the Corpse Demon Sect by several righteous sects had resulted in such a situation, which was truly unexpected for everyone in the cultivation world.
After the war between Righteous and Demonic, the high-level combat power of the Corpse Demon Sect had hardly suffered any losses.
In contrast, the same was true for the righteous sects, with very few Golden Core cultivators dead.
It was as if both sides were in tacit agreement; without sufficient benefits, Golden Core experts would not risk their lives in battle.
After all, everyone cultivates for longevity, not for the sake of proving their bravery.
The information also mentioned that the Corpse Demon Sect had issued a proclamation, promising not to pursue past grievances and recalling all lost disciples.
However, Song Wen did not dare to bet that the Corpse Demon Sect would keep its word.
Currently, the Corpse Demon Sect was severely lacking in low-level disciples.
Mining, refining corpses, farming, alchemy, corpse resolution, blood cultivation... all these matters required a large number of low-level disciples.
In order for the sect to operate normally, the Corpse Demon Sect was willing to recruit scattered cultivators.
At present, they were short on people, so it was indeed possible that the Corpse Demon Sect would not pursue the responsibilities of those who fled during the battle. But after three to five years, when the situation might ease, it was hard to guarantee that the Corpse Demon Sect wouldn't settle scores later.
After all, servant disciples could all be viewed as training materials and could be slaughtered in large numbers.
Putting away the jade slip, Song Wen asked, "Is there any information about the Longevity Technique for the Golden Core stage?"
The Longevity Technique he had only included methods for the Qi Refinement and Foundation Establishment stages. After advancing to the Foundation Establishment stage, Song Wen had begun to inquire about the Golden Core stage methods of the Longevity Technique.
But so far, he had not obtained any useful information.
If he couldn't find the follow-up methods of the Longevity Technique, after forming the Golden Core, he would have to switch to other righteous sect techniques to replace it.
However, switching to other righteous sect techniques required first converting the spiritual power cultivated from the Longevity Technique to be compatible with the new methods. This process was extremely time-consuming and required a large amount of spirit stones.
Moreover, switching to other techniques didn't mean he could choose any righteous sect technique.
The spiritual power attributes of the new technique had to match the spiritual power attributes of the original technique.
For example, someone cultivating a water attribute technique must switch to a technique of the water attribute. A practitioner of the five elemental techniques can choose from any of the five attributes for their subsequent techniques.
If Song Wen could continue cultivating the Longevity Technique, he didn't want to switch to other techniques.
Any Golden Core technique is not something easily obtained.
The old man said, "Consider this information a free gift to you, friend. As far as I know, in the cultivation world, there are three places that possess the Golden Core methods of the Longevity Technique: the Beastmaster Sect, the Profound Heaven Sword Sect, and the Hehuan Sect."
Song Wen clasped his fists. "Thank you."
These three major sects are all righteous sects and are indeed the most likely to possess the Golden Core methods of the Longevity Technique.
Since the Hehuan Sect does not accept male disciples, if Song Wen wanted to obtain the subsequent techniques of the Longevity Technique, he could only seek them from the Beastmaster Sect and the Profound Heaven Sword Sect.
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At the first watch of the day.
The moon was bright, and the stars were few.
Using the moonlight as a guide, Song Wen returned to the rented courtyard.
He entered the underground secret chamber and began to refine pills.
The first pill he refined was the Beast Refining Pill.
Due to a lack of spiritual herbs, Song Wen had not refined the Beast Refining Pill for some time.
The Sacred Gu had gotten used to eating the Beast Refining Pill, and recently it had been fed Bright Silver Stones, which made it quite displeased, often conveying its complaints to Song Wen.
The iron-back turtle's monster body and flesh had been eaten up by the Sacred Gu three times, resulting in the Sacred Gu's strength growing rapidly, not far from breaking through to the mid-second stage.
After refining for nine days, Song Wen produced three batches of Beast Refining Pills, yielding a total of twenty-four pills.
Refining pills consumed a lot of mental energy, so Song Wen closed his eyes and sat in meditation, adjusting his breathing.
At that moment, the Sacred Gu, which was on guard outside, suddenly transmitted a message.
Three cultivators from the Beastmaster Sect had entered the courtyard of Zhao Dapeng across the way. The leader was a mid-stage Foundation Establishment female cultivator.
Zhao Dapeng had a face full of eager flattery, leading the three into the small courtyard.
"Elder Xia, two inner disciples, please have a seat!" Zhao Dapeng said, pointing to the chairs in the courtyard.
Elder Xia had a calm demeanor and did not take a seat.
"Elder Xia is busy and doesn't have time to delay here. Take us to see the living corpse!"
Zhao Dapeng nodded repeatedly. "Elder Xia, please follow me."
Under Zhao Dapeng's guidance, the three entered the secret chamber located beneath the side room.
The rat-eyed man, who was neither human nor corpse, showed his teeth and glared when he saw the four enter the secret chamber, appearing like a furious beast whose territory had been invaded.
In the depths of his eyes, there was no trace of human rationality, only the instincts of an animal.
The rat-eyed man crouched down, moving quickly, like a spider ready to pounce, rushing towards Zhao Dapeng, who was closest.
Zhao Dapeng raised his hand and sent out a wave of spiritual energy, easily repelling the rat-eyed man, but it only pushed him back without injuring him at all.
Seeing the rat-eyed man's terrifying appearance, Elder Xia's eyes sparkled with excitement.
"I didn't expect that after the ruin of the body, losing all cultivation, just relying on a body nourished by spiritual energy, he could withstand the corruption of corpse energy to such an extent. The corpse energy has begun to merge with the vitality."
Elder Xia waved his hand, and a black coffin flew out.
On the coffin lid were the words "Ding No. 97."
Elder Xia unleashed a wave of spiritual energy, sealing the struggling and roaring rat-eyed man inside the black coffin.
Throwing a storage bag to Zhao Dapeng, Elder Xia said, "You did well; this is a reward for you."
"For the next step, you can find some strong-bodied mortals or martial artists to continue the experimentation. If there are results, Elder Xia will not be stingy with rewards."
(End of the Chapter)
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