Chapter 140 : The Unlucky Cultivator
Chapter 140: The Unlucky Cultivator
He picked up a stone and flicked it out. Immediately, a faint glow surfaced over the corpse, crushing the stone into powder.
‘As expected, a restriction was laid down.’ Chen Beiwu was not surprised.
If no formation restriction had existed, the Foundation Establishment corpse on the meditation cushion would have long been devoured by the Verdant King Scale.
To be safe, Chen Beiwu did not touch the corpse right away. Instead, he searched the wooden hut with his divine sense for any useful information.
At this moment, a few books and jade slips inside the drawer of the table drew his attention.
【Zhou Tian Star Derivation Record】
【Thousand-Hammer Treasure-Refining Manual】
【Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation】
……
Pulling open the drawer, Chen Beiwu picked up the most domineeringly named book—the Zhou Tian Star Derivation Record—and began flipping through it.
After skimming through, disappointment surfaced in his eyes.
As the saying went, the fiercer the name, the more useless the content.
The Zhou Tian Star Derivation Record carried a resounding title, but in reality, it was merely a second-tier formation text. It contained six second-tier formations, two of which were incomplete.
In terms of grade, even the Six Spirits of Formations he bought on the Immortal Alliance Official Website was superior. What a waste of such an impressive name.
The only consolation was that the Zhou Tian Star Derivation Record detailed the specific information and operational principles of the Spirit Lake Grand Formation.
If he could fully study this formation book, he might be able to repair the Spirit Lake formations—the 【Yuan-Converging Earth-Water Formation】 and the 【Frozen Heaven Cold-Wall Formation】—securing this treasure land completely and preventing outsiders from intruding.
Carefully putting away the Zhou Tian Star Derivation Record, Chen Beiwu opened the second one, the Thousand-Hammer Treasure-Refining Manual.
‘It’s actually a third-tier artifact-refining manual passed down from a Golden Core family.’
After a few glances, Chen Beiwu’s eyes revealed interest.
With mana as the hammer, spirit is sealed into the weapon.
With tempered heart’s blood, the embryo of the artifact is conceived.
The Thousand-Hammer Treasure-Refining Manual was not only a third-tier artifact-refining secret art, but it also carried the inheritance of a hammer technique specifically meant to counter divine sense—the Thousandfold Hammer Technique.
Unfortunately, the manual was incomplete, with only the upper half remaining, recording second-tier refining methods.
The crucial lower half—“How to Forge a Treasure Artifact,” “Artifact Embryo Nurturing,” and “Introduction to the Thousandfold Hammer Technique”—had all been torn away.
‘Was this intentional?’ Chen Beiwu lifted his gaze toward the corpse, muttering inwardly.
Shaking his head, he didn’t dwell on it. He then picked up the Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation to examine.
This formation book had an extraordinary origin, traced back to the ancient demonic sect—Ten Thousand Shadows Sect. It was a fourth-tier demonic formation that proved the Dao through slaughter.
The key to setting this formation was to refine a Blood Soul Core in advance using the blood and souls of one hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators.
With the Blood Soul Core as the formation eye, the Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation could unleash its full might, manifesting a ghostly underworld domain. It could devour all living beings within a thousand miles, enabling one person to annihilate an entire city with ease.
Cultivators who perished under this formation would have their souls barred from reincarnation. According to their cultivation, they would be converted by the Blood Soul Core into different entities: Resentful Spirits (Qi Refining), Wandering Souls (Foundation Establishment), Fiend Souls (Golden Core), and Ghost Kings (Nascent Soul) that suppressed all ghosts—making the formation’s power even more terrifying.
In pursuit of greater power, some demonic cultivators even used innate ghostly spirit items in place of the Blood Soul Core.
But such innate spirit items were too rare—even a Nascent Soul True Monarch of the Ten Thousand Shadows Sect would rarely encounter one.
Five thousand years ago, in the Earth Proliferation Territory of the Southern Wastes, there arose a peerless demonic cultivator, who proclaimed himself the sect master of the ancient Ten Thousand Shadows Sect.
He attempted to refine the entire Southern Wastes with the Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation to ascend to Soul Transformation.
In the end, he provoked the wrong sect. A hidden Soul Transformation True Venerable of the Blazing Flame Sect in the Earth Proliferation Territory personally burned him to death with the True Flame of the Great Sun. The inheritance and manuals he left behind were all destroyed by the Five Great Sects of the territory.
Who would have thought such a thing would appear in this remote place?
What surprised Chen Beiwu even more was that the Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation in his hands was also incomplete—the latter half had been deliberately torn out.
‘What exactly was the owner of this corpse planning?’
With this question in mind, Chen Beiwu picked up the jade slip from the drawer and infused his divine sense.
The contents were not complicated. It simply recorded the magnificent life of the Spirit Lake’s master, Qian Yuan.
In the year 57001 of the Southern Wastes Calendar, in July, Qian Yuan advanced to Foundation Establishment. His ambition was to lead his family—cultivating both artifacts and formations—to rise as a dominant force in the Hengyan Mountain Range.
Unfortunately, his luck was poor. Shortly after reaching Foundation Establishment, the rival Yun family suddenly launched an assault.
All the Qian family cultivators, from Foundation Establishment down to Qi Refining, were slaughtered. Only Qian Yuan survived because he had gone out treasure-hunting.
Upon learning the truth, driven by vengeance, Qian Yuan traveled a vast distance, from the southern part of the Mountain Submergence Realm to the north, in search of his ancestor’s treasure artifact.
On his journey, fortune smiled upon him—he stumbled into an ancient demonic cultivator’s cave dwelling. After surviving countless perils, he obtained part of the Ten Thousand Shadows Sect’s inheritance.
But his talent was limited. Even though his spiritual root attributes aligned with the ghostly Dao, and he abandoned artifact-refining for formations, eventually advancing into a second-tier high-grade formation master, he could never initiate the Ten Thousand Ghosts Soul-Devouring Formation.
Let alone refining a Blood Soul Core with the blood and souls of a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators.
Thus, Qian Yuan decisively abandoned further study of the formation. Following the ancestral records in the clan genealogy, he continued to seek his Golden Core ancestor’s burial site—eventually finding the mysterious Spirit Lake.
Yet even after meditating at the Spirit Lake for over two centuries, until his lifespan ran dry, he could not unravel the ancestral tomb formation or retrieve the third-tier Golden Core treasure artifact, the 【Mountain-Splitting Blade】.
Before his death, Qian Yuan left a final message: all the inheritances on him were only halves.
If any fated person wished to obtain the complete inheritance, they must fulfill his final wish—use the blood and souls of the Yun family’s direct bloodline from the Hengyan Mountain Range to解除 the special restriction on his storage ring.
Setting down the jade slip, Chen Beiwu revealed a look of surprise.
The fate of this corpse’s master was simply too tragic.
Just after breaking through to Foundation Establishment, his family was annihilated.
By chance, he obtained an ancient, peerless demonic inheritance, yet could not learn it at all.
He even thought of becoming an unfilial descendant, digging up his ancestor’s grave to retrieve a treasure artifact for vengeance—only to discover he could not even enter the ancestral tomb!
“Gulu?”
Sensing the astonishment conveyed through the companion contract, Golden Egg tilted his head curiously.
“It’s nothing.”
Chen Beiwu’s gaze shifted toward the storage ring on the corpse’s finger, as the Cold Pool Spirit Sword instantly unsheathed behind him.
A second-tier formation laid by a Foundation Establishment cultivator could block the Verdant King Scale, but it could not stop the spell-breaking spirit sword gifted by his senior sister.
“Clang!”
As the cold gleam swept past, the faint glow covering the corpse’s body rippled away like water.
‘Not good!’
Chen Beiwu’s eyes narrowed. Grabbing Golden Egg with his right hand, he tapped his toes lightly, activating Wave-Stepping Through the Tide, retreating five zhang back to the outside of the wooden hut.
At that very moment, the corpse seated cross-legged on the cushion suddenly opened its eyes, radiating light, as a semi-transparent ghostly soul lunged at Chen Beiwu.
‘Such pure blood essence!’
The ghostly soul shrieked frenziedly, making Chen Beiwu’s sea of consciousness churn, as if tens of thousands of needles were stabbing into his brain.
“A mere Foundation Establishment remnant soul dares to act presumptuous.”
Chen Beiwu traced his finger forward. The Cold Pool Spirit Sword instantly shot out, cleaving the ghost soul in two.
Taking the opportunity, Golden Egg opened his beak wide, preparing to unleash his Sea-Absorbing talent, but Chen Beiwu immediately pulled him back.
“This thing is not for you to eat recklessly!”