After sneaking into the Corpse Sect, I had been very careful. Even when I defeated Xu Wei and made the evil sacrificial spirit reveal his power, it was all under my control. I didn't think that I would finally encounter trouble this time.
An ordinary man's wealth is his own ruin.
I still didn't know what the evil sacrificial spirit had done, but whether it was my perception or the gazes of the three people on the platform, they all made me feel very uneasy.
I tried my best to restrain my emotions and smiled at the people from the middle temple who had come to congratulate me. They told me that the dark-skinned youth was called Zhang Tianqi. He was originally from the upper temple of the Black Zombie Cave, but a year ago, his corpse puppet had swallowed a Mysterious Yin Tree seed. After that, he went into closed door cultivation. It was only recently that he ended his closed door cultivation and his cultivation had reached the middle stage of the Glorious Memory realm. He had waited until the start of the competition to report to the Monitoring Palace. At that time, the Purple Zombie Cave's competition had already been decided, so he came to participate in the Black Zombie Cave's competition.
Originally, almost everyone thought that he would take first place in the Black Zombie Cave, but unexpectedly, he was defeated by me in the first round.
The people from the middle temple didn't have a close relationship with Wang Lin. The reason why they were talking so much was because of this competition.
It was a pity that with their experience, they couldn't see what had just happened. Otherwise, if they had a brain, they wouldn't have come to my side.
Since only the first round of the competition was going on in the morning, I didn't watch the other matches after I finished chatting with them. I took the evil sacrificial spirit back to my cave.
On the way back, I didn't say a word. After returning to my cave, I immediately pulled the evil sacrificial spirit and anxiously asked him what had just happened. Why did he absorb the grey gas from the corpse puppet?
The evil sacrificial spirit was calm and didn't look nervous at all. He faintly told me that he was using an ancient cultivation technique called the Taotie technique, which could swallow the vitality of cultivators. He didn't think of using this method, but a few days ago, he heard Jiang Dongcheng talk about Elder Xu Yingqu's corpse puppet, which could swallow living people to increase its cultivation base. He suddenly thought of this method. Since his body was bound by Zhang Tianqi's secret technique, he decided to use this method to test it out, and it turned out that it was indeed feasible.
Just as I guessed, the gray gas he swallowed was the Yin energy of the corpse puppet.
In other words, the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual could directly devour the Yin Qi around the Corpse Puppets and increase their cultivation!
This was pretty much the worst-case scenario that I had imagined.
Although this devouring method sounded very evil, it was the most effective method for the Corpse Sect!
The cultivation of the people of the Corpse Yin Sect was closely related to their own corpse puppets. Before, when they cultivated corpse puppets, they could only rely on the talent of the corpse puppets and their own shaman qi to gradually increase their strength. But now, with the Taotie Technique of sacrificing evil spirits, as long as they crazily plunder the Yin Qi of other corpse puppets, they could infinitely increase the cultivation of their own corpse puppets … Just thinking about it was terrifying.
If I was a disciple of the Corpse Sect and knew about this method, I would definitely go crazy and do anything to get it for myself.
Therefore, I could easily guess what the Yin Corpse Sect's reaction would be like.
If they wanted to steal something from others, there were only two methods. If the Corpse Sect wanted to steal it, I could blame everything on the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual. In any case, the corpse puppets couldn't speak, so it was unlikely that they would discover the secret of the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual. They could do whatever they wanted.
But if the Corpse Sect wanted to steal it, then there was nothing I could do.
The problem now is that I need to figure out what method the Corpse Sect will use.
This problem was really hard to predict. If I stood in the Corpse Sect's position and knew about this heaven-defying method, not to mention stealing it, I could even use the soul search method.
However, the Corpse Sect wasn't me. They believed that the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual contained the soul of an almighty expert, so they wouldn't think that this method of devouring Yin energy had anything to do with me. They would focus their attention on the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual. To be more precise, they would focus on the soul that resided inside the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual.
However, from the conversation between Lin Xue and Elder Zhao, I could guess that the Corpse Sect wasn't sure about the identity of the soul. Therefore, they wouldn't dare to forcibly break through the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual. After all, the people who could extend their lives in the Corpse Sect were all old monsters. They weren't people that could be easily dealt with.
Therefore, the Corpse Sect must have some misgivings. Even if they desperately wanted to obtain this thing, they would definitely hesitate and discuss it. It was impossible for them to act immediately.
After coming to this conclusion, I let out a sigh of relief. I decided to stay here for the time being and observe the situation.
If things didn't go well, it wouldn't be too late to run away.
After all, the area outside of the Corpse Sect was also a dangerous place for me. The people from Mount Longhu were still waiting for me outside.
Over the past few days, I've been asking the sacrificial evil spirit to help me remove the mark that the fat Great Celestial Master left on me. However, the sacrificial evil spirit's cultivation base hasn't recovered yet, so the process of removing the mark has become very slow. According to him, it'll take about two to three months before the mark can be completely removed without leaving a trace.
Before the mark was completely erased, the Corpse Sect was still the best place for me to stay. As long as there was a glimmer of hope, I didn't want to leave.
After making up my mind, I turned to ask the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual about how much his cultivation base had increased after absorbing the corpse puppet's Yin energy.
The Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual pondered for a while then told me that his cultivation base had recovered to the early stage of the Glorious Memory realm, which was close to the middle stage. After absorbing the corpse puppet's Yin energy, he could advance to the middle stage of the Glorious Memory realm. However, he wouldn't advance immediately. He would need to absorb and digest the Yin energy for around one day before he could completely transform the Yin energy into his own cultivation base.
The Yin energy he could transform, using the human cultivation base calculation method, was about one star of the Glorious Memory realm, which was the amount of shaman energy contained in the Witchcraft Qi Source Stone in my Heaven Vein.
After listening to him, I couldn't help but be moved.
The Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual could increase his cultivation base by one star, and the corpse puppet's cultivation base was around three stars of the Glorious Memory realm, which meant that he had just reached the middle stage of the Glorious Memory realm … With this calculation, the conversion rate of the Taotie Technique was about one-third!
Every cultivator knew how difficult it was to take another step forward after reaching the highest level of enlightenment. Moreover, the act of absorbing other people's energy and transforming it into one's own was an incredible forbidden technique. Even if it could convert one-tenth of the energy, it would be scary enough. But this Taotie Technique had a conversion rate of one-third!
I hurried to remind myself that I couldn't let the Yin Corpse Sect know about this. Otherwise, they wouldn't care about the soul host and would directly attack me.
I had to make sure that they didn't know what was real and what was fake, making it hard for them to make a decision. That was the only way I could survive.
Noon passed quickly. In the afternoon, I took the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual to the arena in the Upper Hall of the Black Zombie Cave.
Unlike in the morning, when I arrived, almost everyone's gazes were focused on me. There were a few people from the middle palace that greeted me with flattering expressions. There were a few disciples from the upper palace that had high cultivations, including Xu Wei, that stood in the distance and looked at me with a smile that rejoiced in my misfortune. It was obvious that they had already received some news.
I didn't pay attention to anyone and just walked to Jiang Dongcheng's side. I asked him how the competition went.
I had previously promised to help him, but the situation in the morning was too sudden and I had to leave. I didn't know if Jiang Dongcheng had participated in the competition or not.
Jiang Dongcheng shook his head at me and smiled. "This time, my luck was good. I directly admitted defeat. The opponent didn't try to kill me and let me scram. It could be said that I escaped with my life."
This guy's attitude was very free and easy. He didn't feel the slightest bit of awkwardness when he said this. Instead, he seemed to be quite proud of himself.
After talking about his own matters, the smile on his face disappeared and he worriedly asked me, "As for you, Martial Uncle Wang … I heard that Zhang Tian Qi's corpse puppet was completely finished. It was sent to the corpse storage hall. Even Lord Hu couldn't deal with it. In the end, Elder Xu also went to take a look, but he was also powerless.
Martial Uncle Wang, you've really gotten yourself into trouble this time. "
I smiled at him and shook my head. "On the stage, life and death are up to fate. How could he blame it on me?"
Perhaps because I didn't care, Jiang Dongcheng became anxious and argued, "It's not about the corpse puppet's life or death. It's about you …"
At this point, he seemed to realize something and stopped talking.
I was surprised. Did Jiang Dongcheng see that the Evil Spirit Sacrificial Ritual had swallowed the corpse puppet's Yin energy?
But how could it be? With his cultivation base, it was impossible for him to see it.
Without waiting for me to ask, Jiang Dongcheng hurriedly told me to take care. Then, he excused himself and said that he had something to do and hurried to the side.