Twists and Turns

That day, Steward Liu had acted with force, forcibly destroying one of Wang Yu's arms.

Not only had he slapped Steward Duan in the face, he had also damaged True Inheritor Su's dignity. Wang Yu himself was unimportant; even if he died, it would be nothing, and it would not implicate True Inheritor Su.

The problem was that Steward Duan had remained unmoved.

He could represent True Inheritor Su. His silence was no different from bowing his head and admitting defeat—after all, he had only recently made a great show of taking Wang Yu under his wing.

This matter caused him to catch flak.

As for Steward Liu's arrogance, it came from the True Inheritor Disciple behind him.

Cold Blood Peak was the Dao Field of an Inverse Spirit Blood Sect Nascent Soul True Lord. Its status had always ranked among the upper reaches of the Nine Peaks. This generation had a total of ten True Inheritor Disciples, all at the Foundation Establishment Stage, including one with a Water Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Whoever was the first to break through to the Core Formation Stage would receive the Nascent Soul True Lord's inheritance and be named the next Nascent Soul Seed.

True Inheritor Disciples were chosen once every two hundred years. Only after the last True Inheritor broke through to Core Formation would new ones be selected from among the tens of thousands of Inner Disciples. Midway replacements were rare.

The True Inheritor behind Steward Liu had unexpectedly discovered a superior Core Formation Spirit Item among a tribute offered by one of his subordinates. It was incomparably compatible with his Main Cultivation Method.

Thus—

He immediately applied for a Third Tier High-Grade Core Forming Pill, the [Blood Demon Pill]. It was expected that he would become the first True Inheritor of this generation to form a core within ten years.

Like Foundation Establishment Pills, Core Forming Pills were auxiliary medicines used by cultivators when breaking through a Great Realm. Due to differing inheritances, there were all kinds of Core Forming Pills.

The Blood Demon Pill was a type unique to the Inverse Spirit Blood Sect. It was exceptionally effective for blood-element cultivation methods and could raise the odds of Core Formation by nearly forty percent. It was outstanding indeed.

With the additional aid of the Core Formation Spirit Item, this True Inheritor's breakthrough was practically set in stone. Once word spread, the faction under his command naturally swelled, and they grew ever more overbearing in their actions.

This was normal in the Demonic Path. Once they gained power, they became wild with arrogance, willing to do anything to amass wealth.

Such a fortuitous coincidence made the other nine True Inheritors green with envy. At this point, there was no undoing it; they could only put more effort into their own people.

They wanted to try their luck. What if?

That was why Steward Duan had come looking for him again. It was simply a timely coincidence.

After listening to Steward Duan's explanation, Wang Yu now had a clear grasp of the situation.

Because of his previous cold indifference, Steward Duan's prestige among this group of Spirit Slaves had suffered greatly. At present, Steward Liu had the most affiliated subordinates, nearly two thousand people.

Steward Duan and Steward Liu's other counterpart each had only six or seven hundred people. The Spirit Slave business was the moneybag of the three True Inheritors. If one side took more, the others would take less.

And to gather subordinates and expand one's power, Spirit Stones were indispensable.

Steward Duan continued.

"Wang Yu, you are a capable man. Even after what happened last time, seven or eight Spirit Slaves still did not defect to other stewards. This month, the least Spirit Sand they handed in was still one tael and six qian.

"Both True Inheritor Su and I appreciate this point about you. But Steward Liu's side cannot be provoked for now. Avoid them whenever you can. As long as you can rebuild the Spirit Slave ranks, forget the Outer Sect—even becoming an Inner Disciple would be just one word from True Inheritor Su."

Wang Yu had no desire to eat this pie.

Moreover, the situation was different now. Convincing those people had become far more difficult. Even those accustomed to swallowing humiliation would not frequently switch sides in such a short time.

Unless a batch of newcomers was sent over. That would be another matter.

He could not help sighing inwardly. He had no right to refuse at all.

"Steward Duan, Wang Yu will certainly give it his all."

"Very good. This is the reward True Inheritor Su has advanced to you. Take it."

Wang Yu accepted a Jade Slip and pressed it to the center of his brow. When he touched it with his divine sense, streams of information immediately flowed into his mind. In only moments, he had memorized every last bit of it.

This was one of the marvelous uses of a cultivator's divine sense. During the Qi Refining Early Stage, it could not yet leave the body.

Once one broke through to the Qi Refining Fourth Layer, it could leave the body and perceive the outside world, revealing even the finest details. One could also leave a Divine Sense Imprint on a Magical Artifact, greatly increasing its flexibility.

It had countless uses.

The Jade Slip recorded a rare secret art. Secret arts had no tier classifications; their effects were what mattered.

This technique was called the [Corpse Demon Secret Art]. It had been created ten thousand years ago by Old Man Tiancan. This man had been born incomplete, naturally missing an arm and a leg.

Fortunately, he possessed a mutated High-grade Spiritual Root—a rather rare Yin Spiritual Root. He created the Corpse Demon Secret Art during the Nascent Soul Stage, and it could fuse a zombie's arm to make up for one's defects.

The secret art True Inheritor Su had given him was an incomplete version, with severe Side Effects.

Corpse transformation of the body, loss of sexual desire, shortened lifespan, abnormal qi and blood... etc. There were seven or eight in total when counted carefully. The more Wang Yu read, the more his mood sank.

Was this thing even meant for people to cultivate?

He had thought it would be some spiritual pill capable of regenerating severed limbs. Now that he had eaten the pie, This result was what he got.

Steward Duan patted him on the shoulder and said teasingly, "Once you complete the task, True Inheritor Su will find you a severed arm from a Frost Corpse. This is a Second Tier Sha Corpse. Even if you cannot break through to the Foundation Establishment Stage, you can still become one of the strongest among Qi Refining Stage cultivators."

The string in Wang Yu's mind had already been stretched to its limit. After thanking him once more, he left the Elegant Pavilion and returned to Stone House No. 83.

As he reflected carefully on it—

His decision to cut off an arm and a leg from each of those three Spirit Slaves last time had actually been made after careful consideration. If not for this matter involving the Cold Blood Peak True Inheritor, Steward Duan would certainly have been able to protect him, and Steward Liu would not have dared act so brazenly.

Unfortunately, fate was not on his side.

It made him understand that everyone was the protagonist of their own world and a supporting character in someone else's. He still needed to act cautiously; better safe than sorry.

In the Demonic Path, one had even less reason to stick one's head out lightly. Keeping one's weapons hidden on one's person was the proper way.

This time, after twist upon twist and a turn for the better, he faced a new question: should he cultivate the Corpse Demon Secret Art?

It had many Side Effects, but the Placement Slot could raise the Ice Sword Technique's upper limit, so it should also be able to work on the Corpse Demon Secret Art and complete it.

The difficulty should at least be lower than creating one from scratch.

A Nascent Soul Secret Art—he refused to believe it would have So many flaws. True Inheritor Su must have interpreted it incorrectly. After all, Old Man Tiancan had created this art for his own use; he would surely have made it as perfect as possible, leaving no loopholes.

"Let's take a look first."

He removed the Blood Burning Art from Placement Slot 2 and temporarily placed the Corpse Demon Secret Art inside.

[Placement Slot 2: Corpse Demon Secret Art]

"Corpse Demon Secret Art (0/100): 1,440 practices per day; mastery in Three months."

Wang Yu was quite startled when he saw the number of daily practices. One practice per minute was truly a little outrageous, yet even so, it would still take Three months to reach mastery.

If he waited for the Placement Slot to complete it, it would surely be measured in years—far longer than the Ice Sword Technique.

Without hesitating further, he removed the Corpse Demon Secret Art and put the Blood Burning Art back into Unit 2. He still decided to prioritize his cultivation.

Besides ordinary comprehension, the Corpse Demon Secret Art also required practice.

"Use yin to nourish blood, and gain the Creation of Heavenly Yin."

"Use corpses to nourish the body, and gain an unsullied demon body."

"Heavenly Yin transforms blood, knitting bones and growing flesh."

"Corpse Qi transforms into veins, unafraid of water or fire."

Put plainly, before truly attaching the Corpse Arm, one needed to absorb Yin Spirit Qi to alter one's blood, while also absorbing Corpse Qi to invade one's bones and carry out deep transformation.