Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art

"Yin Nether's Nine Hells gather corpse qi; ten thousand filths return to their source to refine puppet spirits.

Black balefulness condenses souls and reaches the ghost domain; white bones and skeletons transform into battle forms.

Corpse puppets heed my command and follow my will, roaming heaven and earth as I please.

..."

Shen Fan read carefully, taking an entire hour over a single bowl of rice without finishing it.

Fortunately, the temperature here was high, so the rice never went cold.

After reading it, Shen Fan could not calm his emotions for a long while.

"No wonder there are so many evil cultivators and demonic path practitioners in the world. This cultivation method and its speed are simply unimaginable!"

Shen Fan secretly marveled.

When pursuing the ultimate path of longevity, with becoming immortal as the sole honor, who would not want to take a shortcut?

If this corpse puppet could be successfully refined, then once it recognized its master through essence blood and resonated at the same frequency—

The corpse puppet could cultivate, draw in the essence of the sun and moon, and absorb the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.

It could actually feed that power back to the cultivator, achieving double the cultivation effect.

Yet the refinement of corpse puppets was exceedingly cruel.

Generally, one would dig up old graves for corpses that had not decayed and had lain there for many years.

Such corpses contained resentment, their bones and flesh refusing to rot. They were called zombies and were the finest materials for corpse puppets.

The next best option was refining living people directly, especially cultivators with good talent.

Refining living people directly preserved a corpse puppet's talent to the greatest extent possible, allowing it to cultivate faster after successful refinement.

After reading it, Shen Fan's heart could not settle for a long time.

"I wonder where Old Man Duan got his corpse puppet. Did he dig it out of a graveyard? Or did he directly refine a living person?"

Shen Fan thought to himself.

If it had been refined from a living person, then Old Man Duan was far too cruel!

Shen Fan scraped up the last mouthful of rice from his bowl and tidied up a little.

Then he began memorizing it.

Only after memorizing all its contents did he throw the cultivation manual into the incinerator and burn it to ashes.

Only then did Shen Fan finally let out a complete sigh of relief.

The waste elixirs could be successfully converted, which proved that his guess had been correct.

At present, this should be Shen Fan's best choice for maximizing the use of the Treasure Gathering Universe Bowl.

So if he wanted to continue staying here, he first had to familiarize himself with the work here, didn't he?

This place was like a latrine—everyone avoided it.

As long as he persisted, no one would replace him.

Cleaning, burning, registering...

Shen Fan learned every part of the process within a single day.

In truth, this work only needed to be done once every three days, and each time took little more than an hour.

The workload was not heavy at all!

Thus, Shen Fan had ample time to cultivate.

Sitting before the steps of the Waste Elixir Chamber, Shen Fan secretly sighed. "If I cultivated a fire-element spell here, the speed should be quite fast, shouldn't it?"

In fact, Shen Fan's thought was also within the sect's considerations.

Thus, the task of rotating through duty at the Waste Elixir Chamber was basically assigned to disciples with fire spiritual roots, water spiritual roots, or those who cultivated fire-element techniques and spells.

Fire spiritual roots could accelerate cultivation speed, while water spiritual roots could effectively suppress fire toxins.

"I have more than ten grains of Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice now. That should be enough to trade for an ordinary fire-element spell at the market, right?"

Shen Fan pondered in secret.

Bang!!

Just as Shen Fan was thinking.

A sudden sound of something heavy crashing down came from inside the Waste Elixir Chamber.

Shen Fan, seated before the steps, gave a sharp start.

"What was that!"

Shen Fan sprang to his feet, staring at the half-closed door of the Waste Elixir Chamber with a terrified expression.

Then he cautiously approached and slowly pushed open the half-closed door to look inside.

The Waste Elixir Chamber was somewhat dim. The glow of the Core Earth Fire was blocked by the incinerator, unable to illuminate the room.

After looking around, Shen Fan found nothing unusual in the room.

He circled the room once, yet still discovered nothing.

"Could it be..."

Recalling the sound just now, Shen Fan shifted his gaze to the top of the incinerator.

That funnel-shaped collection basin.

Something heavy had crashed down. Could Elixir Forging Peak or the Spirit Herb Department have thrown something down from above?

With that thought, Shen Fan immediately climbed the stairs beside him to the collection basin atop the incinerator.

Opening the small door to the incinerator's collection basin, Shen Fan hunched over and crawled inside.

Since it had only recently been cleaned, there was no waste slag or leftover debris in the collection basin.

But there was an extra Golden Silk Monkey beast corpse over half a meter long.

"Damn!"

Shen Fan was utterly stunned.

"Even beast corpses get thrown down here to be burned?"

Looking closely, Shen Fan found that this appeared to be a beast around the fourth layer of the first rank.

Most importantly, there was a hole in its head, and its beast core had already been dug out.

"Looks like some disciple's tamed beast died, so they threw it in here!"

Shen Fan secretly guessed.

He then prepared to open the collection basin and incinerate it.

The Golden Silk Monkey's beast core had already been removed, so it held no value.

The temperature here was too high. If it was not dealt with promptly, it would stink within a day.

Then the room would become uninhabitable.

Just as Shen Fan was preparing to burn it.

The chant of the Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art suddenly surfaced in his mind.

Since the Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art had already been burned, and Shen Fan had only just memorized it that day.

Its impression in his mind was therefore the deepest.

Upon seeing this corpse, he unconsciously connected it with the Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art.

At the same time.

An absurd idea began to surface in Shen Fan's mind.

"I wonder... can this beast's corpse be refined into a corpse puppet using the Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art?"

At that thought, Shen Fan immediately grew curious.

"Wouldn't I find out by trying?"

Shen Fan promptly picked up the Golden Silk Monkey's corpse and carried it into the Waste Elixir Chamber.

The Nine Nether Corpse Refinement Art contained methods for preserving living people refined into puppets.

After all, once living people were refined into puppets, their corpses would rot within days.

Thus, the Corpse Refining Art also included methods for preserving corpses.

The temperature in this Waste Elixir Chamber was too high. He had to treat the corpse first before refining it.

But the method for preserving corpses required certain herbs.

He did not have any of those things at all right now!

After thinking briefly.

Shen Fan checked the time.

For the sake of trying his idea of refining a beast corpse into a corpse puppet.

Shen Fan immediately got dressed and prepared to make a trip to the market.

This market lay at the foot of Heavenly Xuan Sect's mountain.

It was the only market within several thousand li.

Nearby Rogue Cultivators all gathered here, while Heavenly Xuan Sect was responsible for maintaining order.

Thus, it also brought Heavenly Xuan Sect a considerable profit every year.

This place was crowded with people of every kind. Since he had not learned the Aura Concealment Art.

Shen Fan could only wrap himself up tightly, concealing his appearance before coming here.

From afar, this market looked like a small town.

After passing through the archway, the first thing he saw was countless vendors lining both sides with their stalls.

The items traded here were basically things used by ordinary people; cultivators were scarcely seen.

Further inside stood a sprawling shantytown.

The things sold within were mostly items needed by early Qi Refining Stage cultivators, and most of the stalls were run by Rogue Cultivators.

Going deeper still, he saw neat, orderly, clean shops lined along both sides.

Shen Fan had come here once before and retained a few vague memories.

The medicinal herbs he needed to preserve the corpse could basically be found at the stalls and in the shantytown.

But the problem was, how was he supposed to trade Supreme-Grade Spirit Rice for some spirit stones to use?