"Thank you for the reminder, Steward!"
Wen Jiu expressed his thanks.
Then he asked, "May I ask why I need to choose carefully?"
Liu Xiao kept walking, a trace of gravity crossing his face. "Because Wicked Heretics practice all kinds of Unorthodox Path arts, curses and other forms of witchcraft are common among them. If you pick a cursed Corpse Artifact, it might turn on you... But cursed power is easy to recognize. Just examine it carefully with your Spiritual Sense."
"Thank you for your guidance, Steward."
With that, Wen Jiu hurried after him, feeling both uneasy and expectant.
Before long, they reached the Night Patrol Division's treasury.
To Wen Jiu's surprise, it was underground. All along the way, stone statues stood guard, each gripping a Great Axe. One glance was enough for Wen Jiu to see, thanks to his Spiritual Sense, that these statues were no ordinary things.
Stone Puppets!
They had been made by Puppet Masters, one of the many crafts of cultivation.
Each Stone Puppet's aura was comparable to a Black Zombie.
Simply outrageous.
After passing more than a hundred Stone Puppets, Liu Xiao led Wen Jiu to a halt before a massive stone door.
A chubby Night Patrol Division disciple sitting beside it hurried to his feet and greeted Liu Xiao with a fawning smile.
"Uncle, what brings you here?"
"Quit grinning like a fool." Liu Xiao scolded him irritably, though he didn't press the matter. Then he changed the subject. "Open treasury room Jiazi. I'm taking Wen Jiu to choose a magic tool."
"Wen Jiu!"
The chubby disciple's face showed surprise as soon as he heard the name.
"Uncle, is this the burial corpse worker who's the first in fifty years to advance by slaying enemies, but practices the Unorthodox Path?" As he spoke, the chubby disciple couldn't help looking Wen Jiu up and down, clicking his tongue in amazement.
So he really did practice the Unorthodox Path.
Even his body was colder than an ordinary person's.
In response to the scrutiny, Wen Jiu gave a perfunctory fist-and-palm salute. He said nothing more and didn't take offense.
The man's eyes held no disgust when he mentioned the Unorthodox Path.
Liu Xiao spoke up angrily. "What are you blathering about?"
The chubby disciple hurriedly opened the door.
The stone door rumbled open.
Liu Xiao led Wen Jiu inside.
They passed one storeroom after another, finally stopping at the tenth, at the end of the corridor. Its door was plastered with all kinds of talismans.
When the tenth stone door opened, a rush of dense auras washed over them. Even Wen Jiu, a Corpse Nurturer, couldn't help feeling shocked. There was corpse energy, Blood Qi, and demonic energy, along with a particularly strange black aura.
Wen Jiu understood why the place was plastered with talismans.
An ordinary person would feel ill for at least half a day after being hit by these strange auras. If they were corrupted by them...
That would be trouble.
But to Wen Jiu,
it felt like a gentle breeze on his face.
Even a little warm.
Liu Xiao protected himself with Mana and slowly walked inside. Wen Jiu followed, and rows of neatly arranged magic tools came into view. They came in every shape imaginable, so bizarre that ordinary Qi Refining cultivators' swords and knives couldn't compare.
Some were shaped like hands.
Some like bones.
And some like eyeballs.
With magic tools this grotesque, no wonder they weren't popular.
Sigh.
No wonder the Unorthodox Path had such a bad reputation.
The moment you took out one of these tools, any normal person would slap a "bad guy" label right on you.
Suddenly,
Wen Jiu was drawn to a withered, hand-shaped object positioned in the center. Its aura made even him feel uneasy.
"That's the Lifeless Hand, a top-tier First-grade Mid-quality demonic tool... It was refined by a Qi Refining Sixth Layer Wicked Heretic who slaughtered a hundred thousand mortals. The resentment is so overwhelming that merely looking at it makes people uneasy."
Liu Xiao's explanation broke Wen Jiu's fixed gaze.
Hearing the words "slaughtered a hundred thousand mortals," Wen Jiu couldn't help shuddering. Looks like I was right to stay with the sect!
A hundred thousand.
Even slaughtering a hundred thousand pigs would be a gruesome sight.
Let alone people.
Those damned Wicked Heretics!
After quickly looking away, Liu Xiao pointed to a stone rack bearing more than a dozen Corpse Artifacts of different shapes.
"These are all First-grade Low-quality Corpse Artifacts. You can pick whichever you like. Don't bother looking at the other magic tools... None of them are any good."
Wen Jiu nodded and turned his attention to the rack.
His anticipation shot through the roof. He immediately sent out his Spiritual Sense and began inspecting the dozen or so First-grade Low-quality Corpse Artifacts.
As far as he knew,
even a First-grade Low-quality magic tool cost at least dozens of Low-grade Spirit Stones.
At the low end, seventy or eighty; at the high end, over a hundred.
With a monthly salary of just two Low-grade Spirit Stones, it would take him thirty or forty months to afford one.
Getting one for free now was a real joy.
Sure enough,
when it was time to show what you could do in the sect, you had to do it.
Otherwise, where would all this stuff come from?
"Take your time looking. I'll go find you a Corpse Nurturing Bead," Liu Xiao said, then headed farther into the treasury.
"Thank you, Steward."
Wen Jiu thanked him.
His Spiritual Sense swept over the first magic tool, a bell-shaped Corpse Controlling Bell. His gaze fell on the description beneath it.
Corpse Controlling Bell.
First-grade Low-quality Corpse Artifact. It could control a hundred corpses and turn dead bodies into White Zombies for a short time, for use by Corpse Nurturers.
Quality matters more than quantity.
Wen Jiu passed over the Corpse Controlling Bell.
As he examined one tool after another, Wen Jiu felt the cursed power Liu Xiao had mentioned. Just a quick sweep made his heart clench with unease. Even as a Corpse Nurturer, he couldn't help thinking he should stay away from these things.
However,
after his Spiritual Sense and gaze swept over one tool after another, Wen Jiu still couldn't find one he liked. But when Liu Xiao returned with a Corpse Nurturing Bead, Wen Jiu spotted a Corpse Artifact at the very top of the rack, its Blood Qi exceptionally dense.
It was a blood-red, round eyeball.
About the size of a palm.
There was no description.
It had simply been placed there with a talisman pasted on it.
But even the talisman couldn't conceal its surging Blood Qi.
Noticing Wen Jiu's gaze, Liu Xiao said, "That's the Corpse Eye. No one knows who refined it, but it can absorb the Blood Qi around it and turn it into vital blood. It can even draw blood out of thin air. Put it in a crowd of mortals, and it could drain the blood of everyone in a city within an hour... As far as I know, it's a Corpse Artifact used by a Late Qi Refining Stage Corpse Nurturer."
"Hm?"
A hint of surprise flashed through Wen Jiu's mind.
The Yin Sha Blood Curse Body needed a huge amount of vital blood.
And now there was a Corpse Eye in the treasury that could absorb Blood Qi.
Could it be connected to that person?
"It can also store yin energy and use it against enemies. It's extremely powerful. They say that when people tried to kill its master, three Demon Suppressing Division officers died beneath it!" After explaining, Liu Xiao added, "I advise you not to get any ideas about it. Although our Night Patrol Division trusts that you won't use it to slaughter mortals, it's a damaged First-grade Mid-quality magic tool. It fell to First-grade Low-quality because it's incomplete... It's not within the range of what you're allowed to choose!"
Hearing that,
Wen Jiu understood at once.
And he decided then and there that he wanted the Corpse Eye.
"Brother Liu!"
"If there's ever anything I can do for you, just ask!"
Rules were dead,
but people were alive.
Since the other man was willing to explain, there was a chance.
Just as Wen Jiu expected, Liu Xiao suddenly smiled. "You're a clever one... Rules are dead, but people are alive. If I say it's within the rules, then it's within the rules."
"Thank you, Brother Liu!"
Wen Jiu understood at once.
That was why he'd said he could help with whatever was within his power.
If he couldn't manage it, or it was dangerous, then Liu Xiao couldn't blame him.
"Take it."
Liu Xiao spoke.
Then he handed Wen Jiu a First-grade Low-quality Corpse Nurturing Bead.
With both items in hand, Wen Jiu was overjoyed.
If he'd had to buy them himself, who knew how long he'd have needed to save Spirit Stones?
But after showing off his strength once, he'd gotten both.
"Thank you again, Brother Liu!"
Wen Jiu thanked him once more.
Then he left the treasury with Liu Xiao.
Afterward,
Liu Xiao showed Wen Jiu around the Night Patrol Division and went over everything he needed to know.
Wen Jiu didn't get to leave until noon.
When he got home,
Wen Jiu couldn't wait to replace the non-grade Corpse Nurturing Bead in the Black Zombie's mouth with the First-grade Low-quality one.
He waited for the Daily Settlement Panel to update, so he could observe the corpse-nurturing efficiency.
At the same time,
Wen Jiu began refining the Corpse Eye.
By nightfall,
he had finally finished refining it.
From then on, the Corpse Eye was his Corpse Artifact.
But after refining it,
Wen Jiu suddenly discovered that the Corpse Eye wasn't as simple as Liu Xiao had explained. It had another ability, one no one knew about.
But because it was damaged,
he couldn't use it for now.
Still, Wen Jiu knew very well that this was the blood eye's core ability.
It was—Blood Nurturing!
If the Daily Settlement Panel hadn't given a detailed explanation when it settled for the day, he estimated he'd never have found out.
Before you continue