Soon.
More than a dozen corpse buriers were taken to the Night Patrol Division's prison in the middle of the night.
Wang Nian heard the news and hurried over to stop them. However, Li Ye and the others had Night Patrol Division patrol emissary badges, so he had no authority to interfere.
After the corpse buriers were brought to the Night Patrol Division's prison, Li Ye and the others conducted an overnight interrogation.
They had planned to use torture to force a confession, but Wang Nian arrived and intervened.
"Li Ye, if you dare lay a hand on them, I'll take this straight to the Night Patrol Division's elders. You can bury the corpses in Dead Corpse Land yourself from now on!"
With no other choice,
Li Ye had to give up.
"Brother Chen, then we'll use Illusion Pills!"
Illusion Pills.
First-grade, low-quality pills.
They were specifically used to confuse prisoners and coax them into telling the truth.
Since they couldn't use torture, this was their only option.
The steward surnamed Chen said helplessly, "One Illusion Pill costs one Low-grade Spirit Stone. Brother Li, you're really willing to spend."
"I don't believe they didn't hear anything unusual at all." After saying this, Li Ye gritted his teeth and spent more than a dozen Low-grade Spirit Stones.
However,
after all the questioning,
they learned very little.
The people living around Fang Zheng had heard only a few moments of sounds of someone being killed. Apart from that, they hadn't heard anything unusual.
The corpse buriers living around Wen Jiu had indeed heard him leave, but Wen Jiu went out to raise corpses every night.
Everyone knew that.
Only on the occasional night did he stay in.
The steward surnamed Chen said dejectedly, "Although we know he goes out at night, I'm afraid that's not enough reason to interrogate him. There's no way to explain it to Steward Mu. Besides, corpse raising goes against ghost arts, and he only got the Yinzhou Corpse Raising Method from the Dharma Transmission Tower... Brother Li, why don't we just let it go?"
The steward surnamed Chen now felt that investigating the spy killings was more reliable than investigating whether Wen Jiu had killed anyone.
He didn't believe it was a coincidence that Fang Zheng and the other two had died right after Li Ye sent them to target Wen Jiu, but he couldn't deny that, belief or not, it did seem to be the truth.
Li Ye didn't nod.
He fell into a long silence.
Just then,
a Night Patrol Division disciple hurried into the dungeon.
He looked quite flustered.
"Manager Li, Steward Chen... Steward Sikong has emerged from seclusion. He's very dissatisfied with your progress in investigating the spies, so he intends to personally use Soul Searching on the Night Patrol Division spy you caught that night!"
At this,
their expressions changed.
They had spent too much time these past few days investigating whether Wen Jiu was connected to the deaths of Fang Zheng and the other two.
They hadn't expected to incur Steward Sikong's displeasure.
"Send these corpse buriers back!"
The steward surnamed Chen hurriedly ordered the Night Patrol Division disciples beside him.
Though Li Ye was reluctant, he didn't dare delay.
The priority now really was to investigate the spies.
Recently, the Night Patrol Division disciples killed by those spies numbered at least twenty, if not thirty.
The next day.
Wen Jiu learned about the previous night from Wang Nian.
He also learned that Li Ye had taken away the corpse buriers who lived near him.
But Wen Jiu remained calm.
Ghost arts and corpse raising were incompatible.
That was simply how things were.
Only Li Ye would connect it to him.
But no matter how much Li Ye suspected him or targeted him, he wouldn't dare do anything. Wen Jiu had someone powerful backing him now.
He was no longer a corpse burier Li Ye could handle as he pleased.
Putting those thoughts aside, Wen Jiu entered Dead Corpse Land. Today, he planned to go deep into its central region.
That was where the great battle's core had been.
The cultivators who had fallen there had been of higher realms, so the Yin Qi and Blood Qi produced after their deaths were purer.
It was also easier for Yin Souls to form there.
As he entered the central region of Dead Corpse Land with the Black Zombie, the surrounding Yin Qi grew denser and colder. Though it was daytime, the chill was like the depths of winter. Everywhere he looked was a stark, deathly white.
Corpses littered the ground wherever they went,
but they weren't as badly mangled as those on the outskirts.
Every now and then, he spotted the corpse of a dead cultivator missing only an arm or a leg.
But Wen Jiu didn't go any farther. After advancing a hundred zhang, he stopped and began drawing in Blood Qi with the Corpse Eye.
As soon as the Corpse Eye opened, great quantities of Blood Qi surged up from a hundred zhang underground, rushing into it like a rising tide.
The amount
was three or four times what he'd found on the outskirts.
Its purity
was several times greater as well.
As the Blood Qi poured in, the Blood Essence, which had previously been no more than a faint trace of red, began to take shape at a visible rate. In less than an hour, it had become a tiny red spot, barely the size of a fingernail.
Even so, once that spot formed, the Corpse Eye's aura changed abruptly. Fierce, blood-red veins began creeping across its already heavy-looking surface, and as they appeared, its rate of drawing in Blood Qi steadily increased.
At that moment, the Corpse Eye was like a greedy zombie, sucking up blood without pause, as if it wanted to devour everything around it.
The Black Zombie stood nearby, feeling the surging Blood Qi. It couldn't help stirring with restless desire, but Wen Jiu held it back.
A feast today meant famine tomorrow.
Wen Jiu knew better than to forget that.
If he let the Black Zombie compete for the Blood Qi now, then later, a shortage might prevent the Blood Essence from forming.
That would be a huge loss.
After all, cultivating the Blood Transformation Body required a great deal of blood.
And he couldn't exactly go around slaughtering cultivators or mortals.
Soon,
several more hours passed in the blink of an eye.
After drawing all the Blood Qi from the ground within two or three hundred zhang of him, the tiny red spot grew by a third and became purer still.
But Wen Jiu didn't know whether it counted as Blood Essence or merely highly concentrated essence blood.
Even without knowing for sure, he could clearly feel that the Corpse Eye's quality and abilities had reached a whole new level since its appearance.
Just then, the drop of essence blood suddenly released a large amount of Blood Qi. Against Wen Jiu's control, it burrowed into the Black Zombie's body.
The aura of the Black Zombie's Blood Transformation Body surged higher and higher!
The process lasted a quarter of an hour. Wen Jiu couldn't control it at all and could only stand by and watch.
A quarter of an hour later,
the Black Zombie's Blood Transformation Body reached an unprecedented peak.
It felt as though the Black Zombie had spent dozens of days absorbing Blood Qi and raising corpses in Dead Corpse Land.
What was more,
Wen Jiu could sense that the Black Zombie's Blood Transformation Body was on the verge of a breakthrough.
"What...?"
Wen Jiu hurriedly looked at the Corpse Eye.
Only after confirming that its essence blood hadn't disappeared did he let out a breath of relief.
As long as the Blood Essence was still there, that was what mattered.
But what had just happened?
"Looks like I'll have to wait for the daily settlement to understand it fully." After burying the Black Zombie underground, Wen Jiu quickly left.
He waited until Midnight.
At last, Wen Jiu understood what the unusual occurrence during the day had been.
Today's settlement included a new entry.
[Having absorbed a large amount of Blood Qi to replenish the Corpse Eye, its Blood Essence has been fully repaired and is now merging with the Corpse Eye's body. It will return to First-grade Mid-quality within ten days. Replenished cultivator's essence blood: +1375; Black Zombie Blood Transformation Body experience: +300 (daily absorption limit reached)] [Black Zombie skill: Blood Transformation Body, second level (828/1000)]
"So it really worked!"
The surprise had come out of nowhere.
Fortunately, he was in Dead Corpse Land.
If he'd been somewhere else,
who knew how long the repair would have taken?
"So the strange occurrence today was replenishment."
Wen Jiu was delighted again.
It seemed repairing the Corpse Eye only required essence blood to restore its Blood Essence, not for it to absorb all of the essence blood.
"828. Without using my stockpile of cultivator's essence blood, I'll only need seven days to reach the third level of the Blood Transformation Body."
Wen Jiu fell into thought.
Should he wait seven days,
or use his stockpile of cultivator's essence blood now?
After pondering for a moment,
Wen Jiu decided not to use it.
He could save his stockpile of cultivator's essence blood for later, because he would still need it to cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body.
Corpse blood definitely wouldn't help him cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body.
Thinking of this,
Wen Jiu checked his stockpile of cultivator's essence blood.
[Stockpiled cultivator's essence blood: 2368]
"I'll keep saving it."
Once the heat dies down, I'll use this essence blood to cultivate the Yin Sha Blood Curse Body.
Having settled on his plan, Wen Jiu closed his personal panel.
Soon,
seven days passed in the blink of an eye.
The Blood Transformation Body reached the third level right on schedule.
[Black Zombie skill: Blood Transformation Body, third level (0/2000)]
But what Wen Jiu hadn't expected was that, after reaching the third level, the Blood Transformation Body would develop a skill of its own.
[Black Zombie skill: Blood Corpse Escape]
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