A figure surfaced in the Qing-clad man's memories, instantly overlapping with the filthy, disheveled Corpse Incinerator, Li Ye, before him.
Was it him?
The Qing-clad man's throat tightened, and his eyes reddened. He could hardly believe what he was seeing. "Ho—"
Li Ye subtly shook his head.
Seeing this, the Qing-clad man immediately swallowed the words on the tip of his tongue.
"Leave him to me."
Li Ye stepped forward and said.
Not long after, Li Ye and the Qing-clad man arrived at Courtyard No. 3 and shut the door.
The Qing-clad man could no longer contain his emotions. "...Eldest Senior Brother!"
He called out, his voice trembling.
Li Ye smiled. "Long time no see, Junior Brother Qin Yu."
"Is this a gift for me?"
Li Ye pointed at the corpse in the Qing-clad man's hands.
The Divine Concealment Sect's ranks, from lowest to highest, were Menial Disciples, Outer Disciples, Inner Disciples, Elite Disciples, and True Disciples!
And above them all was the Holy Son!
The Holy Son stood above every disciple. His status was exalted, for he was the sect's future successor, the Eldest Senior Brother of the entire sect. His position was transcendent and unshakable.
Qin Yu was the fourth among the Divine Concealment Sect's Eight Great True Disciples. Odd in temperament and sharp-minded, he often fought with the other seven because he didn't fit in.
Yet he got along with only one of them: Li Ye, the Holy Son.
While others avoided the Corpse Refining Courtyard, Qin Yu came and went as he pleased, without a care in the world.
Hearing Li Ye tease him, Qin Yu's nose stung. He wanted to cry.
How had the Holy Son, his Eldest Senior Brother, become a Corpse Incinerator?
"Weren't you in the Outer Courtyard?"
Qin Yu asked in a hushed voice.
Everyone knew what had happened to Li Ye, and Qin Yu had been powerless to help.
But he had never imagined that after going away for a while, the Holy Son, his Eldest Senior Brother, would be demoted to the Corpse Refining Courtyard.
It was enough to break his heart.
Qin Yu gritted his teeth. "I'll go talk to the Sect Master."
In his heart, it didn't matter whether the Holy Son was still the Holy Son, whether he was still the Southern Region's most dazzling prodigy, or whether his cultivation had once towered above all others. He was still Qin Yu's Eldest Senior Brother.
Li Ye shook his head and stopped Qin Yu's impulsive plan with a look.
The latter fell silent, feeling even more miserable.
The Holy Son's body had developed a problem, but it wasn't visible. Everyone thought he was just making excuses for his own downfall.
After Li Ye had spent day after day drinking and neglected his cultivation, the Elder Courtyard grew dissatisfied and appealed to the Sect Master. The Sect Master made secret inquiries and found that the reports were true.
So Li Ye was demoted again and again, sinking into despair as his cultivation worsened by the day.
In the end, the Sect Master lost all hope and banished him to the Menial Courtyard.
But Qin Yu believed what the Holy Son, his Eldest Senior Brother, had told him.
"I'm doing just fine here."
Li Ye smiled.
Tears glimmered in Qin Yu's eyes.
The once dazzling Holy Son, his Eldest Senior Brother, had fallen so low that he was now a Corpse Incinerator, the most contemptible kind of worker. It left a bitter taste in his heart.
But Li Ye was adamant, and Qin Yu couldn't say more.
"The new Holy Son is... Junior Disciple."
He felt it was something Li Ye ought to know.
Li Ye froze.
Junior Disciple was the youngest of the Eight Great True Disciples. He usually kept to himself and rarely spoke with his fellow disciples.
He hadn't spent much time with Li Ye and the others, either.
Half a year ago, Junior Disciple had already reached the Fifth Layer of Object Manipulation. He was indeed the best candidate to take the Holy Son's place.
"Good for him! Who's this?"
Li Ye looked at the corpse in Qin Yu's hands.
"Night Roaming God!"
"I chased him for ages before I finally killed him. Luckily, I had the Soaring Dragon Movement Technique you taught me, or even a hundred experts might not have been able to corner this fellow."
Qin Yu replied.
The Soaring Dragon Movement Technique was recognized throughout the Divine Concealment Sect as one of the hardest movement techniques to master. It required training while carrying heavy loads, beneath lightning during thunderstorms, or in places like waterfalls and crashing waves.
Without extraordinary perseverance, it was impossible to master.
Under the guidance and relentless training of Li Ye, the former Holy Son, Qin Yu had struggled for more than two years before finally succeeding.
Night Roaming God?
Li Ye's eyes lit up. He eagerly took the corpse and turned toward the Corpse Incineration Room.
"Give me a moment."
He called out to Qin Yu.
Qin Yu didn't understand what was going on.
Only when smoke started billowing from the furnace inside the Corpse Incineration Room did he realize what was happening. The Holy Son, his Eldest Senior Brother, was going to burn the corpse.
The man who had once shone so brilliantly had become so practiced at this lowly, ill-omened work.
Qin Yu instinctively started to follow him inside, but Li Ye's voice rang out from the room:
"Don't come in!"
"You silly boy. What do you know about the benefits of being a Corpse Incinerator?"
"So what if I lost my status as the Holy Son? So what if I'm lowborn? Once I'm invincible under heaven and have attained Eternal Life, who won't be lowborn in my presence?"
Li Ye thought to himself.
Night Roaming God was of average height but powerfully built. His leg muscles were like Refined Iron, their lines beautiful. He had practically trained his leg techniques to their utmost limits.
"Truly gifted!"
Li Ye thought.
Night Roaming God had died when Qin Yu pierced his head with a sword. His eyes were wide open, and faint Killing Intent surged within them. He was on the verge of Corpse Transformation.
"Rest easy, brother!"
Li Ye tidied him up a little, then pushed him into the Corpse Incineration Furnace.
The corpse gradually blended with the flames.
Then the Life Imprint began to unravel, unfolding scene after scene from his life.
Night Roaming God had been born in a remote mountain village. As a child, he had accidentally fallen off a cliff and, by sheer luck, survived.
But he had been trapped at the bottom, with no way to climb back up.
A few days later, Night Roaming God came across a skeleton. By good fortune, he found two secret manuals in the corpse's tattered clothes: Gale Leg and Dragon Transformation Palm.
From then on, Night Roaming God devoted himself to practicing the two manuals, neglecting food and sleep. His cultivation advanced day by day, until years later, when he finally returned home...
But he discovered that his parents, little sister, and the others had died many years ago in a great famine.
Only a few wealthy landlords from the village had escaped with their families. Before leaving, they hadn't left a single grain of food behind for the villagers.
And so, the Night Roaming God appeared in the martial world, targeting only the wealthy and powerful. Many great clans had been torn apart and ruined by him.
Li Ye now stood at the bottom of the world, and the people he encountered were from the bottom, too.
So most of the lives he witnessed were those of the unfortunate.
One scene caught Li Ye's attention.
It showed where Night Roaming God had hidden his treasures.
They were several secluded residences, each concealing glittering treasures and rare curiosities in hidden chambers, wells, ponds, and other places no one would ever think to look.
I'm rich!
Li Ye cried out.
Unfortunately, the scenes showed only the residences and a few nearby streets. He didn't know which city they were in or which streets they were on. Finding them would be like searching for a needle in the ocean.
Li Ye sighed.
If he wanted to get his hands on Night Roaming God's treasure, he'd have to hope for a stroke of luck someday.
"Some wealthy families have good people in them, too. You made no distinction between right and wrong and killed the innocent indiscriminately. Qin Yu was right to kill you."
Li Ye delivered his verdict.
He felt that Night Roaming God hadn't been a bad person by nature. He had been torn from his family as a child and had no one to guide or teach him.
That was how he'd ended up on such an extreme path.
The fellow had deserved his death.
Whoosh!
A plume of white mist burst out of the Corpse Incineration Furnace and shot into Li Ye. Then its power gathered in his legs.
The great tendons in Li Ye's legs surfaced, as clear as Flood Dragons. His muscles swelled, his leg bones cracked, and his legs grew thick and powerful. The floor beneath him groaned under his weight, cracking with sharp, brittle pops.
A message appeared in Li Ye's mind: Gale Leg. You possess the speed of the wind and the explosive power of flame.
"Swift Wind Leg!"
Li Ye snapped.
Whoosh!
The skill activated. Wind seemed to spring beneath Li Ye's feet. His body blurred, leaving afterimages as he darted from one end of the Corpse Incineration Room to the other.
A few meters vanished in an instant.
Had I gained Night Roaming God's ability? Li Ye was delighted.
He tried a spinning kick.
Boom!
A howling gale erupted. The air exploded around his kick.
"What!"
Li Ye stared with his mouth agape.
With that kind of penetrating force, he could probably shatter a thousand-jin boulder.
Swift Wind Leg further amplified the power Li Ye could unleash with his own strength.
After a little while, Li Ye calmed himself, opened the door, and spoke to Qin Yu in the courtyard:
"From now on, there's no more Holy Son, Eldest Senior Brother."
"There's only... Li Ye, the Corpse Incinerator."
Qin Yu felt as if his heart were being twisted apart. "Eldest Senior Brother..."
Li Ye cut him off. "My path to immortality is over. We belong to different worlds now."
"Fourth Junior Brother, if you truly want what's best for me, then pretend you weren't here today. And don't come back."
"Forget me. Don't tell anyone!"
The Holy Son's cultivation had been lost. That was a fact.
All Qin Yu could do was respect his choice.
With a heart full of complicated feelings, Qin Yu left.
When Li Ye woke up in the afternoon, he got to eat beef and scallion buns again.
Three of them, no less. The meat was fresh and juicy, and they were delicious.
He understood that they were probably a reward for yesterday.
Apart from his daily duties, Li Ye kept up his practice of the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art every day.
He had power from practicing the Cultivation Method, as well as cultivation essence extracted from corpses.
Several days passed in a flash, and Li Ye's cultivation advanced by leaps and bounds.
One evening, Wu Qing and the other Black-Clad Academicians gathered together. The mood was grave.
Wu Qing said with a grim expression, "How did the Rebel Army's deputy general's corpse end up here?"
The Esteemed Deacon, dressed in a yellow robe, explained, "King Liang joined forces with Nanjin and raised an army more than half a year ago. Their forces have grown tremendously."
"A few days ago, the Rebel Army launched another assault. A squad of elite fighters circled around behind our forces and tried to burn our provisions, but failed. They were killed one after another. Only this deputy general escaped, fleeing all the way to the vicinity of the Divine Concealment Sect. He was finally killed today."
The Esteemed Deacon informed them that this situation was unexpected, yet also to be expected.
It might happen again, so he told everyone to be prepared.
Understanding dawned on everyone's faces. So that was what had happened.
Then their hearts sank.
The Rebel Army's deputy general had evaded capture for so many days. That meant he was powerful and possessed a deep-seated obsession.
The chance of Corpse Transformation was very high.
And once someone from a battlefield underwent Corpse Transformation, they were countless times more terrifying than an ordinary person.
It looked like they were about to lose another Corpse Incinerator.
"Draw lots."
The Esteemed Deacon said casually.
Someone then brought out a teacup. The leaders of the Black-Clad Academicians in charge of the various courtyards came forward one by one, each pinching a folded piece of paper between two fingers.
Then they unfolded them.
Everyone looked at Wu Qing.
The corners of his mouth twitched violently.
Courtyard No. 3:
Li Ye got up, washed up, and opened the front door. He was just about to stretch when he froze.
Roast chicken?
He didn't dare dawdle and hurriedly carried the roast chicken inside.
Then, with practiced ease, he pulled a note from the chicken's belly.
It told him about the person whose corpse would soon be delivered: what he had been like in life.
A soldier—and a rebellious general, no less.
If he underwent Corpse Transformation, how terrifying would his strength be?
Li Ye felt a little nervous, but also somewhat eager...
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