Crack!
Li Ye had just entered the Corpse Incineration Hall when the door locked behind him.
Drip, drip, drip!
Blood dripped from the Corpse Wrapping Cloth, and the thick stench of it filled every corner of the room.
How much blood did this guy have? He'd been bleeding all the way here, and it was still dripping.
Puzzled, Li Ye stepped forward and slowly lifted the Corpse Wrapping Cloth, revealing a Great Snake coiled into an oval.
The Great Snake was pure white, its skin torn everywhere, without a single intact inch. Beads of blood kept rolling out.
Its body was thick, about thirty centimeters in diameter. Its huge head was coiled right toward Li Ye, and its fist-sized eyes were open, seeming almost alive and webbed with blood vessels. The first thing Li Ye saw was its gaze meeting his.
Thud, thud, thud!
Caught completely off guard, Li Ye went deathly pale and stumbled backward, nearly scared out of his wits.
You bastards, why didn't you warn me first?
Were you trying to scare me to death?
A bunch of shameless, heartless bastards.
Snakes were scary enough as it was, and this one was huge.
It could scare a perfectly healthy person into having a breakdown.
Li Ye cursed inwardly, silently sending the eighteenth generation of every person in charge at the Corpse Refining Courtyard his regards.
But why had this Snake Demon been sent here?
Was it really the one from Yihongyuan?
Li Ye went over to examine it. The White Snake was a bloody mess from head to tail, without a single intact patch.
Its Snake Skin had lost all value.
Its Snake Blood was thin and had lost its intended use as well.
Then Li Ye spotted the fatal wound on the Great Snake's torso: a huge bloody hole, from which waves of chilling energy emanated.
An invisible sharpness made the skin on Li Ye's cheeks ache.
"What powerful sword intent. This wound was made by Junior Disciple's Heaven Severing Sword, wasn't it?"
"Did Junior Disciple shatter the Snake Demon's Inner Core with one strike? No wonder the Divine Concealment Sect sent it here. The Snake Demon's body has no value left. They probably couldn't be bothered to deal with it, so they sent it here to be burned."
Drawing on the memories of the Holy Son, Li Ye saw through the wound's true nature.
Junior Disciple's Heaven Severing Sword was incredibly powerful. Though he appeared to have slashed into the Snake Demon's torso with a single blow, his terrifying sword intent had actually pulverized everything beneath its skin.
Its flesh, organs, Demon Core, bones, and more had all been torn apart and destroyed by the sword intent.
That was why the Snake Demon, whose body had stretched for hundreds of meters, had shrunk so rapidly after death, becoming the small carcass it was now.
It was no exaggeration to say that this body was nothing but a heap of meat. Jiang Ming's Heaven Severing Sword was too overbearing; it had cut away every trace of the Snake Demon's inner divinity, leaving nothing of value behind.
"Still, these scraps of flesh contain traces of the Snake Demon's cultivation energy. They're not to be underestimated."
"At my current stage, they're still a treasure trove I can't afford to ignore."
With that, Li Ye shoved the Great Snake into the Corpse Incineration Furnace.
What reward would the Corpse Incineration Furnace give me this time?
Could it be a Divine Ability?
A Cultivation Method?
No, please, anything but that.
That would be such a waste.
The cultivation extracted from this Great Snake should be more than enough to get me to Qi Gathering.
I want cultivation.
It has to be cultivation!
Otherwise, I'll have it out with you, Corpse Incineration Furnace!
Li Ye prayed silently.
The Great Snake was dead beyond any doubt. Under Junior Disciple Jiang Ming's Heaven Severing Sword, it had no chance of undergoing Corpse Transformation. The sword intent still lingered in its corpse, after all.
So even after the Great Snake entered the Corpse Incineration Furnace, there was no sign of Corpse Transformation.
In the blink of an eye, the corpse merged with the flames.
The fire blazed, breaking down the Snake Demon's Life Imprint and revealing scenes from its life.
But Li Ye couldn't quite understand what he was seeing.
The Snake Demon had been born in an underground snake den in a vast forest. Its mother was a White Snake, and its father was a black snake.
Since both had transformed into human form, the couple must have been at least at the Object Manipulation Realm.
What confused Li Ye was that the White Snake had laid a whole clutch of eggs, which eventually hatched into dozens of little snakes.
Some were white, some silver, some black, some green, and so on.
They were all snakes, and several were white. Li Ye couldn't tell which one was this Snake Demon.
Only after the other white snakes died as they grew up did this Snake Demon become the only White Snake among her siblings. That was when Li Ye could tell them apart.
By then, the White Snake's siblings had dwindled from dozens to just six.
Some had been killed by predators while foraging; others had died cultivating or simply grown old and died.
Only the White Snake and six of her siblings had successfully embarked on the path of cultivation.
But in the end, they had each gone their separate ways.
Li Ye was surprised. "Her parents and siblings are still alive?"
"Will they come after me for revenge someday?"
The White Snake's life had been tedious. For the first few hundred years, she had cultivated in the mountains and fought with the Demon Race.
Only after breaking through to the Object Manipulation Realm and taking human form had she entered human territory.
Then she devoured the essence of one human expert after another to cultivate and transform.
And then, today, she was killed.
That was where the scenes from the White Snake's life ended.
Her life had been long—several hundred years. She had witnessed the world's vicissitudes and the rise and fall of dynasties.
Yet she had also spent those hundreds of years struggling in this "samsara" world.
After watching the White Snake's life, Li Ye felt a hollow sadness.
Hundreds of years. What a long stretch of time.
But no matter how long the White Snake had lived, the hour of her final curtain had still come.
Eternal Life!
Li Ye's resolve hardened once again. He would defeat the Human World, defeat the passage of time, defeat life and death, and exist in this world forever, basking in glory and splendor.
Otherwise, he would have failed to live up to his status as a transmigrator.
Buzz!
At that moment, a wisp of Light Mist shot out of the Corpse Incineration Furnace.
It should be cultivation, right?
It has to be cultivation!
Li Ye cried out inwardly. In the blink of an eye, the wisp of Light Mist darted into his body and flowed through him.
Rumble!
Li Ye's limbs and bones shuddered. The breathing method of the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art flowed naturally, and in an instant, it felt as if he had undergone years of arduous cultivation. His aura surged.
Boom!
Before long, a deep peal rang out inside Li Ye. A powerful aura burst from his body, and a wave of energy spilled out.
Crimson Electric Arcs flowed over his body like a gentle stream, enveloping him.
He had broken through.
Hahaha, it really was cultivation...
But what was with Body Tempering level ten?
A string of question marks flashed across Li Ye's face.
Yes, he had broken through, but not to the Qi Gathering Stage. He had reached Body Tempering level ten.
How could there be a tenth level of the Body Tempering Realm? Wasn't he supposed to enter the Qi Gathering Stage after the ninth?
What had gone wrong?
Li Ye repeatedly examined his dantian and confirmed it hadn't opened up, nor had it absorbed any Spiritual Energy. He was still in the Body Tempering Realm.
He really was at Body Tempering level ten.
What his body released was physical strength, not Spiritual Power.
Li Ye stared at the Crimson Electric Arcs flowing across his skin, lost in thought.
"Was it because I transmigrated? Did my otherworldly soul combine with this body and mutate, letting me break through the refinement system and enter the unprecedented tenth level of Body Tempering?"
"Or was the Nine Heavens Crimson Thunder Art simply so powerful that it allowed me to break through to a level ten that shouldn't exist in the Body Tempering Realm?"
Li Ye wondered.
Forget it. I broke through, and that's what matters.
Li Ye didn't dwell on it. Reaching Body Tempering level ten meant his physique had tremendous potential, beyond the limits of the cultivation system.
His next breakthrough should take him to the Qi Gathering Stage.
Just as Li Ye was thinking this:
Whoosh!
Another wisp of Light Mist shot out of the Corpse Incineration Furnace.
What?
Li Ye stared in astonishment.
Two wisps of Light Mist? That had never happened before.
This wisp was cultivation energy too. It darted into Li Ye's body in the blink of an eye, flowing through him and tempering his internal organs, limbs, and bones.
And Li Ye hadn't even finished absorbing all the energy from the first wisp.
His aura began to surge again.
Li Ye was ecstatic. "Two wisps of Light Mist! As expected of a Snake Demon's body. Heaven really is helping me."
"Looks like I'm definitely entering the Qi Gathering Stage today."
Before you continue