An Unexpected Joy

Having survived a calamity and gained two months of Body Tempering cultivation, Li Ye could hardly contain himself, ecstatic beyond measure.

And so came the most socially mortifying moment of This lifetime.

The instant the door opened, Li Ye froze, staring wide-eyed at the Black-Clad Academicians at the entrance.

He was dumbfounded, but the Black-Clad Academicians were even more dumbfounded.

"...It worked?"

The Leader wore A face full of disbelief.

Then he stepped forward, shoved aside the subordinate who had opened the lock and was standing there staring at Li Ye, and asked, "Where's the corpse?"

Li Ye dropped onto his heels, lowered his arms, and respectfully replied, "Burned. Do you want the ashes?"

The Leader paused. "...Nothing happened?"

Li Ye shook his head.

In the end, the Leader tossed down the day's wages and left with A face full of confusion.

That shouldn't be possible.

The corpse had already begun undergoing Corpse Transformation when it was delivered.

By the time it reached the Corpse Incineration Room, it Should be fully transformed.

In the end, the Leader could only conclude that Li Ye had been lucky and acted quickly.

Because he had noticed that none of the incense, paper money, and other items delivered that day had been burned. Li Ye must have sensed something beforehand.

"What a clever Kid."

The Leader silently praised him.

"Forgot to ask what movement technique he was using just now. It looked pretty imposing."

One of the Black-Clad Academicians muttered.

After the Black-Clad Academicians left, Li Ye turned toward the wall and gave it A beating of punches and kicks.

He was beside himself.

Not even in his previous life had he ever been this socially mortified.

Once the cremation furnace cooled down, Li Ye began cleaning out the ashes inside.

He was about to take them out to bury them.

This divine artifact incinerated corpses far faster than the others. Carrying the ashes, Li Ye passed by a courtyard.

Suddenly, a scream rang out from within.

It was Courtyard No. 2—Butcher!

The dashing pig-slaughtering man from that morning, the one who had shouted about going down the mountain to drink and seizing joy while he could.

Was Butcher dead?

Li Ye's heart tightened, and a faint sorrow rose within him.

Then he heard the Black-Clad Academicians in Butcher's courtyard smashing through the door, followed by the sounds of blades being drawn to suppress a Fierce Corpse.

A chilling, murderous aura spread beneath the night sky in an instant.

Corpse Incinerators' lives were as cheap as grass.

Death was the most ordinary thing in the world.

But it was still a human life.

Li Ye could not let it go for a long while.

With complicated feelings, he made his way to the place on Back Mountain where the ashes were buried.

Li Ye took out a shovel and was about to choose a patch of soft earth to bury the ashes.

Then he discovered that someone had gotten there before him and was squatting on the ground, digging a hole.

Li Ye found it strange. Who was it?

From the figure, it looked somewhat like Old Knife.

Since everyone had already become familiar during the day, Li Ye walked up without ceremony and greeted him, "Hey, you..."

Hearing his voice, the other person turned around.

Under the night sky, a ghastly pale dead man's face was revealed.

His gray-white eyeballs bulged like those of a dead fish, his face crawling with corpse spots and Blood Patterns.

A Fierce Corpse?

Li Ye's mind buzzed, and his scalp exploded with terror.

Where the hell did a Fierce Corpse come from?

When the Fierce Corpse saw Li Ye, it could not help but freeze for a moment.

Then dense baleful intent surfaced in its grayish-white eyes.

It opened its mouth, about to spew out icy Corpse Qi.

"Words Manifest Reality!"

"Corpse Suppressing Incantation!"

Li Ye struck first, a faint glow flowing over his tongue as he recited the forty-nine-character incantation.

Whoosh!

A streak of Golden Light shot from his mouth and struck the Fierce Corpse squarely in the face.

Bang!

The Fierce Corpse immediately fell flat on its back, limbs splayed. Its mouth hung open, and the Corpse Qi it had not yet managed to spit out guttered away.

"Zhou Bao's incantation really works."

Li Ye said in admiration. Since he had just broken through to the first level of the Body Tempering Realm, his physical condition had improved tremendously. This time, using the Corpse Suppressing Incantation left him with no noticeable aftereffects.

Looking at the motionless Fierce Corpse before him, Li Ye immediately found himself in a bind.

Bury it on the spot? The Corpse Suppressing Incantation definitely could not hold it down forever.

Carry it back and burn it?

How would he explain that on the way?

Though the ability to subdue corpses was nothing in the eyes of true cultivators, Li Ye felt it was best not to draw attention if he could help it.

He did not want anyone noticing him.

Just as Li Ye was worrying, light flashed before his eyes, and a crimson furnace appeared out of thin air.

It was the Corpse Incineration Furnace, far away in the Corpse Incineration Room.

It had appeared so inexplicably, Like a Shadow.

It could do that? Li Ye froze for a moment, then was overjoyed. He kicked the Fierce Corpse straight inside.

He was now at the first level of the Body Tempering Realm, with immense strength.

Wait, there was no fire.

How was it supposed to burn?

Only then did Li Ye realize it.

Then he discovered that he had worried for nothing. The instant the corpse entered the furnace, pale flames rose within it and swallowed the body whole.

Images of the corpse's master's life drifted out from within the flames.

The man had been born in an ordinary village. His family had been poor since childhood, barely able to afford clothes or food.

One night, a group of strangers appeared in the village.

They were people from the Earth Gate.

They had dug open a thousand-year-old Ancient Tomb outside the village, obtaining countless treasures of gold and silver, as well as Spirit Artifacts, scriptures, and more.

That night, the corpse's master caught the eye of the team leader and joined their group.

The facts proved that the leader had a discerning eye.

The corpse's master possessed exceptional talent. Before long, he had mastered the Earth Gate's two great skills: Qi Observation and Cave Digging.

But if you walk by the river often, how can your shoes stay dry? A few days ago, they had discovered a great tomb.

After going down, not a single one of them Came up except the corpse's master.

And not long after the corpse's master Came up, he too collapsed beside the tomb-raiders' tunnel and breathed his last.

In the end, he was discovered by people from the Divine Concealment Sect and sent here.

"Brother, where did you hide your wealth?"

"Why didn't you leave any instructions?"

Li Ye was filled with regret. The Images had drifted past too quickly, and he had failed to see much of them clearly.

Especially the Images of where the corpse's master had hidden his treasure.

Buzz!

A cloud of white mist drifted out and entered Li Ye's body, finally gathering in his hands.

Li Ye's palms immediately became scorching hot. His finger bones trembled and crackled as copious amounts of black, viscous fluid seeped out.

Finally, his hands became crystalline and translucent, suffused with a faint glow.

A piece of information surfaced in Li Ye's mind:

Hand of Earth: Given enough time, you can dig through a planet.

Real or fake?

Li Ye was startled, then silently invoked the Hand of Earth.

Bzz!

His hands lit up, afterimages layering upon afterimages as he moved on instinct.

The next second, Li Ye vanished into the ground.

He emerged from beneath the earth a hundred meters away.

Ten meters in a second!

"Awesome!"

After crawling out of the hole, Li Ye's face was full of excitement.

If he joined the Earth Gate, wouldn't they worship him like an Ancestor?

Still, this skill was not invincible. For example, when he encountered particularly hard stone, Li Ye's hands would still hurt, and his speed would slow.

Suddenly, a jumble of footsteps came from afar.

Li Ye vaguely saw a group of Black-Clad Academicians bounding and leaping through the air, steel blades in hand. In the blink of an eye, they had arrived in front of him.

Their speed was no different from the qinggong in martial arts films from his previous life—graceful and otherworldly.

"Are you the Corpse Incinerator here?"

After sizing up Li Ye's clothes, one of them coldly questioned him.

"Yes, sir."

Li Ye bowed.

Oh no, my Corpse Incineration Furnace.

Only then did Li Ye remember. Turning his head, he saw that the Corpse Incineration Furnace was floating beside him.

Yet the Black-Clad Academicians seemed not to see it at all.

What's going on? Could it be... the Artifact Spirit?

Li Ye thought to himself.

"You... haven't seen anything?"

The leading Black-Clad Academician asked suspiciously.

They're... looking for a corpse?

Li Ye immediately understood. The Butcher was dead; the corpse from his place should have escaped.

In other words, it was that Earth Gate fellow he had just burned.

Naturally, Li Ye would not admit to anything.

After asking several more questions, the Black-Clad Academicians turned elsewhere to continue their search.

But they were destined to find nothing.

The next day, news of the Butcher's death spread, causing no small stir among the Corpse Incinerators.

Li Ye remained very calm about it.

Because he understood that this would become the norm in the future.

In the blink of an eye, many days passed.

Li Ye never again obtained skills like Words Manifest Reality or the Hand of Earth.

All he got was cultivation essence ranging from a few days to one or two months.

Note: Cultivation essence did not equal all the power the corpse's owner possessed while alive. After a person died, most of their cultivation dissipated, leaving very little in the body. The Corpse Incineration Furnace then further refined essence from that tiny remnant of power, making the amount even smaller—but its purity was exceptional.

Li Ye was now at the Body Tempering Third Layer.

And during these days, the Corpse Incinerator circle underwent a massive reshuffling.

After the Butcher, Old Knife, Yang Chen, and others also died.

Of the people Li Ye knew, only Liu Sanshou and Zhou Bao remained.

Without realizing it, he had already become one of the old hands in this circle.

Because he rarely showed himself, Li Ye was the most mysterious figure in the eyes of the newly arrived Corpse Incinerators.

At dusk, the food delivery arrived, and Li Ye's heart sank.

...They had brought him a roast chicken!