The Corpse Can Talk / Blood-Spiritual-Energy Techniques

Shaking his head, he put aside his own worries for the time being and then began to consider how to deal with the spiritual energy.

She can directly absorb and use this sparse spiritual energy; with her Spiritual Sense, she can now directly absorb the spiritual energy from Kamikakushi Mountain into her body. However, this won't cure the root cause. If spiritual energy keeps surging, she'll have to reabsorb it every now and then.

As for sealing the spiritual energy on Kamikakushi Mountain... her cultivation knowledge didn't include any formations that could be used at present.

Zhang Qiudao's knowledge of over two thousand years consisted only of fragmented information about formations. What she received was a general overview of the Xuanhui Realm, broad and comprehensive, but not detailed. This knowledge itself came from the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding and Soul Merging Artifact Casting Understanding, with incantations and tool making as its core extensions. She could use this knowledge to modify the input energy of tools, such as modifying tools that originally required spiritual energy to activate into tools that could be used with Spiritual Power, or even to create her own incantations. However, doing anything beyond that was much more complicated.

It's like sealing off the entire mountain. As Yotsuya Miko gradually absorbed the concepts of cultivators, she learned that only an array could achieve the best results.

But the formation... she didn't choose the Ten Thousand Thoughts Transforming Demon Array Understanding back then.

"... Let's collect this spiritual energy first, and then ask the Divine Gate for materials to make tools once their materials arrive."

He rubbed his head and searched through the Soul Merging Artifact Casting Understanding, finding a few tools that could solve his current problem, and the materials required weren't too demanding.

Yotsuya Miko manipulated her spiritual energy to gather the sparse spiritual energy on Kamikakushi Mountain, and then channeled this spiritual energy into the Prison Spirit Remnant Soul Clothes on her body.

Being careful is never a bad thing.

She wasn't sure if there was anything strange about this spiritual energy, so she naturally wouldn't be an idiot and mindlessly pour it into her body.

The tragic experiences of the demonic cultivators in the Xuanhui Realm repeatedly warned Miko never to overlook any small detail and never to meddle in other people's business unless those things might be related to him.

Along the way, Yotsuya Miko had already proven through her own experience that these warnings were not without reason.

The high-resistance armor of the Mountain God and the formation beneath the Kawamori Gymnasium fully illustrate the importance of details.

Because of these two tragic experiences, Yotsuya Miko was extremely cautious in her attitude towards Divine Gate, fearing that her apparent weakness would cause trouble.

However, perhaps complete control would be a good thing...

Gazing at the Kamikakushi Mountain before her, her eyes began to wander.

Cooperation is ultimately just an unreliable shared interest. It's best to have power that you can control.

Both in terms of supply and handling affairs, she is far better than if she were to fight alone.

"I need to find a reason..."

She pondered the word, and suddenly wondered if she had been a little too heartless.

But she simply couldn't trust anyone, not even those people from Divine Gate.

As long as her attitude remains "docile," some people will always assume that she is docile, controllable, and can be used.

She'll accept your help if you ask, but if you give her increasingly demanding orders...

Yotsuya Miko let out a soft breath, keeping some dark thoughts buried deep in her heart.

A person's changes are influenced by many things, especially the things they have experienced. Because only experiences are truly unforgettable.

After experiencing the Mountain God and the Xuanming Python, Yotsuya Miko realized how important Zhang Qiudao's knowledge and experience were. His insights about sects were, in fact, offering valuable advice for her current situation.

In the past, she would have hesitated about the differences between sects and modern organizations; at least Demonic Path sect was still Demonic Path sect. But with her experiences, it seemed that all organizations were essentially no different.

The internal struggles within the Demonic Path sects are about the pursuit of power, and what about the Divine Gate? It's nothing more than a struggle for power. Where there is struggle, there is scheming, and where there is scheming, there are always people to scheme against.

There's no rush.

She thought that, at least until the corpses of Kawamori the Shepherd, Tong Sheng Yuanhe, and his belongings were presented to her, she did not intend to change the impression that Divine Gate and those above Divine Gate had of her.

This was an important deal, and she needed to confirm one thing with Tong Sheng Yuanhe. Before that was confirmed, she didn't intend to cause any further trouble.

"Alright, now it's time to go and tell Minister Okita the good news."

Yotsuya Miko smiled, composing herself to suppress her other emotions.

Concealing one's own thoughts and creating a different appearance for oneself is also an important skill she learned from Zhang Qiudao.

The Demonic Path is not about fighting and killing.

Most people in the Demonic Path are pure egoists, like the Great Demon Zhang Qiudao who acts entirely for his own benefit, disregarding the lives of other beings in the Xuanhui Realm.

Based on egoism, they can also be sophisticated and deceptive.

Before achieving their true purpose, they can be more like the righteous path than the righteous path itself.

Yotsuya Miko does not consider herself a person willing to make selfless contributions, and even if she were to do so, it would not be under the orders or instructions of others.

All she wants to do now is consider her own affairs.

Perhaps, she really is transforming into a demonic cultivator.

It suddenly occurred to her.

Chapter 171 The Corpse Can Talk

The matter at Kamikakushi Mountain has come to a temporary end.

Shortly after Yotsuya Miko returned to school, Okita Qishen contacted her again to inform her that some items had been delivered.

After school, Yotsuya Miko walked towards the outside of the school. A car parked some distance away from the school opened its window, revealing Okita Qishen's face on the passenger side.

"It's been a long time, Ms. Yotsuya."

Although he was unwilling to contact Yotsuya Miko in the short term, things did not go according to his wishes. Divine Gate, through his intelligence, learned of the disappearance of the Kamikakushi Mountain. In the short span of thirty minutes between Yotsuya Miko Kamikakushi Mountain's arrival and departure from Mount Kagami, all the spirits on the entire Kamikakushi Mountain vanished. Those spirits, which had been attracted there for unknown reasons and possessed extremely strong resistance to Spiritual Power, were thus completely annihilated.

Okita Qishen gained a new understanding of Yotsuya Miko's strength. The monster guarding the Gate of the Underworld, which would backfire if an exorcist were to peek at it through a screen, might not give people a substantial idea, but the Divine Gate usually saw were enough to give them a sense of reality and to make a comparison of the vast difference in strength between the exorcist and Yotsuya Miko.

After the incident at Kamikakushi Mountain, Okita Qishen finally gave up monitoring the Kamikakushi Mountain Yotsuya Miko. This kind of observation wouldn't allow him to find out Yotsuya Miko's weaknesses or anything else; it was just a waste of what he had and gave Yotsuya Miko an excuse to lash out with her "emotions."

Although he was reluctant to admit it, he chose to give in.

This is not shameful; on the contrary, it should be a rational approach, except that it may compromise one's dignity.

Okita Head Okita smiled and nodded to Yotsuya Miko.

"Hmm, it's been a long time, Okita."

Yotsuya Miko opened the back door and got into the car. Once the engine started and the car slowly moved forward, she began to discuss the topic of their meeting.

"Those shepherds have been transferred from Jianping to here, right?"

The incident involving Kawamori's Gate of the Underworld has passed, but there are still many questions surrounding the Shepherd, Tong Sheng Yuanhe, and Yotsuya Miko.

Knowing about Spiritual Power, she found the shepherds' deaths strange; it was clearly not something Spiritual Power could accomplish. She was even more intrigued by Tong Sheng Yuanhe and the array beneath the stadium—an array so consistent with the Xuanhui Realm —how had this guy discovered it and how was he able to use it?

These details are very important to her now, especially the strange things she does in this world.

Although the events that occurred may not seem strange when viewed individually, they are all intricately connected to the Xuanhui Realm, and the existence of the Xuanming Python further demonstrates the connection between the Xuanhui Realm and this world.

Therefore, during her negotiations with Okita Qishen, she raised another issue: the investigation into the shepherds' corpses that had already been sent to Jianping, as well as Tongsheng Yuanhe and the corpses. Of course, this was a reciprocal deal.

"Yes, it has been processed and sent to Divine Gate."

As Okita Qishen spoke, Jianping's team, who specialized in investigating Spiritual Power, found no useful clues on these corpses. That's why they readily handed the corpses over to Yotsuya Miko, hoping to get something out of Yotsuya Miko for free from these useless corpses. They also bargained more on the corpse of Tongsheng Yuanhe.

Yotsuya Miko didn't care about this freebie. The uselessness of corpses was only for those of them who only studied the theory of Spiritual Power. For a demonic cultivator like her, the role of corpses was enormous. Making the dead speak and conducting experiments on their bodies were things that demonic cultivators were best at. They had a million ways to use these corpses.

"Really? That's good."

After receiving a definite answer, Miko closed her eyes and continued to hone the several spells in her mind. In order to make use of these corpses, she consulted the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding and found spells related to the utilization of corpses. There were quite a few such spells, so she had many choices.

As always, the names of these techniques are not very appealing, but their effects are quite comprehensive.

As they reviewed these incantations, the car slowly drove up to the front of the Divine Gate building.

Like Kawamori's Divine Gate, the Divine Gate here is also disguised; on the surface, they are just a normal business company.

After entering the relevant key in the elevator's hidden compartment, the elevator descended to the ground, arriving at the area beneath the building. Beneath this building lies a basement level planned by Divine Gate during the building's initial construction, intended for actions that are not always convenient. For example, the current situation is rather inconvenient.

Yotsuya Miko followed behind Okita Qishen, her Spiritual Sense sweeping across the floor before slowly withdrawing it, gaining a general understanding of the layout. There was nothing here that could attract her attention, except for the shepherds' corpses.

Her golden eyes gazed ahead, her Spiritual Sense allowing her to perceive the location of the corpses and also to discover the residual spiritual energy within them.

Unlike the sparse spiritual energy on Kamikakushi Mountain, this spiritual energy was mixed with other characteristics, seemingly artificially cultivated. Beside these corpses was a body that still retained a large amount of this peculiar spiritual energy. If she wasn't mistaken, the owner of this corpse was the so-called Tong Sheng Yuanhe.

A cultivator... no, merely a lucky Qi Refining cultivator.

Yotsuya Miko learned the conclusion. Although she still did not know how Tong Sheng Yuanhe had cultivated such peculiar spiritual energy in this world that originally had no spiritual energy, or how he had obtained the cultivation method for spiritual energy, none of that mattered. As long as his corpse was intact, Miko could learn the cause and effect of the matter from his body.

You're lucky.

Thinking this to herself, she wasn't surprised at all by this outcome. When Kawamori saw that formation, Yotsuya Miko already had a premonition that there were other Xuanhui Realm inheritances in this world, but none as complete and top-notch as hers, or rather, they were very incomplete and crude. Otherwise, the existence of these inheritances would have been known to the whole world long ago.

The power displayed in these exercises is enough to change the pattern of this world.

Yotsuya Miko possesses such power, but she has no desire to change the world. In the world of Demonic Path, she is already considered one of the more gentle types, only intending to clean up the individuals and organizations around her that are affecting her life.

As long as you don't provoke her, some things can still be discussed slowly.

Chapter 172 Blood Spiritual Qi Cultivation Technique

"Arrive."

Okita Qishen silently led the way, taking Yotsuya Miko to a place marked "Storage Room." Before opening the door, he kindly offered a word of advice.

"It's cold inside, Miss Yotsuya, would you like some clothes?"

"No, thank you very much."

Upon hearing this, he simply entered the password on the keypad and opened the tightly closed door.

The moment the door opened, upon contact with the warm air from outside, white mist rapidly formed, gradually spreading outwards before dissipating.

Okita Qishen straightened his clothes, making sure his skin was covered by warm clothing, before slowly stepping inside. Even so, he still felt a bone-chilling cold.

These bodies were frozen, and to avoid contact, they were covered with a protective film, so there was no need to wear protective suits to enter. Furthermore, exorcists don't need to worry too much about contracting diseases through contact; Spiritual Power has purifying properties and is effective against minor illnesses, so this Spiritual Power can be used as a disinfectant.

The moment he entered the storage room, Okita Qishen covered his body with Spiritual Power, but this Spiritual Power did not exempt him from the cold.

He glanced at Yotsuya Miko behind him. While her clothing wasn't exactly thin, large areas of skin were exposed to the cold air. However, Miko showed no signs of discomfort. As she had said, she didn't need any warm clothing. Both the cold-dispelling techniques from the Soul Nourishing Artifact Path Understanding and her own physical constitution were sufficient for her to resist this level of cold.

But glancing at the white mist escaping behind her, she frowned slightly and casually cast a spell.

Under Okita Qishen's astonished gaze, the temperature in the storage room began to rise, quickly returning to the same level as the outside. Before he could marvel at the miraculous display by Miko, his gaze fell upon the corpses. Before he could say anything, voices came from behind him.

"There's no need to worry about those corpses; I simply suppressed the cold air emanating from them."

Yotsuya Miko slowly walked towards the corpses and looked at them.

Upon closer inspection, the remnants of that peculiar Spiritual Power became even more clearly visible. With Zhang Qiudao's knowledge, she quickly identified the characteristics of this spiritual energy.

Blood and qi, and pollution.

These are two relatively common characteristics, or more accurately, characteristics of the spiritual energy of the Demonic Path.

Blood energy means that this type of spiritual energy is suitable for casting spells that require blood as a resource, and it amplifies the effects of such spells. Contamination means that this type of spiritual energy has a corrupting effect on other spiritual energies, weakening their properties. However, the presence of contamination usually also means that this type of spiritual energy is not pure and is very crude.

The lower-level Demonic Path in the Xuanhui Realm mostly cultivate spiritual energy that is corrupted, while those at a slightly higher level possess blood energy. Cultivators who possess both of these characteristics are what are commonly referred to as those who accumulate spiritual energy by killing or absorbing the spiritual energy of others.

Humans are the spirit of heaven and earth, and so are other living beings. Many Demonic Path cultivation techniques involve seizing the essence of heaven and earth to replenish one's body and improve one's cultivation. The reasons behind this are not considered by Demonic Path cultivators; they only know from experience that humans are superior to ordinary birds and beasts, but weaker than those mystical demonic beasts. However, humans are easy to kill, while demonic beasts are difficult to kill, and the gains from birds and beasts are far less than those from humans. Therefore, most demonic cultivators prefer to seize the essence of humans.

According to Zhang Qiudao's later research on this situation, he believed that humans possess intelligence compared to ordinary creatures, and therefore are born with spiritual energy within their bodies. Demonic beasts, being ordinary birds and animals that have developed intelligence, possess even greater spiritual energy. Therefore, humans are superior to ordinary birds and animals, while demonic beasts are superior to humans. The essence of those Demonic Path cultivation techniques is the plundering of spiritual energy within the human body; naturally, they can improve their cultivation through killing. As for ordinary birds and beasts, although they cannot autonomously seize spiritual energy, they accumulate some within their bodies over the years, and killing them will naturally increase their spiritual energy.

The same applies to those who improve by absorbing the spiritual energy of cultivators. The same applies to other similar characteristics.

These thoughts flooded Yotsuya Miko's mind. Looking at the corpse of Tong Sheng Yuanhe, whose spiritual energy was still relatively abundant, she couldn't quite understand how he had managed to cultivate. According to Zhang Qiudao's theory, killing ordinary people was pointless because this world lacked spiritual energy, and therefore mortals didn't possess innate spiritual energy. As for exorcists, perhaps they could be considered exorcists.

It was probably an exorcist who was killed.

Having made that deduction, I stopped thinking about the issue.

She had something more important to do right now: to use the power of the incantation to search through Tong Sheng Yuanhe's corpse for the cultivation technique he had practiced.

Although this kind of cultivation method is utter garbage compared to the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record, it is precisely because the Nine Nether Profound Soul Treasure Record is too mysterious that Yotsuya Miko has been unable to find the opportunity to create a cultivation method from it. But the current Tong Sheng Yuanhe has presented her with an opportunity.

The hand seals activated, and several beams of red, green, black, and purple light shot towards Tong Sheng Yuanhe's corpse at incredible speed, as if trying to make the most of it. Some of these seals followed the trajectory of the spiritual energy, some examined the abnormalities in his internal organs and torso, some went straight for the skull, and some devoured the spiritual energy.

If Tong Sheng Yuanhe's True Spirit hadn't died, and his Soul Body hadn't disappeared, she could have added a few more techniques targeting the Soul Body and True Spirit, and she would have thoroughly investigated Tong Sheng Yuanhe and out.

However, even without Soul Body or True Spirit, his physical body alone is still sufficient.

These spiritual lights gently swept over his entire body, then quickly returned to Yotsuya Miko's body, entering her mind along with a wealth of information.

Ashes... Blood Spiritual Qi... unfamiliar words...

The fragmented memories were initially a chaotic mess, but as the information connected, they pieced together a coherent order. Following these memories, along with other feelings that defied description, Yotsuya Miko finally managed to understand this technique.

After mastering this technique, those fragmented memories completely dissipated from her consciousness, turning into nothingness, so as to prevent them from polluting her original memories and will.

As expected, they killed exorcists to obtain "Blood Spiritual Qi".