The Sixth Councilor's corpse turned to ash on the floor of the main hall in the garrison commander's residence.
The ash was grayish white, the same as the powder left behind after the Third Councilor died.
When death-qi fusion bodies died, they could not leave behind intact corpses—their bodies had long since been more than half replaced by death qi. Once their cores shattered, all that remained were shells hollowed out by death qi.
Two items remained in the pile of ash. The first was a ring.
It was made of black metal, identical to Shen Yuan's.
A name was engraved inside the ring: "Meng Ke." The Sixth Councilor's surname was Meng. Beside the name was a furnace cauldron emblem—he too had come from Medicine King Valley. The same line of tiny words was engraved inside the ring: "Second floor of the Shadow Tower. Third compartment from the right."
The second floor was below the third. His rank was beneath Shen Yuan's.
The second item was a jade slip. Its contents were not a cultivation technique, but a list of names.
There were dozens of names on the list, each marked with "absorption progress."
Some names were marked "completed," others "in progress," followed by the number of years of lifespan. The final name had been crossed out—Ma Qianli.
A number was written after his name: one hundred and fifty. Ma Qianli's lifespan had already had one hundred and fifty years absorbed.
A passage was carved on the back of the jade slip: "Council Chairman's Order: Once the blood sacrifice formation is complete, everyone on the list must be refined within the same two-hour period. Collection must not begin early. Violators will be treated as traitors to the sect."
At the Land God Temple, the Third Councilor had said he was