Going All Out

The next evening.

After a full day, Zhou Yan had thoroughly cleaned the entire house. He had thrown away whatever needed to be discarded and burned whatever needed to be burned. He had also prepared the Yin Soil for corpse refining, blood buckets, ritual incense, and everything else. Now all he had to do was wait for the corpse to arrive before he could begin.

With his newly initiated cultivation, refining a Zombie should have been no easy task.

However, the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique was rather mysterious. Even a novice cultivator like Zhou Yan could use it to refine Zombies and command them.

That was the strange quality of unorthodox methods. Although they couldn't compare to the power and completeness of the Orthodox Profound Sects, they succeeded by taking an unconventional path.

Zhou Yan cultivated the Mystic Yin Art, refining Mystic Yin Qi, so the essence blood he condensed was Profound Yin Essence Blood.

His essence blood was especially alluring and beneficial to Zombie-type evil spirits. The final step in refining a Zombie was to cast a spell and send his Profound Yin Essence Blood into its body, establishing final control.

The corpse hadn't arrived yet, so Zhou Yan first cultivated the Mystic Yin Art. His complexion grew increasingly fair, almost like jade.

[Mystic Yin Art proficiency +3]

[Mystic Yin Art proficiency +1]

[Mystic Yin Art proficiency +2]

[...]

After completing one great circulation, his body was ice-cold, hardly seeming like the body of a living person.

The faster he cultivated the Mystic Yin Art and the more Yin Qi he absorbed, the more severe this became.

In other words, the faster his cultivation improved, the more easily his body would break down.

At times like these, he needed nourishment from large quantities of blood-and-qi tonics to lessen the drawbacks.

Note that they lessened them; they didn't eliminate them completely.

The more precious the blood-and-qi tonics, the better their effect.

That was why Taoist Ma had spent decades cultivating yet remained stuck in the Essence Blood Realm. He spent most of his money on replenishing his blood and qi and dispelling corpse qi and Yin Qi. Even the Zombies he refined were only barely usable.

Zhou Yan had discovered this problem not long after beginning his cultivation.

But apart from blood-and-qi tonics, he had another solution: martial arts.

Not the Spring Leg, though.

Martial arts training also required blood and qi. If he practiced an external art like Spring Leg, it would only deplete the blood and qi in his body even more.

Zhou Yan practiced the Five Animal Frolics, a martial art he had brought with him from his previous life that had helped him immensely.

For the past three years, he had relied on the Five Animal Frolics to train his Spring Leg to the Minor Achievement stage.

Now he also relied on the Five Animal Frolics to speed up the recovery of his blood and qi, allowing him to cultivate more often and thereby improve his cultivation.

After these days of training, and after Zhou Yan had spared no expense on medicinal herbs to replenish his blood and qi, he had successfully condensed a third drop of Profound Yin Essence Blood.

The first drop had taken half a day, the second more than a day, and the third two days... It would only take longer and longer to condense each subsequent drop, while his body's strength and resilience would continue to increase.

[Five Animal Frolics proficiency +5]

[Five Animal Frolics proficiency +6]

[Five Animal Frolics proficiency +3]

[...]

Beneath the high-hanging moon, Zhou Yan suddenly paused in the middle of a Five Animal Frolics movement.

The next moment, his movements grew more fluid, as if they had gained a hint of spirit.

The Five Animal Frolics had advanced.

A moment later, Zhou Yan slowly finished his set and summoned the system.

[Name: Zhou Yan]

[Age: 16]

[Cultivation: Essence Blood Realm (Profound Yin Essence Blood: 3)]

[Techniques: Mystic Yin Art (First Layer) (Beginner 57/100)]

[Skills: Cart Pulling (Great Achievement 238/1600), Five Animal Frolics (Minor Achievement 11/800), Spring Leg (Minor Achievement 279/800), Corpse Refining (Beginner 1/100), Corpse Controlling (Beginner 1/100).]

[Items: Soul-Fixing Lamp, Soul-Suppressing Bell, Corpse-Suppressing Stone.]

A faint smile appeared on Zhou Yan's lips. Advancing in the Five Animal Frolics had further accelerated his recovery of blood and qi.

That would not only reduce how many medicinal herbs he used, but also give him more time to cultivate.

What was the secret behind the Heavenly Dao Rewards Diligence System? It was all about grinding.

As long as his body could hold out, he would grind himself into the ground.

Every bout of cultivation brought a clear improvement. That feeling was the most addictive of all.

Why did so many people give up and let themselves go? Ultimately, it was because their effort and reward didn't match. Sometimes, the harder you worked, the more hardship you had to endure.

If effort always brought reward, people from the Rabbit Country would definitely out-grind everyone.

Seeing that Ma Yan still hadn't arrived, Zhou Yan prepared to grind out another session of the Mystic Yin Art.

Just then, a knock sounded at the door.

"It's me."

Ma Yan's voice came from outside.

Zhou Yan hurried over and opened the door. Sure enough, it was Ma Yan, pulling a handcart with a figure completely wrapped up on it.

"Heh, brother-in-law, when did you become a cart driver?" Zhou Yan teased.

Ma Yan pulled the cart into the courtyard and shut the gate before speaking. "I was going to use a flatbed cart, but a handcart was safer, so I brought the corpse over on one. Take a look and see if it'll work."

Zhou Yan stopped joking and quickly carried the corpse into the back room. After removing the outer layer of burlap, he carefully examined it by candlelight.

Ma Yan followed behind and watched as Zhou Yan inspected the corpse with meticulous care.

The grim look on his face, along with the gloomy atmosphere around them, made Ma Yan feel uncomfortable all over.

If the person in front of him weren't his younger brother-in-law and childhood friend, whom he'd watched grow up, Ma Yan would have left immediately.

It was too creepy...

Drawing on the knowledge and experience of corpse refining he'd gained from books, Zhou Yan examined the corpse thoroughly. He confirmed that nothing was missing and that the internal organs still retained some vitality. Clearly, it had been dead for less than three days.

Although it wasn't as good as a top-grade corpse that had been dead for less than a day, it still counted as middle-grade. It was good enough for a beginner like him.

After all, not every corpse could be used to refine a Zombie.

Aside from incomplete corpses, those who had died by suicide or illness couldn't be used to refine Zombies either.

And corpses of people killed by lightning or burned to death were even more taboo.

Some of these restrictions came from the rules of cultivation, while others had practical reasons.

There was no need to discuss incomplete corpses. Corpses of people who had died from illness had been almost completely hollowed out. Even if they were successfully refined, they would be defective.

So Zhou Yan suspected that, over time, corpses of people who had died from illness had simply been discarded.

As a result, very few corpses could be used to refine Zombies.

Moreover, corpses with unusual destinies or birth charts couldn't be used for refining either.

Only after reading through the Profound Yin Corpse Refining Technique several times had Zhou Yan realized just how many taboos and precautions there were when it came to corpse refining.

One careless mistake could lead to failure...