So, in the Cultivation Alliance, those mighty cultivators would pay an enormous price to obtain a member of the Giant Devil Race as a mount.
If he could get a powerful member of the Giant Devil Race to serve as his mount, it would naturally bring Luo Chuan nothing but benefits.
After all, he still had to go to the Immortal World. Without something like the Star Compass, crossing the Rain Immortal World was practically impossible.
Even experts in the Yingbian Realm would struggle to make it across. The slightest misstep could leave them reduced to a wandering soul, their life and cultivation snuffed out.
"Looks like I really do have to visit the Corpse Yin Sect. I can't free that fellow just yet, but taking some of his blood to increase my strength will be enough."
Luo Chuan stood with one hand behind his back, turned toward the Corpse Yin Sect, and vanished in an instant.
The Corpse Yin Sect lay southwest of the Zhao Kingdom. Because of the nature of its cultivation, the area around the sect was bitterly cold. The land within a hundred miles of its borders was a wild, barren place, devoid of life and littered with skeletal remains.
Luo Chuan had long since grown accustomed to such sights. Given the nature of the Corpse Yin Sect, no living thing could survive within a hundred miles of it.
Blood-seeping chains hung from the eaves, moaning when the wind blew, like the wails of restless ghosts.
The hall's doors had been cast from a single slab of black iron. Twisted runes carved into them glimmered with a dim red light. Shadowy figures seemed to shift behind the doors, but not a single voice could be heard—only deathly silence.
Now and then, a black paper kite skimmed over the roof, trailing a long tail of ash as it flickered in and out of sight amid the purple mist, like a guide from the underworld.
Looking at the Corpse Yin Sect before him, Luo Chuan said coolly, "Since you know I'm coming, why haven't you hurried out to welcome me?"
As his voice fell, the entire Corpse Yin Sect shuddered. A moment later, Wu Yu flew out and bowed respectfully before Luo Chuan.
"This junior Wu Yu pays his respects to Senior Luo Chuan!"
Luo Chuan glanced around but saw no sign of Ye Zizai. Calmly, he asked, "I remember Ye Zizai was the Corpse Yin Sect's sect master. Where is he?"
Wu Yu cupped his hands and replied, "To answer Senior, Senior Brother Ye Zizai has already perished. He couldn't come out to welcome you."
"Oh?" Luo Chuan raised an eyebrow and looked at Wu Yu with some curiosity. "Perished? Could it be that you killed Ye Zizai?"
Wu Yu made no attempt to hide it and nodded. "That's right. My senior brother wanted nothing more than for me to die at the hands of a Corpse Puppet. After I returned and went into seclusion to cultivate, he kept guarding against me at every turn. He even joined forces with the Corpse Puppet in an attempt to kill this junior."
"By chance, I obtained a Deity-level treasure back then. With it, I managed to kill the Flying Rakshasa and seriously wound Ye Zizai."
Luo Chuan settled smoothly onto the ground. He shrugged and glanced at Wu Yu, who had already broken through to the late Nascent Soul Realm, as if he had guessed what happened.
"So you absorbed Ye Zizai's spiritual power and broke through to the late Nascent Soul Realm, right?"
Wu Yu nodded awkwardly. He didn't feel he had done anything wrong; instead, he was relieved to still be alive.
After all, this was the cultivation world. Forget senior and junior brothers—even blood brothers could turn against each other over a treasure or cultivation resources.
This sort of thing was all too familiar.
So Wu Yu didn't think he had done anything wrong. He had simply followed his instincts and killed Senior Brother Ye Zizai, who had tried to take his life.
Luo Chuan said indifferently, "There's something in your Corpse Yin Sect that I've taken a liking to. If you don't want your sect wiped out, don't stand in my way. Otherwise, you die."
Wu Yu's face turned ashen. He had even less idea why Luo Chuan had come to the Corpse Yin Sect. Though the sect had abundant resources, there couldn't be many things there that would interest a Spirit Severing expert.
Luo Chuan paid no mind to Ye Zizai's death. He soon reached the secret chamber where Wang Lin had once cultivated. The temperature there was plummeting rapidly, as if cultivators who practiced there could double their results with half the effort.
A cultivator sat cross-legged inside the secret chamber, apparently practicing.
The cultivator was a woman of unremarkable appearance, but her face was set with determination as she continuously absorbed the bitterly cold energy streaming from countless tiny holes in the surrounding walls.
Wu Yu came in as well and asked, even more confused, "Senior, this is a room where my sect's disciples cultivate. What could there be here that you want?"
Luo Chuan cast a cool glance at Wu Yu, the Corpse Yin Sect's sect master, standing beside him.
Even that ordinary look made Wu Yu, a Nascent Soul cultivator, feel as if his body were being torn apart.
It seemed his Nascent Soul might burst apart at any moment.
Was this the true power of a Spirit Severing expert?
It was terrifying beyond belief!
Wu Yu silently retreated to one side and said no more. All the resources within the Corpse Yin Sect were already in his possession, so he wasn't worried that Luo Chuan would simply demand them.
As for the whereabouts of the powerful member of the Giant Devil Race, it had to be in one of the holes in the secret chamber before them.
Luo Chuan sent his body into a hole. He had barely ventured inside when a plea came from the depths below.
"Save me... please, save me!"
As the sudden cry rang out, Luo Chuan felt a tearing pain in his soul. The plea echoed ceaselessly through his mind.
Luo Chuan twitched his right index finger. A ball of golden spiritual energy sprang from its tip and, under his control, transformed into a barrier that wrapped around him, preventing the voice from harming him.
Under Wu Yu's watch, Luo Chuan appeared out of thin air inside a crystal cavern. Countless tiny holes riddled its walls.
A bitter chill poured from every one of them, as if to stop anyone from entering and interfering with the Corpse Yin Sect's plans.
"Save me..."
Just then, the voice rang out again, louder than before, as if it came from right beside his ear.
Luo Chuan stopped and gazed calmly below. With the divine sense of a mid-stage Spirit Severing cultivator, he could see clearly what was hidden within.
The tiny hole opened into a peculiar space. At its very center stood an enormous ancient tree, its trunk a deep blue. Countless vines, thicker than a person's arm, completely covered the space.
At the very center of the vines, a giant with an iron-blue body lay motionless.
The vines coiled around him, continuously draining his energy and leaving him utterly weak, as if he could perish there at any moment.