He Ping's mind raced. He guessed that before his death, Chixinzi had instructed Cheng Zhi to go to the Narcissus Cave Abode to seize the < Seed Demon Technique > technique. No, there might have been some other conspiracy. Chixinzi himself stayed behind to stop He Ping, just to buy time for Cheng Zhi.
"No matter what schemes Chixinzi has plotted, I only need to find Cheng Zhi to thwart them all..."
He stood up, his sleeves fluttering, and the iron chains on the coffin made a cracking sound as the broken pieces of chain fell to the ground.
The next second, the coffin lid, covered with densely packed exorcising runes, shattered with a deafening roar. As wood chips and fragments flew everywhere, a strong aura of death rushed towards us. Even stronger than this aura was an aura filled with resentment, abnormal frenzy, and utter evil.
In an instant, a shadow from the coffin, like a ghost, rushed toward He Ping's position with the speed of an arrow.
"Stop!"
He Ping shouted sharply, and the eerie figure stopped, standing motionless in place.
This is a female corpse, a female corpse that has transformed into a corpse demon. Her body is covered with blood-red downy hair, which is very fine and each hair is particularly obvious, giving people the illusion that the skin will pierce through it if touched.
The female corpse's face was grotesque. She was a beauty in life, but after death, her original stunning beauty lost its vitality and charm. Her oval face became wrinkled and had a strange blackish-red tinge.
This is Cheng Yujiao's corpse. She has been in the "Red Sheep Soil" for hundreds of days, transforming into a Crimson Baleful Corpse.
Cheng Yujiao's eyelids drooped and closed. On either side of her temples on her forehead, two bone-like horns grew, radiating a dark luster, a kind of captivating blackness.
"As expected, it became a Crimson Corpse. My luck is really good. Generally speaking, it takes more than ten years to refine a top-quality corpse into a Crimson Baleful Corpse. This time, I can say that I got it very easily and got a great deal!"
A hint of satisfaction also appeared in He Ping's eyes.
The Immortal Puppet Sect's techniques are mainly based on puppets. Corpse Puppet belong to the category of "flesh puppets." Corpse refining techniques belong to the miscellaneous schools of Outer Dao sects, so he naturally had not learned them. He only obtained some methods of corpse refining from the strange "Life Stealing Technique" in the black umbrella.
"I just picked up a corpse at random, buried it somewhere, and it turned into this form. Should I say I'm too talented, or that the corpse was of exceptionally high quality?"
He Ping gave a slightly self-deprecating laugh, then quickly shook his head and tried to issue a simple command through the Blood Talisman implanted in Cheng Yujiao's body.
His knowledge of corpse control techniques was very rudimentary; at most, he could only convey some simple requests to this Crimson Baleful Corpse.
Of course, as a successor of the Immortal Puppet Sect, he had no interest in the profession of corpse refining. This Cheng Yujiao was nothing more than a Crimson Baleful Corpse, and might not be as good as the puppets in his hands.
Suddenly, Cheng Yujiao's eyes snapped open.
In the blink of an eye, a black light flashed in those empty eyes, and the pupils turned completely black, with almost no whites visible.
The Crimson Corpse Cheng Yujiao stiffly turned its neck, its gaze briefly meeting his before turning away. With a slight movement, it leaped several feet away, speeding towards a certain direction in the maze-like underground passageway.
" Cheng Yujiao was killed by her younger brother, Cheng Zhi. She was filled with resentment before her death, and this resentment had become a lingering obsession. Once an ordinary person's corpse becomes a corpse demon, it will seek out and kill its closest relatives after it transforms into a zombie."
He Ping watched Cheng Yujiao's rapidly departing figure and knew that this was the instinct of the Crimson Baleful Corpse. After the Corpse Fiend died, it lost its three souls and would naturally seek out living beings with living souls to feed on their Blood Qi and energy. Compared to other living beings, the Corpse Fiend's relatives had a natural attraction to them because of their similar bloodlines.
"I planted a Blood Talisman using the ' Eight Element Bone Locking Method Technique.' As long as Cheng Yujiao can sense Cheng Zhi, I can find him... No matter what Chixinzi's plans are, he can't escape my control."
He Ping gave a cold laugh, then looked down at Chixinzi's corpse.
"There was nothing on my senior brother's body. However, once a member of our Immortal Puppet Sect has achieved a certain level of cultivation and mastered the Body-Shifting Curse, one of the three forbidden Secret Method, they can transfer their personal belongings into their shadow."
He examined the corpse again and found that some parts of the body had been modified, such as the heart, lungs, hands and feet, which proved that the corpse was very likely to belong to Chixinzi.
"Let's leave it here for now and recycle it later!"
He Ping threw a " Puppet Eye Spirit Orb " next to the corpse, and then summoned Paper Doll Spirit Puppet and Paper Sedan from his shadow. He got into the sedan chair and focused on sensing the location of the Crimson Baleful Corpse Cheng Yujiao. He then directed the paper puppets carrying the sedan chair to follow behind and quickly catch up.
Under Cheng Zhi's control, the red-armored centipede traversed the maze-like, damp tunnels. After flying for an unknown amount of time, a light appeared at the exit ahead. Passing through it, the view suddenly opened up, and they arrived at a huge and spacious cave.
The world before my eyes changed completely; the underground world, with its countless branching passages, transformed into a different landscape.
"Palace...?"
The woman in red was speechless, staring wide-eyed at the scene before her. The cave was exceptionally large, with a very deep bottom, as if it had been hollowed out to form a huge lake.
"Is this a large lake formed by the convergence of underground rivers?"
Cheng Zhi also looked down, and he was secretly shocked. In the center of the lake was a piece of land, like an island. On the island stood exceptionally tall stone pillars and some broken walls and ruins, especially the palace ruins in the center, with golden tiles on the roof, vermilion pillars and white walls, with an extraordinary aura.
"According to the inscription on that stone tablet, this palace should be the place where the narcissus described in it cultivated herself. So where is the ' Tongji Platform '?"
Cheng Zhi skillfully guided the Red-Armored Giant Centipede towards the center of the lake.
"Aaaaaah..."
Just then, the woman in red suddenly screamed.
What are those?
Cheng Zhi heard her voice and followed the direction she pointed. Right ahead, amidst the rubble and ruins of that land, wet, fin-like feet appeared, followed by an upper body covered in scales...
"... Another merman?"
He frowned.
"We've encountered so many of these trash along the way. They're weak but numerous, and they're incredibly annoying."
"What should we do? These fishmen seem to have weapons...?"
The woman in red uttered a faint, hesitant sound. Her worries were not unfounded; the fish-men on the island in the middle of the lake were covered in scales and clad in heavy armor. Their fin-like hands, with indistinct finger shapes, held a harpoon, an axe, and a spear, respectively.
They have huge fish heads, walk on the ground on two legs, and have emotionless, wide-open pores on both sides of their heads.
The fish-men's bizarre appearance is repulsive. These alien, half-human, half-fish creatures are covered in slime and are hostile to outsiders, launching irrational and frenzied attacks.
"Roll!"
With a wave of his hand, Cheng Zhi's sleeves moved without wind, and with a "whoosh," a stream of air swirled out, sending out a swirling blade of energy that tore apart the group of fishmen who were trying to intercept him, their blood and brains spilling out, and they died on the spot.
The red-armored centipede also shook its large mandibles and rammed into the remaining mermen. Its legs flew and its jaws snapped, tearing a rift in the ranks in the blink of an eye.
"Hehehe, even if my strength hasn't fully recovered, I'm still not someone you beastly fools can handle!"
Cheng Zhi couldn't help but want to look up at the sky. Unlike his previous decaying and withered body, this new body was so vibrant and full of life, as if his years of chronic illness had been swept away.
'No, it's just an illusion.'
He calmed down again, realizing that the flaws in his own cultivation technique had not yet been resolved. How could the " Five Oaths of the Puppet Sect " of the Immortal Puppet Sect be dealt with so easily? If changing to a new body could solve this problem, wouldn't the Immortal Puppet Sect's "Gu Refining" strategy become a laughing stock?
The " Five Oaths of the Puppet Sect" cannot be broken by conventional means. Simply changing bodies is useless because the power of the Five Oaths penetrates to the very marrow and reaches the most essential level of the soul. Merely changing the physical body cannot break the Five Oaths of the Puppet Sect.
Cheng Zhi looked at his right hand and clenched his fist slightly.
"However, changing bodies might be enough to deceive the ' Five Oaths of the Puppet Sect ' for a short time, but that's still not enough unless one can obtain a celestial body at the Dao Entry level or above..."
Cheng Zhi seemed to realize something, and a glint of excitement flashed in his eyes. He then continued to urge the Red-Armored Giant Centipede forward.
The giant centipede puppet, carrying the fishman behind it, arrived at the palace ruins, where a towering platform made of white jade-like stone stood.
On the high platform coiled a colossal creature covered in jet-black scales, shaped like a dragon. This creature was over a thousand meters long, with four claws on its belly and a single horn on its head.
This is a dragon. This terrifying creature exudes a horrifying aura. Its undulating body is wrapped around the nine-story platform. In its dragon-head-like mouth is an amber-colored egg-shaped object, which resembles a frog egg and is covered in mucus. Inside the egg is a humanoid creature covered in scales.
"Found it... A born immortal embryo, with nine orifices of true spirit, the Lower Origin Cave Yin Lineage truly harbors such a jade of immortality."
Cheng Zhi's gaze sharpened slightly, his emotions churning like a raging storm.
"Only this thing, only this thing can allow me to break the Five Oaths of the Puppet Sect. By using the bloodline of the Cheng Family, I can get close to this immortal embryo, then imprint my own will into it, forming a mark, and thus take over this innate immortal embryo."
The innate true spirit born with nine orifices is a strange existence. From ancient legends, it has been the best choice for seizing a body for rebirth or refining an avatar. As long as one obtains a celestial embryo, successfully seizes a body, and refines it, one can become a genuine True Person immortal simply by breaking out of the womb.
Moreover, being born with a divine nature grants them immense advantages in cultivation. They will not encounter any bottlenecks in cultivating any Daoist method, and can even completely ignore Curse and taboos arising from the evolution of the Heavenly Dao.
"As long as I seize the Immortal Embryo, even if I force my way into the world, I can instantly advance to the Dao-entering level, and become one of the strongest among those at the Dao-entering level. If I then find the first part of the < Seed Demon Technique > hidden on this ' Tongji Platform ', it's not a fantasy for me to step into the Manifestation Realm!"
Thinking of this, " Cheng Zhi " was so excited he almost trembled. He had planned for so long, even abandoning his original body, all for this day!
Suddenly, a sharp whistling sound came from the atmosphere, and it seemed as if a gale was raging on the horizon, whipping up a red whirlwind. In an instant, there was a whoosh, and a red figure, like a crimson lightning bolt, pounced on " Cheng Zhi " on the Red-Armored Giant Centipede from afar.
" Cheng Yujiao!"
Cheng Zhi was startled, his face filled with disbelief. He never expected Cheng Yujiao to appear at this crucial moment!