The Secret of the Flesh and Blood Secret Technique (Part 1)

As he pondered, He Sheng looked toward Ji Yunlai, who lay on the ground.

With Wu Feng already dead, the rope binding Ji Yunlai had loosened somewhat after losing its magical power support. Yet the man no longer showed any signs of life.

He Sheng had no concern for whether this man lived or died. He simply cast a soul-searching technique, intending to obtain answers from Ji Yunlai and determine exactly how many resources this fellow and He Yiyang had taken from the He Family's secret treasury.

Yet something bizarre happened!

He found Ji Yunlai's sea of consciousness utterly empty. There was no divine soul within it at all—only a black insect the size of a fingernail.

He Sheng had followed the guidance of the Vengeful Soul Imprint all the way here. Once his divine sense detected the two men inside the ruined temple, he had swiftly approached using Subtle Ripple Water Escape.

All he had heard along the way was Wu Feng forcing Ji Yunlai to reveal the resources he had secretly stashed away. He had not heard anything about the Soul-Devouring Gu.

However, he had just learned from Wu Feng's memories that Wu Feng had used the Soul-Devouring Gu to control Ji Yunlai, so he immediately realized what had happened.

"Ji Yunlai's divine soul was actually devoured clean by the Soul-Devouring Gu. This insect-gu path truly is wicked!"

It was He Sheng's first time encountering such a situation. There was nothing relevant in Brother Piao's memories either, since Brother Piao had never cultivated soul-path spells in the first place.

A thought stirred in He Sheng's mind. He circulated his magical power to bind the black insect, preparing to extract it and study it.

But something happened that he had never expected!

Splat...

With a soft sound, the magical power He Sheng had sent forth had only just touched the fingernail-sized black insect when the bizarre gu insect burst apart like a waterskin filled with ink.

Immediately afterward, a spray of foul-smelling, ink-black pus and blood splattered out.

The black fluid was extraordinarily corrosive, instantly dissolving Ji Yunlai's sea of consciousness.

Crack!

Ji Yunlai's head exploded from the inside out, bursting apart in an instant. Brain matter and shattered bone mixed with the black fluid and sprayed in every direction.

A curtain of water materialized before He Sheng, blocking all the filth without allowing a single drop to touch him.

But as he looked at the corpse on the ground—thoroughly dead now, its head reduced to mush—He Sheng's expression immediately darkened.

He had originally hoped to search Ji Yunlai's soul to uncover the truth of just how much had been taken from the He Family's secret treasury, as well as locate where the remaining resources had been hidden.

But now, he had drawn water with a bamboo basket—everything had come to nothing.

A perfectly good hundred million in savings had now yielded only one-third, while the rest had vanished without a trace.

Naturally, He Sheng's mood had sunk to rock bottom. Just as he was about to use his magical power to destroy Ji Yunlai's corpse as well, his divine sense sharply caught a trace of something unusual.

At the center of the burst cloud of blood, a tiny speck of light, invisible to the naked eye, had not been completely corroded away by the black water.

"Is this Ji Yunlai's remnant soul?!"

He Sheng's guess was correct. These tiny specks of light were remnants of Ji Yunlai's soul that the Soul-Devouring Gu had not yet had time to fully digest after devouring his divine soul.

But these soul remnants had already been shattered beyond recognition. They clearly could not withstand a soul-searching technique.

"I can't use a soul-searching technique, but if I use these remnant souls to cast the Memory Retracing Art, I should be able to obtain some clues, shouldn't I?"

A sharp glint flashed in He Sheng's eyes. He immediately employed a method he had comprehended while cultivating the Soul Imprint Art—the Memory Retracing Art.

A strand of divine sense enhanced by the Subtle Ripple Intent Realm gently wrapped around that wisp of remnant soul, like a tender current brushing over an ancient weathered scroll, carefully extracting the information lingering within.

A moment later, fragmented scenes emerged within He Sheng's mind.

They were memory fragments from Ji Yunlai's life!

In the scenes, Ji Yunlai killed He Yiyang in the reed marsh, looted his storage pouch, and fled all the way here.

But this portion had no images, only a vague trail of movement. It would need to be compared against the actual terrain to roughly determine how he had traveled from the reed marsh to this place.

More crucially, even if his route in reality could be determined, it would still be difficult to tell where this fellow had stopped along the way, much less where he had hidden the resources.

After all, whether spirit stones or magical artifacts, once placed inside a storage pouch, their spiritual energy fluctuations would be completely isolated. Trying to find a hidden storage pouch along dozens of miles of road was no different from fishing a needle out of the sea.

"However... it's not as though there's no other way!"

A flash of inspiration struck He Sheng. From Brother Piao's memories before his death, he found a theoretically feasible method.

"If I can find a demonic beast with the spiritual ability to seek treasure, and have it search along Ji Yunlai's route from the reed marsh to the ruined temple, it may be possible to find the hidden storage pouch!"

Yet demonic beasts with treasure-seeking abilities were always difficult to find. Those who managed to capture one would raise it like a precious treasure and would not easily make its existence known.

But...

"According to Wu Feng's memories, Xu Qiancheng, the personal guard of Lin Wanrou, the head of the Lower River Branch, is skilled in the art of beast control and keeps several spirit pets.

Among them is a Treasure-Swallowing Snake, capable of seeking spiritual treasures!"

At that thought, a bold plan surfaced in He Sheng's heart.

"Across the Silver Sand River region, the patriarchs of the major Foundation Establishment families are all merely Foundation Establishment Early Stage cultivators.

Lin Wanrou herself is only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage, and Xu Qiancheng is likewise only at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage."

Brother Piao's cultivation had surpassed everyone else's by a notch. That had been the key to why he could act so arrogantly and domineer over the others.

"And now, I'm even a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator. As long as that sword-bearing youth doesn't return to the Silver Sand River, even if all these people join forces, they still won't be able to do anything to me!"

He Sheng was not being arrogant. Rather, through his battle with Wu Feng, he had gained a direct understanding of his own strength.

Take the Transcendent Art he had comprehended earlier, "Water-Gathering Break." He had originally thought this technique was rather useless, but that was only when compared to Foundation Establishment Late Stage cultivators who had already refined embryonic magic treasures.

In truth, a Transcendent Art like "Water-Gathering Break," which could unleash power comparable to a talisman treasure with a mere lift of the hand, was still a devastating killing move against Foundation Establishment Early and Middle Stage cultivators. After all, its might was right there for all to see.

Using the power of an ordinary magic treasure wielded by a Core Formation cultivator as a standard unit of measurement, a talisman treasure was weaker than a fully refined embryonic magic treasure, with most possessing only around fifteen percent of a magic treasure's power.

But one had to know that for Foundation Establishment Early and Middle Stage cultivators, top-grade magic artifacts were their usual means.

Even the strongest offensive top-grade magic artifacts could at most reach around five percent of a magic treasure's power. Defensive top-grade magic artifacts were much the same; they simply could not withstand the bombardment of a talisman treasure.

That was why Wu Feng's defenses had been completely shattered by the first Water-Gathering Break.

It had been nothing but a crushing disparity in power.

And talisman treasures were consumables. Even if ordinary cultivators possessed one, they would treat it as a trump card kept at the bottom of their chest and could not possibly use it repeatedly at will.

"But with my Water-Gathering Break paired with the Thousand Wave Banner, I can use it continuously without interruption. Even firing it off twenty or thirty times in a short period won't be a problem."

He Sheng had used Water-Gathering Break twice on Wu Feng just now, yet it had consumed less than ten percent of his spiritual power.

Thus, taking that battle as a reference, He Sheng felt that he could run rampant through the Silver Sand River.

"The only thing worth worrying about is that sword-bearing youth. But I have Subtle Ripple Water Escape as my hidden trump card. If I truly encounter him, I can simply flee at once.

"So..."

With a thought from He Sheng, his bones and muscles immediately let out faint crackling sounds.

His originally hunched figure and aged face shifted through a series of changes, finally turning into a gaunt, sinister-looking man.

It was precisely Wu Feng's appearance!

Not only did he look exactly the same, but his spiritual power fluctuations had also dropped to Foundation Establishment Early Stage. Even the aura around him was nearly identical to Wu Feng's.

Clearly, He Sheng intended to use Wu Feng's identity to infiltrate the Celestial Sea Commerce Association.

He not only wanted to get his hands on the Treasure-Swallowing Snake in Elder Xu's possession, but also wanted to find out why Lin Wanrou had set up a deadly trap for Brother Piao!

"However, the Flesh Rebirth Art is not such an ingenious disguise technique. At the very least, its aura imitation isn't completely identical, so there is a chance of being exposed."

At that thought, He Sheng looked at the water-clock droplet in his palm.

[Total currently available cultivation time: Five years, five months, and nine days]

[Art]:

[Flesh Rebirth Art (Perfected): 4/500]

(Total cultivation time: One year and thirteen days)

Seeing that he still had more than five years of general cultivation time remaining, He Sheng naturally planned to raise the Flesh Rebirth Art another level or two, making his disguise even more exquisite and leaving no flaws to be found.

Yet after he glanced over the information for the Flesh Rebirth Art, his gaze suddenly froze.

"Something... seems a little different?"