First Corpse Dissection

Song Wen switched to observing another corpse dissector. He remained in the Corpse Dissection Cave until the last corpse dissector had left before departing himself.

According to his observations, each corpse dissector handled roughly one hundred to one hundred and fifty corpses, taking around two to three shichen.

After leaving the Corpse Dissection Cave, Song Wen returned to his Cave Residence No. C-97.

After Wu Sheng, Zhang Xiaofan, and the others received their assignments, the Yin Fiend Hall and Spirit Plant Hall they had joined both provided better cave residences. Thus, they had all moved out of the outer sect disciples' cave residences at the foot of the mountain.

Since the Corpse Dissection Cave was unsuitable for habitation, it did not provide new cave residences for corpse dissectors. Song Wen could only continue living in his original cave residence.

The moment he returned, Song Wen took out the Bone-Slicing Knife and began refining it.

Although the Bone-Slicing Knife was merely a low-grade dharma artifact, the spiritual power within Song Wen's body was simply too weak. It took him several shichen to refine it initially.

Song Wen had wanted to test the Bone-Slicing Knife's power, but refining it had drained every last trace of spiritual power from his body. He could no longer mobilize even a wisp of spiritual power and could only give up.

Rubbing his empty stomach, Song Wen rose and headed for the dining hall for menial disciples.

He had already eaten all the fasting pills issued when he entered the sect, while the monthly stipend from the Corpse Dissection Cave would not be distributed until the end of the month. During this time, Song Wen could only solve his meals at the nearest dining hall for menial disciples.

The number of menial disciples was enormous. There were over a thousand people in the dining hall at the same time as Song Wen.

Menial disciples generally possessed inferior spiritual roots. Their aptitude was too poor, the resources they received were extremely limited, and the cultivation arts they practiced were shallow. For their entire lives, most could only cultivate to the early or middle stages of Qi Refinement, with few able to break through to the late stage of Qi Refinement.

Once a menial disciple broke through to the late stage of Qi Refinement, they would automatically become an outer sect disciple of the Corpse Demon Sect.

This was the goal for which most menial disciples struggled.

When they saw Song Wen enter the dining hall in the blue robes of an outer sect disciple, quite a few menial disciples cast envious looks his way.

The Corpse Demon Sect was, after all, a cultivation sect. Though menial disciples were not valued by the sect, their meals were still fairly good.

After eating three large bowls of rice and a large platter of meat, Song Wen left the dining hall in satisfaction.

With fasting pills to eat these past days, Song Wen had not noticed it. Only now did he realize that ever since cultivating the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art, his appetite had grown considerably, nearly equal to that of several grown men.

After eating his fill, Song Wen returned to his cave residence and began meditating to restore his spiritual power and cultivation.

The next day, at the Corpse Dissection Cave.

Song Wen, who had cultivated throughout the night, arrived at the Corpse Dissection Cave early.

When he arrived, only one corpse dissector had come. Yuan Cheng was distributing corpses to that corpse dissector.

Seeing Song Wen arrive, Yuan Cheng said,

"Today is your first day dissecting corpses. I'll give you fifty corpses to get some practice. Tomorrow, one hundred. The day after that, you'll be the same as the other corpse dissectors. Do you have any objections?"

Song Wen cupped his fists and said, "Thank you for your consideration, Senior Brother Yuan. I have no objections."

Yuan Cheng nodded and handed Song Wen four storage pouches.

Having watched the day before, Song Wen knew that one of the four storage pouches held corpses, while the other three were for storing the bones, flesh and blood, and internal organs after dissection.

"Go to Corpse Dissection Platform No. 73. No one is using that platform."

Song Wen cupped his fists in thanks again, then carried the storage pouches to Corpse Dissection Platform No. 73.

He placed all four storage pouches on the platform and removed the first corpse from one of them.

It was the corpse of a man under twenty, likely a Rogue Cultivator.

Song Wen stared at the male corpse on the platform and silently recited in his heart,

"I'm sorry. If you must blame someone, blame this man-eating cultivation world, where even your corpse cannot rest in peace after death. I hope you are reborn into a world without cultivators in your next life."

Yet Song Wen could not be certain that the man even had another life, because there was a high chance that his soul had been collected by the demonic cultivator who killed him.

Song Wen steadied himself and cast aside all feelings of reluctance and pity. He repeatedly warned himself that if he wanted to survive, he had to be cold-blooded and ruthless enough.

Following the corpse dissection procedure he had watched the day before, Song Wen first removed the corpse's clothing.

However, he had overestimated his control over the Bone-Slicing Knife.

Although refining the Bone-Slicing Knife had greatly improved his control over it, his use of the blade was still far from the old corpse dissectors' proficiency.

With every cut, he either used too much force or too little.

In some places, he pierced the corpse's flesh, while in others, he failed to cut through the clothing.

After finally removing the clothes, Song Wen began peeling away the skin and flesh from the head.

After a series of exceedingly clumsy movements, it took Song Wen a full two ke to barely finish dissecting the corpse.

However, the corpse he had dissected was nowhere near as thoroughly separated into bone and flesh as those handled by the other corpse dissectors.

Considerable flesh still clung to the bones he had separated, the internal organs had been badly damaged, and he had even accidentally chopped several bones in two when his mind wandered.

Though there had been many flaws in the dissection process, he had ultimately persevered and finished dissecting the corpse.

Several times, he had wanted to give up out of reluctance. Several times, nausea rose in his throat and he nearly vomited, but he forcibly suppressed it all.

Several times, his body had even begun devouring the corpse's essence blood, but he had forcibly stopped it each time.

His physical body's devouring of others' essence blood could be controlled; he had known this for a long time. When he devoured the essence blood from the corpses of Dog Lord and the other two, he had already tested it. Otherwise, he would not have dared apply to become a corpse dissector.

If every corpse that came into his hands turned into a shriveled husk drained of all essence blood, it would certainly attract the attention of the Corpse Demon Sect's higher-ups. At that point, he would most likely be sliced apart for study.

Without resting in the slightest, Song Wen immediately took out the second corpse.

This was the corpse of an adult woman.

Removing the clothes, peeling the head, stripping away the flesh...

With the experience from the first corpse, he was much faster in dissecting this one. In a little over one ke, Song Wen had finished dissecting it.

It took Song Wen more than six shichen to finish dissecting all fifty corpses.

By the time he had finished dissecting them, the spiritual power in his body had long since been exhausted. He had relied entirely on his physical strength to dissect the corpses, and his hands and feet now ached unbearably.

His greatest exhaustion was not physical, but mental.

Dissecting corpses greatly consumed his mental energy, and he also had to forcibly suppress the discomfort in his heart. This drained his mind at an extremely rapid pace.

Song Wen felt as though even his thoughts had become sluggish.

Carrying the four storage pouches holding the separated corpse parts, he slowly walked to the cave at the entrance.

"Senior Brother Yuan, I'm here to turn in today's corpses," Song Wen said wearily.

Yuan Cheng took the storage pouches, sent his spiritual sense inside to inspect them, and said,

"Extreme Yin, not bad. You were born to be a demonic cultivator. Go back and rest well. Tomorrow, the number of corpses you dissect will double."

By then, all the corpse dissectors in the Corpse Dissection Cave had already left. Song Wen did not say anything more, merely cupped his fists and took his leave.