The Eerie Female Corpse

Holding the jade bottle, he sensed the pure, flawless blood essence within.

Song Wen was very satisfied.

This was the only way he could currently think of to earn Spirit Stones quickly.

Yesterday, at the market, Song Wen had noticed that refined blood essence sold for a considerable price.

The blood essence he had forced out was pure and singular, without the slightest impurity or mottled aura. No matter who examined it, they would assume it was the result of completely refining the blood essence of a righteous cultivator at Late Qi Refinement.

Song Wen estimated that if he set up a stall at the market, this half-bottle of blood essence could sell for at least eighty to a hundred Spirit Stones.

Putting away the jade bottle, Song Wen took out the Corpse-Baleful Qi he had bought yesterday, swallowed a Corpse Blood Pill, and began cultivating the Corpse King Blood Refinement Art.

As for the Soul-Banishing Technique, he planned to cultivate it only after the soul fragments in his Sea of Consciousness once again neared saturation.

In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. With ample vital energy and blood, Corpse-Baleful Qi, and the aid of Corpse Blood Pills, Song Wen's cultivation advanced at a remarkable pace. His cultivation had now entered the middle stage of the Qi Refining Second Layer.

Such cultivation speed would have counted as a meteoric rise even in the demonic path, where early progress was famously swift.

Over these ten-odd days, Song Wen had continuously stolen blood essence from the Corpse Dissection Cave. However, he no longer dared devour it in great quantities as he had on the first day. Each day, he kept his vital energy and blood within a range he could freely control.

Even so, he had already condensed three full bottles of blood essence.

He intended to go to the market after finishing today's corpse dissection and quietly dispose of those three bottles.

At the third quarter of the Shen hour, Song Wen finished today's corpse dissection. Carrying the proceeds, he went to Yuan Cheng's cave.

After handing over the storage pouch, he was about to leave when Yuan Cheng called him back.

"Extreme Yin, wait a moment."

"Senior Brother Yuan, what are your instructions?"

Song Wen had no choice but to stop. He put on a respectful smile and spoke.

"I have a corpse here that needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Junior Brother Extreme Yin, trouble yourself to dismember this corpse first."

As he spoke, Yuan Cheng handed him a storage pouch.

Though Song Wen was unwilling, he did not dare show it.

A man had to bow his head beneath another's eaves!

He nodded with a smile. "No problem, Senior Brother Yuan."

Song Wen accepted the storage pouch and turned toward the Dissection Platform.

"Junior Brother Extreme Yin, be careful and thorough when dissecting this corpse."

Yuan Cheng's voice sounded from behind Song Wen. Song Wen suddenly felt that he had agreed too quickly. It seemed he had overlooked something important.

If it were an ordinary corpse, Yuan Cheng would not be in such a hurry to have it dissected today. It could have waited until tomorrow.

If it had to be dissected today, that meant something unexpected might happen if it were left until tomorrow.

But what could possibly happen to a corpse?

Could it rise from the dead?

Even if it did, what waves could a freshly transformed corpse possibly stir up within the Corpse Demon Sect, where people specialized in playing with corpses?

Song Wen could not figure out the reason. He could only turn back and look at Yuan Cheng in confusion.

Yet Yuan Cheng said nothing more. He had already closed his eyes and begun meditating in his cave, as though that warning had not come from him at all, utterly unconcerned with Song Wen's movements.

Seeing that Yuan Cheng was unwilling to say more, Song Wen could only continue toward the Dissection Platform with unease in his heart. Still, inwardly, he had become wary of this corpse.

At the same time, he felt somewhat annoyed. If he had not been the last person to finish dissecting corpses, Yuan Cheng would not have seized upon him to dissect this one.

Song Wen did not immediately open the storage pouch. Instead, he took out a pair of leather gloves and a leather apron from his own storage pouch.

These were lessons he had learned from nearly two months of work in the Corpse Dissection Cave.

When dismembering certain particular corpses, some of the older corpse dissectors would wear gloves and aprons as protection. Some even wore gloves and protective gear at the artifact level.

Artifact-level gloves and protective gear were beyond Song Wen's means, so he could only make do with leather ones.

Even if he sold those three bottles of blood essence and could afford the lowest-grade artifact gloves and protective gear, he would not dare buy them. Otherwise, he would certainly draw attention.

He was a newcomer with no one to rely on, and it had been less than three months since he entered the sect. Where would he have gotten the Spirit Stones to buy artifacts?

Wealth should not be displayed, and words should not reveal one's true form!

This was the foremost rule of survival Song Wen had set for himself in this dangerous world.

When he saw the corpse that had appeared on the Dissection Platform, Song Wen did not begin dissection immediately. Instead, he carefully observed it.

The owner of this corpse had been an old woman. She appeared to have been extremely advanced in years, her body somewhat hunched, the wrinkles on her skin deeply pronounced. She looked like the corpse of an ordinary elder who had died of old age.

The corpse was covered in a great deal of water. It had come from melted ice crystals, and scattered unmelted ice crystals still remained on the body.

The fatal wound was on the back of her head. There was a hole as wide as a bowl there, as though someone had shattered her skull with a single claw strike.

Within the hole at the back of her head were also many ice crystals that had yet to melt completely.

Clearly, she had been frozen with an ice-element spell after being killed.

Since her killer had already slain her, why waste spiritual power freezing her corpse?

This question could not help surfacing in Song Wen's mind.

If the old woman had been subjected to a freezing spell while alive, the ice crystals would certainly not have appeared inside the hole at the back of her head. They would only have appeared on the surface of her body.

Song Wen took out his Bone-Slicing Knife and cautiously cut open the old woman's clothes.

The seemingly thin ice crystals on the corpse were extraordinarily sturdy, causing Song Wen immense resistance.

Following the areas that had already thawed, Song Wen struggled to cut open the clothes before peeling them off.

Could these ice crystals have been left behind by a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator? Song Wen thought in shock.

A small, gaunt corpse, little more than skin and bones and utterly bloodless, appeared before him. It closely resembled the body of an elderly person who had suffered long-term hunger and severe malnutrition.

Of course, Song Wen would never believe that someone killed by a Foundation Establishment Realm powerhouse had gone hungry.

The old woman's body was more like one that had been drained of blood essence by something over a long period, leaving her severely deficient in vital energy and blood.

There were not many ice crystals on the corpse, nor were they joined together in sheets. Song Wen could still find gaps between them and dissect the body.

However, the corpse had been frozen rigid by the low temperature. Moreover, the old woman had possessed an extremely high cultivation level in life—Song Wen estimated she had been a Foundation Establishment Realm powerhouse—and the corpse itself was exceptionally tough. All this greatly increased the difficulty of dissecting it.

By rights, this corpse should have been superb material for refining a Corpse Puppet. Yet for some unknown reason, it had been sent to the Corpse Dissection Cave to be dismembered for blood essence.

Song Wen found this rather difficult to understand.

"If only I could refine this corpse into a Corpse Puppet."

After obtaining the Ghost Corpse Technique, he had yet to find a suitable corpse to refine into a Corpse Puppet. Now, having to dismember such an excellent corpse, he could not help feeling regretful.

However, Song Wen, whose cultivation was only at the Qi Refining Second Layer, knew exactly how much he was worth. The decisions of the Corpse Demon Sect's upper ranks were not his to speculate upon. He only needed to follow orders and dissect the corpse.

Given all the abnormalities of this corpse, Song Wen did not dare devour its blood essence. He began the dissection with the utmost caution, hoping only that no accident would occur.