The Eerie Zombie
Purple Cloud reached her hand to the root of the Purple Salvia Root and gently poked at it a few times.
Then, following the rootstock, he pierced directly into the rock and soil.
With a strong pull, Purple Cloud pulled out a root that was an inch long, shaped like a ginseng root, and completely black.
At the tail end of the root tuber, dozens of slender rootlets grow, which are wrapped around a white bone.
The bones were extremely thick and robust, clearly the remains of some kind of Demon Beast. When Purple Cloud pulled out the Purple Salvia Root, she pulled the bones out with her.
The dense aura of death that Song Wen sensed originated from this skeleton.
This eased Song Wen's guard considerably.
"Does the Purple Salvia Root grow on corpses?" Song Wen asked, looking at the Purple Salvia Root in Purple Cloud's hand.
Purple Cloud took out the jade box and put away the Purple Salvia Root while replying.
"Yes. Wherever Purple Salvia Root grows, there will always be the skeleton of a Human Race or Demon Beast."
Song Wen and Zhu Yin exchanged a glance; this was information that Purple Cloud had not previously revealed.
Purple Cloud stood up and walked forward.
"Let's go, let's continue deeper."
The cave was deeper and more complex than Song Wen and his companions had imagined, and a fork in the road suddenly appeared in front of them.
"Which way should we go?" Purple Cloud asked.
Looking at the two caves that were almost identical, Zhu Yin said.
"Have your Earth-Drilling Dragon explore both passages. If there's no difference, choose either one."
Purple Cloud nodded, and at her instruction, Earth-Drilling Dragon darted into one of the caves.
Soon after, the Earth-Drilling Dragon returned.
After a brief conversation with Earth-Drilling Dragon, Purple Cloud pointed to the cave passage on the right.
"This passage extends gradually downwards, while the other extends horizontally."
"The one leading down," Song Wen said.
Purple Cloud gave Song Wen a strange look.
"Extreme Yin, going too deep underground, aren't you worried about encountering a fourth-tier golden corpse?"
Song Wen said, "The secret realm will only be open for a month. We don't have much time to waste slowly in these caves."
Purple Cloud looked at Zhu Yin, "Zhu Yin, what's your opinion?"
"I think Extreme Yin is right. Exploring secret realms and searching for spirit medicine, there's no risk involved," Zhu Yin said.
"Alright, then it's your decision," Purple Cloud said.
Earth-Drilling Dragon and Song Wen, both mid-stage third-tier Ghost King, scouted ahead. The three walked side by side, with Zhu Yin's Ghost King behind them.
After traveling another ten miles or so, Zhu Yin suddenly spoke.
"The number of scattered corpses here seems to have increased significantly."
Just as Zhu Yin said, the three of them had not encountered any skeletons before finding the first Purple Salvia Root. But now, almost every one or two miles, a skeleton appears, belonging to both Human Race and Demon Beast.
"Where did these skeletons come from, deep underground? Especially these Human Race skeletons, since there are no original Human Race in the Illusory Spirit Valley Secret Realm. Purple Cloud, could they be cultivators from your sect who explored the secret realm in the past, and unfortunately died here?" Zhu Yin asked.
Purple Cloud shook her head. "These remains don't belong to the Two Forms Sect. The Two Forms Sect discovered this secret realm only a thousand years ago, and has only explored it a dozen times. The total number of cultivators who have perished is less than ten."
"Where did these remains come from?" Zhu Yin asked.
"It must have been left behind by someone who originally cultivated in this secret realm. The air here is thick with the aura of corpses, and the bodies of both Human Race and Demon Beast would stiffen after death, which greatly slowed down the rate of decomposition," Purple Cloud said, expressing her guess.
"Based on your guess, a massacre must have occurred before this secret realm was lost," Zhu Yin said.
Purple Cloud was about to say something when her expression suddenly changed slightly.
"Watch out, there are zombies ahead!"
Immediately, her expression relaxed.
"It was just a Silver Corpse at the Early Third Rank, and it has already been dealt with by my Earth-Drilling Dragon."
The three walked two miles and came across the Copper Corpse that had been dismembered.
The Copper Corpse was extremely strange in appearance, about ten feet tall, with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a horse. What was even more peculiar was that instead of a horse's tail, it had a long snake's tail behind it.
"What kind of creature is this?"
Purple Cloud frowned, her eyes showing a hint of disgust.
After observing for a moment, Song Wen shook his head.
"This is probably not a naturally born creature, but rather one that has been artificially cultivated."
Song Wen made this guess because he had seen artificially bred Man-Snake when he was in the Beast Taming Sect.
Purple Cloud looked puzzled. "How can you be so sure it was cultivated by humans, and not pieced together and refined after death?"
Zhu Yin pointed to the broken horse body of the Copper Corpse and said.
"Look at where its human and horse bodies are joined; the bones have already grown together. This means that it already looked like this when it was alive. Moreover, no one would create a Corpse Puppet that is neither human nor beast. That would only be a waste of resources, and they wouldn't even get a powerful Corpse Puppet."
"But... who would attempt to merge Human Race and Demon Beast into one? What are the benefits of doing so?" Purple Cloud looked puzzled.
"In the library of Limitless Island, there are many ancient books originating from the Nether God Temple. I once saw such a record in one of these books. The Nether God Temple has a place called 'Exotic Beast Pavilion' that specializes in human-beast hybridization," Zhu Yin said.
"Why would they do this?" Purple Cloud asked.
"I don't know, there's no record of it in ancient books," Zhu Yin said.
"Could this be the location of the Nether God Temple's Exotic Beast Pavilion?"
"That's possible."
Song Wen listened to their conversation without interrupting.
He suddenly remembered that he had seen Wraith, a mixture of humans and several kinds of Demon Beast, in the secret realm of the Nether God Temple on Fangzhu Island.
At the time, he thought it was due to the pollution of the ghostly mist that caused the souls of Human Race and Demon Beast to merge.
Now it seems that this is not the case; those Wraith already had that eerie appearance before they were alive.
Therefore, the creation of new creatures by humans was not an innovation of the Beast Taming Sect; the Divine Blood Sect had already done so many years ago.
The Beast Taming Sect cultivates Man-Snake in order to fuse them together to create 'Profound Qi'.
Why does the Divine Blood Sect cultivate new life forms?
"Forget about the Exotic Beast Pavilion, let's hurry up and find the Purple Salvia Root," Zhu Yin said.
Just as Purple Cloud was about to say something, her expression suddenly became somewhat strange, a mixture of surprise and gloom.
"What's wrong?"
Zhu Yin noticed the change in Purple Cloud's expression and asked.
Purple Cloud said, "Earth-Drilling Dragon has discovered another Purple Salvia Root."
Zhu Yin's expression brightened. "Where is it?"
"Come with me." There was a subtle, almost imperceptible unease in Purple Cloud's tone, as if she were somewhat reluctant.
After the three of them had traveled for two miles, they found another Purple Salvia Root in a recess in the cave wall.
This Purple Salvia Root plant has a full six leaves.
"It's actually a 600-year-old Purple Salvia Root!" Zhu Yin exclaimed in a low voice.
She turned to Song Wen, "Extreme Yin, who should take this Purple Salvia Root?"
"Fellow Zhu Yin, you go first," Song Wen said.
"Okay." Zhu Yin nodded without hesitation, stepped forward, and plucked the Purple Salvia Root.
Purple Cloud watched Zhu Yin's actions, a hint of unease flashing across her face.
Although she had an advantage in the order of distribution, the length of time she would receive the Purple Salvia Root miltiorrhiza was entirely up to luck.