Withered Blood Secret Realm
After investigating the Corpse Dissection Cave for three days without finding anything, the Law Enforcement Hall withdrew from the Corpse Dissection Cave.
As for whether anyone was secretly investigating, Song Wen had no idea.
He had been strolling around the market every day for the past few days, but he hadn't noticed any law enforcement teams investigating there.
However, he did not sell the Essence Blood in large quantities, but rather sold it in small quantities, one or two bottles at a time.
A month later, after confirming that no one was investigating the matter, Song Wen resumed his previous actions.
However, he is now much more careful and cautious every time he sells his Essence Blood. Each time he sells his Essence Blood, he has to go to several shops, change his aura and disguise himself with different appearances.
Time flies, and it has been six years since Song Wen came to the Corpse Demon Sect.
In recent years, Song Wen has basically never left the sect's territory.
He always accepted the sect's annual missions, which could be completed with Spirit Stone.
Last year, he had an opportunity to switch jobs, but he chose to stay in the Corpse Dissection Cave.
That day, Song Wen left his cave abode early in the morning, but instead of going to the Corpse Dissection Cave, he went to the plaza outside the main hall of the sect, located at the top of Corpse Demon Mountain.
This was Song Wen's first time visiting the main hall of the sect.
The main hall is the face of the Corpse Demon Sect, so it is naturally magnificent and grand. As an outer disciple, Song Wen is not usually qualified to go up to the main hall on the mountaintop.
Today, he came to the plaza outside the main hall because the Withered Blood Secret Realm, located in the southwest of the Vast Azure Mountain Range, is about to open.
The Withered Blood Secret Realm is jointly controlled by the Corpse Demon Sect, the Mysterious Yin Sect, and the Crimson Blood Gate, and it opens once every thirty years.
The Withered Blood Secret Realm only allows Qi Refinement cultivators to enter, and most of the spirit medicine growing there are first-tier spirit medicine needed by Qi Refinement cultivators, but there are also a small number of extremely rare second-tier spirit medicine.
For example, two of the three main ingredients needed to refine the Foundation Establishment, the Heavenly Spirit Fruit and the Jade Marrow Fungus, can grow in the Withered Blood Secret Realm.
It is precisely because of the existence of the Heavenly Spirit Fruit and Jade Marrow Fungus that the three major sects attach great importance to the opening of the Withered Blood Secret Realm each time, since Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators are the cornerstone of each sect.
The Withered Blood Secret Realm does not limit the number of cultivators who can enter. However, to ensure the sustainability of spirit medicine spiritual herbs obtained from the Withered Blood Secret Realm and to prevent over-harvesting and depletion of the herbs, the three major sects have agreed that each sect can send a maximum of one hundred people into the realm each time it opens.
Song Wen wanted to enter the Withered Blood Secret Realm in order to obtain the Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
In order to deal with the danger from Shi Shou, Song Wen has been frantically stealing Essence Blood from the Corpse Dissection Cave for the past few years, exchanging it for a large amount of cultivation resources to enhance his own cultivation.
Six months ago, Song Wen used a large number of wandering remnant souls in the Devouring Corpse Dissection Cave and occasionally went to the market to buy cultivators' souls to cultivate the <Soul-Banishing Technique>.
To his great surprise, his spiritual power broke through the shackles of the Qi Refining Stage that had bound him for a year, and directly transformed into the Divine Sense that only Foundation Establishment cultivators possess.
His cultivation level also advanced rapidly due to the abundance of Spirit Stone, pills, Corpse-Baleful Qi, and his own plentiful Essence Blood.
Eight months ago, Song Wen consumed the Snake-Scale Fruit obtained from an underground cave in the Ancient Battlefield, successfully breaking through to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer. After eight months of tempering, his cultivation has reached the peak of the Qi Refining Ninth Layer, also known as the Great Perfection of Qi Refinement, just one step away from Foundation Establishment.
But this step is an insurmountable chasm, not so easy to cross.
In order to survive under Shi Shou's threat, Song Wen must complete his Foundation Establishment as soon as possible.
Song Wen now possesses the Divine Sense of Foundation Establishment cultivator, but his cultivation level has not yet broken through, making him equivalent to half a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator. Clearly, he is no match for Shi Shou.
The simplest way to quickly Foundation Establishment is naturally to take Foundation Establishment.
Generally speaking, a Qi Refinement Refining Perfection cultivator like Song Wen, who is only twenty years old and whose essence, energy, and spirit are at their peak, has a very high chance of successfully Foundation Establishment after taking the Foundation Establishment, at least more than 50%.
As people age, their vital energy gradually declines, especially after the age of forty, when the decline becomes particularly noticeable, significantly reducing the chances of successfully Foundation Establishment.
It is a consensus in the cultivation world that after the age of sixty, there is almost no possibility of Foundation Establishment.
This is why major sects are scrambling to recruit talented disciples; the younger one is when they reach the Qi Refinement Perfection, the greater their chances of Foundation Establishment.
As early as a year ago, Song Wen began inquiring about the whereabouts of the Foundation Establishment.
Given his status as an outer disciple and the fact that his cultivation level was only at the Qi Refining Fifth Layer, there was absolutely no way he could have obtained Foundation Establishment from the sect.
After making inquiries, he discovered that the only place nearby that sold Foundation Establishment was Bright Mountain Market, thousands of miles away.
There is a large merchant guild there called the 'Earth Merchant Alliance'. Every so often, the Earth Merchant Alliance sells Foundation Establishment at its large-scale auctions.
However, only two or three Foundation Establishment are auctioned each time, and there are far more monks than porridge. Every auction will cause a lot of cultivators to fight for them, including some small Lineage and sects.
The transaction price of Foundation Establishment is generally above 30,000 Spirit Stone.
Not to mention the enormous amount of Spirit Stone, it would be very difficult for Song Wen to gather them all. Even if he managed to gather them, it would be difficult for him to bring them back alive after winning the Foundation Establishment.
Outnumbered and outmatched, he was no match for those powerful and influential Lineage and sects.
Therefore, Song Wen decided to explore other methods to seek Foundation Establishment.
After all, Song Wen is different from ordinary cultivators. His spiritual power has been transformed into Divine Sense, so he doesn't necessarily need Foundation Establishment to successfully Foundation Establishment.
The Foundation Establishment process consists of two steps.
The first step is to compress the spiritual energy vortex within the Dantian (energy center) into liquid spiritual energy.
The second step is to refine mental energy into Divine Sense.
Now Song Wen has completed the second step, and only the first step remains.
Song Wen speculated that even without Foundation Establishment, if he cultivated step by step, he would eventually be able to Foundation Establishment.
However, this process will likely take a long time, perhaps several years, perhaps ten years, or even longer.
Song Wen naturally didn't have time to slowly hone his cultivation; he still needed to rely on external aids.
He learned from an Alchemist in the underground black market that the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, one of the main ingredients in the Foundation Establishment Pill, is used to help liquefy Spiritual Qi energy.
Therefore, his attention shifted from the Foundation Establishment to the Heavenly Spirit Fruit.
As the main ingredient in Foundation Establishment, Heavenly Spirit Fruit is also scarce in the cultivation world. It is basically controlled by major sects and used to refine Foundation Establishment, and it is almost never sold on the market.
Only then did Song Wen have the idea of entering the Withered Blood Secret Realm.
Each time they enter the Withered Blood Secret Realm, disciples from the three major sects fight to the death in order to gain more benefits, resulting in heavy casualties. Sometimes, less than one in ten people survive.
Such a low survival rate made many disciples avoid it like the plague.
Therefore, those who enter the secret realm are either confident enough in their own strength, or they are forced to do so for various reasons.
The Corpse Demon Sect also forced powerful disciples to enter, but those who entered against their will mostly hid in a safe corner to save their lives until the secret realm closed.
Although these people survived, they gained very little. To the Corpse Demon Sect, the low-grade spirit medicine they obtained by chance were like rotten wood and withered branches, utterly useless.
After that, the Corpse Demon Sect could only relax the restrictions on the cultivation level of disciples entering the secret realm. As long as a disciple's strength reached the Qi Refining Middle Stage, they were allowed to enter the Withered Blood Secret Realm.
Since we can't gather a hundred powerful Late Qi Refinement Refining disciples anyway, we might as well send more people in. Maybe someone will be lucky and bring out some rare spirit medicine by fortuitous opportunity.
To encourage their disciples to venture into the Withered Blood Secret Realm, the Corpse Demon Sect will offer 20% of the disciples' loot from the realm as a reward.
Song Wen wasn't after the 20% reward; he wanted to keep the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, and the more the better. What if the Heavenly Spirit Fruit weren't as effective as he expected? Each extra Heavenly Spirit Fruit meant a better chance.
Even if a disciple obtains Heavenly Spirit Fruit, the Corpse Demon Sect will not offer the Heavenly Spirit Fruit as a reward, but will instead exchange it for an equivalent amount of Spirit Stone.
In order to evade the sect's search and secretly bring out the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, Song Wen had already come up with a contingency plan.