Accepting Disciples, Ten-Thousandfold Returns: Starting from Battle Through the Heavens — Part 35

The Netherworld Poison Flame before him was different from the Green Lotus Core Flame from before. The Green Lotus Core Flame had retained some intelligence, but this Netherworld Poison Flame had previously been refined by a soul body, so its intelligence had naturally been erased.

Thus, it was collected by Qin Hao without the slightest resistance.

He then released the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King and had him watch over Qinglin and Xiao Yi Xian while also standing guard for him.

After arranging everything, Qin Hao did not hesitate. He sat down cross-legged and began madly absorbing and refining the soul essence within his body.

Although this soul body had suffered severe loss of essence over a long period of time and had been heavily injured by Qin Hao just now, leaving it with less than ten percent of its peak soul essence,

it had still been a Dou Zun-level existence in life, and its soul had reached the Spiritual Realm. At its peak, its soul realm had certainly been much stronger than Qin Hao's, who had only just entered the Spiritual Realm.

Therefore, this soul essence was undoubtedly a great tonic for him.

As the Soul-Devouring Art continued to devour it, integrating the vast soul essence into his own soul, Qin Hao's soul power began to soar.

At the same time, aside from the increase in soul power, Qin Hao noticed that as he continued devouring and refining the other party's soul essence, streams of unfamiliar information flooded into his mind.

Qin Hao understood almost instantly. If nothing unexpected had happened, this information should be fragments of the soul body's memories.

However, Qin Hao was currently focusing all his energy on devouring and refining the soul essence. He had no time at all to sort through the chaotic memory fragments in his mind.

"Buzz!"

Who knew how much time passed? As the final wisp of soul essence completed its fusion, Qin Hao's body trembled slightly. Then, the soul aura around him seemed to undergo some sort of transformation, surging severalfold in an instant.

Clearly, his soul realm had broken through once again, rising directly from the early Spiritual Realm to the mid Spiritual Realm.

The remaining essence of a single soul body had allowed Qin Hao's soul realm to break through. This made it easy to see that this soul body had been extremely powerful at its peak, likely among the strongest of the Dou Zuns.

Profound Ice Venerable! A Sudden Fortune!

Only after completing the devouring and refinement did Qin Hao begin sorting through the vast and complicated information that had appeared in his mind.

These were the memories of the soul body's entire life, so the amount of information was immense.

Fortunately, Qin Hao's soul realm was strong enough. Otherwise, if an ordinary person suddenly had such a massive amount of memories crammed into their mind, their head would likely have exploded long ago.

"So that's how it is! It was actually Ice River Valley's ancestor... I never expected that old bastard to have such an identity!"

After a long while, once he had completely sorted through the information in the soul body's mind, Qin Hao finally understood the other party's origins.

What surprised Qin Hao was that this soul body had quite an extraordinary background. He was not from the Northwestern Region, but from the Central Plains.

Moreover, he was the ancestor of Ice River Valley, a first-rate faction in the Central Plains. Known as the Profound Ice Venerable, he belonged to an older generation than Ice River Valley's current valley master, Ice Venerable.

At his peak, his cultivation had reached the realm of a seven-star Dou Zun. A seven-star Dou Zun was a high-level Dou Zun. So long as no Dou Saints appeared, he could absolutely be regarded as a towering figure in his own right.

After all, most of the well-known Dou Zuns in the Central Plains were only low-level Dou Zuns, and there were not many mid-level Dou Zuns either.

For example, the famous Wind Venerable had only been around a four- or five-star Dou Zun when he first appeared in the original story. Thus, the Profound Ice Venerable was certainly a major powerhouse.

After refining the other party's memories, Qin Hao also learned why he had appeared here.

It all began with a forbidden secret art of Ice River Valley.

This secret art was related to the Calamity Poison Body. Ice River Valley possessed a secret art capable of cultivating an acquired Calamity Poison Body, using special methods to artificially create one.

However, this secret art was extremely dangerous. Calling it a life-or-death gamble with only a slim chance of survival would not be an exaggeration.

In the original story, Ice Venerable, Ice River Valley's valley master, had successfully cultivated an acquired Calamity Poison Body.

Yet while the acquired Calamity Poison Body was powerful, it was clearly nowhere near a true innate Calamity Poison Body. That was precisely why, after Ice Venerable discovered that Xiao Yi Xian possessed a Calamity Poison Body in the original story, he had spared no effort to capture her.

The Profound Ice Venerable before him was the same. Like Ice Venerable, he had also cultivated an acquired Calamity Poison Body.

In order to further strengthen it, the Profound Ice Venerable came up with a method: find a poison-attributed Netherworld Poison Flame and use its power to strengthen his acquired Calamity Poison Body until it could rival an innate Calamity Poison Body.

It had to be said that his luck was indeed good. He really did find the Netherworld Poison Flame, which had been discovered within an ancient Netherworld Poison Marsh in the Cloud Empire.

In the end, the Netherworld Poison Flame was naturally refined by the Profound Ice Venerable.

Then, he began using the power of the Netherworld Poison Flame to strengthen his acquired Calamity Poison Body.

However, he never expected things to go so terribly wrong. The power generated by the acquired Calamity Poison Body within him was directly thrown out of control under the catalysis of the Netherworld Poison Flame.

The Profound Ice Venerable instantly suffered a terrifying backlash. He did not even have time to return to Ice River Valley for secluded cultivation before accidentally discovering this cave in the valley.

That was right. The cave on the valley cliff had not been excavated by the Profound Ice Venerable. When he arrived, there had only been a skeleton inside the cave.

He simply continued digging from a corner of the cave toward the mountain's interior.

To be extra safe, he took out several items and casually tossed them beside the corpse in the cave, disguising it as the dwelling of a powerful expert who had passed away in meditation.

He even opened up a small medicinal field to conceal the traces he had left behind.

That way, he believed that even if someone found this place, they would not discover that there was something else beneath the cave.

It had to be said that his idea was sound. Unfortunately, even the most meticulous plan could have an oversight, and Qin Hao found the flaw.

By the time the Profound Ice Venerable had finished arranging everything, the Calamity Poison Body within him had completely spiraled out of control. In the end, he suffered cultivation deviation and died in the stone chamber, remaining there until Qin Hao arrived.

At the same time, Qin Hao's complete refinement of the Profound Ice Venerable's memories meant that he had obtained the full inheritance of the Profound Ice Venerable.

The value of a high-level Dou Zun's inheritance was self-evident.

The only thing Qin Hao found somewhat regrettable was that most of the cultivation techniques and Dou Skills mastered by the Profound Ice Venerable were ice-attributed.

The highest-ranked among them had actually reached the high Earth rank. Unfortunately, Qin Hao possessed fire with a wood attribute, so he could not use any of the other party's powerful Dou Skills.

He could only find suitable people to trade them with in the future.

After suppressing the thoughts in his heart, Qin Hao slowly opened his eyes.

"Master!" "Master, you're awake!"

Seeing that Qin Hao had finished cultivating, the Twin-Winged Scarlet Qilin King, Qinglin, and Xiao Yi Xian all hurried over, asking with concern.

"Mm. How long was I cultivating?"

Qin Hao asked.

"A little over a day."

Xiao Yi Xian answered.

After hearing Xiao Yi Xian's reply, Qin Hao slowly nodded. Then his gaze fell upon the Profound Ice Venerable's skeleton before settling on a segment of the bones in his right hand.

A pitch-black storage ring was there. It was the high-grade storage ring used by the Profound Ice Venerable, and it held most of his wealth.

His spiritual power instantly entered the storage ring, and everything inside immediately appeared within his perception.

Although he had already roughly understood the contents of the storage ring through refining the Profound Ice Venerable's memories, he could not help feeling excited upon seeing them with his own eyes.

As a seven-star Dou Zun, the abundance of most of his wealth was easy to imagine. There was hardly a single ordinary item among the things collected by the Profound Ice Venerable.

Cultivation techniques, Dou Skills, all sorts of materials, rare treasures, medicinal herbs, and more. Aside from the medicinal herbs, however, many of the other items were not very compatible with Qin Hao's attributes.

Still, because the other party had cultivated the acquired Calamity Poison Body, the storage ring contained quite a few poisons, venomous insects, poisonous herbs, and poison-attributed treasures.

When the right opportunity came, he could give these things directly to Xiao Yi Xian.

Overall, Qin Hao was clearly extremely satisfied with this harvest. It had even greatly exceeded his expectations. He had made a fortune in one go.

"Eh, right..."

At that moment, a flash of inspiration suddenly crossed Qin Hao's mind, and his consciousness entered the storage ring once more.

The next instant, light flashed before Qin Hao, and an ancient crimson-gold saber appeared before him. It was one of the treasures collected by the Profound Ice Venerable.

Divine Weapon Heaven-Burning! Arrival at Wutan City!

The Earth-rank Dou Skill Qin Hao had obtained earlier, Eight Desolations Fire Dragon Slash, required a weapon to unleash its greatest power.

Qin Hao had considered finding a suitable weapon before, but he had never found the right one. The crimson-gold saber before him clearly suited his needs perfectly.

This saber had been acquired by the Profound Ice Venerable while exploring a ruin. Its material was extraordinarily tough. Even a full-powered strike from a seven-star Dou Zun like the Profound Ice Venerable could not leave the slightest mark on it.

It was also incomparably sharp, absolutely worthy of being called a divine weapon. Unfortunately, the Profound Ice Venerable was not skilled with sabers, and this saber had been forged from fire-attributed materials, making it a fire-attributed divine weapon.

It was completely unsuitable for the Profound Ice Venerable, so it had remained in his storage ring all this time.

Finally, Qin Hao's gaze landed on the saber's hilt, where two ancient seal-script characters were engraved.

"Heaven-Burning... Not bad. A very domineering name. In that case, from now on, it shall be called the Heaven-Burning Blade!"

Qin Hao thought to himself.

"What a powerful fire-attributed divine weapon!"

After circulating his Dou Qi and testing it, Qin Hao's gaze toward the Heaven-Burning Blade became increasingly fervent.

After testing it, he discovered that the Heaven-Burning Blade possessed a powerful amplification effect on fire-attributed Dou Qi, capable of at least doubling its power. If he used a saber-type Dou Skill, the amplification effect would certainly be even greater.

"Not bad, not bad! I never expected another unexpected gain! Thanks for the support, Profound Ice Venerable, my top supporter!"

Qin Hao thought mischievously. With such a suitable divine weapon, his strength had clearly risen by quite a bit once again.

Afterward, Qin Hao transferred everything in the Profound Ice Venerable's storage ring into the World Ring.

"Xiao Yi Xian, you can have this high-grade storage ring. The mid-grade storage ring I gave you before was somewhat too low-ranked."

After finishing everything, Qin Hao handed the storage ring directly to Xiao Yi Xian.

"A high-grade storage ring! Master, isn't this too precious?"

Xiao Yi Xian could not help asking.

"It's nothing, just a storage ring. The one I gave Qinglin before was also a high-grade storage ring. You are both my disciples, so naturally I should treat you as equally as possible."

Qin Hao waved his hand.

"Oh, and this Nine-Colored Poison Manual. I found it in the storage ring just now. It is an upgraded version of the Seven-Colored Poison Manual! Take it and study it properly."

Immediately afterward, Qin Hao also gave Xiao Yi Xian the system-returned Nine-Colored Poison Manual.

"Thank you, Master!"

After hearing Qin Hao's words, Xiao Yi Xian did not stand on ceremony. She respectfully accepted the storage ring and the Nine-Colored Poison Manual, speaking with a grateful expression.

"Ding! The host has bestowed one high-grade storage ring upon disciple Xiao Yi Xian, meeting the return conditions! Thousandfold return triggered! Obtained one unit of World Crystal!"

"Hmm? World Crystal? What is that supposed to be?"