Soul Possession

"ROAR!"

Old Ancestor Tai Yin let out a corpse roar.

The four Bronze Armored Corpses obediently came over and set the coffin on the ground.

For a living person to control a refined corpse, they needed a secret art to blend in their blood essence, then drive it with Hand Seals and a corpse-controlling artifact.

After Old Ancestor Tai Yin reincarnated as a Silver Armored Corpse, he could command low-tier zombies at will, as if it were an innate instinct.

He flipped open the coffin, revealing Zhou Yi hidden inside.

Lifelike—if not for the lack of breath and heartbeat, he could truly pass for a living man.

"Gah gah gah!"

Old Ancestor Tai Yin let out a laugh like scraping deadwood: "Truly a prodigy of my Dao sect—this body and bones are no less than a Buddhist golden body!"

"My Dao sect's Innate spiritual physique, in harmony with the Great Dao, can absorb spiritual energy for tempering even after death. A hundred years without decay, a thousand without rot... compared to those bald donkeys' golden-body sealing-cave methods, this is more than a cut above!"

Old Ancestor Tai Yin greedily glanced at Zhou Yi, then grabbed the coffin and walked into the house.

A wooden coffin weighing several hundred jin felt weightless in the Silver Armored Corpse's hands.

Every window frame and door crack in the house was sealed tight, not a sliver of light showing.

Broad daylight outside, but inside it was pitch black, impossible to see anything.

Old Ancestor Tai Yin, with his zombie body, could see in the dark. He set the coffin down in the center and took out a Purple Jade the size of a fist.

A low, murmuring incantation rose. On the Silver Armored Corpse's forehead, a faint blue light cluster appeared, drifting like a ghost flame into the Purple Jade.

The Purple Jade floated into the air and landed on Zhou Yi's forehead.

Purple light bloomed, illuminating Zhou Yi's body. Old Ancestor Tai Yin's soul burrowed into Zhou Yi along with the glow.

Old Ancestor Tai Yin floated in the Sea of Consciousness, reverting to his true form—white hair, youthful face, ancient bearing, like a man who had attained the Dao.

"Hahaha! This Seat still has at least five hundred years of Lifespan—perhaps I might even glimpse the Primordial Spirit realm..."

"No... how can a dead man have a Sea of Consciousness?"

Old Ancestor Tai Yin's expression shifted. He tried to flee the Sea of Consciousness, but suddenly an overwhelming force pressed down, leaving him utterly unable to move.

"At least you're not completely stupid."

Zhou Yi's voice echoed through the Sea of Consciousness: "This Sword Saint was in secluded cultivation, and someone dug me up for Soul Possession. Tell me, doesn't that man deserve to die?"

"Spare me, Daoist friend!"

Old Ancestor Tai Yin's face twisted. He wanted to put up a brave front.

But appearing as a soul body in another's Sea of Consciousness meant that unless his Soul Power was a hundred or a thousand times stronger than the opponent's, he could only surrender meekly.

"I have a great secret, tied to the Primordial Spirit path—if only you'll spare my life, Daoist friend..."

"Sorry, not interested."

Zhou Yi finished speaking, and his soul and physical strength bore down together.

A storm erupted in the Sea of Consciousness, sweeping up Old Ancestor Tai Yin's soul, tearing at it relentlessly.

Threads of pure Soul Power merged into the Sea of Consciousness, rapidly expanding its boundaries.

Moments later, Old Ancestor Tai Yin vanished, leaving only Zhou Yi's sigh.

Old Ancestor Tai Yin could be called a warlord—turning himself into a zombie to extend his life—but one misstep turned him to ash.

The path of immortality is long; one must be cautious from start to finish.

Inside the coffin.

Zhou Yi slowly opened his eyes.

A sharp light flashed, and everything within a zhang radius was clearly reflected in his mind.

His Soul Power had grown significantly, expanding his coverage from the original two or three chi to a full zhang.

With a thought, a True Yuan Flying Sword left his body three zhang away, darting swiftly like a living thing.

"Back then, my senior brother could control his sword at one zhang, and we marveled at him as if he were a celestial. In the blink of an eye, decades later, I've reached this step too. Truly, thanks to Old Ancestor Tai Yin for sending his soul from a thousand li away."

A gift from a thousand li, light in weight but heavy in meaning!

Zhou Yi climbed out of the coffin and searched the house.

As a sect founder, Old Ancestor Tai Yin had lived at least a hundred and fifty years—he must have had plenty of good things.

But to Zhou Yi's surprise, there was nothing of value in the house.

"Could it be..."

Zhou Yi opened the door, and outside, the sky was full of stars.

The soul struggle had seemed easy on the surface, but in truth, grinding down Old Ancestor Tai Yin's soul had consumed several hours.

Old Ancestor Tai Yin had lived long enough that his Soul Power was several times Zhou Yi's, and extremely tenacious at that.

He wailed for hours, begged for mercy for hours, and only as his soul scattered did he curse Zhou Yi to die without a burial place.

The black coffin stood tall in the night, eerie and terrifying.

Zhou Yi lifted the coffin lid, finding it weighed several thousand jin—definitely not made of iron or stone.

Inside lay a Five-Layer Brocade Box. Opening it revealed a roll of Bamboo Slips, a set of Eight Trigrams, a Three-Inch Gold Sword, five pitch-black Darkstones, and a volume of Corpse Refining Notes.

The Corpse Refining Notes were authored by Old Ancestor Tai Yin. Zhou Yi set them aside directly—they were nearly useless to him.

The Darkstones contained pure yin-sha energy, a type of special Spirit Stone, but unfortunately not usable for cultivation.

Spirit Stones were formed from Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy. A single Spirit Stone held enough energy to sustain an Innate Grandmaster for a month of training. Zhou Yi had only heard of them from Yan Chixia but had never seen one.

Legend said that ancient Qi Practitioners refined spiritual energy primarily through Spirit Stones, which were not only abundant in energy but also pure.

The moment Zhou Yi picked up the golden flying sword, information appeared in the equipment slot of his status panel.

Artifact: Dark Gold Flying Sword Grade: 1st Rank Description: Gold refined a hundred times yields red gold; red gold refined a hundred times yields dark gold. Contains three Earth Fiend Restraints.

"Dark Gold Flying Sword... With a Tai Yin Corpse Body, can I even wield a flying sword?"

Zhou Yi cautiously probed the flying sword with his Divine Sense and found no lingering divine thought—it was clearly just a collection piece of Old Ancestor Tai Yin, perhaps taken from a slain enemy.

It happened to benefit Zhou Yi. This was a true artifact flying sword, its value rivaling the Purple Sun Sword Qi Scripture.

"Armor Break, Swift Strike, Heavy Blow—three restraints, all killing techniques. Paired with the dark gold's natural sharpness, even a Silver Armored Corpse can't withstand it!"

Zhou Yi lightly refined the flying sword, then picked up the last item: the Bamboo Slips.

Spell: Soul Possession Grade: 1st Rank Description: A soul-possession technique. Requires a Soul-Reflecting Stone to perform. After possession, cultivation cannot advance a single step.

"That's no Soul Transfer Great Method—it's clearly a Soul Possession spell Tai Yin picked up from somewhere."

Zhou Yi recorded the Soul Possession spell but had no intention of practicing it. The fact that cultivation couldn't advance after possession alone severely diminished the technique's value.

"This black coffin is a treasure. It can absorb Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy and convert it into yin energy."

Zhou Yi placed the Silver Armored Corpse into the black coffin, then returned to his room to sit in meditation and refine qi.

Ten days passed in an instant.

Thump, thump, thump!

A knock at the door.

Li Pan, the sect master of the Heavenly Corpse Sect, reported, "Ancestor, tomorrow is Dragon Raises Head. Do you have any instructions?"

"Enter!" Zhou Yi's voice turned hoarse and aged.

Li Pan and the others filed in, all of them elders of the Heavenly Corpse Sect.

"This Seat has acquired a new body—truly a great joy. It reminds me of my days training in the sect. Have you brought the sect's scriptures? This Seat wishes to recite them to calm my mind and prepare for tomorrow's battle!"

Zhou Yi deliberated for a moment, finally settling on a plausible excuse.

Li Pan frowned, looked up at the Ancestor, and asked doubtfully, "Reporting to the Ancestor, you personally ordered that this matter is too important to risk severing the sect's inheritance, and specifically instructed us not to bring the scriptures..."

Zhou Yi was stunned. He hadn't expected this twist—that sly Tai Yin was truly cunning.

"Haha, This Seat remembers now—there was indeed such an order. Then you will write out the scriptures from memory and hand them over to me."

Li Pan suddenly straightened his back, meeting Zhou Yi's gaze.

"Ancestor, you never gave such an order..."