Upheaval

As a place where one can only follow the Ghost Dao and improve their cultivation by raising corpse puppets and poisonous insects, the Yin Qi is more of a concern to the cultivators here than the Spiritual Qi.

Yin Qi allows the corpse puppets to evolve continuously, and also makes the poisonous insects stronger. This is the foundation upon which cultivators of the Hidden Nether Realm stand.

Corpse Soul City is now considered a treasure trove by cultivators who raise corpse puppets.

The place is filled with Yin Qi and Blood Sha Qi aura, making it the perfect place for them to cultivate.

If a bolt of lightning were to be dropped into such a city...

"Then not only will the City Lord's Mansion be destroyed, but the entire Corpse Soul City will probably be destroyed as well." The old man murmured to himself as he thought of this.

He quickly snapped out of his daze, his gaze towards Sang Ying filled with undisguised surprise and confusion. "You actually possess such a valuable item? Then why were you imprisoned by City Lord Duan?"

Not only did Elder Xuan find this strange, but everyone else was also extremely puzzled.

"I naturally don't possess such things as heavenly lightning." As soon as Sang Ying spoke, the Demon Race opposite her immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

"But," she paused, "I possess Sword Qi wielded by a cultivator with the Lightning Spirit Root."

Sword Qi Ball are probably the kind of things that poor sword cultivators like to give away the most.

Of course, even though Sang Ying is quite wealthy, she still likes to give this as a gift.

After all, for sword cultivators, the Sword Qi Ball can not only be given as a gift, but also improve their control over sword Swordsmanship.

Furthermore, because Sang Ying possesses Mutated Ice Spirit Root, her Sword Qi is more unique than that of ordinary cultivators. As a result, people often took the initiative to come to her to exchange Sword Qi Ball, and over time, Sang Ying has accumulated quite a few herself.

She exchanged the most with sword cultivators with Lightning Spirit Root, and now they're proving very useful.

"I don't have a divine treasure like Heavenly Thunder. All I have are Sword Qi Ball from sword cultivators with Lightning Spirit Root. Although these things can't compare to the might of Heavenly Thunder, they can easily cause some commotion in Corpse Soul City and keep the guards busy," Sang Ying said.

Her words made perfect sense. Elder Xuan was old and knowledgeable, and had seen the prowess of sword cultivators with Lightning Spirit Root. He also knew that cultivators with Lightning Spirit Root would absorb heavenly lightning to temper themselves when advancing in their cultivation.

Even absorbing just a tiny bit is still related to heavenly lightning, which is naturally different from ordinary lightning Spiritual Qi.

Thinking about it this way, the female cultivator's method does indeed have some merit.

After a moment's thought, he said, "Let me see this Sword Qi Ball, so I can know that what you say is true."

Sang Ying genuinely wanted to cooperate with them and wouldn't be stingy in such matters. She immediately took out a Sword Qi Ball and placed it in front of everyone.

A crackling sound was coming from inside the deep purple Sword Qi Ball, as if Sword Qi Ball was trapped inside.

The Demon Race curiously gathered around, when a series of crackling sounds exploded in their ears. Several of the more timid Demon Race immediately popped out their furry ears.

Even Liu Sanniang was filled with curiosity and seemed to want to reach out and touch it.

Seeing that they had seen enough, Sang Ying reached out and put the items back into her Storage Bag. The Sword Qi Ball suddenly disappeared, and the Demon Race's faces showed a hint of disappointment.

They quite liked this sparkly, crackling thing.

"Well, is this treasure enough to persuade Elder Xuan?" Sang Ying asked again.

Elder Xuan stroked his beard, his gaze sweeping across the faces of the Demon Race in the room. They were bound to confront Duan Yuan; now that the Origin-Tracing Mirror had been brought out, several alien races had already been discovered in the first area to be searched.

When those alien races were first discovered, things were alright; with the guards there, no trouble arose. However, not long after the guards left, those alien races died silently in Corpse Soul City.

They knew that if they didn't resist, their fate would be the same.

Having thought all this through, they naturally welcomed Sang Ying, a collaborator who had taken the initiative to approach them. The reason they had asked so many questions and delayed agreeing before was simply because they were worried that she had ulterior motives.

Now that they had a pretty good understanding of the situation, and the other party had even brought out something as valuable as the Sword Qi Ball, the Demon Race weren't stupid and naturally agreed to the cooperation immediately.

"Now that we're all in the same boat, I won't hide it from you anymore. Besides us Demon Cultivator, we've also made contact with other alien races this time. I wonder how many Sword Qi Ball you have in total, and how we'll divide them?" Elder Xuan asked tentatively.

Upon hearing this, Sang Ying lowered her head and considered it carefully. She had quite a few Sword Qi Ball in her Storage Bag, including four or five hundred given to her by sword Lightning Spirit Root.

But these Demon Race clearly didn't trust her, and she couldn't reveal her trump cards casually, so she said, "There aren't many, only a little over two hundred."

As soon as she finished speaking, she saw the shocked expressions on the faces of the Demon Cultivator inside the room.

Ah, have I said too much?

Sang Ying sighed helplessly to herself.

Two hundred or so Sword Qi Ball were like a windfall for the Demon Cultivator. They had expected only a few dozen, but there were actually over a hundred.

Judging from this, the female cultivator in front of us was probably quite a figure before she was captured by the city lord.

With this in mind, everyone treated Sang Ying with more respect than before.

"I'll keep only thirty of these Sword Qi Ball; the rest are yours. As for how you divide them with those alien races, I won't interfere. But I have one condition: Duan Yuan must die!" Her tone was ruthless, making her sound exactly like a prisoner who had suffered greatly in Duan Yuan's dark dungeon.

Although the Demon Cultivator didn't have any deep-seated hatred for City Lord Duan, their different races meant they wouldn't have much goodwill towards him either.

Since they were destined to become enemies with Duan Yuan this time, wouldn't it be pointless to create trouble for themselves by keeping such a powerful enemy around?

Therefore, this so-called request was nothing to them, "Of course, even if you hadn't said anything, we would have avoided any trouble for ourselves."

Elder Xuan's voice was deep and cold, carrying an inexplicable chill.

"That's good." Sang Ying nodded. "Then I'll leave this matter to you all. I hope you won't let me down."

Sang Ying left behind some Sword Qi Ball, but nothing else. She also made an agreement with the group that she would give them the remaining Sword Qi Ball on the day of the actual battle.

The door closed again, and the chatter inside resumed.

That night, the light in the cabin never went out, and the voices inside never stopped.

Perhaps out of a sense of shared sorrow over the deaths of those alien races, the Corpse Soul City descended into utter chaos almost the very next night.

The Sword Qi Ball conjured by the Lightning Spirit Root sword cultivator exploded in every corner of Corpse Soul City with the force of heavenly thunder, seemingly igniting the entire city's Yin Qi.

Countless cultivators' corpse puppets suffered severe injuries, and even the city lord's guards who rushed to the scene screamed in agony as if they had been engulfed in flames after being touched by these sword Sword Qi.

Seeing this, the figures hidden in the shadows finally took action.