Free Web NovelChapter 469: Chapter 398: The Failed Ambush
Sang You shook his head, chuckling:
"Don’t be so smug. The four of us surrounded him just to trap him. If you faced such an enemy alone, even if you had the ability to fight and win, what could you do to him?"
The Earth Evil Sect excels at cultivating refined corpses, which can be inherited by future generations.
Refined corpses are ranked from low to high as White Corpse, Green Corpse, Black Corpse, Copper Corpse, Moon Corpse, and Golden Corpse.
The White Corpse is covered with white fur, which is how it gets its name, only equivalent to a Qi Refining Stage cultivator, and will ooze black-red fluid when injured.
The Green Corpse is covered with green fur, and will ooze green fluid when wounded.
These two kinds of refined corpses fear Fire Element Techniques and are not considered strong.
Starting with the Black Corpse, the fluids of the refined corpses are refined into the heart, and the body becomes as hard as refined iron, while their weakness to burning flames disappears.
The refined corpse controlled by Sangji has already reached the Perfection Level of the Black Corpse, its defense stronger than a Body Cultivator at the Chao Origin Perfection level.
Being able to control a Black Corpse means you’ve made it.
If one has fortune, they can nurture a Corpse Pill within, leading to cultivation to the Copper Corpse level.
This kind of refined corpse appears in a dull bronze color, with astonishing defense, greatly increased resistance to magic techniques.
If magic techniques don’t reach a certain level, they don’t even qualify to injure it.
Sangji grinned and said:
"Heh heh, when will I be able to control a Copper Corpse."
"Don’t dream too much, without cultivation at the Golden Core level, you can’t subdue a Copper Corpse. Be careful it doesn’t eat you as a snack, hurry up and gather the spoils!"
Several cultivators of the Earth Evil Sect quickly rummaged through the belongings of the cultivators, while the bodies were devoured by several refined corpses.
Afterwards, they used the Earth Escape Technique to leave.
In a sense, refined corpses are demon beasts cultivated by cultivators, specifically Earth Element Demon Beasts, and using Earth Escape is an instinct for them.
Sangji and others appeared about five or six miles from their ambush site, gathering excitedly, as it was now the most enjoyable moment of dividing the spoils.
They first erased the marks from the storage, and dumped out the items inside.
Inside there were a large number of Lower Grade Spirit Stones and some Spirit Plants, though not of much value.
Sang You took out the Grotto Void Stone, then took out a yellow Jade Bottle, carefully pouring out a drop of turbid yellow sticky liquid.
The liquid dripped onto the Grotto Void Stone, raising billows of gray mist.
Normally, once a Grotto Void Stone is refined by a cultivator, it cannot be opened by others, not even by a Nascent Soul Cultivator.
But this is only under normal circumstances; certain Spiritual Objects can be used to erode the Dharma Prohibition of the Grotto Void Stone, causing the internal space to split.
At this time, everything within the space will be repelled, allowing one to obtain the contents.
Spiritual Objects capable of eroding the Dharma Prohibition of a Grotto Void Stone are extremely precious, and the body fluid of the Moon Corpse just so happens to have this ability.
Sang You shook the Jade Bottle, saying:
"There’s not much Moon Corpse body fluid left, after three more jobs it will be exhausted, at which point we’ll return to the Sect."
The Moon Corpse body fluid was bestowed by Sang Chen, the Golden Core Daoist Master of their sect, to Sang You and Sangji, who are his juniors.
Sangji laughed, saying:
"There are only two more worthy targets, more than enough."
"Those two foreign Chao Origin Stage cultivators, judging by their accents, are from the Western Continent. They’ve been in Rongman Immortal City long enough; I suspect they’re Qi Eating Cultivators and will soon leave as well."
Moon Corpse body fluid is precious, and the targets they chose were mostly Chao Origin Stage cultivators possessing Grotto Void Stones, with two extremely wealthy Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.
Sang You nodded, reminding:
"We don’t know the depth of the foreign cultivators, so we must be careful. Anyone brave enough to cross the Kuangsha River to come here for Qi Eating must have some means."
"Cousin, no matter what means they have, they can’t match up to our four Black Corpses. Besides, Uncle gifted me a Wu Earth God Thunder Talisman! You don’t need to worry."
Sangji said proudly, with an air of arrogance.
"That’s good," Sang You replied with a forced smile, a flash of jealousy crossing his mind. His uncle bestowed the other party a Golden Core level Talisman for protection, yet gave him nothing.
...
The next day, at the double hour, Ji An and Han Yan walked out of the Grotto Mansion and completed their lease termination.
Han Yan sold the pills she had been refining these days, obtaining over two hundred Middle-grade Spirit Stones and some Spirit Medicine.
The two rode on a cloud, flying swiftly southwest, and by evening, the Zangyin Mountain Range appeared in sight.
As the sunset was about to fall, Ji An said:
"Senior Sister, this area is open, with an unobstructed view. Why not camp here, rest for the night, and explore the mountains tomorrow?"
After a day of flying escape, their Magical Power was depleted, and in poor condition, making it unsuitable for exploring dangerous areas.
Han Yan agreed gladly, saying:
"That’s the right idea. If we camp too close to the Zangyin Mountain Range, who knows what demon beasts we might encounter at night."
Demon beasts have large territories, and some may have claimed the surrounding area of the mountain range as their hunting grounds.
She’s not afraid, just unwilling to deal with the hassle.
The two landed, and as usual, Ji An summoned all his Beast Taming creatures.
The Golden Feathered Eagle, Golden Fur, Lan Bei, and Dahuang guarded the four directions, while he also let the Golden-winged Bird out.
Better be safe than sorry; no amount of caution is too much when traveling far.
He thought for a moment, then invoked a Spell to release the Earth-to-Steel Technique.
The yellow spirit light spread out, and the heavy as mountain magic intent condensed the earth into "iron blocks".
The effect of the Earth-to-Steel Technique could last for two double hours, covering a radius of a hundred feet.
In the Southern Continent, there were many poisonous insects in the soil. With just one shot of this magic technique, the insects would suffocate inside.
Han Yan glanced at the golden-red sunset that was waning at the horizon and smiled:
"Junior brother, I’ll take the night watch tonight."
Previously, they took turns watching the nights.
"Sure."
Ji An agreed without hesitation, took out the Black Soul-Calming Grass Pudun, and then a jug of Cyan Leaf Wine, gulping it down, saying:
"Please bother with protecting me, senior sister, I’ll first refine the Spirit Wine to restore my magical power."
If possible, he hoped to always maintain his current condition.
He began operating the Wood Element Chapter of the Five Elements Reincarnation Scripture, which was better suited for refining the Cyan Leaf Wine.
The Spirit Light of the Liver Wood Mansion flashed, and the spirit wine inside the body was rapidly refined, and the pale cyan magical power flowed into the Dantian like rain, with the Stone Turtle swallowing one-tenth.
Simultaneously, a drop of Wood Element Spirit Liquid was refined and merged into the Dantian; the cyan flame in the Original Life Fire suddenly flickered, and the outer layer of red flame expanded slightly.
A moment later, Ji An refined the spirit wine, and his magical power restored to seventy percent.
"Senior sister, you can rest now."
Han Yan nodded lightly, sat down cross-legged, and took out a middle-grade Spirit Stone to absorb its spiritual Qi for refinement.
She was reluctant to use more luxurious means to restore her spiritual power, so refining spirit stones was the best option.
The red clouds at the horizon turned dark red, then changed to a blue-gray color, and as the last trace of light disappeared, all the clouds merged into the night.
Not long after, a crescent moon rose in the east, and the cold wind blew, with nearby small trees and leaves swaying, rustling.
Ji An heard distant roars coming and going, indistinguishable demon beasts.
He remained vigilant, carefully observing the surroundings.
His eyes could maintain a vision of about three miles even in the pitch-black night, without any worries of anything approaching.
Suddenly, he noticed a faint mist floating in from afar and thought:
"Why is this mist rising so early? Could it be due to the proximity to the Zangyin Mountain Range with abundant water veins?"
Yet, he wasn’t concerned, as night mist is normal on the Southern Continent.
Ji An twisted his head left and right, furrowing his brows slightly, then looked back, immediately sensing something amiss.
At this moment, mist rose simultaneously in all directions, but the area they were in showed no trace of mist.
He immediately transmitted:
"Senior sister, something strange is happening, mist is inexplicably floating around us, I suspect there are enemies lurking nearby."
Normal mist wouldn’t behave this way; this clearly resembles an encirclement!
He couldn’t confirm whether his judgment was right or not, but at this moment, he preferred to be suspicious rather than actually getting ambushed.
Han Yan became instantly alert; she hadn’t opened the Wood Element Divine Mansion and lacked the visual enhancements to see distant mist.
She immediately summoned the defense puppet, followed by the top-grade spiritual artifact Sun-Swallowing Bead.
The spiritual artifact swiftly ascended and expanded, with golden light blooming instantly, as though releasing an illumination shell, making the region bright as daylight.
At this moment, she saw the truly strange faint gray mist from afar, pressing towards the center from all directions.
Where they were now was at the center.
"Haha, quite alert, huh! But your luck ends here."
A mocking laughter came from the sky, and Ji An immediately looked up, seeing black clouds rolling above, coming from all directions as well.
Just then, he suddenly felt the ground shaking, as though something underground clashed, transmitting tremors repeatedly.
"Roar!"
An eight-foot-long black corpse sprang from the ground; it had tried using the Earth Escape Technique to sneak attack from beneath but collided with the earth altered by Earth-to-Steel.
As the first corpse appeared, Ji An saw several more corpses leaping out from the ground.
"Junior brother, black corpses, they must be from the Earth Evil Sect!"
Han Yan said, both shocked and angry, refraining from shouting anything like ’why attack us’ foolishly, knowing a fierce battle was imminent.
But within her heart was anxiousness, aware of the level of Black Corpse, and skyward were several Earth Evil Sect cultivators glaring fiercely.
It meant they were facing multiple Chao Origin Stage cultivators in an upcoming assault.
Sangji, hidden within the black clouds, yelled:
"Actually releasing magic techniques defending underground, wouldn’t it have been easier to die from a sneak attack? Why insist on tasting all the pain!"
He had spoken as the brightness emerged, with intent to distract the target for a puppet sneak attack.
Unexpectedly, the target had prepared adequate defenses, detecting mist early and releasing underground sealing magic.
The mist contained corpse poison, harmful yet not lethal for Sunrise Stage cultivators, but surely reducing their battle capability.
When the black corpse appeared, Ji An commanded his beast to flee; beasts couldn’t compete with corpses and had to distance themselves.
His gaze pierced the dark clouds, seeing four enemies, including the one who inspected his storage bag more than half a month ago belonging to Earth Evil Sect.
What a narrow path for foes to meet!
