Chapter 225 - 199: The Birth of Li Xuerou, Golden Core Realm
Chapter 225: Chapter 199: The Birth of Li Xuerou, Golden Core Realm
After settling matters with Wang Hui, he returned to his cave residence in the Bixia Sect. He gave a Jade Scroll to Zhao Xiaoshu, instructing him to deliver it to Wenn Quan.
The Jade Scroll primarily entrusted Wang Hui to Wenn Quan’s care. Lu Zhao believed that with Wenn Quan’s experience, he could guide her well and ensure she smoothly took over the merchant caravan.
Once this was done, Lu Zhao’s figure once again transformed into a streak of light and departed the Sect grounds.
「One day later.」
The familiar, chilling air of Yinmu Mountain once again brushed across Lu Zhao’s face.
He navigated the familiar path to the vicinity of the cavern where Li Xuerou was buried.
A wave of Yin Evil Death Qi, far denser than ever before, washed over him, so thick it was almost tangible.
However, Lu Zhao keenly sensed that this immense Yin Qi was not static. It was being drawn by an invisible vortex, surging ceaselessly into the cavern’s depths—toward the Corpse Nourishing Coffin that held Li Xuerou’s body.
Lu Zhao hurried closer, and the scene before him confirmed his senses. The gray-black Yin Evil Qi, which had once permeated the entire area, was now converging frantically toward the ancient, heavy Corpse Nourishing Coffin at the center, like countless rivers flowing to the sea.
The arcane Runes on the coffin’s surface seemed to come alive, shimmering with a dark light as they greedily devoured the surging Yin Qi, emitting an incessant HISSING sound.
He walked to the coffin, gathered a wisp of pure Magical Power at his fingertip, and gently touched the edge of the lid. Cautiously, he extended his Divine Sense inside.
Inside the coffin, Li Xuerou’s body lay still. Compared to three years ago, her skin had lost its deathly pallor, now glowing with an eerie, almost jade-like translucence.
Her once-long hair now reached her calves, black as ink and spread smoothly beneath her body.
What startled Lu Zhao most was the immense power contained within her body. Like a dormant volcano, it was undergoing its final transformation, nourished by the coffin and the Yin Qi of the entire Corpse Nurturing Land.
The purity and depth of that power far surpassed what he had witnessed when refining the Strong Demon Ape Corpse Puppet.
’Another one to two years...’ Lu Zhao retracted his Divine Sense. His face held no trace of disappointment; instead, it was filled with irrepressible joy, a sharp glint in his eyes. ’The longer it takes, the deeper its foundation and the greater its potential! This Three Yin Ghost Body is truly extraordinary!’
After a moment’s thought, he decisively took the last jar of Tier Two Demon Beast Essence Blood from his Storage Bag.
He uncorked the jar. A thick, metallic stench of blood instantly filled the air, only to be swiftly suppressed by the dense surrounding Yin Qi.
Lu Zhao carefully poured the dark red Essence Blood from the jar, spreading it evenly over the lid of the Corpse Nourishing Coffin.
The moment the Essence Blood touched the coffin, the arcane Runes flared with a dark light. Like a parched desert receiving a long-awaited rain, they emitted an even louder SIZZLE and swiftly absorbed the Essence Blood completely.
’With this last jar of Essence Blood, it should be able to emerge at least half a year ahead of schedule!’ Lu Zhao murmured, his voice laced with conviction.
He could already envision a powerful Corpse Puppet with limitless potential breaking out of the coffin, becoming another crucial trump card in his arsenal.
For the days that followed, Lu Zhao was like clockwork, visiting Yinmu Mountain once a month without fail.
Each visit, he would meticulously inspect the condition of the Corpse Nourishing Coffin, observe the rate at which the Yin Qi gathered, and ensure Li Xuerou’s transformation proceeded without a hitch.
And with every visit, he could feel the dormant power within the coffin growing more solid and a fraction stronger, bringing the moment of its emergence ever closer.
This continued until his fifteenth routine inspection.
The moment he set foot in the Yinmu Mountain region, Lu Zhao keenly sensed something was wrong. The Yin Evil Qi that saturated the mountains, which should have been dense and viscous, was now significantly thinner. The bone-chilling cold in the air had also diminished considerably.
A jolt went through him, and he quickened his pace, rushing toward the cavern.
As he approached the cavern, the sight that greeted him made his pupils contract.
He saw that the Yin Evil Qi from the entire cavern—and indeed the entire Yinmu Mountain region—seemed to have answered a supreme summons. It transformed into visible, gray-black torrents of air, madly surging and tumbling over one another as they rushed toward the Corpse Nourishing Coffin at the center.
The ancient coffin had become like a black hole devouring everything. It emitted a deep, magnificent hum, and the Runes on its body shone with a blinding light, swallowing the immense, converging torrents of Yin Qi whole.
’It’s finally happening!’ Lu Zhao was ecstatic. This spectacle was far more dramatic than when he had refined the Strong Demon Ape Corpse Puppet!
This meant Li Xuerou’s transformation had reached its final, critical stage, and her potential far surpassed his expectations! Without hesitation, he sat cross-legged a short distance from the coffin, focusing all his attention on safeguarding this crucial moment. He would not be returning to the Bixia Sect.
This terrifying consumption of Yin Qi lasted for three full days and nights. The entire Yinmu Mountain seemed to have been drained of its marrow. The rocks lost their luster, the plants withered and died, and even the cavern walls appeared bleak and decayed. Then, late on the third night, a new phenomenon began!
WAAAIIL! WAAAIIL! WAAAIIL!
A chorus of ethereal, shrill, and mournful wails arose in the cavern without warning.
The cries didn’t seem to come from any single point, but from all directions at once, weaving together into the hair-raising sound of the Hundred Ghosts Cry!
Lu Zhao’s eyes snapped open, the hair on his arms standing on end. The bizarre scene instantly brought to mind a record from the Ancient Texts buried deep in his memory.
’The Hundred Ghosts Cry! This is the supernatural omen that accompanies the birth of a Tier Three Corpse King?’ Lu Zhao’s mind reeled. Even with his resolute will, he couldn’t conceal his shock.
Although the scale and power of this Hundred Ghosts Cry were a far cry from the true celestial phenomenon triggered by the birth of a Golden Core Level Corpse King—it had the form but lacked the divine essence—the omen itself was still horrifying enough.
’Li Xuerou... to think the Three Yin Ghost Body has such terrifying potential! It can actually trigger the embryonic form of a Corpse King’s omen!’
Lu Zhao took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his shock as an unprecedented, fervent light erupted in his eyes. This meant the foundation of the transforming Corpse Puppet was so profound that its chances of becoming a Tier Three Corpse King in the future were several times higher than he had originally estimated.
He held his breath and focused his spirit, his gaze locked on the Corpse Nourishing Coffin, awaiting the final moment.
The omen of the Hundred Ghosts Cry persisted for about an hour before gradually fading. Then, the lid of the Corpse Nourishing Coffin, which had devoured a sea of Yin Qi, emitted a soft, dull CLICK and began to slowly slide open on its own.
A jet of Corpse Qi, so pure and condensed it was pushed to the absolute limit, erupted from the coffin like a volcano and shot toward the sky. From the core of this immense wave of Corpse Qi, a figure slowly levitated upward.
It was Li Xuerou.
She still wore the same simple white dress, which now billowed around her in the dense Corpse Qi despite the lack of wind, giving her the ethereal air of a celestial.
Her face was so pale it was nearly transparent, yet her features retained the delicate contours they had in life. But beneath her tightly shut eyelids, there was no longer any trace of vitality.
Her waterfall of black hair cascaded to her ankles, adding to her strange, demonic allure. Her skin was as smooth as jade. While it possessed the characteristic coldness and rigidity of a Corpse Puppet, it showed no signs of being shriveled or decayed. Instead, it possessed a bizarre "beauty."
The instant she floated out of the coffin, another change began.
With her at the epicenter, all the remaining Yin Evil Qi in the Yinmu Mountain region seemed to answer an ultimate call, pouring madly into her body.
She hovered in the air like a bottomless abyss, greedily devouring the last dregs of power from the Corpse Nurturing Land.
Lu Zhao clearly felt the concentration of Yin Qi where he stood plummet instantly, becoming even thinner than that of an ordinary barren mountain.
The cold, deathly stillness that had lingered in the air for untold years vanished completely in a matter of moments.
He glanced around. If not for the grim white bones scattered across the ground attesting to the area’s past, Lu Zhao would have wondered if this was still the same dreaded Corpse Nurturing Land. It had been squeezed dry of its last ounce of value, reduced to a wasteland even more lifeless than a common graveyard.
This final absorption lasted for half a day. As the last wisp of Yin Qi disappeared into Li Xuerou’s body, her tightly shut eyes snapped open.
Within her pupils, two orbs of red flame, seemingly capable of freezing the very soul, burned silently.
At that same moment, Lu Zhao, who had long been prepared, acted. Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Thousand Threads Technique operated at full capacity. Six Paths of Divine Sense Threads rapidly converged into a Divine Sense Brand that shot with unerring precision toward the spot between Li Xuerou’s eyebrows—where a new Corpse Bead had just finished forming.
The instant the brand was complete, a seamless, intimate connection formed, as effortless as moving one’s own limbs.
HUM!
Li Xuerou’s levitating form trembled slightly, then slowly descended to the ground, where she stood ramrod straight. She turned her head slightly, "looking" at Lu Zhao without a trace of emotion, like a loyal guard awaiting her master’s command.
Following the link from the Thousand Threads Technique, Lu Zhao’s Divine Sense carefully probed deep into Li Xuerou’s body, reaching the newly formed Corpse Bead.
The Corpse Bead was jet-black, its surface covered in flowing, dark silver, arcane patterns. It emanated a heart-stopping chill and powerful fluctuations of energy.
At the core of the Corpse Bead, a Rune—many times more complex and arcane than the one on the Strong Demon Ape’s Corpse Pearl—rotated slowly, exuding an obscure and profound Dao Rhyme.
’What type of Lifebound Technique is this?’ Lu Zhao wondered in shock. Even with his current knowledge and skill in creating Puppets and Corpse Puppets, he couldn’t immediately identify the type of Magic this Rune represented.
’If I can’t identify it, then I’ll test it directly!’
With a flicker of intent, Lu Zhao issued a command through the Divine Sense Brand, "Release your Lifebound Technique."
Li Xuerou received the command, but she remained motionless, standing quietly in place.
But in the very next instant—
A visible, gray-white ripple suddenly spread out from her feet! It expanded at an astonishing speed, instantly enveloping an area dozens of yards in radius.
Within the gray-white shroud, the landscape changed dramatically.
The scattered dry bones on the ground visibly lost the last of their luster, becoming gray and brittle. A light touch would turn them to dust.
The few tenacious clumps of Yin Attribute moss growing on the stone walls instantly withered and blackened.
"This... this is..." Despite his worldliness, Lu Zhao couldn’t help but gasp, his eyes filled with utter disbelief. "A Magic Realm?!"
The Lifebound Technique of this Li Xuerou Corpse Puppet bore a shocking resemblance to the power of a "Magic Realm," something that only a Golden Core Master could begin to grasp! Although its range was minuscule and its power was a far cry from a true Golden Core Master’s Magic Realm, this was undeniably a domain that only those at the Golden Core Realm could even begin to perceive.
For a newly refined Tier Two Corpse Puppet to possess such a heaven-defying Lifebound Technique... The potential of the Three Yin Ghost Body was simply terrifying!
Lu Zhao looked at Li Xuerou, wreathed in her "Magic Realm," and an unprecedented sense of exhilaration and anticipation swelled within him.
With this Corpse Puppet in his possession, his path of cultivation would gain another peerless, deadly blade to slash through all obstacles. In the future, reaching the Golden Core Realm no longer seemed like an impossible dream.