Dongxuan Spiritual Realm

Chapter 78 The Three Corpses Nie Xiaoqian

According to the brothers Gao Bing and Gao Ding, during the Ten Thousand Immortals Formation, the Taiyin Ghost King perished, and many of his disciples were killed. Only eight disciples escaped, who became known as the Eight Ghost Immortals.

These eight people did not dare to return to Taiyin Mountain at the time, and each went to hide in different places. Many years later, they reunited and went back to open Taiyin Cave Heaven. However, each of them had their own separate residence outside and did not often return to their ancestral land.

They were terrified after being killed in the past, and fearing that they would be hunted down by the righteous sects again, they spent a hundred years in seclusion cultivating and practicing, vowing to take revenge.

They only began to appear a few years before the Universal Ritual was about to expire.

By this time, they had all cultivated their Ghost Cores, some even cultivating the Taiyin Nascent Soul, and each had refined extremely powerful magic weapons.

The Ghost Judge Cui Wushe, ranked fourth among the Eight Ghost Immortals, took in six disciples over a period of more than ten years, all of whom were named Gongzi.

Although they dared not act recklessly in recent years due to the power of the Universal Ritual, their ghostly cultivation techniques were unpredictable and strange. With just a few moves, they left a great shadow in the hearts of other cultivators, who collectively called them the Six Judges.

Cui Wushe escaped from Xiandu Mountain years ago and hid in a desolate mountain thousands of miles away from here.

He named the place Shaoyin Mountain, intending to use it as the center, with the Million Mountains to the west as his backing and facing the three directions of east, south, and north, with a radius of ten thousand miles, to create his own Taoist temple!
The Taoist temple of the Taiyin Ghost Path is different from others. Within its designated area, all human, divine, demonic, and ghostly beings are subject to its control over life, death, fortune, and misfortune.

Everyone's name, ancestral home, and birth date are recorded in his Book of Life and Death at birth. After death, all of them must return to Shaoyin Mountain, where he and his disciples will judge their good and evil deeds and reward or punish them accordingly.

Those who pleased them were granted divine positions and allowed to enjoy incense offerings in Taoist temples throughout the states and become righteous gods. Those who displeased them were punished, either by being cast into the bodies of animals to be reborn as birds, turtles, fish, and insects for several lifetimes, or by being sent to the hell they created, where they were given a fixed term of imprisonment and subjected to cruel torture.

As Gao Ding spoke, he could not hide his smugness: "Back when our master was alive, this is how he enslaved the world. All living beings were slaves of us, master and disciple! They were at our beck and call, and none dared to disobey!"

Hearing about the ambitions of the Eight Ghost Immortals, Yang Qisheng was secretly amazed: these eight guys each drew up a sphere of influence with a radius of ten thousand miles, which almost covered the entire Central Continent. Even the Taiyin Ghost King back then didn't seem to be this rampant.

Judging from their words, it seems they want to establish a netherworld?

Establishing the underworld is not a big deal, but given the character of the master and his disciples, if they were to actually succeed, the people of the world would suffer!
Yang Qisheng also learned that the Black-Hearted Young Master had already reached the pinnacle of his demonic cultivation, and that the two Young Masters he was looking for, the Heartbroken Young Master and the Void Young Master, were of the same level.

The cultivation of ghosts is relatively slow after Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment because they come into contact with ghosts and spirits early on, always digging up graves and robbing tombs at night, reversing day and night, which leads to evil fire in the heart, depletion of kidney essence, weakness of liver qi, and setback of lung metal. Therefore, it is almost impossible for them to achieve complete spirit and sufficient qi.

They consumed large amounts of elixirs, yet still achieved little despite their efforts. So they took a shortcut: without sufficient spiritual energy, they began to forcefully rely on the power of the medicine and yin energy, and with the help of vengeful ghosts, to open their meridians, bypass this stage, and directly enter the realm where all meridians are open.

Because their sexual desires are excessive and their vital energy is not secure, they are very lustful. When they encounter a girl who is even slightly attractive, they are aroused and use magic to abduct her into a sedan chair and take her away to find a place to vent their desires.

However, when they reached the stage of refining evil spirits through the furnace, they found it easier to cultivate than cultivators from other sects.

Because they deal with evil spirits, vengeful ghosts, and zombies from the very beginning, and spend years in tombs, they carry their own malevolent energy, making it very easy for them to collect and refine malevolent energy.

However, during the period of establishing the cauldron and refining the qi, there is another insurmountable barrier. Their evil spirits are most afraid of the heavenly qi, and they are almost incompatible. They need to accumulate ten or even dozens of times more evil qi than others during this stage in order to break through the barrier in one fell swoop and guide the heavenly qi into their bodies so as not to be injured by the qi.

Therefore, the six young masters were basically all at the peak of the Refining Demon stage, having accumulated experience for many years but failing to break through.

Although only two of them have reached the Qi Refining stage, the remaining few, in terms of magical power alone, are many times stronger than those from other sects who are at the early stage of Qi Refining!
The Black-Hearted Young Master, who had perfected his Demonic Refinement three years ago, possessed a magical artifact called the Black-Hearted Lamp. Anyone exposed to the lamp would have their primordial spirit burned by it, and their three souls and seven spirits would be gradually drawn into the lamp.

Another magical artifact is the Soul-Snatching Rope, which can directly lock and capture a person's primordial spirit, with perfect accuracy.

The Broken Heart Prince, who completed his Demon Refining five years ago, possesses the magical artifact, the Broken Heart Blade.

He was originally a sword immortal who had successfully refined evil spirits in a side sect. While gathering herbs in the mountains, he accidentally stumbled into Cui Wushe's dojo on Shaoyin Mountain. Cui Wushe captured him and, seeing his excellent physique and potential, took him in as a disciple.

The Empty Prince completed his cultivation of evil seven years ago.

He was originally a sword immortal of the Yunyang Sect of the Xuanmen orthodox school, but because he failed to abstain from lust, he lost his essence during the Foundation Establishment period and could not cultivate pure Yang sword qi.

Later, he simply gave up and often frequented places of pleasure and debauchery, which further depleted his vital energy. As a result, the bottom of the Pure Yang Qi Elixir Furnace melted through and began to leak, which meant that he would never be able to cultivate even a mid-grade Golden Elixir in the future, and he was blamed by his elders in the sect.

In a fit of rage, this fellow disciple defected from the Yunyang Sect and, during a confrontation on the mountain, even severed the arm of his fellow disciple.

Fearing capture and retaliation from the Yunyang Sect, he joined Cui Wushe's sect, switching to the Ghost Path. He quickly reached the pinnacle of his demonic energy cultivation and excavated numerous ancient tombs, finding the Nine Famous Swords. Under Cui Wushe's guidance, he forged the Void Nine Swords. After hearing about these three individuals, Yang Qisheng secretly began to have second thoughts. He felt that he couldn't handle them alone; he would need at least the addition of his senior brother, Liu Hanzhang, to make it more feasible.

Although he often takes risks, he only does so when he has enough information, knows himself and his enemy, and feels that he has a high chance of success. He will not act rashly and risk his life in situations where the strength of the enemy and himself is too different.

Gao Bing was quite shrewd. He repeatedly asked Yang Qisheng about his background directly, but when he didn't get an answer, he tried to probe indirectly. Based on the characteristics of Yang Qisheng's flying sword technique, he secretly guessed: Could he be someone from the legendary Taiyi Palace, our sect's biggest rival?
Yang Qisheng pondered in his heart: should he continue to try to eliminate these demons? Or should he pretend he knew nothing about it and leave? Or should he return to Qingning Mountain to seek reinforcements?

If I stay here, is there any way to take on three opponents at once?

After weighing several options, none of them seemed quite right. Faced with an absolute disparity in strength, any scheme would be futile.

Indeed, we would need at least one more senior brother, Liu, to have any chance of wiping out the enemy.

Just as he was pondering this, his inner demon reappeared, only this time in the form of Xiaoqian.

"Young master, why don't you tell me about your troubles? I can help you share your burdens."

She and Yang Qisheng were of one mind; they both knew what the other was thinking, but neither knew what the other was thinking.

This demon has always wanted to grow stronger, but to become powerful, she first had to get past Yang Qisheng. So she has been trying to prove herself, even taking the initiative to fight those three evil spirits. Although she knew she was no match for them, she still conveyed two messages to Yang Qisheng:
First, she was willing to do things for Yang Qisheng. As long as Yang Qisheng needed her, she could handle things perfectly in the blink of an eye.

Secondly, her current strength is not enough. She does want to help Yang Qisheng, but she is not capable enough and needs Yang Qisheng to help her grow.

In short: she was willing to be Yang Qisheng's dog, hoping that Yang Qisheng would loosen the leash so that she could bite people more diligently for her master.

Yang Qisheng understood what she meant, because no matter how compliant this demon appeared, it would inevitably try to devour his primordial spirit and seize his physical body in the end.

Or perhaps this demon sees himself more as "Yang Qisheng" and longs to eventually become "Yang Qisheng"!
When the golden elixir is refined in the future, this demon must be completely refined and destroyed, so Yang Qisheng has no intention of training her.

The demon knew Yang Qisheng's thoughts, so she would do everything she could to help him do things that he couldn't do or didn't want to do.

“Young master, we can set up an ambush here beforehand, and then I will transform into their appearances to lure that heartless young master in.”

Yang Qisheng's previous plan was to use the Gao brothers, Gao Bing and Gao Ding, as bait to lure the ruthless young master into a trap.

However, after understanding the actual situation, it was found that this approach would not work. These two brothers were bound to cause trouble, both subjectively and objectively, and could not be used as bait. The main reason was that the Soul Lamp was in the hands of the Black Heart Prince, which was something that had not been anticipated beforehand.

Moreover, the strength of those three young masters exceeded his previous estimates. Even if he laid an ambush in advance, plus the Myriad Swords Gourd, he might not be able to kill them.

However, he was somewhat surprised by Xiaoqian's suggestion: "You can transform into their appearance?"

"Of course, I am the inner demon."

Xiaoqian turned around and transformed into Gao Ding, even down to the clothes she wore and the wounds on the back of her head and the back of her feet. She even clutched her chest and abdomen, grimacing and making a face that was incredibly lifelike.

Then she swayed her body and transformed into Gao Bing's appearance, her eyes darting around, looking like she had ulterior motives.

Yang Qisheng laughed: "You are just a phantom, like a ghost. Although you have become their image, you are not a real person. Not to mention you can't hide it from the Black-Hearted Young Master, even an old farmer who happens to come by the roadside can tell that something is wrong."

Xiaoqian smiled and said, "Everything is ready, except for this one flaw. If it can be fixed, the matter can be accomplished. Whether to do it or not is up to you, young master."

Yang Qisheng sensed what she wanted, and his expression turned serious.

Xiaoqian spoke directly: "As long as you give me twelve more strands of primordial energy to make up the number of Lesser Evolutions, and lend me the Three Corpse Staff, I can transform again without anyone being able to tell!"

Seeing Yang Qisheng hesitate and ponder, she tried even harder to entice him: "With your current cultivation and temperament, even if I obtained a hundred strands of Yuan Qi, I wouldn't be able to harm you in the slightest. What are you worried about?"

(End of this chapter)