Corpse King

"This place..." Bai suddenly emerged from the corpse puppet bag, staring at the Immortal Graves in a daze. He walked slowly over to a severely damaged stone stele, crouched down, and gently touched the carvings with his fingers. The stele had long been battered beyond recognition, its inscriptions illegible. Bai lingered over the stone for a long time before murmuring, "For some reason, seeing these tombs hasn't brought back any memories, yet I feel an indescribable sensation..." Qin Sang stood quietly to the side. Bai's physical form was a refined corpse, making his expression unreadable. Yet from his tone, Qin Sang caught a trace of sorrow. The Immortal Graves stretched boundlessly, holding countless tombs, so remarkably similar to where Bai had once been trapped. Who knew how many corpses and bones were sealed within the Purple Mist Deathland as well? After a moment, Bai stood up. Instead of returning to the corpse puppet bag, he walked forward shoulder to shoulder with Qin Sang. Bai's gaze swept across the tombs one after another, his eyes filled with melancholy. Qin Sang was in no mood to dwell on the past. He knew how perilous the Immortal Graves were. Ghost kings with strength rivaling mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivators lurked here. Back then, a Nascent Soul Patriarch named Dongyunxian had been entangled by a ghost king, providing Dongyang Bo with a spectacle to watch from the sidelines. Qin Sang summoned his ebony sword and the formation of six demonic banners. Whenever they encountered ghosts or spirits, he eliminated them as swiftly as possible to avoid being surrounded and alerting a ghost king. Compared to him, Bai moved as if strolling through a courtyard, completely in his element. After traveling for some time, they had entered the depths of the Immortal Graves. Right then, Bai suddenly halted and turned his head toward the right. "What is it?" Qin Sang grew tense. He knew what Bai was capable of. In a place suffused with ghostly qi, Bai's strength would surge drastically. Even with the aid of the Heavenly Eye divine ability, Qin Sang's spiritual senses could not compare to Bai's. A strange glint appeared in Bai's eyes. "I seem to have detected one of my kind." "One of your kind?" Qin Sang paused, then realized what he meant and asked in surprise, "A Heavenly Corpse Talisman?" Bai nodded. "Over these years, although I haven't been able to completely break the Heavenly Corpse Talisman, I have gained some insights and can harness part of the talisman's power for myself. Just now, I sensed the fluctuation of a refined corpse—one remarkably similar to the Heavenly Corpse Talisman." "I searched the Xiaohan Realm for many years and never found a sect with a legacy close to the Heavenly Corpse Sect. What you sensed might truly be a refined corpse controlled by a Heavenly Corpse Talisman!" Qin Sang's expression stirred, and he said with delight, "I never abandoned any refined corpses here, so it was likely left behind by another Heavenly Corpse Sect cultivator! What the Heavenly Corpse Talisman controls is most likely a living corpse with high intelligence. It wouldn't be surprising if it has survived in the Immortal Graves until now. Of course, if another fellow cultivator of the Heavenly Corpse Sect is here, that would be even better—capturing them would give us hope of finding clues!" "I'll go take a look..." Bai nodded, his figure flickering as he vanished into the ghostly qi and sped off in that direction. "Be careful!" Qin Sang called out in warning. He lacked the ability to conceal himself within ghostly qi, so he could only edge toward that area slowly. Before long, the ghostly qi beside Qin Sang rippled, and Bai emerged from the mist to deliver a shocking piece of news: "It isn't a mere living corpse. It's a corpse king—and a masterless one at that!" "A corpse king? How is that possible!" Qin Sang was utterly astounded. In the legacy he had obtained from the Heavenly Corpse Sect, a Heavenly Corpse Talisman could at most control a baleful corpse comparable to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, which could then be forcibly elevated to the Core Formation stage using the corpse core technique. He had conducted experiments on the Witch God Continent, attempting to control Core Formation cultivators with a Heavenly Corpse Talisman, only for their purple mansions to shatter and their souls to perish. He had suspected that the Heavenly Corpse Sect relied not on the Heavenly Corpse Talisman to control higher-grade refined corpses, but on other talismans or treasures. He had never expected to encounter a corpse king controlled by a Heavenly Corpse Talisman here. *Could I have underestimated the Heavenly Corpse Talisman?* Qin Sang frowned in contemplation. He considered himself among the best in the craft of corpse refinement below the Nascent Soul stage, yet he had misjudged it. Could a refined corpse of the corpse king level have been left behind by a former sect master of the Heavenly Corpse Sect? "Since it's a corpse king, we'd better not provoke it," Qin Sang said. "If the opportunity arises in the future, we can come back, capture it, and investigate." He also wished to unravel the secrets of the Heavenly Corpse Talisman as soon as possible to save Yagu. A corpse king was a formidable existence that gave even Nascent Soul Patriarchs headaches. In the Immortal Graves, where countless ghosts roamed, keeping a wide berth was the wisest choice. To his surprise, as soon as Qin Sang finished speaking, Bai raised a hand to stop him. "Wait! Have you forgotten what I can do? From what I observed, that corpse king has very low intelligence. Ghostly qi permeates this place; why not try to kill it? Even if we prove no match for the corpse king, it won't be hard for me to manipulate the ghostly qi to cover our retreat and shake it off." "A corpse king's body is harder than steel. Even with the ghostly qi, you'd struggle to harm it, let alone kill it," Qin Sang said, shaking his head. Such a risk was pointless. The two of them were simply no match for a corpse king. Still unwilling to give up, Bai said earnestly to Qin Sang, "Though it's a corpse king, its lack of intelligence makes it no different from a dead object. If it were any other corpse king or ghost king, I wouldn't dare entertain such thoughts. But this one is different. Since it has a Heavenly Corpse Talisman inside, I can use the talisman to restrict its strength and movements. On the other hand, here in this place, my own strength is several notches greater than it was in the Purple Mist Deathland. If the two of us join forces, we might truly stand a chance against it. Of course, merely tangling with the corpse king endlessly offers us no benefit; we still need a decisive, finishing blow!" Before Bai could finish, Qin Sang understood his plan. The only means capable of harming a corpse king was the Twelve Demonic Banners formation. "With the experience from last time, using just one bottle of Soul-Cleansing Liquid should barely allow me to activate the Twelve Demonic Banners formation. However, I only have this one bottle of Soul-Cleansing Liquid left on me, and I originally intended to save it for you. Are you certain you want to use it now? If we fail against the corpse king, it will go to waste." At the foot of Yitian Peak, he had taken two bottles of Soul-Cleansing Liquid from the successor of the Four Sages Palace and had consumed only one. The successor of the Four Sages Palace had not brought up the remaining bottle, and Qin Sang naturally had not mentioned it either, tucking it away into his own pouch to save for Bai. Last time, pressed by urgency just after condensing the fire lotus, he had needed to drink two bottles of Soul-Cleansing Liquid in succession to barely manipulate the Twelve Demonic Banners formation. Qin Sang felt that taking one bottle of Soul-Cleansing Liquid now should be enough to stabilize the formation. "I feel the Soul-Cleansing Liquid won't be of much help to me anyway," Bai said without hesitation, his tone urgent. "It's better to take a gamble and capture or kill the corpse king. Perhaps that will grant us a glimpse into the secrets of the Heavenly Corpse Sect!" Qin Sang glanced at Bai, understanding his desire to break free from his predicament sooner. Upon further thought, Bai had always carried the Soul-Nurturing Wood with him. The nurturing effects of the Soul-Nurturing Wood were no worse than the Soul-Cleansing Liquid. "Very well! Since you're willing to gamble, I shall accompany you!" Qin Sang hesitated no longer and agreed. Capturing or killing the corpse king would benefit him as well! Bai was overjoyed at his response. With no time to lose, the two discussed their plan in detail, secured an escape route, and quietly crept toward the corpse king. Bai concealed his figure and scouted the surroundings, knowing that if a second entity of the corpse king level were nearby, they would have no choice but to abandon the attempt.