Enslavement was never eternal. So long as spiritual intelligence had awakened and primal instincts remained, few were ever willing to accept servitude.
It was said that high-grade magic treasures could give birth to artifact spirits, but the relationship between an artifact spirit and its master was closer to kin or fellow Daoists, fundamentally different from enslavement.
Once an enslaved party had the power to break free from its shackles, it would not hesitate to turn on its master.
The same held true for living corpses refined with the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art.
According to what the secret art described, a corpse refiner was best off using a cultivator of the same realm to refine a living corpse. If a corpse refiner in the early Foundation Establishment stage refined a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator into a living corpse, they would have to stay vigilant whenever manipulating the refined corpse against an enemy.
A difference of one minor realm was not enormous; barring accidents, one could still suppress it. But if the living corpse were refined from a late Foundation Establishment cultivator, the corpse refiner had better not even think about controlling it—they would certainly suffer a backlash and ought to flee for their life first.
'With the help of the jade Buddha, I should be able to break past this boundary,' Qin Sang thought, lost in contemplation.
Still, refining a living corpse was the hardest part. Not only did one have to defeat the opponent first, but one also had to capture them alive and imprison their origin soul.
He could not even defeat a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator, nor did he have the help of masters or elders. How could he possibly refine a late Foundation Establishment cultivator into a living corpse?
At this thought, Qin Sang shook his head, tossing these useless notions to the back of his mind. He fixed his gaze on 'Baiyun Shanren', recalling the secret art of the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art.
After refining the body into a zombie, two more steps remained: first, building the foundation with the Five Elements yin materials, and then drawing earth fiend qi into the body to ultimately transform 'Baiyun Shanren' completely into a baleful corpse.
Ordinary corpse refining methods did not require this step of building the foundation with the Five Elements. Before a cultivator died, as long as their dantian was undamaged, they could absorb yin baleful qi into their body to form a sea of yin qi in their dantian, transforming into a baleful corpse.
If a corpse whose dantian had already been destroyed were placed in a land of extreme yin qi, it could also transform into a baleful corpse after a long period of corpse nurturing, but it certainly could not be used as a refined corpse.
It was precisely because earth fiend qi was far more violent than ordinary yin qi that the Five Elements yin materials were needed to help stabilize the dantian, lest the baleful corpse be destroyed.
Moreover, the Five Elements yin materials were also the key to condensing earth fiend qi. Acting as a primer, the Five Elements yin materials allowed the secret restrictions of the Heavenly Yin Corpse Art to merge into one with 'Baiyun Shanren', only then subduing the earth fiend qi.
In life, Baiyun Shanren had primarily cultivated a wood-attribute technique. Qin Sang's eyes shifted, locking onto the moon locust heartwood before him, and he beckoned it into his palm.
The heartwood was pure white and emitted a serene aura; it was the quintessence of that six-hundred-year moon locust.
Forming his spiritual power into a blade, he carefully carved a piece off the moon locust heartwood, let it hover before him, and proceeded to cast one secret restriction after another onto it.
Before long, this piece of heartwood began to melt like ice. In the end, the moon locust heartwood was refined to utmost purity, leaving behind only a small liquid-like droplet.
"Go!"
Aiming at 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian, Qin Sang flicked his finger. With a whoosh, the moon locust heartwood shot into 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian, causing 'Baiyun Shanren's' aura to surge with ripples.
Under Qin Sang's control, the power of the moon locust heartwood immediately diffused through 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian, nourishing the withered dantian so that the dried-up sea of qi seemed to show signs of renewing vitality.
Immediately afterward, Qin Sang did not pause. Following the order of mutual generation among the Five Elements, he summoned a ghost eagle feather. Wrapping it in spiritual power, he meticulously extracted the clump of yin fire nestled within the feather.
As the yin fire was forcibly extracted, the ghost eagle feather cracked into fragments. A fine spiritual material was ruined just like that, but Qin Sang did not even spare it a glance, his gaze locked intently onto the yin fire as he continued to refine it with secret restrictions.
Next came the nine-aperture stone, then the blue nether metal, and finally the yin spirit water.
After striking the Five Elements yin materials into 'Baiyun Shanren's' body in this sequence, their essences fused within him. His dantian grew exceptionally stable, thronged with restrictions.
Now came the main event!
Qin Sang exhaled a long breath, adjusted his condition, and took up a Shaoyin Magnetic Bottle.
Uncapping the bottle, a wave of gloomy chill immediately flooded out. Qin Sang cautiously extracted a wisp of yin baleful qi, ignored the bone-chilling cold, and suppressed this strand of earth fiend qi with all his might. Once it quieted down, he slowly guided it into 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian.
Boom!
As the earth fiend qi entered the body, 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian seemed to erupt like a boiling cauldron, instantly kicking up turbulent waves!
Drawn by the clash of energies, 'Baiyun Shanren's' body suddenly shuddered violently. Qin Sang split his focus to stabilize 'Baiyun Shanren's' physical form, not daring to hesitate as he hurriedly drove the restrictions left in the dantian with all his might to refine this wisp of earth fiend qi.
Puff!
A plume of black qi billowed from 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian, sending out violent fluctuations as though on the verge of exploding.
Qin Sang's face darkened slightly. With a wave of his hand, he sent out a stream of spiritual power, silently extinguishing the black qi.
The first attempt had failed as expected, but this was within his anticipation. Qin Sang was not discouraged; taking a brief breather, he drew out another wisp of earth fiend qi.
Failing time and again like this until nearly half of this bottle of yin baleful qi was depleted, Qin Sang's expression shifted, and a hint of delight surfaced on his face. His spiritual sense could clearly perceive a stream of black qi swimming like a fish in 'Baiyun Shanren's' dantian—he had finally subdued the first wisp of earth fiend qi!
All things are difficult before they are easy; after that, things became simpler. The chance of success grew higher and higher, and by the time the baleful corpse was fully refined, that single bottle of earth fiend qi was not even completely spent.
Qin Sang let out a long breath, waved his hand to store the various spiritual materials back into his mustard seed bag, and looked at 'Baiyun Shanren' with pleasant surprise.
Compared to when he was merely a zombie just now, 'Baiyun Shanren's' appearance had not changed much, except for a faint layer of black qi coiling over the surface of his body.
Right now, he could not yet be considered a true baleful corpse. It would still take some time for the earth fiend qi inside him to permeate his entire body and, with the aid of the restrictions, temper his flesh to enhance its physical strength.
Once 'Baiyun Shanren' and the earth fiend qi merged into one inseparable whole, completely suffused with black qi and transformed into a demonic ghost-like baleful corpse, his strength would peak!
Qin Sang did not need to worry about this process. He only needed to put it into the corpse puppet pouch and let it transform slowly on its own; it would not take very long either.
Bang!
The baleful corpse vanished from the spot and reappeared right in front of Qin Sang, throwing a heavy punch. Qin Sang swung his fist and caught it with ease, getting a feel for the baleful corpse's strength.
After all, it had only just been refined, so its speed and strength were slightly inferior to a cultivator at the thirteenth layer of the Qi Refinement stage. Once its transformation was complete, it would certainly surpass them.
Next, Qin Sang ran several more tests.
The baleful corpse could move at will, allowing him to multitask with dual focus. If manipulated well, it showed great promise.
Yet the flaw was also obvious. Qin Sang walked out of the cave dwelling and tested it, discovering that if the baleful corpse moved too far from him, the connection through the soul imprint would weaken drastically. Not only could he no longer manipulate the baleful corpse, but even sensing it became difficult, leaving it able only to act on its own.
With this, the idea of using the baleful corpse to scout the way in perilous places was dashed.
Chapter 190