Having eliminated Fang Jing, Zhou Wuji felt limp with exhaustion from head to toe. Unloading continuous bursts of true qi was a tremendous strain even for him.
He cast the Rejuvenation Technique upon himself. With a flash of azure light, his spirits surged, his true qi was fully replenished, and the weariness throughout his body was swept away.
Glancing at the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, he saw that his lifespan had decreased by five days.
Indeed, using the Rejuvenation Technique in an exhausted state mostly burned away his own primordial life essence. Fortunately, the cost was not severe, making it well worth the price.
Looking at the banner severed in two, Zhou Wuji felt a pang of regret.
Although the Yin-Yang Hundred Spirits Banner was an artifact of the Yin-Yang Dao, it had its own unique merits.
Its crafting materials involved many meticulous requirements; with that single strike of his sword, more than half of the banner's worth had been ruined.
Zhou Wuji removed the black ring. This contraption had rained down arrows like a downpour—quite a fine item!
He tried channeling true qi into it. As expected, there was no reaction whatsoever.
The Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment displayed no information about it either.
Stowing the ring away, Zhou Wuji went over to examine Fang Jing's corpse thoroughly.
The Rank 7 demonic cultivator carried only a few small gold wafers, some copper coins, and an assortment of bottles and jars filled with various medicines.
Among them was a yellow powder with an unusual fragrance. Zhou Wuji recognized it—none other than the Yin-Yang Dao's notorious Yellow Flower Powder.
Yellow Flower Powder stimulated the mind to produce intense euphoria, caused hallucinations, and was highly addictive. It was a primary tool they used to recruit followers.
Refining it was also rather troublesome, so it was only used on people of value. Ordinary followers never even caught a scent of it.
The items of real value were the Yin-Yang Dharma Robe and the Black-and-White Lotus Mask.
The Yin-Yang Dharma Robe was crafted from special materials, boosted the power of true qi, and concealed the wearer's aura, all without imposing any restrictions on who could use it.
It had only failed because the man was presiding over an altar where his surging aura was too powerful to hide, and afterward, he had been locked down by Zhou Wuji's sword qi.
The Black-and-White Lotus Mask protected the mind, provided a minor boost to the five senses, and was made of a sturdy material that offered a degree of physical defense.
Unfortunately, both artifacts bore the signature style of the Yin-Yang Dao. There was no way to use them openly.
On second thought, Zhou Wuji realized they would be perfect for doing shady deeds...
Zhou Wuji then checked Jiang Sangu. Aside from a decent sword and two minor artifacts, the woman had nothing else of note.
Turning his gaze to the crowd of followers, he saw they had all been drained of essence and blood. Exploited to the absolute limit, they had been turned into sustenance for the baleful ghost even in death.
One could hardly blame them for being foolish; barely able to read a word, many had likely never left their native villages in their entire lives, their worldly wisdom passed down solely through word of mouth from village elders.
When thrust into a struggle for survival, their choices were exceedingly limited.
Zhou Wuji could only sigh for these followers.
There were too many corpses—all sins committed by the Yin-Yang Dao. Seeing tools like hoes and iron shovels nearby, Zhou Wuji found a patch of soft earth and began digging a large pit.
Sturdy though he was, digging for a while left him dripping with sweat.
At that point, Zhou Wuji began to feel that digging a pit was somewhat pointless. Dead was dead; what difference did a burial make?
If it were just the three demonic cultivators, leaving them exposed would be fine. But abandoning a crowd of ignorant villagers here was something he ultimately could not bear to do.
He hopped out of the pit and checked the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment. The ghost soldier temporarily formed by the hundred ghosts was not recognized as an entity; only the Rank 7 baleful ghost and numerous fierce and malicious ghosts were recorded.
Monsters could be kept in reserve to be converted into Primordial Profound Essence in an emergency, but keeping ghosts served no purpose.
Zhou Wuji was genuinely exhausted. After bustling about for a while, he noticed the surroundings were reasonably safe, with no monsters or apparitions lurking about.
He promptly picked a secluded spot behind a tree, cast the Golden Light Incantation to drive away any nearby snakes and insects, and opened the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment to convert all the ghosts into primordial profound qi.
Strands of golden light cascaded down, steadily increasing the primordial true qi within Zhou Wuji's body.
In this state, he naturally sensed the Big Dipper hanging in the night sky.
Primarily because his glabella acupoint maintained a stable link with the Tianshu star, generating a qi resonance, the sixth star of the Big Dipper, Kaiyang, gleamed deep within his sea of consciousness, followed swiftly by the radiant flare of the seventh star, Yaoguang.
His glabella divine aperture and the seven facial apertures simultaneously respired true qi. With the divine aperture acting as the central hub governing the true qi of the eight apertures, he circulated true qi throughout his body in accordance with the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Scripture.
After circulating true qi for 108 heavenly cycles, Zhou Wuji finally opened his eyes.
Even without activating the Six Yang Dharma Eyes, Zhou Wuji felt his eyesight had improved considerably.
Aided only by the faint starlight filtering through the gaps between leaves, he could clearly distinguish the contours of each leaf overhead.
His other senses, such as hearing and smell, had also grown noticeably sharper.
Daoist methods that cultivated from the upper dantian primarily strengthened the soul, manifesting inwardly as enhanced divine sense and outwardly as sharpened sensory faculties.
Consequently, Daoists could always detect the presence of ghosts and demons with ease, whereas martial artists lagged far behind in this regard.
The fundamental reason lay in the vast difference between their paths of cultivation.
Converting the hundred ghosts into primordial profound spirit had allowed Zhou Wuji to unblock two acupoints in succession, opening all seven apertures at last.
In terms of qi refinement, he had already advanced to Rank 7.
To truly advance to Rank 7, however, he still required the approval of the Upper Abbey and the ordination certificate bestowed by the Celestial Master Mansion.
Only after holding a ritual altar and receiving the two divine registers of Tianshu and Tianpeng would he count as a true Rank 7 registered Daoist of the Arctic Sect.
The ordination certificate was the imperial court's official recognition of status, while the altar registration was the sect's validation.
Only with the divine registers of Tianshu and Tianpeng could one practice the Arctic Sect's higher-level secret arts.
For instance, with the sect's most powerful Yin Thunder art, one could learn the Northern Dipper Celestial Pivot Yin Thunder at Rank 7.
As long as the Lower Abbey submitted his report routinely, the certificate would pose no problem.
As for holding the altar and receiving the registers, with Martial Uncle Yiping around, that wouldn't be much of an issue either.
Yet Zhou Wuji felt somewhat conflicted. It had only been a few days since his transmission ceremony, and he had already leaped from Rank 8 to Rank 7.
Even if he had played the part of a genius during the transmission rite, clearing three more acupoints this quickly was simply too absurd.
For now, he could only wait patiently. He would have to wait until after the New Year before bringing up his promotion to Rank 7 with the Lower Abbey.
Clearing three acupoints in three to five months shouldn't seem overly outrageous.
Zhou Wuji hadn't spent his time in Feixuan Hall in vain; he had perused numerous ancient records.
Among historical prodigies of the Arctic Sect alone, several had attained Rank 3 by the age of twenty.
Compared to them, a twenty-one-year-old Rank 7 was nothing at all, not even worth a footnote.
Relying on his swordsmanship was sufficient for the time being; he had no urgent need to learn the Yin Thunder art right away.
Opening the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment, Zhou Wuji saw that his total true qi stood at 723, an increase of over two hundred points.
The key was that all seven facial acupoints were now linked, each corresponding to one of the seven stars of the Big Dipper, allowing him to preliminarily execute the true qi transformations associated with each star.
Much like the Seven Stars Demon-Slaying Sword, empowered by the corresponding true qi of the seven stars, its might would multiply.
This included the Seven Stars Sword in his hand: only by channeling the true qi of the seven stars could he activate the magical variations of the seven stars etched upon its hilt and unleash the weapon's full potential.
Going by his intuition, Zhou Wuji judged that he was still quite a distance behind Zhang Xinhu.
When killing that Rank 7 demonic cultivator earlier, he had nearly resorted to using a Northern Culmen Heavenly Dipper Divine Talisman.
While this was partly because the demonic cultivator possessed formidable artifacts and had prepared an altar beforehand, it also showcased the depths of a Rank 7 master's foundation.
Zhang Xinhu had reached Rank 7 who knew how many years ago and boasted considerable wealth and resources; he was certainly not someone a Rank 7 deserter could match.
Zhou Wuji suppressed these wandering thoughts and decided to test the prowess of his Rank 7 true qi first.
Picking up the iron shovel, he continued digging the pit. Circulating his true qi vastly amplified his muscular strength and swiftly eased his fatigue.
Whenever he grew tired, he circulated his breath to adjust his condition, then resumed digging.
The mountain soil was shallow, revealing more and more stones the deeper he dug. Zhou Wuji swung his hoe hard enough to strike sparks, yet progress ground slower and slower.
After digging for half the night, even his robust true qi couldn't keep him going.
After a moment's consideration, Zhou Wuji brought out the Northern Emperor's Book of Heavenly Punishment once more. Looking at the three monsters recorded within, he figured keeping one in reserve for emergencies would be plenty.
Through digging the pit, he realized his physical body was still too frail. Profound though true qi was, it required a physical vessel to contain it; the stronger the vessel, the better the efficiency of true qi conversion.
He converted both the Rank 8 giant python and the Rank 7 golden toad into Primordial Profound Essence, which poured into him as pure azure radiance.
The Rank 8 giant python raised his physical attribute by 15 points.
The Rank 7 golden toad was even more potent, directly granting him a 60-point increase and bringing his total physical attribute to 250 points.
The number sounded a bit awkward, but his physique had received an overall boost of forty percent.
This was not merely an increase in strength or stamina, but a comprehensive index.
It was akin to a person four feet tall suddenly shooting up to five feet six—not just growing taller, but enjoying a comprehensive enhancement of bones, muscles, and internal organs.
Between the two states lay an across-the-board difference of forty percent.
Zhou Wuji could clearly sense his physical improvement; he had already far surpassed the heavily muscled Zhang Wuding, and in terms of bodily toughness alone, he was scarcely inferior to that Rank 7 deserter.
However, because he did not tread the martial path and his flesh, sinews, bones, and organs had not been tempered by secret martial arts, he could not unleash brute force like a martial artist.
This enhancement made subtle alterations to his physique, making his musculature tighter and leaner and his bones sturdier. Fortunately, no one besides himself would notice.
The most immediate effect of this physical enhancement was a five-year boost to his lifespan, bringing it to ninety-five years.
With his body strengthened and vigor practically overflowing, Zhou Wuji dug straight through until dawn.
The finished pit was about fifteen feet deep and eighteen feet wide across, though being hand-dug, the proportions were hardly uniform.
By his mathematical calculations, the pit was more than adequate.
After interring the corpses, Zhou Wuji did not erect a grave mound. Instead, he silently chanted the Supreme Rebirth Incantation twice for the deceased.
Allowing them to return quietly to the earth was the greatest respect he could offer them.
The departed surely approved of this arrangement—after all, not a single one had objected from beginning to end...
Chapter 47