Be the Hardest Working Demon Cultivator!

"He has actually been gone from here for a long time. His true body should be a hundred miles away. What remains here is just a false body, created from his manipulation of the natural energy of the universe," he said.

"Disciples of the demonic path are indeed cunning!"

The youth dressed in the Daoist robe of yin and yang, alongside the young Wu Xiu monk, were both brimming with indignation.

"Brother Dao, how then should we search for this master of the demonic gate?" Wu Xiu asked the youth.

"In my view, we should go to the sect at Jianxia and ask the Fairy Poet. The Fairy Poet has been neighbors with the Heartless Old Man for many years; even though the Heartless Old Man dares not stay at Black Heart Mountain anymore, he still chooses to reside in Qinghe City, built by the disciples of the sect at Jianxia.

It seems likely that the Fairy Poet knows the Heartless Old Man quite well," he said.

Upon hearing the youth speak thus, Wu Xiu immediately understood his intent: "Brother Dao, do you mean to say, let the Fairy Poet hand over the soul of the Heartless Old Man?"

There was an artifact at Shangqing Observatory that could connect to the Land of Yin and Darkness. When the Heartless Old Man had died, they had once taken it upon themselves to journey to the Land of Yin and Darkness, hoping to find the Heartless Old Man and ask him some specific questions regarding the Chaotic Life Dharma Bead.

However, rather than finding the soul of the Heartless Old Man in the Land of Yin and Darkness, they instead came across the souls of his first and second disciples, whom the Heartless Old Man had killed.

"No, the soul of the Heartless Old Man isn't with the Fairy Poet. This old demon surely doesn't trust the Fairy Poet to that extent," he said.

"Then why do we go to inquire about the matters of the Heartless Old Man?"

"I have read Tan Shuchang's journals. Every time he mentioned the Heartless Old Man, he referred to him as his master. It appears that, despite killing his master, he truly was grateful to the Heartless Old Man. Therefore, the place where the Heartless Old Man was buried should be a place he cherished in life, and it's possible Tan Shuchang might pay homage there.

We can set up an ambush at that location. As soon as he appears, we can capture him immediately!" the youth in the Daoist robe solemnly declared.

"Brother Dao, what a brilliant plan! Against such practitioners of the demonic path, we need not speak of honor or justice!" said Wu Xiu, the young monk from Western Tuo Mountain, nodding repeatedly.

However, good as their plan was, it was not long after their arrival at the sect at Jianxia that they could only leave with gloomy faces.

Because the body of the Heartless Old Man had been dealt with by the sect at Jianxia.

Moreover, fearing some evil contamination from the old demon's corpse, they had specifically spent a great deal of money to have it transported to the subterranean fire veins of Yan State and cast into the rolling magma.

At that moment, in the reception area of the sect at Jianxia, the Fairy Poet, whose beauty was celebrated throughout the lands, was still deep in thought, even though the disciples from Shangqing Convent and Western Tuo Mountain had left some time ago.

It was because these two disciples had mentioned to her that the soul of the Heartless Old Man was not in the Land of Yin and Darkness.

Suddenly, the Fairy Poet took out the letter that the Heartless Old Man had written to her years ago.

The letter was made from a special material, crafted from the molten fires of Yan State, using the molt of a Mountain-Sea Beast as its primary ingredient.

This kind of letter paper required special methods to clearly see what was written on it.

Having read it once before, because of the special nature of the letter paper, the Fairy Poet had kept it. However, upon reading its contents again, she suddenly conceived of a possibility she had never considered before.

That possibility was that the Heartless Old Man might truly "not be dead."

The letter had been sent by the Heartless Old Man three years earlier. It only mentioned their relationship a few times. In the end, the Heartless Old Man had expressed his hope that the Fairy Poet, remembering the times he had helped her when he was younger, would take his body to Yan State and cast it into the fire veins should he die.

And indeed, that was what the Fairy Poet had done, as it wasn't much trouble and her disciples could complete the journey there and back in just half a day using the "Water Spirit."

Moreover, she had several Water Spirit Banners at her disposal.

"Did the Heartless Old Man receive some opportunity in the subterranean fire veins of Yan State, enabling him to reconstruct his body with his soul, thus avoiding the call of the Land of Yin and Darkness?" she pondered, deciding then to make a trip to Yan State.

For she, too, had grown old.

Although she still looked quite young, when compared to her contemporaries who were now grandparents, how could she still be considered young?

By the current standards of lifespan in the Jiawu Realm for cultivators, which was two jiazi, her life was already half spent.

Although she still had several decades left, in the coming years, she would no longer be able to maintain her youthful beauty and would age year by year, eventually having to answer the call of the Land of Yin and Darkness.

This was the most unbearable prospect for a cultivator.

All the more so because she was a strikingly beautiful woman.

With her current youthful and beautiful appearance, she was the poetry fairy in others' hearts; otherwise, the title would have been directly replaced by the head of poetry.

Moreover, the special status that she had hardly maintained in the past would cease to exist.

The sect had some strength, ranking among the upper streams even among many immortal sects, but it meant nothing to the mighty top eight immortal sects.

The reason it was considered strong among those below the top eight immortal sects was simply that there were not many stronger than her sect.

Everyone has ambition.

Beautiful people have even greater ambitions.

Otherwise, it would be a waste of such a flourishing beauty.

...

In the eerie game world at that moment, Tan Shuchang was summoning fierce ghosts. Having opened up new ideas, he actually managed to come up with a few more.

This also finally met the demand for a fierce ghost procession.

Previously, only seventy-one fierce ghosts remained.

Now, the number of fierce ghosts in this procession had reached seventy-two, exactly one short.

This total included counting the withered tree ghost.

However, Tan Shuchang did not transform these fierce ghosts into twelve years of his cultivational power.

He turned them into Calamity Witnessing Sword Qi.

The original Calamity Witnessing Sword Qi, except for the Qing Shadow Ghost Sword Qi that Tan Shuchang kept, the other sixteen swords Qi had been suppressed by the disciples of Western Tuo Mountain and Shang Qing Guan because they had attempted to kill the son of Emperor Yi in that palace.

At that moment, seventy-seven strands of Bloody Sword Qi were arrayed behind Tan Shuchang, and the sword Qi, having inherited the domain of malice and the rules of killing from the fierce ghosts, appeared particularly terrifying.

It could slash fierce ghosts as well as cultivators.

And they no longer had the flaw of being easily countered by ghost suppressing techniques.

At that moment, the originally sinister-looking royal robe that Tan Shuchang wore underwent a change after bathing in that massive malice.

The faces of a hundred ghosts on it moved, and a profound and unknowable force intertwined into patterns.

This was the embryonic form of a fourth-realm authority.

Tan Shuchang had not expected that an authority similar to seeing the Black King could have such an origin.

Suddenly, just as Tan Shuchang was about to carefully examine his royal robe, he showed a slight look of astonishment because he saw a large number of fierce ghosts coming from a hundred miles away towards this direction of the ghost-guarded city.

"Your Majesty, the Living Dead Yin God has been summoned by the Greedy Venerable King!" At that moment, the ghost scholar hurriedly reported.

This ghost scholar did not have the qualifications to access the only official website of the eerie game but had his own channels for gathering information. Accordingly, although this news did not spread through that ghostly page, it was still discovered by this dog-headed strategist.

It can be said that those who can be strategists have certain abilities.

"Living Dead Yin God?" Without looking in that direction, Tan Shuchang pondered whether consuming a Yin God would yield more benefits than devouring that Sword Spirit.

But his remarks made the ghost scholar think that Tan Shuchang was unaware of the Living Dead Yin God, so he quickly explained, "The Living Dead Yin God holds a special status, and even the Land Destruction King can't control him because he possesses power beyond the third realm, where the Ghost Heavenly Way is followed, and the Living Dead Yin God serves a lineage of the Ghost Heavenly Way."

"The Qing Zang Tearing Ghost belongs to this one, right?" Tan Shuchang certainly did not forget about him, although he did not expect the existence of the Ghost Heavenly Way beyond the third realm of this eerie game.

Nevertheless, Tan Shuchang undoubtedly still cared more about the Qing Zang Tearing Ghost.

After all, if this fierce ghost were to ascend to Yin God, it would be greatly nourishing.