Feng Feiyun gently pressed his fingers on Nangong Hongyan’s wrist before loosening his touch. Sure enough, she didn’t have the talents for cultivation. Without spirituality in her body, it would be impossible to condense spirit energy.
“Mortals have joys that belong only to mortals, cultivators have struggles only found in cultivation; there’s no need to worry about it.” Nangong Hongyan gently sighed.
Feng Feiyun said: “Not necessarily, the constitution of the body can be changed. Even a body without spirituality can still cultivate some spirit.”
A physique could be changed later on, but the spirituality of one’s body was decided at birth and couldn’t be changed at all. Otherwise, everyone would have embarked on the path of cultivation and there wouldn’t be so few cultivators in this world.
Nangong Hongyan was shocked by Feng Feiyun’s words. This was a shock that came from the heart, like being struck by lightning. She couldn’t help but tremble.
“Impossible, impossible…” She murmured to himself.
Feng Feiyun explained: “There are four things in this world with a great amount of spirituality. If you can obtain any of them, then you can use them to gestate some spirituality for yourself.”
Nangong Hongyan’s pretty eyes stared at her fingers while murmuring: “These four treasures must be exceedingly rare.”
Feng Feiyun gently nodded: “They are dragon veins, phoenix bones, vermilion eyes, and the marrow of a black tortoise. These are the four primordial origins of spirituality from the four supreme demon races. In this world, they are the items with the highest concentration of spirit energy. Any of them would allow a person with ordinary talents to become a genius at cultivation.”
Her pretty eyes became even more dimmed. She closed them and said: “The four demon races are only existences in legends. One must trace back to the ancient era to find them. Not to mention their primordial spiritualities, it would be difficult to even see one at all.”
If there was a sliver of hope, who wouldn’t want to have eternal life and everlasting youth?
Even though the path of cultivation was arduous, everyone still chased after it.
However, the moment she found a glimmer of hope, it was shattered instantly. These four items were deified treasures. People had only heard of them while none had seen any.
She wished that Feng Feiyun hadn’t said these words. Otherwise, hope wouldn't have risen and she wouldn’t be feeling lost right now.
Feng Feiyun stared at her deeply in order to read the subtle changes in her expression before nodding his head. Then, he began to study the saber art again.
***
“The three great heavenly marquis, the Heaven Shaking Marquis, the Heaven Order Marquis, and the Omni-Heaven Marquis commanded nearly one hundred million troops to attack the Evil Woman. However, they lost completely… Their blood now flows for three thousand miles.”
“The divine army suffered grievous losses. I heard the battlefield has been turned into mountains of corpses with layers upon layers of bones that reach more than one meter high. People can’t even see the other side.”
In just one day, this news traveled across the Wanxiang Pagoda. The divine army of the Jin Dynasty had been utterly defeated at the Grand Southern Prefecture. The billions of corpses under the Evil Woman massacred them, creating many more lost souls and bodies that scattered about in that region where the sky turned pitch black.
The Omni-Heaven Marquis had been killed by the Evil Woman. His blood stained an entire mountain to give it a new name, the Marquis Blood Hill. The other two heavenly marquis escaped with injuries. One said that the Heaven Shaking Marquis was infected by corpse poison. He had to disperse his own cultivation in order to cling onto his life.
There had been too many messages today regarding the same topic — the earth-shattering battle at the Grand Southern Prefecture. Each message was a cause for fear and unrest. No one could calm down and cultivate in peace.
“That battle was too tragic, it lasted for seven days and seven nights. Evil corpses were everywhere. By the time one was killed, a second was already crawling out of the ground. It was impossible to kill them all as they only increased in number. The routed divine army was massacred at that point.”
“Some became evil corpses while others died to never get up again.” One general who escaped from the battlefield all the way to the Wanxiang Pagoda spread these stories.
Several days later, more soldiers from the army sought asylum at the pagoda to escape from the massacre. More news came about.
“Out of the twenty-eight counties in the Grand Southern Prefecture, nine have completely fallen into the hands of the Evil Woman. The cultivators there can’t stop her pace and were pushed back continuously while suffering heavy casualties.”
“A lot of top immortal gates had to escape while leaving behind their auspicious grounds. These places have turned into the lairs of these evil corpses…”
A heavy atmosphere loomed over the entire pagoda.
“Really, the cultivators were lucky; at least they could still run and stay alive. The mortals and ordinary citizens didn’t even have the power to run. They could only temporarily hide from imminent death without being able to resist.”
These soldiers who fled to the pagoda were all powerful. However, the great army was scattered and there was no unified force to fight back. Fighting alone against those evil corpses was simply courting death.
However, as long as someone was willing to stand up to rally everyone once more, they would be more than willing to fight against those evil corpses to the death.
“Even the divine army lost this miserably, who will be able to stop the brutality of the Evil Woman? Must the Jin Emperor embark on an expedition himself?!”
Anyone who has witnessed the Evil Woman in action before felt every fiber of their being suppressed. The only thing they wanted to do after seeing her a second time was to run away as far as possible.
The divine army had always been victorious with great fighting capabilities. Its a hundred million men had swept through all the cultivation sects in a prefecture before. Their tragic loss was because the Evil Woman was truly too powerful. No one could stop her; even the three marquis had to run for their lives.
Unless there was someone who could oppose her to lead a new crusade, even another hundred million men army would only return in defeat.
And the only person who could contend with her right now might be the Jin Emperor.
Xiao Nuolan said: “I can feel that she has gotten stronger.”
After leaving the Immeasurable Tower, she had been staying inside the Boundary Spirit Stone. She was trying to fuse the intent together with the true body. This process took two months before she could come out, just in time to hear about the defeat of the divine army.
Today, the intent and true body had finally fused into one being.
At this moment, the Evil Woman was the Evil Corpse; Xiao Nuolan was the true body; the Good Corpse was inside the corpse palace inside Feng Feiyun’s dantian.
“She can’t be refining the Azure Bronze Spirit Vessel, can she?!” Feng Feiyun’s heart jumped. If the Evil Woman has gotten stronger, then she could be refining the vessel. Once successful, it would be the same as having a Holy Treasure under her control.
‘Oh god, the Evil Woman’s cultivation was already terrifying enough. If she has a Holy Treasure in her possession, who in this world will be able to stop her then?
‘But the key point is, it is my Holy Treasure! How could she do something so immoral as taking my item?!’ Of course, Feng Feiyun knew that she wouldn’t reason with him and would only speak with her fists.
“I must refine the Good Corpse in order to stop her. Hand the bone palace over to me.” Xiao Nuolan suddenly attacked Feng Feiyun. She wanted to break his dantian open in order to take away the bone palace.
“Are you kidding? Don’t think it will be so easy!” A sacred white light rushed out of Feng Feiyun’s body and stopped Xiao Nuolan, forcing her back.
This was the Good Corpse empowering Feng Feiyun and attacking from Feng Feiyun’s dantian. It was clear that she didn’t want to be refined by the true body, so she resisted.
Xiao Nuolan’s power and the Good Corpse’s power was about the same; they simply couldn’t do anything to Feng Feiyun. Ultimately, they stopped since they were afraid of causing too big of a commotion in case they alerted the big shots here at the tower.
“We have to suppress her before she finishes the fifth transformation. Otherwise, after she is finished, the first person she will try to find is you, and then me. At that time, we won’t be able to stop her and can only watch as she refines us.” Xiao Nuolan was talking to the Good Corpse, not Feng Feiyun.
However, Feng Feiyun had his own plans. He wanted to take back the Azure Bronze Spirit Vessel, and this could only be done before the Evil Woman completes the fifth transformation.
“Let us go now.” His dantian suddenly quaked violently. A white palace made out of bones flew out from his dantian. It was around the size of a fist and floated in the air while flashing with corpse fire.
Both Xiao Nuolan and the Good Corpse could feel the Evil Woman’s power rising continuously at an incredible rate. They couldn’t wait any longer and intended to work together to suppress her.
Otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.
The two soared into the clouds and flew together towards the southern canopy. In just a few breaths, they were one thousand miles away.
“Even the white corpse palace is now gone, why is it that I’m always the one losing everything? All the advantages were taken by her, how can this be?! No, I have to go to the Grand Southern Prefecture too to take back my vessel.” Feng Feiyun lamented.
In this battle of the three great bodies, someone would definitely be injured. Perhaps, all three would suffer the same losses — nothing would be better!
Feng Feiyun felt that this was an opportunity. Perhaps he would be able to take back his vessels as well as benefit from these three.
***
“Feng Feiyun, are you not surprised at all to see your big bro?” The moment Feng Feiyun left the Martial Tower to head for the Grand Southern Prefecture, he met Bi Ningshuai along the way.
Bi Ningshuai was sitting on a tree branch like a black monkey while biting on a red fruit as if he had been waiting for Feng Feiyun for a while now.
“You!” The moment Feng Feiyun saw him, he immediately took the Infinite Spirit Ring off his thumb and gripped it tightly. He did the same to the Boundary Spirit Stone that was hanging on his belt and stored it in his chest pocket.
“My name is not ‘you’. I am the most romantic disciple of the Technique Tower, the most handsome man in the world, Bi Ningshuai.” Bi Ningshuai laughed and jumped down from the tree. He grabbed Feng Feiyun’s arm and pulled him back.
“What are you doing?” Feng Feiyun felt that it was very unsafe to be so close to him.
“Someone… someone is asking me to help him take an item from the Treasure Tower. He said that you are my partner, so I came to see you.” Bi Ningshuai’s expression became a bit unnatural. Clearly, these weren’t the thoughts he had in his mind.
Feng Feiyun glanced over and noticed that this dark-faced teenager was also wearing a blood bracelet on his wrist. He was slightly surprised and understood that his helper in stealing the Invisibility Cloth was Bi Ningshuai.
This guy wasn’t wearing the bracelet before, since when was he forced to wear it by the mysterious master?