Chapter 227: The Peace Talisman and the Gu

As Zhang Rongling awoke, the entire world came to a standstill, leaving only him and Chen Luo behind.

During their conversation, the white hair on both of them receded, returning them to their youthful appearances. Zhang Rongling didn’t bother to ask who Chen Luo was; it had become irrelevant by this point. Chen Luo, for his part, didn’t mention any events from the outside world. They remained uncle and nephew, just as they had throughout their lives.

“This is my tribulation. I accept it without regret!”

With these final words, Elder FusionSpirit’s body in the outside world burned completely to ashes, his life coming to an end. In the midst of the Inner Demon Tribulation, Zhang Rongling lifted his index finger and pointed at Chen Luo. A grain of white light flew into Chen Luo’s palm. With this act, his life reached its conclusion.

Time stopped, colors faded, and everything scattered into dust.

The tribulation energy dissipated.

Chen Luo was also expelled by this surge of power. The familiar sensation of being pulled returned as his consciousness went back to his original body.

Blackstone City.

A terrifying Core Formation aura descended, crushing all the chaotic Tribulation cultivators looting Blackstone City beneath its might.

“Blackstone Ancestor is back!”

“Run, quickly!”

“Dammit, didn’t they say Blackstone Ancestor left?”

Some, terrified, cried out loud in an attempt to flee.

But to these Core Formation cultivators, the lower-level cultivators were as fragile as ants. With a mere wave of their hands, they trapped all the escapees within their grasp. As vital energy coursed through the heavens, each fleeing cultivator was crushed like a mere bug, foundation establishment cultivators met the same fate.

Such was the vast gulf between cultivators—a single step signifying an insurmountable chasm!

In the face of Foundation Establishment, Qi Refining cultivators were mere ants. And weren’t Foundation Establishment cultivators equally insignificant before Core Formation?

The survivors stood frozen on the spot, too scared to move a muscle.

The Blackstone Ancestor materialized above the city in robes of black, his eyes devoid of emotion as he surveyed the ruins. Only when his gaze fell upon Elder FusionSpirit’s ashes did his eyes betray the slightest hint of disturbance.

So the disaster-avoidance secret art is indeed a fabrication.

With this thought, the Blackstone Ancestor vanished as quickly as he appeared. From start to finish, he had spared not a single glance for the ruined city, as if he’d already known what awaited him.

As the might of Core Formation dissipated, everyone in the city let out a collective sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, beneath the surface, several pairs of eyes smoldered with even greater intensity.

Core Formation!

They must achieve Core Formation.

Chen Luo opened his eyes. He was still in the cave.

Little time had passed since he first dug his way into the ordeal. Yet within the Demonic Heart Tribulation, he had lived an entire lifetime. This overlapping of realities left him momentarily unsure of what was real and what was illusory, causing him to subconsciously wonder if he still remained within the ‘Tribulation’.

Guard your true self; even stray thoughts are part of cultivation, whispered the dry skull’s brain.

Chen Luo closed his eyes, assuming a cross-legged posture as he began to slowly rotate the Demonic Heart Incantation. The technique was still in motion, but the rate at which his internal spiritual energy grew had slowed. With Elder FusionSpirit dead, his ‘Demonic Heart’ no longer had a source to draw from. Nevertheless, the gains from this experience were truly astonishing. Although most had been claimed by the ‘Heavenly Tribulation,’ as the executor, the Demonic Heart Incantation had still extracted substantial benefits. The number of spiritual energy dragons within him soared from sixty to eighty, instantly saving him dozens, if not hundreds, of years!

This spiritual energy was the culmination of Elder FusionSpirit’s centuries of arduous cultivation, remarkably pure.

Moreover, during his previous Transcendence, Elder FusionSpirit had endured the Thunder Tribulation, resulting in spiritual energy even more refined than Chen Luo’s inherent essence. Such a sudden increase left him feeling somewhat disoriented, needing time to properly assimilate it.

Fortunately, he had anticipated this. Before entering the Demonic Heart Tribulation, Chen Luo had left Blackstone City. Now, amidst this desolate wilderness, he had set up a maze array to ensure his solitude. With no one around, he could safely focus on familiarizing himself with his new power.

As he circulated the Demonic Heart Art, the influence of the tribulation gradually diminished, and his mind regained stability.

Slowly, his spiritual energy began to harmonize with his essence, forming a self-sustaining cycle.

After half a day…

Chen Luo emerged from his meditative state, his explosively enhanced cultivation now stabilized. The memories in his mind were no longer chaotic; the fluctuations caused by the Demonic Heart Art had subsided.

He extended his hand, and with a single thought, a shimmering Talisman of Safety materialized in his palm. This talisman, gifted to him by Zhang Rongling just before his spirit dissipated, represented the greatest gain from his ordeal.

“A memento from the Demonic Heart Tribulation”

Chen Luo recalled how he had spent the majority of his life cultivating the Foster Health Art within the tribulation. His own martial arts remained behind, while the lingering obsession of Zhang Rongling manifested as his reward.

Setting aside the Talisman of Safety, he raised his hand and struck the nearby stone wall with a boom!

The stone wall, originally barely wide enough for a person, was unexpectedly expanded with a single palm strike. Chen swept his sleeve, clearing away the rubble, then stepped into the newly created space.

Inside the cave, Chen gestured, producing a pouch of holding from thin air.

Earlier, during the chaos in Blackstone City, he had seized some spirit materials. He wasn’t sure how others fared, but amidst the pandemonium, he grabbed what he could. Along the way, he picked up several storage pouches from those who perished.

Although he didn’t secure anything from the Blackstone Ancestor, his haul was still respectable, recouping years of expenses in Blackstone City. It felt akin to his memories of the stock market—while others frenziedly bought more shares, he was the lone figure successfully exiting the maelstrom.

“Too bad about Madam Hua,” Chen Luo mused.

With this escape, finding Madam Hua again would be no easy task. The death of Elder FusionSpirit in his Demonic Heart Tribulation rendered the leverage Chen Luo held over her useless. It was somewhat disheartening; a valuable asset had slipped through his fingers. He’d have to wait for his next visit to the city, hoping to devise a new plan to gain her trust once more—a delicate balance between fulfilling her needs and protecting his own ambitions.

After retrieving the spirit objects, Chen Luo meticulously sorted them by category. These items were crucial for future pill refinement; any misplacement could be disastrous.

With the spiritual materials organized, he finally turned his attention to the most important item: the Corpse-Raising Sack.

This time, he had collected over twenty refined corpses, all of which were Foundation Establishment stage iron corpses. Although Chen Luo lacked a corresponding cultivation technique for Foundation Establishment corpses, he could still control them using his Qi Refining corpse control method, albeit not at full capacity.

For Chen Luo, this was good enough.

What mattered most were the corpses’ brains. He picked up one of the refined corpses and placed his hand on its head.

The familiar interface popped up.

Chen Luo’s spirits soared; his limit had increased again!

Without hesitation, he chose to retrieve the data. After absorbing this information, Chen Luo took out the severed head he had collected earlier and selected retrieve once more.

Moments later, Chen Luo discovered that the number of Foundation Establishment external brains he controlled had again reached its limit.

One hundred and eighteen in total!

An increase of eighteen, with the remaining eleven refined corpse heads temporarily unable to be absorbed. Among these ten Foundation Establishment brains, most belonged to ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators. However, there was one special case: a brain from a Beastmaster cultivator.

With this brain at his disposal, Chen Luo’s previously acquired knowledge of beast control could now find practical application. However, these insights differed from what he had learned as a former Beast Control Master, requiring some time to adapt before they felt as intuitive as his ‘pitch-perfect’ memory.

Having safely stored the refined corpse, Chen Luo left behind the iron cadaver with its harvested brain. He then commanded it to fly before him.

Corpse mist seeped from its wrinkled skin, emitting a chilly frost.

“This is perfect for testing just what Zhang Rongling’s Peace Talisman can do,” Chen Luo thought.

He extended his hand, and the familiar Peace Talisman once again materialized in his palm.

This talisman was no physical object but rather something akin to a Demonic Heart. Understanding its nature was crucial for harnessing its power.

Guiding the talisman, Chen Luo flipped his hand, driving the talisman directly into the refined corpse’s head with a swift strike.

The moment the talisman touched the refined corpse, it vanished like snow in the sun. Initially still, the corpse jolted, then began convulsing eerily, emitting guttural, hoarse sounds.

Chen Luo stepped forward, placing his hand on the refined corpse’s shoulder.

Casting down the aura of his late Foundation Establishment stage, he swiftly calmed the corpse’s movements. His power permeated through its body, allowing him to carefully pinpoint the location of the talisman.

This cultivating corpse was once a powerhouse in the Foundation Establishment realm. Its body had been transformed into a spiritual vessel before undergoing further enhancement in Blackstone City’s various concoctions. Combined with the infusion of malevolent qi, it had become a true iron corpse. In these undead puppets, the meridians had withered away, leaving only residual malevolent qi and a pulsating heart.

As Chen Luo’s senses probed the puppet, the meridians unexpectedly began to stir with eerie vitality. The earlier convulsions were now understood as the physical manifestation of these distorted pathways.

Guided by his perception, Chen Luo swiftly located the Talisman of Peace.

The talisman had fused with the puppet’s heart, pulsating in sync with its beats. This rhythmic change was akin to a medicinal pill, animating the entire body of the cultivator corpse.

“Resurrection? That can’t be right.”

Chen Luo extended his spiritual energy, preparing to extract the Talisman of Peace.

The moment his energy touched the heart, the undead puppet jolted, throwing off Chen Luo’s grip.

In the next instant, the puppet’s mouth gaped open, spewing a putrid corpse miasma.

ROAR!

The noxious cloud slammed into the stone wall like a shockwave, leaving it stained black. Then, as if inflated by a sudden gust, the left side of the puppet’s body swelled ominously. The veins within, once dormant, now thrummed with a life of their own, arching and contorting with terrifying force.

Rip.

The corpse’s impossibly tough skin was actually torn apart from the inside by its ruptured qi vessels. Half of its body lay in tattered ruin, with blood vessels and qi vessels dancing wildly like mad snakes. At the same time, the corpse’s right side also began to swell. Chen Luo’s hand on its right shoulder could plainly feel the writhing beneath the skin.

He jerked his hand back and stumbled two steps away.

Another explosion tore through the flesh,sending more bloody flesh and qi vessels flying. The intact iron corpse exploded, leaving behind a tangled mass of dark red blood vessels and a still-pumping heart. These vessels spread outward like roots, with their ends wildly probing the air.

Several of these vessels actively began to slither towards Chen Luo.

As he watched this bizarre transformation, Chen Luo’s gaze penetrated through the blood vessels, focusing on the talisman at the very center.

This object left by Zhang Rongling was far from ordinary.

How could it be simple when left behind by a great cultivator, one who had reached Foundation Establishment Perfection and even attempted to break through to Core Formation?

The talisman remained pressed against the heart, shimmering with each beat as if some living thing were breathing in there.

Is it a gu?

The thought flashed through Chen Luo’s mind.