Chapter 246: Returning to White Bone Ridge

“Who’s there?!”

The three cultivators froze mid-motion, their eyes darting toward the sound. These were seasoned veterans of magical combat, too cunning to let anyone gain the upper hand. The Black Carapace Daoist reacted first. Seizing the brief opening, he whirled into a black streak of light, leaving behind three corpse puppets to stall his pursuers as he fled.

This had been his strategy all along during the chase. A hundred puppets reduced to seven—every escape attempt had been a desperate struggle. If not for the Blackstone Ancestor’s underhanded tactics, he might have knelt in surrender to the Qiong Hua Sect by now.

But two steps into his escape, the Black Carapace Daoist sensed a shadow beside him. He instinctively redirected his Foundation Establishment cultivation energy, but the entire arm turned dark green as he attacked.

Corpse Poison Hand!

His cultivation energy is decent, but his application of corpse poison is utterly amateurish.

In the external brain, Wang Mingde’s contemptuous thoughts surfaced without restraint, his disdain for the cultivator’s technique plain.

The Black Carapace Daoist had no mind for such details. His entire repertoire of techniques revolved around controlling corpses—a fatal flaw for cultivators of the corpse-refining path. Without his zombie puppets, he could only muster half his full strength.

His Poison Hand manifested as a serpentine dragon that crashed forward, carving a long trench in the earth and billowing toxic smoke. The Black Carapace Daoist felt a sudden emptiness in his hand, an ominous sensation washing over him.

Missed!

Thud!

A dull impact struck the back of his head. The shadow in his attack direction vanished.

Someone had struck him with a shovel—a spiritual energy-wreathed implement carrying force surpassing even a physical cultivator’s strength. The blow sent him flying through the air.

Mid-flight, the Black Carapace Daoist couldn’t suppress his injuries. Blood sprayed from his ears, nose, mouth, and eyes.

Before he could land, the shadow pursued again. In his peripheral vision, he glimpsed strange patterns emerging on the attacker’s left chest—a demonic aura shimmering across his arm.

Muscles bulged as the arm descended, carrying a savage, primeval aura. The strike came down with brutal force.

This time, the Black Carapace Daoist finally saw his attacker’s face clearly.

“Is that you?!”

He recognized the man - it was the same stranger who had joined him to loot the underground market during the chaos caused by Elder FusionSpirit’s tribulation in Blackstone City. This person was even more powerful than he’d imagined, and worst of all, he had no shame whatsoever. With such formidable strength, he still resorted to ambush attacks.

Boom!

A fist accompanied by an elbow smashed down onto the Black Carapace Daoist’s chest. His protective spiritual glow shattered like glass, leaving a massive indentation in his chest. The Foundation Establishment spiritual body exploded, sending fragments of his internal organs flying out of his mouth.

Facing death, the Black Carapace Daoist unleashed his primal ferocity, channeling his last spiritual energy to activate his ‘Pseudo-Core Seed’.

“Die!”

A venomous curse erupted from his bloodied lips. But Chen Luo was faster. His hand clamped around the man’s neck as a wisp of black qi rose from his body, eyes glinting with sinister light.

“Black Carapace, look at me! Who am I?”

The Black Carapace Daoist, who had been preparing to fight for his life, suddenly looked disoriented.

Great-Grandmother

It was as if he’d been transported back to his childhood, seeing the woman who had instilled the greatest fear in him. The Black Carapace Daoist’s cowardly nature had been nurtured by this very woman.

He was born into a cultivation family and began learning corpse-refining techniques from a young age.

Due to his exceptional aptitude, he was selected as the final disciple by the family’s patriarch - his great-grandmother - at a tender age.

Unlike the warmth found in other families, Black Carapace Daoist’s clan practiced ruthless detachment. They believed the ultimate corpse cultivator should abandon all human emotions, becoming like the corpses they manipulated. To ensure he mastered their secret cultivation technique, his great-grandmother forced him to kill his parents and siblings, then refine them into corpse puppets.

When Black Carapace Daoist first entered the cultivation path, his first batch of corpse puppets were his own family members.

This childhood trauma left a profound Demonic Heart within him. From the moment he embarked on the cultivation path, he felt no sense of security. To compensate, he created over a hundred corpse puppets, arranging them around himself like a false family to provide illusory safety.

Now, Chen Luo had exploited this weakness, delaying the Daoist’s desperate counterattack.

Pop!

With a single twist of his hand, the head separated from the body.

To ensure the corpse remained inert, Chen Luo delivered a final strike with Yin Thunder. After securing the Pouch of Holding, he proceeded to collect the head.

Contacted deceased’s brainwaves. Degradation 67%. Read now?

Read!

The action was practiced, as if he’d performed it countless times.

What a waste. I shouldn’t have struck the head.

The regret flashed briefly, but there had been no time to hesitate earlier. The Black Carapace Daoist was a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the peak of his realm. Had he been given a chance to fight for his life, the outcome would have been different. Even the power of a Pseudo-Core Seed could make him retreat three times the distance of a city. With the Black Carapace Daoist’s combat experience, he would have seized any opportunity to escape using Blood Escape. By then, pursuing him would have been far more difficult.

This was the fundamental difference between peak Foundation Establishment cultivators and ordinary Foundation Establishment experts.

“Junior Brother Chen?!”

The entire exchange had lasted only a few breaths. By the time Gong Cheng and Weng Jiang reacted, the Black Carapace Daoist’s head had already been severed. When they recognized Chen Luo’s appearance, both men’s faces simultaneously lit up with relief.

One of our own!

“Watch out for his corpse poison.”

Gong Cheng’s warning trailed off as he watched in astonishment. The corpse poison the Black Carapace Daoist had unleashed moments before death was now retreating from Chen Luo’s body in an utterly inexplicable manner.

He couldn’t comprehend it.

This was the method of a poison cultivator.

“How did you end up in the Southwest Territory too?” Elder Weng Jiang asked, failing to notice this detail. His concern lay elsewhere.

He had taken over the Demonic Heart mission half a year ago and spent considerable time resolving his own Demonic Heart issues after returning. When he left last time, both Chen Luo and Elder Mei Xuan were still in the Blood Pool’s secret chamber.

Before accepting this new mission, he had specifically visited Elder Mei Xuan, only to find the elder still in seclusion. The secret chamber’s surroundings pulsed with residual Demonic Heart energy, suggesting it would take at least seven more years for complete resolution. Chen Luo’s cultivation was at the late Foundation Establishment stage, the same as his own. How could he have recovered faster than Elder Mei Xuan, a great cultivator at the peak Foundation Establishment realm?

“I took on a mission that brought me through this area.”

Chen Luo deftly stored the Black Carapace Daoist’s legacy in his sleeve, then produced a Soul Banner to collect the soul. By chance, he’d gained another main soul - perhaps Ye Feng’s master wouldn’t be lonely after all.

Two of Blackstone City’s three great cultivators now resided in his Soul Banner. After collecting the soul, Chen Luo summoned a spiritual flame from his palm, reducing the Black Carapace Daoist’s remains to ashes. With a sweep of his sleeve, he buried the ashes in the pit he’d excavated earlier. Approaching the mound, he placed a talisman on the soil and performed a simple funeral rite, completing the process.

“Brother, I still have matters to attend to, so I won’t linger here.”

There was no need for formalities with these two. After handling the necessary tasks, Chen Luo offered a brief farewell before flying away on his sword. Had he not encountered the Black Carapace Daoist earlier, he wouldn’t have descended at all. Now that the Daoist had been slain and the remains properly disposed of, he naturally resumed his journey.

“Senior Brothers, farewell.”

The sword’s glow flashed, and in the blink of an eye, he vanished into the horizon.

He came swiftly, and departed just as quickly.

“Wasn’t that… too effortless?” Gong Cheng glanced at the mound of earth they’d buried and the yellow paper talisman fluttering atop it. This was an ordinary talisman, devoid of spiritual energy.

Who carries such things on them? he wondered.

“Seems so,” his companion agreed.

The two stood frozen, gazing in the direction where Chen Luo had disappeared.

A cold wind lifted their tattered robes.

“That Chen junior harbors great secrets,” Gong Cheng couldn’t help but remark.

In that brief encounter, he had witnessed three divine abilities from Chen Luo: physical cultivation, poison cultivation, and soul cultivation. A typical Foundation Establishment cultivator would never waste their energy on such diverse paths before reaching Core Formation.

Human strength is finite, but the Dao is infinite. This truth was known to all immortal cultivators.

“Anyone who cultivates to this level must have their secrets,” Elder Weng Jiang mused. He was content with his gains. Not only had he completed the mission, but he’d also acquired a full-fledged peak realm cultivator’s head. When reporting back, he’d claim the achievement was shared between himself, Gong Cheng, and Elder Chen, splitting the merit points to sustain their cultivation for years.

“Let’s return,” he said. “We should tidy up and head back.”

Elder Weng Jiang retrieved the discarded head, then flicked his sleeve. His spirit sword flew out, carrying him toward Blackstone City. Gong Cheng hurried after, the lingering doubts in his heart dispelled by Weng Jiang’s reminder.

After the pair departed, Chen Luo continued his journey for several more days.

Surrounded by mist-shrouded mountains, he finally recognized a familiar peak as dusk approached. This was Bai Gu Ridge—the very place he’d first visited when entering the demonic cultivation realm.

This was where Chen Luo had first met Lady Bai Gu. Back then, he’d made a deal with her that yielded a wealth of materials.

After Lady Bai Gu’s departure, another Foundation Establishment cultivator had taken over the place, changing its name from Bai Gu Ridge to Huangshi Ridge. Though it was only a first-order spirit meridian, the competition for it had been fierce. The one who’d claimed this territory was undoubtedly a powerhouse among Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Piercing through the clouds, Chen Luo guided his flying sword downward. As he approached the mountain’s peak, he took a step in mid-air. The spiritual sword beneath his foot let out a soft hum, shrinking to the size of a toothpick before darting into his sleeve as a streak of light.

Walking on air, Chen Luo descended onto Bai Gu Ridge.

This was the exact spot where he’d first met Lady Bai Gu. Once, there had stood a stone table adorned with skulls, with the remains of two Foundation Establishment cultivators hanging from either side of the cave entrance. Now, all traces of the macabre display had been cleared away. The stone table now held fruits, melons, and wine instead of bones.

The stone walls that had once displayed white bones now overflowed with vines bearing pink poisonous flowers. Their pollen drifted across the entire platform, creating a haze of danger.

“Who dares!” The sudden appearance of a Foundation Establishment cultivator’s aura immediately drew the attention of the cave’s owner.