Chapter 422 - 398: Secrets and Gains

Chapter 422: Chapter 398: Secrets and Gains

’No wonder there wasn’t a single cultivator in the entire Immortal Mansion. It turns out they were all gathered here.’

Realization dawned on Zhang Chi as he took in the scene before him.

But soon after, even more questions arose in his mind.

He deduced that the skeleton sitting upright on the Jade Bed must be Master Taixuan.

But the way the other cultivators had died was extremely bizarre.

Zhang Chi suspected that they had been killed by Master Taixuan; otherwise, there was no reason for them to be here.

Furthermore, judging by their clothing, they were all servants and concubines.

’Could it be that Master Taixuan cultivated some sort of Demon Technique, lost control, and killed everyone around him? Did he then suffer a backlash from his practice and die as well?’

Zhang Chi immediately formed a bold hypothesis.

Then, instead of acting rashly, he sat down cross-legged and began to meditate to restore his Magical Power.

SWISH!

But just then, the figure presumed to be Master Taixuan suddenly opened its eyes and let out a strange, cackling laugh.

"Haha, after so many years, someone has finally arrived! It seems my fate is not to perish after all..."

As the voice clamored, a phantom suddenly shot out from Master Taixuan’s body, pouncing toward Zhang Chi as fast as lightning.

At the same time, Master Taixuan’s physical body went still and collapsed onto the White Jade Bed.

Meanwhile, a glint flashed in Zhang Chi’s eyes as he got a clear look at the phantom—it had the exact appearance of Master Taixuan.

However, the phantom’s eyes were pitch-black, without even a hint of white. Its entire being radiated waves of black gas, clearly not the Divine Soul of a normal cultivator.

Moreover, this phantom was more solid and even carried faint Magical Power fluctuations. It had to be the Primordial Spirit of a Divinity Transformation Cultivator.

A Primordial Spirit is similar to a Nascent Soul or a Golden Core, but it is far more advanced and powerful. Even a Nascent Soul Peak Cultivator would be completely unable to resist it.

But Zhang Chi was perfectly calm, not a trace of fear on his face.

He knew that if this Primordial Spirit were truly powerful, it would have taken the Immortal Mansion and left long ago. It wouldn’t be trapped in this Quiet Chamber, forced to leave its body just to launch a sneak attack on a mere Nascent Soul Cultivator like him.

Of course, even in its weakened state, an ordinary Nascent Soul Cultivator would be utterly powerless against it.

Once it attached itself to someone, Possession would be inevitable, and the consequences would be dire.

But he had no fear of Possession. Besides, he was no ordinary cultivator and wouldn’t give his opponent any chance to get close.

Just as the phantom was about to pounce on him, he suddenly shot out a hand and seized it by the head, lifting it into the air.

"You... This is impossible..."

The phantom’s hideous grin instantly froze on its face, replaced by an expression of utter disbelief.

It struggled with all its might, only to find it was completely unable to break free from his grip.

For one, its Magical Power was far too weak. For another, his seemingly casual grab was backed by an incomparably tyrannical Power of the Divine Soul—a power that had already surpassed the Nascent Soul Realm.

In its prime, escaping this grasp and killing its captor would have been trivially easy, but now, it was completely helpless.

Meanwhile, Zhang Chi couldn’t be bothered to exchange words with the phantom. He immediately performed the Soul Searching Technique.

"Arrogant fool... No...!"

The phantom was furious. It couldn’t help but sneer, thinking Zhang Chi was courting death, but its expression quickly turned to one of terror.

The phantom’s eyes rolled back in its head, its body trembled, and then it collapsed into unconsciousness.

It had clearly assumed that it was impossible for a mere Nascent Soul Cultivator like Zhang Chi to Soul Search a Divinity Transformation Level existence like itself. It expected Zhang Chi to suffer a severe backlash and have his soul obliterated.

But as it turned out, Zhang Chi’s Power of the Divine Soul was even stronger than its own, so he was completely unaffected.

Not to mention, Zhang Chi was also protected by an Exotic Treasure.

’So that’s how it is!’

A moment later, Zhang Chi finished the Soul Search. Gazing at the still-unconscious phantom in his hand, everything became clear.

His previous deductions had been correct. The one seated on the Jade Bed was indeed Master Taixuan, and the corpses at the scene were his servants and concubines.

These cultivators had indeed been killed by Master Taixuan, but not because he had cultivated a Demon Technique.

Master Taixuan had used a Secret Technique to contact a powerful entity from the Demon Realm. He had even performed a sacrifice, which allowed a wisp of the entity’s consciousness to descend and pollute him.

These cultivators were the ones Master Taixuan had sacrificed.

However, Master Taixuan was no ordinary figure. Upon realizing something was wrong, he immediately chose to seal himself.

This phantom was his Primordial Spirit, corrupted and self-sealed.

But after countless ages, Master Taixuan’s Lifespan had long run out. To be precise, this Primordial Spirit was now just a sliver of an incarnation of that powerful Demon Realm entity, one that possessed Master Taixuan’s memories.

Because of the seal, this wisp of the Demon Realm entity’s consciousness was unable to exert its full power. It couldn’t leave this place, nor could it even absorb the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi here.

That was why it had launched a sneak attack on Zhang Chi—it intended to use Possession to seize his body and thereby escape the seal.

Unfortunately for it, it never dreamed that Zhang Chi’s Divine Soul would be so powerful that he could effortlessly suppress it and perform a Soul Search.

’What Realm is that Demon Realm entity at for a mere wisp of its consciousness to be so terrifying? It could even corrupt a Divinity Transformation Celestial Monarch. What a waste of Master Taixuan’s life!’

Zhang Chi was quite astonished as he digested this information.

Through the Soul Search, he had obtained all of Master Taixuan’s Cultivation Experience, as well as the story of his life.

From what he learned, Master Taixuan had taken such a risk precisely because he was searching for a method of Ascension to the Upper Realm.

The result, quite obviously, was that Master Taixuan had failed.

As for information about the powerful Demon Realm entity, Zhang Chi gained nothing, even after performing a Soul Search on the phantom.

When Master Taixuan had sealed himself, intending to take the entity down with him, the powerful being had already severed the connection between its main body and this wisp of consciousness.

But even so, this wisp of consciousness had survived to this day and had completely taken over, a testament to the power of its true form.

Of course, its true form hadn’t severed the connection out of fear of being harmed by Master Taixuan, but for some other reason—it didn’t want any information about its true self to be leaked.

Thus, the memories of this wisp of consciousness had been directly erased.

Even the relevant information within Master Taixuan’s memories, such as how to perform the sacrifice and contact the entity, had been affected and become extremely vague.

However, Zhang Chi wasn’t disappointed by this. In fact, he was glad to know less, as it meant he wouldn’t get entangled with that powerful entity.

Next, Zhang Chi immediately began to collect his spoils.

He first tossed the phantom into his Top Grade Magical Treasure Cauldron, then formed a Spirit Technique with his hands, activating flames to begin the Refinement.

"No! Don’t do this. If you kill me, my true form will not let you go! What’s more, my true form has other conscious incarnations in this realm. If you dare to kill me, they will all come for revenge!"

The phantom was jolted awake by the flames and began to scream in terror.

Ordinary flames, or even a Thunderbolt, couldn’t threaten it in a short amount of time. But being refined like Golden Iron Ore inside a Treasure Cauldron was something it clearly couldn’t withstand.

Especially since its power was sealed and it was at its weakest; at this rate, it wouldn’t be long before it was reduced to nothing but ash.

But unfortunately for the phantom, Zhang Chi remained completely unmoved.

In fact, this very Refinement method was something he had learned from Master Taixuan’s memories; it was one of the few methods that would actually work.

The entity’s Level was so high that even in its weakened state, ordinary methods were incapable of killing it.

As for feeding it directly to a Demon Soul, that was out of the question—it would likely contaminate the Demon Soul itself.

At the same time, Zhang Chi felt quite fortunate.

He was fortunate that his Divine Soul was powerful enough and that he had predicted he would encounter such a situation before even entering.

When he was first investigating the scene, he had relied on his powerful Divine Thought to detect the anomaly ahead of time.

He simply hadn’t let on that he knew.

Otherwise, he never would have been able to capture it so easily, let alone perform a Soul Search and begin the Refinement.

If he had allowed it to attempt Possession, it most likely would have failed, but there was still a slim chance its true form might have learned of the Jade Pendant’s existence. That would have been a huge problem.

"No, I’ll submit! Please, spare me! I know of some great fortuitous encounters..."

Seeing that Zhang Chi was immune to threats, the phantom immediately changed its tune and began to plead and beg for mercy.

But alas, Zhang Chi continued to ignore it.

After all, he already knew everything it knew.

Moreover, there was no way Zhang Chi would risk cooperating with it for the sake of a few "fortuitous encounters."

Master Taixuan’s fate was a cautionary tale, after all.

Seeing this, the phantom began cursing again, alternating between begging and threatening, but it was all for naught.

Zhang Chi even set the Treasure Cauldron aside and released a Tier Four Puppet to stand guard and manage the flames.

With that taken care of, Zhang Chi began the real looting.

He first went to search the remains on the floor, only to find that the corpses were on the verge of disintegration.

Before his fingers even made contact, the mere disturbance in the air caused them to turn to ash. Nothing remained, not even their Storage Bags, the contents of which had also turned to dust.

Storage Rings might have survived, but unfortunately, none of them had any.

Zhang Chi wasn’t bothered, however, as his focus wasn’t on the remains of these cultivators.

In life, they had been Nascent Soul Cultivators at best, completely incomparable to Master Taixuan.

Next, Zhang Chi muttered an apology to Master Taixuan before proceeding to search his body.

This time, he struck gold.

First was Master Taixuan’s corpse. Even without its Primordial Spirit, it was an excellent material for Refining a Corpse Puppet, an External Incarnation, or for performing Divine Soul Possession.

Zhang Chi had no plans to do so now, but it might prove useful in the future.

If he truly had no use for it, he could give it a proper burial. That would be a fitting way to repay the man for the legacy he had left behind.

Second was a black Storage Ring on Master Taixuan’s hand. Its quality and storage space were in no way inferior to the one he had obtained in the Heaven Mending Celestial Monarch’s Cave Mansion. More importantly, it was still filled with items.

However, Zhang Chi was short on time, and the Storage Ring had been sealed by Master Taixuan before his death.

Therefore, Zhang Chi only used his powerful Divine Thought to take a quick glance. He could tell the items inside were numerous and valuable, but he didn’t have time to inspect them one by one.

Third was the black robe Master Taixuan wore. It was actually a Heaven-Reaching Spirit Treasure Level Treasure Robe.

The material of this Treasure Robe was unknown; Master Taixuan had acquired it during an Exploration in his youth. Not only was its defense incredibly strong, but it could also change its size and style, block Divine Thought probes, increase Spellcasting Power, boost Cultivation speed, and even resist the invasion of a Heart Demon to a certain degree.

Master Taixuan had dared to contact the Demon Realm entity precisely because he was wearing this Treasure Robe. He had felt utterly secure, but his overconfidence led to disaster.

Aside from these, there was one final prize: a black Token at Master Taixuan’s waist. It was the Immortal Mansion Core.