Chapter 1040: Yang Ai and the Celestial Feather Sect

Chapter 1040: Chapter 1040: Yang Ai and the Celestial Feather Sect

After organizing the extra memories, Shen Mo roughly understood the current situation!

Gecko False Body is a body transformed by a spell, possibly due to a lack of complete Daoist body and soul, or maybe due to the traits of Evil Spirit. After the false body entered, it couldn’t maintain a human form, reverted to origin power carrying his will, and finally settled onto this middle-aged man.

This middle-aged man’s name is Yang Ai, a native of the Demonic Realm, with Spirit Sea Realm middle-stage cultivation.

His Daoist body and soul waves were quite compatible with Shen Mo’s. According to the evil cultivator’s perspective, this person is considered an excellent "Human Cauldron for possession" for him!

After the origin power carrying Shen Mo’s will descended, Yang Ai’s spirit was immediately scattered, leaving only some chaotic and broken memory fragments;

After all, the gap in cultivation between them was as vast as heaven and earth. Shen Mo was a Formless Realm Grandmaster, and even the origin power contained in a single finger was enough to "corrupt" the Essence and Qi of a Divine Bridge Immortal Master, causing distortion. Yang Ai was merely a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, naturally having no resistance whatsoever.

Yang Ai’s Daoist body was also transformed by Shen Mo’s origin power, becoming more compatible with him, and his cultivation immediately broke through to Spirit Sea Realm late-stage, and it’s still rapidly increasing. It won’t be long before he can condense a Golden Core.

"Have I become an Accompanying Demon Soul?" Shen Mo couldn’t help but feel a bit speechless.

His current state indeed resembles a wisp of Demon Soul lurking on a cultivator, and a Demon Soul that has already completed the demon-corruption.

It’s just like the Demon Soul in the soul of the Silver-haired Child, who corrupted the host and stole the host’s body and mind.

The difference is, Yang Ai was a native of the Demonic Realm, not a true creature, so Shen Mo felt no guilt, only worried that this might affect his real body!

After a brief attempt, he quickly let go of his worry; the occupied body shell was no different from the Gecko False Body. He could disperse this wisp of primal Essence and Qi anytime, but, for safety, it shouldn’t be recalled by the real body. Wait till the matter here is settled, or if a mishap occurs midway, directly burn it away would be more reliable!

"I hope it’s merely because my false body is somewhat special that such changes occurred; otherwise, it would be troublesome!"

Shen Mo entered with a false body, his real body sustained no damage, but the real bodies of Ming Cang, Jiang Lingfeng, and other disciples fell into the Demonic Realm. If they turned into primal Essence and Qi "possessing" the natives of the Demonic Realm, it means they have become part of the Demonic Realm, basically unable to leave.

Knock knock!

Shen Mo was sorting through Yang Ai’s memory fragments when someone knocked on the door.

From the disordered and broken memories, Shen Mo learned that Yang Ai’s sect was called Celestial Feather Sect, the only super sect in this realm, ruling over the entire Great Xuan Dynasty, with billions of immortals and mortals under its command. However, the sect seemed quite strapped for resources, even Yang Ai, a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, was allocated a rather small cultivation mansion without any formation prohibitions set up.

Upon opening the door, he saw a bright-eyed girl standing outside.

The girl’s name was Liu Yiyi. She had been cultivating in the lower courtyard of Celestial Feather Sect for over ten years, reaching only Layer III of the Body Tempering Realm, displaying poor talent, and was later sent to Yang Ai to serve as a maid and disciple, taking care of his daily needs.

"Elder Yang, the Battle Hall disciples who went to battle the Outer Zone demons have returned; their magic treasures and armors are severely damaged and urgently need repair." Liu Yiyi greeted with a bow and spoke softly.

Shen Mo’s thoughts flowed as he quickly searched Yang Ai’s remaining memories, discovering that he was also a Grade IV Forgemaster serving as a Treasure Refining Elder in the Artifact Hall.

"I understand!" Shen Mo nodded.

Since Yang Ai’s spirit had already dissipated, leaving memories quite disordered, Shen Mo only knew that the Battle Hall was the institution of Celestial Feather Sect charged with external conquests.

As for what "Outer Zone demons" entailed, he wasn’t quite sure, but after the Battle Hall disciples went through a great battle outside, they generally needed the Artifact Department to repair their damaged armors and magic artifacts. Those that couldn’t be repaired would be declared scrapped and replenished through new forging by the Forgemasters of the department.

Shen Mo now was an "Accompanying Demon Soul possession," a state where any statement might be right or wrong. Therefore, after agreeing, he said nothing further and prepared to head to the Artifact Hall to fulfill the sect’s tasks, then settle in to slowly explore the basic conditions of this realm and news regarding the Red Flame Gate disciples.

He tidied up the items on him, finding that Yang Ai possessed a Universe Bag, which contained one spiritual key, five Lower Grade Spirit Stones, two bottles of Grade III Elixir, and nothing else, not even magic artifacts or talismans!

"A dignified Spirit Sea Realm Elder, how could he be so shabby?" Shen Mo was puzzled, finding the Celestial Feather Sect quite strange in various ways.

The highest realm in the sect seemed to be the Sect Master with Formless Realm cultivation, ruling an entire world, yet everything appeared impoverished. Yang Ai, being a Grade IV Forgemaster, could somewhat collect spiritual materials to forge some decent magic artifacts for himself. Yet he didn’t do so, or perhaps couldn’t afford the materials needed for treasure refining!

Worried that using the Ascending Cloud Immortal Method might reveal flaws to Celestial Feather Sect cultivators, Shen Mo found a low-class Escape Skill from Yang Ai’s memories and used escaping light to rush towards the Artifact Hall.

The Treasure Refining Room of the Artifact Hall was located in the southwestern corner of Celestial Feather Sect’s mountain gate, where there was a large fire vein to channel Earthly Fire to forge or repair magic treasures.

Following the memories, Shen Mo arrived to find the forging site was shockingly large, with rows of Treasure Refining Rooms of similar style arranged in sequence from small to large, connecting the fire vein below and formations above. The smoke, toxic gases, and residual fire from treasure refining were collected by formations and transformed to maintain the operation of the Mountain Protection Array within the sect!

There were also disciples belonging to the Artifact Hall, moving like ants among them, bringing necessary spiritual materials for forging and all sorts of damaged magic artifacts and taking away repaired and newly forged artifacts.

Following the fragmented memories, Shen Mo found Yang Ai’s Ding No. 26 Treasure Refining Room, which was not exclusive to Yang Ai, shared with another Grade IV Forgemaster from the Artifact Hall, but it was Yang Ai’s turn, so it’s temporarily his to use!

Shen Mo took the spiritual key from the Universe Bag, opened the outside prohibition of the Treasure Refining Room.

As the spirit light on the plaque at the door lit up, a disciple from the Artifact Hall quickly ran over, delivered seven damaged magic artifacts and a pile of refined gold stone spiritual materials into the room, saluted to Shen Mo, then hurriedly left!

According to Yang Ai’s memories, he needs to repair these seven magic artifacts within a month; otherwise, he’d face severe punishment from the Discipline Hall of Celestial Feather Sect. Once he finishes this task, he can rest for a month, and any forging tasks during that period will be handled by another Elder in the Artifact Hall; this cycle repeats. If there are no forging tasks during his duty period, he can stay in the mansion to cultivate but cannot leave the mountain gate at will!

Shen Mo activated the formation prohibition of Ding No. 26 Treasure Refining Room, then began examining the room’s setup and the damaged magic artifacts sent by the Battle Hall.