Starting with the consumables of the Demonic Sect, one can barely achieve immortality.

Yan Cheng sheathed the longsword that had fallen to the ground; it was his only gain from this battle.

The longsword was forged from refined steel, and according to the message from the Hidden Immortal Mirror, it had been tempered by Yang Fire, making it more resilient and harder than ordinary steel swords.

Indeed, if it were an ordinary steel sword, it would have been shattered into pieces by his Moon Wheel Seal.

The Yang Fire tempering technique, like the inscription of runes into the marrow, is a unique method of the Immortal Sect, and it is said to have been lost in the south, which is controlled by the righteous path.

As for where the Yang Fire used in quenching the sword came from, Yan Cheng knew without even thinking.

He had heard Tian Tong say that there was a faction of high-ranking cultivators in the Hall of Longevity who preferred to use the physical bodies left behind by corpse cultivators as materials, rather than hastily turning corpse cultivators into corpse puppets.

Corpse oil extracted from the flesh and blood of corpse cultivators can be used to draw arrays, and the residual yang fire from the lower dantian can be used to refine weapons.

The internal organs can be used as ingredients for many unconventional elixirs.

The benefits of using corpse cultivators in talismans, arrays, pills, and artifacts are undoubtedly greater than those of creating a corpse puppet that is of little use in high-level cultivator battles.

But Senior Sister Huang is kind-hearted and cannot bear to see corpse cultivators being dismembered after death.

That's why he was determined to cultivate the intact corpse into a corpse puppet, so that they could walk side by side on the path of cultivation.

To be honest, Yan Cheng really admired Tian Tong for being able to hold back his laughter when he said those things.

There's no such thing as being kind or not; it's just two factions in the palace fighting amongst themselves.

Bigwigs may have different opinions on how to use consumables more efficiently.

However, they are certainly united in their stance of regarding the corpse cultivators as consumables.

The logic is like someone suggesting making fried chicken, while someone else suggests stir-frying chicken with chives.

Regardless of who wins the argument in the end, the chicken still has to be cooked.

He sat back on the coffin, and only after hearing the heavy footsteps fade into the distance did his cold gaze sweep over the remains standing to the side.

On the surface, the headhunter incident seems to be just a show orchestrated by the loan shark gang.

Using rumors of the hangman's murders, they created a sense of panic among the corpse cultivators.

This forces more corpse cultivators to take risks and borrow Yin Sha Loans in order to achieve breakthroughs.

Tian Tong, or rather Huang Tong behind him, was unwilling to see the lender's power grow stronger.

Therefore, they spared no expense in summoning the Corpse-Eating Yin Puppet.

The message in the Hidden Immortal Mirror was clearly written: this thing was usually kept in a coffin with talismans.

Once released from the coffin, it must consume the flesh and blood of the corpse cultivators to sustain its life.

In other words, each time the Yin Puppet is used, it consumes a considerable amount of resources.

Those two unlucky guys knew the Yin Puppet was here, yet they still dared to commit murder.

As luck would have it, it became the food to feed the corpse puppets!

Thinking of this, Yan Cheng suddenly had a flash of inspiration and realized that the logic was flawed:

"Otherwise... if that were all, why would we need to kill Guan Yu to succeed!"

"Guan Caishun was a mid-stage cultivator. Arranging for the executioner to kill her was simply a way of telling the corpse cultivators that even if they broke through, it would be useless."

Moreover... he can't even beat these two guys, so how can he possibly kill Guan Caishun?

Yan Cheng broke out in a cold sweat, as if he had seen through the truth hidden in his previous guess about the next level:

"If we say that these two guys just saw the executioner could take the blame for them and came to take advantage of the situation, that makes more sense, and it's also in line with the thinking of members of the immortal sects."

That means the deaths of these two guys aren't the end.

The real executioner is still hiding in this Hall of Eternal Life...

Just then, he saw a wisp of smoke slowly seeping in through the crack in the door.

Yan Cheng stood up instantly, sword in one hand, palm forming the Moon Illumination Seal to unleash the Divine Penetration Technique, his heart pounding:

"It's not poison gas, nor is it sleeping potion..."

"This is... the Unseen Mist!"

In the silent, dark room, only the sound of a rapidly beating heartbeat could be clearly heard.

The mist entered the room at a slower pace, then quickened until it condensed into a hooded black robe and a slender figure.

Yan Cheng had no time to appreciate her figure; his gaze was fixed on the five gruesome cuts on her chest that ran from her shoulders down to her waist.

Beneath the tattered robes lay pale flesh, and what flowed from the wounds was not fresh blood, but a thick, murky black liquid.

Tightly wrapped around the injury were strands of silver-white silk threads, their ends gripped tightly in the female cultivator's palm, their color altered by the seeping black blood.

Yan Cheng asked:

"Who are you?"

The female cultivator's bloodless purple lips parted slightly in the shadows, as if she wanted to respond.

But in the next instant, the uninvited guest fainted right in front of Yan Cheng.

……

Yan Cheng had no idea why this guy had come to her room.

However, she knew very well that if the emperor found out, she would definitely be unable to extricate herself from the situation.

The ghoul puppet patrolling the corridor was clearly not one to listen to his explanations.

"Damn it, in this godforsaken place, people with low cultivation levels have no rights; anyone can come and take advantage of them..."

Yan Cheng sat cross-legged on the coffin lid, his face gloomy, staring at the female cultivator with her eyes closed who had been placed inside the black coffin.

In terms of sheer pressure from cultivation level alone, this person is almost on par with the Corpse-Eating Yin Puppet, roughly at the mid-stage of Qi Refining perfection.

Among the corpse cultivators of similar skill level, Yan Cheng knew only Tian Tong.

Others, such as Chen Caimin and Guan Caishun, could hardly compare to him.

No wonder Guan Caishun died at her hands.

With her mid-stage perfected cultivation and wielding the puppet-controlling silk, what corpse cultivator of the same realm could be her match?

"But how did she manage to have so many threads wrapped around her body without suffering a backlash from the yang fire...?"

The puppet threads are formed from condensed Yang fire. If ordinary corpse cultivators come into contact with them for a long time, it will inevitably cause the Yang fire in their bodies to go berserk.

The reason why Tian Tong and others were able to control the silk threads was because they used a secret technique of the immortal sect called "The Wonderful Art of Pulling Silk and Controlling Puppet," which allowed them to concentrate their Yin energy in their palms to counteract the Yang energy of the silk threads.

As for Yan Cheng, he avoided exploding and dying only because he used the Yin Star Flame to expel excess Yang energy.

But the fact that the female cultivator in front of him, whose body was wrapped in silk threads, acted as if nothing was wrong made Yan Cheng feel that something was seriously wrong.

"This guy's constitution is definitely abnormal!"

He once again used his Insightful Insight technique to observe the female cultivator's internal energy, but all he could see was a blurry mass of chaos.

Unsettled fog.

This mist is at least a product of the Core Formation stage; even the wondrous Hidden Immortal Mirror cannot penetrate it to reveal the inner workings of the atmosphere.

Of course, Yan Cheng vaguely sensed that this was not the limit of the Hidden Immortal Mirror.

Rather, it was because his cultivation level was not high enough that the mirror actively blocked out information that he could not currently bear.

Since things had come to this point, he had no choice but to dispel the magic.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed between the female cultivator's lips, and white flames faintly burst forth from between her pearly teeth.

This is a sign of the yang fire turning against itself!

Yan Cheng immediately stood up and retreated to the corner of the wall, secretly feeling sorry for the black coffin that was bound to be buried with the female cultivator.

The female cultivator's body did not explode instantly as he had feared.

Under Yan Cheng's watchful gaze, the white flames of Yang Fire, which seemed about to erupt at any moment, quickly subsided.

It then transformed into a silvery-white thread that slowly emerged from between her lips.

Puppets are bound together by silk threads.

Yan Cheng's pupils dilated instantly.

Just then, the female cultivator in the coffin sat up, her small half-face, hidden in the shadow of her hood, turned towards him.