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

The third floor is where various skill-making workshops are concentrated in the Hall of Longevity. After Yan Cheng stepped out of the alchemy room, he walked straight along the corridor and looked up to see a series of doorplates:

Talisman drawing room, array making room, weapon forging room...

The high-ranking cultivators in the hall seemed to genuinely regard their sect as a normal sect.

Among all the arts of cultivation, talismans, arrays, pills, and artifacts are the most important, and these three seemingly small floors are fully equipped with them.

But Yan Cheng saw through it all; this was just another tactic used by the upper cultivators to exploit the lower cultivators.

Of these four categories—talismans, arrays, pills, and artifacts—which one doesn't require a huge amount of resources?

Corpse cultivators are inherently inefficient at cultivation. The best solution is to save the Yin Corpse Fiends they have painstakingly cultivated to enrich their cultivation and break through to the mid-stage of Qi Refining as soon as possible.

Wasting your energy on these useless things that hinder cultivation will only take you further and further away from the Great Way.

If taken properly, the elixir can help increase the speed of cultivation, which is somewhat beneficial.

The other arts and crafts are nothing more than traps that lure corpse cultivators into indulging in frivolous pursuits and losing their ambitions.

After all, if everyone used all the evil energy they cultivated, apart from the monthly fee, on cultivation, how would the officials in the hall receive any benefits?

It seems that corpse puppets cannot cultivate Yin Corpse Fiend; only "living" corpse cultivators can do so.

Yan Cheng didn't think that the palace had any way to brainwash the corpse cultivators into pure tools for producing evil spirits.

But why go through all that trouble?

As long as a seemingly real yet illusory path to advancement is provided, the lower-level cultivators will naturally strive to cultivate diligently in order to advance further, thus providing the hall with ample resources of malevolent energy.

After all, with the aptitude of many corpse cultivators, they simply cannot reach the mid-stage by cultivating behind closed doors; they still need to rely on pills to improve their physical constitution.

With the example of Tiantong preceding them, no matter how hard the corpse cultivators practiced, they would only think that they hadn't worked hard enough or that the pills they ate weren't expensive enough.

I firmly believe that once I overcome this obstacle, I will soar like a bird into the blue sky!

...and then become consumables for producing higher quality spiritual items.

Yan Cheng suddenly felt a little tired. He walked towards the darkness ahead, but was blocked by three corpse cultivators standing in the middle of the corridor.

All three were at the early stage of Qi Refining, and their appearances were unremarkable.

Only his gleaming armor clearly showed that it was very expensive.

Among the three, one of them, who was short and stocky, greeted Yan Cheng with a beaming smile:

"This unfamiliar junior brother, is he short of killing energy?"

"In this Hall of Longevity, nothing can be obtained without exchanging it for baleful energy, and baleful energy is precisely the resource that fellow disciples in the early stages lack the most."

"Fortunately, the master we serve is compassionate and willing to lend you his surplus evil energy so that you may safely overcome the difficulties and dangers on your path of cultivation."

The short, thin man had a smile on his face:

"All that is required is interest equivalent to half the amount of evil energy borrowed."

"You should know that the more malevolent energy you have, the more resources you can invest in your cultivation."

"With improved cultivation efficiency, the amount of malevolent energy produced will naturally increase, and the future interest will be negligible."

"If one is fortunate enough to reach the mid-stage of Qi Refining, the master will even waive all interest as an encouragement to those who follow."

"Junior brother wouldn't want his talent to be wasted just because of a temporary shortage of resources, would he?"

No matter how heartfelt his words were, Yan Cheng simply smiled and remained silent.

"It is only" equivalent to half the interest of the borrowed evil energy?

In my past life, which bank would dare to charge such high interest rates? The bank manager would have been summoned for questioning the very next day.

But in this godforsaken place, nothing is surprising.

Anyone who dares to lend money here must have powerful connections; otherwise, ninety-nine percent of the evil energy they lend out will be wasted.

Moreover, for corpse cultivators aspiring to reach the mid-stage, taking out a large loan before the breakthrough to stockpile resources and increase the probability of success is a sure-fire investment.

Mid-stage cultivators can open their middle dantian and condense Yin Corpse Fiends twice as efficiently as early-stage cultivators, and returning their principal afterward is not difficult.

Of course, if the plan fails and the person dies, their body will inevitably be possessed and their soul enslaved...

Is there any difference between then and before the loan was taken out?

Since the lives of corpse cultivators are worthless, they are not afraid to gamble and either die or win. What they fear most is not even having the capital to go all in.

Yan Cheng was both amused and exasperated, thinking that in this godforsaken place, lending money at exorbitant interest rates had become a virtuous act that benefited both himself and others, but unfortunately it was of no use to him whatsoever.

He turned to leave, but then the tall, fat man in the middle of the three-person room slowly spoke:

"Junior brother has not been cultivating for long and feels that he is still far from breaking through, so it is normal that he is not in a hurry to borrow money."

"However, with this mindset, I'm afraid one will never reach the initial perfection in one's lifetime."

"The Condensing Evil Pill can help condense evil energy, the Gathering Yin Array can accelerate the entry of yin energy into the body, and the Yin-Controlling Yang Talisman can suppress the backlash of yang fire and maintain the balance of the two energies."

"Even with Senior Brother Tiantong's excellent innate talent, he still needed various forms of assistance to reach perfection in his cultivation."

"Junior brother, do you perhaps believe yourself to be a prodigy, capable of achieving cultivation without external aids?"

Yan Cheng turned around and smiled:

"What if that's the case?"

The fat man sighed softly:

"Newcomers are always so confident, never considering that if they truly possessed such talent and potential, how could they have been discovered by the immortal sects only after their deaths?"

"Junior brother has no intention of considering long-term matters, and I cannot make plans for him."

"You don't need to rush to change the things that aid your cultivation, but it's best to have a self-defense technique on hand first."

"Currently, a single technique in the hall requires approximately five strands of Yin Corpse Qi. I wonder, Junior Brother…"

Before he could finish speaking, Yan Cheng interrupted him with a smile:

"With the Palace Master above, and countless highly skilled cultivators present, do we, mere early-stage cultivators, really have any need to engage in combat with others?"

A glint seemed to flicker in the fat man's deeply narrowed eyes:

"Junior brother, have you not yet heard of this?"

"Recently, several early-stage cultivators in the palace have died in their own bedrooms. They were all strangled by silver-white threads, and their bodies were left hanging on top of their coffins, unable to rest in peace."

"The emperor was furious. Senior Sister Huang, holding a golden bell, wanted to question the deceased's soul about the culprit, but so far she has not found anything."

"It is said that...their souls were all scattered."

Yan Cheng's pupils dilated slightly, and he heard the fat man sigh deeply:

"Number 9 of Class A, Number 29 of Class B, and Number 47 are all seniors who have reached the initial stage of perfection but do not know any magic techniques."

"Even with high cultivation, without the protection of magical techniques, wouldn't one still end up dying and having their cultivation dissipate?"

Yan Cheng couldn't hold back any longer upon hearing this and coldly laughed:

"Senior brother, you flatter me."

"To die a violent death on a coffin, one's soul scattered, is no worse than this—even in death, one's life becomes food for others!"

"With your powerful backers, your future is bright. No matter how tight the noose in that villain's hand is, it won't bind your necks. Why worry about others? Farewell."

After saying that, he didn't look back and strode away.

Only the three loan sharks remained in place. The short, ugly corpse cultivator said to the fat man with a bitter face:

"I didn't expect to run into someone who's so stubborn. All my words, senior brother, were wasted."

The tall, fat man remained expressionless.

He thought we were bluffing him.

"If it weren't for the strict orders from the adults forbidding us from seizing or plundering, I would have already..."

"Enough. When that villain comes to his door, there will be days when he will be unable to borrow money to seek the Dharma."

"He thought having his soul collected after death was bad enough, but little did he know there was an even more terrifying ending!"