Mortal: I'm in Tianxing City, intelligence updates daily.

With a thought, Li Shizhou activated the ancient treasure of purple-gold armor he was wearing, which completely protected his body.

After a loud bang, a white bone arrow struck the hard armor and shattered into pieces, revealing the primordial spirit of a middle-aged woman.

"Fellow Daoist, it's a misunderstanding, a misunderstanding. I'll be leaving now."

The middle-aged woman's somewhat blurry face was full of surprise. After speaking, she turned around and tried to escape.

However, she had only escaped a few feet when her entire primordial spirit was enveloped by a yellow glow, and at the same time, a tremendous suction force pulled her toward a huge nostril.

Li Shizhou, standing to the side, had a grim expression and said coldly, "Now you're thinking of running away? It's too late. Were you trying to possess me just now?"

The middle-aged woman's expression had changed from surprise to horror: "Soul-Crying Beast, which sect of cultivators are you? How can you possess such a spirit beast that offends the natural order?"

"You're quite knowledgeable, but you're meddling too much. You should consider your own situation."

As Li Shizhou spoke, he used his divine sense to command Ti Hun not to swallow the middle-aged woman's primordial spirit for the time being, as he had other uses for it.

"Fellow Daoist, spare my life! I was harmed by treacherous villains and lost my physical body. I was just confused for a moment."

As the middle-aged woman's spirit watched the "Crying Soul Beast's" nostrils draw ever closer, she began to wail and beg for mercy.

"If I hadn't been protected by a treasure, would you have shown mercy?"

Seeing that she couldn't get away with begging, the middle-aged woman remained silent for a while before trying to bribe her: "I have many rare treasures in my cave. If you ask your Soul-Crying Beast to stop, I will take you to get them afterwards, how about that?"

"I'm not interested in your little treasures," Li Shizhou said directly.

Most cultivators, when traveling, will keep their treasures on their person unless they are inconvenient to carry. Leaving them in their cave dwellings is generally not very attractive to cultivators of the same level, let alone someone as wealthy as Li Shizhou.

"I know the locations of several ancient cultivators' caves, and there's a high probability that they contain ancient treasures," the middle-aged woman continued, changing her offer.

"I am not lacking in antique treasures."

Even if he didn't possess three ancient treasures, he wouldn't be very interested in exploring cultivators' caves and searching for leftover treasures. After all, safe ancient cultivators' caves have basically been looted, and any caves where good things can be retrieved are fraught with danger.

Seeing that Li Shizhou's tone was cold but he hadn't yet ordered Ti Hun to kill, the middle-aged woman realized that he must have other motives. So she asked, "What do you want? I will do whatever it takes to satisfy you."

"The condition is simple: become my ghost slave, and I will spare your life."

Li Shizhou revealed his purpose: he had previously obtained a treasure box from an ancient well in Changning City.

Inside was a letter and a jade slip.

The jade slip contains a ghost cultivation technique that can only be practiced by the primordial spirit of a cultivator who has recently lost their physical body.

There are also some supernatural abilities and secret techniques that only ghost cultivators can use.

Once one of the secret techniques is mastered, the ghost cultivator can silently control cultivators whose souls are weaker than their own.

It can be used to gather intelligence or launch a surprise attack from within the enemy ranks, and can be surprisingly effective in certain situations.

Li Shizhou himself was not a ghost, so naturally he would not cultivate it. At the same time, he was also worried about being harmed by the backlash, so he had never thought of taking ghost slaves to cultivate this technique.

This jade slip has been sitting in my storage bag for so many years, completely useless.

Now that we have the "Crying Soul Beast" in hand, the situation has changed drastically. We've also just happened to encounter the primordial spirit of a Core Formation cultivator who doesn't know his own mortality. It's a perfect opportunity to take him in as a ghost slave and cultivate this ghost cultivation technique.

As for the letter, it was nothing more than Qi Boyuan's ancestor admonishing his clansmen not to practice this technique unless absolutely necessary, lest they go astray.

"Don't even think about it. I'd rather die than become a slave."

The middle-aged woman was furious upon hearing this and said resolutely, after all, once one becomes a ghost cultivator, one loses even the chance to reincarnate.

"Then I'll grant your wish now."

At Li Shizhou's command, Ti Hun manipulated the yellow glow to pull the middle-aged woman's spirit in front of his nose, where it was about to be sucked in.

Driven by an instinctive fear of death, the middle-aged woman struggled for a moment before finally saying, "Fine, but if you achieve great success in the future, please release me and restore my freedom."

"No problem, I can grant your request."

With a thought, Li Shizhou, Ti Hun, looked regretful as he withdrew the yellow glow, while his eyes were fixed on the middle-aged woman's primordial spirit, ready to strike again at any moment.

The middle-aged woman, who was temporarily out of danger, took the initiative to call out "master," though her tone wasn't very sincere.

Li Shizhou took out a dark black wooden cup and said, "Come in, this is where you'll live from now on."

"Soul-nourishing wood." The middle-aged woman, who had been looking grim because she was about to become a ghost cultivator, was overjoyed when she saw the wooden cup and blurted out.

Soul-Nourishing Wood is not only a treasure for cultivators, but also an excellent item for ghost cultivators, with the miraculous effect of increasing cultivation speed.

A moment later, Li Shizhou put the middle-aged woman's spirit along with the wooden cup into a jade box. At the same time, he wrapped it with more than ten sealing talismans like wrapping a rice dumpling before putting the jade box away with peace of mind.

"We've been away for a while now; it's time to go back to Tianxing City."

He flew out of "Twin Islands" and headed towards "Cloud Ruins Island".

This island is one of the dozens of islands in the outer star sea where the Star Palace has set up teleportation arrays. At his current speed, he can arrive in less than ten days.

Nothing happened along the way.

When Li Shizhou was only three thousand miles away from "Yunxu Island", a commotion broke out.

Not far away, three cultivators were being chased by a group of flying beasts.

He scanned the area with his divine sense and recognized one of the middle-aged gray-robed cultivators as an old acquaintance—Gu Shoucheng, the one who had recommended him to enter the Star Palace for cultivation years ago.

The remaining two were a young male cultivator in blue robes and a female cultivator in a red dress. Li Shizhou had seen this female cultivator once before in the Star Palace, so it seemed that these people were all disciples of the Star Palace.

All three of them were at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and there were as many as ten demonic beasts behind them, two of which were level four demonic beasts, and the rest were level three.

No wonder the three pursuers were in such a sorry state; it was only a matter of time before they perished here. If nothing unexpected happened, they wouldn't last even the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

Although Gu Shoucheng's attitude was not good at first, he did help in the end, and Gu Ci and he also had a good relationship.

Now that he's in trouble, Li Shizhou still doesn't mind lending a helping hand for anything that can be easily resolved.

As he flew away, he made hand seals, and a moment later a sharp bird cry rang out in the air.

Nine three-foot-long, three-legged firebirds transformed into a rainbow, leaping over the three Foundation Establishment cultivators and swooping down on the demon horde behind them.