Ghost Immortal

Li Feng chose to make his move on a full moon night.

It wasn't because the night of the full moon had any special blessing; it was simply because the moonlight was bright enough that there was no need to light torches.

He cleared a space in the dilapidated temple, moved the Iron Guard to the space, and then drew three layers of spirit-trapping runes around the Iron Guard using charcoal ash.

These three layers of array patterns are bidirectional, preventing vengeful spirits from escaping during the spirit refining process and isolating them from external interference.

After everything was ready, Li Feng sat cross-legged in front of Tie Wei, holding the black ball locked by the Spirit-Binding Talisman in his right hand and pressing his left hand against the hole in Tie Wei's chest.

He took a deep breath, and the vortex in his dantian spun faster. Spiritual energy flowed along his spiritual root and into his left hand through his meridians, creating a temporary spiritual energy channel within Tie Wei's body.

This passage begins at the Iron Guard's chest, goes up the spine, passes through the cervical vertebrae, and finally reaches the inside of the skull.

This is the core of the Iron Guard, and also the place where the vengeful spirits will be sealed.

Then he squeezed his right hand, and the talisman shattered.

The black sphere exploded, and the vengeful spirits broke free from the runes' restraints, transforming into violent black energy that attempted to soar into the sky.

Fortunately, Li Feng was prepared. The three layers of spirit-trapping array patterns lit up with a dark red light, forming a large net that locked the black energy above the Iron Guard's body.

The vengeful spirits struggled frantically in the net, and the surging black energy transformed into various hideous shapes.

But no matter how much it struggled, it could not escape the range of the spirit-trapping array.

Li Feng chuckled: "Stop struggling. I'm giving you two choices. One, I'll use my palm lightning to blast you into ashes, leaving not a trace. Listen carefully, not even ashes. Are you scared?"

"Secondly, obediently merge into this armored corpse and continue to exist as its spirit. You can no longer enter the cycle of reincarnation, but this way you can remain in the world, and perhaps one day you can cultivate into a great demon."

Upon hearing this, the vengeful spirit stopped struggling and stared blankly at Li Feng.

It has long lost its mind from its previous life, but as a vengeful spirit, it still has a strong obsession with remaining alive.

It might not fully understand Li Feng's words, but it instinctively understood the meaning of the two options: "flying ashes" and "continue to exist."

"It seems you'll have to choose the second option; a wise man submits to circumstances."

Li Feng patted Tie Wei's chest, and the spiritual energy channel opened instantly. A powerful suction force emanated from Tie Wei's body, pulling the black energy formed from the vengeful spirit little by little into the armored corpse's shell.

The vengeful spirit followed the suction and entered, while black energy surged in through the hole in the Iron Guard's chest, spreading upwards along the spiritual energy channel constructed by Li Feng, passing through the spine and cervical vertebrae, and finally converging inside the skull.

As the last wisp of black energy entered the Iron Guard's head, Li Feng simultaneously formed hand seals and chanted the sealing incantation for the Spirit-Binding Talisman.

"Snap!"

The Iron Guard's entire armor shuddered, and the sinews between the armor plates tensed simultaneously, emitting a piercing friction sound.

Two eerie green lights shone in the empty eye sockets of the Iron Guard, like two will-o'-the-wisps burning in the darkness.

This light was completely different from the emptiness in the Iron Guard's eyes before; it already contained a faint fluctuation of consciousness.

Li Feng released his grip, stood up, took two steps back, and looked at the Iron Guard warily.

The final step of the Spirit Refining Technique is the recognition of a spirit artifact by its master. The newly formed artifact spirit will feel a natural affinity for the first person with whom it establishes a spiritual connection.

However, this sense of closeness is not stable and requires a period of adjustment before it can solidify into a true recognition of God.

Iron Guard slowly turned its head, its eerie green eye sockets fixing on Li Feng.

It stared at Li Feng for a while, then awkwardly took steps and walked towards him.

Their pace was slow, like that of a baby just learning to walk; the sound of metal rubbing against metal was particularly crisp in the silent, dilapidated temple.

It stopped in front of Li Feng and looked down at him.

His massive nine-foot-tall frame stood in stark contrast to Li Feng's.

Judging from its size alone, it could slap Li Feng into a meat patty with one slap.

But it slowly bent its knees, knelt on one knee, and bowed its head to Li Feng.

The movement was clumsy and stiff, but the posture clearly expressed submission.

Looking at the armored giant kneeling before him, Li Feng couldn't help but feel a mix of emotions.

The predecessor of this armored corpse was Zhao Yuanshan, a pitiful person who was turned into an armored corpse.

Now, inside Zhao Yuanshan's body resides an unknown, centuries-old vengeful spirit. This vengeful spirit has been refined by his Taoist arts and transformed into the new spirit of this armored corpse.

In a sense, Zhao Yuanshan is completely dead, but Tie Wei has been given a new life.

"From today onwards, your name will be Gao Feng."

Li Feng reached out and pressed his hand on the Iron Guard's iron mask, completing the final step: the blood oath.

His fingertips touched the cold iron surface, and he could feel a chilling spiritual energy slowly flowing beneath the mask.

"Gaofeng, Gaofeng, is the same as my name but with different characters. May you help me rise step by step and reach the top."

Gao Feng slowly raised his head, his dark green eyes flashing a few times, as if responding to Li Feng.

It stood up from the ground and followed behind Li Feng, its steps much smoother than the previous Iron Guard.

Li Feng turned around and walked out of the temple, with Gao Feng following closely behind with heavy steps.

Li Feng could sense the fluctuations of spiritual energy within Gao Feng's body. After the Spirit Refining Technique was completed, the power of the vengeful spirit and the armored corpse's body completely merged, resulting in a qualitative change.

The intensity of the spiritual energy fluctuations within Gao Feng's body reached the level of a seven-inch spiritual root, which was two inches higher than that of his master.

This result was unexpected by Li Feng, but upon closer examination, it made perfect sense.

The vengeful spirit itself was only about five inches in spiritual root strength, and the armored corpse's body had been tempered by the bald old man for so many years.

When the two are combined, they stimulate each other, and the spiritual power intensity directly rises to the level of a seven-inch spiritual root, which is perfectly reasonable.

Li Feng finally had some free time, so he took out the bald old man's lacquered wooden box and opened the lid.

There weren't many things in the box: a thin booklet, a few tattered maps, and a small cloth bag.

The cloth bag was tied with hemp rope and was quite heavy. Li Feng hadn't had time to open it when he was rummaging through the old man's things before, but now he had time to take a closer look.

He untied the hemp rope, and something rolled out of the cloth bag, falling to the ground with a thud.

Li Feng looked down and his pupils shrank to two tiny dots.

What was rolling on the ground was actually a bull's head.

To be precise, it was half a cow's head.

From the center of his forehead to the bridge of his nose, it was neatly split open, the cut surface smooth and even, as if it had been severed by an extremely sharp weapon.

The remaining half of the bull's head had bluish-black fur that felt cold and hard to the touch.

The bones and muscle textures were clearly visible in the cross-section, and there were also dark red lines embedded between the muscle fibers, similar to the beef tendon that Li Feng had eaten before.

Li Feng picked up the bull's head and looked at it closely; there was a protrusion between its eyebrows.

The bulge between the eyebrows is indeed a closed eye; you can see the outline of the eyelid and the traces of the eyelashes.

This discovery gave him a jolt.

The monster has opened its third eye!

According to the broken book, this demon beast is on the verge of transforming into human form and is about to gain sentience and become a true demon.

A demonic beast on the verge of transformation possesses strength at least equivalent to a Daoist cultivator with an eight or nine-inch spiritual root.

The fact that the bald old man was able to obtain the tendons and head of a monster of this level suggests that the bull demon may have been killed by a more powerful being, and he was merely the buyer.

The bald old man waited ten years to get the ox tendon, and then another three years to get the ox head. These two things together were the last two main ingredients for his elixir of immortality.

Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned, and now both items have fallen into Li Feng's hands.

Since it's fallen into his hands, we'll just have to cook it and eat it.

Li Feng silently thanked God for this gift.

It's a pity there's no soul juice, so I'll pour it over~