Chapter 278: Immortal Stone
After regaining control over his own body, Yao Shifeng took a deep breath, his gaze fixed on the massive headless corpse not far away, his heart filled with an unprecedented desire.
If he could seize control of that headless corpse, he could become an existence akin to an immortal god. Ordinarily, Yao Shifeng would never have had any chance of controlling such an immortal body, but now that the remnant soul coexisted with him, it gave him a sliver of hope.
And as long as there was even the faintest hope, Yao Shifeng would fight for it.
"Greetings, my lord!"
As Yao Shifeng left the place where the headless corpse lay, three demonic Nascent Soul cultivators immediately bowed. Now that the headless corpse had broken free of its seal, there was no need for them to continue eroding it.
"Go hunt souls."
Yao Shifeng waved his hand. Collecting souls was the task left behind by the remnant soul. At present, Yao Shifeng could not resist it and naturally had to go along.
"Yes!"
The three demonic Nascent Souls each led a squad of zombies and departed from the Nine Nether Region.
Meanwhile—
As the world gate opened, a figure passed through it and descended into this small world. Yet the figure carried no sign of life. What crossed the gate was only a puppet.
Clearly, the puppet had been sent to probe the situation. After all, when a small world entrance appeared out of nowhere, charging in recklessly carried too many unknown risks.
First send in a puppet to scout; once safety was confirmed, then decide whether to enter. That was the wise choice.
Though it was only a puppet, the cultivators stationed near the world gate dared not neglect it and hurried forward to explain the circumstances. Since the gate had opened, three righteous Soul Transformation cultivators had already stationed their disciples here to brief incoming outsiders on the situation.
Only by spreading word of this place could more cultivators from the greater world be drawn in. And only with enough of them could there be hope of suppressing that immortal corpse.
Before long, the puppet returned. Not long after, a Nascent Soul True Lord stepped through the gate.
"Greetings, fellow Daoist!"
A Nascent Soul elder of a top sect stepped forward.
"It truly is a Corpse Immortal!"
The visiting Nascent Soul True Lord's eyes locked onto the towering headless corpse in the distance, his heart full of shock. A Corpse Immortal was still an immortal—an immortal's corpse. Even in the greater world, such a thing could only be found in the most perilous and terrifying forbidden grounds.
But in this obscure little world, there was actually an immortal's corpse. A pity it was a Corpse Immortal; if it were a true immortal's corpse, its value would have been even greater.
Still, the value of a Corpse Immortal was not small. After all, it had belonged to an immortal-level being—every hair or flake of skin was a treasure to any cultivator below the immortal realm.
And aside from that immortal corpse, this small world even had immortal relics—and they were willing to use them as rewards for clearing away the zombies formed from the Corpse Immortal's power.
"Fortune!"
At that moment, the only word that the visiting Nascent Soul True Lord could use to describe what he saw was this: fortune.
Yet such fortune was too great; he could not possibly swallow it alone. And so he did not linger, but left swiftly.
He needed to report this to his sect so they could dispatch their forces to claim this fortune.
Several days later—
Large numbers of outsiders arrived. The weakest among them were all Golden Core cultivators, while the main force consisted of Nascent Soul True Lords. Even five soul Transformation experts had come.
Such a lineup thoroughly shook the cultivators of the Tianyuan Immortal Realm. And this was merely the force of a single sect. It was said that this sect even had an Ancestor at the Integration stage.
If not for the rule that only Soul Transformation cultivators could enter this small world, without doubt even Void Refinement experts would have arrived.
And this was only the first wave. More would certainly follow. The corpse of a Corpse Immortal was such a treasure that any sect would pour all its strength into unearthing it.
Once inside, these cultivators were housed in an immortal city specially established for them. After all, their collective strength already surpassed that of the entire Tianyuan Immortal Realm; no one dared bring them into their own sect.
If those five Soul Transformation experts were to act, they could annihilate a top sect like Shennong Valley.
"Senior brother, this small world also holds immortal relics. Why don't we just seize them directly?" One of the visiting Soul Transformation cultivators sent a voice transmission to his fellow disciple.
These weakling small-world cultivators actually dared make use of them, demanding that they slay zombies to earn contribution before exchanging for immortal relics? It would be better to simply take them.
"Don't be reckless!"
The obvious leader among the Soul Transformations shot him a glare. Since there were immortal relics here, it was very likely some immortal's hidden measures still remained. Acting rashly and forcing the locals to trigger them would not end well.
This guess was completely confirmed when the outsiders beheld the Su Xin Celestial Spirit. Immediately, they obediently joined the zombie-clearing missions.
Soon after, however, the outsiders suffered a harsh blow. They collided head-on with the zombie horde led by the three demonic Soul Transformations. These zombies, freshly summoned by the remnant soul, were at least at the peak of the Nascent Soul stage, with many at the Soul Transformation level.
It was no exaggeration to say that the remnant soul's "greeting gift" to the outsiders was grand indeed. At the very first clash, the outsiders paid a grievous price.
One of the five Soul Transformations fell outright. Though his Nascent Soul escaped, part of it was lost—an irreparable wound to his foundation.
If even Soul Transformations were so battered, needless to say the Nascent Soul and Golden Core cultivators fared worse. Many Nascent Soul True Lords failed to escape with their nascent souls at all.
Still, while the outsiders suffered terribly, the zombie horde was hit even harder. At least this wave of the zombie tide was completely broken.
When the bloodied survivors returned to the immortal city, their fury was palpable. Yet upon seeing the contribution points they had earned, their anger quickly melted away—for those points were enough to exchange for an immortal relic.
Though it was only a small piece of immortal stone, a stone infused with immortal power was an incomparably precious treasure for any cultivator below the immortal realm.
For top sects that possessed immortal artifacts, immortal stones were in endless demand—for they were needed to activate those artifacts.
Beyond that, this higher-level power held countless other wondrous effects.
After gaining such benefits, the foreign cultivators naturally threw themselves into the fight with great enthusiasm. Soon, more cultivators descended through the realm gate, joining the battle against the zombie tide.
Meanwhile, the native cultivators of the Tianyuan Immortal Realm were responsible for providing logistical support for those outsiders. Of course, the locals could also hunt zombies themselves to earn contribution points and exchange them for treasures.
Take Gu Mo, for example.
He had been hunting zombies on the outskirts all along. Ever since successfully cultivating a second fifth-rank Giant Maw Flower, whenever he encountered a solitary Soul Transformation-level zombie, he would use his perfected Concealment Technique to approach, then summon the Giant Maw Flower to swallow the zombie before it could even react.
Afterward, Gu Mo would retreat to a safe place and wait for the Giant Maw Flower to digest its prey, then repeat the process again.
Every single soul Transformation zombie, once digested by the Giant Maw Flower, would bring an immense surge of spiritual energy into his cave-heaven space.
Gathering all this spiritual energy together, Gu Mo had already acquired several acres of fourth-rank top-grade spiritual fields. With just a few more soul Transformation zombies, those acres would soon advance into fifth-rank spiritual fields.
Unfortunately, the number of solitary Soul Transformation zombies on the outskirts was limited. Each time, it took him a long while to find one.
"I wonder if that Immortal Stone can enhance the cave-heaven's spiritual energy?"
Gu Mo took out a small mirror. It was a sub-body of the Taiqing Mirror, used as a tool to record contribution points. The Taiqing Mirror itself was a supreme spirit treasure and the sect-guarding treasure of the Taiqing Sect.
At this moment, the small mirror showed that his accumulated contribution was enough to exchange for one Immortal Stone. With this thought, Gu Mo immediately headed for Tianyuan Immortal City to try it out.
As the main foothold for foreign cultivators, Tianyuan Immortal City was overflowing with powerhouses. After one of the outsiders successfully exchanged for an Immortal Stone, the number of arriving cultivators had skyrocketed.
And most of those coming were Nascent Soul True Lords, bringing the city's Nascent Soul count to a terrifying level.
Not only that, but even the number of Soul Transformation experts had now reached double digits.
With such an overwhelming force, the Tianyuan Immortal Realm was clearly no longer able to exert control. Still, since these outsiders all focused on hunting zombies to earn contribution and exchange for Immortal Relics, they weren't particularly interested in the local resources.
After all, in their eyes, everything in the Tianyuan Immortal Realm was backward—its highest inheritances only reached Soul Transformation, hardly comparable to their own worlds that possessed Fusion-stage inheritances.
Gu Mo's arrival drew no attention in the city. Once, the appearance of a Nascent Soul True Lord would have stirred up a commotion, but now Nascent Souls were so commonplace that no one cared.
It wasn't an exaggeration to say that just standing at the city gate, one could watch several Nascent Soul True Lords pass by. And the foreign ones were generally far stronger than the local Nascent Souls—not because of talent, but because of inheritance.
A Fusion-stage inheritance simply could not be compared to the Soul Transformation-stage inheritances that were the pinnacle in Tianyuan. Many local sects were already looking for ways to obtain those superior inheritances from the outsiders.
Thus, a second exchange list appeared in Tianyuan Immortal City. On it were all sorts of inheritances from the great worlds—cultivation methods, alchemy, artifact forging, array arts, talismans, and so on. Local cultivators who wanted them had to exchange zombie-hunting contributions.
For the outsiders, trading away some inheritances they didn't particularly value in order to gain contributions—and then using those contributions to obtain Immortal Relics—was an extremely worthwhile bargain.
For the locals, however, these inheritances were priceless, essential to strengthening both themselves and their sects. By contrast, Immortal Relics were far less useful to them, and in fact even harmful—not because of any problem with the relics themselves, but because possessing such treasures invited disaster.
All the local cultivators understood this clearly. That was why their zombie-hunting contributions were always spent on exchanging for foreign inheritances instead.
Though some people were unhappy about this, the mere sight of the outsiders' double-digit number of Soul Transformation experts was enough to silence any dissent.
It was precisely because everyone tacitly avoided exchanging for Immortal Relics that Gu Mo's move stood out so much.
"Who is this guy? Doesn't he value his life?" Many were shocked to see Gu Mo step into the exchange point.
"Maybe he's just going in to take a look. The contribution required for an Immortal Treasure isn't small." Others thought this Nascent Soul True Lord was merely curious. Such things had happened before.
But very soon, no one dared to do that anymore—afraid of giving the outsiders the wrong idea.
The reason no one recognized Gu Mo wasn't because he had been forgotten. As a true disciple of Shennong Valley, with his astonishing performance in the Heaven's Chosen Tournament years ago, his name was well-known.
The reason he went unnoticed was simple: Gu Mo was disguised. Though he had been hunting zombies outside all this time, his intelligence network was not lacking; he was well aware of the unspoken rule that Tianyuan cultivators avoided exchanging for Immortal Treasures. Clearly, he had no intention of abiding by it this time.
As for the risks of breaking that rule, Gu Mo didn't care. With his fifth-rank Giant Maw Flower, even a late-stage soul Transformation would be swallowed in a single bite.
Unless two soul Transformation experts attacked at once—in which case he could feed one to the Giant Maw Flower and then summon his plant army to deal with the rest—there was no real threat. Only the arrival of three soul Transformation experts together would endanger him.
And to deal with a single Nascent Soul True Lord? No one would ever dispatch three Soul Transformations, or even two. At most, one might be sent. More likely, seeing that Gu Mo was only in the early Nascent Soul stage, they'd send a late-stage or peak Nascent Soul.
With nothing to fear, Gu Mo had no reason to obey their so-called consensus.
"Please select the treasure you wish to exchange."
Gu Mo stood before a large mirror—the Taiqing Sect's supreme spirit treasure. Its artifact spirit possessed high intelligence, more than enough to handle the exchange process.
"Immortal Stone."
Glancing at the exchange list, Gu Mo saw that aside from Immortal Relics, there were some other items available. But who came here not for Immortal Treasures?
As soon as he spoke, the contribution displayed on his small mirror instantly dropped to single digits. At the same time, a uniquely textured stone appeared, radiating a light and ethereal aura.
"As I thought—there's immortal power within it." Feeling the energy from the stone, Gu Mo immediately thought of Ruan Ruan. That little girl also carried a similar aura within her.
Come to think of it, Ruan Ruan had inherited part of an Immortal Relic as well. Unfortunately, Senior Suxin intended to wait until she advanced her cultivation further before handing the relic over to her. Otherwise, Gu Mo might already have asked her for some Immortal Stones.
Having completed the exchange, Gu Mo put away the Immortal Stone and walked out of the exchange point—only to instantly sense several gazes locking onto him.
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