Once complete, the Blood Demon Heart would grant him four incredible and utterly terrifying abilities:
Immortality of the Wicked – As long as the Blood Demon Heart remained intact, the cultivator could survive even most mortal wounds. If the entire body was destroyed, the cultivator could flee with Blood Demon Heart and possess another body—much like a Nascent Soul cultivator. However, this required it to consume blood essence every hour until it found a new suitable host. And after taking over that new body, he had to devour vast amounts of blood essence to stabilize both the heart and new body.
Once the cultivator broke through to the Nascent Soul Realm, the Blood Demon Heart could serve as a vessel for the Nascent Soul while escaping, enabling full regeneration of the original body without needing to possess a new one. However, this process came at a cost: the cultivator would lose a few minor realms and would need to consume an enormous amount of blood essence to fully regenerate. The stronger cultivator, more blood essence is needed.
Life Drain – Any wound the cultivator suffered would rapidly heal by draining blood essence from nearby freshly killed corpses by letting Blood Demon Heart enter the targeted corpse. Though it has some limits.
Scouting – The Blood Demon Heart could leave the body and fly freely to scout the surroundings. But it had limited range unless the cultivator chose to abandon their body permanently. If they did, the range would become unlimited, but returning to the previous body would no longer be possible.
Remote Control – The cultivator could control any corpse within the scouting range by letting the Blood Demon Heart enter it. The controlled corpse retained about 10% of its original strength. The same method could be used on living beings, but only if they were at least one major realm weaker than the cultivator.
"Of course, the Blood Demon Heart isn't without its weaknesses," Ye Wuji sighed, a thoughtful frown on his face.
"If the Blood Demon Heart is destroyed... I will die. It's still my heart, after all. And then there's the eternal hunger..."
His expression darkened slightly.
"The Blood Demon Heart demands blood. I'll need to consume the blood essence of at least one being every week. It doesn't have to be human, but the creature must contain Qi—whether it's a human, monster, or even a zombie cultivator."
He paused, then grinned coldly.
"Luckily, I have a perfect solution. I can just start harvesting as many Blood Essence Crystals from this place as possible and then simply consume them whenever I needed."
He chuckled softly to himself.
"It's a win-win, really. I won't receive any hatred from the Heavens and Earth by doing that—instead, I'll gain merits."
A glimmer of dark excitement sparked in his eyes.
"And that's not even the best part. As I kill those zombie cultivators for blood essence crystals, I'll also use the crystals to cultivate, as my current cultivation technique demands them. And as for the remaining corpses… they'll be thrown into the Corpse Pagoda to feed my corpse soldiers and strengthen them. Plus, I'll also obtain spirit fragments and even some valuable martial techniques, if my luck is good."
Ye Wuji slowly lowered the jade slip, taking a deep breath.
"This is perfect for me," he murmured, eyes gleaming.
He glanced at the blood stone now resting silently inside his storage bag.
"You'll become a part of me soon enough," he whispered, greed flashing in his gaze.
With the central table completely looted, he turned his attention to the fallen Foundation Establishment zombie cultivator. The corpse still smoked faintly, its chest charred and caved in. Ye Wuji knelt beside it without hesitation, rummaging through its tattered robes.
Only one item remained: a storage ring.
He slipped it from the corpse's stiff finger and stashed it away, along with the other storage ring he took from the bone remains before the altar.
"First things first... before I erase the spiritual imprint and check what's inside, I should refine a new corpse soldier and complete other more important things."
He grinned in anticipation.
Drawing out the Nine Nethers Corpse-Refining Furnace, he channeled his Qi into it, causing it to expand to ten times its original size.
Then, he lifted the Foundation Establishment corpse and tossed it inside.
Gritting his teeth, he began pouring his Qi into the furnace. Sweat quickly soaked through his robes, his entire body trembling from the strain.
Time passed in agonizing slowness.
At last, the furnace opened with a hiss. Breathing hard, Ye Wuji pressed his palm on newly refined corpse soldier's head.
With a sharp burst of Qi, he implanted a control seal into its skull. And this time, he right away added—
"From now on... your name shall be Xue Sha."
As the seal settled, the corpse soldier leapt from the furnace and immediately dropped to its knees, bowing low before its master.
Ye Wuji nodded in satisfaction.
"Not bad at all. I was worried he wouldn't even maintain Rank 2 after refinement... but not only did he retain it… he even exceeded my expectations. He's at the Rank 2, First Stage Peak—just one step from the Second Stage."
Still, caution flickered across his face.
"Though, I shouldn't rush to raise him further. Right now, there's only one major realm separating us. If I'm careless... he could even turn on me and rip me apart."
He sighed and with all of that completed, he retrieved the Corpse Pagoda from his storage ring and began refining it into his artifact without a pause.
|>>======|✦|======<<|
A few days passed.
He focused solely on refining the Corpse Pagoda and absorbing blood essence crystals to cultivate. When the process was finally complete, the pagoda now bore his spiritual imprint.
He summoned both of his corpse soldiers—Xue Sha and Si Wei.
Si Wei had almost fully healed by now, with only minor injuries remaining.
As they appeared, Ye Wuji tossed them both into the Corpse Pagoda and sealed it shut. Then, he added several blood essence crystals for them to consume and slowly strengthen themselves within.
"Now…" he muttered to himself, eyes gleaming with ambition. "It's time to refine the Corpse Pagoda as my first Life-Bound Artifact. Once that's done, I can hide it in my dantian and summon it only whenever needed."