### **Chapter 74: The Final Two Years at Profound Bone Mountain**
This curse was useless to him for now; he would deal with it later.
Most of the day had passed, and as night fell, Wang Yu, still carrying Liu Jinxian over his shoulder, returned to the foot of Profound Bone Mountain. Without ceremony, he loudly called out:
"Si Tu Hong! Gu Zhengshun! Come out and receive someone!"
The sudden voice startled the two, who had been discussing countermeasures. Recognizing it as Wang Yu's voice only increased their surprise.
"How did he come back..."
"That person was looking for him. Liu Jinxian essentially helped him out."
"Let's go, take a look."
However, when the two emerged and saw the scene, they were dumbfounded. They hurried forward to check Liu Jinxian's condition, their expressions turning grim.
Circumstances had changed. After the conflict over the underground palace subsided, they, like Wang Yu, were among the least willing to see anything happen to Liu Jinxian, given her profound background which was hard to match.
Having witnessed the means provided by her father, this worry had only intensified.
Si Tu Hong asked urgently, "What happened? What's going on?"
Wang Yu replied, "She fought with that Foundation Establishment cultivator, was tricked by a Yin-based attack. Probably a spiritual sense injury, soul weakness. The problem isn't major."
"Good, good." Si Tu Hong and Gu Zhengshun breathed sighs of relief, then became curious again. "And that Foundation Establishment cultivator... what about him?"
"Dead. Died at Senior Sister Liu's hands."
Hearing this, Gu Zhengshun looked at Wang Yu with keen interest.
"The body is with you?"
"Yes."
"That person barged into Profound Bone Mountain, first killed the Direbone Lion King that had claimed the territory, then started shouting about looking for you. Do you know him?"
Wang Yu's expression turned utterly astonished.
"How could that be? You can't just say things like that."
"Heh—"
Gu Zhengshun rubbed his hands together, pulled Wang Yu aside, and whispered, "A Foundation Establishment corpse... name your price, sell it to me."
Wang Yu remained silent.
For a Corpse Peak disciple, the corpse of a powerful cultivator was a significant, often once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. After nurturing it with corpse refinement techniques for a few years, it could become a combat asset.
This was also why Gu Zhengshun had immediately headed for the burial mounds upon entering the underground palace.
Despite him helping Wang Yu acquire the second-grade Divine Strength Corpse Arm, that thing was a defective product, a completely battle-damaged remnant limb that couldn't even be repaired.
It wasn't on the same level as a complete Foundation Establishment corpse. But since the corpse wasn't much use to Wang Yu anyway, he said indifferently:
"Selling it to you is fine. You make an offer first. I'm not particularly short on spirit stones at the moment."
This statement stumped Gu Zhengshun again.
"Perhaps Junior Brother should say what you want."
"Simple. A second-grade, ice-attribute, serpent-type demon beast's demon core, plus five thousand spirit stones. How about that?"
Gu Zhengshun's brow furrowed slightly. "Let me see the goods first."
After inspecting Steward Xu's charred, green-pus-oozing corpse, he bargained, "The damage is quite severe. Knock off two thousand spirit stones."
"Deal!"
Selling it to anyone was fine. Wang Yu felt getting a useful demon core in return was already good enough. After all, as a Qi Refining stage disciple, he could only access the sect's first-grade treasure repository.
That place simply didn't have second-grade demon cores, let alone ones restricted to the ice attribute.
"We have two years left before we return to the sect. Prepare the items by then, and we'll trade."
"Agreed."
With that, the two returned to the others, causing Si Tu Hong to glance over at them from time to time, subtly increasing the distance between them by ten paces – such scheming minds.
The three of them remained silent for a long while. Finally, Wang Yu broke the stalemate.
"Senior Sister Liu is in your hands. I'm going into seclusion on Profound Bone Mountain."
"Ah, this..."
"I'm also going into seclusion."
Following right after Wang Yu, Gu Zhengshun plunged into the [Earth Yin Corpse Puppet Formation] and disappeared.
This left Si Tu Hong with a helpless, bitter smile. This person really couldn't just be left here like this, and she certainly couldn't die. There would be no way to explain it!
......
......
Peaceful days always flow by like water, slipping through the cracks between one's fingers in the blink of an eye. Winter gave way to spring, summer nights to the cool of autumn.
Unconsciously, the four seasons cycled twice more.
The five-year term was finally nearing its end. The first three years had been eventful, with heavy casualties. The last two years, with only four people, had been exceptionally quiet.
They only met during the fifth and sixth months each year, when the Bonewood bloomed, to each gather a batch of Profound Essence Flowers to take back and sell to fellow sect disciples.
The quantity was much smaller, as they simply lacked the manpower to fully clear the three Profound Bone Mountains. However, they each managed to harvest a batch of Bonewood to submit to the sect.
The amount of Bonewood was meant for five hundred people, a rather tedious task they completed intermittently. Shortchanging anyone else was possible, but not the sect – the mission *had* to be completed. This was a shared understanding.
After Liu Jinxian woke up, she focused silently on recovering from her injuries. She only met Wang Yu once. Buoyed by the life-saving favor, her attitude had improved considerably.
But it couldn't be called particularly good. According to Liu Jinxian's meaning, if he was willing to let her implant a Gu insect, he could become her male favorite, sharing her bed, and cultivation resources wouldn't be lacking.
Wang Yu respectfully declined this form of gratitude, deftly bringing up True Disciple Su's name as a refusal.
As for the spoils of war, she didn't demand them, probably fearing he might do something rash.
Early in the 1st month of Wang Yu's 8th year as an outer disciple.
Just after finishing his cultivation session, he was planning his next steps. During this period, he had cultivated a total of 4,880 strands of spiritual power and had just finished refining his fifth top-grade Coldblooded Pill.
Rounded, that was 49 units of spiritual power.
His total spiritual power accumulation reached 149 units. To break through to the eighth layer of Qi Refining, he needed to accumulate 300 units – still halfway there, but the speed wasn't slow.
Currently, Wang Yu had only one method he could implement immediately:
Refine 「Frost Python Pills」. Using the special effects of the Frost Python Alchemy Technique, he could restructure the top-grade Coldblooded Pills to enhance their efficacy, accelerating his cultivation through pills.
Secondly, he could investigate methods involving formations, talismans, spirit food, and other areas to see if any could benefit his cultivation.
Now that the Profound Bone Mountain mission was ending, returning to complete the transaction with Gu Zhengshun would allow him to first achieve his goal regarding the pills. Coincidentally, another placement slot had freed up during these two years.
**[Placement Slot 4: Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Art (Perfected)]**
`Soul-Devouring Evil Armor Art (100/100): Fifty-two cycles per day. Estimated completion in fifty years.`
Due to swallowing two large mouthfuls of the Foundation Establishment vengeful ghost's soul body, he had saved a massive amount of time. Furthermore, Strange Arts had unique properties, different from conventional spells and arts.
Achieving Perfection was simpler.
Once this art reached Perfection, the [Black Baleful Armor Patterns] covering Wang Yu's skin retracted beneath it. He could activate them with a mere thought – convenient and fast.
Defensively, they were particularly effective against spiritual sense attacks. Against normal physical attacks, energy impacts, and the five elements, etc., their defense was roughly on par with second-grade low-level defensive spells.
The consumption was just a bit high. Over these two years, Wang Yu had only experienced one instance of Yin soul backlash, which targeted his soul. The power wasn't too great,
since he had only devoured souls once. Furthermore, his Lunar Nether Pupils channeled Lunar Nether Essence to nourish, cleanse, and strengthen his soul and spiritual sense.
Coupled with the fact that alchemy also served to temper and increase the depth of his spiritual sense, he had weathered it quite easily.
This Strange Art required fifty years in the placement slot according to its feedback, more than double the time required for the Corpse Demon Secret Art. It was simply outrageous.
**(End of Chapter)**