396: Corpse Refining

The Mountain God Branch's ability, 'Mountain Fusion,' allowed Xiao Shi to merge with anything connected to the earth.

Even this special tombstone, being connected to the earth, allowed Xiao Shi to successfully merge into it after he activated 'Mountain Fusion,' and he managed to retrieve the corpse inside.

Immediately after, Xiao Shi targeted another tombstone containing a Saint Realm corpse, merging into it again to obtain the corpse.

Thus, with one corpse after another in hand, in an instant, all the Saint Realm corpses within the Taiyue Clan's mausoleum had fallen into Xiao Shi's possession.

At this moment, three incredibly massive tombstones appeared before Xiao Shi.

Compared to the previous Saint Realm tombstones, these three tombstones were significantly larger.

Especially the one in the middle, it was like a towering spire piercing the sky, emanating a terrifying aura that captivated the soul.

Despite being just a tombstone, it gave Xiao Shi the feeling of facing a powerful being directly.

Xiao Shi knew that this tombstone was clearly that of the Taiyue Clan's demigod!

The two slightly smaller but equally terrifying tombstones beside it belonged to two Dao Lord Level members of the Taiyue Clan.

After observing them for a while, Xiao Shi chose not to steal the demigod and Dao Lord Level corpses.

He was well aware that with a demigod's status, even just a corpse was entirely beyond his current ability to touch.

Moreover, even if he had the ability to steal the demigod's corpse, it would inevitably alert the Taiyue Clan.

At that point, he might not be able to escape alive.

Most importantly, even if he stole the demigod's corpse, he wouldn't be able to refine it into a Crimson Refining Corpse using the Crimson Refining Secret Skill.

Currently, he could only refine Saint Realm corpses into Crimson Refining Corpses.

Demigod and Dao Lord Level corpses were beyond that capability.

Therefore, stealing demigod and Dao Lord Level corpses now held no great significance and would only alert the enemy.

Thinking of this, Xiao Shi did not hesitate.

He decisively withdrew.

He had already acquired all the Saint Realm corpses of the Taiyue Clan, and his objective had been achieved.

A month later, Xiao Shi infiltrated a large sect in the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom.

Using the same method, he stole numerous Saint Realm corpses from that sect.

It must be said that the Dream Witch Lineage's dream abilities were incredibly effective in stealing corpses.

With these Saint Realm individuals completely unprepared, Xiao Shi could easily pull them into a dream.

As long as he didn't do anything to harm or provoke them in the dream, they would find it very difficult to wake up, remaining trapped in the dream.

This made Xiao Shi's theft of these Saint Realm corpses particularly smooth.

Thus, after he consecutively stole Saint Realm corpses from three factions, the number of Saint Realm corpses in his possession had reached nearly thirty!

In response, Xiao Shi chose to stop in time and did not continue stealing.

On one hand, there weren't many factions left that still possessed Saint Realm corpses, as not every faction would build a mausoleum.

On the other hand, the three factions from which he had stolen corpses had all already discovered that their mausoleums had been raided.

This infuriated all three factions!

They mobilized every means to investigate, vowing to find the person who stole the corpses.

However, no matter how they investigated, they remained without any leads.

In the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom, and even throughout the entire Martial Dynasty, such an ability to trap people in dreams had never appeared.

At the same time, the culprit was able to steal the corpses from within the tombstones without damaging them.

To them, this was something completely unprecedented.

Even those Dao Ancestors and demigods had never heard of such an ability existing in the world.

This led to their investigation yielding no results.

However, this matter spread throughout the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom, causing a huge sensation.

Upon hearing of it, other factions with mausoleums also became vigilant.

Xiao Shi knew that if he continued his actions, there would inevitably be greater risks.

He understood the principle of knowing when to stop.

The Saint Realm corpses he had stolen so far, combined with the Crimson Refining Corpse he brought to The Primordial Martial Era, were basically enough for his upcoming actions.

There was no need to risk being greedy for more corpses.

Immediately, Xiao Shi directly left the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom.

He went into hiding and began refining these Saint Realm corpses using the Crimson Refining Secret Skill.

Although this was Xiao Shi's first time refining, he didn't encounter any difficulties during the process.

The entire refining process was very smooth.

The only drawback was that refining one Crimson Refining Corpse often took about one to two months.

If he were to refine all these Saint Realm corpses into Crimson Refining Corpses, Xiao Shi estimated it would take nearly three years.

Fortunately, Xiao Shi had a total of three hundred years in The Primordial Martial Era, so he didn't need to worry about these three years of refining Crimson Refining Corpses.

Thus, as Xiao Shi continuously refined, after he successfully completed the refining of several Crimson Refining Corpses, he suddenly discovered that the strength of these Crimson Refining Corpses actually had certain differences.

Not every Crimson Refining Corpse possessed the same strength.

And this difference in strength was mainly reflected in the physical toughness of the corpses.

The corpses he stole from the Taiyue Clan, after being refined into Crimson Refining Corpses, were clearly stronger than Crimson Refining Corpses refined from other Saint Realm corpses.

"No, that's not right..."

"The strength of a Crimson Refining Corpse doesn't simply depend on physical strength."

"More accurately, it depends on the system these Saint Realm individuals cultivated during their lives!"

Xiao Shi pondered.

The Saint Realm individuals of The Primordial Martial Era were completely different from those of the Great Martial Era.

Saint Realm individuals here did not need to refine a domain to become a Saint Realm individual.

Not just The Primordial Martial Era, but all other eras Xiao Shi had encountered were like this.

Only the Saint Realm individuals of the Great Martial Era needed to refine a domain.

Although the martial artist systems of various eras would have some differences, more or less, Xiao Shi felt that the biggest difference between the Great Martial Era's martial artist system and other eras' martial artist systems lay in the Saint Realm!

Relatively speaking, for Crimson Refining Corpses refined by the Crimson Refining Secret Skill, Crimson Refining Corpses refined from the corpses of Great Martial Era Saint Realm individuals would undoubtedly be the weakest among all eras' Saint Realm corpses!

Because Saint Realm individuals in the Great Martial Era were only in their strongest form when they were within their own domain.

But after their death, their personal domain could not be preserved within their corpses.

Therefore, Crimson Refining Corpses refined by the Crimson Refining Secret Skill would not have such domain enhancements, and the combat power they could exert would be far inferior to Crimson Refining Corpses refined from other Saint Realm corpses.

However, for Saint Realm individuals like the Taiyue Clan, who specialized in physical cultivation, even after death, the combat power their corpses possessed would not be significantly weakened.

Especially the numerous runes on the Taiyue Clan members, which would not dissipate even after death, thereby preserving their strength to the greatest extent.

The Crimson Refining Corpses refined from them would therefore be far stronger than ordinary Crimson Refining Corpses.

Xiao Shi even compared the Taiyue Clan's Crimson Refining Corpses with his initial Crimson Refining Corpses.

He found that the Taiyue Clan's Crimson Refining Corpses were even superior in strength to the Crimson Refining Corpses he initially acquired!

"It's a pity that the Crimson Refining Secret Skill can only refine corpses and cannot refine the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade and Crimson Refining Battle Armor..."

Xiao Shi felt some regret about this.

He knew very well that the power of a Crimson Refining Corpse wasn't just about the corpse itself; it also needed to be paired with the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade and Crimson Refining Battle Armor.

Only then could it unleash its strongest combat power.

Unfortunately, he only had five sets of Crimson Refining Corpse Blades and Crimson Refining Battle Armors.

He couldn't equip every Crimson Refining Corpse with one.

As a result, he could only equip these five sets of Crimson Refining Corpse Blades and Crimson Refining Battle Armors on the five strongest Crimson Refining Corpses.

Thus, Xiao Shi could divide these Crimson Refining Corpses into three different tiers based on their strength.

The five Crimson Refining Corpses equipped with the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade and Crimson Refining Battle Armor naturally belonged to the strongest tier.

The second tier consisted of the other Taiyue Clan Crimson Refining Corpses that were not equipped with the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade and Crimson Refining Battle Armor.

If he could create more Crimson Refining Corpse Blades and Crimson Refining Battle Armors in the future, then the Crimson Refining Corpses in this tier could also reach the strength of the first tier.

And even the weakest tier of Crimson Refining Corpses still possessed powerful combat strength capable of contending with ordinary Saint Realm individuals!

Most importantly, the corpses Xiao Shi stole this time were not within the reset scope of The Primordial Martial Era.

This meant that when Xiao Shi left The Primordial Martial Era, he could directly bring them back to his own era!

This was undoubtedly a huge gain.

Thus, as time flowed by, three years passed in a flash.

During these three years, Xiao Shi did nothing but focus wholeheartedly on refining corpses.

He successfully refined all the Saint Realm corpses in his possession into Crimson Refining Corpses.

"Well then..."

"It's time to act!"

A cold glint flashed in Xiao Shi's eyes.

Stealing Saint Realm corpses was only the first step in his plan.

The subsequent actions were the key.

Besides refining Crimson Refining Corpses during these three years, Xiao Shi was also waiting for an opportunity.

He was waiting for the matter of his previous corpse theft to fade with the passage of time.

After all, the commotion he caused when he stole the corpses was immense.

Even if he could have completed the refining of Crimson Refining Corpses at that time, it would not have been suitable to act.

Now, three years had passed.

Although the impact still remained, compared to three years ago, the entire matter had faded considerably.

At the same time, Xiao Shi did not plan to act in the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom.

He knew very well that even though the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom had the most Saint Realm individuals in the entire Martial Dynasty, with a demigod stationed there, he definitely couldn't choose to act there.

He set his sights on the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom, one of the Twelve Lower Kingdoms.

According to the intelligence he had gathered, the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom also had a considerable number of Saint Realm individuals; although not as many as the Heaven Offering Upper Kingdom, it definitely had the most among the many Lower Kingdoms.

On that very day, Xiao Shi arrived at the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom.

However, he did not rush to act.

Instead, he first gathered intelligence.

Before acting, he needed to ascertain the locations and movements of all Saint Realm individuals in the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom, ensuring that every Saint Realm individual within the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom was under his control.

Only then could he capture them all in one fell swoop!

Even if it took some time, he was not in a hurry.

Out of three hundred years, only three years had passed so far.

"If I could leave a mark on them and constantly monitor their locations, that would naturally be the best-case scenario."

Xiao Shi thought to himself.

He wasn't without such methods.

The most representative was the Heaven-Rank Secret Technique 'Dust Seal' he acquired at the Entering Martial Rank, which had been upgraded to the Martial Soul Grade 'Soul Seal'.

Unfortunately, the Soul Seal had reached its limit after reaching the Martial Soul Grade.

There were no further upgrades.

Xiao Shi felt that if he wanted to further upgrade the Soul Seal, to the point where it could mark Saint Realm individuals, he would need to improve it himself.

Regarding this, he already had some ideas in mind.

He decided to try combining the Soul Seal with another ability of the Mountain God Branch, 'Earth Sense'.

The Mountain God Branch's 'Earth Sense' ability primarily allowed one to sense the earth within a certain range.

As long as people within this range were standing on the ground, Xiao Shi could use this ability to perceive their presence.

Furthermore, since Xiao Shi's control over the Mountain God Branch's abilities had reached the Saint Realm level, he could entirely use this ability to sense Saint Realm individuals.

However, this ability could only sense Saint Realm individuals within Xiao Shi's current area; it couldn't sense an entire large region like the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom.

Therefore, it needed to be combined with the Soul Seal.

If successful, he would be able to use the Soul Seal as a medium for sensing, and through the Soul Seal, perceive Saint Realm individuals within a certain range.

Soon, when he attempted the combination, he found that the fusion of the Soul Seal and Earth Sense was very smooth, with no conflicts arising during their combination.

After successfully combining them, Xiao Shi then condensed the combined mark onto a portion of the people within the area where one of the Saint Realm individuals was located.

After all, given the status of the Soul Seal, it could only be condensed onto individuals below the Saint Realm.

If he forcibly condensed it onto a Saint Realm individual, it would inevitably be detected by them.

This was also an important reason why he couldn't directly mark Saint Realm individuals with the Soul Seal.

Xiao Shi could only condense the Soul Seal onto some important individuals within a specific area.

For example, the city lords of various cities.

These city lords usually stayed within their own cities and rarely went out.

This way, Xiao Shi could use the Soul Seal on them to sense the Saint Realm individuals within the entire city.

Thus, as Xiao Shi cast a wide net, he spent four months successfully spreading numerous 'pawns' containing his Soul Seal across various locations in the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom.

Through these pawns, he clearly ascertained the whereabouts of every Saint Realm individual in the Blood Extension Lower Kingdom.

"Everything is ready!"

"It's time to act!"

Killing intent flickered in Xiao Shi's eyes.