199: 'Su Ling' and 'Su Ming'

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Su Ling was in mid-air, coughing violently.

Strands of blood fell as a result, but he simply wiped the corner of his mouth with his hand, flapped the wings behind him, and flew straight down.

The mother-son soul-chasing needles floating beside him shot down once more, unceremoniously piercing into the Black-Robed Cultivator's skull.

Seeing that the opponent still had no reaction, Su Ling finally landed beside him with peace of mind.

"I was still too careless..."

While stripping the Black-Robed Cultivator clean, Su Ling sighed inwardly.

Looking back now, the safest way would have been to send a message to Lu Tao and the others to come and surround him the moment he discovered the opponent was likely the person who sold the gray cloth.

But Su Ling held two low-grade spirit tools and two great Spirit Treasures, and both of those Spirit Treasures could be activated!

Any other Late Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator from another Sect would have been no match for him at all.

But this Black-Robed Cultivator had actually performed that bizarre curse-killing technique.

Even more bizarre was that the seven star soul settling pagoda, the Soul-Suppressing Spiritual Artifact Su Ling relied on, actually failed to block that black rune.

It had almost annihilated him on the spot.

As a result, Su Ling had to give up the idea of capturing the opponent and used the incomparably sharp azure roc wings to perform a killing move, slaying him directly.

"As expected, this thing wasn't hidden in the Storage Ring."

After checking the Storage Ring, Su Ling breathed a long sigh of relief.

From the Black-Robed Cultivator's inner garments, he found exactly five pieces of strange gray cloth, as well as two strange pieces of paper recording Nine Nether Secret Arts.

However, there was nothing related to the Nine Nether Secret Record in the Storage Ring.

The strange gray cloth could withstand a True Immortal's attack.

If he had used the azure roc wings to cut the opponent's body in that final blow and failed to kill him, he would likely have had to endure a desperate counterattack.

Fortunately, facts proved that Su Ling's choice was correct.

With a flick of his finger, he sent out a wisp of Nether Abyss Ice Flame, burning the naked corpse to ashes.

Letting the Golden-Pupiled Falcon, which had been keeping watch from high above, go find Qi Yunling on its own, Su Ling then put away his many Magic Treasures and Spirit Treasures, turning into a bolt of lightning and disappearing from the spot... In this battle, the mana within Su Ling's body, which was comparable to the Peak Nascent Soul stage, was now less than ten percent.

The consumption of activating two great Spirit Treasures and two Spiritual Artifacts was simply beyond words.

Moreover, the Divine Soul attack from the bizarre rune and the three strikes from the Body Refining Puppet had also caused varying degrees of damage to his body and Divine Soul.

Most of the remnant souls within the ten thousand souls banner were consumed, and five or six of the dozen or so Peak Core Formation Stage Ice Ghosts were also destroyed while blocking the human puppet.

But compared to the harvest, these losses were merely a drop in the bucket.

An hour later, Su Ling, sitting once again on the deck of the soaring wing boat, slowly opened his eyes.

With the help of Medicinal Pills, the mana in his body had already mostly recovered.

He impatiently took out the two strange pieces of paper that could be directly examined.

[True Word Soul Burial Curse, a subsidiary secret art of the Nine Nether Secret Record's Nascent Soul chapter. By calling out the true name, one can ignore Divine Soul defense and use the curse seal to bury the target's Divine Soul.]

[Netherworld Corpse Refining Art, a subsidiary secret art of the Nine Nether Secret Record's Nascent Soul chapter. Use Nine Nether Mana to nourish a Cultivator's complete remains, supplemented by curse seals for control, to create a Dao-protecting dharma body.]

This was just the appraisal feedback from the Immortal Eye of Treasure Appraisal.

The strange paper also recorded detailed keys to performing the technique as well as taboos and restrictions.

"Whew..."

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, Su Ling, who had carefully examined the two secret arts, breathed a long sigh of relief.

A wave of lingering fear couldn't help but rise in his heart.

The Netherworld Corpse Refining Art was one thing, but as seen from the performance of that Body Refining Puppet, the Black-Robed Cultivator lacked Nine Nether Mana and simply couldn't bring out the essence of this secret art.

When the complete corpse refining art is refined to the extreme, it can not only forge the human puppet's corpse into an extremely powerful Netherworld Undying Body.

It can also retain its original divine abilities and Spells.

One can even recall its Soul from the deep Void Realm and imprison it back in the body, exerting combat power far exceeding the original.

That Body Refining Puppet only had the form but not the spirit.

At most, it was only slightly stronger than the physique of an average Nascent Soul Body Cultivator.

It couldn't compare to a full-version Netherworld Puppet at all.

But that True Word Soul Burial Curse was far too treacherous.

Using spirit words to call the true name, the magic curse finds the target's tracks and reaches the Divine Soul directly; as long as one's own Divine Soul strength is higher than the opponent's, one can bury them with a single word.

Even if one's Divine Soul strength isn't as high as the opponent's, it can still cause them injury.

And the user won't suffer any backlash!

If the true name isn't called, simply condensing the power of Soul burial can also unleash a powerful Divine Soul attack.

Likewise, there's no backlash effect.

This Soul burial curse technique is much more advanced than conventional Divine Soul attacks.

The only restriction is that if the true name called is incorrect, not only will the magic curse fail to harm the opponent, but it will also backfire on the user.

The reason that Black-Robed Cultivator failed to curse-kill Su Ling.

Was because the name 'Su Ling' belonged to his predecessor.

The 'Su Ling' who transmigrated, his Soul essence belonged to the Dark Walker of Blue Star... 'Su Ming'!

The reason why the Soul burial magic curse still injured Su Ling's Divine Soul earlier.

The main reason was that the current 'Su Ling's' Divine Soul was originally a combined dual soul born after 'Su Ming' devoured the original.

And during the process of cultivating for over a hundred years, the part of the Divine Soul belonging to 'Su Ling' was only a negligible fraction compared to the present.

Strictly speaking, the 'Su Ling' at this moment was actually completely 'Su Ming'.

How much did the true name called out by the Black-Robed Cultivator have to do with 'Su Ming'?

Therefore, the Soul burial magic curse dissipated automatically after a breath, instead causing his own Divine Soul to suffer backlash.

Ultimately, under the attack of the ghost soul arrow, it directly led to his Nascent Soul being damaged and his Realm dropping.

Su Ling only gradually realized this after reading through the keys to performing the True Word Soul Burial Curse.

"Fortunately, I didn't let Lu Tao and the others help, otherwise..."

At this thought, Su Ling couldn't help but shake his head with some lingering fear.

If the Black-Robed Cultivator had investigated the true names of Lu Tao and the others clearly... then this Soul burial magic curse would very likely have been released on the strongest, Lu Tao.

With Lu Tao's Divine Soul strength, he might not necessarily have been able to withstand it.

The probability of being cursed to death with a single word was very high.

Even if any one of Song Moting, Qi Yunling, or Luo Xuanxiao were curse-killed, it would be enough to make Su Ling regret it for the rest of his life.

Fortunately, the final result was good.

Since he was still on his way flying back to the Sect, it wasn't convenient for Su Ling to immediately activate the five pieces of gray cloth with mana.

He then put away the two secret art papers and began to examine the Black-Robed Cultivator's Storage Ring.

Before long, he found a jade tablet inside.

"Zhenhai Royal Mansion..."

Seeing the inscription on it, Su Ling couldn't help but be taken aback.

Judging from the style of this jade pendant, it was very likely owned by a scion of the royal mansion.

This Black-Robed Cultivator was actually a member of the imperial Family?!

Not only that, Su Ling also discovered a Director's Seal from the Enforcement Department Inspection Division in the Storage Ring.

This seal was also of high-grade magic treasure quality.

Unfortunately, it was now completely unrecognizable, seemingly having been reforged by someone.

Only the inscription at the bottom was still faintly visible.

After a moment's thought, Su Ling suddenly understood, "It seems this scion of the Zhenhai Royal Mansion should be the Demonic Path killer Fairy Diewu mentioned..."

This person didn't have the Nine Nether Secret Record Cultivation Technique and couldn't Cultivate Nine Nether Mana.

Yet he rashly cultivated the subsidiary secret arts with his own mana and forcibly activated the True Word Soul Burial Curse.

No wonder he suffered from Qi Deviation decades ago and went on a rampage.

It was likely caused by damage to his Divine Soul.

The reason he disappeared for so many years was perhaps also to repair the injury to his Divine Soul.

The Enforcement Department Inspection Division had been unable to bring him to justice most likely because of the opponent's special status and the protection of his Family.

As soon as he came out, he exterminated that Inspection Division Director's entire Family.

Looking at it this way, Su Ling had stumbled into solving a major hidden danger for Cangming City.