60: Chapter 60 Treasure Hunt in Scorched Earth! The Corpse Collector Beneath the Cliff

Great Yu Cultivation World, the base of Qingmu Cliff, the subterranean dark river.

The grey mist quietly dissipated in the cold, rushing river water. Gu Shen's figure appeared out of thin air, landing steadily on a massive, moss-covered boulder at the edge of the dark river.

The moment he appeared, the extremely thick, pale green poisonous miasma at the base of the cliff swarmed toward him like maggots on a bone.

Gu Shen did not rush to take out the potent purified water to filter the poison gas like last time. He took a deep breath of the miasma.

It was pungent and stinging.

But the instant the miasma entered his body, an incredibly powerful force of resistance naturally surged from his flesh and Meridians, which had just been reshaped by the eerie green marrow liquid.

The poisonous miasma, which was enough to make the flesh of an ordinary Middle Stage Qi Refinement Cultivator fester, was actually blocked outside his body by his newly transformed skin, unable to penetrate even a fraction further!

"The transformation from that eerie green marrow liquid can actually withstand most of the poisonous miasma of the Cultivation World!"

A sharp glint flashed in Gu Shen's eyes.

This was not just a doubling of strength; it was a forced elevation of his life level.

He did not activate the Wood Armor Technique to waste his mana, looking up at the pitch-black cliff wall that towered into the clouds.

"Up."

Gu Shen exerted sudden force with his legs, pouncing toward the cliff wall like a lithe spirit ape. His ten fingers were like iron hooks, sinking fiercely into the hard rock.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Without using any Magical Artifact, relying purely on his terrifying Physical Body strength, Gu Shen climbed the vertical cliff as if walking on flat ground. With every high-frequency explosion of muscle, the black iron plate tied to his left leg greedily absorbed the vibrating energy.

In less than the time it takes for half a stick of incense to burn, he had silently flipped onto the summit of Qingmu Cliff.

What met his eyes was a stretch of scorched earth.

The entire Qingmu Cliff looked as if it had been smashed by a giant hammer from the heavens. Not one in ten of the once-dense Immortal Caves remained; all had been blasted into rubble. The ground was covered everywhere with glazed, crystalline craters melted by Agni-fire, and the air was thick with a nauseating smell of burning.

"When a Foundation Establishment old monster takes action, truly nothing is left alive."

Gu Shen lowered his posture, moving through the ruins with extreme caution.

Although the Great Cleansing had ended, this place was by no means absolutely safe.

He walked past a collapsed stone room and saw a severed arm beneath a pile of rubble. The arm was death-gripped around a flattened Storage Pouch.

Gu Shen stepped forward and used his gold-severing saber to pry away the rocks.

This was the corpse of a Loose Cultivator at Qi Refinement Level 6, whose internal organs had been shattered by sheer vibration.

Gu Shen felt no pity, pressing his hand onto the corpse.

In his Sea of Consciousness, the phantom fire of the [Heaven and Earth Furnace] swept out.

Afterward, he forcibly erased the already extremely weak Divine Sense mark on the Storage Pouch.

Clatter.

The items inside poured out. Some personal miscellaneous items, a few broken Low Grade Magical Artifacts, and twelve Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Gu Shen calmly swept the Spirit Stones into his Storage Ring, not even glancing at the rest of the junk.

"Large Sects look down on the Storage Pouches of these bottom-tier Loose Cultivators, but for me, this is a windfall."

Gu Shen followed the same pattern, acting like a patient vulture amidst the ruins, constantly searching for buried remains.

Within half an hour, he turned up three more corpses, refined three drops of inferior White Dew, and scavenged twenty-five Low-Grade Spirit Stones.

Just as Gu Shen was preparing to head toward the ruins of what was once the most prosperous trading platform on the cliff top...

His ears suddenly twitched slightly.

His increased Physical Body foundation made his hearing several times sharper than before.

From a massive crater created by a magical battle a hundred yards away, extremely faint voices and mana fluctuations drifted over.

The shadow shoes on Gu Shen's feet flowed with dark light as his whole body hugged the scorched ground, sliding over noiselessly to hide behind a massive piece of rubble.

Poking half a head out, he looked down.

At the bottom of the crater stood two Blood Fiend Sect Outer Disciples clad in blood-red robes. Both were at the Qi Refining Level 7 cultivation base.

In the hand of one of them was a soul-drawing banner emitting an extremely sinister aura. As the banner waved, it forcibly pulled wisps of souls that had not yet completely dissipated from the surrounding mangled corpses of Loose Cultivators, swallowing them into the banner.

"Senior Brother, there are quite a few lonely souls and wild ghosts on this Qingmu Cliff. It's a pity they were burned so badly by the Foundation Establishment Elder's Agni-fire; collecting them is really a chore," the Disciple holding the soul-drawing banner complained.

"Shut up and focus on the work!"

The other Senior Brother, who had a sinister gaze, barked coldly, "Something went wrong with the Blood Sacrifice Array over at the White Bone Forest. Someone forcibly cut off a section of the blood lotus's root whiskers, causing the array's foundation to be damaged. The ripening of the blood marrow lotus is stuck at the final step!"

"The Elders were furious and ordered us Outer Disciples out to collect corpses. We must gather enough Loose Cultivator blood essence and resentful souls to fill the deficit. Additionally, we need to find some corpses with powerful physical bodies to take back for the Inner Disciples to refine into Iron-Blood Corpse Puppets!"

Hearing this, Gu Shen, hidden in the shadows, instantly had a terrifying light burst from his eyes.

"So that's how it is!"

Because of the root whisker that the old man had taken from the White Bone Forest's blood marrow lotus, its power had leaked, preventing it from maturing perfectly. The Blood Fiend Sect had no choice but to send these 'scavengers' to clean up the battlefield in the ruins, squeezing the last bit of value out of the dead!

And what moved Gu Shen's heart the most was that Senior Brother's next sentence.

"Senior Brother, corpses with powerful physical bodies are hard to find. Most of these Loose Cultivators have weak constitutions. If I had known, I would have borrowed a few more Body Refining Cultivation Techniques from the Transmission Pavilion before leaving, even if it were just the most basic 'Bone Refining Art.' Using the Sect's secret techniques to drive the remains to Cultivate might allow for forced growth, refining a few qualified corpse puppets to hand in."

That Junior Brother muttered while shaking the soul banner.

The sinister Senior Brother sneered, "Idiot. The Bone Refining Art is right in my Storage Pouch. It's a reference technique the Sect issued for us to identify the remains of Body Cultivators. Once we finish collecting the blood essence in this area, I will naturally use it to process a few corpses."

The Bone Refining Art! A Body Refining Cultivation Technique!

Gu Shen's breathing paused for an extremely faint moment.

He was just worrying about where to find a Body Refining technique to absorb that eerie green marrow liquid, and this Blood Fiend Sect Disciple actually brought the technique to his doorstep!

"Qi Refining Level 7, same rank."

Gu Shen's right hand very slowly gripped the hilt of the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade at his waist.

Inside his body, that terrifying physical strength and Qi Refining Level 7 mana were like two volcanoes about to erupt, frantically building momentum in his Meridians.

Kill the man, take the goods.

It happens tonight!