97: Chapter 97 The Severely Injured Mysterious Man

A desolate mountain forest, a natural limestone cave.

In the dim underground space, Gu Shen sat cross-legged. His aura was restrained, as if he were a lifeless stone.

Two full days of hibernation and breathing exercises.

He slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long, turbid breath. The blood and Qi within his body, which had been churning from resisting the full-force strike of a Peak Qi Refining 9th Layer Cultivator, had completely calmed down. The magic power of Qi Refining Level 7 surged through his wide Meridians, ceaselessly flowing.

Gu Shen's Divine Sense stirred slightly, and he took out a tin of iron-sealed meat paste and a bottle of pure water from his Storage Ring.

He pried open the iron lid with the tip of his blade and swallowed the salty, fishy meat paste mixed with clear water. His powerful stomach instantly ground it to pieces, transforming it into a surging heat flow to replenish the massive consumption required for the operation of the Bone Refining Art.

"My condition has reached its Peak. It is time to move."

Gu Shen stood up, casually crushed the empty tin into an iron disk, and tossed it into the dark river deep within the cave.

He took out the black bone fragment seized from the Rootless Ghost Market. As his Divine Sense probed inside, the rough route map leading to the depths of Baiyin Mountain appeared in his mind once again.

"Crab, activate environmental monitoring. Mask my thermal signature." Gu Shen whispered in his heart.

"Understood, Master. Silent scan initiated." The black iron button on his collar vibrated slightly.

Gu Shen lowered his bamboo hat, and Thousand Faces set his appearance to that of a sallow-faced, weather-beaten one-eyed man. With the black light of his shadow shoes flickering, he swept out of the cave like a ghost, speeding toward Baiyin Mountain in the northwest.

...

Baiyin Mountain, the place lived up to its name.

This had once been an ancient battlefield in the Great Yu Cultivation World. It never saw the sun, and gray-black Yin clouds pressed heavily upon the mountain Peaks. The trees in the mountains all appeared a sickly purplish-black, their branches twisted like countless despairing, struggling ghost hands.

The air was filled with thick Evil Qi. If an ordinary Mortal were to stay here for long, they would have their sanity eroded by the Evil Qi within a day, descending into madness.

Gu Shen stepped into the mountain.

He did not mobilize his magic power to protect his body. His dark gold Thunder Bones vibrated slightly beneath his skin and flesh, and that Evil Qi, which would have driven a normal person mad, fell upon his skin and was, surprisingly, like a clay ox entering the sea, being aggressively blocked out.

"Such a place of extreme Yin is truly the perfect hotbed for nurturing cold-natured Spirit Medicine."

Gu Shen followed the route on the bone fragment, moving quickly along the rugged black stone mountain path.

His goal was extremely clear: to find traces of the Nine Nether Silkworm, or an item of extreme Yin sufficient to neutralize the violent power of the 3rd-grade Thunder Bone.

Two hours later.

Gu Shen stopped outside a hidden, gourd-shaped valley.

The valley entrance was tightly sealed by a patch of dense black thorns. If not for the guidance of the bone fragment map, it would be extremely difficult to discover that there was a hidden world behind these thorns.

"Master, the temperature inside the valley is a full thirty degrees lower than outside. Infrared thermal imaging shows no signs of large warm-blooded biological activity inside." Crab reported precisely.

Gu Shen nodded slightly and drew the thunder pattern gold-slaying blade from his waist.

Without invoking thunder, relying solely on the extreme sharpness of the Supreme Grade fierce gold, he carefully cut a gap in the thorn bushes large enough for one person to pass through.

He turned sideways and squeezed into the valley.

The space inside the valley was not large, but it was bone-chillingly cold. The ground was covered with a thick layer of white powder. Gu Shen looked down and saw that it was actually countless weathered, shattered bones.

"Such heavy corpse aura and Yin Qi. This is practically a natural site for raising corpses."

Gu Shen's Divine Sense spread out like a spider web, searching carefully through the gaps between the withered bones and the rock walls.

The Nine Nether Silkworm loves to eat rotten bones and often spins its cocoon in places of extreme Yin.

However, Gu Shen searched the entire periphery of the valley, yet he did not see even half a strand of the silkworm's silk.

"Could it be that the treasure land recorded on the old man's bone fragment is not the habitat of the Nine Nether Silkworm?"

Gu Shen frowned slightly, but he was not discouraged. Opportunities in the Cultivation World are ethereal by nature, and it is common to return empty-handed after following a map.

He continued to walk toward the deepest part of the valley.

Gu Shen stopped in front of a pitch-black rock wall at the end of the valley.

Below the rock wall was a natural cold pool, only the size of a water vat. The pool water was as black as ink, and a thin layer of black ice crystals had even condensed on the surface.

And directly above the cold pool, a stalactite hung down like a black sharp sword.

Drip.

A drop of viscous, pitch-black liquid was slowly condensing from the tip of the stalactite, on the verge of falling.

Gu Shen's pupils contracted suddenly, and a burst of ecstasy erupted in the depths of his eyes.

"profound yin stone essence!"

He had seen records of this item in the ancient books of Baicao Pavilion. It is the essence of the earth veins in a place of extreme Yin, requiring hundreds of years to condense a single drop. Its Yin-cold energy is pure to the extreme; it is not only the primary material for refining Supreme Grade water-type and ice-type Magical Artifacts, but also a supreme Saint Grade item for neutralizing all violent fire-attribute and thunder-attribute Spirit Medicine!

"Without the Nine Nether Silkworm, I have found such a treasure of extreme Yin. The grade of this profound yin stone essence is absolutely sufficient to suppress the violence of that 3rd-grade Thunder Bone!"

Gu Shen walked up carefully.

He did not use his hands to catch it. If one were to touch such an item of extreme Yin without preparation, it would instantly freeze an arm into uselessness.

He took an empty jade bottle from his Storage Ring, wrapped it with the magic power of his Qi Refining Level 7, and held it steadily beneath the stalactite.

Drip.

One drop. Two drops. Three drops.

After waiting for a full half-hour, Gu Shen patiently collected five drops of profound yin stone essence. The black liquid at the tip of the stalactite dried up completely, yielding no more.

Gu Shen quickly sealed the jade bottle tightly with a Talisman and put it into his Storage Ring.

"With these five drops of stone essence, the auxiliary materials for breaking through to the second layer of the Bone Refining Art are completely gathered."

Gu Shen was in a great mood. Having achieved most of his goal for this trip, he was just about to turn and leave this cold, gloomy valley.

Just at this moment.

"Master!"

The iron button on his collar suddenly emitted a rapid, high-frequency vibration, and Crab's voice carried an unprecedented solemnity and horror.

"What is it?" Gu Shen's figure froze instantly, his right hand gripping the hilt of his blade tightly.

"The microwave radar has scanned an extremely large underground cavern behind the rock wall on the right side of the valley. Inside... there is something inside!"

Crab's speech was extremely fast, "Fifteen humanoid targets! But they have no heartbeat, no body temperature, and on the infrared thermal imaging, they are a dead, deep blue!"

"Zombies?" Gu Shen's eyes turned cold. It was perfectly normal for there to be zombies in a corpse-raising ground.

"No! Master, their bone density and metal reactions are very abnormal! Their bodies are filled with high-strength alloy components... no, they are fragments of refined iron Magical Artifacts from the Cultivation World! They are not ordinary zombies!"

Crab's voice was trembling, "Furthermore, in the very center of these fifteen dead things, there is an extremely weak but high-energy-level living heat source! He is injured, and his vital signs are fluctuating violently!"

Gu Shen's breathing stalled slightly.

Fifteen humanoid monsters with no vital signs but bodies filled with refined iron.

A severely injured high-level Cultivator sitting in the center.

"No corpse aura, yet they are like dead objects. Their bodies are filled with refined iron mechanisms..."

A terrifying glint flashed in the depths of Gu Shen's eyes.

"Those are not zombies at all. They are... Corpse Puppets, refined using the remains of Cultivators and refined iron!"

In Gu Shen's mind, he instantly recalled the private soldiers of the Cliff Master he had seen at Qingmu Cliff, clad in heavy armor with dead, hollow eyes.

And the only person he knew in the entire Great Yu Cultivation World who could control so many high-level Corpse Puppets and was hiding in the depths of Baiyin Mountain while severely injured was one!

The mysterious Sword Cultivator who had thrown out the remnant tentacle bait at the Blood River Dark Assembly, ignited a war between the two Sects, and ultimately snatched the chestnuts from the fire—Wei Lingfeng!

"He didn't flee into the Misty Swamp, but instead hid in this place of extreme Yin in Baiyin Mountain!"

Gu Shen's heart began to beat violently.

The most dangerous place is the safest place. The main forces of the two major Sects had all been lured toward the Misty Swamp and Soul-Severing Valley. Who would have thought that the culprit who stirred up the winds and clouds was actually hibernating in Baiyin Mountain, right under the nose of Yunze Immortal City!

"Master, shall we retreat? The energy fluctuation of that living heat source is terrifying; even in a severely injured state, it absolutely exceeds the limits of the Qi Refining Stage!" Crab gave a very rational suggestion.

Gu Shen stood where he was, his eyes deep as an abyss.

Retreat?

That severely injured mysterious person not only held the core secret technique of the Qianji Pavilion, the "Soul-Pulling Threads," but most likely also possessed that Saint Grade medicine for Foundation Establishment that had driven the two major Sects mad—the blood marrow lotus!

This was a world-shaking Opportunity that could allow one to ascend to the heavens in a single step.

"Wealth is sought in danger."

The cowardice and caution in the depths of Gu Shen's eyes faded instantly, replaced by a coldness as extreme as a starving wolf.

"If he were at his Peak, I would keep my distance. But now that he is severely injured and hibernating, what does it matter if he has fifteen Puppets as Protectors?"

The black light on Gu Shen's shadow shoes flickered, and his aura was restrained to the point of near-nothingness.

Like a ghost, he followed the direction guided by Crab, moving silently toward the underground cavern hidden behind the rock wall.