Chapter 312: Successful Read

“Is this the level of a Core Formation Ghost Cultivator?” Chen Luo asked, holding Xue Ning’s head, his disappointment evident. He had painstakingly preserved the head, only to find he couldn’t extract any information from it. What a waste.

This doesn’t make sense. Do Ghost Cultivators even have brains? Or is my method flawed? Chen Luo pondered.

Several bizarre ideas surfaced in his External Brain:

Could their brains be located in their legs?

He had no idea which peculiar corner of his mind had conjured that thought. Deciding to err on the side of caution, Chen Luo dragged Xue Ning’s severed lower body over, but still couldn’t access any information.

Maybe it’s the heart.

Chen Luo’s gaze shifted to Xue Ning’s chest. It had already been pulverized.

…

One outlandish idea after another popped into his head, each more eccentric and far-fetched than the last. Void Sage and the others stood frozen, unsure what Chen Luo was doing and afraid to interrupt.

“Who exactly are you?” Xue Ning snarled, her voice dripping with fury. She desperately tried to recall his face, unable to comprehend how such a powerful Body Cultivator could exist in the Seven Kingdoms Region. Most crucially, this Body Cultivator practiced the rare Yin Thunder Physique Refinement Technique, which rendered most of their Ghost Cultivator methods ineffective.

“We’re old friends, Xue Ning,” Chen Luo said, his attempt to retrieve her memories having failed. “How could you forget so quickly? I almost forgot to ask—is Old Brother Khan Jiu’s… corpse still in your Ghost Temple?” Chen Luo decided to try a more direct approach, intending to reason with her.

He had always believed in logic and reason.

“You’re the one who escaped back then?” Xue Ning’s eyes widened in sudden recognition.

She recalled two useless Yin Souls she hadn’t used in ages.

With a mental command, two figures materialized beside her. One radiated vigorous blood qi, while the other hunched over, carrying a crimson, spectral casket on his back. They were none other than the Blood Qi Old Ghost and the Coffin-Bearing Old Man, whom Chen Luo had encountered during his exploration of the Roshana Land.

The Blood Qi Old Ghost was Lady Bai Gu’s friend, and Chen Luo had even traded for the Evil Bone Secret Manual from him. Though not a high-level cultivation technique, it had proven invaluable to Chen Luo at the time. The Coffin-Bearing Old Man, on the other hand, had been killed by Chen Luo’s Yin Soul explosion in a cavern. After the Ghost Temple’s corruption spread to the area, Xue Ning had claimed his corpse and enslaved his Yin Soul as one of her spectral thralls.

“Miss Xue, I know I was wrong. It’s you?!”

The two Yin Souls immediately knelt and begged for mercy. But they stopped mid-sentence, suddenly noticing Chen Luo standing before them.

Their memories were still stuck in the moment of their deaths.

Seeing Chen Luo now, they assumed he had also fallen victim to Xue Ning’s schemes. They knew better than anyone how powerful Xue Ning had become as a Ghost Cultivator—she possessed the combat prowess of a Core Formation expert! No, she was practically a Core Formation Ancestor. Though they couldn’t fathom how she had advanced so quickly, she had undoubtedly surpassed them, reaching the coveted realm of Core Formation Ancestor they had long dreamed of attaining.

“So, you’ve fallen too?”

“Miss Xue, leave this one to me! I guarantee you’ll be satisfied!”

The Blood Qi Old Ghost and the Coffin-Bearing Old Man glared at Chen Luo, their bloodshot eyes burning with vengeful intent. The torment they had once endured at Xue Ning’s hands was forgotten, replaced by a singular desire for retribution.

A life for a life!

Boom!

A shadow slammed into the Coffin-Bearing Old Man from the side. His gloating smile froze on his face as his Yin Soul body exploded. A blinding burst of lightning erupted, instantly reducing his spectral form to charred ash. The residual force struck the Blood Qi Old Ghost’s face, caving in his ancient features. Lingering lightning surged through his body, sending him hurtling backward.

Only then did Chen Luo fully see Xue Ning’s appearance.

Only her head remained.

What in the world happened?!

Could it be? Have I been imprisoned for centuries? Has that brat actually reached Core Formation? Impossible!

A shadow descended from the sky. The sole of a massive foot grew larger and larger, landing squarely on the Blood Qi Old Ghost’s face. With a burst of thunderous lightning, the Blood Qi Old Ghost’s Yin Soul form, filled with rage and resentment, completely vanished from the world.

Xue Ning, held by Chen Luo, couldn’t help but tremble.

She had summoned these two Yin Souls hoping they would exploit their familiarity with Chen Luo to buy her some time. Both had been killed by Chen Luo in life, and even the deepest grudges should have faded with death. Shouldn’t they have boasted triumphantly, reveling in their supposed victory?

“Didn’t finish the job properly before. This time, it’s truly done. Thanks!”

After eliminating the two Yin Souls, Chen Luo turned his gaze back to Xue Ning.

“Now, tell me, where’s Old Brother Khan Jiu’s corpse?”

“In the hands of the Imperial Preceptor. Go get it from him if you dare,” Xue Ning replied coldly.

She had already accepted reality.

A wave of resentment washed over her. After years of meticulous planning, her efforts had come to naught, like trying to draw water with a bamboo basket. Meanwhile, Chen Luo, the junior she had once dismissed as insignificant, had inexplicably soared to new heights, not only achieving Core Formation but also acquiring a bizarre physique-cultivating secret art. If not for this secret art, she would never have met such a wretched end.

“The Imperial Preceptor?” Chen Luo recalled Patriarch Guhe of the Great Void mentioning a thousand-year-old Centipede Spirit lurking within the Millennial Ancient Kingdom. This formidable creature had usurped the position of Imperial Preceptor, treating the kingdom’s inhabitants as mere livestock to devour at will.

But if the Centipede Spirit had always remained within the Ancient Kingdom’s borders, how had it ended up at the Ghost Temple? Could there be secrets hidden here that even the Seven Ancestors of Grand Void were unaware of?

“The Spring-Autumn Gu is unfathomable, and Khan Jiu serves a crucial purpose. The Imperial Preceptor awakened his Yin Soul long ago, and like me, he is now a Ghost Cultivator of the Ghost Temple.” As she spoke, the shattered stone fragments around them slowly coalesced. Under Chen Luo’s watchful gaze, her mangled body gradually began to regenerate.

“Was the one in Roshana the Imperial Preceptor?” Chen Luo remembered the bizarre figure seated in a palanquin they had encountered during their escape from Roshana with Lady Bai Gu.

“No.”

Xue Ning’s gaze flickered when the person was mentioned.

“Why did you come to the Seven Kingdoms Region?”

“It’s the same everywhere. If you want to climb higher, you have to rely on yourself.”

“That makes sense,” Chen Luo nodded in agreement.

“We have no real animosity between us. We could cooperate. I possess a secret related to Core Formation,” Xue Ning said, attempting to negotiate. She didn’t want to die.

Like Chen Luo, Xue Ning had come to the Seven Kingdoms Region to break through her cultivation bottleneck, and she harbored her own secrets. Originally a Spider Demon from Ten Thousand Demon Mountain, she had miraculously escaped the mountain’s blockade. Leveraging the mountain’s ancient traditions, she had carved out a reputation for herself in Blackstone City. This was why neither Lady Bai Gu nor Old Demon Fang had ever uncovered her true origins. During Chen Luo’s journey through the Southern Heaven Domain, he had passed through Ten Thousand Demon Mountain and encountered a woman in a perilous area. She had asked him if he sensed “Xue Ning’s aura” on him.

Chen Luo had remained silent.

Within his External Brain, over a hundred brains were simultaneously strategizing methods to extract the Ghost Cultivator’s brain.

In the brief span of their conversation, Chen Luo had already tested more than a dozen approaches, all without success. Yet he remained unhurried. The advantage of having multiple brains lay in the multitude of ideas they generated. With each brain offering a unique approach, he had hundreds of different strategies to explore.

The Mummified Brain, currently researching cultivation methods for the Core Formation Stage, offered this suggestion as an aside.

Yin energy?

Chen Luo’s thoughts stirred as he glanced at Xue Ning’s slowly recovering body.

“It’s all yours. What do you say?” Xue Ning stated her terms, completely unaware that Chen Luo hadn’t registered a single word she’d said.

Following the Mummified Brain’s method, Chen Luo’s spiritual energy began to transform. Wisps of pale azure energy, as fine as silkworm threads, emerged from his fingertips and seeped into Xue Ning’s head.

Midway through her sentence, Xue Ning suddenly sensed something was amiss. An unprecedented sense of danger washed over her.

“You’re—”

Her words trailed off as the light in her eyes abruptly dimmed. Her recovering body gradually lost its color, turning into grayish-white stone. At that very moment, Chen Luo’s palm, still pressed against her head, finally detected the familiar energy.

Gray energy surged through his arm into his body. This time, the energy was abundant, and Chen Luo extracted a vast amount of redundant “fragments”: Xue Ning’s life experiences and the secrets she cherished most. However, Chen Luo’s primary concern remained the issue of “vision.”

Xue Ning was a Spider Demon from Ten Thousand Demon Mountain, a cultivator of both demonic and ghostly arts—double the reward for half the effort!

Xue Ning’s obsessions were simple, and the redundant fragments Chen Luo had glimpsed all revolved around these two unwavering desires.

“Done.”

Chen Luo’s spirits lifted. After exhausting countless strategies, it was ultimately his mummified Old Brother who had sealed the deal. He vowed to return to the Seven Kingdoms at the first opportunity and scavenge more tomb chambers to replenish the mummy’s energy reserves.

“She’s dead?”

Void Sage and the others, who had been closely monitoring the situation, hurried over. They never imagined Chen Luo could actually defeat Xue Ning, a formidable Core Formation Ghost Cultivator whom the combined forces of the Seven Kingdoms’ three great Core Formation experts had failed to defeat. The sight of such a powerful being falling at Chen Luo’s hands was nothing short of awe-inspiring.

As Chen Luo finished extracting the brain, the severed head he held began to crumble into dust, transforming into a petrified skull utterly devoid of life.

“That should take care of it.”

Chen Luo stored the skull in his Pouch of Holding, briefly explained the situation to Void Sage, and then flew away from the God Lake Immortal Sect.

Xue Ning had been terrorizing the Seven Kingdoms for far too long, plundering vast quantities of resources.

Most of the resources Xue Ning had amassed were of little consequence to Chen Luo, but one item stood out as immensely significant: the Upper Realm cultivation technique she had stolen from Ten Thousand Demon Mountain. This technique was the secret to Xue Ning’s rapid rise to power, and it was precisely because of it that she had defected to the Ghost Temple. For years, she had diligently cultivated this technique, and it was largely responsible for her swift breakthrough to the Core Formation stage.

After Chen Luo departed, Void Sage began rallying his disciples to rebuild the sect. Following this calamity, both the Corpse-Raising Sect and Nine Poisons Valley were utterly destroyed. Mo Wenjian, along with the sole surviving Elder of Nine Poisons Valley, once again swore allegiance to Void Sage.

The Immortal Sects of the Seven Kingdoms Region were now completely unified.

Half a day later…

In the desolate mountains and ancient forests of the northwestern Seven Kingdoms Region stood an abandoned temple. Its gray-white stone structure dominated much of the valley.

Withered leaves and scattered rocks lay in eerie silence.

A short-tailed rat darted out from a crack in the stone, cautiously foraging for food. Several half-rotted corpses leaned against the walls. Translucent shadows drifted through the temple grounds, appearing and vanishing at intervals.

They materialized, then faded away.