CHAPTER 225: THE SPIRIT ENTITY BORN FROM CORPSE QI

"What a pitch-black mess... what kind of gibberish is this?" Wind Dragon lifted his claw and gripped the barrier tightly. Pure, concentrated wind energy poured from his palm, slowly seeping into the barrier and devouring the black mist within.

Sensing the invading wind energy, the face twisted in terror and screeched, retreating into a swirling mass of dark clouds that violently battered against the barrier.

Wind Dragon frowned. Ignoring its furious struggle, he clenched his claw and shattered the barrier. The black cloud instantly burst apart under the pressure.

The black cloud let out a pitiful scream, scattering into countless wisps drifting from Wind Dragon's palm. As the fragments touched the surrounding corpse qi, they quickly reformed in the air into a face once more.

The face darted its gaze around. Realizing that Wind Dragon couldn't destroy it completely, it began chattering furiously. Expanding to dozens of feet in size, it surged toward him in rage.

Wind Dragon let out a cold laugh and transformed into pure wind energy. The face recoiled in horror upon sensing the purity of his wind attribute. It shrieked before dissolving back into black mist and fleeing north.

Watching it escape, Wind Dragon chuckled softly, making no move to pursue. "Hah... just as expected. These creatures are spirit entities born from corpse qi."

"Spirit entities born from corpse qi?" Lu Chen frowned, his gaze following the vanishing mist. "What exactly are they? Why are they immune to physical attacks? And shouldn't we chase them? What if they gather more monsters?"

"Forget about that. As long as we're around this area, there's no way to kill them completely," Wind Dragon replied calmly.

Red Fox opened her eyes and leapt to the ground, sniffing the air. "If my guess is correct, those are remnants of cultivators' Divine Psyche Incarnations."

"After a cultivator dies, their Divine Psyche Incarnation can get trapped by corpse qi, unable to leave or enter the cycle of reincarnation. Over time, the corpse qi corrupts it, turning it into a creature similar to an elemental beast. Physical attacks are useless against them."

"Lady Red Fox, are you saying they were formed after the cultivators' deaths?" Nantian Yijian watched the dissipating mist with confusion. "The corpse qi has already been absorbed by the pit. We can descend freely. Why can't they just leave?"

"Perhaps they want to, but they can't," Red Fox said. She walked over to a nearby skeleton and began digging with her claws. Soon, she unearthed a skeleton and lifted it with her spirit qi, placing it before Wind Dragon. "Look at this. I was right. These spirit entities vanish the moment they lose their source of corpse qi."

Lu Chen looked up at Red Fox. Inside the skeleton's abdomen was a black cloud, faintly pulsing as it absorbed corpse qi from the surrounding space.

"This... Could this be the Heavenly Pool of a cultivator after death?"

Lu Chen reached out to touch the black cloud, but before his fingers made contact, the vines wrapped around his forearm suddenly shot straight into the cloud's center.

Red Fox panicked. "Lu Chen, don't touch that!"

She unleashed two beams of red spirit qi from her eyes, blasting him away.

Nantian Wan'er rushed forward, catching him and quickly feeding him two Heaven Restoration Pills.

Lu Chen swallowed the pills, clutching his chest as he struggled to his feet. "Cough... that really hurts."

He glared at Red Fox. "If you wanted to save me, why didn't you just sever the vines? Why hit me that hard?"

"I panicked," she muttered awkwardly. "That cloud is pure corpse qi. You're still too weak. Your core essence would have been consumed the moment you touched it. And I was already holding back!"

Lu Chen groaned, still pressing his chest. "Even so, a little warning would've been nice. You almost broke my ribs."

"Eh... as long as you're fine, that's what matters," Red Fox said, slipping back to her usual cold arrogance. "You're still standing, aren't you? If I'd really used my full strength, you wouldn't even be alive."

Realizing that he would only be digging his own grave by arguing further, Lu Chen stammered, "Uh..."

"No comment? Fine. Then I'm going to sleep."

Red Fox jumped back onto Nantian Wan'er's shoulder and curled up comfortably.

Watching her settle down without another word, Lu Chen felt a swell of frustration. He had a thousand things he wanted to say, yet couldn't bring himself to say any of them.

"Finally feeling my pain, huh? Remember when you laughed at me before? Now you know what it's like," Wind Dragon said with a hearty laugh. "Red Fox has a nasty temper, but since you can't beat her, there's nothing you can do but endure it."

Lu Chen snapped, "Are you mocking me? You haven't dared talk back to her either! What gives you the right to mock me?"

Wind Dragon sighed. "I... that's because I'm just a clone. After a while, I'll go find my main body and have him raise my cultivation. Then I'll make sure to give her trouble every single day—"

"Did I hear that right? You want to give me trouble every day?" Wind Dragon had barely finished speaking when Red Fox suddenly opened her eyes, exerting her Earth Core Realm pressure toward him. "Let's see just how strong you've gotten to have the courage to bother me every day."

Feeling the oppressive force radiating from her, Wind Dragon faltered. "Uh... you're awake?"

He looked at Red Fox, stammering, "We're all on the same side. Why would I ever want to cause you trouble? You should rest. We might still need you to handle the monsters later."

"Hmph...

good that you understand," Red Fox replied.

Seeing Wind Dragon's timid stance, she swept her gaze over both of them, snorted coldly, and closed her eyes again.

Wind Dragon and Lu Chen stood awkwardly to the side, exchanging helpless smiles.

Sensing the tension, Jun Laoye quickly stepped forward. "Little Lu, what exactly happened just now? Why did your divine ability react to that black mist?"

"Oh," Lu Chen answered quickly. "That's because the black mist contains both the cultivator's core essence and pure corpse qi."

He glanced around cautiously before lowering his voice. "I need pure elemental energy, so when I approached the black mist, the Green Sovereign Divine Tree immediately responded with its roots."

Jun Laoye nodded as he listened. "I see... no wonder you always get excited when you sense pure elemental energy."

Lu Chen turned to Wind Dragon. "Wind Dragon, I suspect this cloud is actually the cultivator's Heavenly Pool, and also the energy source of that black spirit entity just now."

Looking at the skeletal remains in the air, Jun Laoye stroked his chin thoughtfully. "You mean spirit entities, like us, can cultivate using the Heavenly Pool?"

Lu Chen nodded, pointing at the black mass in the skeleton's abdomen. "After a cultivator dies, their Divine Psyche Incarnation doesn't dissipate, and the Heavenly Pool contains the cultivator's core essence. These two factors together, combined with the influence of corpse qi, gave rise to the monster we just saw."

"When we fell off the cliff earlier, we saw those gravely injured cultivators suddenly devoured, and their flesh and core essence absorbed. I think it was these creatures that did it."

"Blood Soul Beasts!" Jun Laoye's eyes widened as he connected the dots. "The creature we saw earlier was a spirit entity. If it can also absorb a cultivator's flesh and blood, then it matches the description of a Blood Soul Beast."

He looked at Lu Chen, realization dawning. "Could the monsters the Ancestor mentioned before be these black mists? The cultivator's Divine Psyche Incarnation manifests as the human-faced part, and the Heavenly Pool is the source of the monster's spirit qi."

Lu Chen examined the skeleton, stroking his chin. "Based on your analysis, the creatures we encountered were indeed Blood Soul Beasts. Each of these corpses likely harbors one as well."

Nantian Yijian, still confused, asked, "Boss, if the Ancestor knew such monsters existed below, why didn't he just eliminate them? That would've made unlocking the secret realm much easier."

Wind Dragon released a gust of wind, slicing through the cloud in the skeleton's abdomen. "It's not that he didn't want to clear them. It's that these monsters are too difficult to eliminate."

Within a heartbeat, the cloud reformed, with its aura now even stronger than before.

"Nantian brat, do you understand now?" Wind Dragon's expression grew grave. "In the cultivation world, the scariest thing isn't the number of monsters, nor their strength. The truly terrifying ones are the monsters you cannot kill directly. Those are the ones to fear."

Jun Laoye looked toward the monsters that had already vanished into the distance and nodded. "I understand now. The Ancestors deemed them impossible to kill, so they kept these monsters at their weakest state."

"Exactly," Wind Dragon replied with an approving smile, pleased with Jun Laoye's understanding. "If the monsters cannot be killed, then you just keep them at their weakest."