"If there is nothing else, I will take my leave now," Yinkong bowed to Yuan Ming and turned to vanish into the void.

Yuan Ming watched him go, then left the place to find a safe spot to settle down.

He waved his hand, emitting a beam of blue light that gathered the storage magic tool and several magic treasures from the Nine Yin Venerable, quickly inspecting them.

As the leader of the Six Venerables of Wu Yue Sect, Nine Yin Venerable possessed immense wealth, countless spirit stones and spiritual materials, almost equivalent to three White Bone Venerables.

Now wealthy himself, Yuan Ming was indifferent to items like spirit stones and spiritual materials. He casually stored them away, keeping only three items: the set of Sky Bright Needles, a jade slip of black and white colors, and a blue jade scroll.

He picked up the nine Sky Bright Needles and began probing with his divine sense.

Each of these needles, adorned with twelve runes, was a replica of a spiritual treasure with astonishing penetrating power; even defensive treasures of the same rank could hardly withstand them.

Moreover, the Sky Bright Needles could temporarily transform into spiritual bodies to attack the enemy's divine soul, making them a deadly weapon.

Yuan Ming put away the set of needles and, after refining them with mana, picked up the black and white jade slip.

The jade slip recorded a cultivation technique named "Yin Yang Treasure," which was the cultivation technique practiced by Nine Yin Venerable.

He had previously glanced through the Yin Yang Treasure briefly and didn't inspect it in detail, but now with some free time, he began to read it carefully, his eyes lighting up more and more.

Long afterwards, he put down the jade slip and sighed deeply.

The content recorded in the Yin Yang Treasure was exquisitely profound, certainly not inferior to the Nine Elements Technique, and many of its odd facets even surpassed it.

In fact, this treasure was a technique for absorbing Yin Yang power to advance one's cultivation.

In the present cultivation world, the mainstream cultivation techniques for Magic Practitioners use the Five Elements Spiritual Power to enhance cultivation and strength. As for Yin Yang power, only used by soul and body cultivators, very few magic practitioners get involved with it.

However, the creator of Yin Yang Treasure genuinely deserved to be called a rare genius among magic practitioners, using his intellect to create this technique that utilizes Yin Yang power.

Once mastered, this technique greatly surpasses cultivators of the same rank in strength, particularly enhancing speed and allowing the user to sacrifice Yin Yang power to unleash various miraculous attacks.

The thread-piercing divine power of Nine Yin Venerable was derived from using Yin Yang power as its base.

But the entry-level practices of Yin Yang Treasure are extremely strict, requiring a person innately merged with Yin Yang power to cultivate it, yet such individuals are exceedingly rare.

The creator of Yin Yang Treasure, after much thought, came up with an inhumane method: castrating oneself.

Males are Yang; by castrating themselves, they switch from Yang to Yin, simultaneously inheriting both Yin Yang powers, meeting the entrance requirements.

Yuan Ming shook his head; although the Yin Yang Treasure was powerful, it was too bizarre. Those who cultivated it often underwent drastic changes in disposition, just like Nine Yin Venerable.

Just as he was about to put away the jade slip, he suddenly discovered a tiny segment of text at the end of the jade slip, barely noticeable without close examination.

Yuan Ming scrutinized carefully; this segment of text was a secret technique named "Mixed Hole Secret Technique," capable of expanding the capacity of the dantian to store more mana.

If one could cultivate the Mixed Hole Secret Technique to the Perfect Realm, it would double the dantian size compared to ordinary people, providing a significant advantage when facing enemies.

However, this secret technique took effect very slowly, requiring years to gradually show its benefits, and for it to reach perfection, one needed the assistance of a spiritual material known as "Mixed Hole Primordial Stone."

"No wonder the Nine Yin Venerable had such expansive dantian and unusually thick mana. It was due to this Mixed Hole Secret Technique! But seeing Nine Yin Venerable's situation, he hadn't cultivated it to perfection, probably because he didn't find the Mixed Hole Primordial Stone," Yuan Ming mused.

He had never heard of this Mixed Hole Primordial Stone before; if even Wu Yue Sect's massive power hadn't been able to find it, it must be an extremely precious material. He wondered if Xi Ying was aware of it.

Looking at the jade slip, he couldn't help feeling eager.

The benefits of expanding the dantian were not just having denser mana and an advantage over enemies; breaking through from the Nascent Soul Stage to the Returning Void Stage required a strong mana foundation. If he could cultivate the Mixed Hole Secret Technique to perfection, it would greatly aid his future breakthrough into the Returning Void Stage.

"This Yin Yang Secret Manual is useless to me, but the Mixed Hole Secret Technique is extremely useful. My cultivation has only reached the Early Stage of Nascent Soul; it's perfect to start practicing the Mixed Hole Secret Technique now. By the time I reached the peak of the Late-Stage Nascent Soul, the Mixed Hole Secret Technique should be nearly perfected, and if I could find the Mixed Hole Primordial Stone, my chances of advancing to the Returning Void Stage would greatly increase," Yuan Ming mused.

He put away the black and white jade slip and picked up the last blue jade scroll.

Yuan Ming had also glanced at this jade scroll before, which recorded a soul cultivation method, likely the one practiced by Nine Yin Venerable.

He carefully examined the content of the cultivation method, and his expression grew increasingly grim.

The soul cultivation method recorded in the jade scroll was named "Heavenly Silkworm Parasitic Technique," an extremely sinister soul cultivation method unlike others that progressed through steadfast cultivation. Instead, it improved by plundering.

The Heavenly Silkworm Parasitic Technique could transform soul power into a seed, parasitizing it inside some infants, controlling their consciousness, and forming a crucible.

Once these crucibles grew up and their souls strengthened to a certain level, Nine Yin Venerable would cast spells to devour their soul power completely, assimilating it into himself.

Newborns, being ignorant with pure thoughts and influenced by the Heavenly Silkworm Parasitic Technique, would remain incredibly naive even as they grew up, harboring few stray thoughts. Absorbing such soul power was much less risky than refining someone else's soul.

Despite this, the Heavenly Silkworm Parasitic Technique was still an Evil Path. Those who practiced it had inherently unstable Soul Power and could only rely on brute force to overcome their enemies, unable to use Illusion Techniques or other Divine Skills that required meticulous control.

"I don't know where this Heavenly Silkworm Parasitic Technique came from, but it is truly evil. The Nine Yin Venerable has killed countless innocents to obtain this powerful Soul Power. He truly deserved to die! This technique should not remain in the world, as it only brings harm!" Yuan Ming snorted coldly, his palm exerting force, crushing the green Jade Scroll into dust.

Having done this, his expression slightly cleared, and he took the corpse of the Nine Yin Venerable, nodding in satisfaction after a sweep with his Divine Sense.

When the Xi Ying Clone killed the Nine Yin Venerable, it had been exceedingly careful not to damage the body.

Not only that, but it seemed there was still some scattered Soul Power residue within the body of the Nine Yin Venerable, and his mouth and nose were gently breathing, his life force not yet completely severed.

Yuan Ming immediately initiated the Ju Mang Spirit Technique, his body rapidly expanding and instantly transforming into a vast black tree, countless vines hanging down and wrapping around the body of the Nine Yin Venerable.

Initially having no other choice, he had refined the red-faced man into a Tree Puppet, prepared for possession by the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer.

Now with the Nine Yin Venerable at hand, given that this person was a peak Soul Cultivator of the Sleeping Witch level, naturally far surpassing the red-faced man, the chances of the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer breaking through the limits of the Sleeping Witch greatly increased after the possession.

Yuan Ming injected Undying Demon Power into the body of the Nine Yin Venerable, beginning to refine the Tree Puppet.

At that moment, points of black light suddenly emerged from various parts of the body of the Nine Yin Venerable, swiftly converging to form a black shadow in the blink of an eye.

"What is this..." Yuan Ming's pupils constricted and he immediately activated the Soul Destroying Sword, slashing towards the black shadow.

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However, the black shadow moved even faster, shooting outwards and entering a nearby stone wall.

Yuan Ming spread out his Divine Sense, but the black shadow's speed was unimaginable, already escaping beyond the range of his Divine Sense detection.

"Could that black shadow be the Residual Soul of the Nine Yin Venerable? I was a bit careless there," he frowned.

The original body of the Nine Yin Venerable had been killed by him, and the mere Residual Soul, even if it escaped, would hardly be a threat. Yuan Ming wasn't concerned about it.

Using Black Incense to kill enemies, although risky, was his current trump card, which under normal circumstances he wouldn't easily use. Apart from Xi Ying, no one else knew of it, but now with the escape of the Residual Soul of Nine Yin, this secret might no longer be safe.

"Forget it, nothing can be kept secret forever in this world." Yuan Ming shook his head, not dwelling further on this matter.

He carefully examined the body of the Nine Yin Venerable again, ensuring there were no abnormalities, then continued to rotate the Ju Mang Spirit Technique, refining the Tree Puppet.

Lacking a Divine Soul within the body of the Nine Yin Venerable made refining the Tree Puppet somewhat troublesome. After consulting with Qi Ye, Yuan Ming decided to integrate the soul body of the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer into it beforehand.

Although time was pressing, the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer was crucial to him, and the delay was worthwhile.

Half a month later, the Tree Puppet was finally refined, and the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer had successfully merged with the Nine Yin Venerable.

As Qi Ye had said, by leveraging the abundant life force of the Tree Puppet, the Soul Power of the Heavenly Ghost Wanderer slowly began to recover.

Yuan Ming was secretly delighted and did not linger, using Flying Escape to leave.

...

Black Wind Desert, outside Wangbei City.

"Get moving, if we don't meet the quota again today, I'll skin you alive!"

In an open-air mine, seventy to eighty Qi Refining cultivators clad in ragged clothing, chained at the feet, swung their miner's pickaxes under the scorching sun, while the Wu Yue Sect Cultivators overseeing them impatiently lashed their whips and cursed.

Among the crowd, an emaciated Qi Refining cultivator could no longer hold on, stumbling and falling among the exposed rocks.

"You lazy dog, don't even think about slacking!" The overseer showed no mercy, bringing down a whip.

Before the whip could strike, another Qi Refining cultivator also stumbled but managed to position his body right in the path of the whip.

"Uh—" He grunted, taking the hit and quickly helped his fallen comrade to stand without delay.

Seeing them stand and quickly take up their pickaxes again, the overseer snorted coldly and did not whip them again.

"Thank you," the Qi Refining cultivator who had fallen murmured, but then noticed a distinct burn mark on the left cheek of the man who had helped him up.

"You're welcome," Zhang Xiu shook his head, noticing the other's gaze carrying a hint of peculiarity, yet he made no attempt to hide the mark on his face.

It was rare for mortals in the Black Wind Desert to be born with a Spirit Root, and even those who were typically came from families of privilege. Someone of servant origin like him was exceptionally rare.

But having come this far was largely thanks to his father being a servant of the Sandtrap City Lord, who had unexpectedly discovered his Spirit Root talent and bestowed upon him a chance of Immortality.

Unfortunately, even as an Immortal Master as described by his father, he had still not managed to leave the Black Wind Desert, and now had become a mine slave, a status even lower than that of the City Lord's servants.