Ye Bufan’s lips curled in mockery.
He wiped across Zhou Wangchen’s face and tore off a layer of human skin.
Beneath the human-skin mask was a dark, vacant unfamiliar face, like that of an old farmer.
It had to be said that this Zhou fellow was truly sinister and cunning; he hid himself away and let a corpse puppet disguise him.
Then, in secret, he controlled all the puppets with spiritual sense.
“That Copper Armored Corpse?”
Lu Luo felt a chill when she saw it.
Zhou Wangchen clearly had ill intentions toward her long ago, and the so-called “gift” of the Copper Armored Corpse was meant to catch her off guard and subdue her.
Thank goodness I didn’t accept it.
“Swish!”
Just then, the real Zhou Wangchen darted out from another dim corner inside the courtyard wall.
He slapped several high-level Gale Talismans onto himself in succession, turned into a gust of wind, and fled out of the small courtyard into the dark night.
“Damn it! This old bastard is truly sinister, pretending to be weak to catch others off guard!”
Zhou Wangchen’s horse-like face was covered in cold sweat, and he no longer had the slightest trace of arrogance as he fled frantically.
He never expected the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator to be an old man.
Moreover, the man was unimaginably powerful, and the flying sword driven by magic power was terrifyingly strong!
His Copper Armored Corpse had been refined from a body-refining cultivator of the righteous path, and its defense was astonishing; even a Foundation Establishment level four cultivator could not break through it.
Yet it was nailed through by a single sword strike, severing his spiritual-sense imprint!
“He who hunts geese all day gets pecked in the eye by one; this old bastard is so strong, and he still set up a trap with paper figures to screw me over!”
“Luckily, I’m brilliant and one step ahead.”
Zhou Wangchen felt relieved, and smugness rose in his heart.
Relying on his wits, he had killed who knew how many cultivators of the same level.
“Once I escape, I’ll send word to the righteous path and have them wipe this bastard out!”
A Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator would only be taken more seriously by the Heavenly Demon Sect, which would be unfavorable to him.
But if those righteous-path people learned of this news, they would surely spare no expense to kill the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator.
After all, his potential was far too great; once he grew up, where would the righteous path have any way to survive?
However.
He had just escaped the small courtyard when a streak of blood light flashed toward him.
“Blood Escape Art?! You used a forbidden spell the moment we met? Are you insane!”
Zhou Wangchen’s scalp instantly went numb, and he could not help cursing loudly.
With Foundation Establishment level one cultivation, he could not sustain such a high-level spell for even a few breaths, and after casting it, his condition would drop sharply, which would also greatly damage his cultivation foundation.
No one used it unless they were in a life-or-death crisis.
“Go!”
Ye Bufan closed the distance in an instant, and with a wave of his hand, a demon snake shot out.
The demon snake seemed quite excited; it opened its bloody maw and bit straight toward Zhou Wangchen.
“With this spell, does your blood essence come for free?!”
Zhou Wangchen was both shocked and terrified; he shouted and hurled out a humanoid puppet.
He could not understand how this old man would unleash two major blood-essence-draining moves right from the start; it was completely irrational.
“Clang!”
The demon snake swallowed the humanoid puppet whole, and its demonic qi weakened considerably.
But the demon snake grew even more excited, continued its charge, and its bloody maw swallowed Zhou Wangchen whole.
“Demon Dragon Art has reached minor mastery! How is that possible!”
Zhou Wangchen was shocked; this old man was utterly monstrous.
There were hardly any in the entire Heavenly Demon Sect who had cultivated such a spell to minor mastery.
Then he fell completely into despair.
He saw that the old man not only showed no signs of severe blood essence loss, but instead had a rosy complexion and looked spirited, as if he had taken stimulants.
“Crack!”
Zhou Wangchen was bitten into critical injury by the demon snake, his whole body covered in bloody holes, and he fell into a coma.
“Let’s go back.”
Ye Bufan did not delay; with a sweep of his wide sleeve, he cleaned up the scene thoroughly.
He also took Zhou Wangchen and the three puppets away.
『You cast Blood Escape Art once, and through Negative Reversal, your essence, energy, and spirit surge greatly.』
『You cast Demon Dragon Art once, and through Negative Reversal, your cultivation advances.』
Ye Bufan felt that his essence, energy, and spirit were better than ever. He glanced at the system prompt and could not help smiling faintly.
When others cast such a spell, they would end up mentally exhausted and their cultivation would plummet.
He, on the other hand, was brimming with energy.
His cultivation, which had originally just entered Foundation Establishment level one, had even taken a step toward the peak of level one.
“Master, are you unharmed?”
As soon as he returned to the courtyard, Lu Luo came forward to greet him.
She looked at the blood-soaked Zhou Wangchen, her heart racing, and her gaze at Ye Bufan gained a few more layers of reverence.
Although Zhou Wangchen’s cultivation was low, his puppets were strong, and he had some fame on Demonic Sword Peak.
Most importantly, he was extremely cunning; several Foundation Establishment late-stage cultivators had once tried to kill him, yet he had escaped unscathed.
“It’s only that I lost too much blood essence. It’s nothing serious.”
Ye Bufan pretended to look pale.
He was naturally cautious, and even though he had taken Lu Luo as a slave, he would not reveal certain secrets in front of her.
“Master’s talent is extraordinary. In just one or two days, you have already achieved success in cultivating Demon Dragon Art and Blood Escape Art.”
Lu Luo said enviously, and her words were sincere.
She had diligently cultivated this spell for years without reaching minor mastery, yet Ye Bufan had brought Demon Dragon Art to minor mastery so quickly; it was simply unbelievable.
“Stop flattering me.”
Ye Bufan waved his hand, set Zhou Wangchen down, and began sorting through the spoils.
The three puppets were all at the peak of Foundation Establishment level three.
The Copper Armored Corpse had even reached level four!
This undoubtedly raised his strength by a notch.
“Zhou Wangchen relied on these puppets to gain his current fame, and many fellow disciples have been coveting them.”
Lu Luo congratulated him.
Ye Bufan was also very satisfied, then opened Zhou Wangchen’s storage bag and poured out a large pile of things.
Most of them were materials for refining puppets.
There were also pills, poison, and over a thousand spirit stones.
Their total value exceeded two thousand!
“He’s really loaded! Among Foundation Establishment cultivators, that counts as wealthy.”
Ye Bufan clicked his tongue. Back when he was a rogue cultivator, he had not even saved up five hundred spirit stones in half his life.
Two thousand was just enough to make up the shortfall.
The three hundred he had previously given Lu Luo to buy materials and Demon Ape blood essence had basically all been spent.
“It should be enough to raise my Demon Ape Great Art by two levels.”
Ye Bufan put away the spirit stones and materials.
Besides that, there were several techniques.
“Spirit Tempering Art, the Foundation Establishment volume. It can temper spiritual sense; no wonder that guy controlled the Copper Armored Corpse so nimbly and could even speak. His spiritual sense was already comparable to Foundation Establishment level four.”
Ye Bufan picked up an ancient book and was somewhat pleasantly surprised.
Spiritual sense was crucial for controlling flying swords and puppets.
His spiritual sense was already stronger than others at the same level, but he still could not simultaneously control a flying sword and so many puppets. However, with Spirit Tempering Art, that would no longer be a problem.
And this kind of technique was extremely rare; even a major sect like the Heavenly Demon Sect probably could not produce more than a few copies.
The ancient book’s paper was old and yellowed, clearly not a product of this era.
That was obvious.
Zhou Wangchen had clearly found it somewhere in an ancient cave residence.
“Side effect: cultivation is extremely slow, and during cultivation, spiritual sense is severely damaged, making one prone to mental confusion and becoming foolish.”
When Ye Bufan saw the contents, his eyelid twitched.
This technique was far more dangerous than demonic art.
He looked at the unconscious Zhou Wangchen and thought that the guy surviving until now was practically a miracle.
Just then, a system notification sounded in Ye Bufan’s ear.
『Spirit Tempering Art, Negative Reversal: cultivation speed is extremely fast, and during cultivation, spiritual sense is nourished, which can slightly improve comprehension.』
Ye Bufan froze for a moment, then was overjoyed.
Not to mention anything else, even just improving comprehension.
That alone was enough to drive the cultivation world insane.
Even if it was only a trace.
The speed at which one cultivated spells was not very related to spiritual root, but it required strong comprehension; the higher the comprehension, the faster the spell cultivation!
His comprehension was mediocre, so he could only cultivate spells with severe side effects.
With this technique, he could also quickly cultivate other normal spells!
Breaking through realm bottlenecks required comprehension even more!
And comprehension was the hardest thing to improve; it was fate.
“Truly heaven-defying! I’ve struck gold!”
Ye Bufan suppressed his excitement and carefully put it away.
The only regret was that this technique only had the Foundation Establishment volume and no continuation.
As for the other two, they were Foundation Establishment techniques with rather average power, so Ye Bufan had little interest in them.
However, the final secret art did make his pupils contract slightly.
…
Outside the courtyard, moonlight poured down, and a petite figure in a white dress sat atop a rock.
Her little face was fair and soft, with a hint of baby fat, and her pair of peach-blossom eyes looked toward the small courtyard where Ye Bufan was, blinking slightly.
She looked like an innocent little girl.
“So this is the Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator? He is quite handsome.”
The little girl in the white dress propped herself up on the rock with her small hands, swinging her bare, pale feet back and forth.
“Should I take him in as a disciple or not?”
The little girl in the white dress pouted, looking somewhat conflicted.
“Take him. A Heavenly Dao Foundation Establishment cultivator hasn’t appeared in the cultivation world for ten thousand years; I have to catch him and study him no matter what.”
Just then, a girl’s figure appeared beside the little girl in the white dress, her bright eyes sinister and demonic.
She wore a black dress, and her appearance was identical to that of the little girl in the white dress.