599 Ritual and Cultivation

Many of the ancient martial art practitioners in the great hall were very experienced and knowledgeable. Yet even they had never seen such a creature, neither human, nor ghost, or monstrous beast. The being had climbed out of the coffin and the very thought of it was enough to make one's hair stand.

Mo Wen's pupils contracted to the size of a pinhole as he looked closely at that bizarre object. Even from such a distance, he could sense an inexplicable danger.

Roar, roar! The roar of the monster sent sand flying and pebbles rolling. The roar was so phenomenal that everyone in the area took an involuntary step back.

However, there was one ancient martial art practitioner that could not retreat in time. A single claw had soundlessly appeared before him and grabbed directly at his throat, raising him into the air.

Roar! In the mere blink of an eye, so quickly that many of the ancient martial art practitioners had not even seen what happened, the monster traveled a distance of tens of meters and appeared before the unfortunate ancient martial art practitioner. Its tall figure projected a huge shadow on the ground.

The monster opened its mouth and bared its teeth before clamping its mouth around the ancient martial art practitioner's throat. His blood spurted in all directions as the monster drank the blood while everyone looked on in horror. In a matter of moments, the body of the ancient martial art practitioner had dried up and was now no more than a dry corpse.

Such a chilling sight made many of the people watching shudder unbearably.

"Beast." One of the Sect Elders of the Medical Sect quietly uttered a single word. He could not bring himself to stand there and watch the unfolding horror any longer. There was hatred in his eyes as he flew towards the monster. In his hand was a military dagger, a low-grade spiritual weapon.

The person that the monster had consumed was an ancient martial art practitioner from Medical Sect, of the intermediate stage of the Golden Elixir realm. The Sect Elder who had decided to take on the monster was the biological brother of its victim. How could he bear the sight of seeing his own brother die at the hands of this monster?

"Come back!" Jiang Pingzhou's expression changed. Although Medical Sect did not have many ancient martial art practitioners with the intermediate stage of the Golden Elixir realm, and losing any one of them was already a great loss, it was too late to get angry. Anyone that was overtaken by anger had already lost all logic in their thinking.

The Sect Elder of Medical Sect had successfully appeared in front of the monster, who showed no signs of being affected by his presence. The monster did not even spare him a second glance. It simply continued to carry the dried corpse and took huge sips of the fresh blood. It was as though a famished person had chanced upon some delicious food.

"Go and die!" the Sect Elder shouted loudly. He fiercely stabbed the military dagger at the heart of the monster. A white light zoomed through the air and the spiritual power made waves on the dagger. It was so bright and dazzling that most of the crowd could not even open their eyes.

Ping! However, when that dagger came into contact with the chest of that monster, it was as though it had touched something as hard as it was still. It only managed to pierce the surface but could delve no deeper.

The ancient martial art practitioners in the vicinity all exhaled a cold breath of air. Most of them knew that the ancient martial art practitioner was a highly renowned elder of Medical Sect in the intermediate stage of the Golden Elixir realm. His battle skills were even on par with Chen Wuhui.

He had given his attack everything and had even strengthened his attack by using a spiritual weapon. Yet, it had only scratched the surface of that monster. Just what exactly was this monster? Everyone who saw the scene shuddered as a chill ran down their spines.

Roar! The monster casually threw the dry corpse in its hand aside. Then, it extended another one of its claws to grab at the creature that was challenging it.

The Sect Elder from Medical Sect now wanted nothing more than to run away and hide. However, the thick and frightening smell of blood descended upon him, like a force that held him down. His body stiffened and it was as though he had fallen into quicksand. He was completely unable to move.

The monster managed to grab hold of the Sect Elder easily. A bloody scene ensued. The monster bit into the throat of the ancient martial art practitioner and sucked his blood dry, as it had just done to his brother. It was evident that the monster had a liking for human blood. All the while, his red eyes were filled with enjoyment.

"Very strong indeed, but it is a pity that he still failed. If not, by now, he would have been as strong as an Immortal Cultivator with the Primordial Soul realm." Mo Wen looked at the gigantic monster and sighed softly. There was a look of pity in his eyes, but he also felt an overwhelming sense of relief.

A Sect Elder from Purple Qi Pavilion seemed to have thought of something. Suddenly, he pointed at the monster and his body trembled as he expressionlessly said, "Zombie…! Could it be the legendary zombie?"

He was rather old and was probably one of the veterans of Purple Qi Pavilion. The sect had a lot of experience practitioners and owned a rich collection of ancient classics. Therefore they were the first to recognize the origin of this monster.

"Zombie!" Once the word was uttered, the expression of everyone around changed. Although no one in the crowd had seen a zombie before, there had been many rumors regarding zombies floating around. Legend had it that wherever zombies were present, there would be pestilence. People would be plunged into an abyss of misery and everything would be a scene of desolation.

As ancient martial art practitioners of the Inner world, they were even more aware that since zombies were creatures of the Immortal Cultivation world, their strength would be even more exceptional.

In the great hall, there was the continuous sound of people sharply inhaling. Everyone shared glances of terror, fear in every one of their eyes.

"All of you, look. There is a Dark Soul Pearl on its head. That definitely is a Dark Soul Pearl, there is no doubt about it." One of the ancient martial art practitioners pointed at the zombie's head. His voice was passionate as he stared at the creature unblinkingly. The Dark Soul Pearl was a treasure that could allow an ancient martial art practitioner to become immortal. To any ancient martial art practitioner, it would be a dream come true.

The monster was wearing an odd hat on its head. The hat was mounted with a black colored pearl. It was about the size of a red date and it exuded a cold aura. The drop in temperature within the great hall was very likely due to the pearl.

"It is the Dark Soul Pearl indeed. Nothing else could exude so much dark and cold energy," the experienced Sect Elder from Purple Qi Pavilion said, nodding his head. It was not difficult to identify the Dark Soul Pearl. However, no one had not expected that the Dark Soul Pearl would actually appear on the hat of a zombie.

Apart from the Dark Soul Pearl, many of them also noticed another item. The Cries of Hades Bell!

There was a small purple bell tied onto the left wrist of the zombie. Although there was no ringing coming from it, it was continuously exuding a very strange aura. Ancient martial art practitioners with lower cultivation would feel a little dizzy if they stared for too long at the purple bell. They may even feel as if their soul was being sucked into the bell.

As the two divine items appeared before their eyes, everyone's breaths became anxious and their gazes became passionate.

Regardless of whether the items actually were the Dark Soul Pearl and the Cries of Hades Bell, they were both treasures that were highly coveted by ancient martial art practitioners. Obtaining either one of them would allow their future potential to be limitless.

Yin Banshuang's gaze was transfixed upon the Dark Soul Pearl. She clenched both her fists and her breathing grew faster. She had experienced the change that came with Vital Qi. With her talent, the probability of her becoming immortal would increase to 50 percent if she was in possession of the Dark Soul Pearl. Such an opportunity was something that nobody dared to even dream of. After all, to an ancient martial art practitioner, becoming immortal was something that was very difficult and highly unlikely.

It was clear from the faces of everyone in the crowd that they shared the same sentiments. Mo Wen was no exception. The Dark Soul Pearl would also be very useful to him. However, he did not wish to use it in order to increase his chances of becoming immortal. Of all of those gathered in the great hall, only he knew the trade-off that came with using the Dark Soul Pearl. If there was an alternative, Mo Wen would definitely not choose to use the Dark Soul Pearl to complete the process of becoming immortal.

"If I have analyzed things correctly," Mo Wen said slowly to himself, "this zombie should be the last Sect Leader of Luofeng Sect, and was once an ancient martial art practitioner."

As soon as Mo Wen had seen the Dark Soul Pearl, he could already predict what would happen afterward.

The Dark Soul Pearl indeed had the ability to increase one's chances of becoming immortal. Moreover, it would increase it quite significantly. However, using the Dark Soul Pearl to become immortal would mean that one could only become an underworld Immortal Cultivator. One could then only choose to be a ghost cultivator or a corpse cultivator. Not only would these two choices be tough, but they were also not the ones that Mo Wen was keen on.

Mo Wen had more or less worked out what the situation must have been all those years ago. Luofeng Sect had met with an accident and thus been wiped out entirely. However, their talented final Sect Leader did not die. Mo Wen had come all this way not only to find the treasures of Luofeng Sect but also to learn how to become immortal.

This place was much colder than the outside and was a rare spot filled with dark energy. Hence, it was the most suitable place for the spiritual transformation via the Dark Soul Pearl. Once successful, that Sect Leader would then become an underworld Immortal Cultivator and be revived. Following that, he would not ever die again.

The lives of underworld Immortal Cultivators were infinitely long. However, their training was also very long, especially slow and full of obstacles.

There were two methods to become an underworld Immortal Cultivator via the Dark Soul Pearl. One method was to perform a ritual and the other was to go through careful cultivation. The difference between the two methods was that the ritual would involve a live person going through a special ceremony to become an underworld Immortal Cultivator. The way of cultivation would require a dead person staying in a special environment to slowly morph into an underworld Immortal Cultivator over a long period of time. However, both methods were similar because they require the Dark Soul Pearl.

In the world of Immortal Cultivators, some of the Immortal Cultivator sects that were underworld Immortal Cultivators would place the Dark Soul Pearl in the mouths of talented individuals who had died. Then, they would place the coffin in a dark place. Over hundreds or even thousands of years of cultivation, a portion of those dead people would become underworld Immortal Cultivators to be revived once again.

The underworld Immortal Cultivators hailing from the cultivation method would far surpass those from the ritual method in both talent and abilities.

However, the benefit of the ritual method was that one did not have to sacrifice their life. Even if the transformation ultimately failed, the person trying it would not lose their life. Meanwhile, those who opted for the cultivation method would be put to eternal rest should the transformation fail.

In the most extreme underworld Immortal Cultivators sects, in order to develop the next generation of people for the sect, they would often kill off those individuals that were the most talented. Then, they would leave them in the dark place for cultivation. Normally, out of a hundred people, only two to three would experience success. The others would be treated as sacrifices.

By this point, Mo Wen had already guessed much of what must have happened. A long time ago, the Sect Leader of Luofeng Sect probably did not die immediately. However, he definitely sustained serious injuries such that he was unable to recover fully and was on the verge of death. Hence, he chose to go down the path of cultivation.

There was no other explanation. No normal person would take such a huge risk. Unless forced to do so, one would definitely choose the path of the ritual and not cultivation.

It was just a pity that the Sect Leader that had chosen the path of cultivation ultimately failed. The zombie was nothing but a semi-finished product. It could not be considered an underworld Immortal Cultivator because it did not have its own thoughts.

These types of semi-finished products could be called a Corpse Puppet. Immortal Cultivators could convert them into their doppelgangers to become a puppet replica of them.