Chapter 73 Zhi Yan...

"Leave and remember three days before the opening of the Ancestors land you must amass two hundred Yin-Yang corpses and two thousand or more spirit realm cultivators alive. Failure will not be tolerated, I will personally kill you and refine all of your relatives into senseless puppets if you were to fail." Zhou Yi reminded as he coldly glanced at the four battered and bruised Yang realm cultivators.

The Yang realm experts had dull gazes, they barely managed to utter the word 'Yes' and took their leave.

Zhou Yi then turned his attention to his three disciples, he chuckled as his gaze landed on three spirit realm cultivators.

Su Yin and Su Yang were seated in a lotus position recovering their spiritual essence, for the entire time their gazes never shifted from Zhi Yan who soundlessly lay on the grass as he faced the vast azure blue sky.

"Teacher, is he actually our junior apprentice-brother? But why didn't we ever learn of his existence before and why is he so...strong?" Su Yin immediately questioned, both Su yin and her brother had been under Zhou Yi's wing for practically eleven years now and had been nurtured carefully by him, and in these years they had never once heard of this so-called junior brother. This whole ordeal was quite a shock to them.

Zhou Yi saw the twin's expressions, he awkwardly smiled and said with a sincere look in his eyes, "Both of you, it was not my intention to hide him from you. You are aware of how crucial this trip to the Eccentric Ancestor's land is for me. I needed to have a hidden ace and that ace is your junior brother Zhi Yan. As for why he is so strong, that is because he cultivates the ancient forbidden art 'Erosion qi mantra'."

A silence unlike ever before was birthed. It was eerie and only the sounds of rapid heartbeats could be heard.

"What!?" Su Yin's eyes were wider than a full moon and her body slightly shivered. As for Su Yang, he had an incredulous look on his face.

Zhi Yan slightly turned his head to glance at the trio before continuing to eye the white clouds drifting in the blue sky.

Zhou Yi nodded his head speaking unhurriedly, "You heard me he cultivates the Erosion Qi mantra."

Both Su Yang and Su Yin gulped.

The Erosion Qi was known as a cultivation mantra from the ancient cultivation world that was exceptionally difficult to master. However, once mastered that person could be considered a king among other cultivators in the same realm.

This mantra was considered to be one of the most cruelest and dehumanizing cultivation mantras even among those ruthless demonic cultivators. It requires one to fuse three types of energy. The first is a type of Yin essence, which particularly comes from absorbing the life essence of virgin female cultivators. The second energy is demonic qi, which is obtained by absorbing energy from the remains of the dead or extreme human emotions such as hatred and fear using certain harvesting methods. Although this is somewhat similar to Yin energy, demonic qi is actually quite different as it is much more violent and unstable. Those disciples in the demonic sects usually cultivate with the aid of Demonic Qi. The third energy is Heaven and earth's spiritual essence, which is naturally present everywhere.

Merging the three energies pushes the person to have to survive a trial to continue cultivating this technique. However, every morning the user suffers unimaginable pain, and every time they sleep they would constantly encounter hellish nightmares, even if they tell themselves that it was just a dream, it was of no use, as their mental stability would be forcefully altered by the dreadful erosion qi. They have to survive this heartless trial for a total of eight years.

Only after having gone through this cycle of inhuman torture countless times can one barely control the erosion qi inside them and begin their cultivation journey. if one wishes to continue cultivating it, the chance of death is even higher at every breakthrough. According to some calculations, the chance of completely mastering the Erosion Qi mantra, which is achieving the peak of the Yin-Yang void ream is less than one percent.

Although this cultivation mantra is very powerful, it is simply too vicious. Only a few demonic cultivators were willing to try to learn it, and that too was mostly out of desperation. There are two main reasons for this, first of all, the chances of success were extremely low, and secondly, the cultivator's progress stops after reaching the Yin-Yang Void realm.

From ancient times there hasn't been a single person able to get past that point, at least there weren't any public oral or written records proving otherwise.

Both Su Yang and Su Yin maintained their silence for quite some time, numerous thoughts clashed in their minds.

"Why?" Su Yin said in a low voice.

"Hmm," Zhou Yi's eyes slightly squinted as he stared at Su Yin.

"Why would he go to such lengths to cultivate?" Su Yin's voice was low, but her gaze was filled with puzzlement, admiration, and even a hint of pity.

'Why? Foolish little sister, do you truly believe any sane person would practice such a vile mantra?' Su Yang's gaze shone eerily as he thought of this, from the corner of his eye he glanced at Zhou Yi who was expressionless.

Zhi Yan saw the cloud gradually sail away before raising his hand and gently stretching out his fingers. The warm sunlight slithered between his fingers and lovingly kissed his face, but Zhi Yan didn't feel an ounce of warmth.

Zhi Yan soundlessly sat up and faced Su Yin and looked at her staring back at him, he smiled in his heart and emotionally said, "Why? It's because... I am Zhi Yan, a survivor!"

.....

One second, then one minute, after that one hour, and just like that time continued to pass by. Soon, there were only three days remaining for the opening of the Eccentric ancestor's land.

In an enormous empty underground area, around ten to fifteen figures were present.

"These are the ones who are going to accompany you on this visit to the Eccentric ancestor's land." Teng Zhe said pointing to a group of peak spirit realm experts.

Bai Ming coldly glanced at them before ignoring them completely, he faced Teng Zhe "Have you arranged it?"

"Of course, but I have a condition." Teng Zhe replied as he raised his index finger.

"Spit it," Bai Ming said with his hands behind his back.

"If you want this Yang realm expert's corpse, you need to kill him yourself. Otherwise, you can forget it." Teng Zhe said casually, as he beckoned the old man with white hair standing behind him to come forward.

Bai Ming laughed coldly at this, he didn't say a word but a mad killing intent surged out of him as he unsheathed his sword.

The other Spirit realm cultivators suddenly felt a chill in their hearts and unconsciously took a step back, Bai ming noticed this and secretly scoffed in disdain. They couldn't even keep their ground against his sinister killing intent, how much aid could they really be in the mystic realm? At least Bai Ming didn't have much hope, at most they could be used as low-quality meat shields.

Teng Zhe glanced at the old man and said cooly, "Kai Feng, if you want me to save your granddaughter you must go all out. Don't show a shred of mercy and kill him the very instant you can. Don't worry, I won't blame you if he dies. He may be my disciple, but if can't even beat you then he deserves to die."

Everything Teng zhe said he genuinely meant, if Bai Ming were to die in this battle he would not interfere. Why? Because if couldn't even handle one Yang realm expert. How in gods name would he be able to actually face the famed blessed twins of heaven?

Bai Ming heard this and laughed soundlessly before his murderous gaze shifted to his opponent, this Kai Feng was an old man in his seventies, he had white hair and deep wrinkles and held a black saber in his hand.

"Are you ready..?" Bai Ming asked Kai Feng making sure he was fully prepared.

"Yes," Kai Feng slightly nodded his head as he began speedily circulating his Scarlet spiritual essence, the other spirit realm cultivators spectating were mildly surprised at Bai Ming's words. They didn't expect Bai Ming to be a person of honor, sensing his evil killing intent earlier they had already branded him as a bloodthirsty devil in their inner hearts.

Teng Zhe immediately raised his eyebrows, he knew Bai Ming's personality very well. There was no way in hell that Bai Ming would care about making sure his opponent was fully prepared, it just wasn't his personality. But the confusion quickly vanished from Teng Zhe's eyes and a light of understanding shone. And things happened just like expected...

"Tsk, you didn't let me finish." Bai Ming shook his head. His gaze was ablaze with insane fighting spirit, he raised his sword and pointed it at Kai Feng, and spoke indifferently, "I said are you prepared to Die?"

"Hiss!"

Hearing Bai Ming's haughty words, the spirit realm cultivators sucked in a breath of cold air. A few of them secretly sneered at Bai Ming for his arrogance.

'He's confident, this kid probably wants to test the limits of his powers and at the same time, he also aims to imprint an unforgettable mark on the hearts of these spirit realm juniors, very good! ' Teng Zhe smiled with much satisfaction in his heart, after many interesting interactions with Bai Ming, Bai Ming's image in Teng Zhe's heart was particularly high.

Kai Feng stared blankly, it took him a second to regain his focus. The sudden personality change had left him baffled, but he quickly smiled and said, "Elder Teng had said you were really devious and a cunning individual, but seems like you're just an arrogant brat who is wet behind the ear."

Bai Ming smiled coldly and swiftly retrieved a formation from his robes before settling it up, with a buzzing sound the entire underground cave which was nearly 1800 meters wide was encompassed by the newly improved tri-elemental self-sword formation.

'Self-sword technique-Inner flame' Bai Ming called out internally.

Scorching hot purple flames erupted from Bai Ming and began crazily surging toward the heavens before jetting into his sword, the towering flames quickly got absorbed by the sword until the sword turned charred and started giving off pitch-black smoke.

Watching this Kai Feng coldly snorted as a thin layer of scarlet essence blanketed his body, he raised his saber pointing at the heavens.

'Scarlet drizzle!'

Thousands of fist-sized scarlet sabers manifested in the void above Kai Feng and began slowly spiraling.

Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!

With Kai Feng's skilled manipulation the sea of scarlet sabers surged toward Bai Ming resembling the heavenly tides of the blood sea.

Bai Ming's gaze was dull as he glanced at the arriving saber rain before his eyes moved toward Kai Feng who was at the opposite end of the formation.

'Using long-range attacks will utterly destroy his corpse, have to opt for close-range attacks.' Bai Ming mused.

"You know old man this isn't exactly arrogance...." Bai Ming's gaze was dull as he said in a faint voice, his entire body was suddenly embraced by a thick layer of brilliant silver light.

"Oh, tell me about it...huh?" Kai Feng had a victor's smile as he amicably conversed, but halfway in his words got stuck in his aged throat as he witnessed Bai Ming suddenly disappear from his place.

Before even a second had passed, Kai Feng's pupils had shrunk to needle-sized, as he looked with extreme fright at the charred black sword hairsbreadth away from piercing his neck.

He only had one thought in his mind-

'Impossible! My Scarlet saber fragments' flying trajectories are incredibly profound and how could he see through it?!'

This was Kai Feng's final thought in life.

The sword effortlessly made its way into Kai Feng's neck before smoothly leaving from the back.

Blood seeped out from Kai Feng's mouth and throat, the warm liquid dripped down the charred sword and crashed against the hilt, Kai Feng's gaze gradually turned blurry.

Bai Ming's expression was ice cold, his indifferent gaze stared at the corpse and said in an emotionless tone;

"It wasn't arrogance but confidence which stemmed from knowing the extent of my powers."

Swish!

Bai Ming pulled out his sword and waved it once getting rid of the loose blood and leaving the treasure sword clean.

Plop.

Losing the sword's support Kai Feng's body fell onto the ground, completely dead.

Bai Ming looked at the corpse before storing it in his bag of holding, he then retrieved the formation before flying toward the Teng Zhe.

Just at that moment, Bai Ming's forehead started to shine and a Crimson lotus appeared on it.

Bai Ming felt a burning sensation on his forehead. He raised his hand to touch his forehead and his expression suddenly changed.

Woosh!

Teng Zhe suddenly appeared right before Bai Ming like the wind, he intently stared at the crimson lotus, and shortly after he said with a deep sigh, "Yi Yun, you have been cursed."

Bai Ming's heart sank to rock bottom.