Yuan Ming was delighted to see that the Black Toad could enhance its cultivation by absorbing highly toxic substances.

The green poisonous mist in the snake cave quickly became thin. The Snake King, witnessing this scene, stopped ravaging and coiled its thick snake body together, showing caution in its snake eyes.

The poisonous mist in the snake cave quickly disappeared, and the poison gas was also reduced.

When the Black Toad finally stopped absorbing, nearly half of its inner core turned into a dark green color, and it became unusually excited, as if it hadn’t absorbed enough.

Yuan Ming was originally worried that the Black Toad would not be able to withstand absorbing too much external poison, but now it seemed that he was overthinking. The Black Toad’s ability to resist poison far exceeded his expectations.

In addition to cultivating an inner core, the demonic vine residing in the Black Toad’s body seemed to have gained new vitality and grown stronger.

With just a thought from Yuan Ming, a cracking sound of “pupupu” was heard.

More than a dozen purple-black demonic vines emerged from the Black Toad’s back, each one thicker than before, with purple vine leaves growing on the surface, resembling a forest of purple-black vines.

These purple-black demonic vines were already difficult to deal with, and now their numbers had increased significantly, and they were even tougher than before. Ordinary second-level savage beasts would probably not be able to match them.

…

On the ground, the Snake King looked vigilantly at the surrounding area, and golden light flickered on its horn.

At this moment, it seemed to have sensed something and swiftly flew to the side with its huge snake body.

More than a dozen thick purple-black demonic vines drilled out of the ground and coiled around the Snake King’s body, but unfortunately, most of them missed, and only two vines wrapped around the Snake King’s tail.

The tops of the two vines suddenly became sharp and directly pierced through the Snake King’s tough scales, entering its body.

The Snake King only felt a sharp pain in its tail, and its demonic power was also absorbed by the two vines. Its originally plump snake tail quickly became withered at a visible speed.

The Snake King was filled with shock and anger. As it swung its head, large amounts of dark green venom splashed onto the vines.

A “hissing” sound was heard, and those purple-black demonic vines that touched the venom immediately turned pitch black, quickly decaying and rotting. However, only a small portion of them decayed, and the remaining parts still firmly imprisoned the snake tail, and the speed of devouring demonic power did not slow down much.

With this delay, other demonic vines swept over and entangled various parts of the Snake King’s body, with each vine piercing into its body.

A trace of fear flashed in the Snake King’s eyes. It immediately struggled with all its might, while continuously spraying out venom. Golden rays also shot out from its horn, cutting towards the vines around its body.

Although the purple-black demonic vines were not afraid of snake venom and were much tougher than before, any vine that was hit by the golden rays would be cleanly cut in half.

However, the number of purple-black demonic vines had increased significantly, and their regenerative ability was extremely strong. After being cut off, they would immediately grow new vine tendrils.

The Snake King shot seven or eight golden rays in a row, but instead of decreasing, the number of vines entangling it increased more and more. In no time, its huge snake body was gradually entangled into a bundle.

All the vines were crazily absorbing the demonic power in the Snake King’s body. The Snake King tried to resist, but it became increasingly difficult. As its body shrunk from its initial frantic struggles to weakly swinging its head and tail.

After half an incense stick’s worth of time, the Snake King had completely turned into a withered corpse. All its demonic power had been devoured by the Black Toad like a blunt knife cutting through meat.

The sight of the remains of the two snake kings made Yuan Ming feel somewhat unreal.

Although the Snake King had just experienced a battle between humans and snakes, it was still a savage beast close to the second-level upper stage. Yet, in front of this Black Toad, it had almost no ability to fight back.

He couldn’t help but reevaluate the strength of the Black Toad as a spiritual beast.

Now that the battle in the snake cave was over, the battlefield needed to be cleaned up, and there were still many spiritual materials on the bodies of the two snake kings that needed to be collected. It was not convenient for the Black Toad to do these things.

Yuan Ming stood up, put away the Four-Sided Sealing Talisman, and flew towards the snake cave.

As he hurried along, he used another soul crow to sense the situation of the Black Fire Gate’s Sang Yan and his group.

Inside the ruined hall, the Yin Locking Restriction had begun to flicker and fade, indicating that it could collapse at any time.

Elder Gu Tu suddenly released a burst of mana, which merged into the white jade talisman. He formed seals with both hands in front of him.

The white jade talisman in his hand burst open with a “bang,” turning into a several-foot-long white light arrow that struck the black light curtain.

The jade talismans of the other four people also shattered, turning into white light arrows that fiercely struck various parts of the Yin Locking Restriction.

The already precarious restriction completely collapsed, turning into countless black gas that dispersed, revealing the situation inside the hall.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming quickly controlled the soul crow to get closer and peek into the situation inside the hall.

In the center of the hall, there was a black coffin, and on the left and right sides stood two green tiger statues, which seemed to be two guardian beasts.

In the deeper part of the hall, there seemed to be a white jade platform with various bottles and jars placed on it.

It was too far away, and the soul crow couldn’t see it clearly.Yuan Ming manipulated the Soul Raven to approach again, and the bone diagram suddenly looked over, shouting, “What is that thing!”

Yuan Ming was startled and quickly controlled the Soul Raven to retreat, flapping its wings to escape.

“Trying to escape?” The bone diagram flicked its finger.

An extremely thin black line, invisible to the naked eye, shot out. It was a black needle as thin as a hair, instantly crossing a distance of more than ten zhang and piercing towards the Soul Raven’s chest.

The Soul Raven flapped its wings to dodge to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack of the black line.

The black needle suddenly changed direction and shot towards the Soul Raven again, directly piercing through its left wing.

The left wing of the Soul Raven disintegrated directly, and it started to fly unsteadily. After flying a short distance, it was pierced through its body by the black needle again and disintegrated, turning into a mass of black gas and dissipating.

…

While running swiftly, Yuan Ming suddenly felt a buzzing in his mind, and his face turned pale.

The dispatched Soul Raven was destroyed, and its soul power also suffered considerable damage.

Fortunately, he had already cultivated the Death Moon method to the second level. With the incense burner in his hand, he could recover as long as he had some time to nurture it.

“It seems that I underestimated the perception ability of the Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.”

Yuan Ming did not stop his footsteps and glanced in the direction where the Soul Raven was destroyed. He accelerated towards the direction of the Snake King Cave.

…

Inside the main hall.

“Elder Bone Diagram, what just happened?” Sang Yan asked.

“It should be someone using secret techniques to spy. Their aura was hidden extremely well, and I just discovered a clue.” Bone Diagram pondered and said.

“If it can deceive your divine sense, it’s probably not an ordinary Qi Refining stage cultivator.” Sang Yan said.

“Could it be Bai Ye or Huan Shi?” This matter was of great importance, and the black-clothed girl who didn’t get along well with Sang Yan didn’t argue with her and said.

“It doesn’t seem like the methods they would use. It’s probably someone else.” Sang Yan said.

“Regardless of who it is, you go in and take the things first. I will stay here! Remember to be quick!” Bone Diagram decisively said, turning to face outside.

Sang Yan and the others did not dare to delay and hurriedly entered the hall. They first checked the stone platform behind the coffin. The bottles inside contained pills, but unfortunately, the pills had expired due to the passage of time.

They were greatly disappointed and searched around the other areas of the hall, but found nothing. They all came to the side of the black coffin and quickly deciphered the mechanism of the coffin lid, about to open it.

“Hold on.”

Sang Yan raised her hand to stop the others and shot out a white bowl, floating above the coffin. Then she signaled the others to open it.

“Ka ka” The mechanism operated, and the heavy coffin lid slowly opened.

Before the others could see what was inside the coffin, a thick black gas burst out, emitting a nauseating smell.

“Quick, retreat!” Sang Yan shouted loudly and flew backward like lightning.

The others also hurriedly flew backwards.

The white bowl floating above immediately swooped down, emitting a white spiritual light that enveloped the black gas.

The black gas struggled like a living creature, but it couldn’t break free from the confinement of the white light. It was slowly collected by the white bowl, but the originally pure white bowl gradually turned black.

“Corpse-rotting poison! Fortunately, Senior Sister Sang Yan was prepared, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.” The young man with sword-like eyebrows exhaled and said.

The black-clothed girl looked at Sang Yan with a complicated expression before looking at the coffin.

Inside the coffin lay a seven-foot-tall corpse, thin and tall, with limbs as slender as bamboo poles.

The corpse was wearing a tattered green robe and a high crown made of red jade on its head. Its whole body was covered in green fur, but its aura was extremely weak.

“Is this the corpse of the Foundation Establishment stage wandering cultivator, Tian She Shangren, from a hundred years ago? It is said that his cultivation had already reached the mid-Foundation Establishment stage before his death. Why is his aura so weak, like an ordinary Yin corpse?” The black-clothed girl observed the corpse and said.

The others, including Sang Yan, had similar expressions.

They were all disciples of the Black Fire Sect, skilled in controlling corpses and had deep knowledge of corpses. Even if a high-level cultivator fell, their remains would still retain some of their previous power, and it would not be like this.

A figure flickered, and the bone diagram’s figure also appeared beside the coffin. When he saw the green-haired corpse inside, his eyebrows furrowed.

“Could it be a mistake? This person is not Tian She Shangren?” The young man with sword-like eyebrows said.

“It’s impossible. I followed the remnants of the map to find this place. The remnants were drawn by the only disciple of Tian She Shangren, and it clearly marked this place as Tian She Shangren’s tomb. The Yin-sealing restriction outside the hall, the abandoned pills, and the fact that Tian She Shangren had a thin and tall figure all match this corpse. It can’t be someone else!” Sang Yan said with a firm tone.

“That remnant map was just something you bought from a stall. Who knows if it was drawn by some swindler.” The black-clothed girl sneered.

Sang Yan’s eyes darkened, about to retort.

“I understand now. It’s a Corpse-Sealing Nail!” Bone Diagram’s voice came over, interrupting their argument.

He stood on top of the corpse’s head, his gaze fixed on the corpse’s head.

“Corpse-Sealing Nail?” Sang Yan asked.”The Corpse Sealing Nail is a unique artifact of the Corpse Chasing Sect from the Chu Kingdom in the Central Plains, used for refining corpses. As long as this nail is pierced into the Baihui acupoint, it can seal the meridians throughout the body, preventing any leakage of aura, and allowing it to automatically absorb the surrounding Yin energy, gradually transforming and absorbing it.” Gu Tu explained, pushing aside the jade crown on the corpse’s head. A black iron nail was embedded deep into the Baihui acupoint on its brain.

“Can a corpse be transformed into a refined corpse so easily?” The girl in black looked at the iron nail, speaking in disbelief.

To refine a corpse, the Black Fire Sect needed many steps and a large amount of resources. The idea that a single iron nail could autonomously refine a corpse was almost unimaginable.

(End of Chapter)