“So, this Soul Extinguishing Sword was forged by the third cave master himself; no wonder it shares the same creator as my Cold Star Sword,” Yuan Ming murmured to himself as he examined the peculiar black sword in his hand.

He sensed the four runes on the sword’s body, recognizing only one as “Soul Solidifying,” while the others were unfamiliar to him. However, he surmised they must all be related to the soul.

Yuan Ming’s gaze then turned cold as he looked at Sha Hao lying on the ground.

Counting the casualties, Sha Hao had killed no less than three hundred cultivators from the Southern Border to the Great Jin, primarily those in the Qi refining stage. With the current state of the Soul Extinguishing Sword, it would only need the souls of a few more Foundation Establishment stage cultivators to undergo a transformation. If a soul cultivator’s soul was used, given their powerful spiritual consciousness, perhaps just one would suffice. Yuan Ming’s previous display of his soul cultivator identity while protecting the disciples of the Shengye Sect had left Sha Hao envious.

“Since you so desire to complete this Soul Extinguishing Sword, let’s use your own soul to fulfill it,” Yuan Ming said as he dispelled the ice on the Soul Extinguishing Sword and thrust it into Sha Hao’s forehead.

Sha Hao’s body shuddered, his face engulfed by a surge of black qi that twisted and quickly faded, his life force dissipating completely.

Yuan Ming activated the runes on the Soul Extinguishing Sword, and four beams of black light entered Sha Hao’s head, pulling out a phantom-like cloud of blood that pulsated with a powerful soul force.

Within the blood cloud, Sha Hao’s face appeared, distorted with terror. He struggled fiercely, but even if his soul had been intact, he couldn’t resist the power of the Soul Extinguishing Sword and was swiftly devoured.

The Soul Extinguishing Sword let out an excited tremor, and the four runes glowed with a faint blood-colored light.

Yuan Ming formed hand seals, using a secret technique gleaned from soul searching to stabilize the runes.

With his considerable experience in artifact refining and some insights into runes, he was able to grasp the secret technique quickly.

After the runes flickered uncertainly, the Soul Extinguishing Sword suddenly quivered violently, emitting a series of piercing screeches. The surface was roiled with black qi, briefly forming a ghastly, unknown face before twisting into another grotesque visage of a man.

The man’s face lasted only a moment before morphing into the withered image of an old woman.

As the faces in the black qi on the sword’s surface kept changing, Yuan Ming’s expression grew more solemn, veins bulging on his forehead as beads of sweat rolled down, his fingers rapidly forming seals.

Suddenly, as the face in the black qi turned into a beautiful young girl, it let out a strange cackle and opened its mouth, unleashing a black light that shot towards Yuan Ming’s face.

Startled, Yuan Ming realized he couldn’t dodge at such close range. In desperation, he activated the Stealing Heaven Cauldron, which appeared in a flash to shield him.

The black light, which could penetrate solid objects, was stopped by the Stealing Heaven Cauldron.

Seizing the opportunity, Yuan Ming’s fingers whirled like wheels, and he formed a strange hand seal, uttering a single word:

“Swift!”

After a frenzied flashing, the four runes finally disappeared, and the black qi on the Soul Extinguishing Sword retracted back into the blade, calming down.

The sword still glowed with a layer of black light but had returned to a state of tranquility, no longer flickering restlessly.

Yuan Ming finally breathed a sigh of relief, having narrowly escaped danger. Fortunately, his spiritual consciousness was strong, and with the protection of the Stealing Heaven Cauldron, he avoided being devoured by the sword.

After steadying himself, he channeled his mana and soul force into the Soul Extinguishing Sword.

The sword emitted a dragon-like cry, releasing a pitch-black sword qi. Its power hadn’t increased much, but it was much purer than before.

Yuan Ming swung his arm, and a crescent-shaped sword qi shot out, burying itself into the ground.

Below, the Qi serpent had awakened and was attempting to burst forth from the ground but was entangled by Hua Zhi’s vines. The two fought fiercely, both sustaining injuries.

The Qi serpent’s teeth seemed to have petrifying abilities; any vine bitten by it would rapidly turn to stone and shatter, effectively countering Hua Zhi’s regenerative abilities.

At that moment, the black sword qi easily pierced through the layers of earth and struck the Qi serpent’s head, penetrating its scales and entering its skull.

The Qi serpent’s massive body trembled violently and then lay motionless, its life force quickly fading.

Wisps of soul force seeped out from the Qi serpent’s head, not dissipating but rising to the surface and converging towards the Soul Extinguishing Sword, slowly merging into it.

Yuan Ming watched in surprise.

He hadn’t expected the Soul Extinguishing Sword to be so effective at absorbing souls, able to exert such an effect even through the ground and from a distance of several tens of feet.

Hua Zhi took the opportunity to thrust its vines into the Qi serpent’s body, devouring its essence blood and demonic power.

Moments later, Hua Zhi emerged from the ground with the withered corpse of the Qi serpent.

Yuan Ming proceeded to pry open the Qi serpent’s mouth and extracted two earthy yellow fangs.

These fangs contained rich earth attribute spiritual power. Holding them in his hand, he felt a numbing stiffness, indicating that these were the source of the Qi serpent’s petrifying ability.

Such rare items were not to be missed. If he could find a skilled artifact refiner, he might be able to create one or two rare magical artifacts related to petrification.

Yuan Ming stored the fangs and flicked several fireballs to reduce the Qi serpent’s corpse to ashes.

Although the battle with Sha Hao took place within a white fog sea and in a remote area, unlikely to be discovered, Yuan Ming wasn’t one to take chances. After dispersing the fog, he collected the Vajra, Hua Zhi, and Lei Yu, and without delay, took Sha Hao’s corpse and headed towards his previous cave dwelling.

Before long, Yuan Ming stopped in front of a stone wall deep within a mine tunnel.

He retrieved a yellow command flag from Sha Hao’s Storage Ring and channeled his mana into it.

The flag emitted a beam of yellow light that entered the stone wall.

The wall glowed with waves of yellow light and slowly dissipated, revealing two stone doors that opened automatically.

Yuan Ming released three spirit beasts to guard the entrance and stepped inside, with the stone wall returning to its original state behind him.

After passing through a corridor, he saw a rather large stone hall ahead.

Before Yuan Ming could take a closer look at the hall, two tall shadows lunged at him from the front, moving quickly.

Unperturbed, Yuan Ming flipped his hand and tossed out a small black bell.

Ding…

The two shadows halted immediately; they were two black-furred humanoid demons.

From soul searching Sha Hao, Yuan Ming knew the origins of these humanoid demons. Sha Hao had brought them from Bi Luo Cave when he escaped, each with the combat power of a peak Qi refining cultivator, used to guard the cave dwelling.

With another wave of the bell, the humanoid demons obediently retreated.

Yuan Ming surveyed the stone hall, which was furnished with stone benches and chairs. Around the hall were four chambers: one for cultivation, another equipped with an array for nurturing the Soul Extinguishing Sword.

Now that the Soul Extinguishing Sword had been stabilized, the array was no longer needed.

Of the remaining two chambers, one was filled with various spiritual materials of mostly low grade, along with some low-level magical artifacts and Storage Bags.

Yuan Ming knew these were the spoils Sha Hao had collected from hunting cultivators, yet to be sorted.

The last chamber was exceptionally spacious, almost as large as the hall outside, and had been converted by Sha Hao into a medicinal garden with numerous spiritual herbs and medicines planted.

“Stargazing Grass, Condensing Spirit Flower, Cold Moon Vine…”

Yuan Ming’s eyes swept over these precious herbs, several of which could be used to make spiritual incense.

Ah, Windchaser Flowers!

He noticed four or five silver plants in the corner of the garden, the main ingredient for Foundation Establishment Pills that he had encountered in the Yunluo Mountain Range.

No wonder Sha Hao was able to mimic the flower so convincingly; he had indeed discovered this precious herb in the mountain range.

Yuan Ming’s gaze then shifted to another corner of the garden, where a water tank held a three-foot-long black branch, rough and unremarkable.

The water in the tank was a pale black, exuding a faint aura of yin energy.

A small array was set up around the tank, isolating it from the other spiritual herbs, indicating Sha Hao’s high regard for this black branch.

Yuan Ming approached the array and probed it with his spiritual consciousness, but found nothing special. The black branch seemed to be a yin attribute spiritual material with heavy yin energy, and that was all.

However, if it were merely a yin attribute material, Sha Hao wouldn’t have placed it so carefully, would he?

Soul searching could probe a person’s memories, but a cultivator’s lifetime of memories was vast. To review them all would take a long time, and Yuan Ming had only looked for what he needed to know, not finding any information about the black branch.

Yuan Ming left the garden and entered Sha Hao’s cultivation chamber.

The chamber was simply furnished, with a blue meditation cushion in the center and a bronze incense burner in the corner, burning a stick of spiritual incense that was actually the Zixuan Incense he had made.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming felt an inexplicable sense of pride; Sha Hao had purchased Zixuan Incense, which meant he must have visited the Xuanhua Spiritual Incense Shop at some point.

Yuan Ming collected his thoughts and sat down on the cushion to sort through the acquired items.

He first took out the silver orb, which had only minor scratches and was not greatly affected.

He channeled his mana into it, and the orb lit up with brilliant silver light, the four runes shining brightly.

Yuan Ming was secretly pleased; he had seen the orb’s powerful attacks, which were no less impressive than his black needle.

“Since it can shoot such formidable silver light, from now on, I’ll call you the Silverlight Orb. As for the black needle, let’s name it Shadow Piercer,” he thought to himself.

With the Silverlight Orb and the Shadow Piercer, his offensive capabilities had increased.

Yuan Ming stored the orb and then picked up the golden inner armor to probe it with his spiritual consciousness.

The golden inner armor contained four runes and was indeed a top-grade magical artifact.

He didn’t know what material was used to forge the armor, but its defense was astonishing, far surpassing the Dragon Scale Shield, and it could also activate a golden light screen.

In the previous battle, Sha Hao had overused the golden inner armor, and it had been hit by a combined attack from Lei Yu and Vajra, causing the runes to become unstable.

However, this wasn’t a major issue; with some time and mana nurturing, it would likely recover.

Yuan Ming had witnessed the formidable defense of the golden inner armor. With this treasure protecting him, he needn’t worry about attacks from Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

He didn’t store the armor but wore it directly, and after categorizing all the treasures, he sat cross-legged on the cushion and began to nurture the inner armor with his mana.