CHAPTER 374: CHAPTER 359: A THOUSAND-MILE BATTLE ROYALE!

Demonic Corpse Refinement is not a Magical Artifact; it can’t be done overnight.

To refine a Demon Corpse, first, the demon beast’s corpse must maintain at least eighty percent integrity, with no major parts missing, and the death time must not be too long.

Once the demon beast corpse to be refined into a Demon Corpse is selected, it must be placed in a location rich in Yin Qi, supplemented by the Corpse Refinement Technique for forty-nine days.

Only after such a Secret Technique refinement can the Demon Corpse be driven by a Demonic Cultivator.

However, this newly refined Demon Corpse will not only react sluggishly but also won’t be very strong. To truly unleash formidable combat power, the Demonic Cultivator must regularly use Corpse Refining Secret Techniques and supplement it with Demonic Secret Elixirs for cultivation.

Xu Song utilized the remaining Yin Qi within the Three Yin Forbidden Land, along with the Corpse Refining Secret Technique, to refine the Demon Python’s corpse for forty-nine days, successfully turning it into a Yin Sha Demon Corpse.

Because he fully preserved the Demon Python’s Demon Pill and Beast Soul, the Demon Python directly possessed Tier Four strength upon becoming a Demon Corpse.

Additionally, being a Ghost Cultivator, Xu Song could even use a Secret Technique to possess the Demon Corpse during combat, replacing the corpse’s will with his own to control it, essentially gaining a real physical body.

This was an important reason why he demanded the Demon Python’s corpse from Zhouyang for refining a Demon Corpse just after his Core Formation.

Since the Demon Corpse was too large, and Xu Song didn’t have a large Corpse Storage Bag to accommodate it, Zhouyang freed up his previously used Storage Ring to store the Demon Corpse.

As for Xu Song himself, he hid back inside the Spiritual Treasure Token. With the token concealing him, not even a Nascent Soul Stage Cultivator would notice Zhouyang carrying a Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator.

Having resolved Xu Song’s Core Formation issue, Zhouyang and Xiao Ying left the Black Cloud Swamp and headed toward the true center of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm, Liuyun Immortal City.

According to their plan, they should be able to reach there in just over three months and witness the grandeur of the Cloud Immortal City.

But plans never keep up with changes!

On the road to Liuyun Immortal City, before they even reached halfway, Zhouyang and Xiao Ying suddenly encountered a Purple Mansion Cultivator with special Pupil Techniques. This person immediately saw through their Disguise Secret Technique and recognized them as wanted cultivators from the Beast Taming Sect.

Thus, Zhouyang and Xiao Ying, unaware of their exposed identity, were soon surrounded by three Beast Taming Sect Purple Mansion Cultivators, who brought two fellow cultivators of the same tier.

Three Beast Taming Sect Purple Mansion Cultivators, along with their Tier Four Spirit Beast Battle Pets—that’s at least six Purple Mansion Stage combat power, plus two Mid-Stage Purple Mansion Cultivators invited to assist, and the Mid-Stage Purple Mansion Cultivator who discovered Zhouyang’s true identity—totaling ten Purple Mansion Stage combat power!

Even though Zhouyang possesses mighty strength and astonishing Divine Techniques, facing so many enemies in a siege offers no chance of victory.

Especially since his twelve Great Derivation Divine Light Swords were heavily damaged by Celestial Thunder while protecting Xu Song, making them unusable without repairs, significantly reducing his combat power.

In the end, faced with no choice, Zhouyang, to save his own life, could only call out the recently formed Xu Song. Through the combination of Xu Song and the Demon Corpse, they managed to kill and scatter the foes, successfully breaking out of siege.

Despite breaking out of the siege, Xu Song’s appearance resulted in Zhouyang being labeled as a Demonic Cultivator by the Beast Taming Sect, who used their influence to list him among the Demon Slaying List members.

The Demon Slaying List is a bounty list established by major sects in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm specifically for Demonic Cultivators. Listed cultivators either practice Demon Techniques and commit numerous crimes, or collude with Demonic Cultivators to harm fellow cultivators, making them intolerable in the Cultivation Realm.

Any cultivator who kills someone on the Demon Slaying List can claim rewards from the sects and cultivators who issued the bounty using a token.

Since Zhouyang previously killed the Beast Taming Sect Purple Mansion Cultivator Murong Qianqian and, along with Xu Song, killed another Beast Taming Sect Purple Mansion Cultivator and two Tier Four Spirit Beasts during the breakout battle, the Beast Taming Sect transferred the original bounty reward of a Tier Four High-Grade Spiritual Artifact and Tier Four High-Grade Demon Pill to the Demon Slaying List and added a Tier Four Spirit Beast Egg and twenty thousand Low-Grade Spirit Stones as additional rewards.

These rewards are enough to tempt many Golden Core Stage cultivators. Many Independent Golden Core Cultivators may work for twenty or thirty years without earning so many spirit stones if their luck isn’t good.

Moreover, the Beast Taming Sect didn’t just offer rewards to entice other cultivators to hunt Zhouyang; they themselves dispatched Golden Core Stage cultivators to join the hunt for Zhouyang.

Because of the urgent breakout battle, Xu Song’s was injured and lost a lot of blood due to Magical Artifact attacks. The Beast Taming Sect cultivators collected this blood and aura and used the special Spirit Beast Nether Crow to track him, persistently staying on his tail.

The Golden Core Stage cultivator hunting Zhouyang is Zhong Chuming, who caused the conflict between Zhouyang and the Beast Taming Sect.

Zhong Chuming, with Fourth-Layer Golden Core cultivation, also possesses a Tier Five Lower Grade Spirit Beast, the Gen Mountain Turtle, due to the Beast Taming Sect’s characteristics.

With his Fourth-Layer Golden Core cultivation and the spirit beast Gen Mountain Turtle, Zhong Chuming can even fight against Sixth-Layer Golden Core cultivators, so even knowing Zhouyang has a Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator with him, he disregarded Zhouyang.

A Beast Taming Sect cultivator who personally participated in the encirclement of Zhouyang informed him that the Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivator seemed to have just formed his core not long ago and possessed only a Tier Five Lower Grade Demon Artifact, comparable at best to a First-Layer Golden Core cultivator.

To ensure nothing went wrong this time, he specifically exchanged within the sect for a Tier Five Middle Grade Spirit Talisman "Great Sun Golden Light Talisman" and a Tier Four High-Grade Thunder Talisman "Celestial Spirit Divine Thunder Talisman" that specifically countered Ghost Cultivators.

After Zhouyang exposed the presence of Xu Song, he knew he had stirred up trouble. Therefore, after breaking out, he, along with his Dao Companion Xiao Ying and Xu Song, the two people and one ghost, took turns relentlessly heading for the Broken Cloud Mountain Range.

Causing such a commotion, even Master Cyan Yang would find it difficult to protect him.

For now, the best strategy was to first escape back to the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm. After the turmoil subsided, he could contact Master Cyan Yang to explain the matter of Xu Song.

However, the location where he fought with the Beast Taming Sect cultivators was about six to seven hundred thousand miles away from the Broken Cloud Mountain Range. Even if they, two people and one ghost, traveled day and night, it would still take at least four to five days to reach.

This was under the ideal condition that everything went smoothly and no one obstructed the way.

But how could that be possible!

Once the Beast Taming Sect took something seriously, their action speed was swift. Not even two days after Zhouyang and the others escaped the scene, their information was spread by the Beast Taming Sect all along the way to various Immortal Cities and sects.

Whether for the rewards on the "Demon Slaying List" or to seize the opportunity to connect with the top sect Beast Taming Sect of the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm.

Many Golden Core Stage cultivators and Purple Mansion Stage cultivators who received the message from Beast Taming Sect ordered their sect and clan members to closely monitor passing outside cultivators in their territories. If any abnormalities were found, they were to report immediately.

In such circumstances, the traces Zhouyang and his companions left during their escape couldn’t easily be concealed from those with keen eyes.

Thus, even before Zhong Chuming, deployed by the Beast Taming Sect, caught up with them, they had already engaged in combat with some intercepting cultivators.

Those intercepting Purple Mansion Stage cultivators were easy to handle; with a fierce offensive, Zhouyang could often injure and drive them off. Even when encircled by several people, he could summon Xu Song to crush them.

However, when Golden Core Stage cultivators joined the interception, Zhouyang and his companions were in danger.

At such times, facing the interception of Golden Core Stage cultivators, Zhouyang could only have Xu Song with Golden Core Stage cultivation stall the opponent, while he and Xiao Ying used the "Blood Escape Technique" to flee the battlefield.

Once the couple had escaped the battle, Xu Song would then find an opportunity to dodge the intercepting Golden Core Stage cultivators and, through their soul-level sensory link established by the "Nether Contract" with Zhouyang, relocate and regroup with the fleeing couple to continue their journey.

As a Ghost Cultivator, his combat power in frontal magical combat was certainly inferior to that of Golden Core Stage cultivators; however, his skills in extricating himself and escaping greatly surpassed most Golden Core Stage cultivators.

If not for his strong escape abilities, how else could Demonic Cultivators have survived repeatedly in the face of countless cultivation sects in the Liuyun Continent Cultivation Realm trying to exterminate them?

But Xu Song’s ability to easily escape didn’t mean the same for Zhouyang and his wife.

The cost of using "Blood Escape Technique" was considerable. Using it once or twice was fine, but after three or four times, even with Zhouyang’s ample supply of Spirit Elixirs to replenish essence blood and primordial Qi, and Xiao Ying’s newly learned "Qinghua Tribulation Crossing Immortal Light" for healing, both of them were left in a sickly state, struggling to keep up.

"Hold on a little longer. We are now less than two hundred thousand miles from the Broken Cloud Mountain Range. At most, in two days, we can enter the mountain range. Then, even if the Beast Taming Sect knows our whereabouts, they surely won’t dare to pursue us aggressively into the depths!"

On a bone-chilling Bone Flying Ship, Zhouyang and Xiao Ying huddled opposite each other in a narrow cabin a few meters long, both seizing the time to operate their powers, refining elixir potency to replenish their lost primordial Qi.

In life, Xu Song was a Tier Five Artifact Refining Master. This Bone Flying Ship was a Tier Four Flying Demon Spiritual Artifact he crafted using some Tier Four Demon Beast spirit bones during the demon corpse ritual.

Now, because Zhouyang and his wife had used the "Blood Escape Technique" successively to break through Golden Core Stage cultivator interceptors, they were temporarily unable to muster sufficient magical power to fly Magical Artifacts, so they had to rely on him to carry them through the final stretch.

The only reassurance for the two people and one ghost was that the closer they got to the Broken Cloud Mountain Range, the weaker the influence of the Beast Taming Sect became.

In these areas, where the Beast Taming Sect’s influence was weaker, not only was their ability to disseminate intelligence less effective than elsewhere, but the cultivators in the region might not be willing to risk hostility with same-tier cultivators for a sect millions of miles from their own sect or clan.

The rewards on the "Demon Slaying List" were enticing, but such rewards also represented high risk, and not everyone was willing to take those risks for such rewards.

However, their sense of reassurance soon ended.

Because after several days and nights of chasing, Zhong Chuming, who pursued from the Beast Taming Sect’s mountain gate, finally caught up with the escapees in a barren mountain wilderness less than a hundred thousand miles from the Broken Cloud Mountain Range.