Immortality Through Array Formations

Chapter 2553: Chapter 38: Strange Corpses

Throughout the journey, braving the elements and keeping a low profile, Mo Hua finally arrived at Dafeng Crossing after about half a month.

Dafeng Crossing is a sand port, originally quite remote and rudimentary.

But as the port leads to the Sand Sea, and on the opposite side of the Sand Sea lies the fourth-grade Great Desert City, people frequently come and go, and over time, it has become a Little Immortal City, though not a true Immortal City.

Many cultivators who rely on trading, bartering, and ferrying on ships for living reside here.

Mo Hua stood at Dafeng Crossing, gazing into the distance, already seeing the billowing yellow sand and the wind and dust swirling in the sky.

This is the Sand Sea.

Beyond the Sand Sea lies the Great Wilderness; amidst the sand and dust, a scorching sensation hits, intertwined with the hidden aura of warfare, flowing fire, pain, and conflict, stirring the blood and making the heart race like a war drum, restless and unsettled.

Mo Hua gently exhaled, calming himself, and stepped into Dafeng Crossing.

At this time, Dafeng Crossing was a chaotic blend of fish and dragons.

There were both local impoverished cultivators and various foreign cultivators, family cultivators, sect cultivators, and even some unique loose cultivators.

Among these cultivators, many carried evil qi, evidently having spilled a lot of blood.

Others were wrapped in black robes, their auras concealed.

But Mo Hua could clearly sense these people were Demon Cultivators.

The situation in the Great Wilderness was increasingly chaotic.

Those who could enter the Great Wilderness were capable individuals, each with different thoughts and extremely complex backgrounds.

Mo Hua didn’t want to be drawn into any conflicts, to avoid making mistakes and incurring a killing spree.

He only wanted to go to the Great Wilderness now.

And between him and the Great Wilderness lay the vast Sand Sea; cultivators below the Feather Transformation Realm couldn’t fly across the Sand Sea.

To cross the Sand Sea, one could only ride on a sand ship.

And riding on a sand ship required a ”ship pass.”

Mo Hua wandered around Dafeng Crossing, gave a few Spirit Stones, found a local cultivator, and asked how to obtain a ship pass.

Afterward, he went to several local shipping companies to negotiate.

All efforts failed.

The Great Wilderness rebellion, chaotic warfare, dangerous journey, the demand for ship passes grew more intense.

Moreover, recently there appeared Demon Cultivators boarding ships, slaughtering all cultivators halfway and seizing the sand ship.

Local ferry companies became increasingly strict on issuing ship passes.

Without connections, and without backing from locally influential and reputable elders or family heads, mere Spirit Stones were not enough to buy one.

Mo Hua suddenly missed Elder Ji.

Though Elder Ji had many bad habits, wasn’t a good person, and excelled in indulgence, he was great at building connections.

If he were still around, after a few nights of socializing and befriending some elders, perhaps he could really pull some strings to get a ”ship pass.”

Unfortunately, Elder Ji was already dead.

Killed tragically in replenishing from others.

Mo Hua felt a slight sense of sadness.

He shook his head, seeing it was late, then found an inn in Dafeng Crossing to stay for the night, planning to think of ways to get a ship pass tomorrow.

At night, the weather turned cooler, and the strong wind wailed, making doors and windows shake.

Mo Hua sealed the doors and windows with formations, then set up soundproofing and Divine Sense blocking formations, before sitting at a table and pulling out a book.

The book was old and made of parchment, with four words written on it:

”Mysterious Corpse Treasure Manual.”

This was a rare corpse path text from the Storage Bag of Elder Xu from Yin Corpse Valley, who was in the Golden Core Realm.

Throughout the journey, Mo Hua was busy and worried about the backlash from ”evil spirits and fierce ghosts” and the plots of his Uncle, shrouded in gloom, with no time for anything else.

He hadn’t had time to search Elder Xu’s Storage Bag.

Now, at Dafeng Crossing, temporarily settled, he finally had time to study Elder Xu’s ”relics.”

The most distinctive among Elder Xu’s relics was, of course, this ”Mysterious Corpse Treasure Manual.”

This manual recorded many strange and mysterious methods of refining ”mysterious corpses.”

Concerning ”corpse refinement,” Mo Hua actually knew quite a bit.

Back then, while wandering with his master, Junior Brother, and Senior Sister, they passed through South Yue City, encountered a corpse disaster, and were imprisoned by the Lu Family Patriarch in a corpse mountain mine pit, watching many instances of corpse refinement and spell points firsthand.

He had also somewhat studied some corpse refinement knowledge.

With this foundation, reading this ”Mysterious Corpse Treasure Manual” now made the insights into corpse refinement even clearer.

Demon cultivators on the corpse path often relied on the zombies they refined and raised aside from their own ”corpse transformation” for power.

The stronger the zombies they refined, raised, and controlled, the stronger the corpse cultivator became.

The ”strength” of zombies was classified by grade and species.

Grades followed the standard division by realm: Qi Refining First Grade, Foundation Establishment Second Grade, and Golden Core Third Grade.

Species had their own complexities.

Mo Hua knew of the general classifications like Walking Corpses, Iron Corpses, Copper Corpses, and Golden Corpses.

Zombie grades and species shared commonalities but were two entirely distinct corpse path concepts.

The zombie grade was determined by the realm of the main ”material” used for refinement, namely the corpse utilized for refinement.

This corpse material is also known as ”vegetarian corpse.”

The realm of the ”vegetarian corpse” determines the grade of the refined zombie.

A Qi-refining realm vegetarian corpse results in a First Grade zombie.

A Foundation Establishment realm vegetarian corpse results in a Second Grade zombie...

A Golden Core is equivalent to Third Grade... and so forth.

With a grade, one seeks species.