If not used.
These grave diggers were constantly getting sick due to the heavy Yin energy around them—ten or more falling ill each day. As the overseer, who was he supposed to command? He couldn't possibly be expected to handle the corpses himself, could he? Forget it.
Even just smelling the stench of blood and death made him uncomfortable. Every time he returned home, he had to cleanse himself three times with purification talismans.
Let alone touching the corpses.
"Something's not right."
Wang Nian froze.
As he pondered, he suddenly noticed that when Wen Jiu was pushing the cart to bury the corpses, the dense Yin energy surrounding him was actually dissipating bit by bit—as if something was devouring it. This was completely unnatural!
Even a Qi Refining cultivator needed specialized talismans to fully purge Yin energy from their body.
This was precisely why exposure to Yin energy often led to severe illness among ordinary people—because they had no means to remove it, and it would continue to harm them over time.
For regular martial artists or common folk, avoiding it was already near impossible, let alone eliminating it.
Yet Wen Jiu could effortlessly cleanse it.
No. That's not it!
Taking a closer look, Wang Nian gradually noticed the truth.
The Yin energy wasn't simply vanishing—it was being absorbed into Wen Jiu's body.
"This kid... could he have already made some progress?"
The thought flashed through Wang Nian's mind, leaving him in disbelief.
This brat—
His talent for these unorthodox techniques was actually this terrifying?
It had only been a few days.
And he had already entered the path.
Not only that—he had begun absorbing Yin energy to cultivate.
To confirm his suspicion, Wang Nian deliberately stopped Wen Jiu as everyone was leaving.
"Kid, what technique are you cultivating?"
"The Yinzhou Corpse-Nurturing Art," Wen Jiu answered truthfully, inwardly pleased.
It seemed his little display had worked.
Wang Nian asked again, "Have you entered the first stage?"
"Mhmm." Wen Jiu nodded.
For a brief moment, Wang Nian's face betrayed his surprise and astonishment, though he quickly suppressed it.
In the next instant, his usual fierce and unapproachable demeanor returned. He simply waved his hand, muttered "Not bad," and turned to leave.
—
Back home, Wen Jiu was quite satisfied with today's outcome.
Wang Nian had taken notice of him. From here on, all he had to do was wait and observe.
Having lived two lifetimes, Wen Jiu deeply understood that nothing should be rushed. Pushing too hard would only backfire.
For the next few days, Wen Jiu remained low-key, continuing his grave digger duties as if his conversation with Wang Nian had never happened. Wang Nian, too, never approached him again, maintaining the same cold indifference as before.
Just like that—
Several more days passed.
His cultivation of the Yinzhou Corpse-Nurturing Art progressed at a steady pace. He could only train for an hour daily, gaining a mere 1 experience point each time. However, he could also acquire 6 points of Death Qi per day, allowing him to advance at a slow but consistent rate of 7 experience points per day.
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Compared to the growth speed of the White Ghoul, however, this was practically a snail's crawl.
At his current rate, it would take another 135 days to reach the first level of Qi Refining.
Meanwhile, the White Ghoul gained 12 experience points per day and would transform into a Black Ghoul in just 16 days, reaching a level equivalent to a Qi Refining cultivator.
"This is probably why unorthodox techniques are so despised..."
Wen Jiu couldn't help but sigh.
For orthodox cultivators, reaching the first level of Qi Refining took years of grueling effort.
Yet a White Ghoul could transform into a Black Ghoul in a matter of days and rival them in power.
If it were him, he wouldn't be able to accept it either.
—
Before he knew it, eight days had passed since he had subtly demonstrated his abilities to Wang Nian.
And on this very day, after completing his daily calculations, he found that his Blood-Transformed Body was just 3 experience points away from reaching full capacity.
Allocate points!
Corpse Qi -3!
In an instant, the panel for Blood-Transformed Body changed dramatically.
[White Ghoul Skill: Blood-Transformed Body – First Level (0/500)]
[Unaffected by common weapons, immune to ordinary fire and water. Forged with the blood of cultivators, the Blood-Transformed Body can regenerate severed limbs as long as the corpse spirit remains intact.]
"So this is the Blood-Transformed Body?"
Reading the description, Wen Jiu couldn't help but marvel.
Regenerating severed limbs.
Utterly absurd.
If news of this skill got out, wouldn't Qi Refining cultivators be driven mad with envy?
Everyone would be cursing the same thing—
"Damn these unorthodox arts!"
The next night, as usual, Wen Jiu arrived at the burial ground at the hour of Hai to chant the Corpse-Nurturing Mantra.
But this time, something felt different.
The air was noticeably heavier with yin energy.
Even though corpse nurturers were naturally resistant to its effects, the chilling atmosphere still made Wen Jiu's hair stand on end.
And he couldn't shake the feeling that something was lurking in the darkness.
"An illusion?"
He glanced around the pitch-black surroundings, swallowed hard, and, reminding himself that there was a white ghoul buried beneath his feet, mustered the courage to start chanting the mantra.
Yet, as he chanted, an unsettling sensation crept up on him. No matter how intense the yin energy in this burial ground had been before, it had never made his body react this way. But just now, he felt as if he had plunged into an icy abyss—
Bone-chilling cold.
A sudden, overwhelming frost.
It carried a thick aura of death, surging toward him like crashing waves—something he had never encountered before.
And as the seconds passed, the yin energy and deathly aura seemed to tighten around his throat like an invisible hand, squeezing harder and harder, making it difficult to breathe. Yet, when he reached up to his neck, there was nothing there.
At that very moment, the white ghoul burst out of the ground!
Hah—
Standing tall after breaking through the soil, the white ghoul exhaled a breath of eerie, pale mist.
Its fangs, stained with fresh blood, glistened in the dim light as if it had just fed.
Its face was twisted into a terrifying, feral expression.
Even though Wen Jiu had mentally prepared himself, he still flinched in shock.
Sensing the overwhelming aggression radiating from the white ghoul, Wen Jiu felt a mix of surprise and unease. "What's wrong?"
The moment he spoke—
The white ghoul lunged at him.
Startled, Wen Jiu instinctively backed away.
But the creature moved with terrifying speed, leaping forward and snapping its jaws at him. Just as Wen Jiu was about to kick it away, a chilling scream erupted behind him, sending a wave of terror from his head to his toes.
Aaaah—
Whipping around, Wen Jiu saw the white ghoul leap past him, sinking its teeth into something unseen. Then, with a fierce motion, it devoured the entity whole.
In the next instant—
The surrounding yin energy plummeted.
A wave of warmth washed over him.
The suffocating pressure vanished without a trace.
Gradually, the white ghoul's hostility faded, and for the first time, a flicker of satisfaction appeared in its gaze. The yin energy surrounding its body surged, visibly increasing in intensity.
Seeing this, Wen Jiu immediately realized what had happened.
A yin soul.
A spirit lingering after death.
A being formed from consuming vast amounts of yin energy and deathly aura.
Shapeless. Formless.
The natural enemy of corpses—
But also the ultimate nourishment!
"Shit, I really ran into a ghost."
Wiping the cold sweat from his forehead, Wen Jiu looked at the terrifyingly fierce white ghoul—
And suddenly, a sense of security welled up within him.
"Good brother!"
"I'll find you a mutated wife in the future!"
With that, Wen Jiu instructed the white ghoul to return to its burial site and resumed chanting the Corpse-Nurturing Mantra.
Later, at midnight, when he checked his daily progress, the new settlement data filled him with excitement.
A new entry had appeared in the log:
[Devoured an early-stage Yin Soul—White Ghoul EXP +10, undigested death energy converted to reserves: Death Energy +50!]
Not only did the white ghoul gain +10 EXP, but he himself received 50 points of death energy.
50 points!
That was the equivalent of eight full days of accumulated death energy, plus the gains from his regular cultivation.
"If this continues, my cultivation and the white ghoul's growth will speed up even more!"
Realizing this, Wen Jiu was both thrilled and astonished.
Without hesitation, he flipped through the Yinzhou Corpse-Nurturing Scripture, searching for information on Yin Souls.
And what he found shocked him.
When a cultivator dies, if their soul remains intact, a Yin Soul is inevitably formed.
And in places where mass deaths occur, Yin Souls are produced at an extremely high rate.
Mass death sites?
No—
Treasure troves!
"I love unorthodox cultivation!"
Wen Jiu grinned with excitement.
Ordinary Qi refinement?
Not even dogs would bother with that!