Chapter 198: Mountain Goblin, Teleportation

Facing a powerful Corpse Ghoul, known for killing Foundation Establishment cultivators with a historical 90% win rate, he needed to accurately assess its true combat strength to avoid misjudgment.

Of course, directly killing it would be the best outcome.

This meant he could ensure his safety within the underground ruins, with the exception of the Six-Eyed Corpse Infant. The explored restrictions and formations would not affect him at all.

Information Mode: Wang Yu activated!

Gurgle—

Corpse Ghouls possess a cunning and cruel nature. They kill any living creature they encounter, a true hallmark of demonic essence.

Playing with the skulls of its prey was a meaningless pastime it had developed over the years to pass the time.

Yet, it tirelessly spun the skull with its fingertips, emitting incomprehensible gurgling sounds, completely lost in its own world.

The moment the skull stopped spinning.

The Corpse Ghoul's bright yellow vertical pupils suddenly fixated on a direction. With a slight squeeze of its broad hand, the polished skull it had been playing with instantly collapsed into fragments.

It smelled the fragrant flesh of its prey.

Its body covered in black fur, resembling a terrifying ape, it swiftly vanished from its spot. The Corpse Ghoul made no sound; even the rustle of wind from its movement was silent.

It saw him.

A man in a black robe leaned against a ruined wall, and a strong scent emanated from him.

Retreating into the darkness, it circled silently until it was behind the ruined wall. Its sharp claws pierced through the broken wall. It expected to feel the warmth of flesh and blood, but instead, it felt as if it had grasped nothing but air.

The Corpse Ghoul froze for a moment.

Suddenly!

Cold yet scorching flames erupted. Under the profound Flame Shaping Art, two ice pythons, formed from chilling flames, coiled around the Corpse Ghoul from below, binding it tightly.

Manifestations of both extreme cold and extreme heat appeared simultaneously on its body, seemingly intending to burn and freeze it at the same time!

The man leaning against the ruined wall gradually dissipated.

Phantasmal Steps: True Phantom.

As a first-grade high-rank movement technique, its effect should have been limited to the Qi Cultivation stage. However, Wang Yu, having mastered it, merged ten phantom bodies into one.

Coupled with the human-scent powder he had prepared, it perfectly deceived the Corpse Ghoul's senses.

Just as the Corpse Ghoul struggled violently.

A beautiful flute melody, long and soothing, made it unconsciously relax, completely ignoring the intense pain from the chilling flames.

Mind-Controlling Demonic Sound: Pinnacle Realm.

This control lasted until its entire body was scorched black, all its black fur burned away, and its physical shell began to emit a meaty aroma, only then did it suddenly regain consciousness.

"Roar—"

The Corpse Ghoul's demonic nature finally erupted. Its body suddenly swelled to five meters, resembling a berserk gorilla with bulging muscles. It furiously tore apart the ice pythons coiled around its body.

Each heavy stomp of its feet left a crater in the ground, yet it still couldn't find its enemy's presence.

In its impotent rage.

"Caw, caw, caw—"

An ominous cawing appeared. Red-eyed crows, each only three feet long, swarmed in, continuously passing through its strong body and carrying away large amounts of soul threads.

The pain of soul-devouring was excruciating, like a torturous execution.

The Corpse Ghoul knelt weakly on the ground. Its ability to control its body plummeted; its limbs felt weak, and it couldn't lift its head at all.

Finally, approaching footsteps echoed in the darkness.

Wang Yu twirled his black jade flute in his right hand, scrutinizing the fierce creature before him and murmuring.

"Its resistance to soul arts and illusions is very low," he murmured, "but once its demonic nature is activated, it becomes almost completely immune. Coupled with this strong body that possesses an immortal characteristic... What a terrifying demonic creature!"

The Corpse Ghoul's immortality wasn't regeneration; rather, no injury affected its combat strength. It had no conventional fatal weaknesses, acting like a corpse that had long been dead.

If its arm were severed, the detached limb would still possess the instinct to attack living creatures and could unleash its full power. Wang Yu believed this was due to the remnant demonic soul within it.

For this reason.

All his probing attacks were directed at the Corpse Ghoul's soul.

When they were only a step apart, the Corpse Ghoul's lowered head suddenly gleamed with cunning. Its slender, wedge-like claws lunged sharply towards Wang Yu's chest.

In that instant.

A crescent moon pattern lit up in Wang Yu's eyes.

—Moon Illusion!

The Corpse Ghoul's demonic soul immunity, after all, was not absolute. After being attacked by the Soul-Devouring Crows, its demonic soul was largely fragmented, and its corresponding immune power had significantly decreased.

The soul is the master of the body; an overly weak soul cannot control a powerful body. That's why it felt weakness in its limbs—not from physical exhaustion, but from a loss of spiritual strength.

Looking at the frozen Corpse Ghoul before him, a hint of eagerness flashed in Wang Yu's eyes.

He pointed with his fingers joined.

Soul Shattering Finger!

Like the last straw that broke the camel's back, the Corpse Ghoul's demonic soul shattered. Wisps of black smoke rose from its head, and it completely ceased all movement.

It was a top-grade material, just like the Grand Yin Corpse.

Due to its immortal demonic nature, the Corpse Ghoul's body could be refined into an extremely rare Demonic Corpse!

This was a unique type of zombie, not belonging to the orthodox system of Malevolent Corpses or Armored Corpses; it was an anomaly even among variant zombies. If properly cultivated, Wang Yu would gain a second trump-card-level refined corpse.

Demonic Corpses were powerful, but their side effects were considerable. They could at any time birth a new demonic soul, gaining self-awareness, which carried a significant risk of backlash. After Wang Yu collected it into the Grand Yin Corpse-Nourishing Coffin, he continued to ponder.

"During the previous exploration craze, the protectors of the Nether Mountain Sect might have come specifically for the Corpse Ghoul," he mused, "after all, before the information was made public, few knew a Corpse Ghoul existed here."

Corpse Dao inheritances were a major category in the Scarlet Kite Demonic Domain. Almost every sect had its unique inheritance; even the Dual Cultivation Sect was no exception, possessing a powerful inheritance called the Yin-Yang Demonic Corpse.

This was considered an advanced variant within the Demonic Corpse category, reaching the pinnacle of power in this realm.

Unconsciously.

His foundation in the Corpse Dao was deep enough to make even those who specialized in it, and were at the same cultivation level, feel envious.

Returning to the Corpse Ghoul's previous territory, Wang Yu cautiously picked up the bloody shackles telekinetically. He immediately sealed them with ice crystals and threw them into his storage bag.

He then thought of catching another Corpse Demon. These creatures were rare outside, generally only found in underground palaces, burial grounds, ruins, and similar places—dead bodies that gained spiritual energy and transformed into demons.

Several special variants could be refined from them. Even if he didn't refine them himself, selling them would fetch a large sum of spirit stones. Since he was already here, how could he miss such an opportunity?

"Hm?"

Just as Wang Yu was about to use the Mountain Searching Demon Finding Secret Art to search, the storage bag where he had just placed the bloody shackles suddenly emitted a burst of red light.

This particular storage bag was specifically for holding "unclean" items.

He was about to discard it.

The storage bag, however, split open. The shackles and manacles floated out, automatically combining and interlocking. The incomplete spatial mystical energy on them became whole again.

Enveloping him, Wang Yu suddenly realized how Ding Ming had appeared in the inheritance light pillar: this was a "ticket."

With no time for frustration, he instinctively raised his True Vigor shield, and his figure disappeared from this outer-inner ruined area.

The Jingzhao Suppressing Evil Prison.

Even though it was his first time here, the moment Wang Yu opened his eyes, he could tell that the surroundings consisted entirely of ruined walls and broken remnants. Decayed torture instruments lay strewn among the scattered broken bricks on the ground.

The sheer variety of styles and bizarre designs made Wang Yu internally exclaim that he had "learned a lot."

The air here was filled with a strong stench of decay and blood.

There was also the musty smell of age from a confined environment, like the odor emanating from a dying old person—not exactly unpleasant, but certainly not pleasant.

It instinctively made one feel repulsed.

What truly made Wang Yu's scalp tingle was the shackles that had appeared on his neck at some point, and his limbs and neck were secured by manacles carefully chosen by the Guan family head.

His True Essence was dormant, and his spiritual sense was sealed within his Mud-Pill Palace by a barrier of killing intent. Once touched, he would see a scene of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, as if all those countless corpses were his own miserably slain forms.

"But—"

The sensation of being bewildered did not appear. Instead, because his other powers were dormant, Wang Yu's physical strength became exceptionally active, whenever he desired.

His physique, capable of wielding a million catties of force with a single swing of his arm, could completely break free from these shackles.

Wang Yu quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

"My judgment was correct," he thought. "This is the 'ticket' to the Suppressing Evil Prison. Bad things only occur with isolated contact."

A prison built in the capital could not possibly be limited to just this area. Wang Yu felt he was in the entrance hall, just inside the main gate.

The true prison cells were likely further below.

After surveying his surroundings and making his assessment, Wang Yu walked towards the severely collapsed areas. If there were cavities underground, they should have caused obvious ground subsidence.

This was easy to discern, and Wang Yu always possessed an excellent adventurous spirit. He was even more curious about this sole immortal dynasty from ancient times.

He kicked away large stones blocking his path, and if they were too large, he would simply kick them apart. He made quite a commotion, yet this area seemed like an absolute safe zone.

He found no signs of monster activity, nor any corpses—nothing but stones and dust.

It took him half a day to clear a path, and Wang Yu finally descended to a deeper layer of the Suppressing Evil Prison.

As his chilling flames transformed into numerous small ice pythons.

Their cold light also illuminated the area considerably. Although his Grand Yin Spectral Eyes possessed the ability to see in darkness, they ultimately couldn't see too far, as it was merely a secondary effect.

To possess night vision comparable to daytime, he still needed to cultivate further!

Wang Yu found himself on a circular, three-tiered platform. It was very low, only about a foot above the ground.

Around him were four pitch-black passages. Each black stone was carved with restriction patterns, but they were severely faded, and some key nodes had even been erased.

"Was this man-made? Done by Jin Miaoshan and Ding Ming?"

"Probably."

Answering himself mentally, Wang Yu followed the traces to explore. This would make him safer and more at ease, and allow him to pick up some overlooked treasures.

He took the eastern passage, walking only a few dozen steps. Cells lined both sides, and inside them were human-shaped stains, likely bodies that had decomposed and completely merged with the ground over time.

Finally, Wang Yu arrived safely in a spacious hall.

Here stood a twenty-one-meter-tall, faceless statue holding a sword. There was no need to guess the statue's identity.

"An Immortal Dynasty sword cultivator, the first founder of the Suppressing Evil Prison."