Chapter 41: Meat Tank Attack

This was much faster than before. After all, one cultivation slot operates at "2 wisps/day," so two would yield "4 wisps/day." The third slot had to be reserved for the Corpse Demon Secret Art and could not be used.

Placing his primary cultivation method in both slots simultaneously also doubled the efficiency of deducing its advancement to a second-tier technique, cutting twenty years down to ten. This was a significant advantage for him.

After all, the slight improvement in aptitude offered by the Cold Blood Art was crucial for him.

On the day he emerged from seclusion, a talisman message was affixed to the isolation barrier of Wang Yu's residence. After reading its contents, he couldn't help but smile.

A second-tier Corpse Refiner's arm had actually been found.

Three days later, he left to keep his appointment.

Meanwhile, in the increasingly dilapidated Xu mansion, the enormous Xu Jiaojiao stood before Su Qingshan. A cold glint, imperceptible to outsiders, flickered in her narrow, fat-laden eyes, yet her voice remained sweet and charming.

She asked Su Qingshan if he was certain that Wang Yu had interfered, as her father had been taken away by the Enforcement Hall with no news since.

Su Qingshan affirmed this.

Su Qingshan had a confident demeanor, and his analysis was coherent and logical. He explained that his investigation showed it was Wang Yu who reported the Zhu family grandfather and grandson from her father's shop. Wang Yu had also profited from this and caught the eye of Zhuo Shouqing from the Enforcement Hall.

He continued, explaining that the young Zhu had offended the third true disciple of Evil God Peak. He had conspired with his grandfather, Shopkeeper Zhu, at the Xu Family's Alchemy Shop to defraud her father and seize Xu family resources, intending to use spirit stones to atone for their sins.

This scheme was ruined by Wang Yu, and nearly 100,000 spirit stones were confiscated by Zhuo Shouqing. When the true disciple of Evil God Peak learned of this, he coveted the spirit stones and used it as an excuse to detain her father, wanting a share of the profits.

"Ultimately," he concluded, "it was Wang Yu who caused all this!"

While Su Qingshan's investigation was genuine and his information sources accurate, proving he had some capability, blaming Wang Yu for the crime was utterly unreasonable.

But this was a desperate measure.

Neither Zhuo Shouqing nor the true disciple of Evil God Peak were individuals the Xu family or Su Qingshan could afford to offend, so they could only blame and hate Wang Yu.

This was nothing short of self-deception, an ostrich policy.

Evil God Peak was already among the lowest-ranked peaks in the Spirit Reversal Blood Sect. For a true disciple of such standing to covet these spirit stones was something only they would do; Deacon Xu was simply unlucky.

His daring to open an alchemy shop in Evil God Market had, in fact, offended the people of Evil God Peak. This was because the spirit stones he paid went first to the Alchemy Hall, representing the sect's orthodoxy.

Secondly, they went to the Fifth Peak, Savage Ghost Peak, as the Xu family lineage were all disciples of Savage Ghost Peak, seeking their protection.

How could Evil God Peak accept this? It was highly probable that the Zhu family grandfather and grandson's attempt to defraud the Xu Family's Alchemy Shop was personally orchestrated by the true disciple of Evil God Peak.

Due to cultivating a demonic art her father had acquired by chance, Xu Jiaojiao had transformed from a beautiful young maiden into an ugly monstrosity. She dared not go out and meet anyone throughout the day, and her nature was both naive and twisted.

She was called naive because she still believed in love, willing to give the elixirs she used for her own cultivation to Su Qingshan for refinement. She believed that once he broke through to Foundation Establishment, he would disregard the world's strange looks and marry her.

She was called twisted not only because of her strange and torturous sexual fetishes, but also because of her eccentric and perverse personality.

Su Qingshan had guided Xu Jiaojiao to hate Wang Yu. His original intention was to obtain secret information about Tantai Chan from Wang Yu, thereby scheming for the high-grade Foundation Establishment Elixir in her possession.

But ever since Tantai Chan returned from Heavenly Treasure City, many first-generation Foundation Establishment cultivators had fallen silent. Even the Alchemy Hall had invited her to lecture inner disciples studying alchemy.

This greatly deterred all those with ill intentions.

The consensus was that she had powerful backing.

Thus, Su Qingshan gave up on the opportunity connected to Tantai Chan and instead sought a Foundation Establishment opportunity from her father. After all, with Xu Jiaojiao present, if he could sacrifice his appeal and persuade him verbally...

While a high-grade Foundation Establishment Elixir couldn't be guaranteed, there was a high probability of obtaining a low-grade one, such as the Reverse Blood Pill, as a fallback option.

But then... there was no "then."

Deacon Xu was detained, the Xu Family's Alchemy Shop was sealed, and there was a massive deficit of nearly 100,000 spirit stones. Even if her father escaped imprisonment, preparing a Foundation Establishment Elixir for Xu Jiaojiao would be a problem, let alone for Su Qingshan, her unacknowledged fiancé.

He hated Wang Yu to the core. He used a secret technique to manipulate several outer disciples from Five Yin Peak, inciting them to ambush Wang Yu and kill him swiftly.

Unexpectedly, all his manipulated disciples were counter-killed. At a crucial moment, their minds were manipulated, and they revealed the name "Xu Jiaojiao," which absolved Su Qingshan of suspicion, thus leading to today's events.

It was another ambush.

At this moment, Wang Yu felt a deep headache. Adhering to the principle of learning from mistakes, he generally avoided obscure corners. Today, he had an appointment with an inner disciple from Heavenly Corpse Peak.

However, he encountered Xu Jiaojiao near the Corpse-Nourishing Ground in Heavenly Corpse Market.

The Corpse-Nourishing Ground was equipped with a Yin-gathering formation. Its area was extremely vast, and its location was on the outermost periphery of Heavenly Corpse Market. Apart from a few small pavilions where corpse-raisers lived, it was indistinguishable from the wilderness.

For her to locate him with such precision, it must have been the inner disciple from Heavenly Corpse Peak, with whom he had an appointment, who betrayed him. Realizing this, he tried to reason with her:

"Miss Xu," he said, "I believe I have no grievance with you and even helped Deacon Xu. Why do you keep bothering me?"

Xu Jiaojiao retorted, "Bothering you? Helping my father?"

"Nonsense!" she exclaimed.

A ferocious look of fury appeared on Xu Jiaojiao's fat-laden face. "When have I ever bothered you?" she roared. "It's you who won't let my Xu family go! You deserve to die!"

Wang Yu keenly sensed that something was amiss, but the situation had escalated. Seeing that Tiger tank-like figure charging at him, how could he be willing to surrender?

"Hmph, stubborn fool!" he muttered.

Today was different from the past. After a year and a half, Wang Yu's changes were monumental.

With a shift of his body, he immediately conjured nine illusory figures, which spread out in all directions, taking a Nine Palaces stance, and forming a sword seal with one hand.

Beside each illusory figure, ten sharp ice swords condensed, and hundreds of them densely shot forth!

Nine were false, one was real. The ice crystal sword blades glowed faintly, making them almost indistinguishable.

Xu Jiaojiao stomped her feet, drawing qi to her Dantian, and let out a fierce roar.

It was a very rare sound wave technique. Savage Ghost Peak was known for its robust physique; although it wasn't the orthodox legacy of body refiners, it still captured six-tenths of their essence.

This was a high-grade spell called Savage Ghost Roar.

Waves of piercing screams created visible sound waves, causing all the illusory ice swords conjured by the figures to vanish. Only the ice swords unleashed by Wang Yu's true body continued to advance.

With that, Xu Jiaojiao swept her arm. Her right hand was suddenly enveloped in black mist, expanding several times in size, transforming into a black ghostly hand that swept away all the ice swords.

Wang Yu's expression turned grim. Xu Jiaojiao's revealed cultivation had shockingly reached the eighth level of Qi Condensation—a difference of three full cultivation levels. The pressure on him surged!

He formed another hand seal to enhance the spell's power.

"Ice Coffin Spell: Bind!" he chanted.

The temperature rapidly dropped, and frost condensed on the ground. Four ice walls also appeared around Xu Jiaojiao, instantly closing in.

Immediately after, ice crystals sealed the top and bottom openings, and a gigantic ice coffin floated horizontally in the air.