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Chapter 260: Chapter 53 Qianyu Lake, Chess Player!_1

Wang Ba looked at the "Withered Soul" in his hand and an idea formed in his mind.

If this spell was used on the spiritual beasts he had raised, what would the effect be?

He held several combat-capable spiritual beasts in his possession, such as the Spirit Chicken, Spirit Turtle, Spirit Eel, and so on.

Now that their grades have increased, it's becoming more challenging for these spiritual beasts to improve further. If they were utilized as disposable combat forces, it could be a means to leverage them to the fullest.

Apart from those high-intelligence ones like the Mountain Moving Ape, he could afford to lose Spirit Chickens, most Spirit Turtles, and Spirit Eels without any psychological burden.

However, when he looked at the translucent soul seeds in the altar, whirling with smoke-like auras, he thought his idea might be a little presumptuous. The higher the grade of the living beings, the higher the requirement for the quality of the soul seeds.

These soul seeds in the square-faced cultivator's altar were all of inferior quality.

According to the introduction in "Withered Soul", for the sake of facilitating cultivation, the quality of soul seeds also has grade divisions.

They are typically divided into three classes and twelve stages, corresponding to the realms of Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, and Golden Core cultivators.

Regarding higher stages, it seems that the creator of this spell hadn't perfected them due to a lack of cultivation base.

Technically, top-grade soul seeds of Class III can aid all living beings below Class IV to burst out power surpassing their current stage in a short time.

It's somewhat similar to the life-risking secret techniques mastered by cultivators of the Demon Dao.

However, the effects of this spell are irreversible.

Of course, to maximize the effect of the soul seed, different grades of soul seeds are often used on corresponding grades of living beings.

Wang Ba had many upper-grade Class II spiritual beasts, which required at least upper-grade Class II soul seeds to have an effect.

Regrettably, all the soul seeds here were of Class I.

The best of them were merely upper-grade Class I.

"However, these soul seeds could be elevated by devouring each other. Otherwise, you could only place this 'Soul-Summoning Altar' in chaotic Yin Ghost areas to slowly nurture and level up over time."

Wang Ba discovered an encouraging point on the golden paper rubbing.

This gave him a glimmer of hope.

However, he didn't continue pondering it.

Suddenly, a message that sent chills down his spine came through the 'Spiritual Ear' tool near his ear.

"Attention! Attention! A group of Qi Refining Stage cultivators is passing through Xionghu Mountain and likely heading south. Any Class II ones nearby? Intercept them immediately, don't let them disturb 'that place'!"

"Attention! Attention! Anyone near Xionghu Mountain? They cannot go 'there', otherwise, if the Divine Envoy blames us, we won't be able to bear the consequences!"

Soon someone suggested,

"Why not let Zong'er check if there's any Spiritual Ears nearby?"

"That's right. Are you there, Zong'er?"

"Is Zong'er there…"

Hearing the messages from the Spiritual Ear, Wang Ba's heart lurched. "Xionghu Mountain?"

He had an intuition that he had recently come across this name somewhere!

Hurriedly, he took out a map from the Storage Bag.

It didn't take long for him to freeze in place.

Because he was located to the south of Xionghu Mountain!

At this moment, Wang Ba's Spiritual Sense also suddenly felt alert!

His Spiritual Sense scanned across and identified a group of Tianmen Cult cultivators flying hurriedly nearby.

All these cultivators were in the Qi Refining stage, with cultivation bases primarily around Stage VII or VIII. There were almost none below high-stage Qi Refining.

Wang Ba watched them and recognized several who had previously participated in the attack on Li Canghai.

His spiritual sense swept over them, making his expression change.

In that group of people, he found a familiar face.

"Hua Meng?"

Right then, he heard a voice in the Spiritual Ear,

"I'm near Xionghu Mountain, rest assured, a group of Class I cultivators will easily be caught."

Finally hearing someone respond, the Incense-burning Dao Cultivators in the Spiritual Ear immediately felt relieved.

"Good that someone's there. Don't miss any of those Class I cultivators. If they disrupt the Divine Envoy's arrangements, we're all going to be blamed."

"Well, I've heard that the Divine Envoys are almost finished with their plans. Once successful, we might be able to conquer a country with the power of our lineage. By then, who would dare call us toothless tigers?"

"By the way, why hasn't Zong'er responded? I wanted to ask about whether Qianyu Lake is accessible. I heard that many people had an accident there." "Qianyu Lake? Take my advice, we better not go recently. Some Golden Core rogue cultivators just showed up there. Even though we want to catch some people for refining Yin Ghosts, it's not worth risking our lives."

"True, but why is Zong'er reacting so slowly today…"

The speaker was indifferent, but the listener was attentive. Wang Ba quietly kept 'Qianyu Lake' in mind.

Suddenly, Wang Ba felt something and quickly glanced at the distance.

In the sky above, a cultivator with a body fully enveloped in red rushed past!

"An Incense-burning Dao Cultivator!"

"Is he going after those Tianmen Cult cultivators?"

Wang Ba's gaze tightened. He felt a surge of impulse, but he promptly suppressed it.

He had no relation to these Tianmen Cult cultivators. Even if they were being hunted by an Incense-burning Dao Cultivator, for the sake of his safety, he wouldn't intervene..

Chapter 261: Chapter 53 Qianyu Lake, Chess Player! _2

The person Wang Ba was having some qualms about was Hua Meng, who gave him a rather positive impression and seemed like someone worth befriending. However, their relationship was not that deep after all, at most, it was a decent superior-subordinate relationship. Wang Ba was not willing to risk his life to save him.

Therefore, after some consideration, he decided to abandon him directly.

After all, he had the Spiritl Ear with him and could 'listen in' on the conversations of the Incense-burning Dao Cultivators, to figure out which places were safe and which were not.

For example, the 'Qianyu Lake', a place that could cause the Incense-burning Dao Cultivators to lose manpower and be wary of, might be a good choice if he had no other way to go.

What puzzled Wang Ba was that there seemed to be no mark of Qianyu Lake on the map he remembered.

However, he chalked it up to his lack of attention and planned to study it later when it was safe.

The Spiritl Ear was loud and chaotic.

From the comer of his eye, Wang Ba quickly noticed that the Incense-burning Dao Cultivator had caught up with the members of the Tianmen Cult. The members of the Tianmen Cult scattered in all directions, but the opponent had already unleashed several Yin Ghosts…

Screams echoed continually.

Watching the cultivators of the Tianmen Cult fall one by one from the air, Wang Ba, although determined not to interfere, couldn't help but feel a pang of sorrow.

Like the saying goes: 'The hare dies, the fox mourns' and 'sympathy for one's own kind'.

Despite having the Lifespan Panel on him, life was hard as such, he was unsure if one day, he too would be like those people, fleeing in panic, unable to escape the slaughter.

Amongst these people, perhaps there were also those like him, who led a quiet life with no quarrels in the world.

But in times of chaos, it's hard to distinguish between good and bad. Those who lead quiet lives are no different from the rest.

This is precisely what it means when we say, 'heaven and earth are unkind, they regard all creatures as straw dogs.'

Regardless of whether you are good or bad, smart or foolish…

In the distance, Hua Meng, along with several cultivators, were still desperately dodging and struggling, resorting to all their lifetime skills, just seeking for a glimmer of hope of survival.

While on Wang Ba's side, a deep voice suddenly came from the Spiritl Ear, drowning the rest:

"I am Zong'er."

Tianyi's Spirit Ear…Tianyi died in Gaodao City recently, but now his Spirit Ear has appeared south of Xionghu Mountain."

"The friend who got Tianyi's Spirit Ear…Who are you?"

The Spirit Ear became abruptly quiet!

Wang Ba was suddenly jolted!

South of Xionghu Mountain… apart from the Incense-Burning Dao Cultivator who was busy slaughtering the members of the Tianmen Cult, there was only one person…

Wang Ba himself!

And the deep voice rang out again: "No matter who you are, once you have the Spirit Ear, you must have glimpsed some information. I'm giving you a choice. Bring the Spirit Ear to the location I give you and become a Servant Cultivator of my Yin God's line… or, I'll come to find you."

There was a shock in Wang Ba's heart!

He quickly took off the Spirit Ear, retracting his Soul Power.

However, the voice seemed to be completely unrestricted and continued to resonate from the Spirit Ear:

"Don't think about escaping. This Spiritl Ear records the soul aura of every user. About three days… in three days, I'm coming for you."

Crack!

Wang Ba directly destroyed the Spiritl Ear, his face terribly upset.

He had thought that by obtaining the Spiritl Ear, he had found a loophole in the defence of the Incense-burning Dao. But unexpectedly, the Spiritl Ear was under the surveillance of 'Zong'er'. He had just started using it and his location had been directly exposed.

What was more troublesome was that Zong'er was explicitly coming to find him!

"Damn! I have to leave immediately!"

But where to go was a problem!

To the south… Just now in the Spirit Ear, those Incense-burning Dao Cultivators seemed to mention a place that even Class III cultivators take very seriously…"

Wang Ba was quickly thinking about it in his heart.

But soon, he ruled out the idea of going south.

If there is something that the Incense-burning Dao is extremely concerned about, there must be a large number of Incense-burning Dao Cultivators around. If he goes south, he would be walking right into the trap.

"Qianyu Lake…"

Wang Ba hesitated for a moment and then scanned the distant sky again.

In the sky, under the attack of the Class II Incense-burning Dao Cultivator, there were only six or seven cultivators of the Tianmen Cult still alive.

Hua Meng was a bit farther from the others, so he hadn't been killed yet, but he obviously couldn't hold on much longer.

Wang Ba quickly considered his options, and finally stopped hesitating.

Bang!

Another cultivator from the Tianmen Cult saw the light of his talisman breaking down the defense against the Soul Attack The next second, a invisible Yin Ghost suddenly crashed into his body under his terrified gaze, and then, his body quickly dried up at a speed visible to the naked eye…

"Damn it, God!"

A roar filled with endless resentment and anger!

Then the Yin Ghost came out of the body, its shaking face licked its tongue in satisfaction.

And this cultivator had turned into a piece of human skin, falling down from the air…

"Brother Dao Liu!"

There was no time for Hua Meng to mourn, as a Yin Ghost had already attached itself to him.

Fortunately, his talismans were not yet used up and he barely managed to hold on.

But the light of the talisman was noticeably dimming.

Ten cycles… This talisman will be completely ineffective in no more than ten cycles!"

Hua Meng felt completely desperate.

As a heresy cultivator, he had foreseen this day, but he didn't expect it to come so soon.

And he was not as calm as he had imagined.

"In the end, I'm still a bit afraid of death!"

Looking at the fading light of the talisman in front of him.

At this moment, Hua Meng felt somewhat resigned.

"Only one regret remains, I will no longer have the opportunity to see the scenery of the higher stages…."