In the winter of the seventy-ninth year of Tianqian, two major events took place in the cultivation world.
The first one was that Xiao Guo, an expelled disciple of Dongji Sect, united with the cultivators of the Immortal Alliance to encircle and suppress Red Sand Valley in the west, causing the fall of Sea King Chi Huo.
The second thing was that the Immortal Alliance made an order against writings in the world, and all the texts and paintings that mentioned the story of the Ghost King Chi Huo were to be burned.
The name “Chi Huo” has become a taboo word in the cultivation world. No one wanted to mention it, and no one dared to mention it.
*
Chaos. After an unknown amount of time, Chi Huo gradually woke up surrounded by the strong smell of blood.
As a former ghost king, Chi Huo was more sensitive to the smell of blood than ordinary people.
——Moist, hot, and fresh blood.
Resentful wails sounded one after another, and Chi Huo’s vision had become blurred after sleeping for too long. His current surroundings couldn’t be seen clearly, until the urgent pleading of a resentful spirit sounded in his ears, “Please help me…help me take revenge!”
“As long as you can help me take revenge, I will give you the right to use my body. You can use my body to live on, and I will never break my promise!”
After a moment of silence, Chi Huo smiled.
The smell of blood permeating in the air became increasingly moist and intense.
Before disappearing into ashes, Chi Huo, as the ghost king of Red Sand Valley, had dealt with all sorts of people. He knew very well the principle of mutual benefit in transactions.
The resentful spirit who proposed to make a deal with him was at the end of his rope and obviously did not have enough confidence, nor much to bargain with.
But Chi Huo also understood that he was awakened by this poor resentful spirit.
“You are already dead. Now that you no longer live, any spirit can take over your body, right?” Chi Huo said to the other.
The resentful spirit choked, “…”
Indeed, he no longer had the right to use his body after death, but at his last breath, he summoned the dangerous evil spirit in front of him with the help of forbidden magic.
He knew that evil spirits did not need to abide by contracts or keep promises. They only believed in the survival principle of the strong prey on the weak.
He did not have enough to offer, so even if he summoned the evil spirit, the other party might not do as he said.
But no matter what, he was forced to a dead end and had no choice but to give it a last try.
The resentful spirit gritted his teeth, “Everyone bullies me and looks down on me…if you can help me get revenge…I can agree to any conditions…I don’t have much time…as long as you help me kill them all…”
His voice became lower and lower, and he suddenly felt very pathetic. He knew very well that his promise was a joke in the eyes of the evil spirit. The other party could take advantage and forcefully occupy his body instead of making a deal with him.
But Chi Huo didn’t laugh at him. Instead, he said frankly, “I won’t tease you anymore. Thank you for awakening me. In return, I will avenge you.”
After regaining consciousness, Chi Huo quickly understood the current situation.
After facing the siege by the famous and righteous sects, Chi Huo’s cultivation was thoroughly destroyed, his body was wiped out, and his remaining soul was completely sealed.
But Chi Huo didn’t expect that one day, he would be summoned by this poor resentful spirit with a low level of cultivation using forbidden magic.
The resentful spirit was stunned for a moment, then burst into tears and said, “Those three guys standing guard outside the cave are my fellow disciples. They coaxed me here and used me as bait to attract the murderous ghost cultivators in the cave, because as long as they can defeat them and the soul core of the ghost cultivator is cut out and handed over to the sect, they will have a chance to be selected as inner disciples. However, their strength wasn’t enough and they needed to sacrifice bait…”
The resentful spirit sneered and continued, “So I became this unlucky bait. They forced me to take the San Yuan Pill, and they silenced me so I couldn’t warn the ghost cultivators… In this way, once the ghost cultivators swallowed my blood, their own cultivation would be greatly affected. They set up an array outside the cave to lure them out of the cave… Now that I’m dead, I don’t want my sacrifice to benefit them, I want them to be buried with me!”
Chi Huo patiently listened to the other party’s narrative and was a little confused, “San Yuan Pill? Isn’t this prohibited from being used by your prestigious sect?”
Chi Huo, who had many predecessors of famous sects, was well aware of their strange rules.
Resentful Spirit, “That’s why my fellow disciples can’t let me go back alive.”
“That makes sense…” Chi Huo said calmly, “I got it. I’ll take care of it.”
The resentful spirit was stunned, “Huh?”
Chi Huo, “Don’t worry, I will make them pay the price.”
The resentful spirit froze for a moment, then said slowly, “Thank you…”
The moment the resentful spirit’s voice fell, the barrier of death was broken, and Chi Huo successfully entered the other party’s body before it had turned cold.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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After possessing the flesh, Chi Huo’s vision gradually became clearer. He looked around and found that he was inside a cave. In addition to the wet smell of blood hanging in the air, there was also a very familiar smell.
——There was also a ghost cultivator with a disordered aura hidden in the cave.
Lying in a pool of blood, Chi Huo looked into the darkness, and a ferocious face appeared behind the blood waterfall.
This ugly and twisted appearance was most in line with the world’s understanding of ghost cultivators, but Chi Huo, who was once a ghost king, knew that only ghost cultivators who were hungry for food, devoured the resentment of spiritual bodies, and blindly pursued speedy cultivation could be so ugly.
In the past, Chi Huo hated these of his kind who had no aesthetic taste with an unartistic appearance.
If it were in the past, he would have chosen to prevent the other party from appearing in his sight ever again because of his strong disgust.
However, the body provided by the resentful spirit was still in the Qi Refining stage, its cultivation level too low, and it was gravely wounded. He could not use violence to deal with the opponent and could only outwit him.
The ghost cultivator behind the blood waterfall seemed to have noticed his movements. He crossed the blood waterfall and walked towards Chi Huo.
Chi Huo didn’t intend to pretend to be dead. He even unhurriedly pulled back his blood-soaked hair. He calmly sat up from the pool of blood, raised his head to reveal the shocking blood stain on his neck, and looked at the condescending ugly ghost cultivator, smiling as he said, “How about we make a deal?”
The ghost cultivator looked at the young cultivator in silence for a moment, then suddenly sneered, “Do you think you are qualified to make a deal with me?”
“I thought you were dead, but seems not. Lucky, aren’t you?” The ugly ghost cultivator’s eyes flashed with doubts, “What’s going on?”
The other party obviously didn’t realize that this blood-stained body had changed owners.
His soul was completely consistent with the body and could well cover the traces left after “Rebirth by Body Swap”, making it easier for Chi Huo to better hide himself.
Chi Huo wiped the blood on the corners of his lips with his sleeve and said calmly, “I am indeed not qualified, but I can use the three fellow disciples outside as weights in the deal with you.”
The ghost cultivator narrowed his eyes slightly, and after examining him for a moment, he raised the corners of his lips with interest, “What do you mean…”
Chi Huo looked towards the entrance of the cave and lowered his voice, “I’m afraid that this level of cultivation in me is not enough for you. I was silenced and forced to take the San Yuan Pill. After devouring my flesh and blood, you were also affected, right?”
The ghost cultivator frowned, obviously realizing that he was being plotted against.
Chi Huo observed his reaction and continued, “But my three fellow disciples guarding outside are different. If you are interested, I can help you get them and make up for the damage they caused you.”
From the analysis of the current situation, the three disciples outside were not aware of the ghost cultivator’s strength, so they set up a formation to lure him out of the cave. However, the ghost cultivator did not dare act rashly because of his damaged cultivation. The two sides faced off, and no one was willing to act rashly. This put them at risk. Chi Huo, who was at a disadvantage, had room for maneuver.
The interest in the ghost cultivator’s eyes intensified, “So you want to betray your fellow disciples?”
Chi Huo shrugged, “I am forced to be a bait, so how can I talk about betrayal?”
The ghost cultivator laughed, his eyes fixed on Chi Huo. His scars were deep enough to show his bones deep in his neck. “Why didn’t I find how amusing you are sooner? If I had discovered this side earlier, I wouldn’t have hurt you so badly.”
Chi Huo, “It’s not too late yet.”
The ghost cultivator knelt down and looked into his eyes, “As long as you can coax your three fellow disciples into the cave, I can spare your life.”
“I assumed since you were of low cultivation and suffered such a serious injury, you should have died long ago, I didn’t expect…” As he spoke, the ghost cultivator looked at him with confusion and interest.
Chi Huo nodded slightly and lowered his eyelids, “Thank you for not killing me.”
Chi Huo had obtained the memory of the original owner and knew the original owner’s and the three disciples’ characters. He walked towards the entrance of the cave with difficulty, carefully sorting out his messy appearance.
The ghost cultivator followed behind him, eager to see what tricks this desperate cultivator could come up with.
Seeing that it was almost time, Chi Huo shouted at the entrance of the cave, “Shixiong! Get out of here quickly! The ghost cultivator hiding in the cave is much more powerful than we anticipated! We are definitely no match for him! If you don’t leave, it will be too late!”
Hearing their junior brother’s voice coming from inside the cave, the three cultivators who were standing guard outside immediately looked at one another, because according to their plan, the junior brother thrown into the cave would definitely be eaten up by the ghost cultivator. How could there be an opportunity for him to warn them to run?
The three cultivators looked at each other back and forth, and they quickly realized something was amiss.
“There must be something fishy in this!” Lin Shixiong lowered his voice and gritted his teeth.
He Shixiong looked into the cave and asked, “Shidi, what’s the situation now? Are you…okay?”
The ghost cultivator watched Chi Huo’s every move, frowning and not interfering. He was looking forward to what the other party would do next.
Chi Huo deliberately showed poor acting skills and answered the question with a slightly trembling voice, “Shixiongs, please leave quickly! If you don’t leave now, you really won’t be able to escape!”
Upon hearing this, the cultivators outside the cave felt even more strange.
“Hey, do you think this is possible? Not only was the little bastard not killed by the ghost cultivator, but he still had time to warn us to run away? Could it be that the ghost cultivator is a vegetarian and just sits and watches the show?”
“He’s a bit stupid, but he’s not so ‘kind’ that he wants us to run away, right? After all, it was us who threw him into the cave…if there really was any danger, he would have wanted us to be buried with him!”
“What kind of trick is he playing? Does he have some ulterior motive for driving us away?”
The cultivators started discussing in hushed voices, and the more they talked, the stranger they felt.
“Lin Shixiong, you are right. If the little brat was eager to let us enter the cave, that would mean danger lurks in there. He wants to drag us down too, but now he tells us to leave quickly…”
“——That means there is something in the cave. He wants to use an excuse to drive us away so he can monopolize these benefits!”
“I was wondering how he could be so kind, now it makes sense…”
“Then what now? We…”
“Once we explore the situation in the cave, if the problem is not serious, let’s go in and have a look. Don’t let that bastard reap all the benefits!”
People always speculate others based on their own way of thinking and habits. He used to witness sophistication in Zuiya Tower. After obtaining the memories of the original owner of the body, Chi Huo recalled this, and determined the action plan.
Chi Huo pressed his index finger to his lips and gestured to the ghost cultivator not far away. In order to have a full meal, the ghost cultivator also cooperated and hid his evil aura.
Chi Huo was also busy painting talismans with blood on the rock wall near the cave entrance. The runes were scrawled and weird, and the ghost cultivator could not understand the contents of the talisman.
However, what was somewhat surprising was that the three cultivators used their bagua disc to search the cave several times, but they did not detect any danger in the cave.
“I heard from inner peak disciples that there are powerful figures hiding in the cave who can kill people without batting an eye. I didn’t expect that they were bluffing.”
“Someone should have hidden some treasure here, using ghost cultivation to make others blind and deaf to the treasures, so they wouldn’t dare approach.”
“Not to mention wasting one of my San Yuan Pill, I almost let the little brat take advantage of me!”
The three cultivators didn’t react when they checked their bagua discs. In addition, their junior brother’s voice was clear and sound, so they relaxed their vigilance and hurriedly walked along the stone wall, carefully entering the cave. The light inside was dim, and they lit the paper lantern with the Dongji Sect emblem painted on it.
The air was damp and silent, strange ticking sounds ringing out occasionally, and the strong smell of blood permeated the air.
The cultivators who broke in subconsciously held their breaths and stepped lightly, vaguely aware that something was wrong.
The candlelight flickered, and the swaying light illuminated the area until a pale face emerged in the darkness.
“Shixiong, how defiant. Did I not tell you to leave quickly? Why did you come down here instead? I didn’t expect you to be so worried about my safety.”
Chi Huo gathered his long hair that was scattered around his shoulders and deliberately exposed the bone-deep cut on his neck. The blood had solidified around it. His pale, paper-like face was mottled with scarlet, and the corners of his lips raised in a chilling smile, “What can we do? It really is too late to leave now.”
“Shixiong, have you forgotten the sect’s teachings? Greed leads to death-”
Their junior brother’s appearance was so strangely captivating that the three cultivators were frightened and backed away, but their escape route had already been cut off.
The surrounding vines grew wildly and spread like ghostly hands. These outer disciples drew their swords and chopped them down indiscriminately, but to no avail. Soon, the scarlet vines trapped them tightly in the cave like spider webs.
“Ahhhh!”
“Help, ahhhh!”
“Little bastard! What did you do?!”
The paper lantern with the sect emblem fell to the ground. Chi Huo picked it up and held it close to himself, stroking away the dust on the lamp surface. The firelight illuminated the shocking wounds on his neck and the innocent smile on his face, “I just warned Shixiong to run away. Was I wrong?”
“You…bastard——!”
It was a pity that these three disciples never had the chance to spout any more beautiful curse words. The ghost cultivator, who was made furious by the San Yuan Pill, had already cut open their Dantian to take out their soul core, and then wiped out all the resentment they had before their death, pulling it out from their body and sucking it in with relish.
Speaking of which, the ghost cultivator also felt that something was wrong. When he attempted to kill the young cultivator just now, he did not find his resentment and soul. The other party’s soul seemed to have evaporated for no reason.
But now, the ghost cultivator who was enjoying the souls of the three cultivators couldn’t care less, until the corpse of the cultivator who was tied to the vines and should have been dead suddenly moved.
The ghost cultivator immediately stopped sucking and looked at the cultivator that was hanging high.
Swallowing the resentment and souls of the three cultivators at once, the ghost cultivator, whose original cultivation was already damaged, needed time to digest and absorb it. If something happened again in the process, it would be quite dangerous for him.
Chi Huo, as a past Ghost King, knew the weaknesses of ghost cultivators better than anyone else. He could also see through the ghost cultivator’s life gate at a glance and could control it with ease.
Just when the ghost cultivator was alerted to the danger, the cultivator’s corpse, which had turned gray, suddenly snapped open its eyes. His chaotic eyeballs were glowing red like a spider’s. The pair of scarlet eyes turned a few times, and then stared straight at him as if they were targeting their prey, staring at the ghost cultivator who was trying to digest their resentment.
“Hiss——!”
The cultivator’s corpse was like a manipulated marionette. It quickly chewed the vines and rushed towards the ghost cultivator from a high place.
In the blink of an eye, the ghost cultivator’s eyes widened and he looked at Chi Huo in disbelief, who was nearby with his sleeves rolled up and singing softly, “Corpse! Puppet!”
The so-called corpse puppet was the unique skill of the ghost cultivators of Zuiya Tower.
Corpse puppets were divided into flesh puppets and bone puppets. Flesh puppets were further divided into fresh puppets and rotten puppets. Fresh puppets were the easiest to control and did not require any cultivation. It was only required to write “Red Sand Valley” on the back of the corpse’s neck before the temperature disappeared. Then write “Life” in the ghost language, and then chant the control technique in the corresponding ghost language. The corpse could be controlled by the ghost cultivator while it still retained warmth. The lower the corpse’s cultivation level before death, the easier to control.
Although the control threshold of fresh puppet was low, its flaws were obvious. Weaknesses such as relatively low attack power and short duration of use made it not cost-effective.
But being reborn in the body of a cultivator in the Qi Refining stage, Chi Huo had no choice but to choose the fresh puppet that was the least difficult to manipulate.
The ghost cultivator was first internally wounded by the San Yuan Pill, and now he was busy digesting the souls and resentments of the three cultivators. He had no time to take care of anything else. Chi Huo had calculated that even a low-cost fresh puppet would be enough.
Chi Huo had already calculated this step. After all, this kind of ugly and low-level ghost cultivator was the most untrustworthy. The other party would not have let him survive, so he had to strike first.
The fresh puppet with scarlet and hollow eyes bit at the ghost cultivator. The fresh puppet was just a killing tool; it had no emotions and felt no pain, and was much more troublesome to deal with than a living cultivator.
“You, what are you…?”
Extreme shock flashed through the ghost cultivator’s eyes. His pupils dilated instantly, and he looked at Chi Huo, who was wiping the blood on his fingertips.
In order to control the fresh puppet, Chi Huo got his fingers dirty.
“Are you from Zuiya Tower?!” The ghost cultivator came to a conclusion that even he couldn’t dare believe.
They were both ghost cultivators, but for low-level ghost cultivators like himself, Zuiya Tower was an elusive existence out of their reach.
Chi huo smiled noncommittally and gave an ambiguous answer, “These fresh puppets are for you. Please enjoy them while they are hot.”
After that, Chi Huo walked out of the cave, and his previous assumptions proved right. The ghost cultivator was unwilling to let him go, and chased him out of the cave.
Apparently, the panicked ghost cultivator had forgotten the array that the three cultivators had set up at the entrance of the cave.
The moment he stepped out, the array activated, and blazing fire swallowed him up, crackling and lighting up the wilderness in the night.
Chi Huo sat on the ground in the bamboo forest near the cave and began to try his luck and adjust his breathing.
Strangely enough, this body regained its vitality after Chi Huo entered. Even the fatal wound on his neck, deep enough to show his bones, was slowly healing. In Chi Huo’s view, this was also a very rare phenomenon.
By the time the fire calmed, the east sky had turned white, and the soft singing of birds could be heard in the forest. Even a night of blazing flames could not break the morning tranquility of the mountain forest.
Seeing that his body had almost recovered, Chi Huo dug around at the entrance of the cave that had burned to ashes, and finally found the ghost cultivator’s soul core.
He remembered that the original owner of the body mentioned that if their outer disciples wanted to become inner disciples, they must make certain contributions to the sect, such as this ghost cultivator’s soul core.
This turbid soul core would be his leverage from now on.
Mist permeated in the mountains and fields. After retrieving the soul core, Chi Huo didn’t want to stay any longer and walked down the mountain.
He knew that a trace of the original owner’s consciousness still lingered in the body, and it wouldn’t be long before it would evaporate like dew at dawn.
Chi Huo smiled at the consciousness internally and said, “Hey, at least I avenged you. Can you tell me your name?”
After a while.
A weak voice sounded, “Qi Wang.”
“Alright, got it.”
The resentment had been resolved, and Chi Huo could feel the trace of the original owner’s consciousness gradually dissipating.
“Qi Wang, see you later.”
From this day on, Chi Huo, the Sea King, who was deceived by Tiandao and finally killed by his predecessors, will return to the cultivation world as Qi Wang.
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