Qin stepped off the small teleportation array and was immediately assaulted by the scene before him. Within several hundred zhang radius of the array in the cavern, the ground was littered with miners' skeletons—at least several hundred, remnants from millennia past. Judging by their final postures, these deep-earth miners had frantically scrambled towards the cavern's teleportation array, hoping to escape, only to die en masse because there wasn't enough time for everyone to pass through.
The vast cavern was flanked on all four sides by Spirit Stone mining tunnels, stretching deep into the earth. These tunnels, too, were filled with a multitude of skeletal remains.
Ye Qin glanced at the corpses, a flicker of surprise crossing his mind.
But he quickly calmed himself, shifting his gaze to the stone walls. The faint luminescence emanating from the various spirit stones embedded in the cavern walls glittered brilliantly.
A wave of fierce elation surged through Ye Qin; spirit stones! He had finally found them in the underground tunnels of the Ten Thousand Withered Peaks. If he could remain in this cavern for a few months, gather enough spirit stones to cultivate spirit herbs and refine Foundation Establishment Pills, his chances of achieving Foundation Establishment would drastically increase.
Ye Qin suppressed his excitement and turned to observe the two or three dozen cultivators surrounding him.
After a brief shock, the other cultivators had snapped back to alertness. They scrambled toward the piles of remains, frantically rummaging through the skeletons, searching for something of consequence. Naturally, they also made sure to pocket any spirit stones carried by the deceased.
Ye Qin knew exactly what they were desperately seeking: the Withered Peak Tunnel Map scroll.
Most of the probationary disciples who first entered the mines were instructed by their sects to locate one of these tunnel map scrolls. Only with such a map could a sect rapidly ascertain the distribution of spirit stone veins and the overall layout of the tunnels, thus securing an advantage in the competition for the Ten Thousand Withered Peaks' resources.
These scrolls were usually carried by the chief miners of each faction. The scrolls were constantly updated, detailing the latest discovered spirit stone deposits, newly excavated tunnels, and abandoned passages.
As the disciples searched the remains for scrolls, they all moved cautiously, staying close to their sect brethren and maintaining distance from cultivators of other sects, wary of surprise attacks.
Understanding the intentions of the others, Ye Qin also began his search among the piles of remains. All the while, his mind raced, planning his next move: should he leave the group immediately and venture into the deep spirit stone tunnels to mine, or remain with his fellow disciples from the Azure Pill Sect?
Now that he had located a spirit stone vein, acting alone would be safer and more convenient for him.
The Ten Thousand Withered Peaks had been mined by dozens of immortal cultivation sects over the ages; the underground network must be vast and impossibly complex. Perhaps no single sect fully grasped the true scale of these subterranean passages. Finding a small, secluded area to mine spirit stones shouldn't pose a significant problem. For protection, he possessed two powerful magical artifacts, capabilities rivaling any core disciple of a major sect. Self-preservation was assured.
However, that could wait for now.
He needed to find the map scroll first. If he could obtain the scroll, he would know the precise distribution of all spirit stone types. For instance, Wood Spirit Stones—these were paramount for cultivating spirit herbs, while other types were needed in far smaller quantities. The map scroll would offer immense convenience for his solo operations in the tunnels, making escape easier even if danger arose; he wouldn't risk wandering into a dead-end passage.
Ye Qin thought this through silently.
His steady, reserved gaze swept swiftly over the hundreds of skeletons in the cavern. He barely spared a second look for the remains burdened with carrying baskets or grasping mining picks—the common laborers.
He had spent three years in the North Camp Mountain tunnels and was acutely aware of the difference between ordinary miners and the mine overseers.
Overseers never mined; they strutted about the tunnels wielding spirit artifacts like spirit whips, supervising the work. Furthermore, overseers were invariably accompanied by a retinue of miner thugs, a group that lorded over the passage, suppressing the regular workers. The highest-ranking overseers typically possessed the strongest cultivation and the finest spirit artifacts to maintain order and prevent uprisings. Though millennia separated the past from the present, Ye Qin suspected this hierarchy remained largely unchanged.
After scanning the vast majority of the remains in the cavern, Ye Qin felt a quiet disappointment. Nearly all the bodies belonged to common miners—those carrying baskets and picks, the ones who dug relentlessly. They would never carry a map scroll.
In the entire cavern, Ye Qin stood alone, frowning as he rapidly surveyed the hundreds of corpses without making a move to search.
The other twenty to thirty cultivators present clearly lacked any experience in deep mining; they didn't grasp the distinction between an overseer and a laborer. They were desperately turning over every corpse, searching every pocket and fold, hoping to unearth a map scroll.
By the time Ye Qin had definitively concluded that none of the skeletons carried the map scrolls, the others had managed to search barely a hundred bodies.
The teleportation array continued to flicker with new light, disgorging more cultivators into the cave, who immediately joined the frantic search among the corpses.
Among the Azure Pill Sect disciples, Old Man Kong was the first to arrive, with Ye Qin following second. Yan Xuan, Shen Bao, and Zhang Yun remained on the first level of the cavern and had not entered the second cavern.
“Crack! Snap!”
Just as the cultivators were busy sifting through the remains for scrolls, they heard a strange sound of grinding bone. Everyone froze, turning their heads.
In the massive cavern, near one of the spirit stone tunnels, the hand bone of a miner’s skeleton suddenly twitched. Then, pushing off the ground, the skeletal frame pulled itself upright, still clutching the mining pick, its empty eye sockets gazing around blankly.
“Corpse transformation?!”
A cultivator was the first to realize something was terribly wrong, letting out a low, horrified shout before hastily retreating.
Dozens of cultivators turned to stare at the skeleton. A chill swept through their hearts almost simultaneously. Forgetting the search, they rapidly backed away, putting distance between themselves and the suddenly animated corpse.
Ye Qin was among the first to notice the skull rising. His heart tightened. He moved with maximum speed, positioning himself at the very edge of the teleportation array, watching the skeleton, ready to jump back through at any moment.
Cultivator? Zombie? Or perhaps a Skeleton Puppet?
A profound question formed in Ye Qin's mind. Having been in the Azure Pill Sect for years, he was no longer an absolute novice. Although he spent most of his time in secluded cultivation, he had gleaned enough common knowledge from the discussions of his peers.
He rapidly reviewed everything he knew about Ghost Cultivators.
It was understood that when an immortal cultivator died, their Nascent Soul could escape the decaying physical body, avoiding destruction alongside it. However, the Nascent Soul had a lifespan limit; once that time expired, the Nascent Soul would also disintegrate into nothingness. Most Qi Refining stage cultivators had a lifespan of around a hundred years. Ye Qin himself had eighty-one years remaining, which he would reach unless his practice of the Zuo Wang Sutra killed him, or another cultivator killed him first.
After the physical body is destroyed, the Nascent Soul has only one known method to extend its lifespan: ghost cultivation, entering the path of the Gui (Ghost).
An ordinary immortal practitioner must progress from Qi Refining to Foundation Establishment, then to Golden Core, and finally to Nascent Soul. This requires breaking through bottlenecks and surviving tribulations. Each tribulation successfully passed, entering a higher stage of cultivation, allows for a substantial increase in lifespan.
Ghost cultivation follows similar stages and requires tribulations to extend longevity. Otherwise, even after becoming a 'ghost,' if the Nascent Soul's lifespan ends, it too will collapse and perish.
All living things, material or spiritual, must face the ultimate barrier of lifespan.
Whether cultivator, ghost cultivator, or rare beast or demon, all are treated impartially and mercilessly by the measure of their years. Those who break through that narrow gate live on, aspiring to ascension. Those who cannot perish, decaying into dust and soil.
However, the path of ghost cultivation is perhaps even harder than the path of physical cultivation.
Cultivators possess a physical body, allowing them to use cultivation methods and consume elixirs to nourish their Nascent Soul essence and rapidly grow stronger.
But ghost cultivators have lost their bodies; they cannot cultivate physically, nor can they consume elixirs to replenish their essence. The spiritual energy of spirit stones cannot be absorbed directly by the Nascent Soul, as the intensity would cause spontaneous self-detonation. Ghost cultivators also cannot operate in daylight, as the Yang essence would severely damage their vital soul energy.
Only a minuscule number of those with supreme innate talent, whose physical bodies were destroyed but whose Nascent Souls remained, managed to devise methods for cultivation without a corporeal form. The number of cultivators mastering ghost cultivation techniques is extremely small, and those who successfully enter the ghost path are almost unheard of.
The Ten Thousand Withered Peaks have been sealed by over thirty massive stone pillars for millennia; no new cultivators could have entered during this time.
Could it be that among the tens of thousands of mining disciples from the thirty-plus sects who perished in the tunnels thousands of years ago, one managed to achieve ghost cultivation and has survived until now?
Ye Qin was utterly horrified.
Based on lifespan calculations, a ghost cultivator surviving for at least three thousand years would possess power roughly equivalent to a Nascent Soul expert. A single breath from such a being would be enough to blast all these Qi Refining disciples in the tunnels into ash. The strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator could likely sweep across all the major sects in the entire Spirit Mist Mountain Range; they were absolutely no match for low-level disciples like themselves.
Almost all disciples from every sect realized this terrifying possibility. Their faces turned ashen, their expressions grim. If this deduction proved true, their entire assembly of Qi Refining disciples had essentially walked into a slaughterhouse, true cannon fodder.
Beyond a Ghost Cultivator, there were two other possibilities: a Zombie or a Skeleton Puppet.
A Zombie is far inferior to a Ghost Cultivator; it often serves as a vessel for a Ghost Cultivator’s spirit. After the physical body is destroyed, a Ghost Cultivator is left with only a mobile Nascent Soul, which is highly vulnerable to attack. They often refine their recently deceased corpses into Zombies, into which the Nascent Soul is embedded, thereby providing maximum protection to the spirit.
A Ghost Cultivator and a Zombie are two entirely different entities.
A Ghost Cultivator possesses their own Nascent Soul and complete consciousness.
A Zombie does not; it is merely a hollow, physical shell. It has no consciousness, only extremely rudimentary instinctual reactions. If not controlled by a Ghost Cultivator, it acts purely on instinct.
A Ghost Cultivator can cultivate and increase their power. A Zombie cannot cultivate, but its reliance on instinct allows it to grow stronger through activity.
A Ghost Cultivator can continuously refine a Zombie, making it progressively more formidable. Referring to the "Zombie" as a specialized artifact might be quite appropriate. A Nascent Soul-level Ghost Cultivator commanding a Zombie refined over thousands of years would possess terrifying might.
And Skeleton Puppets are the lowest form. They are merely tools manipulated by a Ghost Cultivator after rudimentary refinement. Without direction, a Skeleton Puppet will not move on its own.
It is not just Ghost Cultivators who can control Skeleton Puppets; ordinary immortal cultivators who understand the necessary incantations and methods can also craft and control them.
Using the Spiritual Sight technique, it was immediately clear that the standing corpse had no Nascent Soul residing within its frame. It was being manipulated by someone to move. This was what truly terrified the twenty or so assembled cultivators. A small skeleton itself was not frightening; the horror lay in the potential existence of a Ghost Cultivator who had survived for millennia.
The skeleton's head ground stiffly, creak-creak, turning to fixate on a large, bald cultivator. It lifted its pick and shambled forward, creak-creak, swinging the weapon toward the bald man.
The bald man felt a tremor of fear, but with all the disciples watching, he couldn't be frightened away by a mere skeleton. Mustering his courage, he roared and lunged forward, wielding a flaming blade, cleaving down toward the remains.
The skeleton had only just raised its pick before the fervent blade struck it from head to toe, splitting it cleanly in two. It collapsed with a clatter, shattering completely.
“Hmph, I thought it was some kind of Ghost Cultivator. Turns out it's just a Skeleton Puppet. A puppet like this probably doesn't even have the power of the first layer of Qi Refining; it couldn't withstand my single strike.” The bald man spat after destroying the puppet, roaring with laughter as his confidence soared.
But the other dozens of cultivators could not manage a laugh. Instead, they gripped their spirit artifacts tighter, continuously backing away, their expressions deeply grave. In the cavern, one by one, more and more skeletons were shaking and beginning to stand up.