The five black-robed men finally self-destructed, turning into a thick, turbid gas. However, this self-destruction didn't produce the strong impact of a typical Golden Core cultivator's self-destruction, and it didn't even destroy the storage bags.
That means they didn't have storage bags on them to begin with, which confirms the previous guess that these five people might be puppets controlled by the red-faced cultivator who fought him.
However, the red-faced cultivator is only in the late stage of the Golden Core realm and is also a demon refiner. Is it possible for him to control five Golden Core middle-stage cultivators?
It all seems a bit strange, especially since they are five cultivators who have been corroded by turbid gas. The probability of this is very low.
Zhang Ling himself has cultivated the demon refiner technique, the Fiend Demon Art, and has trained a corpse bear as a puppet clone. He knows a lot about this kind of secret technique.
To control five Golden Core cultivators at the same time would be difficult even with his current strength. It requires a high level of divine sense, equivalent to controlling five corpse bear-level clones simultaneously.
Although high-level cultivators have powerful divine senses, they are not infinite. The more clones of this level they control, the more dispersed their energy becomes. They might not be able to exert much strength in battle.
This is unlike the Xuanwu controlled by his second soul, which is an independent soul with complete consciousness and doesn't consume the main soul's mind during battle.
Moreover, during the battle with the red-faced man, he didn't feel that this person had any control over the five black-robed men.
It might not be as he thought, a secret technique to refine other cultivators into puppets, but perhaps they were controlled by a special method.
Zhang Ling coldly smiled and stopped thinking about it, examining the crimson longbow in his hand. This was a fire bow about a zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length) long. Holding it, he could feel that the treasure had considerable weight and was slightly hot to the touch.
This is a fire-attribute magic weapon. Injecting some spiritual power into it and gently pulling the bowstring, a fiery arrow formed from flames appeared, and the rocket shot out like lightning.
This attack instantly pierced through a distance of several dozen zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length), piercing through more than a dozen boulders along the way.
"Not bad, it's a good magic weapon."
However, he doesn't cultivate fire-attribute techniques, so he can only unleash a little over 70% of this treasure's power.
And Jiang Hao was shot in the head and killed by an arrow from this longbow. He had just withstood an arrow himself, using some Celestial Star Sand to block the attack.
This longbow gave him a sense of familiarity.
After examining it repeatedly, Zhang Ling's eyes lit up, and he revealed a strange smile. "Could it be such a coincidence? Is it really that person from back then?"
He remembered something: after returning to Myriad Manifestation City from the Heavenly Abyss, he had participated in several auctions. After one auction, he exchanged a Azure Water Turtle demon soul with a cultivator. He used the complete materials of the seventh-order Fire Jiao he killed in the Heavenly Abyss.
The crimson longbow seemed to be refined from the Fire Jiao's spirit bone and tendons. No wonder it felt familiar.
He didn't expect the Fire Jiao's materials to return to his hands in this way. Moreover, the red-faced man's natal demon soul was also a Fire Jiao demon soul.
Thinking of this, Zhang Ling's face darkened, revealing a few traces of solemnity, and a guess emerged in his mind: could it also be the demon soul of that seventh-order Fire Jiao?
He knew that the Fire Jiao he brought out from the Heavenly Abyss was a desolate beast, and its demon soul contained powerful turbid gas. Even if it could be refined with demon transformation secret techniques, one's own soul would be eroded by the turbid gas.
Unless... this red-faced man also had a Blood Soul Cauldron that could remove the turbid gas from the demon soul.
Zhang Ling quickly checked the three storage bags he obtained from the red-faced man. They contained many miscellaneous items, some spirit stones and magic weapons, but all of them were ordinary goods.
One of the storage bags contained many desolate beast materials, including two complete corpses of sixth-order desolate beasts that had not been processed. It seemed that this person had also killed many desolate beasts.
Suddenly, he took out a black-red round bead about the size of a walnut from a storage bag. It was shrouded in a layer of gray-green Yin Fiend Qi.
A sweep of his divine sense could sense that it contained seven or eight sealed spirits, all of which were high-level desolate beast demon souls.
He took out this treasure bead not because of the demon souls sealed inside, but because the material of the round bead itself gave him a sense of familiarity.
After staring at the round bead for a few moments, he released the Yin-Yang Gourd. The gourd spun smoothly, and a mass of Celestial Star Sand flowed out. The sand mass was wrapped around a blood-red object, which was the Blood Soul Cauldron he obtained from Madam Cao.
As soon as he took out this Blood Cauldron (血魂鼎: Blood Soul Cauldron), before Zhang Ling could cast a spell to verify his guess, the Blood Soul Cauldron trembled on its own, emitting a cloud of blood, like strands of blood-colored silk, instantly entangling the black-red round bead.
In the blink of an eye, the round bead was taken into the cauldron and wrapped in a layer of blood light.
Zhang Ling's expression turned serious, and he cast several spells on the Blood Soul Cauldron to stabilize it. With a wave of his hand, he took out the black-red bead inside.
At this time, his face became even more gloomy, and his guess had been verified. This black-red bead was indeed a piece of Nether Soul Jade.
It seems that the red-faced man's identity is not simple. He has such a piece of Nether Soul Jade, and it seems that this person is also collecting high-level demon souls. This is inseparable from the Blood Soul Cauldron, and this cauldron is related to the Nascent Soul old monster of Snow Moon Tower.
The strange iron piece in his hand recorded the refining method of the Blood Soul Cauldron, which was refined using Nether Soul Jade as the main material.
In this way, the red-faced man is likely to be a Snow Moon Tower cultivator like Madam Cao. Although he can't be completely sure, Zhang Ling feels that his guess is very close to the truth.
This is not good news for him.
After a moment of silence, Zhang Ling took out a jade box and placed the black-red bead inside, sealing it.
Then, he searched the surrounding hundred-mile area and found another place covered by a small formation.
It was a concealment formation, not very clever. He easily broke it open, and inside was only a boulder about twenty zhang (丈: zhang, a unit of length) in size. It looked like a cultivator had used magic power to condense the surrounding earth and rocks to form a temporary foothold.
It was probably the place where the red-faced cultivator and the five black-robed men had stayed earlier. He didn't know what these people were doing here. This is the Endless Cloud Sea, and in theory, few cultivators come here.
Now that he thinks about it, Jiang Hao entered this area to find Heavenly Heart Stone. He may have discovered them, or these people attacked Jiang Hao first.
As for which situation it was, Zhang Ling didn't have time to think about it. It was best to leave this place now.
Before leaving, he deliberately threw out several high-level spiritual talismans, bombing the area of the battle to prevent leaving any spiritual power aura.
He left this rocky area with the unconscious Su Yu'er.
