Divine sense pierced through layers of ghostly shadows, and Zhang Ling saw a bizarre lacquer painting on the coffin.
The painting was a long scroll, with the edges depicting astrological patterns such as the sun, moon, and stars, as well as fish, insects, birds, and auspicious beasts like cranes. The main body of the painting was actually a depiction of court ladies, with nine maidens in palace attire surrounding a black vortex, dancing a beautiful dance, as if in prayer or some kind of sacrificial activity.
In the very center was a black vortex, slowly rotating, with a faintly visible ghost face protruding from within. This was naturally not a ghost, but a bronze ghost face carved from bronze material.
As his divine sense swept over it, the bronze ghost face opened its eyes, revealing a hideous smile.
Zhang Ling heard a burst of ghostly cries in his ears, causing him to frown. He seemed to have seen this ghost face somewhere before, a feeling of familiarity and strangeness.
Suddenly, he thought of something. He quickly withdrew his divine sense, rubbed his head a few times to regain his spirit, reached to his waist with his right hand, and took out a black wooden box from his storage belt.
With a snap, the wooden box opened, revealing several items inside: a few magical artifacts, a piece of gold foil, a piece of black paper, and a dull bronze mask. These items were special treasures that he often examined before he became a Golden Core cultivator.
After entering the Golden Core stage, these things were of no use to him, so they were sealed in the box.
At this moment, his gaze fell on the bronze mask. The bronze mask was also carved with a ghost face, exactly like the bronze ghost face he saw on the red coffin.
This mask was a treasure he obtained when he was still in the Qi Refining stage, after killing a cultivator. He wore it for a long time without any use. It wasn't until after he established his foundation that he accidentally fell into an underground Yin river and entered the ruins of the Ghost King Sect. In one of the palaces, he obtained the Ghost King Sect's inheritance technique, the Underworld King Scripture, through this mask from a statue.
At that time, he also learned that this mask was a token left behind by the Ghost King Sect. After that, it was never of any use.
Now, the ghost face on the red coffin made Zhang Ling realize that these two things might be related. Could this red coffin also be something from the Ghost King Sect?
But the Ghost Elder and Ghost Granny were cultivators of the Hundred Souls Sect, not the Ghost King Sect.
There is no Ghost King Sect in the current Northern Plains cultivation world. It is said that the Ghost King Sect suffered internal strife tens of thousands of years ago and was destroyed overnight. Or it is possible that the Hundred Souls Sect was established by cultivators from a splinter faction of the Ghost King Sect.
Zhang Ling's mind raced, thinking of several possibilities.
Finally, he chuckled. No matter what the relationship between the Hundred Souls Sect and the Ghost King Sect was, it was not something he needed to worry about. Now that he had seen the ghost face on the coffin, which was extremely similar to the bronze mask, there might be some connection, and perhaps he could use it to open the coffin.
With a thought, he levitated the bronze mask into the air and injected spiritual power into it. The mask trembled, and faint lights lit up in the two sunken eye sockets, covering it with a layer of gray-black mist.
With his current cultivation level, it was much easier to activate the bronze mask, and he could do it instantly.
Within a few breaths, the mist released by the mask transformed into a ghost face. Zhang Ling pointed with one hand, and the ghost face wrapped around the bronze mask and rushed towards the red coffin.
The coffin reacted, and the restrictions on it manifested as streams of ghostly shadows, seemingly trying to block the mask. But the ghost face depicted by the mask easily passed through the layers of ghostly shadows and landed on the coffin lid.
With a soft click, the mask fit perfectly, directly pressing onto the ghost face in the center of the coffin lid. It was an extremely snug fit.
Seeing this scene, Zhang Ling's face lit up with joy. He quickly increased the injection of spiritual power. But nothing special happened next, and the coffin still did not open.
He was stunned for a moment, then thought of something. He summoned the Soul Banner and released Yin energy to activate the bronze mask. After a while, he injected most of the Yin energy gathered in the Soul Banner, and the bronze mask underwent another change.
The mask seemed to melt, vaguely merging into the inside of the coffin and disappearing. The original ghost face in the center of the coffin also disappeared, leaving only a dark hole.
Immediately afterwards, a series of cracking sounds came from the hole. At the same time, the entire red coffin shook, and the coffin lid was sent flying. The red coffin was thus opened.
The coffin lid that had been blasted away floated two zhang high in the air, held up by a stream of Yin energy, not falling down.
Zhang Ling's gaze fell into the coffin, first seeing the dense Yin energy, a dark expanse. With a thought, the Soul Banner landed beside him, releasing several ghost heads that opened their mouths wide to absorb the Yin energy.
In a short while, most of the Yin energy in the coffin was reduced. He could see clearly what was wrapped inside: a corpse.
A female corpse in white clothes, lying quietly, with her hands clasped in front of her chest, holding a wooden tablet in her hands. Her face was covered with a bronze mask, concealing her features.
The bronze mask was the mask that had just merged into the coffin, but the wooden tablet stunned Zhang Ling. It was another piece of Soul Nourishing Wood.
With a wave of his hand, the bronze mask fell off, revealing the face of the female corpse.
The female corpse had delicate features and was not old, only about fifteen or sixteen years old, but her face was pale, as if she were asleep.
With a sweep of his divine sense, his brow furrowed slightly. This girl was still breathing and had not died; she was not a corpse. Her chest rose and fell slightly, indicating faint breathing. Moreover, she carried spiritual power, no weaker than a Golden Core late-stage cultivator.
Next, Zhang Ling also keenly noticed that the girl was just a living corpse, without a soul, a living dead person.
It was just that such a living corpse was placed in a coffin, and two Nascent Soul cultivators were guarding it at all costs, even dispersing their Nascent Souls and using secret techniques to seal it. It was really too strange.
Given the situation at the time, if the Nascent Souls of the two ghost cultivators had really wanted to escape, they would have had a good chance of escaping.
Could this girl be a close relative of the Ghost Elder and Ghost Granny? Or was there some other unknown secret? Zhang Ling looked disappointed and couldn't help but sigh.
This soulless and spiritless living corpse was of no use to him.
In fact, this kind of empty shell was very suitable for refining into zombies or puppets. But controlling a young girl's body, Zhang Ling still felt awkward. Moreover, refining it would require preparing a lot of materials and finding a place with Yin energy for sacrifice. At most, he would get a zombie around the late stage of the Golden Core.
Zhang Ling could refine Golden Core-level mechanical puppets, and he didn't lack such things. He originally guessed that there was some secret treasure hidden in the coffin, but it turned out to be a living corpse. He was naturally very disappointed.
His gaze fell on the Soul Nourishing Wood held in the girl's hands. With a gentle wave, the wooden tablet flew into his hand. The Soul Nourishing Wood was three fingers wide and one chi long. It was the only thing of value.
Soul Nourishing Wood grows extremely slowly. This piece of Soul Nourishing Wood seemed to have been cut from an entire tree. With such thickness and width, the original Soul Nourishing Wood must have grown for at least ten thousand years.
Soul Nourishing Wood belongs to divine wood. If other cultivators saw it, they would naturally be overjoyed.
He had a piece of Soul Nourishing Wood on him. A small piece was enough for a cultivator to nourish his soul, and more was useless.
Moreover, the girl had no soul, and it was obvious that her Nascent Soul had been extracted, leaving behind an empty shell. Carrying Soul Nourishing Wood on her body was also useless.
There were no spiritual patterns or any recorded information on this piece of Soul Nourishing Wood, only a "Nine" carved in ancient immortal script.
The single character "Nine." Zhang Ling looked at it back and forth several times, but couldn't see anything special about it.
He could only think to himself that it was just an identity token, perhaps there were eight similar corpses, or it was just a token.
Unable to discern anything, Zhang Ling shook his head and put away the Soul Nourishing Wood. Looking at the girl in the coffin, he had not yet decided how to deal with her.
Just then, Xuan Gui raised his hand and released the black Yin-Yang gourd. With a flash of golden light, the Blue Sparrow flew out. "Where did you get this body? Oh, you opened the red coffin."
As soon as the Blue Sparrow flew out, it saw the girl in the red coffin and seemed to take some interest. It flashed and landed on the girl's body.
Seeing the Blue Sparrow's actions, Zhang Ling suddenly thought that this guy didn't have a body yet. "What? Are you interested in this body?"
"Hehe, not bad. This corpse has no Nascent Soul, so it can be used as my temporary body. I'll take this body. Do you have any objections?" The Blue Sparrow seemed very happy and actually nodded.
"Senior is really interested in this body?" Zhang Ling was stunned. He had just asked casually, but he didn't expect this guy to really fancy this body. At this time, he felt that something was wrong and asked in surprise, "You are... a woman."
"Humph, I never said I was a man." The Blue Sparrow glanced at Zhang Ling humanely, still using a childish voice.
This really shocked Zhang Ling. The Blue Sparrow had been with him for several years. He didn't have much contact with it, but he wasn't unfamiliar with it either, and he knew it somewhat.
He originally thought that this expert from the spirit world was some old monster. The tone this guy usually revealed was extremely arrogant, and he also said that he was not a human, which made Zhang Ling even more convinced that he was an old monster transformed from some demon.
But he never thought that the Blue Sparrow was actually a woman.
"Do you think I can look at any body? The aptitude of this girl's body is not ordinary. According to your human cultivators' aptitude classification, she has a fire-attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root." The Blue Sparrow circled the girl's body a few times and snorted coldly.
These words made Zhang Ling's eyes light up, and he quickly sent a stream of spiritual light into the girl.
After a while, the spiritual light flew back into his hand. The spiritual light was originally yellow, but now it was wrapped in a weak fire spiritual power.
He used a secret technique to check the girl's aptitude, and it was indeed a single fire-attribute Heavenly Spiritual Root. He was only concerned with being disappointed just now and didn't check carefully. He didn't expect that this body was of such top-notch aptitude.
Could the cultivator who sealed this body want to seize it and use it to change his aptitude? Zhang Ling immediately had this thought in his mind, but then he rejected it.
Even if a cultivator coveted this body's aptitude and wanted to seize it, unless it was absolutely necessary, he would not give up his own body to seize someone else's body.
After all, that was someone else's body. Even if the seizure was successful and he had the Heavenly Spiritual Root aptitude, there would still always be some discomfort, and it would take a long time to adapt to the new body.
Even this discomfort would always accompany him throughout his life. This was the law of heaven and earth, the sense of harmony between the body and the Nascent Soul.
Most of the cultivators who seized other people's bodies did so because their own bodies were destroyed, and they had no choice but to do so. Basically, no one would voluntarily give up their own body to occupy someone else's body.
Many cultivators who used seized bodies to cultivate might not be able to restore their original cultivation level. Even their cultivation would stagnate. This was also an unclear shackle.
Therefore, finding a new body was not necessarily about having the highest aptitude, but also about the degree of compatibility with one's own divine soul.
If you originally cultivated water-attribute spiritual power and insisted on seizing a cultivator with outstanding fire-attribute spiritual roots, it would naturally not be suitable.
But even so, a Heavenly Spiritual Root body was not worth having two Nascent Soul-stage ghost cultivators guard.
Because even cultivators with Heavenly Spiritual Roots may not be able to cultivate to the Nascent Soul stage. Aptitude only represents potential, it does not equal true strength.
Zhang Ling still felt that this girl's body was a bit unusual. He was pondering in his mind. The Blue Sparrow was also carefully examining the girl's body, turning into golden light and disappearing into the girl's forehead.
Suddenly, the spiritual light on the girl's body condensed again into a small bird phantom, letting out a cold laugh. "There are still some strange restrictions on this body, a bit troublesome."
"There are hidden restrictions?" Zhang Ling was slightly stunned. He had not discovered this at all.
"Hmph, the restrictions on her body are hidden and planted in the sea of consciousness. Although it's a bit troublesome, it's nothing. I'm going to retreat for a while, don't bother me if there's nothing wrong." The Blue Sparrow snorted and turned into a stream of golden and blue spiritual light, rolling up the girl and disappearing into the black gourd.
"Restrictions planted in the sea of consciousness, could they be divine soul-type restrictions?"
Zhang Ling looked at the empty red coffin, feeling really strange. Since the girl's body had no Nascent Soul, it was an empty shell. Why would restrictions be planted in the sea of consciousness? Wasn't that redundant...
Touching his chin, he stopped thinking about it.
He had already handed it over to the Blue Sparrow. Even if there was something strange, the Blue Sparrow's knowledge would be enough to solve it, and he didn't need to worry about it.
Afterwards, Zhang Ling sealed the red coffin again. This coffin was also unusual, and he didn't know what materials it was made of. In order not to provoke the Hundred Souls True Person, or possibly hidden Ghost King Sect cultivators.
This thing still had to be sealed well to prevent exposing himself.
After dealing with this matter, Zhang Ling released the two-tailed cat and the ghost monkey sealed in the ice. Now it was time to deal with the little guy's affairs.
During the time he was in seclusion to recover, the two-tailed cat had been staying in the spirit beast bag. It was suffocated, and as soon as it came out, it howled at him in dissatisfaction.
