"So, the Soul Extinguishing Sword was refined by the Three Cave Masters. It appears to share the same creator as my Cold Star Sword," Yuan Ming murmured, looking at the strange black sword in his hand.

He sensed the four runes on the body of the sword, aware only of the "Soul Stabilizing" rune, while the other three were unfamiliar to him. However, he conjectured that they were all related to the Divine Soul.

Yuan Ming then turned his gaze toward Sha Hao, who was lying on the ground, his expression growing cold.

Counting up, Sha Hao had killed no fewer than three hundred cultivators from the Southern Border to Da Jin, mostly those in the Qi Refinement Realm. Considering the current state of the Soul Extinguishing Sword, just a few more souls of Foundation Establishment Cultivators would allow the sword to undergo a transformation. If it were a soul of a Soul Cultivator, due to the robustness of their Divine Soul, possibly just one would suffice. Previously, when Yuan Ming was protecting the Shengye Sect Disciples, his identity as a Soul Cultivator had aroused Sha Hao's intense envy.

"Since you so desire the completion of this Soul Extinguishing Sword, let your own Divine Soul fulfill this sword," Yuan Ming said, as he dissolved the frost on the Soul Extinguishing Sword and thrust it into Sha Hao's forehead.

Sha Hao's body shuddered, his face clouded with a surge of black energy, swirling around before quickly fading, and his life force completely dissipated.

Yuan Ming activated the runes of the Soul Extinguishing Sword. Four streams of black light entered Sha Hao's head, pulling out an ephemeral Blood Cloud, which emitted strong fluctuations of Soul Power.

The Blood Cloud revealed a somewhat blurred image of Sha Hao's face, full of terror and desperation. His struggle was futile; even if it were a full soul rather than a residual one, it could hardly resist the might of the Soul Extinguishing Sword and was quickly devoured.

The Soul Extinguishing Sword emitted an exhilarated tremor. The four runes gleamed, casting threads of blood-colored spirit light.

Yuan Ming clasped his hands in a spell-casting gesture, using a secret technique he had acquired through a Soul Search, trying to stabilize the four runes.

After all, he too had considerable experience in Artifact Refining and some insights into runes, otherwise, he might not have been able to master this secret technique so quickly.

The four runes flickered uncertainly before the Soul Extinguishing Sword began to tremble wildly, emitting a series of sharp, grating screeches. The surface roiled with black energy, briefly forming an unidentified ghastly face. However, in a flash, it twisted into another grotesquely ugly male face.

This male face lasted only briefly before transforming again into a withered old woman.

As the faces within the black energy on the sword's surface changed, Yuan Ming's expression grew increasingly solemn, veins bulging on his forehead, and large beads of sweat slid down his face as his fingers rapidly moved through hand seals.

Suddenly, as the face in the black smoke transformed into that of an exceptionally beautiful young girl, it let out a harsh, mocking laugh, opened its mouth, and a stream of black light swept out, attacking Yuan Ming's face.

Yuan Ming was startled. Unable to dodge at such close range, in his desperation, he summoned the Stealing Heaven Tripod with a thought, placing it before him.

This black light, capable of piercing through solid objects, was forcefully blocked by the Stealing Heaven Tripod.

Meanwhile, Yuan Ming took the opportunity to rapidly maneuver his fingers like turning wheels, then formed a strange hand seal, quietly uttering:

"Swift!"

After a flurry of intense flashes, the four runes finally vanished all at once, the black aura on the Soul Extinguishing Sword rolled back into the blade and subsided.

The blade still radiated a layer of black spiritual light but had returned to calm, no longer flickering erratically as before.

Yuan Ming finally let out a long sigh of relief, having narrowly escaped danger. Fortunately, his Divine Soul was strong, and with the protection of the Stealing Heaven Tripod, he had avoided being counter-devoured by the sword.

After stabilizing himself, he channeled Mana and Soul Power into the Soul Extinguishing Sword.

The Soul Extinguishing Sword emitted a dragon-like chant, shooting out a jet of black Sword Qi. The power had not increased much but was much purer than before.

Yuan Ming swung his arm, sending out a crescent-shaped Sword Qi, which pierced the ground.

Dozens of feet below the ground, the Qiu Snake had awakened and attempted to burst forth from the surface but was entangled by Hua Zhi's vines, each sustaining injuries in their struggle.

The snake's teeth appeared to have a petrifying ability; any vine bitten by it would rapidly petrify and crumble, effectively countering Hua Zhi's regenerative properties.

At that moment, the black Sword Qi effortlessly pierced through the soil layer, striking the Qiu Snake's head in a flash, penetrating the Scale Armor and entering its skull.

The enormous body of the Qiu Snake shuddered violently, then remained motionless, its life force rapidly fading.

Streams of Soul Power seeped from the Qiu Snake's head, yet they did not disperse. Rising to the surface, they began to converge toward the Soul Extinguishing Sword and slowly merged into it.

Yuan Ming, observing this, was slightly astonished.

He hadn't expected the Soul Extinguishing Sword's ability to absorb souls to be so effective, functioning even through the ground and over such a distance.

Seeing this, Hua Zhi took the opportunity to thrust more vines into the Qiu Snake's body, absorbing its Essence Blood and demonic power.

A moment later, Hua Zhi emerged from the ground, carrying the withered corpse of the Qiu Snake.

Yuan Ming pried open the Qiu Snake's mouth, extracting two earthy yellow snake teeth.

These teeth, filled with rich Earth Attribute Spiritual Power, gave a stiff, numb sensation when held. It seemed these were the source of the Qiu Snake's ability to petrify Hua Zhi's vines.

This was a rare and valuable find. If he could find a skilled Artifact Refiner, perhaps he could craft one or two rare magical tools related to petrification.

Yuan Ming stored the two snake teeth, flicked a few Fireballs, and reduced the Qiu Snake's body to ashes.

Although the battle with Sha Hao took place within a white mist and in a remote area unlikely to draw attention, nothing was absolutely certain. After dispersing the mist, Yuan Ming packed up the Vajra Flower Branch Thunderstorm and did not linger. He immediately took Sha Hao's body and sped toward the latter's previous Cave Mansion.

Before long, Yuan Ming stopped in front of a stone wall deep in a mining tunnel.

He took a yellow Command Flag from Sha Hao's Storage Ring and channeled Mana into it.

The Command Flag emitted a beam of yellow light, which entered the stone wall.

The stone wall emitted bursts of yellow light, which slowly dissipated, revealing two stone doors that opened automatically.

Yuan Ming released three spirit beasts to guard the outside and then stepped in himself, the stone wall outside immediately returning to its original state.

After passing through a corridor, he saw a rather large stone hall appear before him.

Before Yuan Ming could take a closer look at the hall, two tall dark shadows lunged towards him from the front at a great speed.

Unperturbed, Yuan Ming flipped his hand and took out a small black bell and gave it a toss.

Ding...

The two dark shadows immediately halted, revealing themselves to be two human demons covered in black fur.

When Yuan Ming performed a Soul Search on Sha Hao, he learned the origin of these two human demons, which Sha Hao had brought with him when he escaped from Biluo Cave, each possessing the combat strength of the Qi Refining Peak, used to guard the cave mansion.

He waved the small bell again, and the two human demons obediently backed away.

Yuan Ming looked around the stone hall, which was furnished with stone stools and chairs, and connected to four chambers around the hall, one for cultivation and another arranged with an array for nurturing the Soul Destroying Sword.

The Soul Destroying Sword was now stable in its refinement, thus, the array was naturally no longer needed.

Of the remaining two chambers, one stored half a room of miscellaneous items, which were various spiritual materials in large quantities but of relatively low grade, and some low-level magical tools, storage bags, and so on.

Yuan Ming knew these were acquired by Sha Hao during his recent killings of cultivators, yet to be sorted through.

The last chamber was exceptionally spacious, comparable to the outer hall, which Sha Hao had converted into a medicine garden, planting numerous spirit grasses and spiritual medicines.

"Star Gazing Grass, Ningling Flower, Cold Moon Vine..."

Yuan Ming scanned these spirit grasses, all precious, with several kinds that could be used to make spirit incense.

"Eh, this is Wind Orchid!"

He looked towards a corner of the medicine garden where four or five silver spiritual flowers were planted, exactly the Wind Orchid needed as a main ingredient for the Foundation Establishment Pill, which he had encountered in the Yunluo Mountain Range.

No wonder Sha Hao was able to replicate the flower so vividly that day; it turns out he really did discover this precious spiritual flower in the Yunluo Mountain Range.

Yuan Ming's gaze swept across the rest of the garden and suddenly landed on a corner where a water tank was placed, slanting with a three-foot-long black branch inserted in it, rough and uneven on the surface, showing nothing extraordinary.

The water in the tank was a pale black, emitting slight fluctuations of Yin Qi.

Around the water tank was arranged a small array, isolating it from the other spirit grasses, clearly indicating that Sha Hao placed great importance on this black branch.

Yuan Ming went before the array, activating his Divine Sense to carefully probe, but regrettably discovered nothing special; the black branch seemed to be some kind of Yin Attribute spiritual material, quite rich in Yin Qi, but that was it.

However, if the black branch were merely a Yin Property spiritual material, Sha Hao likely wouldn't have placed it here, right?

The Soul Searching Divine Ability can investigate a person's memories, but a cultivator's lifetime memories are vast and immense, requiring a long time to review in full; he had just searched for what he wanted to know and hadn't seen anything regarding the black branch.

Yuan Ming turned and left the medicine garden, heading to Sha Hao's cultivation chamber.

The chamber was very simply furnished, with a blue meditation cushion in the center and a bronze incense burner in the corner, burning a stick of spirit incense, which was actually the Purple Mysterious Incense he had refined.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming couldn't help but feel a sense of pride unexpectedly rise within him; to think Sha Hao had actually purchased the Purple Mysterious Incense, it seemed that the man had at some point visited the Xuanhua Spirit Incense Shop without his knowledge.

Yuan Ming gathered his thoughts, sat down on the cushion, and began to sort through these acquired items.

He first took out the silver sphere, only slightly scratched on the surface, which did not affect its function.

He channeled his mana into it, and the silver sphere quickly lit up with brilliant silver light, and the four runes also glittered brightly.

Yuan Ming was secretly delighted, having seen several times the impressive attacks launched by this silver sphere, no less powerful than his Black Needle.

"Capable of firing such powerful silver rays, I'll just call it the Silver Light Pearl from now on, and the Black Needle will be called the Absolute Shadow Needle," he said to himself.

With the Silver Light Pearl and the Absolute Shadow Needle, his offensive capabilities had increased a notch.

Yuan Ming stored the item away and then picked up the golden inner armor, activating his Divine Sense to probe it.

The golden inner armor contained four runes, evidently another top-grade magical tool.

Unsure of the material used for its refinement, its inherent defensive power was impressive, far superior to the Dragon Scale Shield, and it could also trigger a golden barrier.

In the previous major battle, Sha Hao had overexerted the golden inner armor, which suffered hits by the combined forces of the thunderstorm and the Vajra, causing the runes to become somewhat unstable.

However, this was not a big problem, as nourishing it with mana for a while would mostly restore it.

The defensive power of the golden inner armor, witnessed firsthand by Yuan Ming, was strong; with this treasure for protection, he wouldn't have to worry about attacks from those at the Foundation Establishment stage.

He didn't stash the inner armor away but wore it directly on his body, then methodically stored all the treasures away before sitting cross-legged on the cushion, channeling his mana to start nourishing the inner armor.

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