That day, Steward Liu's aggressive attitude and his act of cutting off Wang Yu's arm were not just a slap to Steward Duan's face, but also an insult to True Disciple Su's honor. Wang Yu himself wasn't important; even if he died, it wouldn't matter much and wouldn't affect True Disciple Su.
The problem was Steward Duan's lack of action.
As someone who could represent True Disciple Su, his silence was like admitting defeat, especially since he had publicly taken Wang Yu under his wing not long before.
This incident caused Steward Duan to face consequences.
As for Steward Liu's arrogance, it came from the true disciple backing him.
Coldblood Peak was the domain of a Nascent Soul True Monarch within the Reverse Blood Sect, already holding a high position among the nine peaks. This generation had ten true disciples, all at the Foundation Establishment stage, including one with a Heavenly Water Spirit Root.
The first one to break through to the Golden Core stage would receive the True Monarch's legacy and be named as the next Nascent Soul seed.
True disciples were chosen for two-hundred-year terms. New ones were only picked from the inner disciples after the last of the current true disciples formed their core; replacements rarely happened mid-term.
The true disciple behind Steward Liu had unexpectedly gotten a top-grade Golden Core treasure from a subordinate's tribute, which perfectly matched his main cultivation technique.
So, he immediately asked for a high-grade third-tier Golden Core pill, the [Blood Demon Pill]. He was expected to become the first among this generation of true disciples to form his core within ten years.
Like Foundation Establishment Pills, Golden Core Pills helped cultivators break through major realms. Depending on the legacy, there were different kinds of Golden Core Pills.
The Blood Demon Pill was special to the Reverse Blood Sect, working very well for blood-path techniques, raising the core formation chance by almost forty percent—very high.
With the help of the core formation treasure, this true disciple's breakthrough was almost certain. Once the news spread, his group's power grew, and they acted more and more arrogantly.
This was normal in the demonic path—those who gained power often became bold, doing anything to gather wealth.
This lucky event made the other nine true disciples very jealous. The situation couldn't be changed, so they could only focus on their own sides, hoping to get lucky themselves.
That was why Steward Duan had come looking for him again; the timing was just right.
After hearing Steward Duan's explanation, Wang Yu understood the situation.
Because of his earlier inaction, Steward Duan's reputation among the spirit slaves had suffered badly. Now, Steward Liu had the most slaves under him, nearly two thousand people.
Steward Duan and the other steward, Steward Liu, only had six or seven hundred each. Managing spirit slaves was a source of income for the three true disciples; if one side took more, the others got less.
And to gather followers and build power, spirit stones were absolutely necessary.
Steward Duan went on, "Wang Yu, you are a capable person. Even after what happened last time, seven or eight spirit slaves still haven't switched to other stewards. This month, the lowest Spirit Sand they turned in was one tael and six mace."
"This point, both I and True Disciple Su appreciate. But you can't provoke Steward Liu for now; avoid him if you can. As long as you can rebuild the spirit slave group, never mind outer disciple status, even inner disciple status is just a word from True Disciple Su."
Wang Yu didn't want to eat this empty promise.
Besides, the situation was different now. Persuading those people would be much harder. Even the submissive ones wouldn't change sides again so quickly.
Unless a new batch of slaves arrived, but that was another matter.
He sighed inside; he simply didn't have the right to refuse.
"Steward Duan, Wang Yu will try his best."
"Good. This is a reward True Disciple Su gives you early. Take it."
Wang Yu received a jade slip and pressed it to his forehead. Using his spiritual sense to touch it, streams of information flowed into his mind, and he remembered it all in moments.
This was one of the uses of a cultivator's spiritual sense, though it couldn't leave the body in the early Qi Refining stages.
After breaking through to the fourth layer of Qi Refining, it could extend outside the body to sense the surroundings clearly, allow marking magical tools, and become much more flexible.
It had many uses.
The jade slip held a rare secret art. Secret arts weren't ranked by grade but by their effects.
This art was called the [Corpse Demon Secret Method], created ten thousand years ago by the "Crippled Elder." This man was born incomplete, missing an arm and a leg.
Luckily, he had a mutated high-grade spirit root, the rare "Yin Spirit Root." The Corpse Demon Secret Method was made during his Nascent Soul stage, letting him fuse with a zombie's arm to fix his defect.
The version True Disciple Su gave was incomplete and had big side effects.
Body turning corpse-like, losing emotions and desires, shorter lifespan, strange blood and Qi... and so on. Counting them, there were seven or eight. The more Wang Yu read, the lower his mood fell.
*Is this thing even for people to practice?*
He had thought it would be some spiritual pill that could regrow limbs. Now he had gotten the promised "cake," but it was this.
Steward Duan patted his shoulder with a meaningful look. "When you finish the task, True Disciple Su will find a leftover arm from a Frost Corpse for you. That's a second-tier Sha Corpse. Even if you can't reach Foundation Establishment, you can become one of the top experts in the Qi Refining stage."
The tension in Wang Yu's mind was at its limit. After thanking Steward Duan again, he left the elegant building and returned to Stone House No. 83.
He thought it over carefully.
His choice to cut the arms and legs of those three spirit slaves last time was actually thought through. If not for the matter with the true disciple on Coldblood Peak, Steward Duan would have protected him, and Steward Liu wouldn't have been so bold.
Sadly, fate wasn't on his side.
This made him see that everyone is the main character in their own world but a side character in others'. He still needed to act carefully and cautiously.
Being in the demonic path meant he couldn't stick out easily. Hiding one's abilities was the right way.
This series of changes, leading to a sudden shift, now faced him with a new question: should he practice the Corpse Demon Secret Method?
The side effects were many, but if the Placement slot could raise the Ice Sword Art's limits, it should also work on the Corpse Demon Secret Method, maybe even complete it.
The difficulty should be less than creating it new.
He didn't believe a Nascent Soul stage secret art would have so many flaws. It must be that True Disciple Su's understanding was wrong. After all, the Crippled Elder made this method for himself and would have made it as good as possible, with no weak points.
"Let's check it first."
He took the Bloodburn Art out of Placement Slot 2 and temporarily put the Corpse Demon Secret Method in.
**[Slot 2: Corpse Demon Secret Method]**
**[Corpse Demon Secret Method (0/100): One thousand four hundred forty practices per day. Mastery in three months.]**
Seeing the number of daily practices, Wang Yu was very surprised. Practicing once per minute was really a lot, yet it would still take three months to reach perfection.
If he waited for the Placement Rack to finish the method, it would surely take years, definitely much longer than the Ice Sword Art.
Without much doubt, he took out the Corpse Demon Secret Method and put the Bloodburn Art back in Slot 2. He had decided to focus on his cultivation level.
Besides normal understanding, the Corpse Demon Secret Method also needed actual practice.
"Use Yin to feed blood, getting the creation of Heavenly Yin."
"Use the corpse to feed the body, getting the demon body without evil."
"Heavenly Yin changes blood, connecting bones and growing flesh."
"Corpse Qi changes meridians, avoiding neither water nor fire."
Simply put, before actually attaching the corpse arm, one needs to take in Yin spiritual energy to change their own blood and also take in corpse Qi to enter their own bones, going through a deep change.
(End of Chapter)