Huang Xiaolong nodded after listening to the little cow’s explanation.
He leaped up into the air above the Undying Black Wood coffin and ordered Bing Jiuyi to push open the lid.
The moment the coffin lid was gone, death qi and nefarious energy rushed out like an ancient fierce beast. Fortunately, Huang Xiaolong was prepared. His Buddhism G.o.dforce pressed downwards whereas Bing Jiuyi’s cold qi froze everything. With a swipe of his hand, broken ice shards fell to the ground.
Fifteen minutes later, the death qi and nefarious energy billowing out from the coffin finally subsided until nothing was left. In the next second, Huang Xiaolong was dumbfounded.
Laying inside the wooden coffin was a headless corpse of an Ancient G.o.d Realm Nefarious Devil master.
A headless corpse! This was a blow to Huang Xiaolong.
Clearly, this Nefarious Devil Tribe Ancient G.o.d Realm master died instantly when his head was cut off, even his G.o.dhead couldn"t be found, much less the Gold Core in his body.
Huang Xiaolong glanced around the hall that was empty of things except for the four stone pillars with ancient symbols carved on their surface.
Huang Xiaolong’s knowledge of ancient divine symbols was limited and was at a loss for words as he checked the symbols carved onto one of the stone pillars.
“The symbols on this pillar say that the Nefarious Devil Tribe expert’s name is Xie Yuan, the previous Head of the Nefarious Fire Settlement.” The little cow said to Huang Xiaolong, swaying its head left to right.
Hearing the little cow’s words, Huang Xiaolong couldn’t be bothered wasting more time in this chamber. Flying out through the same entrance, Huang Xiaolong selected the second tomb.
Employing the same trick, he had Bing Jiuyi freeze the death qi and nefarious energy flowing out through the entrance, then flew into a second tomb chamber.
However, Huang Xiaolong was disappointed again. The corpse inside the second tomb was missing the entire left side of its body!
‘This one was also killed by someone?!’
The second Nefarious Devil corpse was also missing its gold core.
The third tombstone, the fourth tombstone, the fifth…!
The Nefarious Devil corpses in all five tombs were incomplete one way or another. If it wasn’t the head missing, it would be half of the body, even the lower body part!
“Has this Nefarious Devil Tribe offended a powerful enemy that killed all the tribe’s Ancient G.o.d Realm masters?” The little cow joked.
The little cow might have been making a heartless joke, but such a probability was very high. However… who could it be? Who could be so powerful that they killed so many Ancient G.o.d Realm masters?
Still, Huang Xiaolong refused to believe his luck was so bad, or all the Nefarious Devil corpses inside the burial ground were all incomplete.
With that thought, Huang Xiaolong arrived at the sixth room.
However, half an hour later, he exited from the sixth chamber with a crestfallen expression.
In the subsequent ten tombs or so, Huang Xiaolong still came out empty-handed.
Huang Xiaolong arrived at his nineteenth tomb. When Bing Jiuyi opened the coffin lid, he thought he’d be disappointed like the previous times, so he was momentarily dazed when he looked down into the coffin only to see a complete Nefarious Devil corpse laying at peace and looking very much alive, as if it was only sleeping.
This…! Delight rose to Huang Xiaolong’s eyes. He could sense the energy fluctuations of a gold core coming from this complete Nefarious Devil corpse.
"Haha, this Nefarious Devil’s gold core is still inside!"
Huang Xiaolong curled his fingers as if he was holding something, slowly moving his palm upward. A glistening gold core the size of half a man’s fist flew out from the corpse’s mouth.
Huang Xiaolong grabbed it in his hand. Warm and pure energy spread out from the gold core.
A moment later, Huang Xiaolong suppressed the elation in his heart and put away the gold core into his Asura Ring before turning his attention back to the Nefarious Devil corpse once more.
This Nefarious Devil’s corpse had a bigger use to Huang Xiaolong than the gold core.
With his current knowledge and ability in the Grandmist Puppetry Technique, he was confident in being able to refine this Nefarious Devil corpse into his own puppet within five to six days!
“I wonder what this Nefarious Devil master’s cultivation was when he was alive.” Light of antic.i.p.ation burned in his eyes.
Even though he currently had Bing Xingying and Bing Jiuyi, two Green Ice Hail Devil puppets, Huang Xiaolong adhered to the concept of "the more the better" in having Ancient G.o.d Realm puppets.
Without dallying further, he began circulating the Grandmist Puppetry Technique and started refining the Nefarious Devil corpse inside the coffin.
Huang Xiaolong’s soul force entered the suspended consciousness of the corpse and met with great resistance. In the first attempt, Huang Xiaolong was surprised to find that this corpse’s remnant will was far stronger than Bing Jiuyi’s many times over.
Armed with previous experience, Huang Xiaolong did not give up. He attacked again and again while having Bing Jiuyi a.s.sist him from the side.
Eight days went by in a blink.
Finally, the stubborn remnant will dispersed and Huang Xiaolong’s soul brand imprinted on the Nefarious Devil master’s G.o.dhead, merging into his G.o.dsea.
At this time, the remnant will gathered again, falling into the G.o.dsea as well.
Huang Xiaolong breathed out in relief, but the exhaustion on his face couldn’t hide the delight in his eyes.
This Ancient G.o.d Realm Nefarious Devil master was finally turned into a puppet, furthermore, Huang Xiaolong was grinning from ear to ear after discovering that it was actually a late Second Order Ancient G.o.d Realm master!
Moreover, just like the Green Ice Hail Devils, the Nefarious Devil Tribe was another ancient race, therefore, a late-Second Order Ancient G.o.d Realm Nefarious Devil master possessed more than twice the attack power of Bing Jiuyi.
“Xie Tu greets Master.” The late-Second Order Ancient G.o.d Realm Nefarious Devil puppet Xie Tu flew out from his coffin, respectfully saluted as he stood in front of Huang Xiaolong.
Xie Tu was this puppet’s name while he was still alive.
From Xie Tu’s broken memories, Huang Xiaolong came to know that he was the younger brother of the Nefarious Heart Settlement"s Patriarch from six generations ago.
An hour later, Huang Xiaolong’s group came out from the nineteenth tomb, entering his twentieth tomb. However, the corpse inside the twentieth tomb was incomplete, just like the earlier ones, with its gold core missing.
The next thirty over tombs bore the same result, causing Huang Xiaolong to turn numb seeing the same result after opening the coffin lid.
Despite the corpses being incomplete more often than not, Huang Xiaolong still managed to find two gold cores in between, which could be considered consolation.
While Huang Xiaolong was raiding the tombs inside the burial ground, fifteen days had pa.s.sed since he went in.
The deeper inside the burial ground he arrived, the stronger the death qi and nefarious energy became. Even though he had Bing Jiuyi and Xie Tu at his side, flying had already become difficult, especially after the sixtieth tomb.
When Huang Xiaolong entered the sixty-fifth tomb after Bing Jiuyi and Xie Tu exerted strenuous effort, they finally found another complete Nefarious Devil corpse after opening the coffin lid, complete with his gold core.
Huang Xiaolong was beyond himself at this point, for this meant that he would have an additional Nefarious Devil puppet ah!
The remnant will left behind in this corpse was far stronger than Huang Xiaolong had antic.i.p.ated taking him a month of slow grinding with help from Bing Jiuyi and Xie Tu, expending tremendous strength in the process before he succeeded!
This Nefarious Devil’s name was Xie Du, an early Third Order Ancient G.o.d Realm when he was still alive!
An early Third Order Ancient G.o.d Realm master!