Chapter 624 The Two Sages
The Bone Sacred Mountain was a colossal white mountain range, comprised of thousands of mountains of all sizes. The dozens of strangely-shaped, towering main peaks were tens of thousands of meters high. Caverns were everywhere. Most of the mountains were hollow inside, and the patterns of the mountains varied, completely irregular.
These white peaks were particularly conspicuous against the dark lands that stretched tens of thousands of miles around them. It was said that this mountain range was actually made up of piles of white bones. As time pa.s.sed, the white bones had become as solid as rocks, forming a unique landscape.
It was said that in the Ghost World, there had once been a skeleton with extremely profound cultivation who had failed to make it to the Divine Demon level. For his failure, he suffered the Heavenly Tribulation and died. His white bones then became these white mountains with a radius of thousands of miles.
However, the truth of this legend could not be verified.
Before the rise of the new Ghost Lords, the Bone Sacred Mountain had been occupied by various forces. Dozens of ghost sects both large and small were stationed there during the same period. Each sect had its own Cultivation Methods. Although they were not first-cla.s.s forces, they were well established. There were also some rogue cultivators who could not be messed with living in this place. Therefore, for thousands of years, no ghost sect had thoroughly unified the Bone Sacred Mountain.
However, with the appearance of the two unparalleled ghost cultivators, everything had changed.
In just four or five years, they had rapidly risen and swept all the major sects and schools from the Bone Sacred Mountain. They had killed a lot of rogue ghost cultivators, forcibly unified the mountain range, and become notoriously formidable figures. After that, they had used the Bone Sacred Mountain as their base and established a ghost sect which they called the Bone Sacred Mountain.
The origins of these two ghost cultivators were extremely mysterious. They were not disciples of any famous master. It was said that the two Wandering Souls had become stronger overnight. They were a man and a woman which had been a couple when they were alive. But they died together and became Wandering Souls, who then drifted here and met great opportunities. From then on, they ranked among the most powerful ghost cultivators and became the overlords of the area.
That was the information which Li Mu acquired along the way.
Li Mu had realized that if the rumors were correct, it meant that the Ghost Lord couple in the Bone Sacred Mountain had mastered a highly advanced Ghost Cultivation Method. It was the only possible explanation as to how they had made a name for themselves in such a short time.
Li Mu was very interested in this Ghost Cultivation Method and whether it really existed.
“Let’s go for it.”
Having disguised himself as a ghost cultivator, Li Mu had not only kept his real ident.i.ty from all the ghosts but also gained a deeper understanding of this world and began to smoothly blend in with the ghost cultivators.
He was standing on the periphery of the Bone Sacred Mountain.
As he looked up at the mountain range, he seemed to be able to see the vicissitudes of life.
Apart from the fact that the cultivators living in this world were all souls, other aspects of life here were not so different from those of the world of the living. The ghost cultivators had emotions and desires, and they also needed to eat. There was a bizarre river in this world, which was said to flow straight from h.e.l.l. Every time the ghost cultivators drank it, the energy it provided them to keep them in their current forms varied.
Li Mu had once spooned up this water, but he hadn’t drunk it.
That was because the energy in the water was extremely strange. For half-dead ghost cultivators, it could provide them the energy they needed to maintain their forms. But for living people, its effect was unpredictable. Li Mu didn’t want to take risks. Still, he took some for further research.
The energy in this water reminded Li Mu of the aura of the divine-level Primordial Stone he had picked up on that mysterious stall when he had done stone gambling. The aura of this water was almost the same.
After the divine-level Primordial Stone had been cut in half and revealed the Second Senior Fellow Apprentice, the weird, half-dead energy soon disappeared. Thinking of the extremely strange changes of the Second Senior Fellow Apprentice when he had been on the Cliff of the Living outside the Ghost Rally Star, Li Mu reckoned that he might know the source or use of this energy.
Therefore, Li Mu collected some of this strange water to study in the future.
What was on his mind now was how to sneak into the Bone Sacred Mountain and try to find a high-cla.s.s Ghost Cultivation Method.
Given Li Mu’s current cultivation, it was feasible to simply take the Cultivation Method by force. Ghost Lords would not necessarily be strong enough to defeat him. However, Li Mu eventually gave up this thought.
Because this was the Ghost Rally Star, a place for the dead.
If Li Mu revealed his ident.i.ty as a living person during the process of s.n.a.t.c.hing the Cultivation Method, he was afraid that he would make enemies out of all the ghost cultivators on the Ghost Rally Star. The planet was very eerie, so Li Mu did not dare to be reckless.
“I have to think of another way.”
Li Mu thought to himself.
One day later, Li Mu heard a piece of news.
“The Bone Sacred Mountain is recruiting disciples. As long as your cultivation is at or above the Ghost Spirit Level, you can join and get resources and Cultivation Methods.”
This piece of news spread among the ghost cultivators around the Bone Sacred Mountain.
Because it was a newly risen force, the Bone Sacred Mountain hoped to recruit a large number of disciples from among the ghost cultivators. To put it simply, they were recruiting lackeys.
It was said that lately, the Bone Sacred Mountain had been on bad terms with several old ghost sects nearby. There had been some territorial disputes between the new and the old forces, and several battles had broken out. That was why Bone Sacred Mountain was trying to recruit more disciples and expand their fighting force.
After giving it a thought, Li Mu joined in with the a.s.sorted ghost cultivators ready to head to Bone Sacred Mountain.
After taking a few simple tests, Li Mu, who had purposefully displayed his cultivation at the Ghost Soldier Level, successfully joined the Bone Sacred Mountain as expected and became a captain-level disciple. Then, he was taught a Ghost Cultivation Method called the Spirit-gathering Spring.
Although the Spirit-gathering Spring was much more advanced than the Cultivation Methods the ordinary ghost cultivators had obtained, it was still a far cry from the top-cla.s.s Ghost Cultivation Method that Li Mu had been looking forward to. So, Li Mu decided not to take any action for the time being.
His goal was to get a top-cla.s.s Ghost Cultivation Method.
“Our Bone Sacred Mountain has the best cultivation methods and resources in the world. But how many days have you been in the sect? To get higher cultivation methods and better cultivation resources, or to enter the Nether Spring to cultivate your Ghost Body, you must gain some achievements in battle and earn those rewards. Now, it’s all up to you.”
An elder named Zhen Ye, who was a Ghost General, admonished Li Mu and the other ghosts.
Li Mu’s eyes lit up when he heard that.
“I was just afraid that you didn’t have any top cultivation methods. Now, since you have said it, everything will be all right.”
He remained inactive and continued to observe.
Later, he and three other Ghost Soldier captains were a.s.signed to a cave in a fairly good location. They were sort of stationed there. There was a Nether Spring Well inside the cave, which could be shared by four ghosts. Compared with the other places in the outside world, the spring water in this well was purer and richer, enabling them to better nourish their Ghost Cultivation Methods.
Li Mu now had fifty ghost cultivators at the Ghost Spirit Level as his subordinates.
Now that the whole Bone Sacred Mountain was at war, it was not hard for him to earn battle achievements.
Only three days later, Li Mu and the others went straight to the battlefield.
Around the Bone Sacred Mountain, there were three major ghost sects: the Heavenly Ghost Sect, the Holy Ghost Sect, and the Lost Land. They were all time-honored ghost sects that had existed for tens of millions of years. Because of the rapid rise of the Bone Sacred Mountain, their territories were under threat, and they had to fight for resources and disciples. The three sects then joined forces to besiege the Bone Sacred Mountain. Three months ago, the war had broken out. Then, hundreds of battles, big and small, had taken place. It could be said that the battles had not stopped since then.
Li Mu and the other ghosts were sent to the battlefield to fight the disciples of the Lost Land.
After a fierce battle, more than half of the ghost cultivators in Li Mu’s team were killed. However, because of his outstanding performance in killing four outstanding disciples of the Lost Land in a row, Li Mu himself won the favor of the Ghost General elder, Zhen Ye, and earned merits. Later, he was given a promotion and became a battalion chief commanding 100 ghosts and 4 Ghost Soldiers. He was also rewarded with abundant cultivation resources.
“Here are 10 high-quality Ghost Pearls. The energy in them is enough for you to absorb for a month. Keep working hard and be loyal to the two Sages. I have high hopes for you,” said the Ghost General elder named Zhen Ye, who patted Li Mu on the shoulder while distributing the rewards.
Gradually, Zhen Ye began to regard Li Mu as his trusted subordinate.
Night fell.
Because of his meritorious military service as well as the Ghost General Elder Zhen Ye favoring him, Li Mu soon got promoted and moved to a cave where he lived by himself.
Li Mu returned to his own cave and sat on the futon. Holding the 10 black, s.h.i.+ny, longan-sized beads in his hands, he carefully observed them.
“The Ghost Bead is a treasure made of Ghost Qi. It contains energy that can be absorbed by ghost cultivators. It is similar to the fairy crystal in the Brilliance Immortal Star Region. On the Ghost Rally Star, it can also be used as a kind of hard currency.”
Li Mu could clearly feel that the Ghost Beads contained very pure half-dead energy.
He was a little tempted to have a try.
What would happen if he practiced a Ghost Cultivation Method?
This thought kept surging in his mind.
Li Mu remembered that when he had first found the divine-level Primordial Stone, the half-dead energy it emitted had seemed to echo with the Xiantian Skill. It seemed that it could be compatible with the Xiantian Skill. So was the energy in the Ghost Bead. If he absorbed the energy of the dead into his body, would it help him to practice the Xiantian Skill?
However, he was not certain what effect this kind of energy would have if it was absorbed and refined into the body of a living person. If it caused a problem with the original cultivation method of the living person, the losses would outweigh the gains.
Li Mu hesitated. In the end, he still did not try it.
Over the next few days, the flames of war continued to burn this patch of land.
Li Mu and his ghost soldiers were sent to the battlefield over and over again. Still, ghost cultivators continued to be destroyed. The cruelty of the war was not any less than that in the world of the living. Once the ghost cultivators were killed, their three souls and seven spirits would disappear forever, which meant that they would never be able to reincarnate. This was more terrible than the death of the living.
However, Li Mu performed extremely well in this kind of war.
“Nice, very nice. I’m very satisfied with your performance.”
The Ghost General elder named Zhen Ye now completely regarded Li Mu as his henchman. He bent over backward to praise Li Mu and help him make progress. Also, he funneled all kinds of resources and favorable positions to Li Mu. It looked like Zhen Ye was going to train him to be his “ghost successor”.
Li Mu also took the opportunity to ask him a lot of questions.
From Zhen Ye, Li Mu finally learned that the Ghost Lord couple which was now the ruler of the Bone Sacred Mountain was referred to as the Two Sages by many ghost cultivators. The cultivation methods they practiced were immensely abstruse and mysterious, and their combat strength was inconceivable. It was said that even those at the Ghost Lord level did not pose much of a threat to the Two Sages.
“So, what is the Cultivation Method of the Two Sages…?” Li Mu asked tentatively.
At this question, Zhen Ye shook his head repeatedly and said, “No idea. Boy, you should never inquire about things that you shouldn’t know. Be a smart ghost. Don’t ever ask about such things again. Anyway, I’ve heard from the Two Sages that only two kinds of people can be allowed to know about or practice the Cultivation Method of the Two Sages. It can be inferred that it is definitely not an ordinary Cultivation Method.”
“Which two kinds?”……
“The first kind is those who have acc.u.mulated sufficient merit points. The second kind is those who have made great contributions to the sect. Only these two kinds of people can have access to the Cultivation Method of the Two Sages.”