Divine Transcendence - Chapter 304: Soul manipulation

At this moment, Yuan Ming felt that controlling the transparent soul crow was akin to commanding a spirit beast.

Fortunately, the transparent soul crow’s self-awareness was not strong, and it had a peculiar sense of closeness to him, obeying his commands without any issue.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming gradually felt at ease. Using his spiritual consciousness to carefully sense the transparent soul crow, he quickly showed a look of surprise.

This soul crow was not formed through soul cultivation techniques but was instead a manifestation of his own soul’s original power. It possessed two abilities similar to those of soul cultivators: soul travel and object control.

The soul travel ability was similar to other soul crows but seemed to have a much greater range. How far exactly, he would need to test later.

As for object control, it was far stronger than that of ordinary soul crows. This transparent soul crow could not only attach to and control corpses but also living beings.

Of course, controlling living beings required that the target’s soul power not exceed that of the transparent soul crow itself.

Driven by curiosity, Yuan Ming immediately commanded the transparent soul crow to try controlling a corpse. Zuo Qinghui’s previously lifeless eyes suddenly gleamed with new light, his heart began to beat, and his blood started to flow again.

In no time, “Zuo Qinghui” propped himself up with one hand and stood up.

Yuan Ming was astonished. The transparent soul crow’s control over the corpse was so agile that Zuo Qinghui appeared to be a living person, breathing slowly as if he had truly come back to life.

After a moment of shock, Yuan Ming quickly understood the reason. Firstly, Zuo Qinghui had just fallen, and his death was caused by the Soul Extinguishing Sword, which destroyed his soul but left his body intact. The transparent soul crow attaching to the body was akin to injecting a new soul, reactivating the body’s vitality.

Secondly, the transparent soul crow’s ability to control corpses was far more agile than ordinary soul crows, increasing the likelihood of the corpse reviving.

Such occurrences of corpses resuming breathing were not unheard of. Yuan Ming had seen similar records in a jade slip from the Black Fire Sect.

The Black Fire Sect specialized in corpse refining techniques, and some relatively undamaged corpses could indeed resume breathing and heartbeat under external stimulation.

This situation was not true resurrection but merely the reactivation of residual vitality in the corpse, allowing it to linger in the world a bit longer. The dispersed soul could not return.

However, for a corpse-refining sect like the Black Fire Sect, such revived corpses were significant and could be used to refine higher-level corpses.

But Zuo Qinghui was different. If the transparent soul crow continued to attach, this body could truly come back to life.

Yuan Ming examined Zuo Qinghui’s body and found many purple-black spots, clearly caused by the poison of the Seven-Step Reversals.

He nodded slightly. It seemed that the poison of the Seven-Step Reversals was effective even against Nascent Soul stage cultivators, though their powerful spiritual energy could suppress the poison.

He summoned Hua Zhi to extract the poison from Zuo Qinghui’s body and used his spiritual consciousness to probe Zuo Qinghui’s dantian. Inside, a golden-blue Golden Elixir had shattered into several pieces, with most of the spiritual energy dissipated, leaving only the level of early Foundation Establishment.

Now that Zuo Qinghui’s body had revived, the spiritual energy in his dantian stopped leaking and began to circulate slowly.

Yuan Ming tried to control this spiritual energy and found no issue, as if it were his own cultivation.

He nodded secretly. The transparent soul crow’s control over the corpse could even harness the body’s spiritual energy, allowing him to use the deceased’s abilities. If used properly, it could yield unexpected results.

After controlling Zuo Qinghui’s body for a while, Yuan Ming had the transparent soul crow leave. Zuo Qinghui’s body became motionless again, though his breathing continued, making him seem like a living dead standing there, with the spiritual energy in his dantian starting to leak again.

Yuan Ming nodded and directed the transparent soul crow to fly towards Lei Yu. It swiftly entered Lei Yu’s body, attempting to control a living being. Lei Yu’s eyes briefly showed confusion before clearing up, and he flew towards Yuan Ming, landing beside him.

Yuan Ming could clearly feel that Lei Yu was now completely controlled by his transparent soul crow.

Just like with Zuo Qinghui’s corpse, the transparent soul crow could control Lei Yu’s demonic power, perform lightning strikes, fly rapidly, and even summon Lei Yu’s abilities.

Yuan Ming’s face showed a satisfied expression. He quickly had the transparent soul crow leave Lei Yu and fly off into the distance to test its range.

The transparent soul crow, being purely formed from soul power, was much lighter than ordinary soul crows, easily passing through stone walls and flying rapidly, about three times the speed of a regular soul crow.

In just a moment, it had flown fifty or sixty miles and still showed no sign of reaching its limit.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming commanded the transparent soul crow to continue flying. After another cup of tea’s time, it finally began to struggle.

The transparent soul crow had flown one hundred and fifty miles—one hundred and fifty miles of soul travel!

Yuan Ming couldn’t help but feel excited. The surprises brought by splitting his soul were immense, far exceeding the capabilities of soul cultivators. Even Xi Cangqiong in his prime probably couldn’t interfere with something one hundred and fifty miles away.

He didn’t let the transparent soul crow stay outside for too long and immediately summoned it back. Calming his emotions, Yuan Ming stood up and picked up the golden ruler treasure, the Purple Star Nine Dragons Spear, and the blood-red cylinder beside Zuo Qinghui’s body.

The golden ruler treasure was only two feet long but very heavy, weighing forty or fifty pounds. Its material was unknown, but even without activation, its surface glimmered with spiritual light, looking very splendid.

Yuan Ming tried to use his spiritual consciousness to probe its interior but was blocked by an invisible force. Injecting spiritual power into it also had no effect, as if it had sunk into the sea.

Examining the golden ruler closely, he found two tiny characters engraved at its base: “Golden Sun.”

Yuan Ming picked up the Purple Star Nine Dragons Spear and found it light in his hand. His spiritual consciousness couldn’t probe its interior either, and there was no way to investigate its connection to the East Sea’s hidden treasure.

Although he couldn’t use it, he still admired the Golden Sun Ruler and the Purple Star Nine Dragons Spear for a while before carefully putting them away. His gaze then turned to the blood-red cylinder.

Judging by its aura, the blood-red cylinder was just a top-grade magical artifact, but Zuo Qinghui had taken it out at a critical moment, indicating its extraordinary nature.

After a brief examination, Yuan Ming released his spiritual consciousness into the blood-red cylinder and quickly showed a look of surprise.

The blood-red cylinder had a unique structure, divided into front and back sections. The front was engraved with four strange blood-colored runes, none of which he recognized.

The back section of the cylinder was a blood-colored space similar to a spirit beast bag, seemingly used for storage.

After some thought, Yuan Ming realized that the blood-colored cylinder seemed to have two types of attack methods. Without understanding its origin, he didn’t dare to activate it rashly and instead put it away.

He then took Zuo Qinghui’s storage bag and used his spiritual consciousness to probe inside, his face lighting up with joy.

The wealth of a Nascent Soul stage cultivator from Changchun Temple was indeed abundant. Zuo Qinghui’s storage bag contained over fifty thousand spirit stones, as well as numerous spiritual materials and elixirs.

Among the spiritual materials, there were five or six items of good quality, three of which were sufficient to refine top-grade magical artifacts.

As for the elixirs, they were all for Nascent Soul stage cultivators and temporarily unusable for him.

Yuan Ming’s gaze swept over these items and quickly shifted. He then took out three blood-red flying knives and two jade slips, one white and one red, from the storage bag.

The blood-red flying knives were over a foot long, with blades as thin as cicada wings, emitting a chilling light that seemed capable of cutting through anything.

The flying knives were engraved with four runes, clearly top-grade magical artifacts, and their spiritual power fluctuations surpassed those of the Silver Light Pearl and the Shadow Piercer.

Yuan Ming’s spiritual consciousness found that the runes on the blood-red flying knives were similar to those on the blood-red cylinder, indicating they were of the same type of artifact.

He then examined the two jade slips. The white jade slip contained a technique called “Golden Shadow Sword Art,” which was very profound and complete, capable of being cultivated to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage. It seemed to be a legacy of Changchun Temple.

With Zuo Qinghui’s body slowly regaining vitality, if preserved properly, it might be able to continue cultivating this Golden Shadow Sword Art and see if it could improve its cultivation.

Yuan Ming’s spiritual consciousness then entered the blood-red jade slip, and his eyes quickly showed a serious expression. The blood-red jade slip recorded a heretical technique called “Blood Transformation Technique,” which was very complete and also cultivable to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.

The cultivation process of the Blood Transformation Technique was extremely sinister, requiring the consumption of demonic beast blood, treating the blood containing spiritual power as elixirs. The higher the level of the demonic beast, the stronger the spiritual power in its blood, and the greater the benefit to the Blood Transformation Technique.

This technique was insidious and vicious, affecting one’s mind and gradually making them bloodthirsty and murderous. Despite these drawbacks, the Blood Transformation Technique was very powerful.

Its spiritual power was highly corrosive, capable of directly corroding spiritual shields and artifacts, and could also absorb the enemy’s blood during combat.

The jade slip also included several powerful secret techniques, such as the formidable Blood Flame Technique, the Blood Spirit Method for both offense and defense, and a blood exchange technique for healing, which intrigued Yuan Ming.

“Ah!” His eyes suddenly lit up as he looked at the end of the blood-red jade slip, where it recorded the methods for refining two types of treasures. One was called the “Blood Star Cylinder,” which matched the description of the blood-red cylinder, though it was only refined to the level of a top-grade magical artifact. The runes inside were all related to the corrosive effects of the Blood Transformation Technique.

When stored in the Blood Star Cylinder’s back space, the four runes could refine demonic beast corpses into corrosive blood-colored pellets, especially effective at corroding protective spiritual power and artifacts.

The power of the blood-colored pellets depended on the type of demonic beast refined. Pellets made from second-level demonic beast corpses could even threaten Nascent Soul stage cultivators.

The other treasure recorded in the jade slip was the blood-red flying knife, called the “Corrosive Knife.”

The runes on the knife had similar effects to those of the Blood Star Cylinder but were more attack-oriented. A scratch from its blade would cause blood poisoning, and without an antidote, the victim would soon turn into pus and die.