Cultivating Immortality from the Book of Life and Death

Chapter 365 Starving Dead. (Second Update!)

A moment later, Zheng Que left Dingjia Lane with a newly acquired talisman in his hand.

He stared thoughtfully at the talisman in his hand. This talisman was a communication talisman given to him by Lu Maohong, to facilitate communication between the two of them in the city.

Unlike the [Transmission Talisman] that Xiang Songnian gave him, Lu Maohong's [Transmission Talisman] was bought in Xuanyuanfang. Its transmission distance was limited. It was fine to use in Qingrao Prefecture, but it would lose its effect if the two people were far apart outside the city.

After putting away the [Transmission Talisman], Zheng Que quickly returned to the Spirit Sea Cave.

The cave was not much different from when he left. Amidst the abundant spiritual energy, the door to the weapon-forging room was tightly closed, and Shu Yunying was still busy inside.

Zheng Que did not disturb Shu Yunying. Instead, he strode into the main hall and summoned Qingli, Niannu, and Kulan to protect him. Then he summoned ten ghosts from the soul-summoning banner.

The aura of these ten ghosts was all at the seventh level of the [Tongue-Pulling Hell], and they were all ghosts from Taiping County.

Without carefully examining these bizarre and ghostly creatures, Zheng Que swiftly cast the [Ghost Control Technique] on them...

Among the jade slips that Xiang Songnian gave him last time, there was also a technique that could enslave ghosts, called the "Soul Contract".

This technique is different from the [Ghost Control Technique], which controls ghosts by applying a blood seal to them.

This bloodstain is actually a blood pact.

The strength of a cultivator's control is related to the intensity of their spiritual blood.

Its drawback is very obvious: under normal circumstances, the yang energy in a cultivator's spiritual blood will suppress the yin energy of the ghost itself, causing the ghost controlled by the [Ghost Control Technique] to be much weaker than before.

The Soul Contract is different. It does not use the spiritual blood containing yang energy of a cultivator, but instead uses the cultivator's soul to directly establish a contract with a ghost.

This technique does not suppress the Yin energy and strength of the ghost servants. Moreover, when controlling the ghost servants, commands can be transmitted through thought, making it more flexible and controllable than the [Ghost Control Technique]!

Ghost servants controlled by the [Soul Contract] will generally not devour their masters.

However, this technique has certain requirements on the strength of a cultivator's soul... Normal cultivators, due to the limitations of their souls, cannot form contracts with ghost servants whose cultivation is higher than their own.

In addition, the more ghost servants a cultivator controls through a [Soul Contract], the greater the burden on their soul.

Ordinary cultivators using the Soul Contract can only control one ghost servant with the same cultivation level as themselves; other ghost servants can only be controlled using the Ghost Control Technique.

Therefore, for most cultivators, the [Soul Contract] technique is definitely stronger than the [Ghost Control Technique] and is more suitable for contracting their core ghost servants.

But for him, this technique was not much different from the [Ghost Control Technique], and even more troublesome...

In the blink of an eye, Zheng Que quickly and successfully enslaved the ten ghosts summoned from the soul-summoning banner.

Immediately afterwards, he used the [Ghost Control Technique] to turn all ten ghosts into blood-red light and put them into his palm. Then he sat down cross-legged and began to cultivate the [Life-Growth Technique].

As the cultivation technique was activated, a large amount of spiritual energy mixed with a small amount of yin energy flowed into the body.

After some time, Zheng Que opened his eyes and was greeted by a dilapidated palace. The Book of Life and Death and the gavel were placed in front of him as usual.

Sitting calmly in his limping armchair, his next task was to create a batch of high-quality ghost servants...

He had done this kind of thing before.

But at that time, he didn't have a soul-summoning banner, a gavel, or a tongue-pulling hell... so making them was very troublesome.

Now, he no longer lacks ghosts for sacrifice, and since absorbing the [Nine Netherworld Treasure], he can see the specific methods of all the ghosts in the underworld simply by sitting in his limping armchair, which makes his current operations much easier.

Thinking of this, Zheng Que first used the Book of Life and Death to summon the gate of the Tongue-Pulling Hell, then picked up the gavel and the lame grand master chair, and walked directly into the Tongue-Pulling Hell.

Pushing open the towering gate, the Hell of Tongue Pulling behind it remained a desolate and bleak scene, like the twilight itself. In the distance stood the precipice-like Shu Family Fortress, where numerous ghosts wandered aimlessly in the open space, their grotesque bodies still faintly bearing traces of their former appearances.

These ghosts all came from Taiping County, which was destroyed not long ago.

Zheng Que found an open space, placed the lame armchair, sat down, and then looked at the group of ghosts in front of him.

The next moment, a dense array of information about ghosts appeared in his mind.

Every ghost in front of him revealed itself without reservation the moment his gaze touched it.

Zheng Que quickly selected the ghost he needed, then took the gavel and walked towards his target.

bang bang bang...

Soon, all the ghosts that met the requirements were smashed to pieces by Zheng Que with his gavel, their souls scattered and turning into blackish-gray yin energy that quickly dispersed and was absorbed by the underworld.

Having made these preparations, Zheng Que, just as he had entered, took the gavel and the limping grand chair, and leisurely left, returning to the dilapidated hall.

After reviewing the entire process and confirming that nothing had been missed, Zheng Que immediately opened his palm and used the [Ghost Control Technique] to release all ten ghost servants he had just collected in his palm.

The appearances of these ten ghost servants were no longer recognizable as human; some were incredibly tall, some resembled lumps of flesh, some looked like ripped, blurry pieces of flesh, and some were a jumbled mess of people, some old and some young... The only thing they had in common was that they were all extremely fierce and ferocious.

However, after the ten ghost servants, transformed into blood-red light, landed below the hall, before they could even let out a roar, they trembled as if they had seen something incredibly terrifying. They involuntarily knelt down and kowtowed desperately. For a moment, only the sound of kowtows echoed throughout the hall, with no other noise.

Zheng Que did not delay and immediately opened his palm with the word "command" on it to one of the ghost servants.

The ghost servant's yin energy immediately began to rise rapidly.

Zheng Que stared at the ghost servant, and the other party's specific information gradually surfaced in his mind...

"Species Talent: [Hunger]".

"Ghostly Skill: [Devour]".

"Yin techniques: None."

With only one species-specific talent and one ghostly skill, this is a very ordinary ghost, belonging to the "starving corpse" among the "vengeful spirits".

But soon, as yin energy continuously poured into the body of this "starving corpse," in addition to its cultivation level constantly increasing, its ghost skills and yin techniques also began to increase!

Zheng Que was not surprised by this situation. The ghosts he had just killed with a gavel in the Tongue-Pulling Hell were all carefully selected, and he only killed them after confirming that their ghost skills and yin arts reached a certain level of strength.

These ghostly techniques and underhanded arts of the "Tongue-Pulling Prison" are no longer of much use to Qing Li and other ghost servants who have already entered the "Scissors Prison".

But now it's just right to use it to improve the quality of the [Tongue-Pulling Prison] ghosts.

Soon, this "starving corpse" reached the eighth level of the [Tongue-Pulling Prison], and its ghost skills increased to four, and its yin techniques increased to five.

Including the species-related talents of this ghost servant, it has exactly ten techniques!

Without hesitation, Zheng Que opened his palm again, bearing the character "令" (command), and pointed it at the "starving corpses" below.

The next moment, the yin energy above the "starving corpse's" head dissipated instantly, and its cultivation growth also stopped.

Zheng Que turned his gaze to the second ghost servant beside him and continued to open his palm, which bore the character "令" (command)...

(End of this chapter)