Immortality begins with inheriting the myriad arts of cultivation.

Chapter 380 Fourth-Order Corpse Refining Technique

Because a major auction is approaching.

The black market was much more crowded, with more cultivators setting up stalls. Many of the magical artifacts and spiritual materials on the stalls were clearly stolen goods.

However, Li Ping had no time to look at these things. As soon as he entered the black market, he hurriedly flew directly towards the Shadow Killing Tower.

The third floor of the Shadow Killer Tower.

After meeting the man with the snake-faced mask, Li Ping pushed the black jade slip and two hundred spirit stones over, and exchanged them for a new jade slip.

When he walked out of the Shadow Killing Tower and strolled around the black market, after checking the information in the jade slip, he couldn't help but show a look of great disappointment.

The intelligence report clearly stated that Chao Xuan did not come to Lingxiao City to participate in the auction; he remained at the Tianlei Sect to cultivate.

"He doesn't even go out for such a once-in-a-century event as the Lingxiao City Grand Auction..." Li Ping wondered to himself, "Could he be preparing for the Nascent Soul stage?"

Chao Xuan was in the late stage of Core Formation. Before reaching the Nascent Soul stage, there were no more bottlenecks in his cultivation; it was all a matter of gradual, painstaking effort.

It's not impossible that he's planning to cultivate to the peak of the late Core Formation stage in one go and attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage.

After all, he only has about seventy years left to live, and time is precious, so it's normal for him not to go out.

Shaking his head, Li Ping cleared his mind of all his thoughts. He couldn't interfere with Chao Xuan's choice, and thinking about it further was pointless.

Since he was already at the black market, he wasn't in a hurry to leave. He wandered around the black market, occasionally buying some useful spiritual materials.

"What is this?"

Li Ping suddenly stopped in front of a stall, pointed to something on the stall, and asked about it.

The stall owner was a black-robed monk who wore a cloak to conceal his identity. When you got close, you could smell a faint earthy odor emanating from him, as if he had been buried underground for a long time.

The black-robed cultivator, who had been sitting cross-legged, immediately stood up respectfully upon sensing the aura emanating from Li Ping. He said, "This item was obtained by chance from a senior's tomb during my adventures; it was a burial item of that senior. As for its specific nature, I have investigated and suspect it is a magical artifact used for refining corpses!"

Upon hearing this, Li Ping couldn't help but take another look at the black-robed cultivator.

No wonder this person smelled of dirt; he was a tomb raider who specialized in digging up the graves of senior cultivators.

However, there are quite a few cultivators in the cultivation world who commit murder and robbery. Grave robbers digging up the dead's graves are not really considered a big sin. Therefore, the black-robed cultivator spoke in a rather indifferent tone.

Li Ping's gaze returned to the magical artifact he had pointed to.

It was a fist-sized round bead that was greenish-white with a pale sheen. It seemed to be due to its age. Although the green bead was still relatively intact, it had lost all its spiritual essence.

This bead can be considered a discarded item, having lost its value.

Li Ping nodded slightly. In fact, he had guessed earlier that the round bead was a magic artifact called the "Soul Refining Bead" used by demonic cultivators to refine corpses. After receiving confirmation from the black-robed cultivator, he immediately became interested.

He had heard about the general process of demons cultivating corpses from some anecdotes.

The most crucial step is soul refining: using a wisp of one's divine sense to condense the remnant soul within the corpse to form the soul of the refined corpse. The completeness of the corpse soul also determines the actual combat power of the refined corpse, and the Soul Refining Bead is a magical artifact that assists in this process.

Furthermore, once the corpse has taken shape, demonic cultivators can control it through their natal Soul Refining Bead.

In fact, from a certain perspective, corpse refining and puppet refining have some similarities, both being the creation of something similar to an external avatar.

The difference is that the material required for corpse refining is the body of a cultivator, and the process often involves the slaughter of living beings, which is not tolerated by the righteous path of the cultivation world. Therefore, those who practice the art of corpse refining are basically demonic cultivators.

Li Ping didn't say anything, but simply reached out and grabbed at the orb in mid-air. With a "whoosh," the orb was sucked directly into his hand.

As he stared at the line of text that appeared above the orb, a strange expression appeared on his face.

[A fourth-tier corpse refiner's natal soul-refining bead, containing 1000 mid-grade spirit stones and three liters of extreme yin energy, can be used as nourishment to master fourth-tier corpse refining techniques.]

The Soul Refining Bead he held in his hand actually came from a fourth-tier corpse refiner, and it also contained the inheritance of that cultivator's method of refining fourth-tier corpses.

A fourth-tier corpse refiner is theoretically comparable to a Nascent Soul cultivator.

The owner of the Soul Refining Pearl, who could create a fourth-order refined corpse, must have been a fearsome old demon of that era, and was probably a Nascent Soul cultivator himself.

However, the final grade of the corpse refining technique depends mainly on the strength of the material itself. A powerful corpse usually requires the body of a high-level cultivator to be refined, and there is actually not much that the refining cultivator can do in this process.

Therefore, he can only be called a "corpse refiner," which is clearly a level below other craftsmen of the "master" generation.

The required nutrients also reveal that, in addition to spirit stones, the fourth-tier inheritance of a spirit brewer requires fourth-tier spirit fruits and spirit liquids.

The required nutrients also reveal that, in addition to spirit stones, the fourth-tier inheritance of a spirit brewer requires fourth-tier spirit fruits and spirit liquids.

The fourth-tier inheritance of the Corpse Refiner only requires three liters of extreme Yin Qi.

It should be noted that although extreme Yin energy is also a precious spiritual material, it is much easier to obtain than fourth-tier spiritual items.

Holding the Soul Refining Bead in his hand, Li Ping was somewhat amused and exasperated: "I never expected that while I couldn't find the fourth-tier inheritance of the pills, arrays, talismans, and artifacts I needed, this kind of unorthodox skill would appear right in front of me."

Li Ping would never do something as immoral as indiscriminate killing for the sake of corpse refining.

However, since it was a fourth-tier inheritance, he had no reason to let it go now that he had already encountered it.

Anyway, once he gets his hands on the Soul Refining Pearl, whether or not he passes it on is entirely up to him.

Thinking of this, he looked at the black-robed cultivator and said in a hoarse voice, "I want this Soul Refining Pearl. Name your price."

Before the black-robed cultivator could speak, he continued, "Let me remind you, the Soul Refining Pearl is not a rare magic weapon, and this particular Soul Refining Pearl has already lost its spirituality and is of no practical use. If you have any unrealistic fantasies, you should keep it for yourself."

"Don't worry, senior, I understand." The black-robed cultivator shook his head repeatedly. He had already figured out the actual value of the Soul Refining Pearl before he put it up for sale.

Now that Li Ping has said so, he frankly quoted a normal price.

"How about a thousand spirit stones? Senior, you may not know, but in order to obtain this Soul Refining Pearl, I have to—" While making the offer, the black-robed cultivator quickly explained, seemingly worried that Li Ping might disagree.

But his explanation was impatiently interrupted by Li Ping, who waved his hand, and a small pile of colorful spirit stones appeared in front of the black-robed cultivator: "Here is a thousand spirit stones, please count them."

After checking and confirming that everything was correct, the black-robed cultivator put the spirit stone into his storage bag and then respectfully said, "This Soul Refining Pearl belongs to you, senior."

Li Ping nodded slightly and put the Soul Refining Pearl into his storage bag.

He then continued browsing the black market, but unfortunately, he didn't gain anything other than two common spiritual materials.

Li Ping then left the black market and returned to his riverside cave.