378: crooked paths lead nowhere!

In the center of the main hall, several corpse puppets dressed as maids were arranged in a circle, their arms stiffly waving unnaturally, performing a twisted dance.

Their footsteps made dull "thudding" sounds on the ground, which, combined with the scene in the hall at that moment, created a chilling sensation.

Such frenzied scenes were also spread throughout the Tan Family's Stockade, both inside and out.

Whether Cultivators or corpse puppets, all had lost their reason and self.

Crying, cackling, roaring, wailing, murmuring, moaning... all sorts of sounds intertwined, like a completely out-of-control asylum.

What a sight of unbalanced emotions and boiling desires!

At this moment, at the highest point of the Yinluo Tan Family's ancestral land, atop the stockade's spire built of beast bones, a figure stood silently, ghost-like and ethereal.

The person was draped in a colorful, shimmering robe, its hues shifting and changing, as if all the desires in the world had been condensed into colors and woven into it.

Their face was shrouded in a layer of shifting, multicolored mist, making it difficult to discern their true appearance.

At this moment, he looked down with indifference, surveying the chaotic, demonic dance below, his eyes devoid of sorrow or joy, only cold apathy.

Jiang Wunian, one of the contemporary True Disciples of the Six Desires Demonic Sect, a Great True Person of Golden Core Perfection, was also the source of this bizarre catastrophe.

As early as several months ago, he had already set his sights on the "Yinluo Tan Family."

This was no accident; the Tan Family had been refining corpses for hundreds of years, and those corpse puppets, nourished by Yin Qi for years and refined with secret methods, had, over a long period, developed a trace of faint spirituality.

Furthermore, the obsessions and deep resentment of the deceased remained within them.

For ordinary Cultivators, these would be considered defilements, to be avoided.

But for Jiang Wunian, this was excellent fodder for cultivating the "Seven Emotions Gu."

This Gu is colorless, odorless, formless, and intangible; it is an exotic Gu cultivated from the "The True Scripture of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing All Spirits."

It can silently parasitize deep within a living being's Divine Soul or residual consciousness, frantically absorbing and amplifying the host's strongest emotional desires.

It also spreads like a plague within dense groups, eventually causing the entire Tan Family to fall into emotional chaos and madness.

Logically, corpse puppets have no intelligence and should not be affected by the Seven Emotions Gu.

However, the problem lay in the spirituality born from the Tan Family's corpse puppets' resentment, which ironically became the best breeding ground for the Gu worms to parasitize.

The widespread madness now was precisely the result of the Gu poison's full outbreak.

And now, it was time for this farce to end.

"The hour has come."

A voice, indistinguishable as male or female, yet with a strange overlapping echo, gently sounded, seemingly coming from all directions at once.

Jiang Wunian slowly extended his right hand; his fingers were slender and pale, as if carved from jade.

He casually made a grabbing motion towards the chaotic stockade in the Void Realm below, as gentle as plucking a flower.

"Om—"

A low, resonating tremor suddenly spread, like invisible ripples sweeping across the entire ancestral land.

In an instant, all the frenzied Cultivators and corpse puppets stiffened!

Immediately afterward, wisps of light mist, varying in color and as fine as silk threads, suddenly floated out from their brows, chests, eye sockets, and even their mouths and noses.

Joy, anger, sorrow, fear, love, hate, desire.

The seven emotions manifested, congealing into multicolored threads that snaked and flowed in the air, seductive and eerie.

Then, as if drawn by an unseen force, the multicolored emotional threads flowed upward, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, all surging towards the sky.

If there were an observer present, they would be horrified to discover that the swirling, radiant cloud in the sky was not the evening glow.

But a strange Gu worm with a translucent body and shimmering light all around!

It was shaped like a silkworm, but had seven pairs of colorful wings as thin as cicada wings, scattering specks of light dust with every slight tremor.

As all the emotional threads merged into the Gu worm's body, its form immediately glowed intensely, and eight complete and profound dark golden Dao patterns faintly emerged within.

At the end of the eighth Dao pattern, a faint ninth pattern was struggling to extend, pulsating slightly like a blood vessel, greedily absorbing the last inflowing emotional threads as nourishment.

However, the emotional threads were ultimately limited.

The ninth pattern extended halfway before stagnating due to the depletion of emotional threads, leaving only a vague prototype at its end, unable to reach complete Perfection.

Immediately, the Gu worm's light gradually receded, transforming into a streak of light that fell into Jiang Wunian's palm, finally solidifying into a tiny, crystal-clear worm the size of a fingernail, like glazed glass.

Examining the Seven Emotions Gu floating in his palm, especially seeing the eight clear Dao patterns circulating on its back, with only the ninth one incomplete, a barely perceptible hint of disappointment flashed in Jiang Wunian's eyes.

"The quality of this batch of 'fodder' is still acceptable, especially the obsessions and resentful Qi of those corpse puppets. I thought it would allow the Seven Emotions Gu to directly enter the ninth-turn rank, but unfortunately, it still lacked a trace of Luck!"

He murmured to himself, his voice as elusive as mist.

However, he couldn't force it, because as the emotional threads were completely extracted, all the Cultivators and corpse puppets below seemed to have their Souls instantly drawn out, their eyes hollow as they stood frozen like statues.

All sounds ceased abruptly, and boundless silence enveloped the entire Tan Family.

Clearly, this "nursery" that Jiang Wunian had carefully selected was completely ruined by this ordeal!

However, Jiang Wunian showed no reaction to this, instead feeling somewhat disdainful that these people were too useless.

They even called themselves a top power in the Western Barrens, yet their entire Family combined couldn't even Cultivate a ninth-turn Seven Emotions Gu.

Indeed, crooked paths like corpse refining have no future!

Without paying much attention, Jiang Wunian swept his sleeve to put away the Gu worm, intending to seek out the next Family.

"Hmm?"

Just then, Jiang Wunian's mind stirred slightly, and his face, shrouded in multicolored mist, abruptly gazed far to the north.

In the ethereal realm, a subtle sensation arose from the depths of his heart.

"This is... another 'desire fruit' about to ripen?"

From his tone, such an event seemed not uncommon.

And indeed, this was the case; Six Desires Demonic Sect Cultivators extensively spread the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Art in the outer regions to collect mortal desires.

Although major powers openly strictly forbade the Cultivation of such Demonic Technique, human greed is hard to suppress, and there are always those unwilling to be ordinary who secretly Cultivate it.

So, currently, even the Six Desires Demonic Sect itself might not know how many Cultivators in the outer regions are secretly Cultivating this art.

Well, there's no need to know.

Anyway, as long as the "seed" blossoms and bears fruit, those who Cultivate the The True Scripture of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing All Spirits will naturally sense it, and then they can simply come and harvest it.

However, there is one problem: Jiang Wunian is not the only one who Cultivates the The True Scripture of the Six Desires Heavenly Demon Governing All Spirits; many fellow disciples are also wandering in the outer regions.

If he can sense this "desire fruit," others naturally can too.

In the face of profit, Cultivators are already ruthless, let alone a group of demonic Cultivators?

Fellow disciple camaraderie is as thin as cicada wings.

They only adhere to the principle: first come, first served.

If someone gets there first, they either fight to forcibly seize it, or they resign themselves to bad Luck and watch the Opportunity fall into others' hands.