Cultivation: I Can Steal Lifespan from Spirit Beasts

Chapter 172: Body Seizing!

The wilderness was silent, save for the whistling wind.

Beside the cooling corpse, an illusory shadow drifted, its edges flickering like a guttering candle. One could just barely make out the translucent contours of a human form.

It was the remnant soul of Lin Xiwen.

He hovered behind Wang Ba, his spectral eyes fixed on the distant horizon where a certain figure had long since vanished. Even with his centuries of mental cultivation, an undeniable wave of lingering dread surged within his heart.

That was close!

I was nearly extinguished!

If I hadn’t prepared a contingency—splitting a portion of my soul into the Five Classics Book and using the artifact to shroud my essence—I’m afraid…

“That damned sword cultivator!”

Thinking of the man named Zhao, Lin Xiwen—despite his ingrained arrogance—had to admit he had never seen a more breathtaking Foundation Establishment sword cultivator. Even during his tenure as a High Elder of the Five Classics Sect, when he stood proud as a Golden Core True Person, he would have treated such a man with the utmost caution.

An emerald-grade talent like that had a seventy to eighty percent chance of successfully condensing a Golden Core in the future.

He never could have imagined that a simple errand to retrieve what was rightfully his would lead him to such a nemesis. What rankled most was how well the man had hidden himself. Lin Xiwen had only sensed a Late Foundation Establishment cultivation; he hadn’t detected even a hint of the terrifying, explosive methods the man possessed.

“Thirty years of painstaking labor… all of it turned to ash!”

Lin Xiwen ground his spectral teeth. He thought of the three decades he’d spent in Golden River City after his “rebirth.” With the aid of the Yin Food Worms, he had navigated the world with meticulous care, exhausting every resource to claw his way back to the Late Foundation Establishment stage.

And yet, in a single breath, it had all been undone.

He was a man who had weathered countless storms and witnessed the rise and fall of sects, yet the sting of this loss brought a physical ache to his spirit. With the worms and his own Golden Core insights, the path to the Nascent Soul stage should have been a straight, paved road. He was confident he could have regained his Golden Core within ten years. Revenge, the reclamation of the Five Classics Sect—it would have been child’s play.

Everything had been going perfectly.

Then, the disciple he had used as a vector for the child worms was slaughtered by a Heavenly Gate Sect brat. Next, the Zhao-surnamed sword cultivator arrived, drawing out the Demonic Cultivators of Yan and causing a purge of Rogue Cultivators near Golden River City. His carefully planted worms had died off one by one, casualties of a war he hadn’t started.

Finally, in a desperate bid to replenish his stock of Yin Food Worms, he had set his sights on the Heavenly Gate Sect cultivator before him.

Only to run straight into the blade of that cursed swordsman.

As he replayed the sequence of events, his hatred for the “culprit” standing before him—the Heavenly Gate Sect disciple—reached a murderous boil. Lin Xiwen’s eyes flashed with a ruthless, predatory light.

“Since you’ve reduced this old man to such a wretched state, it is only fitting that I take your body and inherit your destiny!”

With a jagged snarl, the remnant soul lunged toward Wang Ba’s forehead.

If he could seize this vessel, he could infiltrate the mysterious Heavenly Gate Sect. Once inside, he could re-refine the Yin Food Worms and perhaps forge an even more glorious third life. He had heard whispers that the Heavenly Gate Sect possessed Nascent Soul True Methods; he might even find a way to glimpse the Great Dao itself!

Consumed by these visions of grandeur, Lin Xiwen’s soul plunged into Wang Ba’s Spirit Platform.

The moment he crossed the threshold, however, the world went wrong.

He didn’t find the usual ethereal expanse of a cultivator’s mind. Instead, his soul was plunged into a crimson domain that reeked of ancient, stagnant power.

In the center of this blood-red world stood a temple. Its doors were cast wide, revealing a faceless god statue perched upon a divine seat. As Lin Xiwen stared, the smooth marble of the statue’s face began to ripple, and a faint, terrifying outline emerged.

“What… what is this?!”

“How can there be a temple inside a Spirit Platform?!”

Lin Xiwen had lived for over three centuries. He had explored forbidden ruins and witnessed bizarre occult rituals, but he had never seen anything so fundamentally wrong.

Suddenly, the temple shuddered.

An unnatural, irresistible suction erupted from the dark maw of the temple door. Lin Xiwen didn’t even have a chance to struggle before he was hauled inside.

When he regained his senses, he realized his soul had been forcefully condensed into a solid form. He was kneeling, paralyzed, before the god statue.

Panic turned to pure terror as the faceless statue’s mouth suddenly split open. It wasn’t a human mouth; it was a jagged rent filled with rows of needle-thin, razor-sharp teeth.

His body began to float, moving against his will, drifting toward that hungry abyss.

Crunch!

The statue’s teeth clamped down on his arm with bone-shattering force. Half of his limb, including the hand, was severed and pulled into the statue’s mouth. The entity began to chew, its rhythmic grinding echoing through the crimson void.

As it ate, the corners of the statue’s mouth curled into a grotesque, mocking smile. It had no eyes, yet Lin Xiwen felt its gaze piercing him, lingering hungrily on his throat.

“What kind of monster is this?! Why does a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator have such a horror in his soul?!!”

At this moment, all his ambitions—his third life, his revenge, his Nascent Soul dreams—evaporated. There was only one primal urge left:

Escape.

Faced with a power that treated a Golden Core soul like a snack, Lin Xiwen’s survival instinct took over. With a roar of desperation, he detonated the condensed form of his soul!

The explosion caught the statue off guard. It hadn’t expected its prey to have the sheer will to self-destruct.

The blast propelled what was left of Lin Xiwen’s essence—little more than a tattered head—out of the temple.

“SCREE!”

The faceless statue let out a dissonant, angry shriek. It seemed tethered to its divine seat, unable to pursue. Instead, it turned its attention to the mangled limbs scattered across the floor, drawing them in with a localized gale and devouring them in one gulp.

Lin Xiwen burst out of the Spirit Platform and into the open air, a hysterical sense of relief washing over him as he saw the sky.

He didn’t dare look back. He didn’t even dare to remember the sensation of those teeth.

That thing was more terrifying than the sword cultivator. Zhao’s strength was a mountain you could see; the thing inside the Heavenly Gate Sect disciple was an abyss that looked back at you. He felt a soul-deep dread so potent that even looking at Wang Ba made his spirit tremble.

A gust of astral wind blew across the clearing, and Lin Xiwen’s fragment shivered.

“Not good!”

“My soul is too broken! I have to find a host immediately, or the natural elements will scatter me!”

He scanned the area frantically. His gaze hit Wang Ba, and he immediately recoiled in terror. He wouldn’t touch that man again if his life depended on it—which, ironically, it did.

But there was no one else. Only the spirit beasts.

For a man of his stature, the thought was humiliating. But the alternative was eternal non-existence. He forced himself to be cold, to be clinical.

“A human host is out of the question… but perhaps a beast.”

He looked at the large ape first. It resembled a Mountain Moving Ape, though its silver fur suggested a higher lineage. It was a Second Rank High Grade beast.

“No… it’s crackling with latent thunder. My soul is too fragile; the lightning would cook me before the merge is complete.”

He turned to the Blue Water Spirit Turtle. It was only First Rank, and he could see the tell-tale signs of Yin Food Worm infestation. If he took that shell, he’d be eaten from the inside out within days.

“That leaves two.”

His gaze landed on two spirit chickens—Second Rank Middle Grade. Their spiritual auras were robust, but their soul strength was pathetic. One male, one female.

This Heavenly Gate Sect brat is a talented breeder, at least, Lin Xiwen thought bitterly.

Left with no choice, the fragment of the former Golden Core Elder plunged into the skull of the male spirit chicken.

Alpha-Fifteen froze. Its beady eyes blinked rapidly, a sudden, sharp intelligence flickering within the dark pupils. For a brief second, the chicken stood with the dignity of a sect leader.

Then, the light faded, replaced by the familiar, vacant stare of a bird.

Wang Ba shook his head, a slight frown creasing his brow.

He had felt something—a faint ripple against his mental defenses, followed by a sudden exit. He looked at the corpse of “True Cultivator Lin” and narrowed his eyes. A suspicion began to take root.

He didn’t dwell on it. He waved over the Mountain Moving Ape.

“Good work. Here is your reward.”

Wang Ba handed over a jar of condensed Spirit Poultry Essence and a basket of rare spirit fruits. The ape grinned, showing off its massive yellow teeth, and cradled the treasures like a child.

“You too,” Wang Ba said, patting the shell of the Blue Water Spirit Turtle. Even if it was just a vessel for his worm experiments, it deserved a treat. He stuffed a handful of fruit into its beak.

Alpha-Sixteen clucked loudly, demanding attention. Wang Ba stroked her head and felt her belly. “Hurry up and lay those eggs when we get back.” He tossed her a premium blend of feed.

Finally, he turned to Alpha-Fifteen, who seemed a bit dazed. He gave the rooster a firm pat and a handful of grain.

Once the beasts were fed, he ushered them back into his Spirit Beast Pouch.

Wang Ba looked one last time at the corpse of Lin Xiwen, a meaningful, almost predatory smile playing on his lips. Then, with a casual flick of his sleeve, he boarded his flying artifact and turned his gaze toward the Heavenly Gate Sect.