Hearing those words, Wei Tu wasn't surprised at all. After all, the event of Ni Meixian capturing the phoenix essence spirit had been his idea from the start.
He nodded slightly with a satisfied expression. "You did well. I didn't train you for nothing."
"This bottle of White Dew Pill is a reward for you."
After receiving the green array disk, he thought for a moment, then casually pulled out a pill bottle from his sleeve and handed it to Ni Meixian.
This time, she had helped him accomplish something important, and her contribution deserved recognition. White Dew Pill was just a second-tier pill, something he refined effortlessly—it wasn't worth much.
It worked perfectly as a small reward.
Of course, the key point was that Ni Meixian wasn't like Qian Hong and other demonic cultivators he'd dealt with, who were soaked in blood. She could still barely be considered decent.
—The Heavenly Maiden Sect had defected from the righteous path to the demonic path, but its cultivation methods still belonged to the righteous tradition.
If that weren't the case, Wei Tu wouldn't have been so lenient.
"Thank you, Senior Fu." Seeing the pill bottle in her hand, Ni Meixian was overjoyed and immediately expressed her gratitude.
Wei Tu waved it off, signaling that she didn't need to make a big deal of it.
After all, once he left Zheng Kingdom, Ni Meixian's situation wouldn't be a problem for a short while. But in the long run… things might not look so good.
The White Dew Pill he gave her could be seen as a bit of compensation for misleading her.
Still, if she managed to form her Golden Core within one hundred years, that would be a different story.
With her own strength as a foundation, it wouldn't matter much whether she was a Nascent Soul concubine or not.
However, just as Wei Tu was preparing to use an excuse to bid farewell to Ni Shihuang and leave Zheng Kingdom, Bai Zhi's next words made him change his mind.
"What? There's something else inside the Cloud Ze Secret Realm? And it's related to a powerful demonic cultivator?"
Wei Tu's expression changed sharply.
He hadn't expected that the black finger bone he'd once ignored would turn out to have such a big origin.
Just like the puppet pendant in Wei Xian'er's hand, it was also a Nascent Soul relic.
But unlike the spirit fragment of the Mourning God, the one he held was part of an actual body—a portion of a demonic expert's remains.
"A Nascent Soul being won't decay even after ten thousand years. That doesn't just refer to their lifespan. Their power, soul, and body all hold traces of divinity."
Bai Zhi spoke slowly.
No matter how powerful a demonic cultivator was, once they died and their remains lost their spiritual essence, they'd eventually become mere bones.
But… not Nascent Soul relics.
A Nascent Soul relic held a trace of divine essence. As long as that trace endured, even if the item became mundane, it could still one day transform back into a spiritual artifact under the right conditions.
In other words, that sliver of divine essence was the true core of any Nascent Soul relic.
"Fellow Daoist Wei, aren't you curious why Cloud Ze Secret Realm always produces Golden Core-grade spiritual items?"
Bai Zhi's eyes gleamed with excitement. She went on without waiting for a reply. "This time, after I saw the demonic light spilling out of the finger bone, I followed its aura and dug deeper under the stone hall. That's where I found… a high-grade Demon-Suppressing Formation buried beneath it."
"It's exactly because of this formation, which is absorbing the divine essence from the fallen demonic expert, that Cloud Ze Secret Realm has been able to nurture so many Golden Core spiritual items."
"Near that formation, the recovery speed of the black finger bone has also increased a lot."
As she finished speaking, Bai Zhi, still hiding inside the green array disk, flicked her jade sleeve. From her ghostly body, she separated a black finger bone.
Compared to what Wei Tu had seen years ago, this finger bone was now much larger. It had become a complete finger, and even part of the surrounding palm bones had begun to regenerate.
"Now, the demonic secret arts recorded inside this bone aren't just limited to Profound Nether Yin Fire anymore."
Bai Zhi smiled slightly as she spoke.
"Fellow Daoist Bai, what other secret arts are now inside this bone?" Wei Tu asked curiously, his tone tinged with urgency.
"Why ask me? Just look for yourself, Fellow Daoist."
Bai Zhi smiled playfully and wrapped the black finger bone in a layer of magic power, passing it out from the green array disk.
But instead of reaching for it with his hand, Wei Tu summoned a tiny black blade—barely an inch long.
The Koi Dragon Yin Blade.
With a flash in his eyes, Wei Tu activated this soul-path offensive technique and slashed it toward the black finger bone.
At first, when Bai Zhi spoke, he hadn't been too concerned. But as she continued, every word seemed designed to spark his curiosity about the Demon-Suppressing Formation and the Nascent Soul relic.
Even then, Wei Tu still wasn't completely convinced that something had changed in her.
What confirmed it for him was this—Bai Zhi had deliberately handed him the finger bone, hoping he would inspect its changes.
From what he knew of Bai Zhi, she always reported everything truthfully. She never played guessing games or left things ambiguous for him to figure out.
Their relationship had always been one of master and servant—not lovers.
And Bai Zhi had always remembered that clearly.
Besides, even if Wei Tu's guess turned out to be wrong, all he'd be destroying was a single finger bone.
At worst, he'd just pass on this opportunity.
He already had more than enough cultivation methods. He didn't need any new secret arts from a demonic Nascent Soul.
"Slash!"
With that cold shout, the black finger bone approaching Wei Tu was instantly struck by the Koi Dragon Yin Blade and flung back into the green array disk.
A piercing, bone-chilling shriek rang out from the finger bone. It was sharp and eerie, like the cry of a night owl, making one's hair stand on end.
"As expected, a hidden trick!"
Wei Tu muttered to himself. Without holding back any longer, he poured power into the Koi Dragon Yin Blade, aiming to completely destroy the finger bone's spirit. At the same time, he activated the soul contract to restrain Bai Zhi inside the green array disk.
Under the soul contract's control, "Bai Zhi," who had just been about to move to save the finger bone, suddenly froze. She couldn't move an inch.
Though she was immobilized, "Bai Zhi" glared at Wei Tu with deep resentment on her face, as if she were trying to burn his face into memory.
Meanwhile, as the Koi Dragon Yin Blade kept striking, the black finger bone started to release thick black smoke, sizzling like something being scalded.
In less than the time it took to finish a cup of tea, the entire inside of the green array disk was filled with this thick, dark mist.
"Not good—something else is going on!" The moment the screeching started to fade, Wei Tu's eyes flashed with golden light. He waved his sleeve and sent a wave of golden mist into the array disk.
This golden mist was sun essence he had accumulated over the past two years while cultivating the Golden Toad Qi.
Sun essence was extremely yang and pure. It was the perfect counter to ghost-path cultivators.
Right now, Wei Tu couldn't afford to worry about Bai Zhi, who had become the host of the finger bone. His own life was at stake. Bai Zhi had to come second.
He knew clearly where his priorities lay—he wouldn't let emotion cloud his judgment.
Besides, if he couldn't eliminate the invader, he wouldn't be able to do anything about Bai Zhi either.
Once the sun essence entered, the black mist inside the array reacted like oil meeting water, hissing nonstop as it rapidly dissipated.
When Wei Tu looked again into the green array disk, he saw that the black finger bone, which had just been billowing smoke, had now been reduced back to a single finger segment—just like when he first saw it years ago.
Its surface was now marked with white spots and no longer pitch black like before.
As for "Bai Zhi," she had turned into a phoenix essence spirit and lay there unconscious.
"That's it? It's really over just like that?"
Wei Tu was skeptical.
He didn't believe things would end so easily. After all, this entity had dared to plot against a Nascent Soul cultivator like him—its methods couldn't possibly be this simple.
Sure enough, just as he was carefully inspecting the finger bone for any hidden tricks, he heard a sudden "whoosh"—a jet-black ghost claw shot out from above Bai Zhi's head, lunging straight at the crown of his skull.
"Slash!" Wei Tu's heart froze. He activated the Koi Dragon Yin Blade, already at the ready, and flew to intercept the claw.
But to his surprise, the ghost claw suddenly twisted midair, narrowly dodging the blade's arc and vanishing without a trace.
By the time Wei Tu's divine sense locked onto it again, the ghost claw had already closed in on the top of his head, tearing through his protective aura and reaching for his skull.
However, with his guard up, Wei Tu instantly activated the Thunder Spirit Ruler hidden in his sleeve. He turned into several green afterimages and vanished from the spot.
But what shocked him even more—
When he reappeared several miles away, the black ghost claw was still tightly pursuing him, like maggots clinging to bone. Its proximity to the top of his head had even shortened a bit.
"So this is a Nascent Soul-level technique?"
Though Wei Tu's face remained calm, waves of alarm surged inside him. Compared to the Mourning God's soul fragment, the abilities shown by this black finger bone were far more dangerous.
And now, he didn't have time to use other methods to escape the ghost claw's lethal strike.
"Armor of Primordial Silver!" Wei Tu called on his Nascent Soul and summoned his soul-path defensive treasure.
In the next instant—
With a flash of silver light, the Armor of Primordial Silver clashed head-on with the ghost claw.
This time, Wei Tu wasn't disappointed. The armor held firm against the strike. Its surface remained nearly undamaged.
With the attack blocked, Wei Tu took the opportunity to call back the Koi Dragon Yin Blade and completely cut away the remaining power from the ghost claw.
"That was close."
Wei Tu returned to the original spot and looked warily at Bai Zhi inside the green array disk.
He hesitated, unsure whether he should eliminate her completely.
Keeping such a dangerous threat around could easily backfire if he ever let his guard down.
"After that last strike, even if it's still alive, it shouldn't have any strength left to fight me."
After thinking for a while, Wei Tu shook his head and suppressed the flicker of killing intent in his heart.
It wasn't indecision. It was just that, rationally, this was the better choice.
Even though he couldn't figure out why this entity, after taking over Bai Zhi, still went out of its way to ambush a Nascent Soul cultivator like him…
There was one thing he was certain of:
Its current strength was limited.
After all, if that thing really had the power to take over his body or kill him easily, it wouldn't have needed to use Bai Zhi's body to catch him off guard.
Though the fight had been a bit messy, it was only because he wanted to get through it unscathed.
Even in the worst-case scenario, if he hadn't had the Armor of Primordial Silver to protect himself and the black ghost claw had clashed directly with his Nascent Soul, the outcome would've been far from certain.
Thinking this through, Wei Tu waved his sleeve and took out a black talisman. He stamped it onto Bai Zhi's phoenix essence spirit form.
A moment later, the black talisman glowed, sealing Bai Zhi's ghost body onto the talisman paper.
Still feeling it wasn't secure enough, Wei Tu paused for a moment, then pulled out the altar and sealing talisman he had previously used to imprison the Tianjiao Dragon Centipede. He sealed Bai Zhi's ghost body inside it.
"With the Spirit-Binding Talisman and this level-4 sealing talisman, even if this thing has more tricks, it won't break free anytime soon."
Wei Tu finally let out a small sigh of relief.
Next, he took out the spirit beast pouch Bai Zhi had stored in the green array disk and checked on the state of the Wind Cleaving Eagle.
Compared to Bai Zhi, the eagle seemed in better shape and wasn't injured.
Still, just to be safe, Wei Tu used a Spirit-Binding Talisman to temporarily seal the eagle as well.
Once everything was taken care of, Wei Tu turned his gaze and frowned slightly at Ni Meixian.
She had fainted from the piercing scream of the black finger bone earlier, so she hadn't seen anything of his fight with the black ghost claw.
That was good in some ways, but her sudden unconsciousness would be hard to explain to Ni Shihuang and the Ni Clan's ancestor nearby.
—If he were planning to leave Zheng Kingdom, whether he explained things or not wouldn't matter. But after what just happened, he was now a bit more curious about the ancient broken talisman Ni Shihuang had mentioned.
Wei Tu suspected this broken talisman might have some connection to the black finger bone's original owner—that powerful devil path cultivator.
After thinking for a bit, Wei Tu made up his mind. He walked over to Ni Meixian and lightly waved his sleeve to wake her.
"You spent three years in the secret realm, and your physical body has some internal bruising. Since you're my Nascent Soul concubine, I used a spell to heal you. But the pain was intense, so I knocked you out. Don't overthink it..."
Wei Tu casually made something up.
Whether it sounded believable or not, he didn't care. He knew Ni Meixian wouldn't dare talk about something this private in public and risk upsetting him.
"Yes, I understand."
Ni Meixian agreed on the surface, though she silently grumbled. She hadn't fought even once during her three years in the secret realm. How could she possibly have any bruising?
Still, she knew her place and didn't dare contradict Wei Tu out loud.
…
After a few more instructions, Wei Tu waved his sleeve, dismissed the mist concealment spell, and led Ni Meixian back into the valley to rejoin the group.
Although Ni Shihuang and the others had heard some strange sounds from outside the valley earlier, they trusted that everything was fine with Wei Tu present. When they saw him return safely with Ni Meixian, they didn't think much more of it.
"Congratulations, Second Sister. Looks like you'll be forming your Golden Core soon."
Ni Shihuang stepped forward with a smile, offering her congratulations.
"Thank you, Eldest Sister." Ni Meixian smiled, looking genuinely pleased. She gave a slight bow and held Ni Shihuang's hand as they started chatting.
But it didn't take long for Ni Shihuang to notice something off.
Her once humble and reserved second sister now seemed much less deferential and even gave off a vibe like she wanted to stand on equal footing.
'Well, I guess it makes sense. Meixian is now a Nascent Soul concubine. Her status is higher than most Golden Core cultivators.'
Ni Shihuang tried to suppress her discomfort and reassured herself with that thought.
As the older sister, she genuinely wanted to bless her younger sibling and didn't intend to compete.
Still, considering their bond, she gave Ni Meixian a gentle reminder not to get too full of herself and to be cautious in word and deed. She didn't want her to upset Senior Fu.
"Thank you for the reminder, Eldest Sister. I'll keep that in mind."
Ni Meixian responded with a graceful smile.
That answer made Ni Shihuang feel a little better. She thought her second sister still knew her place.
But then came Ni Meixian's next sentence—and it made Ni Shihuang burn with hidden fury.
"But... Senior Fu just gave me a bottle of White Dew Pills. He didn't say anything like that."
Ni Meixian spoke lightly.
In the past, she had always been inferior to Ni Shihuang and had to endure her arrogance and domineering behavior toward all their sisters.
Now that she had finally become a Nascent Soul concubine, and Ni Shihuang still wanted to press her down with a reminder to behave?
She wasn't going to take it lying down.
'Forget it! For the sake of the family, I won't argue with her.'
Ni Shihuang suppressed her growing anger and tried to ignore Ni Meixian's remark.
But still, she couldn't help the frustration rising in her heart. If she hadn't been the one to invite Wei Tu, would Ni Meixian even be enjoying all this now?
And besides, Wei Tu had originally come for her.