Yuan Ming saw that the situation was dire, and he hurriedly retreated to dodge, but he still couldn't completely avoid it and was blown away by a scorching blast of air.

When he got up from the ground, rubbing his chest and covered in dust, he finally saw that the fire pit he had built with stones had turned into a three-foot-wide charred pit, from which wisps of white smoke were still rising.

The trees within a thirty-foot radius had been torn apart, shabby and unsightly, with their trunks scorched black, and flames could still be seen burning.

The scene before him left Yuan Ming somewhat dumbfounded.

It wasn't his first time seeing the Fireball Technique, this most basic of fire-attribute attack magic that Chen Wan had previously unleashed, yet the power of the Burning Explosion Skill was incomparable, not even by ten Fireball Techniques.

He feared that even an Inner Sect Disciple a few levels higher in cultivation than himself, or even a Cultivator in the early stage of Foundation Establishment, wouldn't be able to face this strike directly!

After the surprise, what followed was a strong shock and delight.

"I must focus on cultivation," Yuan Ming thought to himself. "Only by gathering more mana can I increase the power of this technique." With this skill at his disposal and the proper application, especially if supplemented with spirit stones, he wouldn't have to worry even if he encountered the situation where he was surrounded and attacked by people like Kun Tu again.

"Boom"

Just then, a huge shadow crashed down in front of Yuan Ming with a loud noise, startling him.

The treehouse he had spent a day building collapsed in front of his eyes along with the broken trunk, shattering into pieces.

"Sigh, it seems I need to find a new place."

...

Time flew by, and several months passed.

Within the dense woods of the Ten Thousand Mountains,

A treetop of an ancient tree supported a man-made wooden platform where a figure sat cross-legged, bathing in the bright moonlight.

He held a green incense burner in his arms, his whole body emitting a faint glow.

At that moment, the glow enveloping his body suddenly constricted and re-entered his body.

At the center of his eyebrows, however, a light shone, and a pure black raven with a tuft of white feathers on its brow emerged from the hazy light and flew high towards the east.

Immediately after, a black soul crow flew out, heading west.

Then the third one followed, and finally, the fourth one took flight.

The four soul crows headed in the four directions of southeast, northwest, and Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness immediately received different perspectives from each of the soul crows' perspectives.

Just now, he had finally reached the second layer skill of the Moonlight Technique, his Divine Soul Power surged, and he had condensed the fourth soul crow.

The four soul crows continued to soar into the distance, not particularly fast, equivalent to ordinary ravens, but the distance they covered this time was significantly increased.

At twenty miles out, the connection with Yuan Ming began to wane, and the scenes in his vision became blurred.

With a thought, Yuan Ming recalled the four soul crows back to him.

After a session of feeling and experiencing, he noticed that the soul power fluctuations of the four soul crows were considerably stronger than before, meaning that if he used his soul collision ability again, it would be much more potent than previously.

Any Cultivator of the same cultivation level as him would absolutely not withstand a single soul collision attack from him.

During this time, Yuan Ming intensified his practice of the Nine Elements Technique by day and diligently cultivated the Moonlight Technique by night, not only making significant progress in his Soul Cultivation Method but also advancing his Nine Elements Technique to the Ninth Level.

At this point, Yuan Ming's cultivation had reached the Qi Refining Ninth Level.

The growth in his Magic Power Cultivation allowed for more proficiency in magic such as the Wood Stabbing Technique and the Wood Prison Technique, increasing the speed and power of his spellcasting.

The four soul crows gradually flew back, re-entering Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness.

Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes, a joyful expression on his face.

Just then, a silver figure descended slowly down from an ancient tree in the moonlight and came to Yuan Ming's side.

"For such a fool to condense a fourth soul crow is truly beyond my expectation," a familiar voice of Silver Cat Xi Ying sounded within Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness.

Indeed, Silver Cat Xi Ying showed up, and he could feel that during the time of his seclusion, this silver cat had always been around.

He immediately looked over and said, "Xi Ying, I've gained a new ability."

"What ability?"

Xi Ying's tone carried a slight surprise.

"Corpse Control," Yuan Ming said with a smile.

"How is that possible? Normally, a Soul Cultivator needs to be at least at the Foundation Establishment Stage before they can master Corpse Control, as their Divine Soul's strength would otherwise be insufficient to sustain it," the Silver Cat found it quite unbelievable.

Yuan Ming's Divine Soul was much stronger and grew much faster than ordinary people, which Silver Cat was aware of, but she hadn't expected it to be so incredibly strong.

"It's impossible to know if it can be done without trying," Yuan Ming said.

"I'm actually curious to see if you can really do it," the silver cat's voice rang out in his Sea of Consciousness immediately.

Yuan Ming nodded, immediately began to pinch his fingers and closed his eyes to cast the Divine Soul Secret Technique.

Before long, a soul crow struggled to fly out from his glabella, entering the high sky, circled slightly, and then flew towards a certain direction.

The soul crow had flown seventy to eighty feet away when it suddenly plunged headfirst toward the ground.

In the mountain forest below lay a body in a pit full of dead branches and fallen leaves, sprawled out with extensive rot, its clothing reduced to mud.

Its chest and abdomen were impaled by wooden thorns from the bottom of the pit, but the fatal wound was its collapsed skull, which seemed to have been smashed to death by a Fierce Beast like a bear.

The black raven flew to the front of the corpse, hesitated a moment, then dove into its collapsed head.

The next instant, as if ghost fire had risen, a green light glowed in the eyes of the corpse.

On the other side of the mountain forest, Yuan Ming's face contorted with expression as he maintained the soul crow's perspective in his Sea of Consciousness, although the viewpoint seemed somewhat odd.

At this moment, he felt as if, besides his own eyes, he had grown an extra pair, and through these eyes, he viewed a world shrouded in a pale green gloom.

"How is it? Quickly tell me," the voice of Silver Cat Xi Ying resonated in his Sea of Consciousness.

"It should be... successful," Yuan Ming said, somewhat uncertain.

"You've got some talent after all," Silver Cat Xi Ying's voice timely sounded in Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness. "If the soul crow enters a body and can see the outside world through the corpse's eyes, then you have succeeded halfway. Now you can try to control the body's movements."

He immediately began to try.

With a move of his hands and a thought in his mind, the corpse's arm dozens of feet away slowly and stiffly lifted, but almost at the same time, his own arm in meditation was involuntarily raised as well.

Seeing this, Yuan Ming quickly lowered his own arm, but the corpse lowered its hand as well.

His brow furrowed, Yuan Ming tried again to control the corpse by moving its leg; consequently, his own leg involuntarily moved as well.

Yuan Ming pressed his leg with one hand and tried again using his will to control the movements of the corpse.

This time, with the external force pressing down, his own leg did not interfere any further, but this was clearly not a long-term solution.

In a way, the man and the corpse had become a pair of conjoined twins.

"After several attempts, I find when I try to control the corpse's movements, my intentions inadvertently influence my own body; when the corpse moves, I move along with it," Yuan Ming said with a troubled look after several trials.

After a moment, Xi Ying's voice resonated in his mind:

"This is quite normal for a Soul Cultivator trying corpse control for the first time. Controlling a corpse requires sending out a Divine Thought to manage another body, which is naturally ten times more difficult than simply extending a Divine Thought to observe the outside world."

"What should I do to control it as freely as you do?" Yuan Ming asked.

"There's no special technique; you just need to keep practicing. Did you think you were a genius like me?" Xi Ying didn't offer a shortcut and took the opportunity to belittle Yuan Ming a bit.

Hearing this, Yuan Ming stopped getting distracted and began to immerse himself fully in trying to control the corpse.

At this moment, Xi Ying seemed deliberately to keep sending telepathic messages to him, disrupting his rhythm: "The longer a body has been dead, the less water retention and muscle vitality it holds, making its movements more rigid and difficult to control. Conversely, if the body has just died and retains some Spiritual Power, with proper control, it can even exhibit its innate combat instincts from when it was alive."

Yuan Ming took these messages to heart but didn't stop his practice of controlling the corpse.

Until the next day at dawn, with mist enveloping the mountain forest, a highly decomposed black corpse staggered out from the mist and stumbled to Yuan Ming's front with rigid steps.

The next instant, the corpse flopped to the ground, and a black soul crow flew out from its glabella, entering Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness.

At this moment, Yuan Ming's face was covered in exhaustion, but his eyes could not hide the delight within.

After a night of repeated practice, nearly depleting all the strength of the four soul crows, he finally grasped the knack of controlling the corpse and cut off the interfering connection between himself and the body, akin to conjoined twins.

"You do have a slight talent for Soul Cultivation—managing to become proficient with corpse control in just this short time is quite remarkable. It's already close to one-tenth of my capabilities back in the day," Silver Cat Xi Ying stated, having stayed with Yuan Ming throughout the night.

"Can you tell me the story of your past?" Yuan Ming asked with great curiosity.

Without replying, Silver Cat Xi Ying had already left.

After thanking the direction in which Silver Cat Xi Ying had departed, Yuan Ming bathed in the morning light, continuing his meditation and restorative practice for his Divine Soul.

However, as he was deep in contemplation, his mind suddenly "boomed" as if a heavenly bell had been struck.

Consequently, fragments of images began to emerge, flooding over like a tide in his mind.

Yuan Ming felt an intense pain in his head, involuntarily clutching his head in agony and collapsing to the side.

After a long while, he stopped struggling, drenched in cold sweat, and slowly lifted his head.

His eyes were focused and clear, seemingly unchanged, yet there was something different about them from before.

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