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Zu An had thought that the storeroom would have a mountain of treasure, that there would be endless ki stones and all kinds of medicine. After all, this was the Monster Lord’s most precious storeroom. But the scene before his eyes was a bleak sight. Several wardrobes and racks were all there, but the shelves were empty. There were only a few trifling items left in the corners.
Everyone present felt a sense of absurdity looking at the place. It was as if even a mouse that was locked up here would starve to death.
Even though Zu An had known beforehand that the entire Monster World was trapped in this underground city and that they were short on all sorts of supplies, he hadn't thought it would already be this serious. But he quickly focused his attention and said, “Let's move on our own. Take all the books related to formations, medicine, and techniques. There’s no need to think about making copies anymore.”
His plan at first had been to sneak in and out without anyone knowing and copy the related texts. But he had already alerted the Monster Lord and definitely didn’t have much time left. As such, he decided they might as well just take these things.
The women also knew that time was important, so they all scattered to look for things to take. Even the injured Jiang Luofu was holding on and trying to help. Xie Daoyun rushed to the formation section, while Ji Xiaoxi went to check the medicine manuals. The others searched other parts of the storeroom.
Zu An went to the techniques section. He wanted to take the chance to take a look at the Monster World’s cultivation methods. It would be even better if he found out things about the Monster Lord’s own skills.
Compared to the goods section by the entrance, the techniques section was more abundant. Jade strips lined the racks and shone with all kinds of different colors, signifying different elements.
Zu An quickly read through some jade strips. With his current cultivation and knowledge, he could roughly tell what the skills were about from a single glance. However, a disappointed look quickly appeared on his face. Even though there were powerful skills among these techniques, they couldn't compare to the ones he currently had.
More importantly, these jade strips were skills that were more suitable for monsters to cultivate, and mostly synergized well with certain types of bloodline power and unique body structures. If humans from the Cultivation World tried to learn them, it could lead to cultivation deviation and death. Zu An sighed in disappointment. He could only give up on these skills and search for other things.
Shortly after, he arrived in front of a wall. There was a slight indent in it that contained a small bookcase. On it was a jade strip. This jade strip was clearly special, because there was a transparent barrier guarding it - a protective formation that prevented outsiders from taking the jade strip inside. The ki stones in the storeroom were already so lacking that there was no such protection for the other manuals, to save on ki stone usage. However, this jade strip was still being protected. That meant it was extremely important.
With Zu An’s current skill in formations, he quickly deduced its origins. He took out a formation disc and his fingers moved rapidly. Soon after, he inserted formation flags into the four corners of the wall. The yellow formation barrier gradually changed color, turning green before finally scattering away.
Zu An sighed in relief. This formation was actually quite advanced. If it had fully activated, even with his abilities, he probably wouldn't have be able to open it. It was likely because the resources underground were too lacking that only the most basic defensive functions of the formation had been in use, to save on ki stones.
Of course, even the most basic of its functions wasn't something most formation masters could easily undo. Zu An had studied the Baopu Sutra first and already had a high level of skill in formations, and then he had learned Salamay’s Secrets of Spatial Distortion, bringing his formation skills to an even higher level. That was why he was able to get through so quickly.
Zu An took out the jade strip. He saw the title written in the monster language: Resurrection Technique. When he saw the name of the skill, his expression became serious.
There’s actually a resurrection technique in this world?
Does that mean the Monster Lord can't die?
He quickly flipped through it, but after a moment, he sighed in relief. It wasn’t the kind of resurrection he had been thinking of, but rather another skill that came with a huge cost.
When he first killed them, thepowerful monsters that invaded his world hadn't been all that scared, saying they couldn't be killed. The Monster Lord had used a skill that would allow them to quickly be revived once they returned so they could get their revenge. Fortunately, at the time, Zu An had become the ruler of the underworld, letting him seize their souls and drag them down to the Ceaseless Hell.
This jade strip recorded the skill that had been used on them. By severing a sliver of the target’s soul and blood essence, a puppet that was connected to them could be produced. Then, that puppet would be soaked in a special pool of blood. The pool’s blood essence power would use the target's soul and blood essence as the foundation to produce a new body that was identical to their original one. Then, a special method could extract the soul and place it into the new body, which would retain all of the target’s original skills and memories.
In a sense, the new body was an exact clone of the original. Furthermore, the original's body would be kept dormant in a certain place in the palace. If they perished in another place, their soul would be returned to the original body through previously recorded coordinates, thus completing the revival ceremony.
Of course, the process wasn’t without flaws. The clone did end up using up a portion of one's soul and blood essence. Upon being revived, the creature would be seriously injured and need a long time to fully heal. Still, compared to perishing in another world, that degree of loss wasn’t much at all.
The reason they'd resorted to this technique was because too many powerful monsters had died in the Cultivation World. The Monster Lord hadn’t completed his objectives, and the monsters hadn’t been too willing to continue the invasion after the ones who had gone before them all died. The monsters were also weakened by the will of the world in the Cultivation World, so they would feel too wronged if they died there. That was why the Monster Lord had thought up of this method. When they learned that they would have an extra life, the subsequent monsters had finally agreed.
Zu An found this skill quite mysterious. He was about to store it away to study it later. However, he suddenly noticed the final line recorded in this manual. His expression immediately changed.
The technique said that if the clone died, and the soul couldn't return within a certain time frame, the body stored in the palace would quickly decay. There were just too many powerful beings who had mysterious skills to target the soul. Of course, the Monster Lord probably hadn’t told those monsters about such a risk.
When he saw the words ‘original body will quickly decay’, Zu An felt goosebumps forming on his skin.
Donaire’s soul had already been completely destroyed in the Cultivation World. That meant his original body would have already completely decayed. The Monster Lord no doubt already knew that, so he had to also have known that Donaire had already died from the start.
So, he must’ve known that I was a fake from the very start!
But he didn’t show any sign of that from the moment I arrived in this world!
His entire body was drenched in cold sweat. In that instant, he thought of far, far too many possibilities.