Chapter Fifteen: The Treasure Gained (Please Keep Reading!)

Su Ye formed a spell seal with his fingers, and in an instant, a spark of spiritual light surged forth from the seal, chasing the gray-white radiance as it left the underground cavern. Only then did Su Ye have time to answer the cat demon’s question: “Li Ping’s soul has been taken away by that evil cultivator. We’ll wait outside; if he comes, we confront him. If he doesn’t, we’ll go find him ourselves.”

Su Ye looked at Li Ping’s corpse. Her soul, once trapped within the body, had been seized by the evil cultivator. The corpse’s demonic aura had been purged entirely by the power of thunder-fire, leaving only an ordinary body behind. After inspecting Li Ping’s corpse and confirming there was nothing amiss, Su Ye turned his gaze to Li Ping’s daughter, who lay submerged in the dark spring.

Li Ping’s daughter’s soul was not in her body. Nourished by the yin energy, her flesh had not decayed, but death had lingered too long, and a thick corpse miasma seeped from her form. Su Ye quickly examined her and found nothing unusual; her presence in the underground cavern was likely due to Li Ping’s influence.

Su Ye lifted Li Ping’s daughter out of the spring and placed her alongside Li Ping’s body. A bean-sized flame blossomed in his palm. The moment the flame left his hand, it surged fiercely, descending onto the bodies of Li Ping and her daughter under Su Ye’s control. As the fire blazed, their bodies swiftly turned to ash.

“Don’t you wish to collect your master’s ashes?” Su Ye looked at the cat demon, whose eyes had lost their luster, and smiled gently.

The cat demon curled into itself, its whole body radiating a sense of desolation. “Was my master truly so corrupted because that evil cultivator controlled her?” it asked softly. Stretching out, the cat demon walked slowly to the ashes of Li Ping and her daughter. Its tail swept across the ashes, releasing a golden glow that drew the ashes into itself.

“That evil cultivator did not control Li Ping’s mind. Everything she had you do was of her own will,” Su Ye replied quietly, shattering the cat demon’s hopeful illusion.

With those words, Su Ye paid no further heed to the sorrowful cat demon and began searching the underground cavern. This was a natural gathering place for yin energy—a cradle for spirits and ghosts, but also a birthplace for treasures.

Silently, Su Ye activated the Five Thunder Yin-Yang technique, sensing the shifting spiritual energy within the cave.

After a short while, Su Ye’s gaze landed on the dark spring. He leapt into it, then stomped forcefully at the pool’s bottom, splitting it open. He searched among the fractured rock and pulled out a palm-sized, blue-gray stone. Cool to the touch, this was the Three-Pattern Stone, a rare material for crafting talisman seals.

“With this stone, I can forge a Yin Pattern Talisman capable of suppressing a cultivator of the first realm!” Su Ye smiled, carefully stowing the Three-Pattern Stone in his robes.

By breaking the spring’s bottom, Su Ye had also disrupted the yin-gathering formation of the place. Over time, the accumulated yin energy would gradually disperse.

“Let’s go,” Su Ye said to the still-silent cat demon, taking the lead out of the cavern.

The cat demon, having digested these events, had recovered its composure. Now, it waited only for the evil cultivator to arrive, hungry for vengeance.

Su Ye could guess the cat demon’s intentions, but he did not expose them. Swiftly, he departed the cavern.

The spiritual light he sent earlier had already located the evil cultivator’s hiding place. Now, Su Ye sensed its approach—proving the evil one was coming straight for him.

Indeed, the evil cultivator, needing to refine the vengeful ghost corpse, dared not stray far from Li Ping, fearing unexpected mishaps. But Su Ye’s arrival had ruined his plans, destroying the ghost corpse he’d worked so hard to create.

Su Ye and the cat demon had barely emerged from the tree hollow when a middle-aged Daoist, clad in gray skull-patterned robes, swept in with a gust of ominous wind.

“Boy, you’re quite bold, daring to destroy my treasure!” the evil cultivator’s eyes burned with wild fury. At the sight of Su Ye, he immediately summoned a blue-gray flag.

This blue-gray flag was a ritual artifact crafted by the evil cultivator, called the Filthy Yin Banner. Used alongside his sinister techniques, it unleashed a foul yin wind.

The foul yin wind was vicious—any who touched it would find their body contaminated, and within three days, their flesh would dissolve into filth.

Su Ye sensed the horror of this wind. Instantly, he channeled his internal magic power. His talisman brush glowed with crimson light, and a thunder-fire talisman formed instantly. The surging thunder-fire power wove into a net, shielding him from the onslaught.

The cat demon, upon seeing the evil cultivator, let out a furious roar and leapt, becoming a yellow blur as it lunged at the enemy.

A cold smile appeared on the evil cultivator’s face. He unfastened the gourd at his waist and, after casting a spell seal upon it, two streams of yin energy surged forth, manifesting as two ghostly figures. One was Li Ping’s spirit, seized earlier.

Li Ping’s ghost was not particularly powerful—at best, she possessed second-realm strength. The other was a fierce ghost in blue robes, whose original appearance was almost lost after years of refinement. This ghost’s power rivaled that of a first-realm cultivator, but even so, he was not the cat demon’s equal.

Despite the cat demon’s superior strength, after a brief clash with the blue-robed ghost, he was left with serious injuries. The reason was clear: every time the cat demon attacked the blue-robed ghost, Li Ping’s spirit intervened.

Though Li Ping’s ghost was now under the evil cultivator’s control, the cat demon could not bring itself to strike her.

In a short span, the cat demon suffered heavy wounds at the hands of the blue-robed ghost. If he continued this way, he would soon be killed.

While fending off the evil cultivator’s attacks, Su Ye monitored the cat demon’s plight. Seeing its predicament, he sighed, then flicked a sealing talisman from his sleeve, instantly affixing it to Li Ping’s body.

This sealing talisman could bind a ghost of first-realm power. Su Ye had painstakingly crafted it to deal with Master Su Ming and his disciples.

But now, faced with dire urgency, he could only deploy it here.