Chapter Fifty-Two: High-Ranking Ghostly Soldiers

  ……

  A few days later, Lei Dong set out again on a journey to search for and sweep away evil spirits.

  The reason is simple, after careful consideration, Lei Dong still thinks that his only and greatest advantage lies in the Inverse Treasure Devouring Soul Tower. If he wants to increase his chances of survival, he must still rely on the Devouring Soul Tower. The three mid-grade ghost soldiers he has now have decent qualifications, and if placed in the Nurturing Soul Tower to nourish them, their final growth rate will not be inferior to his own. If he cultivates them with even more care, they might even surpass him by one or two levels.

  But the problem is that with such a configuration, it will have a great advantage in fighting against some ordinary and even excellent cultivators of the same level. If you want to deal with some very powerful ones, three medium-quality ghost soldiers are slightly underpowered.

  At first, Wan Gui Lao Zu could rely on a single top-grade spirit ghost to gain an advantage and eventually step onto the Golden Dan path. But that wasn't just because of the top-grade spirit ghost; Lao Zu's own innate talent was also extraordinary, at least not inferior to Zuo Chao's current level, and could be considered top-notch.

  Lei Dong's qualifications were only slightly above average among his peers. If Wan Gui Lao Zu had given him the top-notch resources that he had reserved for Zuo Chao, Zuo Chao might have been able to smoothly enter the Golden Elixir stage. But Lei Dong was not so lucky - every small difference in qualifications would become magnified as they progressed, and Lei Dong's qualifications were far inferior to Zuo Chao's superior ones.

  So, in theory, assuming that Leidong and Zuochao both advanced to the Golden Dan stage one day, the resources consumed by the two during this process would be at least several times higher for Leidong than for Zuochao, or even ten times more. This is also the main reason why any immortal sect attaches great importance to the quality of their disciples' spiritual roots.

  Even if it's a top-notch qualification like Zuo Chao, Wan Gui Lao Zu's evaluation of him is that he has great hope to advance to the foundation period, but advancing to Jindan is very low, not even 1% chance, unless Zuo Chao can obtain a large amount of resources for himself, which can increase the chances. However, cultivation resources have always been scarce in the entire cultivation world, and average distribution is simply a joke, which means that one must fight for it, fiercely fighting for this share that doesn't originally belong to oneself.

  Like Zuo Chao, top-notch talents are highly valued in every sect. However, in terms of numbers, on average, at least a dozen or twenty people can be recruited every ten years. A large part of them, as expected, will smoothly enter the foundation-building period after being given the resources they deserve. But the vast majority of people stop at the foundation-building period for their entire lives. Only an extremely small number of people, like Wan Gui Lao Zu, relying on top-grade Linggui, can gradually emerge and become a Golden Dan old ancestor through subtle and overt continuous gains of resources. However, the hardships and bitterness involved are only known to Wan Gui Lao Zu himself.

  It can be seen that if Leidong's goal is on the Golden Elixir Path, this road will be how difficult. Fortunately, Leidong understands a truth, which is to eat rice one mouthful at a time and walk towards goals step by step. The Golden Elixir Path is too far away for now, so he won't think about it too much.

  Nowadays, it's just a matter of trying to survive with great effort in this treacherous environment. Even if he is a traverser, even if he has the mysterious Soul Devouring Tower, in this environment, with a little carelessness, what awaits him is also annihilation and destruction of his soul.

  Refining a top-grade spirit ghost requires about three months of time to gather yin souls, as for the ultimate grade spirit ghost, Lei Dong has not tried it before. However, based on inference, it is estimated that three years of time are needed to capture yin souls. Three years of time, for an ultimate grade spirit ghost, this amount of time is absolutely not something Lei Dong can afford to spend at present.

  But secretly cultivating three top-grade spirit ghosts, plus the consumption of blood sacrifices, for a whole year, Leidong could barely hold on. Spirit ghosts of this level, once successfully refined, even if not fed with blood and flesh souls, just leaving them to grow in the high-grade soul-nourishing pagoda, would far surpass Leidong himself. Before long, they will become Leidong's fierce trump card.

  The central idea of this setup is that, normally, only three medium-grade spirit ghosts are used to deal with outsiders. In normal situations, one's own body and magic spells are not weak, and adding three medium-grade spirit ghosts can already handle things. Only when life is at stake or when secretly killing someone to steal treasure can the high-grade spirit ghost be used as a trump card. It's also a way of leaving oneself a way out.

  Within the realm of Wan Gui's power, there are also thousands to tens of thousands of miles of land. Among them, there are also many treacherous valleys and dangerous lands. Because in the past, he had once been lucky enough to "burst into" and capture a top-grade spirit ghost. As a result, it is reasonable for him to spend a lot of time lingering in various places filled with yin souls, as long as Wan Gui Lao Zu thinks it's reasonable, then Lei Dong won't be afraid of anyone.

  Capturing yin souls within one's own domain, although the efficiency may not be as swift as jumping around everywhere, is safer. Even after a blood sacrifice when the body is weak, it is still possible to capture yin souls at a safe location.

  ……

  Time flies, and another year has passed quickly. The dozen or so fierce lands within the Wan Gui Kuang range were almost swept away by Lei Dong. But this year was also extremely difficult for him, not a bit more comfortable than in the Xiao Yin Xia Cave. Day after day of capturing yin souls, he experienced three painful blood sacrifices, and to save time, he had to drag his body after the blood sacrifice to continue capturing yin souls and refining soul pearls.

  But fortunately, no matter how hard it was, the reward was extremely rich. Three high-quality spirit ghosts were all blood-sacrificed into his ghost servants. With the strong quality of the spirit ghosts and Lei Dong's current cultivation, those three high-quality spirit ghosts reached the third-level ghost soldier as soon as they were sacrificed. The first high-quality ghost soldier, after being nourished by the Soul Tower for half a year and occasionally swallowing wild ghost soldiers and low-level demon beasts, rose to the peak of fifth-level ghost soldier like a straight elevator. And the remaining two, because they were blood-sacrificed later, are now only fourth-level and third-level respectively.

  What made Lei Dong feel extremely comfortable was that when he sacrificed these three high-quality ghost soldiers, his luck wasn't bad, and they all came out with dual skills. Although the probability of a high-quality spirit ghost learning two spells after blood sacrifice is not low, it still made Lei Dong feel a little cool. After all, his luck was really ordinary, even if a relatively rare single-skill high-quality ghost soldier appeared, it would be within reason.

  Nowadays, the top-notch ghost soldier who has reached the fifth level of the peak, one of his spells is a relatively common bloodthirsty spell. The second spell is also quite common, called Ghost Strike, which is a technique that condenses soul power and launches a powerful attack, often achieving three times the killing power of a normal attack.

  It seems that the two spells of this high-quality ghost soldier are both common spells, but when the two spells appear on the same ghost soldier at the same time, the strength of the ghost soldier will be greatly enhanced. Think about it, Bloodthirsty Technique can already reduce the defense of the ghost soldier within a certain period of time and increase its killing power by 30%. If you launch Phantom Strike again, the power is imaginable. Some cultivators of the same level, if they are caught off guard, may be directly killed in seconds. In short, this is a high-quality ghost soldier that can exert its attack to the extreme, so I named it Burst Ghost Soldier.

  The two innate spells of the second-tier ghost soldier are Death Chill and Ice Curse. First, let's talk about Death Chill, which is a sustained spell that affects all living beings within a certain range with a strong cold aura, causing them to become sluggish and slow. The effect of this spell depends on the strength of the caster and the opponent. For example, if the ghost soldier is only at level 4, an opponent who has only reached the first layer of Qi refinement may be frozen in place, unable to move. However, if the opponent is much stronger than the ghost soldier, having reached the seventh or eighth layer, the effect will be extremely limited.

  As for the Frostbite Curse, it's a direct attack spell that sprays out a cluster of extremely low-temperature frost mist. If the enemy is weak, they can be directly frozen into an ice block. Even if a relatively strong one gets hit, they will absolutely not have a good time.

  Thus, the second ghost soldier was named Bingbing Ghost Soldier by Lei Dong.

  As for the third ghost soldier, it came out the latest, but that is a ghost soldier who laughs in his dreams. Because of its innate magic, which are respectively Ghost Strike and Stealth.

  ……