The stone beside him whispered to Mr. Hui: "Second Master, this is still on the outskirts of the tomb, and there are already such corpse spirits lurking around. There may be more inside, perhaps even Third Grade ones..."
Stone’s expression showed a hint of dread.
Mr. Hui frowned deeply, then his eyes lit up and he said in a deep voice:
"No tomb without spirits. The more sinister it is, the more it indicates the tomb’s prestige, and the more treasures it holds inside."
Stone nodded and said no more.
This is how the tomb-raiding business works: the greater the reward, the higher the risk.
Similarly, the greater the risk, the richer the rewards might be.
They all understand the principle of seeking fortune amidst danger.
Afterwards, everyone prepared to set off.
Mr. Hui still sat at the side, adjusting his breath.
He’s a veteran in this line; he knows that the things inside the tomb all exude eeriness and won’t become complacent just because the recent corpse spirit was only Second Grade.
Some of his Golden Core peers fell victim to some unknown Second Grade corpse poison, only to perish within the tomb.
Mr. Hui has heard quite a bit about such incidents.
Therefore, in the tomb, if injured, even if it’s a minor injury, one must be extremely cautious.
Mr. Hui meditated, regulating his injury.
Meanwhile, Mo Hua focused on breaking the formation.
Now that the corpse spirit has appeared, he didn’t want to delay longer, so after fumbling around for a bit, pretending, he broke the gate’s formation, opening it.
Beyond the gate, there was still a dark passage.
"This wretched tomb, it’s truly vast..." Mousie frowned and said, "Endless."
"Hurry up, stop complaining." Mr. Hui said.
He conducted an internal inspection for the last time, checked his injury, confirmed there were no issues, and also confirmed no "corpse poison" was contracted, then got up and said, "Let’s go."
The group proceeded deeper into the passage.
Mo Hua still held the compass, leading the way.
The group followed behind him.
Yet, because of the "corpse spirit" incident, not only Mr. Hui’s group but even the four in black robes became vigilant.
These corpse spirits are sinister, rotted and foul-smelling, yet silent and undetectable by Divine Sense, making them unpredictable and highly dangerous.
Thus, everyone was on high alert, with focus heightened to the maximum.
Especially Mr. Hui, as those two corpse spirits earlier had both targeted him, one clawing over his shoulder, and the other leaping onto his face, with its disgusting fangs biting down on his forehead.
Once bitten by a snake, one becomes ten times more cautious.
Consequently, Mr. Hui was particularly cautious.
Especially considering that those two corpse spirits might have been trailing them from behind for a long while, unnoticed by everyone...
Mr. Hui realized this and something struck his heart.
"No... not everyone was unaware..."
Mr. Hui turned his head to glance at Mo Hua, feeling alarmed: "This kid seemed to have noticed..."
"On the way earlier, he mentioned feeling something, clearly sensing something."
"Perhaps the perception wasn’t clear, but such vigilance towards danger is rare, especially in the tomb-raiding trade..."
Mr. Hui regarded Mo Hua with newfound respect.
"This is an outstanding prospect, can’t let him slip away, must keep him tightly under control, have him work for me."
Mr. Hui’s eyes gleamed with excitement, then he masked his expression, pretending nothing happened and remained on guard.
While Mr. Hui silently watched Mo Hua, Mo Hua was also quietly observing him.
There was something Mo Hua hadn’t mentioned.
In Mr. Hui’s mind, those two corpse spirits were targeting him.
But that was not the case.
Those corpse spirits were actually after Mo Hua.
Just like the nightmare he’d had in Solitary Mountain City, where many malformed vengeful spirits crawled out from the abyss, tearing and biting at him.
Those two corpse spirits were the same.
However, the corpse spirits were somewhat "dull", for while they knew where Mo Hua was, they somehow couldn’t distinguish exactly which one amidst the crowd he was.
Mo Hua left a part of his Divine Thought on Mr. Hui.
Those two corpse spirits mistook Mr. Hui for him and started clawing at his shoulder and leaping onto his face.
Of course, Mo Hua subtly egged them on, with little remarks to create an atmosphere and divert attention.
Or, when there was no way for Mr. Hui to dodge, he’d remind him to lift his head, exposing his face for the corpse spirits.
Yet these corpse spirits weren’t simple.
All their moves were aimed at the cultivator’s head.
If bitten on the head, a strand of malignant evil thought would enter through the wound, breach the Sea of Consciousness’ gate, and infiltrate a cultivator’s mind.
The real "corpse poison" of these corpse spirits wasn’t in the flesh nor the Spiritual Power but in the Sea of Consciousness.
Earlier when Mr. Hui was bitten, a wisp of cyan-black poisonous thought had already infiltrated his Sea of Consciousness through his forehead.
Mr. Hui wasn’t aware, nor could the others see it, but Mo Hua saw it all clearly.
Of course, fearing Mr. Hui couldn’t handle the truth, he kept silent, covertly monitoring Mr. Hui’s state instead.
He had been curious before.
The erosion of the demon-type evil thought upon a normal cultivator, he wondered what it would be like, whether there was a gradual process, and what the symptoms would be.
Unfortunately, he never had the chance to study it.
Now an actual "case" lay before him, and Mo Hua naturally wanted to observe carefully.
Regrettably though, up till now, Mr. Hui hadn’t shown any abnormalities.
Mo Hua pondered; perhaps the dose of this "corpse poison" evil thought was too small to show toxicity.
Or due to the divine thought resilience of a Third Grade Golden Core cultivator, the Second Grade’s evil thought had little effect on those at the Golden Core Realm.
Or it’s still the "incubation period", with symptoms unmanifested.
"Let’s see if there are any other corpse spirits, lure them over, and have them bite Mr. Hui a few more times."
"If truly effective, then..." Mo Hua considered for a moment, his eyes suddenly brightened:
"I will catch some evil spirits and attempt to cultivate a virus-like ’corpse spirit’."
"In the future, if someone above the Golden Core wants to kill me and I can’t battle them, I’ll find a way to unwittingly poison them with these evil thoughts, corrupt their Sea of Consciousness, disrupt their mind, and corrode their Taoist Heart..."
Mo Hua’s eyes grew increasingly bright.
He pondered further, believing that his idea was feasible.
However, actual practice is vital; any hypothesis requires validation through real-world examples.
Mo Hua nodded.
Subsequently, he continued to lead the way while secretly monitoring Mr. Hui to verify his hypothesis of poisoning through evil thought.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hui, blissfully unaware, harbored thoughts of imprisoning Mo Hua to use for his own benefit, as he stepped deeper into the tomb.