Eternal Thief

Chapter 1587: The Corpse Clan (1)

The Undead race was a collective result of heterodox soul paths, walked by cultivators who rejected the limitations of flesh, lifespan, and orthodox spirit Qi.

Any being that cultivated an Undead Soul was classified as part of the Undead Race, regardless of their original species, bloodline, or origin.

At its core, the Undead Race pursued existence beyond death.

Unlike living cultivators, whose lives are anchored to flesh, or orthodox soul cultivators, who still rely on their fleshy bodies and bloodlines, Undead Race cultivators bind their existence directly to their soul persistence.

By doing this, as long as their Undead Soul remained intact, they could not truly die. Moreover, an Undead Soul was a corrupted yet stabilized soul form that existed between life and death, neither reincarnating nor dissipating.

Once an Undead Soul formed, the soul rejected every law related to ’life’ and instead anchored itself to death-aligned laws such as Yin, Corpse, Bone, Blood, Shadow, Decay, and even Sin.

This allowed Undead beings to survive indefinitely, regenerate through external vessels, and ignore mortal lifespans.

However, this came at a terrible cost, or the Undead Race would have become the only ruler between the Heavens and the Abysses.

The Undead Soul of the Undead Race was extremely vulnerable to soul-based destruction, pure Life laws, Yang, Light, Lightning, Spirit Flames, and purifications.

Unlike living beings, Undead could not rely on vitality or flesh regeneration to shield their souls. If the soul was destroyed, there was no rebirth.

The information Ace received about the Undead Race astounded and shocked him at the same time because this was completely unexpected.

Moreover, the information wasn’t just limited to the Corpse Clan of the Undead Race, but there was also some knowledge about another prominent clan of the Undead Race.

Ace was flabbergasted when he received this information because, unknowingly, he had already encountered a member of the Undead Race before, which happened to be none other than Ghost Race!

According to the information he just refined, the Ghost Clan or Ghost Cultivators of the Undead Race abandoned their physical bodies entirely and cultivated their souls alone. They treated bodies as shells for possession and souls as nourishment.

Their cultivation focused on refinement, devouring, and the evolution of soul essence. Ghosts were agile, elusive, and terrifying in soul combat, but extremely fragile against spirit flames and pure yang elements.

They could not absorb spirit Qi nor use orthodox treasures unless they were aligned with Yin, Ice, Dark, Blood, or similar elements.

All this information was consistent with what the system had revealed earlier, but it still failed to mention the most important part. The Undead Race!

But Ace didn’t have time to interrogate the system, as it would be futile, not to mention that he was completely immersed in refining his knowledge of the Undead Race.

At this moment, Ace focused on the Corpse Clan, which seemed to be the aboriginals of this place.

The Corpse Clan or Corpse Cultivators were a different variant of the Undead Race and followed their own unique path after cultivating Undead Souls.

Instead of abandoning the body, they refined corpses. They cultivated through a forbidden method known as Corpse Refinement, acquiring high-grade corpses and tempering them as vessels. The refined corpse became their new body, while their soul was forcibly evolved to match the corpse’s realm.

The stronger the corpse’s cultivation had been in life, the greater the benefits.

Once refinement was complete, the Corpse Cultivator’s cultivation realm would stabilize at a level similar to the corpse’s former realm, granting terrifying physical strength, resistance, and law compatibility far beyond ordinary cultivators.

In a sense, Corpse Path was even stronger than Ghost Path, but this path was also brutally dangerous.

Corpse refinement was not inheritance, but conquest. If the cultivator’s soul was insufficient to dominate the corpse, the corpse would instead devour the soul, killing the cultivator outright.

Greed was the greatest enemy of Corpse Cultivators. Attempting to refine corpses beyond one’s soul capacity almost always resulted in annihilation.

Unlike Ghost Race members, Corpse Cultivators possessed tangible bodies, allowing them to wield physical strength, artifacts, and formations more effectively. Yet their souls were constantly under pressure from the corpse vessel, making soul attacks their greatest weakness.

In essence, Ghost Cultivators ruled the soul, and Corpse Cultivators ruled the body while both belonged to the Undead Race, and both defied the natural order and were considered one of the most loathsome existences between Heavens and Abysses!

Lastly, the Undead Race was not unified, and it was divided into multiple heterodox paths.

Anyhow, now Ace has a clear picture of what kind of ’Abyssal Beings’ he was dealing with, he fell into deep thought, especially why the Evernight Council would let the Corpse Clan of the Undead Race continue to exist here while they seemed to have some kind of deep enmity against the Ghost Clan of the Undead Race!

But the next moment, he got the answer to this question, and what he learned made his heart race faster.

’So, this Hunter’s Hunt isn’t taking place within the Evernight Sanctuary; instead, this is another secret realm, called the ’Undead Cradle’ by the Corpse Clan.

’Furthermore, the Corpse Clan, as I assumed previously, does exist even before the arrival of the Evernight Council, and they had always thought the Undead Cradle was a sealed realm from the outside world.

’But they always wanted to break free from this confined realm and wanted to step outside in the broad world described in their sacred texts. Yet an unknown seal always stopped them from breaking free from the Undead Cradle, even if they reached the realm of the Half-Abyssal King.

’Moreover, the Half-Abyssal King is also the limit of the cultivation realm a Corpse Cultivator could reach within the Undead Cradle, even if they could refine Abyssal King Realm Corpse, and instead their undead soul would instantly dissipate!

’In their desperation, they tried to use an ancient ritual of the Corpse Clan to break open the Undead Cradle, but ultimately failed. However,’ Ace’s eyes suddenly widened with surprise when he refined this particular part, ’...right when the ritual failed, the invaders of the Evernight Council arrived!’