Brian White spread his five fingers, and the flying sword that had killed Cynthia Parker immediately soared up at his command. The sword light danced like a swallow skimming the water, striking four points in succession on that black light ring. Each time the sword light touched the ring, the black glow at the point of contact would grow denser. When the sword light struck for the fifth time, the black light ring that William Parker used to protect his body had faded to the point of being almost imperceptible, with all its defensive power concentrated on the four spots struck by Brian White's sword. With a single thrust, Brian White broke through the defense, the sword entering through the left temple and exiting the right, slaying the physical body.

When William Parker's body died, there was a clang as a black iron ring fell to the ground, rolling a few times before coming to a stop. Brian White chuckled, bent down, and picked it up.

Although this wasn't like in a game, where items from slain people or monsters would drop automatically and you had to search the bodies yourself, Brian White was well-practiced in killing and looting, so he handled it with ease. He quickly and efficiently stripped Cynthia Parker and William Parker of all their valuables. Brian White did hesitate for a moment, wondering whether he should check if Cynthia Parker's pubic hair was really green, but in the end, he decided such behavior was far too lewd and not something a proper person like himself should do, so he gave up on such a vulgar act.

Brian White didn't have time to examine his spoils. He stowed the corpses of William Parker and Cynthia Parker in William Parker's leopard-skin pouch and immediately took advantage of the wind and rain to descend Tongtian Peak.

In the game, Brian White could summon wind and rain, but in reality, he was just an ordinary person. Now, occupying David Stone's body, he felt an inexhaustible energy coursing through him, his movements agile and far beyond those of a normal human. Though not quite at Spider-Man's level, he was much stronger than an Avatar. Moreover, David Stone had trained in martial arts during his life, so even though the rain made the path slippery and Tongtian Peak was steep, Brian White made his way down smoothly, encountering no danger at all—much easier than he had expected.

Relying on his familiarity with the thirty-six peaks of Chicheng Mountain, Brian White did not immediately return to the Chicheng Immortal Sect's main base at Jietian Peak. Instead, he found a secluded mountain hollow and sought out an uninhabited cave to first inspect the spoils of his recent killings and thefts.

The names William Parker and Cynthia Parker were not even in David Stone's memories, so Brian White had even less chance of knowing the origins of this pair of scoundrels. William Parker carried a beast-skin pouch, and aside from the black iron ring, all his magical treasures were inside—seven in total. In addition, there was a black-covered Daoist book, its texture neither silk nor leather and somewhat greasy to the touch, as well as a large amount of gold and silver.

On the cover of this Daoist book were five stark white characters: 《玄冥十九篇》

Brian White flipped it open casually. The Daoist arts recorded in this book were completely different from the orthodox Chicheng teachings David Stone had learned. It was, in fact, the most difficult of the four major schools—Qi, Talisman, Artifact, and Soul—the path of artifact cultivation.

In the school of artifact cultivation, one must choose a life-bound magical artifact at the very beginning, cultivating oneself while refining the artifact. Once the artifact is refined to a certain level, one can use its power to increase their own cultivation. In the end, man and artifact become one, attaining the supreme Dao, and the final achievement is no less than that of those who follow the path of Qi cultivation. If an artifact cultivator can obtain a top-quality artifact, saving themselves the trouble of refining one from scratch, their progress will be the fastest among the four schools. But if they can't find a good artifact, it's a miserable situation—they must split their focus between cultivation and refining their life-bound artifact, falling behind practitioners of other schools at the start. Only when the artifact is sufficiently refined can the dual cultivation of man and artifact benefit each other.

The "Nineteen Chapters of Xuanming" recorded more than a dozen of the most advanced methods for refining magical treasures. Brian White flipped through it for a while, and when he came to the method for refining the White Bone Relic, he suddenly recalled the origin of this Daoist book.

David Stone's lifetime of memories was vast. Although Brian White had taken over his body, he couldn't possibly digest all those memories in such a short time. Only when something triggered a memory could he recall certain key things. The White Bone Relic was one of the most infamous evil magical treasures, its power aside—the method of refining it was so cruel as to be appalling, far beyond what ordinary people could endure.

Chapter 9: The Number One Evil Sect

The Southern Toad Continent stretches over a hundred thousand li from east to west, and seventy to eighty thousand li from north to south, with countless famous mountains and great rivers. The northern region is flat and densely populated, with seven established nations, making it the most prosperous area. The other three sides are blocked by mountains; though there are small plains among the interlacing ranges where people have built cities and founded states, none are as large as the seven northern kingdoms.

Of the seven northern kingdoms, Huaxu is the largest, its territory greater than the other six combined. Thus, the people of the Southern Toad Continent regard Huaxu as the orthodox center, and even most cultivators live among the famous mountains and rivers within Huaxu's borders.

Chicheng Mountain lies within Huaxu, one of its seventeen famous peaks.

Besides the seven great sword-immortal sects, the Southern Toad Continent also has three major artifact-refining schools, four great talisman clans, and two ghost lineages.

These sixteen are the top orthodox and unorthodox sects of the Southern Toad Continent. The "Nineteen Chapters of Xuanming" is one of the three foundational texts of the Xuanming Sect, one of the three great artifact-refining schools. It contains the methods for refining nineteen Dao-attaining treasures and the Xuanming Sect's core technique, the Xuanming Profound Nether Art. It is one of the supreme secret inheritances of the artifact cultivators, far more precious than ordinary Daoist books.