I've never drifted in there, but this character has.
Li Ban silently thought to himself.
"My lord, I don't rember. I woke up in the Corpse Pit. But aren't all things in the river supposed to be corpses?"
Zhou Gu gazed at the turbulent yellow river water, feeling emotional, and unexpectedly beca talkative.
"Occasionally there are living people too," he said, pointing to small boats on the river. "Those people are corpse fishern and corpse-bearers."
"Living people found by corpse-bearers without Identity or elental affinity beco their property. These people jointly operate a slave market in the Black Market White Market."
"If they find corpses with elental traces, they carry them back to Eternal Tower for processing."
Hearing this, Li Ban's heart stirred.
If he could find elental corpses by the riverbank, could he obtain free elents?
As a first-rank nial worker, he could already fuse with two elents. Could he potentially fuse with a third or fourth?
If true, his need for elents would far exceed other Spirit Practitioners.
The better the elent, the more expensive. Buying them outright was impossible—he needed alternative thods.
Zhou Gu glanced at Li Ban and imdiately understood what the intense river-gazing ant.
"All corpses in the River of Forgetfulness belong to Eternal Tower. Anyone caught secretly fishing for corpses becos a slave."
"Moreover, Eternal Tower has unique thods for extracting fused elents from corpses. Others attempting this would likely only get rotten flesh and useless elents."
Li Ban averted his gaze but didn't truly abandon the idea.
With his mission assistance system, maybe he could try.
Previously, he hadn't extracted elents from corpses himself—they were already obtained and fully belonged to him when the system gave fusion prompts.
Not feasible now, but worth long-term consideration.
"My lord, why are there so many corpses in the River of Forgetfulness? And though damaged, none show signs of rotting or swelling."
Zhou Gu's reply surprised him.
"I don't know."
"What?"
"Perhaps higher Identity individuals might know. I only know one saying passed down for centuries:"
"The River of Forgetfulness flows to the Corpse Pit, the River of No Return flows to the Unreturning Place."
So there was another river called the River of No Return equally famous as the River of Forgetfulness.
Li Ban wondered what this other river looked like.
After forcing himself to look away, Li Ban's gaze kept drifting back.
He repeatedly reminded himself—this was the Witch World, a virtual reality, his true body remained in that sci-fi laboratory after transmigration.
Yet among thousands of floating corpses, he didn't see a single repeated character model.
Either the virtual world's processing core was imnsely powerful, or...
Li Ban stopped that thought.
He turned his back to the river, looking no more.
"Scared?" Zhou Gu misunderstood Li Ban's action. "You'll get used to it."
They didn't cross the river but walked along it until reaching a bend where their destination appeared.
Eternal Tower.
Li Ban expected a corpse-processing facility to be either ghostly or reeking of decay.
Instead, he saw a magnificent ancient pagoda complex.
The sprawling complex had mostly three-to-four-story peripheral towers, with a central seven-story pagoda standing out—black tiles, red lacquer.
This brick-wood structure had a three-ter-high base alone.
Each of its towering levels exceeded four ters in height.
As Li Ban admired it, the black roof tiles on the main pagoda's eaves suddenly shifted.
His eyes widened slightly as a giant black-scaled tiger rose atop the tower.
Then massive black leather wings unfolded, montarily blocking the sun behind it.
Sunlight filtering through gilded the beast's outline—radiant as a divine creature.
The tiger seed to rely stretch before folding its wings and settling back, blending into the black tiles until nearly indistinguishable.
"That's Eternal Tower Master's mount, the Black-Winged Qiongqi. Keep your distance."
Li Ban thought, I wouldn't go near it even if you told to.
"My lord, with Eternal Tower so impressive, what Identity rank is its master?"
Zhou Gu watched the Qiongqi cautiously. "Sixth rank."
Li Ban was surprised.
The master controlling all corpses in the River of Forgetfulness, preventing others from claiming them, was only sixth rank?
With ten ranks being peak, sixth was upper-mid at best.
Didn't that seem low?
"You think it's low?"
"Confusing, but surely there's reasoning beyond my understanding."
"Knowing your ignorance suffices. Even I don't understand, but this isn't Eternal Tower's deficiency."
Zhou Gu looked up at the increasingly towering pagoda, complex emotions flashing through his eyes.
After a mont, perhaps feeling overly exposed, he changed tone.
"Regardless, don't overthink. Though Death Prison jailers are fourth rank, Officer Du's exceptional skills and powerful fused elents place him among Yu Region's elite."
Li Ban suspected Zhou Gu was comforting himself.
Regarding Identity, elents and strength, he'd heard similar from the cat-woman.
One's power relates to Spirit Practitioner rank, fused elents, experience and ntality.
Lower ranks killing higher ones wasn't unheard of in life-or-death situations.
But Identity rank gaps do affect spiritual essence absorption capacity.
Quantity can transform into quality.
Normally, first rank can absorb one elent. Suppose saturating it requires 100 spiritual essence.
Second rank allows two elents, but rank advancent might require 200 essence per elent.
Besides reabsorbing 100 for original elents, new elents can take another 100.
Pure essence quantity makes second rank four tis first rank.
Reality differs—elents have varying saturation points, never neat hundreds.
Actual power disparities have multiple possibilities.
It also depends on combat effectiveness.
More realistic this way.
Yet regardless of talent, Li Ban doubted Death Prison officers could defeat Eternal Tower's master two ranks higher.
Zhou Gu likely agreed—hence his complicated gaze at the tower.
The carriage finally stopped. Old Qin hadn't spoken the entire trip.
Only now did he say, "Officer Zhou, we've arrived."
Zhou Gu exited first, Li Ban following closely. Old Qin remained waiting roadside.
They approached Eternal Tower's front pagoda—rely two stories with three normal stone steps.
"Give your purchase list." Zhou Gu took it and knocked.
A black-clad youth erged imdiately.
Recognizing Zhou Gu, they exchanged small packages from their robes.
Zhou Gu's contained Li Ban's list.
"Please also call jailer Zhao Yu."
The youth replied calmly, "Understood. Wait montarily."
After the door closed, Zhou Gu returned to Li Ban's side.
"What did you just see?" Zhou Gu suddenly asked.
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