Ye Liusu, who was hurrying along silently, discovered that a mysterious smile had suddenly appeared on Li Qingshan’s face. She immediately thought of a thousand possible reasons for his behaviour, but she could never guess why Li Qingshan was happy.
The hundred treasures pouch was so plentiful that it completely exceeded Li Qingshan’s expectations. Let alone the various high level pills, just the sum of spiritual stones that numbered at over ten thousand made him overjoyed.
As the sect master of the Pheasant’s Grace mountain, the Golden Pheasant Elder’s hundred treasures pouch contained the resources of an entire sect. These resources were not just for him, but for developing the sect as a whole. It had been built up over countless generations, but it had all ended up in Li Qingshan’s hands now.
Apart from the spiritual stones and pills, there were a large quantity of spiritual herbs such as Dragontongue grass over three centuries old, five-centuries-old Snowheart orchids, and so on. Every single one of them was worth several thousand spiritual stones at the very least.
If it were not for the sect and its deep heritage, regular Foundation Establishment cultivators would have never been in possession of such items. Even if they could afford them, they would be refined into pills immediately. They would not be stored in hundred treasures pouches.
Because the Pheasant’s Grace mountain used Golden Pheasant’s plumes as their weapons, there were not a lot of spiritual artifacts. Though, there were three supreme grade spiritual artifacts.
There was a sword with cloud patterns, a piece of bright yellow embroidery, and a small celadon bottle.
Li Qingshan had no idea what their names were, but when he saw the glow they gave off, he took a liking to them. In particular, he found the small bottle to be rather familiar. Suddenly, he remembered where he had seen it. Wasn’t this the supreme grade spiritual artifact that had almost fetched ten thousand spiritual stones in the auction below the Green Vine mountain?
The usage of the bottle had once been explained in detail during the auction. It could be filled up with regular water, which would then be converted into spiritual water. It would bring great about benefits whether the spiritual water was used for alchemy, artifact forging, or for watering spiritual herbs.
Only this item out of the three spiritual artifacts had signs of being refined. The sword and embroidery were completely untouched.
When the Golden Pheasant Elder transformed into a golden pheasant in battle, he could not afford to split his focus and control a spiritual artifact at the same time, so he never bothered to refine these two spiritual artifacts. His Golden Pheasant’s plume was already his strongest spiritual artifact. However, before Li Qingshan’s absolute strength, even an additional supreme grade spiritual artifact would not have been able to change anything.
But aside from those, he failed to find any legendary arcane artifacts. That was not surprising. The world was not overflowing with arcane artifacts like spiritual artifacts. Every single arcane artifact possessed startling power, which also meant it was extremely difficult to refine. Normally, only large clans or sects possessed them, and they were rarely ever sold. Most Foundation Establishment cultivators just used supreme grade spiritual artifacts.
Even if an arcane artifact appeared on the market, the Golden Pheasant Elder would have never spent an astronomical sum to buy it. The world was at peace, lacking much conflict at all. In particular, cultivators at Foundation Establishment and above often went decades without fighting, so what was the point of buying it? If the small bottle had not been a spiritual artifact that complimented cultivation, the three elders never would have contended for it.
Li Qingshan was already completely satisfied with these three supreme grade spiritual artifacts, particularly with the small, celadon bottle. He could build up a supply of spiritual water in his spare time, which would be quite nice for bathing.
There were also some shiny, metallic ores. Li Qingshan guessed that these were materials for forging artifacts. He had never learnt how to forge artifacts, so he could not recognise them either. Though, just from the glow that they gave off, he knew they were worth quite a lot. They must have been for forging Golden Pheasant’s plumes.
Oh right. Speaking of which, he obtained quite a few handfuls of Golden Pheasant’s plumes too. They should have been in the range of supreme grade spiritual artifacts, and they even came in a set, which made them the best of the best. Unfortunately, they could only be controlled with the cultivation method of the Pheasant’s Grace mountain. He did find the complete Golden Pheasant’s Method of the Rising Sun, but Li Qingshan would never practise it.
Afterwards, he opened the Lone Grave Elder’s hundred treasures pouch. The contents left Li Qingshan surprised.
All he saw was a tremendous number of corpses. There were all kinds of corpses, male, female, old, and young. Some had been refined, while some remained in their original state. It was such a vicious, horrific sight that it seemed like a living hell.
The Burial Mound mountain was based on refining corpses, so corpses were their most important resource. It was both a consumable and a necessity. In order to find these corpses, who knew how many graves the disciples of the Burial Mound mountain had robbed.
Li Qingshan took out the spiritual stones and pills and moved them to the Golden Pheasant Elder’s hundred treasures pouch before passing the Lone Grave Elder’s hundred treasures pouch to Xiao An. “This is for you.” Among the items he passed over were the two supreme grade spiritual artifacts in the Lone Grave Elder’s possession, the bone sceptre and the bronze bangle. They both radiated with yin qi and were related to refining and controlling corpses, so he had no use for them.
After splitting the spoils, Li Qingshan stood up and stretched himself lazily. He grinned. “Let’s enter secluded cultivation again!”
This time, his objective was reaching the third layer of the Spirit Turtle’s Method of Sea Suppression. That way, he would be able to suppress the daemon qi from the ox demon and tiger demon perfectly, just in case he would give himself away after reaching the third layer of the tiger demon.
The flames in Xiao An’s eyes flickered. She was actually thinking of something else. After undergoing the heavenly tribulation, her cultivation had increased drastically, but at the same time, she had reached a new bottleneck. Without sufficient comprehension, the essence of flesh and blood would not be enough to increase her cultivation of the Path of White Bone and Great Beauty.
However, it would be perfect for her to continue forging Skull Prayer Beads. If nothing went wrong, she would be able to assemble twelve beads into a string and forge her first white bone spiritual artifact, no, arcane artifact.
Just as the two of them became motivated by their lofty aspirations, Milliped, on the other hand, had already fallen asleep. He curled up on the stone platform as his segments all loosened. He seemed to be very pleased. He would never know what ambition was. All he knew was he could finally lay here and sleep again.
Li Qingshan sat down, took out a pill, and shoved it into his mouth. His mind gradually settled down, entering a state of thoughtlessness.
However, little did he know that his stunt on the Green Vine mountain had already led to a great uproar in the cultivation world.
At the centre of where all these waves came from, Yu Shukuang and the disciples of the Green Vine mountain fled in all directions.
Only when Yu Shukuang looked back at the mist-shrouded Green Vine mountain and saw no one in pursuit did he relax. He collapsed on his bottom and heaved for air. He had experienced a bloody career in the jianghu, where his life was constantly at risk. Originally, he thought there was nothing that could scare him anymore, but just a glance from the scarlet-red eyes had almost been enough for him to roll down the mountain in fright. He was absolutely certain that he would be a dead man already if a slash went his way.
Just like how monkeys would disperse when the tree collapsed, the disciples of the Green Vine mountain fled for their lives under Li Qingshan’s pressure. They were afraid Li Qingshan would catch them and finish them off too.
Yu Shukuang looked around. All that was left beside him was Yu Lian.
“Foster father, where do we go now?” Yu Lian was still mellow like before, just much more mature. He was originally Yu Shukuang’s trusted disciple. After gaining a stable footing in the Green Vine mountain, Yu Shukuang had brought him over. They were no longer master and disciple, so Yu Lian took Yu Shukuang as his foster father.
Yu Shukuang said, “We definitely can’t go back to the Green Vine mountain. That’s not a safe place. Who knows when the daemon might attack again. With our cultivation, we’re like lambs to the slaughter. Why don’t we just go back to the Proud Sword manor?”
After two years of arduous cultivation, coupled with the tremendous resources from the Green Vine mountain, he had reached the fourth layer, while Yu Lian had reached the second layer. Although they had both undergone important breakthroughs in their lives, they were still at the very bottom of the cultivation world. They could not even withstand a single slash from the daemon.
“If the daemons launch a large-scale attack, the Proud Sword manor probably won’t be safe either. There’s a tunnel leading underground just outside the city. Why don’t we go to Clear River city and seek shelter under junior sister?” Yu Lian came up with an idea and stated it.
“This…” Yu Shukuang found it rather embarrassing to seek shelter under his daughter as a father.
“Junior brother Yu is right. Brother Yu, you should stop hesitating. I plan to go to Clear River city too.” Diao Fei emerged from behind a large tree. His cultivation had already reached an impressive sixth layer, having split open his sea of qi. Once he reported this matter to commander Wang, it should be enough to earn him a position as a Scarlet Wolf guard.
“First senior brother, you’re here too!” Yu Shukuang beamed. Although an additional Diao Fei would still not be enough to withstand a single slash from the daemon, at least he felt slightly safer.
The two of them had become acquainted two years ago. They were not close friends, but they did know each other at the very least.
Yu Shukuang respected Diao Fei for his powerful cultivation, while Diao Fei knew Yu Shukuang had a daughter called Yu Zijian cultivating in the Academy of the Hundred Schools. With her Pure Yang constitution, she earned the favour of the leader of the school of Daoism, so he would never try to disrespect Yu Shukuang either.
“How terrifying!” Diao Fei sighed. After reaching the sixth layer, he had become the first senior brother of the Green Vine mountain. He felt rather proud and content with himself, holding his head high. However, only after witnessing that unstoppable power tonight did he understand that he was just a slightly larger shrimp in the cultivation world with his measly cultivation.
Yu Shukuang agreed with that statement from the bottom of his heart. He sighed along with him.
“So what do you think, brother Yu? If we travel together, we can look after one another once we reach Clear River city.” Diao Fei had heard that Yu Zijian was familiar with the Hua family. If anything happened, he could get her to mediate any potential problems.
Seeing Diao Fei, Yu Shukuang suddenly thought of a certain person. Back then, they had only managed to strike a conversation because of him.
I might not be able to seek shelter under Zijian, but I can seek shelter under him!
That’s right, the person Yu Shukuang was thinking about was Li Qingshan. It was all thanks to Li Qingshan’s assistance that he had managed to reach where he was today. He could be regarded as half a subordinate of Li Qingshan. If he sought shetler under Li Qingshan, it would not be embarrassing. Yu Shukuang had heard that he had made quite a name for himself in the academy.
If he knew that the exact person who had scared him away was Li Qingshan, who knew how he would react.
“Alright, let’s go then!”
……
“Is that true?”
After hearing the report from Diao Fei, Wang Pushi’s eyebrows scrunched up into a mess. A Daemon General had actually killed the elders of the three mountains. It sounded unbelievable no matter how he heard it. With how crafty those three old men were, couldn’t they just escape if they could not win?
Then he checked Diao Fei and saw that he was unscathed. If the Daemon General was so arrogant and powerful, why did he let them go alive? That was why he asked for confirmation.
“Absolutely. If you don’t believe me, commander, I’ve brought two of my junior brothers with me. The other senior and junior brothers have all seen it too. The news should spread before long. I hope this is sufficient time for the commander to make a decision.”
“Come with me!” Wang Pushi leapt up from his seat. Recently, the conflict between humans and daemons had grown more and more violent. It was not restricted to the Clear River prefecture or the Ruyi commandery. Instead, the entire Green province was smoking with the signs of war.
However, something like a Daemon General killing a Foundation Establishment cultivator was still unheard of, let alone killing three at the same time. If it really were true, then it would be a colossal case. He would have to report this to commander Gu immediately so that she could make a decision on the matter.
