Chapter 126: A Rich Harvest

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Translated by Frog in the Well

Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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In the face of the immense harvest piled up like a mountain, he could not bring himself to touch it readily.

‘What should I inspect first?’

Jade slips, spiritual herbs, medicinal pills, Magic Treasures, unidentified vessels, and so on…

There was so much obtained that it was almost dizzying. Jin So-myeong, who pondered for a moment, decided to handle the spiritual herbs first.

Those that were still alive were transplanted into the Secret Realm of the Mind, and those whose life force had already ended were sealed in jade boxes so that their medicinal efficacy would not scatter.

‘Rank 4 spiritual herbs are also surprisingly numerous.’

Indeed, the other Golden Core cultivators would not have just played around in the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda. It was not a strange thing even if they broke restrictions and obtained Rank 4 spiritual herbs.

‘Even so, there wouldn’t be a Nascent Soul spiritual object… No, wait. There is one?’

Jin So-myeong, who discovered the Beautiful Sky Grass-Leaf Herb, a core ingredient for making low-grade Nascent Condensation Pills, was dumbfounded.

‘Gosh. Did they come to kill me because they weren’t satisfied even after obtaining this?’

Truly, human greed had no end.

He did not know who it was, but that person was probably shedding tears in the afterlife and regretting it.

Jin So-myeong, who clicked his tongue inwardly, finished classifying the spiritual herbs.

‘But what should I do with all of these? It would be good to refine them into medicinal pills and consume them.’

A whopping amount of over a hundred storage pouches’ worth. The problem was that the quantity was too large.

‘Should I treat it as practicing elixir refining and make them myself?’

He would blow away most of the spiritual herbs, but his elixir refining skill would greatly increase.

Or, he could just concentrate on cultivation during that time and entrust them to a trustworthy elixir refiner.

‘On hold for now.’

Since there was no need to decide immediately, he stored the spiritual herbs well and moved on to the next harvest.

High-grade spirit stones were so numerous that it was hard to count them individually, and as for talismans, there were over six hundred sheets of Rank 3 alone.

‘There are even more medicinal pills.’

Based on the standard of consuming eight times more, there was no need to worry about general cultivation medicinal pills for forty or fifty years.

‘With this much, it will be sufficient up to the 9th layer of Golden Core.’

Magic Treasures? Needless to say.

Spears, fans, tobacco pipes, fishing rods, nets, bells, sickles… He obtained such a variety of Magic Treasures that it was faster to find what was missing.

There were quite a few mysterious objects, but the one he liked most was a basket Magic Treasure with the name Heavenly Thunder Cloud Basket.

‘To think a mere Rank 3 Magic Treasure can weaken the Lightning Tribulation.’

The Lightning Tribulation was the most common Heavenly Tribulation that occurred when a human challenged the Nascent Soul stage, and simply put, it was lightning striking down from the sky.

Of course, it was not ordinary lightning.

It was a lightning bolt powerful enough to be called a heavenly punishment that burned the soul, which even a cultivator who had mastered lightning cultivation methods and possessed strong resistance to the lightning attribute would find hard to endure.

‘I should store it well and use it later when challenging the Nascent Soul stage.’

Setting aside the Heavenly Thunder Cloud Basket, a basket woven from straw, to one side, he scanned the remaining Magic Treasures.

From lifelike statues to ordinary-looking sickles. At that time when he was appraising all kinds of Magic Treasures one by one.

‘Huh? Why is this mixed in here?’

Jin So-myeong, who picked up a shabby piece of stone tablet, paused.

He thought it was just a common stone rather than a Magic Treasure and tried to pass over it roughly, but for some reason, his gaze kept going back to it.

He carefully examined the flat yellowish-brown stone slab, about one meter in width.

A single line that was nothing short of neat. A blade mark cutting diagonally across the center was visible.

At first glance, it was merely a trace made by swinging a sword at an ordinary rock, but he could not take his eyes off it at all.

‘Which storage pouch was this contained in?’

He was confused because he had obtained too many storage pouches at once, but tracing his memories, he could gather the items from the storage pouch that contained the stone tablet together.

Excluding the minor things, he focused on inspecting only the items that seemed related to the stone tablet.

‘This jade slip is a map. The location is… the Dead Soul Wilderness?’

The terrain indicated by the map was familiar. It seemed the owner of the storage pouch containing the stone tablet was from the Eastern Province.

‘Is it someone I know?’

Tracing his memories, it came to mind that it was one of the Golden Core cultivators he met when entering the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda.

‘Is there another person who reached the 3rd floor of the secret realm from the Eastern Province?’

He wondered if there was anyone in the Eastern Province who knew the fact that he was One Hand Severs Life.

He recalled roughly the hundred or so people who had attacked at the end of the secret realm, but there were only two cultivators whose faces and attire were familiar.

‘I remember. Both of those two died by my hand.’

Judging by the quietness of Vast Wilderness Immortal City, it seemed Jin So-myeong and Ryeo Jeong were the only ones who went to the 3rd floor of the secret realm from the Eastern Province and returned alive.

‘Thank goodness. There won’t be any rumors spreading for the time being.’

If it became known that he was overflowing with treasures, all kinds of bandits would come and bother him.

Although there was nothing to fear unless a Nascent Soul cultivator directly stepped forward, a quiet environment was better to concentrate on cultivation.

Nodding his head, Jin So-myeong focused on the map inside the jade slip again.

‘Hmm… it is quite far. I would have to fly for at least a year.’

Although he wanted to visit it once, the distance was too far. For now, he just kept it in mind and passed over it.

‘A piece of iron? A broken sword?’

There was also a piece of metal about the size of a finger. At that time when he was closely observing it, which was so worn that it felt like it would crumble if lightly tapped.

Buzz, buzz!

Wugeuk, who was dwelling in the Heavenly Heavy Darkrock Sword, popped out without even being called and hovered around the piece of iron.

To interpret the meaning of the emotion it transmitted…

“You want me to give it to you?”

Buzzz! Buzz, buzz!

The circle drawn by Wugeuk grew larger and larger. It desperately wanted to have the piece of iron, as anxious as a person who had starved for a hundred days.

“Hmm…”

Jin So-myeong, who stroked his chin while turning the piece of iron this way and that to inspect it.

No matter how he looked, he could not feel anything particularly special. It was the same even when he mobilized his Supreme Great Ability to amplify his senses.

“Sure. You take it.”

Although there seemed to be some secret to the piece of iron, he could not know how to utilize it right away.

He decided to entrust it to Wugeuk instead. Whatever the true identity of the piece of iron was, if it was helpful to Wugeuk, that was enough.

Buzz, buzz, buzz!!

He felt an emotion full of excitement.

Wugeuk, moving in the blink of an eye, picked up the piece of iron, which looked like a fist-sized cotton candy holding a stick in its arms.

‘How did a fellow without hands pick it up?’

Looking closely, hundreds of extremely small Sword Qi supported the piece of iron. Honestly, it was admirable to see it use sharp Sword Qi like telekinesis.

‘I don’t think I can do that.’

To handle Sword Qi like hands and feet. Perhaps because it was a seed that grew by eating Sword Qi, it pulled off a precise operation, which would make one’s jaw drop, as naturally as breathing.

Buzz, buzz!

Wugeuk, holding the piece of iron in its arms, did not stay still for even a moment and flew around in all directions. It was like a puppy experiencing the first snow.

‘You rascal, how cute.’

Watching Wugeuk rejoice like a child who received a present with gratification, he pointed to the mountain of Magic Treasures piled up like junk on one side of the cultivation room and said.

“Choose whatever you want to eat from there.”

!!!

A moment later.

A nest was created in the middle of the spiritual herb field in the Secret Realm of the Mind.

From afar, it looked like an ordinary bird’s nest, but looking closely, it had a rather menacing appearance.

Because it was a nest made by piling up objects related to sharpness, such as sickles, flying swords, spears, hooks, needles, and so on.

Settled in the center of various blades, Wugeuk fell asleep happily. It was while holding the mysterious old sword fragment in its arms like a pillow.

‘Ah right, I should also inspect the jade slips.’

Watching the cotton candy-like Wugeuk move busily to build a nest made time fly. It felt like spacing out after lighting a campfire.

Jin So-myeong, who regained his senses late, came out of the Secret Realm of the Mind.

‘I wonder if there is a usable jade slip.’

He read the jade slips obtained from the hundred storage pouches one by one, and they were truly diverse.

There were all fire, water, wood, metal, and earth five element attribute cultivation methods, and although there were tricky restrictions, there was also a lightning attribute cultivation method that could be practiced up to the early Nascent Soul stage.

‘Thunder Sound Resonance Art.’

It was a cultivation method that performed various divine abilities using the sound of thunder. Since it was quite interesting, he read it a few times and stored it separately.

What was recorded in the jade slips was not just cultivation methods.

Secret techniques for handling poison, knowledge related to the one hundred arts of immortal cultivation such as elixir refining recipes…

There was even a rearing diary written by a certain cultivator who raised spiritual beasts throughout his lifetime.

[Some demonic beasts with outstanding bloodlines awaken divine abilities engraved in their blood or receive transmissions of knowledge just by growing.]

‘How fascinating. They say a suitable cultivation method comes to mind when their cultivation realm rises?’

He also felt it was slightly unfair. Does only human have to suffer so much?

‘Not that I, who possess the Supreme Great Ability, have any right to say so.’

Jin So-myeong, who was reading the rearing diary to accumulate common sense about spiritual beasts, paused.

[I used all one hundred and seventy-one hatching methods I know, but failed. Just what kind of demonic beast egg is it that hatching is this difficult…]

His curiosity was piqued by the lamentation of the cultivator who recorded the rearing diary.

Searching through the newly emerged items in his sub-space, and indeed. There was a demonic beast egg as large as a human’s height.

‘What kind of demonic beast egg is this?’

Looking closely at the surface of the egg, tiny talisman characters floated around. Even looking at it without knowing anything about spiritual beasts, he felt that it was a fellow with a noble bloodline.

After poking the demonic beast egg covered with blue spots, he backed away.

‘I should take some time to inspect it later.’

Including the demonic beast egg, he set aside the miscellaneous items whose identities he could not clarify into a corner of the sub-space. He intended to investigate them when he had leeway.

‘Is it roughly finished? Whew. To think organizing the sub-space would be this hard.’

Of course, since it meant the harvest was that rich, it was naturally a good thing.

‘It will take several decades to digest it properly.’

There was truly a lot obtained from the Seven-Colored Treasure Pagoda. To the point that it was impossible to digest it in a short period of time.

Although he was originally on the affluent side, now he had truly become incredibly wealthy. His wealth had become large enough that he would not lose even if compared to an average major sect.

‘For the time being, I can just concentrate on cultivation without any worries. Should I raise the Heavenly Thunder Dao Body Art to Minor Success first?’

The next goal was to cross the minor boundaries, break through the late Golden Core stage, and further achieve the Nascent Soul stage.

Ah, and he must not forget to practice the River and Cloud Sword Art in his spare time.

‘Of course, before that, I must keep my promise.’

Two jade boxes Perfected Wuyang entrusted to him. Jin So-myeong, who picked up one of them, left the cave dwelling.

*

The Wu Family residential area in the eastern part of Vast Wilderness Immortal City.

Just how long did he fly through the endlessly continuing mountain range.

He arrived at the deepest part of the mountain range, a mountain so huge that an entire average city could fit in whole.

Should he call it a spiritual mountain where celestials lived?

Its scale was considerable.

Because the mountain was so high, white clouds hung on its waist, and beautiful pavilions and lush spiritual herb fields were full everywhere.

The number of villages, large and small, was also in the dozens. At a glance, the population living on the mountain exceeded several thousands.

‘Gosh, all these thousands of people are senior Perfected Wuyang’s descendants?’

To form such a large family by himself…

A dry laugh came out of its own accord. It felt like seeing the result of what happened when a Nascent Soul stage expert who lived for a thousand years formed a family.

However,

in this place that looked as peaceful as a peach blossom spring, there was a problem.

Namely, a Rank 4 spiritual vein was flowing.

There were exactly three Rank 4 spiritual veins in Vast Wilderness Immortal City, and one of them was precisely this place.

Why would a Rank 4 spiritual vein be a problem? It was because it was too precious.

Perfected Wuyang, who was the only Nascent Soul stage expert in the family, had died, so could they continue to occupy the Rank 4 spiritual vein?

It would probably be difficult.

‘Senior Perfected Wuyang had a reason for struggling to live longer…’

It was clear that he had worried about his family after his death.

As Jin So-myeong, who was lost in thought, approached the entrance, he heard the youths who seemed to be gatekeepers whispering.

“Brother. Are we really going to be fine? There is a rumor circulating in the immortal city that our Wu Clan will soon collapse.”

“Nonsense. The higher-ups will handle it, so do not worry too much.”

“We will really be fine, right?”

“Hmm, we will probably move in the near future.”

“Ah…”

Even though Jin So-myeong approached right in front of the entrance, the gatekeepers did not notice anything and talked among themselves.

It was not that he particularly unfolded a stealth technique or concealed his presence. He had merely gathered his aura perfectly.

‘Is this perhaps a Rank 4 formation?’

Jin So-myeong, who closely observed the guardian formation installed in the Wu Clan’s territory, concentrated his mind.

After honing his Divine Sense as sharp as a needle, he tried to pierce through the formation, and indeed.

As expected of a Rank 4 formation, he failed cleanly.

Just how long did he wait.

A middle-aged man with a haggard impression who looked exactly like Perfected Wuyang. Wu Yeong-jin, who had reached the 9th layer of Golden Core, appeared in the void.

“Pa-patriarch?”

Leaving behind the flustered gatekeepers, Wu Yeong-jin, who observed Jin So-myeong with a wary gaze, spoke.

“What is your business here?”

“…Hm.”

For some reason, Jin So-myeong did not answer right away and hesitated for a moment.

Because there was a sentence Perfected Wuyang had instructed him to say in this kind of situation, but honestly, he could not trust it at all.

Just how many seconds did he ponder.

Jin So-myeong, who let out a short sigh, eventually opened his mouth.

“Deok-chil sent me.”

Hoping that senior Perfected Wuyang had not played a joke.

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