Chapter 699: Thin Spiritual Qi
In an ancient city, two figures walked side by side, communicating through their spiritual sense.
“You damn unlucky thing, Qin Luan, why did you choose this world?”
“Don’t you dare turn this around on me, Li Fugui! I came to this world first, you’re the one who followed me here!”
Seven Kill Daozi snorted coldly and didn’t dwell on the topic further. “Why aren’t you bringing Song Ying and the others with you?”
“I don’t have the confidence to protect them in an unknown world. What about you? The Mermen Tribe Princess and the South Flood Dragon Clan Princess who were always by your side, why aren’t they here either?”
“Same reason.” Seven Kill Daozi hunched his shoulders, clearly not wanting to talk about this.
During those few days after he returned to the Nine Provinces from the Ten Thousand Languages World, Yu Xiaomeng and Li Jiaojiao would ambush him every single night. If not for his iron willpower, he would have long succumbed to their tender embrace.
“It’s been a year since Mr. Jiang destroyed the Immortal Realm, and we’ve finally passed the trial of the Ten Thousand Languages World.”
Qin Luan felt a wave of emotion. The Ten Thousand Languages World had poor communication, so they didn’t even know about such a huge event as the destruction of the Immortal Realm. When he returned to the Nine Provinces and saw the bustling activity of realm-hopping in the Myriad Worlds, learning that the Immortal Realm was no longer the cultivators’ goal, he felt as if a whole era had passed.
The changes that had occurred in the Nine Provinces over the past year were truly earth-shattering.
After Qin Luan rested in the Nine Provinces for a few days, Jiang Li assigned him a new task, just like the other Human Sovereign candidates. Qin Luan’s mission was also to explore and save other worlds.
Speaking of this, Seven Kill Daozi visibly perked up. He secretly took out a palm-sized stone stele and showed it off. “Look, this is the reward the Human Sovereign gave me. A real Seven Kill Stele.”
Qin Luan scoffed at the Seven Kill Stele. “This is an immortal artifact, but it has no intelligence. With your mere Spirit Transformation stage cultivation, the best you can do is use this thing as a brick.”
“You’re just jealous.”
“Am not.”
“According to the coordinates and corresponding world names provided by Senior Brahma Tower, this world should be called the Xuanming World. Have you noticed? Although this is a cultivation world, the spiritual energy is extremely thin, unsuitable for cultivation. It’s far inferior to the Nine Provinces.”
“Indeed. There’s a merchant guild ahead, let’s go check it out.” Seven Kill Daozi had also noticed this. According to local terminology, their current location was a cultivation city, inhabited entirely by cultivators, where the spiritual energy should be quite abundant.
Yet based on their observations, the spiritual energy here was so thin it couldn’t even support cultivation at the Nascent Soul stage.
If it was like this here, one could imagine how thin the spiritual energy must be in other places.
The two entered the merchant guild and discovered that Spirit Stones in the Xuanming World were incredibly precious. In the Nine Provinces, gold and silver could be exchanged for Spirit Stones, but in the Xuanming World, Spirit Stones were strategic resources, treasures of the cultivators, and would absolutely not be exchanged for useless gold.
“The principles of alchemy are the same as in the Nine Provinces, but the process is much more complicated. From melting the herbs to condensing the pill, it requires at least eighteen steps. The purpose of each step is to maximize the utilization of spiritual energy. Even the herb residue is refined into waste pills.”
“Waste pills also have a market here.”
Qin Luan analyzed, as he knew a bit about alchemy.
Alchemists in the Nine Provinces never bothered refining herb residue into waste pills; it was too troublesome. It was better to use the herb residue to feed pigs and improve pork quality.
Seven Kill Daozi looked around, then stopped the shopkeeper and asked, “Shopkeeper, why don’t you have any Spirit Gathering Arrays here?”
The shopkeeper’s expression changed. He quickly looked left and right. Seeing no one around, he lowered his voice and said, “Sir, Spirit Gathering Arrays can concentrate spiritual energy. They’ve been listed as contraband by the authorities and cannot be sold publicly.”
“However, since you asked, you must know the value of a Spirit Gathering Array and have brought enough Spirit Stones. As long as you have Spirit Stones, our Heavenly Treasure Pavilion can produce any treasure.”
Seven Kill Daozi was speechless. In the Nine Provinces, the Spirit Gathering Array was printed in the appendix of the “Cultivation Guidance Manual.” Here, the Spirit Gathering Array was treated like a demonic path formation.
Seven Kill Daozi had plenty of Spirit Stones. He took out a dozen mid-grade Spirit Stones and bought the Spirit Gathering Array. With one glance, he could tell it was just an ordinary Spirit Gathering Array.
The two left the merchant guild and took out a notebook titled “Myriad Worlds Exploration Records.”
Cultivators who travel to other worlds need to record their daily observations. Upon returning to the Nine Provinces, they must leave a copy at the Human Sovereign Hall.
Qin Luan wrote in it: “Xuanming World, a continental world. Historically, four immortals have appeared. It is speculated their highest achievement was the Earthly Immortal stage.”
“Characteristics of this world: Thin spiritual energy.”
“Investigations show the Xuanming World originally had abundant spiritual energy. Each time an immortal ascended, a large portion of the spiritual energy was depleted. When the fourth immortal ascended, they almost absorbed all the spiritual energy of the Xuanming World.”
“The cultivators of the Xuanming World believe cultivation requires severing mortal ties and cutting off the past. The four immortals also held this view. After ascending, they never contacted the Xuanming World again, nor did they ever return spiritual energy.”
“Afterwards, the Xuanming World entered the ‘Gloomy Spirit Era,’ meaning spiritual energy is thin, the Great Dao is obscure, and cultivation is difficult.”
“Characteristics derived from thin spiritual energy include: During cultivation, ensuring spiritual energy is not wasted as much as possible; Mortal cities and cultivation cities are divided by spiritual energy, with a clear distinction. Cultivation cities absorb all the spiritual energy from mortal cities for cultivation. Mortal cities have not a trace of spiritual energy. Yet even such cultivation cities still suffer from scarce spiritual energy; Spirit Stones, Spirit Gathering Arrays, etc., are controlled items. Unauthorized circulation is prohibited…”
“Preliminary speculation: The thin spiritual energy of the Xuanming World is unrelated to the Immortal Realm.”
Qin Luan closed the notebook and saw people all around rushing towards the city center. Their expressions were gloomy, and some were weeping.
“What happened?” Qin Luan frowned.
“Let’s go see.” Seven Kill Daozi finished speaking and walked towards the city center. Seeing this, Qin Luan followed.
…
At the city center, there was a formation constructed from fresh blood. It seemed to have wailing ghosts within, filled with bloodshed and ill omen.
There were five Core Formation stage cultivators in the entire cultivation city, and all were present now. Among these five, one was at the peak of the Core Formation stage, ranked first among them, and also the City Lord of this cultivation city.
In the center of the blood formation, several children were tied up. They were still very young, not even of age to begin cultivation.
These children were bound, drugged, and lying on the ground asleep.
The entire city’s population surrounded the blood formation, silent and sullen. Not a single person wore a smile on their face.
“My master told me about this. This is a demonic path formation used to break through cultivation realms!” Seven Kill Daozi whispered. This was his first time seeing a demonic path cultivator.
Qin Luan’s expression was also grim.
“My child! My child!” A woman in the crowd completely broke down. Wailing loudly, she rushed towards the formation, trying to take her child away.
The woman was a Qi Refining stage cultivator. She erupted with all her power, attempting to snatch the child publicly. The others were no weaklings either. Several people pounced on her and subdued her.
“Sister Zhang, I know your heart is breaking, but we all agreed beforehand. Whichever child is chosen, that child must be offered in the blood sacrifice. If your child isn’t sacrificed, then another child must be used as a replacement. Whose child do you want to replace yours with!”
“We won’t forget your child. Every Qingming Festival and Ghost Festival, we’ll burn paper money for your child.”