Secular Immortal of the Nine Realms - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: Taming an Artifact

“Tell me everything you know. Where are they? What’s their cultivation? Why are you eyeing Great Xia? And do you have people in Guhe, Longdu, Yizhou, and Greenpine?” Fang Chen said.

“Will you spare me if I speak?” the old woman said with great difficulty. Her throat was so badly burned that it felt like knives were scraping in her each time she spoke.

“Of course,” Fang Chen replied.

“Hehehe…” The old woman suddenly laughed. She looked at Fang Chen with contemptuous eyes. “Do you think I’d believe you? If I speak, not only will I die, but my fellow cultists will suffer the same fate too. I don’t know who you are, but you’re doomed for daring to make a move on our Blood Spirit Cult. Our Blood Spirit Cult is much stronger than you could have imagined!”

“You’d rather die than to speak, hm?” Fang Chen frowned.

The old woman didn’t say a word. Her eyes widened, and a trail of black blood seeped from the corner of her lips. Fang Chen walked up to check on her. She was dead.

“The Blood Spirit Cult is formidable. Even its lower ranking members rather die than to betray the cult and divulge information.” Fang Chen frowned.

The old woman clearly knew more, but it was a pity she had ended her life. This meant that he had no choice but to work on Qin Dong.

“Young master, this fellow is like a tortoise. We can’t kill him.”

Huang Sihai and Tie Ma captured the third stage Ki Refinement cultivator and brought them before Fang Chen. As much as the two of them couldn’t hurt him, he was unable to find a chance to escape either.

“I admit defeat. Please spare me.” The cultivator eyed the old woman’s corpse, and a shudder went down his spine. He anxiously begged Fang Chen for mercy.

“Tie Ma, give me your sword,” Fang Chan said.

Tie Ma handed his sword to Fang Chen.

Fang Chen channeled his spirit ki into the sword before plunging it into the cultivator’s heart. The latter looked down with indignant eyes before breathing his last.

Tie Ma and Huang Sihai were shocked.

“This person has an artifact that only spirit ki can penetrate. Your inner ki doesn’t work well against it,” Fang Chen explained.

Spirit ki…

The two of them glanced at each other in confusion, but they chose not to ask since Fang Chen didn’t elaborate.

With this, all four cultivators who blocked their path were dead.

Fang Chen searched their bodies and acquired some ki stones and two artifacts. One was from the third stage Ki Refinement cultivator, and the other was from the old woman. There was also a manual on the old woman detailing the cultivation method for Fireball Art.

Fang Chen ordered his subordinates to dispose of the corpses before making their way back to the capital.

In the carriage, he did a quick tally and confirmed that he had more than a hundred low-grade ki stones at the moment.

Then, he checked on the two artifacts. The old woman’s artifact was a palm-sized scarecrow overflowing with spirit ki. He could vaguely see five daosoul imprints shrouding it.

“Five daosoul imprints. That’s an artifact for a fifth stage Ki Refinement cultivator. It should be worth around 200 low-grade ki stones.”

The other artifact was a jade token with three daosoul imprints.

Both artifacts carried their previous owners’ aura, so Fang Chen would have to assimilate them if he wanted to use them.

Let me try assimilating the artifacts.

Two hours later, Fang Chen exhausted the spirit ki inside him, but the old woman’s aura still lingered on the scarecrow. However, he wasn’t worried about it, as his spirit ki quickly healed, and his spirit ki capacity even increased by a little.

He continued channeling his spirit ki into the scarecrow.

A day later, he finally erased the old woman’s aura from the scarecrow and replaced it with his. This meant that he had fully assimilated the artifact.

Another day later, he successfully assimilated the jade token too.

He decided to first try out the jade token. He channeled his spirit ki into the jade token, and he was immediately shrouded in a spirit ki barrier. As long as he didn’t deplete his spirit ki, it would be difficult for even a fourth stage Ki Refinement cultivator to hurt him.

The reason he was able to easily slay the third stage Ki Refinement cultivator earlier was due to him having depleted most of his spirit ki under Tie Ma and Huang Sihai’s pummeling.

For the time being, this jade token was a good defensive artifact for him.

“I wonder what’s the use of this scarecrow…” Fang Chen murmured.

He pumped his spirit ki into the scarecrow, and the scarecrow transformed into a middle-aged man and kneeled before him.

Fang Chen was surprised. He took a closer look and found that the middle-aged man fitted Madam Wu and Grandpa Lu’s description.

“He emanates a formidable aura and is imbued with spirit ki, but he isn’t a cultivator. It’s unlikely he can use any daoist arts. His means are probably similar to that of martial artists. His strength surpasses that of a fourth stage Ki Manifestation martial artist, possibly reaching Earth Profound level,” Fang Chen murmured his analysis.

He shouted to those two outside, “Stop for a moment.”

Tie Ma and Huang Sihai quickly stopped the carriage. Both of them were surprised when they saw a foreign middle-aged man getting off the carriage behind Fang Chen.

“Spar with him,” Fang Chen instructed with a smile.

“The two of us?” Huang Sihai was startled, but he quickly broke out with a grin. “Young master, I’ll suffice. Someone of his size won’t be able to take our combined onslaught.”

“Sure, give it a try.” Fang Chen’s lips crept up.

Seconds later, Huang Sihai was sent flying over a distance of fifty meters. He crashed onto the floor and sat in a daze, unable to stand up. It took him a while to calm his rattled innards before he raised his head and stared at the middle-aged man in disbelief.

“We should work together.” Tie Ma narrowed his eyes.

Huang Sihai didn’t hold this back this time around. He coordinated his movements with Tie Ma to attack the middle-aged man, but the latter flitted like an elusive specter, and every strike from him wielded tremendous prowess.

The two of them only withstood five to six exchanges before they were sent flying.

“Young master, this is?” Huang Sihai and Tie Ma were alarmed.

Fang Chen retracted his spirit ki from the middle-aged man, and the latter reverted into a scarecrow before flying back into his hands.

This further shocked the duo, especially when they remembered the talismans Fang Chen had given them. Our young master has grasped such mystical means over the last five years?

“This scarecrow is an artifact. Its strength surpasses Ki Manifestation cultivators, and it’s capable of dealing with cultivators,” Fang Chen said with a smile.

For instance, the scarecrow could have easily dealt with the third stage Ki Refinement cultivator from earlier on as it was using spirit ki.

“Young master, I have once heard that there are people in this world who possess mystical means that far surpass what we, martial artists, are capable of, as if they were immortals…” Tie Ma spoke with an intrigued frown.

“Yes. Those people pursue a different path from martial artists. They cultivate in hopes of reaching immortalhood, which is why they are called cultivators,” Fang Chen replied with a nod.

The duo finally realized that their young master had started walking down a completely different path from theirs, and they were overjoyed to hear that.