Chapter 106: A Fruitful Harvest
Chapter 106: A Fruitful Harvest
Chu Ning and the others left Du Han's residence, each deep in thought as they walked. The usually short journey felt much longer today.
As they reached the shop's entrance, Gu Xiaoqin looked at Lu Miaoying, who had remained silent.
"Sister Lu, is there anything else that needs to be done at the shop? I can help you with it. And, why don't you rest at my place tonight?"
Gu Xiaoqin was always considerate of others, and it was clear that she was concerned about Lu Miaoying, who had been through a terrifying experience today, on top of Luo Yiping's passing.
However, Lu Miaoying shook her head and forced a smile, "Brother Luo left behind quite a few spirit beasts. I need to take care of them, and the shop needs to stay open these next few days."
Hearing this, the group fell silent. Chu Ning glanced at Lu Miaoying, the female disciple in charge of the spirit beasts. He hadn't paid much attention to her before, knowing only that she followed Luo Yiping's lead and didn't seem to have much of her own opinion. He never expected that she was so deeply devoted to Luo Yiping, and that she would show such strength and stubbornness in the face of adversity.
After Lu Miaoying left, the group exchanged glances and prepared to go their separate ways. Shen Zhengquan left first, while Gu Xiaoqin lingered for a moment.
As Chu Ning was about to enter the shop, Gu Xiaoqin called out to him and quickly walked over. She took out the storage bag that belonged to the Yin Demon Sect disciple and said, "Chu Ning, I wanted to tell you that I owe you my life today. If not for you, I would've certainly died. Please take this storage bag as well. I wouldn't have been able to defeat that person without your help."
"Since Sister is insisting, I won't be rude," Chu Ning replied, seeing the gratitude on Gu Xiaoqin's face. He didn't refuse and accepted the bag.
Women were more emotional, and he could see that Gu Xiaoqin would feel indebted if he didn't accept it.
Sure enough, a smile appeared on Gu Xiaoqin's face when she saw that Chu Ning had taken the storage bag. It was the first time she had smiled since the attack earlier that day.
After Gu Xiaoqin left, Chu Ning returned to his residence with the storage bag. He also took out three other storage bags that he had obtained earlier.
Lin Changqing had only taken the identity tokens of the Yin Demon Sect disciples and left the rest. Perhaps he didn't think their belongings were worth taking, or maybe he felt that Chu Ning and the others had already gained enough today.
Chu Ning emptied the contents of the storage bags onto the table, and the assortment of items made him blink in surprise.
Having heard from Lin Changqing that the Yin Demon Slash was emitted from a magical artifact, Chu Ning first examined the artifacts.
He picked up the staff that the black-robed man had used to create the gray mist, and a wave of yin energy emanated from it, causing Chu Ning to frown slightly.
Even though he wasn't very familiar with artifacts, he could tell that it was an item that cultivated yin and cold energy.
However, upon further inspection, he found that it was actually a rather extraordinary intermediate artifact.
He experimented by infusing it with spiritual power, and after a few tries, he quickly mastered how to use it.
The staff had two small arrays engraved on it, each corresponding to a different function.
One function was the gray mist that obscured vision, which could be activated by infusing spiritual power. Chu Ning tested it and found that it could cover an area of up to ten meters.
The other function was a gray light spell that could be cast by infusing spiritual power.
Chu Ning examined it closely and found that the spell didn't belong to any of the five elements. Instead, it exuded a subtle yin and cold aura, indicating that it was some kind of demonic cultivation technique.
"This gray mist is actually quite a useful trick," Chu Ning thought, finding the staff a bit ugly but acknowledging its practicality.
It could definitely come in handy during battles. In fact, the black-robed man had only managed to catch him off guard earlier because of the element of surprise.
If it had been a regular Qi Refining cultivator, even one at the late or peak stage, they would've been at the black-robed man's mercy without spiritual sense, regardless of their strength.
From the black-robed man's reaction to his movements, it seemed that he hadn't realized that Chu Ning was using spiritual sense to perceive his surroundings.
So, the Divine Spirit Technique probably wasn't something unique to the Yin Demon Sect, and Qi Chongmou must have learned it from somewhere else.
Chu Ning put away the staff and turned his attention to another artifact—the black wheel that Gu Xiaoqin had taken from the disciple she killed.
"I wonder if Lin Changqing can apply for a return-to-the-sect reward for us," Chu Ning thought to himself. "If so, we can take these artifacts back and see if the sect will recycle them."
Given their questionable origins, he dared not sell them directly at Yunhai Pavilion. But if the sect could recycle them, that wouldn't be a problem. After all, the sect was already aware of where they came from.
After putting away the artifacts, Chu Ning's attention turned to the various bottles and jars. He opened a few to find that they contained different kinds of pills—some had one or two, while others held seven or eight.
What troubled Chu Ning was that none of the pills were labeled, leaving him clueless about their names and purposes. After inspecting a few, he decided to stop looking and stored them all away, intending to ask Gu Xiaoqing about them the next day.
Next, Chu Ning began to inventory the substantial number of spirit stones he found in the storage bags. It seemed that these Yin Demon Sect disciples were quite well-off. Each of them carried several hundred spirit stones, amounting to a total of 1,732 lower-grade spirit stones.
Seeing these spirit stones cheered Chu Ning up a little, easing the sadness he felt about the damage to his Silver Crystal Frost Bamboo Shield. With over a thousand spirit stones, he could definitely afford to buy a high-grade defensive artifact, even if it might not be enough for a top-grade one.
After all, the ordinary high-grade artifacts at Yunhai Pavilion only cost around 1,200 spirit stones. He briefly looked over the miscellaneous demon beast materials and put them aside, intending to store them together with the unused artifacts in a storage bag.
A smile appeared on Chu Ning's face as he reflected on the day's events. Despite the losses, the harvest had been plentiful, and he was confident that he could recoup his investments.
Having finished sorting through the items, Chu Ning reflected on the day's battle, his eyes glinting with newfound insight. He felt that his previous ideas had been slightly flawed.
Previously, he hadn't expected any danger in the vicinity of the market town, and given the substantial resources required for cultivation, he had allocated most of his resources toward purchasing items that would enhance his cultivation level.
As a result, he had bought fewer high-level talismans, artifacts, and other defensive items. In particular, he had thought that a single middle-grade artifact for protection would suffice. Now, he realized that he needed to strike a balance.
While resources for cultivation were important, he couldn't neglect items that could save his life. "If I can go back to the sect and exchange them, that would be great," he thought. "But if not, I'll have to ask Lin Changqing to take me back to Fengxiafang. I'll need to buy more items at Yunhai Pavilion."
With that in mind, Chu Ning took out the Pure Yang Stone Powder, the Tongmai Cuiti Dan, and the Lingyuan Dan, which had cost him a significant number of spirit stones. Since he had already spent the spirit stones, he might as well make use of them.
Picking up a Lingyuan Dan, Chu Ning examined it briefly before swallowing it. Then, he began to cultivate the Green Wood Eternal Spring Art.
Upon reaching the seventh level of Qi Refining, not only had the upper limit for proficiency increased, but the difficulty in raising it had also become more challenging. Even with the help of the Iron Stem Orchid, an excellent spiritual plant for absorbing spiritual energy, it still took Chu Ning a considerable amount of time to reach two points of proficiency in the Green Wood Spring Technique each day.
On top of that, he also had to cultivate the Nine-Layer Tempering Body Formula and the Refining God Technique. If he wanted to speed up his progress, he would need to supplement his cultivation with spirit stones and pills.
Fortunately, his Yin Wood Spirit Body was adept at absorbing spiritual energy, and the use of spirit stones and pills further enhanced the effectiveness of his cultivation. After consuming the Lingyuan Dan, Chu Ning meditated for half a day before opening his eyes again.
Most cultivators would typically take two to three days to fully digest the medicinal strength of a Lingyuan Dan, but with his Yin Wood Spirit Body, Chu Ning had completely absorbed the pill's effects in just half a day.
Combining it with my daily cultivation, I should be able to increase it by 4 points per day."
With that in mind, Chu Ning picked up the Channel Cleansing Tempering Pill. It wasn't cheap, so he wanted to see how effective it was.
He prepared a large bathtub, filled it with warm water, and then dropped a pill into it.
As the pill dissolved, the water in the tub turned brown. Chu Ning stepped into the tub and soaked in it.
"The efficacy of this pill is probably significantly weaker than the combination of Blood Bloom Grass and Earth Spirit Spring Water," he mused as he felt his body absorbing the medicinal power.
However, he soon dismissed his concerns. Although this Channel Cleansing Spirit Pill cost fifty lower-grade spirit stones, it was still much cheaper than Blood Mist Grass and Earth Spirit Spring Water.
Moreover, he had been at the Unwithering Bones Realm back then, but now he had already advanced to the Unbreaking Muscles Realm, so it was naturally more challenging to improve further.
He activated the Nine-Layer Tempering Body Formula to speed up the absorption of the pill's power.
After half an hour, the water in the tub returned to its original state, and Chu Ning no longer felt the effects of the pill. He leaped out of the tub and began practicing the Nine-Layer Tempering Body Formula along with its corresponding movements.
After one cycle, he felt that his body had fully absorbed and converted the medicinal power, so he stopped.
He then checked his proficiency:
[Green Wood Eternal Spring Art (Yellow Tier, Low Grade), Third Layer (63/2100)]
[Nine-Layer Tempering Body Formula, First Volume, Unbreaking Muscles 32/1500]
[Refining God Technique, First Layer 440/1000]
His proficiency in the Unbreaking Muscles layer had increased by 1 point.
Chu Ning couldn't help but grimace at the meager gain.
"Fifty spirit stones for a single point of improvement. This body-tempering technique really consumes a lot of spirit stones."
After some calculations, he figured that with his daily cultivation, he should be able to increase it by about 2 points per day.
Having completed his energy and body cultivation, Chu Ning proceeded to work on his talisman refining and spiritual cultivation.
Half a day passed in this manner of dedicated cultivation.
The next morning, after cultivating and opening the shop, Chu Ning glanced at the neighboring shop and was surprised to see Lu Miaoying already up and about, arranging edible spirit beasts like the Spirit Chicken, Ash Spirit Rabbit, and Spirit Snake for display.
"Did I get the date wrong? Is it market day today?"
Chu Ning was momentarily taken aback.
But after a moment's thought, he realized that didn't make sense. It had only been the market day yesterday, and it wasn't time for it again.
Then he understood. Lu Miaoying seemed to be looking for something to occupy herself with, a way to distract her mind.
Lu Miaoying noticed Chu Ning and managed a faint smile.
"Good morning, Chu Ning."
Currently, Chu Ning's displayed cultivation was at the fifth layer of Qi Refining, while Lu Miaoying had almost reached the sixth layer.
Her greeting, addressing him as 'senior brother', was clearly influenced by his impressive performance the day before.
"Good morning," Chu Ning replied, neither correcting her address nor engaging in small talk.
After a brief greeting, he saw that Gu Xiaoqin had also opened her shop, so he walked straight over.
In addition to the pills from yesterday, Chu Ning wanted her to examine the Nurturing Spirit Dan that he had been carrying for some time.
"Chu Ning, good morning," Gu Xiaoqin greeted him warmly, her tone even more amicable than usual.
As she spoke, she noticed Lu Miaoying's actions and paused, a hint of worry flashing across her face.
"It seems that Lu Miaoying has been deeply affected by Luo Yiping's passing. She had always harbored feelings for him, but it seems he wasn't aware of them..."
Chu Ning didn't respond to her comment but merely glanced at her.
Luo Yiping hadn't been oblivious to Lu Miaoying's affections; in fact, he had seemed quite interested in Gu Xiaoqin.
Of course, Chu Ning wouldn't voice this thought aloud.
Perhaps Gu Xiaoqin understood as well.
After a moment, Chu Ning spoke, "It might not be a bad thing. Now that she has to stand on her own, it may even help her cultivation progress."
Hearing this, Gu Xiaoqin looked at Chu Ning, a smile playing on her lips.
"I forgot that you, Chu Ning, have been handling everything on your own. Your cultivation speed and combat techniques have improved far beyond that of an ordinary disciple."
"You flatter me, Senior Sister Gu," Chu Ning said modestly.
He then began taking out various bottles and jars from his storage bag.
(End of Chapter)
Chapter end
Report
