Harvest (Please Bookmark, Please Vote)

After slaying the second Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake, he finally looked toward the wood vine protecting his right foot.

The spot on the wood vine wrapped around his right foot where it had been bitten rapidly turned black and withered. Even the dripping venom spread continuously along the vine, corroding the other vines.

Ling Pengyun made a swift decision. With a helpless swing of his Black Iron Sword, he severed the portions of the Thorn Wood Vine that had been contaminated by the Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake's venom, hoping to preserve the remaining Thorn Vine.

This Thorn Wood Vine was his Natal Spirit Plant. Once it was poisoned to death by that venom, he, as its master, would surely suffer grievous injuries as well.

This method was indeed effective. However, in order to stop the venom from spreading, Ling Pengyun had cut away quite a bit of the Thorn Wood Vine, causing it to sustain no small injury.

For the next half year, this Thorn Vine will likely be unable to aid me in battle. I'll also have to suspend my attempts to use the Yi Wood Power within it to improve the spirit rice for half a year!

Still, it's fortunate that this Wood Armor protected me. Otherwise, if that Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake had bitten me even once, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to keep my right foot!

Ling Pengyun was filled with lingering fear as he inwardly sighed.

First Rank High Grade Antidote Pills capable of curing Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake venom were simply too precious. Even the Ling Clan's General Affairs Hall only had a few.

To avoid encountering more Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes in this dense forest, Ling Pengyun did not dare dismiss the Water Shields formed by the two Water Shield Talismans, nor the wood vine armor on his body.

His gaze fell upon the corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes on the ground, and a startling gleam flashed through his eyes.

With this harvest, the injury to my Natal Spirit Plant and the three Water Shield Talismans I spent won't count as a loss!

Water Shield Talismans were First Rank Middle Grade Defensive Spirit Talismans, selling for five spirit stones each on the market. He had used a full three Water Shield Talismans in this battle, equivalent to throwing away fifteen spirit stones outright. Though those three Water Shield Talismans had been gifted by the clan, Ling Pengyun still felt a pang of heartache.

Yet compared to the corpses of those two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes, the cost of the Water Shield Talismans was insignificant.

After storing both snake corpses in his Storage Bag, Ling Pengyun remained vigilant, keeping his divine sense spread across the surroundings as he slowly stepped away.

Only after he had rushed half a li out of the dense forest did Ling Pengyun stop. He turned around and, seeing no other Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes following him, let out a long breath, his face still full of lingering fear.

"When I passed through this forest on the way here, there was no danger. Who would've thought I'd run into this mess on the return journey?" Ling Pengyun grumbled.

That dense forest lay along the shortest route back to An Yang County and was a place he had to pass through. He had also crossed it when traveling to Peaceful An County, where the Cloud Mist Wen Clan was located, but no accident had occurred then.

With the danger gone, he withdrew his divine sense. The two Water Shields floating around him, the Black Iron Shield, and the wood vine armor were also put away.

Maintaining those four defensive measures consumed Ling Pengyun's spiritual power as well. In the wilderness, lacking spiritual power was the greatest danger.

Once the wood vine armor was gone, his body was exposed to the outside world. His earlier Linen Daoist Robe had long since been stretched into rags by the Thorn Vine.

Ling Pengyun hurriedly summoned a Ling Clan member's daoist robe from his Storage Bag and changed into it.

Rushing at full speed, Ling Pengyun finally returned to Azure Stone Mountain in the middle of the night.

After traveling a thousand li and fighting one battle, the spiritual power within Ling Pengyun had been depleted almost entirely.

As soon as he returned to Azure Stone Mountain, he took out a Spirit Peach he had bought at Cloud Mist Market, swallowed it, and circulated his cultivation method to refine the fruit flesh and restore his spiritual power.

Only when his Dantian was filled with spiritual power did he open his eyes.

The spiritual power contained in this Spirit Peach is indeed gentler than the medicinal effect of a Yellow Sprout Pill of the same rank, and it contains no impurities. With only a slight refinement, it can be sent into the Dantian and become my own spiritual power! It's far superior to taking Yellow Sprout Pills, where I first have to refine the pill's medicinal power into spiritual qi before condensing it into spiritual power. It's much more convenient!

If I replace all my Yellow Sprout Pills with these Spirit Peaches in the future, my cultivation speed may increase by more than thirty percent.

But as good as these Spirit Peaches are, they're simply too expensive!

Ling Pengyun said helplessly.

No wonder wealth comes first among the four essentials most crucial to cultivators: wealth, companions, methods, and land!

With a helpless sigh, Ling Pengyun cast the matter aside. Spirit stones were hard to earn; rather than overthinking, he might as well cherish what was before him.

Having pills to assist his cultivation every day was already good enough. If he still dreamed of something better while being unable to attain it, would that not be like aiming too high? It would inevitably affect his Dao heart!

Ling Pengyun took the spoils of his daytime battle from his Storage Bag. The corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes fell onto the ground.

He carefully extracted the venom from the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes, placing it into two separate empty medicine bottles. He then attached labels to them, marking them "Qi Training Middle Stage Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake Venom" and "Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake Venom."

Looking at the two bottles of venom in his hands, Ling Pengyun's eyes were filled with delight as he muttered to himself.

If Eighth Grandfather can use these two bottles of Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake venom to refine two Exploding Poison Pearls for me, they'll be two great killing weapons. If I strike at the right moment with those two Exploding Poison Pearls, perhaps even a Qi Training Late Stage cultivator could be schemed to death by me!

The "Eighth Grandfather" Ling Pengyun spoke of was named Ling Yun'an. He was the Ling Clan's only Weapon Refiner, a First Rank Middle Grade one.

The two magical artifacts Ling Yun'an was most skilled at refining were the Exploding Poison Pearl and another called the Azure Bamboo Sword.

The Exploding Poison Pearl was a pearl-shaped magical artifact. Once it struck an enemy, it exploded with venom, making it an exceedingly sinister artifact.

However, in this Cultivation World, so long as it could increase one's strength and help one survive in battle, let alone sinister magical artifacts, many cultivators would even use demonic-path artifacts.

After delighting in his gain for a while, Ling Pengyun put the two medicine bottles containing venom back into his Storage Bag.

Then, his gaze fell upon the corpses of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes.

Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes do not excel in physical bodies, and the spiritual qi contained in their flesh is pitifully scarce—not even thirty percent of that found in demon beasts of the same rank that specialize in physical bodies!

The flesh of that Qi Training Middle Stage Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake can be kept. Eating some of it can serve as a source of spiritual qi and increase my spiritual power by a little!

As for the flesh of this Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake, it's useless to me now. Its spiritual qi is far too thin, and I've grown sick of snake soup and roasted snake meat lately. I'll reward this Early-Stage Qi Training one to the Yellow-Feathered Sparrow that guards the Spirit Field! Perhaps this snake meat can even raise that sparrow's cultivation a little!

Because Azure Stone Mountain had once been the nest of a snake horde, although the snakes within Azure Stone Mountain had long since been exterminated, many small snakes at the acquired and Innate Realm stages still remained around the mountain.

Recently, the Lingxiao Guard of Azure Stone Village had often captured Innate Realm Snake Demons and offered them to Ling Pengyun for food.

Now, whenever Ling Pengyun yawned, it felt as though it carried the scent of snake meat.

Having made up his mind, Ling Pengyun began sorting through the other parts of the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes that contained spiritual qi: the snake gallbladders, snake blood, and snake skins.

Snake gallbladders could serve as the main ingredient for Antidote Pills, snake blood could be used to refine Talisman Ink, and snake skins could be used to make daoist robes or Talisman Paper.

After collecting the spiritual materials from the two Ink Cloud Poisonous Snakes and putting them into his Storage Bag, Ling Pengyun carried the flesh of the Early-Stage Qi Training Ink Cloud Poisonous Snake to the mountaintop.

Thanks to Gui Youbai (boss) for the reward, thank you.