Immortal-Demon Conflict

"Boom..."

After an unknown amount of time, an explosive roar rang out in Su Fan's mind.

Like the morning bell and evening drum, it instantly jolted him awake from his dazed state.

It was as if he had just had a dream.

Could this be the legendary sudden enlightenment?

By then, the sky had already begun to brighten, yet he had unexpectedly practiced his boxing for an entire night.

Perhaps breaking through a bottleneck was an opportunity.

As Su Fan's cultivation advanced, the Lightning Dao Seed was completely activated, thoroughly transforming his physical body.

Not only that, Su Fan had also attained sudden enlightenment, causing his Xingyi Quan to reach the Great Accomplishment stage in a single night.

After practicing for so long, he was not tired in the slightest. Instead, he was radiant and clear-headed.

Su Fan extended both hands. His major tendons trembled like startled thunder, making one's mind and spirit shudder.

An indescribable sense of power was hidden within his body.

His strength had increased at least several times. It felt as though a casual stomp would send him soaring into the heavens.

His entire body felt clear and refreshed. The filth and impurities within had been completely purged, leaving his limbs and bones incomparably light.

His physical body was like glazed glass, flawless and immaculate.

His Eight Extraordinary Meridians shone crystal clear, glittering with radiance.

That feeling was like being reborn.

Not only that, Su Fan's soul had also become incomparably solid.

His five senses and Spiritual Sense seemed to have suddenly awakened from ignorance, as though the apertures of his spirit had opened.

Everything seemed to have become clear, vivid, and incomparably lively.

The weeds outside the house swayed gently in the breeze, producing wisps of music as beautiful as the sounds of heaven.

He could even hear every movement of the insects and lice buried deep underground with perfect clarity.

His brow twitched slightly, and his Spiritual Sense extended outward a full thirty or forty meters.

Su Fan was a little dumbfounded.

Even at the Mid Qi Refining Stage, one could only reach this far, right?

The Lightning Dao Body he had obtained by risking his life was indeed extraordinary.

Su Fan could clearly sense that he had not only cleansed and reforged his sinews and marrow, shedding his mortal body for a new one, but had also greatly improved his cultivation aptitude.

Not only that, the lower limit of his Spiritual Sense had also risen by a considerable amount.

Although the Lightning Dao Seed's transformation of his physical body was only a one-time occurrence,

the improvement to his cultivation aptitude and the increase in the lower limit of his Spiritual Sense would benefit him for the rest of his life.

"Mm... Why does it stink so much..."

Su Fan had been too excited. Only after his exhilaration finally subsided

did he smell the incredibly sour and foul odor coming from his body.

Su Fan took off his Daoist robe. The bandages that had originally been stuck to his skin had already fallen off.

He tore away the bandages, and along with them came a thick layer of dead skin.

They were covered in dark-red bloodstains and black oily grime, giving off a stench of rancid sourness and foulness.

When he pulled off the bandages, large patches of dead skin on his hands and neck came away as well. In the end, even the entire skin of his face was stripped off.

With another tug, his scalp came off too.

After tearing away all the dead skin on his body, he looked into a mirror.

What the hell...

His head was completely bald, like a meatball. His eyebrows and hair were all gone.

Not to mention his hair and eyebrows—even the hair covering his entire body had not been spared a single strand.

The whole process was just like a snake shedding its skin.

Su Fan took out a Cleaning Talisman and washed himself clean. His skin was now tender and delicate, like that of a newborn baby.

Moreover, he was emaciated, and compared to before, he was nearly half a head shorter.

His physical body was like a lump of common iron, hammered until every impurity had been removed.

His muscles and skin were hard and powerful, his tendons were exceptionally resilient, and his bones were as tough as steel.

The Demon Sect's cultivation arts were indeed abnormal. Their effects were truly heaven-defying.

Right, after practicing Xingyi Quan for an entire night, it should have reached the Minor Accomplishment stage, right?

He opened the panel and immediately froze.

[Name] Su Fan

[Yang Lifespan] 36/92 years

[Realm] Qi Refining Third Layer: 1/100

[Techniques]

1. Primordial Chaos Technique (First Order): 23/100.

2. Body Tempering Art (Second Order): 45/200

3. Demonic Saint Body Art (First Order): 100/100

[Arts]

1. Qi Gazing Art (Great Accomplishment): 297/400

2. Light Body Art (Subtle): 2/800

3. Spirit Concealment Art (Great Accomplishment): 245/400

4. Xingyi Quan (Great Accomplishment): 1/400

5. Nine Extremes Consecutive Slashes (Minor Accomplishment): 18/200

[Skills] None

[Divine Abilities] None

After one night of sudden enlightenment, Xingyi Quan had actually reached the Great Accomplishment stage.

At that moment, a rumbling came from his stomach, and Su Fan hurriedly ran toward the latrine.

Crackle, crackle... crackle, crackle...

He went through another bout of purging. The entire little courtyard filled with a foul stench that rose into the sky.

The moment he stepped out of the latrine, overwhelming hunger came rushing after him.

Su Fan hurriedly washed rice and cooked a meal, deliberately making twice his usual portion.

As expected, he devoured eight large bowls of spirit rice, along with more than ten kilograms of smoked Demonic Beast Meat.

In barely any time, the five hundred kilograms of spirit rice was already nearly gone, and not much of the hundred-plus kilograms of spirit meat remained either.

With his current appetite, the little spirit rice left would not last him more than a few days.

Su Fan was now a complete glutton. If this continued, he would soon be unable to feed himself.

He should go to the market again, replenish his supply of spirit rice, and buy some more spirit beast meat.

With grain in hand, one's heart remained calm.

He also needed to buy a higher-quality magic sword.

With his strength having increased so much, an ordinary magic sword was no longer suitable.

Right, he absolutely had to buy some pills for cultivation.

His cultivation realm was the foundation.

Although his aptitude had improved, he was still ultimately a Four Spiritual Roots cultivator. Without taking pills, how could he speed up his cultivation progress?

Adding everything up, he would have to spend quite a few spirit stones.

Even after selling everything in his Storage Bag, it might not be enough.

He was still poor.

Thinking of this, Su Fan began sorting through his belongings.

He brought along everything he had seized from the bandit cultivators this time, planning to find a shop and sell it all.

Once everything was ready, he put on a bamboo hat to conceal his completely bald head.

Then he slung the magic sword over his shoulder, carried a shoulder pole, and pushed open the door to leave the little courtyard.

When he arrived at the market once again, Su Fan was somewhat dumbfounded.

The market was packed with people, and stalls had even spread all the way outside the town.

Many cultivators were obviously not Rogue Cultivators, judging from both their clothing and their bearing. They looked more like members of cultivation Lineages or disciples of sects.

That was because these people lacked the impoverished air of Rogue Cultivators.

Su Fan struggled through the dense crowd, circling the market several times.

He discovered that the prices of everything had risen, especially talismans and magic artifacts, which had doubled.

Some protective talismans and magic artifacts—even certain premium goods—had risen to twice their original price.

The price of spirit rice had also risen by fifty percent, and people said it would continue rising in the future.

Su Fan regretted it so much that his intestines turned green. If only he had known, he would have bought more back then.

Fortunately, his Storage Bag was crammed full of all sorts of things. He could take advantage of this opportunity to make a good profit.

Just as last time, he found an inn.

At the same inn, a private room had unexpectedly risen to two spirit stones. It was practically daylight robbery.

He took the remaining bandages and wrapped them around his face and neck, leaving only a pair of eyes exposed. He also smeared some demonic beast blood over them.

Then he put on a black cloak with a hood, wrapping himself up from head to toe.

Su Fan wandered the streets for a long time before finding an empty space.

He spread out a sheet and arranged the items from his Storage Bag into separate categories.

Not long after he had set everything out, a short, fat cultivator came over with his belly thrust forward.

"Pay the stall fee..."

Seeing how overbearing the man sounded, Su Fan, who had never set up a stall before, was somewhat confused.

"How much..."

The other man glared at him, his face full of impatience.

"Fifty Magic Coins. Hurry up..."

Su Fan looked left and right, then counted out fifty Magic Coins from his clothes and handed them over.

"Hmph..."

The man accepted the Magic Coins and swaggered away.

"Bah... What a piece of work..."

A middle-aged Rogue Cultivator nearby cursed at the man's back.

After cursing, he smiled at Su Fan.

"That fellow used to be poorer than dirt. Later, he gave his own little sister to a disciple of the Lesser Yang Sect as a concubine. Look at how smug he is now."

"Oh, selling his sister to win glory..."

"Well said... Hahaha..."

The middle-aged Rogue Cultivator was straightforward and hearty. Hearing Su Fan's words, he immediately burst into laughter.

Seeing that the man was cheerful, Su Fan began chatting with him.

"Big brother, why are there so many people in the market today?"

"The Ghost King Sect and Qingxuan Sect of the Qin State have started fighting. It seems they're fighting over some kind of mine, but then the Immortal Sects of Qin State and Chu Kingdom got involved too..."

The middle-aged Rogue Cultivator was clearly a chatterbox, and he knew quite a lot.

Although Immortal Sects were the mainstream in this world, the Western Wilderness was the sole exception, where the Demon Sects flourished especially brightly.

The forces of the various Demon Sects occupied nearly half of the Western Wilderness.

The farther west one went, the stronger the Demon Sects became.

Yongzhou was already located on the northeastern edge of the Western Wilderness, yet the Demon Sects remained formidable.

To resist the Demon Sects, the Immortal Sects could only band together for warmth.

Whenever an immortal-demon conflict erupted in Yongzhou, the Immortal Sects of every country, large or small, would contribute their strength.

Sometimes, when Yongzhou's Immortal Sects could no longer hold out, sword cultivators from Ganzhou and Shaanxi Province would even come rushing over to join the fun.

In any case, whenever this happened, chaos reigned and neither people nor animals found peace.

The Lesser Yang Sect occupied a rather special location, not far from the Qin State border.

For cultivators from the several mortal kingdoms of Yongzhou who wanted to go to Qin State to join the battle, the Lesser Yang Sect was an unavoidable route.

Su Fan did not take it too seriously. The battlefield was far away in Qin State—what did it have to do with him?

Let them fight. Let them fight as much as they wanted.

So long as the price of spirit rice did not rise again, that was all that mattered.

Business in the market was extraordinarily hot today. Even the Rogue Cultivators were not as stingy as they usually were.

Whenever an immortal-demon conflict broke out, the Immortal Sects in various places would hire large numbers of Rogue Cultivators to participate in the battle.

Many Rogue Cultivators who wanted to take a gamble had to purchase large quantities of supplies, as well as buy some life-saving items.

Combined with the members of Lineages and sect disciples passing through this place, the prices of all kinds of supplies in the market had risen across the board.

Thanks to the reward from Gui Youbai, and thanks to Old Yao Is Also a Demon, Bei Jiu Wan'ge, Meng Shangsheng, Yin Tu Aihan, Shixiao cbh, and all the great bosses for their recommendation tickets. Old Bu was deeply grateful.