Magical Artifacts and Spirit Pets

There were three to four hundred Spirit Stones in Ge Yi's Storage Bag. For a High-Grade Alchemist, that was not much.

What was truly valuable were the herbs and pills.

The precious herbs alone were worth at least a thousand Spirit Stones.

"Who knew how much this old fellow had embezzled."

Lan Chang'an clicked his tongue and smiled.

The pills stored in all kinds of bottles and jars were mostly First-Order Pills, worth several hundred Spirit Stones.

There were two Mid-Grade Magical Artifacts: the Black Net and Flying Shuttle Ge Yi had used in battle.

Among them, the Black Net Magical Artifact possessed a slight soul-confounding effect. It could attack and defend alike, and could trap enemies. It was exceptionally versatile.

It counted as a fine item among Mid-Grade Magical Artifacts.

There were three Low-Grade Magic Tools, all of decent quality.

There was also a pill furnace, along with pill formulas, books on alchemy, and more.

"A First-Order High-Grade pill furnace. Not bad, not bad..."

Lan Chang'an stroked the deep-purple hexagonal pill furnace and nodded in satisfaction.

In this life, restricted by the Evergreen Art's absorption of the Aura of Time, his advancement was slow. Yet after taking pills, he only needed to cultivate for one or two hours each day, leaving him with ample free time.

He had been intending to use that time to study other crafts as well.

The above Spoils of War all belonged to Ge Yi.

There was also a small Flying Boat, which Zheng Yuanhua had lent Ge Yi.

Flying Boats were specialized flying artifacts, considerably faster than artifacts of the same tier.

This small Flying Boat Lan Chang'an had obtained could carry three to five people.

Of course, the more people it carried, the more its flight speed would be affected and the greater its mana consumption would become.

The Spoils of War were abundant.

Ge Yi's wealth far surpassed that of an ordinary Qi Refining Late-Stage cultivator.

However, most of the most valuable herbs were stolen goods.

Including Ge Yi's Black Net Magical Artifact, they could not be openly displayed within the Mu Family.

Those precious medicinal ingredients were sealed inside jade boxes.

If stored for too long, their medicinal properties would inevitably dissipate, causing the herbs to wither.

When I get the chance, I need to find somewhere to fence these stolen goods.

Lan Chang'an calculated inwardly.

There were many miscellaneous items in Ge Yi's Storage Bag, including letters, materials, and more.

Lan Chang'an sorted through them one by one, remaining vigilant as he eliminated suspicious items.

During the sorting process, Lan Chang'an made an unexpected discovery.

"Hm? This is Marrow-Corroding Powder, and its antidote."

In a corner of the Storage Bag were a black and a white small jar. After probing them with his divine sense and conducting several tests, Lan Chang'an reached his conclusion.

This truly was an unexpected delight.

Previously, limited by his materials, the mixed poison Lan Chang'an had concocted had not been particularly powerful.

Marrow-Corroding Powder was different. It was extremely lethal to cultivators in the Qi Refining Realm.

Only Qi Refining Late-Stage cultivators with profound cultivation could resist it a little. Otherwise, one would need a poison-resistant strange treasure like Mu Xiuyun's.

Marrow-Corroding Powder was not entirely odorless. It carried a somewhat bitter herbal scent, making it naturally suited for use in environments such as medicine gardens and mountain forests.

Lan Chang'an's plan was to coat the Seven Skill Needles with Marrow-Corroding Powder, strike the target with them as concealed weapons, and let the poison enter through the wound, making its effects erupt faster and more fiercely.

Aside from the Marrow-Corroding Powder.

Lan Chang'an found another unexpected prize.

It was a brass-colored token with a deep-black bead embedded in its center.

"This is... a Beast Taming Token!"

With the memories of two lifetimes, Lan Chang'an recognized its origin after a brief inspection.

"Could it be that beast..."

Lan Chang'an made a guess and injected mana into the Beast Taming Token. At once, he sensed a strand of consciousness fluctuations coming from somewhere underground.

So that was it!

Smiling, Lan Chang'an went to a plot of farmland in a corner of the medicine garden.

Pfft!

The soil burst apart, and a huge brownish-yellow Rat Demon drilled out.

It was the Earth Rock Rat.

Earlier, this Earth Rock Rat had launched a surprise attack on Lan Chang'an.

Using conventional means alone, Lan Chang'an could not have dealt with the creature in a short time, so he had no choice but to bind it with the Binding Vine Technique.

"Squeak! Squeak..."

Red light flickered in the Earth Rock Rat's eyes as it looked fearfully at Lan Chang'an—or, more precisely, at the Beast Taming Token in his hand.

This Beast Taming Token could determine the Earth Rock Rat's life or death.

By controlling this Beast Taming Token, one could also conduct simple spiritual communication and issue commands.

"The Earth Rock Rat possesses a Middle Grade Bloodline and has a matching Beast Taming Token. The Zheng Family most likely bought it at a high price from the Beast Taming Zhou Family."

Lan Chang'an's thoughts turned as he made his deduction.

The demon creatures and exotic beasts of this world differed from human cultivators in that they possessed no spirit roots.

They cultivated through bloodline inheritance.

The higher the bloodline grade, the greater the potential.

Their bloodline grades corresponded to cultivators' spirit root classifications. From low to high, they were:

Miscellaneous Grade Bloodline, Low Grade Bloodline, Middle Grade Bloodline, High Grade Bloodline, Earth Grade Bloodline, and Heaven Grade Bloodline.

As well as the legendary True Spirit Bloodline.

True Spirits were the legendary divine beasts, such as True Dragons, Heavenly Phoenixes, Kun Pengs, and the like.

Ancient cultivation texts recorded terrifying legends of True Spirits destroying an entire realm.

In his first two lives, Lan Chang'an had not merely failed to witness one—he had never even heard of any trace of a True Spirit.

"The Earth Rock Rat ranks toward the upper end among Middle Grade Bloodlines. It can be cultivated appropriately."

Lan Chang'an valued the Earth Rock Rat's practicality. It excelled at digging and burrowing, knew earth-element spells, and had thick hide and tough flesh.

At the Qi Refining Realm stage, an Earth Rock Rat lying in ambush underground was impossible to guard against.

"You will remain underground nearby. Without my permission, you are not to come up at will."

Lan Chang'an fed the Earth Rock Rat several First-Order Pills and sent it back underground.

This Earth Rock Rat was a First-Order Mid-Stage demon beast, equivalent to the Qi Refining Sixth Layer.

If he was willing to invest resources into it, it had a good chance of advancing to First-Order Late-Stage, equivalent to a Qi Refining Late-Stage cultivator.

By then, this little fellow's strength would be enough to rival an ordinary elder of the Mu Family.

Late at night.

On a hillside a thousand li from the Mu Family medicine garden.

"This is the final agreed meeting place. Why is there still no sign of Ge Alchemist?"

"Could something have happened to him? Was he intercepted and killed by a hidden expert of the Mu Family?"

A middle-aged man wearing a High Mountain Crown, his aura slightly disordered, landed on the hillside and muttered to himself.

After investigating for a long while and calling out, he still found no trace of Ge Yi.

Zheng Yuanhua's expression shifted between light and dark, and he was deeply unwilling to accept it.

If Ge Alchemist had died, it would naturally be a major loss.

But the Flying Boat and Beast Taming Token the Zheng Family had purchased at great cost were both on him.

Losing those two items would be no small loss to the Zheng Family.

"Cough, cough..."

A faint fit of coughing came from a distant cave.

Had the night not been so still, Zheng Yuanhua would likely have missed it.

"Who is there? Is that Ge Alchemist?"

Delight appeared on Zheng Yuanhua's face as he flew toward the coughing.

Perhaps it was the severely injured Ge Alchemist?

The coughing grew increasingly distinct.

Soon, a pitch-black cave appeared beneath Zheng Yuanhua's feet.

At the cave entrance sat a coughing man with disheveled hair, a pool of blood at his feet.

"Who are you?"

With only one glance, Zheng Yuanhua determined that the other man was not Ge Alchemist, and vigilance immediately rose in his heart.

Under the moonlight, half of the Disheveled Man's face could vaguely be seen, deathly pale. His nose bridge was high, his lips cracked and dry, and his eyes were black and still.

Hearing Zheng Yuanhua's voice, the Disheveled Man stared straight at him.

"Cough. Do you have any medicine?"

"What medicine? Who are you? What did you do to Ge Alchemist?"

Zheng Yuanhua faced him as though confronting a great enemy, for the Disheveled Man's mana aura was exceedingly strange.

At times it was strong, at times weak.

When weak, it was only at the fourth or fifth layer of Qi Refining. When strong, it reached the eighth or ninth layer of Qi Refining, or perhaps something even more terrifying.

He caught the scent of danger.

He summoned an Ironwood Banner, stirring up a layer of dark-purple winds that could both attack enemies and shield himself.

The Disheveled Man remained unmoved, continuing to cough.

Yet those deathly still eyes remained fixed directly upon Zheng Yuanhua.

"Pretending to be a ghost and playing tricks!"

Zheng Yuanhua's scalp crawled under that stare. He cursed, controlled his artifact, and turned to flee.

He had only flown several dozen zhang when a cold wind swept in from behind.

"Get lost!"

Zheng Yuanhua was horrified. From the corner of his eye, he saw the Disheveled Man appear behind him like a ghost.

Whoosh!

Without a second thought, he swung the Ironwood Banner. The purple winds, capable of grinding iron and stone to pieces, engulfed several zhang behind him.

The Disheveled Man was swallowed up.

Yet what remained in place was only an afterimage.

"Urgh..."

A slender male arm locked around Zheng Yuanhua's neck.

A suffocating sensation struck him. Zheng Yuanhua struggled fiercely, but his vision soon went black and he lost consciousness.

"Medicine..."

The Disheveled Man removed Zheng Yuanhua's Storage Bag. Several faint red arcs of lightning sprang from his fingertips, breaking through its Restriction.

He took out bottle after bottle of pills, as well as precious spirit herbs.

After sniffing them, he poured several bottles of pills into his mouth as though eating candy beans.

Several highly nourishing ginseng spirit herbs were roughly chewed and swallowed mouthful by mouthful.

A moment later, mana surged within the Disheveled Man's body, and a faint trace of color returned to his pale face.

The mana fluctuations around the man suddenly climbed to the Foundation Establishment Realm, then immediately fell again.

"Still not enough..."

The Disheveled Man coughed, his cold gaze turning toward the unconscious Zheng Yuanhua.

Red ghostly light flowed around his slender fingers as he pressed them onto Zheng Yuanhua's crown of the head.

"Aaaah..."

Zheng Yuanhua's body rose into the air. His limbs thrashed as he let out an incomparably agonized howl, in a state worse than death itself.

"Mu Family... Zheng Family... medicine garden... treasure vault..."

The Disheveled Man closed his eyes and obtained fragments of memory through a brutal soul search.

After a long while.

With a crack, Zheng Yuanhua's head split into four pieces, and his scream came to an abrupt end in the silent depths of the mountains.