True Essence

"Chī!"

With the sound of a light blade slicing through leather, the Black Armored Boar's massive head fell to the ground, followed by a gushing fountain of demonic blood.

The ease with which the beast was dispatched, as if slicing through vegetables, left the guards stunned.

Many of them had only recently been recruited from South Ridge City and had never witnessed Zhao Ping'an in action before.

The Black Armored Boar, which had been like the god of death to them, was now dead before their eyes, felled by a single strike. It was no wonder they were shocked.

"You few, clean this place up. Take this pig to the kitchen. Tomorrow, go to the accounting office and each of you will receive a reward of five taels of silver. Also, have the steward find someone to repair the fence. Tomorrow..."

"Huh? There's more?"

As Zhao Ping'an was giving orders to the guards to clear the corpse, he suddenly looked to the distant left.

Just moments ago, his sharp hearing had once again detected the sound of a broken fence in the distance, accompanied by faint roars.

Without time to finish his instructions, Zhao Ping'an's figure flashed, and he swiftly moved in that direction.

Soon, he saw another adult Fourth-grade Demonic Beast. It was a giant python, ten meters long and half a meter thick, with a dark green and black body. In the Demonic Beast Compendium, it was known as an Ironhide Mad Python, a creature of extremely violent temperament.

At that moment, it was charging straight up the mountainside towards the summit.

"Snake soup? No, python soup?"

Upon seeing the Demonic Beast, Zhao Ping'an's eyes lit up. His right hand rapidly extended, forming a Qi Great Saber about ten feet long, which he hurled towards the Ironhide Mad Python.

"Chī!"

As Zhao Ping'an's hand moved and the saber fell, the python's head was instantly severed from its body.

Before he could even check his results, Zhao Ping'an heard the sounds of collapsing fences and the shouts of guards.

"To think it would attract so many Demonic Beasts?"

Throughout the night, Zhao Ping'an, armed with his saber, continuously rushed across various parts of Wu'an Mountain, slaying Demonic Beasts that were rarely seen on normal days.

These guards could at best deal with First or Second-grade Demonic Beasts. Any Third-grade Demonic Beast could easily claim their lives, let alone a Fourth-grade one.

Fortunately, the number of Fourth-grade Demonic Beasts within a hundred-mile radius was limited. In the end, only four were attracted. However, a staggering eighteen Third-grade Demonic Beasts were drawn in, causing significant casualties to the recently recovered guard force.

As for the First and Second-grade Demonic Beasts, upon sensing the aura of the numerous Third and Fourth-grade beasts, they stopped outside Wu'an Mountain, letting out long cries, daring not to approach.

As the sun rose, whether it was due to sensing the continuous deaths of powerful Demonic Beasts within the mountain, the First and Second-grade beasts quickly retreated back into the forest, disappearing without a trace.

It wasn't until noon on the Second Day that the statistics from the night were compiled and handed to Zhao Ping'an. The greatest loss was the fence surrounding Wu'an Mountain, built by the Sun Family, which was damaged by half.

Eighteen guards had died, and most of the remaining ones were injured.

At the same time, Zhao Ping'an also learned the reason for the sudden arrival of these demonic beasts. This information was obtained by the butler after he flipped through some of the Sun family's leftover books and consulted with the herb farmers. When spiritual medicines are first born, they emit a faint, almost imperceptible fragrance that attracts powerful demonic beasts to protect them from premature destruction. This process lasts for about three days.

The Sun family happened to have a recipe for Scent Masking Powder, which was tucked away inside a Spiritual Medicine Cultivation Manual that Zhao Ping'an had looted from them. Unfortunately, he hadn't examined it closely and had missed that particular recipe.

Soon, a batch of powder with a pungent odor was quickly made and sprinkled around the Ice Fire Snow Lotus, preventing its fragrance from spreading.

Taking advantage of the breach in the fence caused by the large number of demonic beasts, Zhao Ping'an found a large number of workers from South Ridge City and began reinforcing the fence, preparing to build a stone wall two zhang high and two meters wide around Wu'an Mountain.

This process was undoubtedly time-consuming and labor-intensive, but Zhao Ping'an didn't care. He had plenty of money and even more time, and besides, he wouldn't be doing the work himself.

Two days later, a full two hundred strong laborers were brought to Wu'an Mountain, along with various tools, tents, rice, flour, and vegetables.

As for the stone materials for building the wall, the first batch would still take a few more days to produce.

As for the demonic beast meat, except for the Third-grade and Fourth-grade ones, the rest was used by Zhao Ping'an to improve the meals of the guards, herb farmers, and workers.

Under the supervision of the Second Senior Disciple Brother, the construction of the wall proceeded at full steam. Zhao Ping'an's [Deduction Points] also began to grow rapidly, fueled by the massive replenishment of Third and Fourth-grade demonic beasts. Previously, his points increased by less than 3% in about two days, but now they increased by 3% in a single day. However, three to four hundred catties of demonic beast meat were consumed daily.

Apart from a tiny portion given to the Second Senior Disciple Brother, most of it went into Zhao Ping'an's stomach.

Fortunately, the meat from those twenty-odd demonic beasts weighed tens of thousands of catties. After being dried, it would be enough for him to eat for several months.

However, as his cultivation improved, the effects of this demonic beast meat would undoubtedly weaken, and he would have to consume more and more of it each day.

Time flowed like water, and unconsciously, another ten-plus days passed.

One night, Zhao Ping'an finally underwent a new transformation. Just moments ago, his Primordial Chaos Art had accumulated the last bit of its Proficiency, successfully reaching the Great Perfection stage of the Ninth Level.

Afterward, he observed his Dantian and acupoints through internal vision. The abundant Qi within them began to rapidly collapse and condense towards their respective centers.

This process was extremely slow. It wasn't until the sun began to rise that all the Qi in Zhao Ping'an's body was successfully converted into True Essence.

Then, the vast amount of spiritual energy in the heavens and earth surged into his body through his 108 major acupoints. It was then purified and transformed through the twelve meridians, finally flowing into his Dantian's sea of Qi, continuously filling it.

As the sun fully rose, Zhao Ping'an slowly opened his eyes. A flash of lightning streaked across, instantly illuminating the entire bedroom.

The void produced lightning; it was terrifying!

"Is this True Essence? It truly feels completely different."

Feeling the explosive power within his body, Zhao Ping'an muttered to himself with joy.

The biggest difference between True Essence and Qi was their strength and plasticity.

Strength was easy to understand; after all, one was gaseous and the other liquid, and anyone with common sense could easily distinguish between them.

Plasticity allowed attacks to be more stable, enabling True Essence to be projected externally without any medium, greatly increasing the attack range.

Like Zhao Ping'an, who had just broken through, he could now easily project his True Essence more than ten zhang away, achieving the greatest attack effect with the least consumption.

At this moment, his [Deduction Points] had once again reached 98%, enough to deduce and advance the Primordial Chaos Art to a Profound Grade Art.

Zhao Ping'an did not hesitate and immediately clicked on the three small glowing characters "[Can Deduce!]" behind Primordial Chaos Art.

[Ding, the Yellow-grade Art Primordial Chaos Art is beginning to deduce and advance. Current progress: 0%, Deducing...]