Demon Beasts Descend Again

After dealing with the three Demon Beasts, Wang Shouye recalled the water dragon. He then took out a wine gourd, drank some Spirit Wine, and sat in meditation to recover his spiritual power.

Wang Daoxing had suffered quite a few external injuries. The light shields formed by two Golden Armor Talismans had been shattered by the Black Ape long ago. After that, Wang Daoxing had relied on the Glassy Golden Body Art to withstand its attacks head-on.

With his formidable physical body and the Glassy Golden Body Art, Wang Daoxing had suffered only minor injuries. However, he had expended a great deal of spiritual power. He swallowed two Spirit Recovery Pills and sat in meditation to recover it.

Wang Daoyuan put away the corpses of the three Demon Beasts. From start to finish, he had used only two Talismans and had not expended a single trace of spiritual power.

The six uncles had merely launched sneak attacks and had not faced the enemy directly, so the spiritual power they had expended was negligible.

Li Xinghe, the Li Clan Patriarch, had not joined the encirclement of the demon birds. Instead, he had remained atop the small hill, guarding against Foundation Establishment Demon Beasts. He had watched the Wang Clan's battle from beginning to end. His expression remained perfectly calm, but within his heart, towering waves surged.

The performance of the Wang Clan members had greatly shocked him. Wang Shouye's Water Dragon Technique had reached a miraculous level. He had heard that Wang Shouye possessed outstanding aptitude and, like Wang Chengzhu, mainly cultivated water-element techniques. In the future, he might reach Wang Chengzhu's heights.

Despite being a level lower in cultivation, Wang Daoxing had been able to engage the Black Ape in close-quarters combat without falling into defeat. If he could successfully reach Foundation Establishment, he would surely have few rivals in the same rank.

As for Wang Daoyuan, he had used only two offensive Talismans yet produced such tremendous results. This showed the strength of his ability to control the situation and make use of resources. His sneak attack on the Black Ape had settled the outcome with a single strike, revealing how precise he was at seizing opportunities and how ruthless his attacks were.

The six old men were also ruthless in their attacks and cared nothing for methods. Since all six were like this, there had to be quite a few such people within the Wang Clan.

The Wang Clan now had one hundred thousand mortals and fifty or sixty cultivators. They had also achieved modest success in Talisman-making and alchemy. These were the foundations upon which a cultivation clan survived. The Wang Clan's foundation was now even more stable than when Wang Chengzhu had still been alive.

What the Wang Clan lacked now was merely a pillar capable of holding up the sky, and Wang Shouye had that potential.

Moreover, they had a fighter Invincible in the Same Rank, as well as a ruthless and resourceful controller. If all three could successfully reach Foundation Establishment, the Wang Clan's resurgence would be right before their eyes.

Li Xinghe secretly resolved to build the best possible relationship with the Wang Clan.

First, he valued the Wang Clan's potential. After all, it was a clan founded by a Golden Core ancestor. Though it had declined midway, its foundation still remained.

Setting aside everything else, the Water Dragon Technique Wang Shouye had just displayed and Wang Daoxing's Glassy Golden Body Art were already techniques and cultivation arts that the Li Clan could not match. Not to mention that the Wang Clan also possessed the Golden Core cultivation art Wang Chengzhu had left behind—the Fu Hai Jue. The Li Clan was merely an ordinary Foundation Establishment clan; it did not possess such fine things.

Second, the two clans already had a good relationship. Both were old clans, and both were actively integrating into the Netherworld Sect. They could be called natural allies. Once they thoroughly integrated into the Netherworld Sect, the two clans could advance and retreat together.

Furthermore, the two clans had no business competition whatsoever. The Wang Clan's sphere of influence lay in the Qingli River basin, while the Li Clan was located ten thousand li southwest of Golden Goose City. They were neither too close nor too far apart. There was no conflict over territorial expansion, nor would they grow estranged from being too far away.

In terms of industry, the two clans complemented each other exceptionally well. The Wang Clan was backed against the junction of two great mountain ranges, where there were several mines producing low-grade refining materials such as black iron and red copper. With lush forests as well, its pillars were mining, quarrying, spirit timber, and shipping, with alchemy and Talisman-making as supplementary trades.

The Li Clan's Qingdi Peak was far from lofty mountains and great rivers. It had few Spirit Fields and no mineral deposits or spirit timber. The surrounding lands were all grasslands, rich in all kinds of spirit beasts, with the Forest-Piercing Beast being one of them. The Li Clan's founding ancestor had been proficient in artifact refining and had left behind a profound artifact-refining inheritance.

Thus, the Li Clan's main businesses were artifact refining and the sale of spirit beasts.

Not only would the two clans have no business rivalry, their industries would complement one another. The Wang Clan could supply large quantities of refining materials, while the Li Clan could sell the spiritual artifacts the Wang Clan urgently needed.

The friendship between Wang Zhian, the Wang Clan Patriarch, and Li Xinghe, the Li Clan Patriarch—as well as Wang Zhian's help in resolving Li Xinghe's predicament—had largely been for the sake of pushing business cooperation between the two clans even further.

The two clans had no conflict of interests. On the contrary, they shared many common interests, and the Li Clan was delighted to see the Wang Clan rise again.

Just as Li Xinghe was considering the relationship between the two clans, Wang Shouye and Wang Daoxing had already fully recovered their spiritual power. The second wave of Demon Beasts had crept up.

The Wang Clan defended the side of the small hill facing the flatlands, where the slope was relatively gentle and Demon Beasts could climb up more easily. Thus, there were more Demon Beasts on the Wang Clan's front, and this time, ten had arrived.

The Li Clan's side bordered sheer cliffs and precipices, rugged and difficult to traverse. Most First-order Demon Beasts could not cross at all, so there was no point in launching a forceful assault to open a breach. Therefore, only two Demon Beasts went over to probe them.

Among the Demon Beasts facing the Wang Clan was a peak First-order Blazing Lion. The other nine were all Late Stage First-order Demon Beasts, equivalent to Demon Beasts at the eighth or ninth level of Qi Condensation.

The Blazing Lion was around three zhang long and looked much like an ordinary lion, except that its mane was fiery red. Not only did it possess a powerful physical body, it was also skilled at controlling fire. It could attack from afar and fight in close quarters, making it an extremely difficult Demon Beast to deal with. Moreover, the flames on this Blazing Lion were blood-red, distinctly different from those of ordinary Blazing Lions. It seemed to possess the bloodline of some high-grade Demon Beast and could not be underestimated.

The strength of these ten Demon Beasts had already completely surpassed that of the Wang Clan's ten people. Even if they relied on scattering Talismans to defeat this group of Demon Beasts, casualties would be unavoidable. However, there was no other way. They could only brace themselves and charge ahead.

The others of the Wang Clan had also realized that danger was close at hand. The six uncles put away their playful attitudes and applied another two Golden Armor Talismans to themselves.

Wang Shouye's expression also turned solemn. He applied two Golden Armor Talismans to himself, then took a water-blue longsword from his storage bag and strapped it to his back. This longsword was a magical artifact that ancestor Wang Chengzhu had used before reaching Foundation Establishment.

Wang Daoxing put away his arrogance and applied five Golden Armor Talismans to himself. He knew very well that he was the shield and had to endure the greatest number of attacks.

Afterward, he took an exaggerated spiked mace from his storage bag. Its handle was five chi long, and its head was thicker than a person's waist.

Wang Zhiming also took out a longsword, then produced a jade bottle and poured its black liquid over the blade. The moment the black liquid left the bottle, its pungent stench instantly spread in all directions.

Wang Daoyuan's eyelids twitched as he watched. Poisoning a sword in broad daylight before everyone's eyes—the nearby Li Clan members also wore rather unnatural expressions. They probably had never seen anyone play like this before.

Wang Daoyuan had little to prepare. He pulled a stack of Golden Armor Talismans from his storage bag, distributed another five to each person, and applied one to himself.

Then he instructed the Wang Clan members, "Twelfth Uncle, hold back the Blazing Lion. The six uncles and Second Brother will hold back the other Demon Beasts. The enemy is strong while we are weak, so remember not to advance recklessly. Twelfth Uncle and I will be responsible for sending the Demon Beasts on their final journey."

Everyone answered in unison.

Next, he pulled out another stack of Talismans, roughly over a hundred in all. They were all offensive Talismans.

The Li Clan members on the other side had already gone numb. These few people from the Wang Clan were far too capable of stirring things up; every last one of them was a marvel. Now there was another one who smashed people with money. In this short span of time, Wang Daoyuan had already taken out nearly two hundred Talismans. That was over a thousand Spirit Stones!

Even Talisman Masters generally carried only a few dozen Talismans with them. Keeping too many on hand was useless, since they could make Talismans at any time. Moreover, making Talismans required capital. Stockpiling Talismans would leave one short of Spirit Stones. After all, First-order Talisman Masters were not particularly wealthy.

Judging by how freely Wang Daoyuan handed out Talismans, he probably had even more.

After Wang Daoyuan broke through to the Late Stage of Qi Condensation, his divine sense had also improved greatly. He could make over twenty Talismans in a day while maintaining a success rate above fifty percent. That was without using Spirit Wine or medicinal pills to recover. Other high-grade first-order Talisman Masters could make ten Talismans a day and maintain a forty-percent success rate, which was already quite a good standard.

Making Talismans consumed divine sense and spiritual power, both of which required time to recover. In addition, cultivators had to cultivate every day, leaving very little time for Talisman-making. No one was like Wang Daoyuan, willing to use Spirit Wine that cost five Spirit Stones per jin to recover spiritual power.

Wang Daoyuan dared to make Talismans as if his life depended on it not only because his divine sense was naturally powerful, but also because he used the time other Talisman Masters spent recovering to make Talismans.