Melding Talismans

Vehicles cannot change owners; he cannot use anyone else's vehicle, nor can he repair or drive them. He can only dismantle them into raw materials.

Wood ×13

Metal ×3

Leather ×1

Black-hearted merchant! Such a large ox cart only yielded this little bit of stuff. Journey Survival skimmed off at least seventy percent.

And that massive ox didn't even provide a single pound of beef.

After cleaning up the mess, Zhu Jiusi had no intention of sleeping.

He stretched his body, swallowed a pile of roots in two gulps, drank half a gourd of water, and continued moving forward.

Every two or three miles, he stuck a branch into the ground and took out the Crude Clairvoyant to look ahead, but unfortunately, he gained nothing.

He still hadn't seen a Mountain God Temple.

He opened the scroll and looked upward.

[Status: Fusing Talisman (Remaining Time: 28:57:41)]

Almost there; by tomorrow nightfall, the talisman would be completely fused.

He glanced at the chat area and saw a message from Sparrow.

He had already finished rebuilding his bird's nest and was flooding the screen with offers to trade food for materials, hoping to upgrade his nest.

It was a bit expensive; the first upgrade for a bird's nest actually required 150 of each basic material.

He remembered that the first upgrade for a human vehicle only required 100.

Humans and demons were indeed different.

But upgrading was mandatory. For humans, the first upgrade granted the vehicle defensive capabilities, allowing one to stay near the vehicle without fear of monster attacks after the novice period.

After the first upgrade, a Demon Cultivator's nest could become mobile.

Whether human or Demon Cultivator, at least one upgrade had to be completed within the seven-day novice period.

Zhu Jiusi was anxious to find a Mountain God Temple precisely for this reason.

During the novice period, the hidden attributes of the Mountain God Temple weren't that strong, and Path Seekers could always stumble into them by accident.

Trying to find a Mountain God Temple after the novice period ended would be fraught with difficulties!

With Sparrow's experience, although no one used to be foolish enough to trade food for materials, the market had now opened up.

It was just that the prices were inflated; currently, one steamed bun could trade for fifteen basic materials.

That was far higher than the normal market rate.

Judging by the drop rates from gourds, the price ratio of food to basic materials should be about 1:5.

It had now more than tripled. Drinking water was even more priceless and unavailable.

It was too hard to get it out of the gourds.

But the Demon Cultivators were comfortable.

Previously, everyone felt that human cultivators had vehicles while Demon Cultivators had to walk themselves. But now, they were living well!

Now that they were beasts, as long as they overcame their psychological barriers, they had food freedom. Especially the herbivores; there was food everywhere along the road.

Zhu Jiusi tried his best not to touch the food in his pack, digging up every edible root he could find along the way—this didn't need to be learned; a sniff of the nose and he naturally knew what was edible.

The roots were full of moisture, allowing him to save a lot of water.

Taking a bite of a root, Zhu Jiusi put away the scroll and continued his journey.

Perhaps he had used up all his luck last night, as he didn't see a single gourd until it was completely dark.

Could it be that the total amount of materials in Journey Survival was fixed, and since he had obtained a share of materials by killing someone, Journey Survival had exempted his gourds?

Hmph!

Zhu Jiusi bit down hard and pulled out a section of root, swallowing it in a few gulps.

The sun set, and night arrived in an instant.

The date changes in Journey Survival were extremely bizarre. There was no gradual process. The moment the sun set, it was deep night; the moment the sun rose, it instantly turned from night to day.

Over the past three years, Zhu Jiusi had long grown accustomed to this shift in day and night. But clearly, others still found it curious for the time being.

Quite a few people in the chat area were still discussing the weather.

There were also several lucky ones who had stumbled into Mountain God Temples and Land God Temples.

Some were showing off their upgraded vehicles, while others were full of regret as they began trading for basic materials—the materials required to rebuild a nest were not few.

Zhu Jiusi glanced at the distance traveled today recorded at the top of the scroll.

Eighty-one miles; that was already quite good. If he walked any further, his hooves wouldn't be able to take it.

Even so, the nails of his four hooves were aching faintly.

He could not walk any further tonight.

Setting up the crude telescope, he peered forward, but the Mountain God Temple remained nowhere to be seen.

His luck was truly abysmal!

He shook his head, dug a shallow pit in the woods, and collapsed into it headfirst.

The Scroll hovered before him, having spent a long time lurking, attempting to extract useful information from the chats of other Path Seekers.

Just as he was reading, a private message arrived.

Rain Seeker: "Big Boss, I've organized the chat logs from the past two days. Sending them to you now."

As she spoke, she sent over a long message summarizing quite a bit of valuable intel from the chat area over the last two days.

There were speculations regarding the Laws, and secret tips on how to open the Silver Gourd.

More importantly, it contained the names of the villains Zhu Jiusi had asked for.

There were thirty-some names in total.

Next to each person, she had recorded the trends in their speech.

"Big Boss, I think they must have a small clique. It's not necessarily aimed specifically at you, but rather at all Path Seekers who have found opportunities."

"They either stand on a moral high ground to pressure people into sharing their opportunities, or they want to force people to share their data."

"However..."

Rain Seeker paused before adding: "However, the few people marked in red are clearly targeting you. They've tried to stir up trouble several times, steering the conversation toward you, hoping to gather a mob to force you to reveal the rewards from the Laws and the information about your Silver Gourd."

Zhu Jiusi glanced at the list; the ringleaders were Heart Without Darkness and Daoist Number 323.

"Understood, many thanks!" Zhu Jiusi replied, simultaneously transmitting half a gourd of drinking water to her.

Rain Seeker: "!! Thank you, Big Boss! If you have any work in the future, just come to me!"

She couldn't afford to be polite; she was a fish, and having been away from water for too long, her scales were already curling up.

The water she had managed to open was never enough. To her, this half-gourd of water from Zhu Jiusi was a lifesaver!

Damn it! She didn't know how to curse, but she decided that today she would join the Orchid Pavilion Scholar's group, and whoever acted out, she would learn to curse them back.

"Don't mention it!" Zhu Jiusi replied, glanced at the time, put away the Scroll, and closed his eyes to sleep.

The third day of Journey Survival, concluded.

Immortal Seeking Domain, 66th Domain, population 7,472.

It was already the third day, and quite a few people were still dying under the Heavenly Tribulation the moment the sun set.

The path of seeking the Dao was like this; it wasn't enough to just work hard to survive.

He didn't know how he had drifted off, but he woke up with a start only after the sun had climbed high.

He had overslept—the rune fusion was nearing its end, and his body had entered a state of lethargy.

Even after waking, he remained dizzy, wanting to collapse back down at any moment.

Gnawing on a few roots, Zhu Jiusi forced himself to get moving.

In his current state, he could fall asleep at any second, so he had to finish today's mileage as soon as possible.

His focus was extremely difficult to maintain throughout the day's trek. He even missed two gourds, only realizing it after walking a dozen meters, forcing him to turn back in a hurry to harvest them.

He set off at 7:00 AM, but didn't finish the fifty-mile journey until 2:00 PM, much slower than usual. Even while jogging, he would occasionally drift off, only to wake up with a jolt to find he was still walking.

At least he hadn't gone in the wrong direction!

He forced himself to run another four or five miles to ensure he had covered ten times the distance he would need to turn back, then he couldn't hold on any longer. He dove into the woods, not even having time to dig a pit.

He collapsed headfirst and began to snore.

He slept deeply, plagued by a constant stream of chaotic dreams.

One moment he felt a mountain pressing down on him, the next he felt as if he were the mountain, though he didn't know who he was crushing.

He turned over in his sleep and felt the heavens collapse and the earth shatter, as if the mountains and rivers were enraged.

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, a loud boom echoed in his consciousness, like a volcanic eruption.

Zhu Jiusi woke up abruptly; the sky had already turned to night.

He sat dazed for a moment before feeling a heavy sensation wash over his body.

The rune fusion was complete.

Zhu Jiusi couldn't wait to check the Scroll.

[Path Seeker: Zhu Jiusi]

[Daoist Name: Master of Cloud Stack Cave]

[Identity: Mountain Master]

[Status: Normal]

[Nature: 5]

[Life: 30]