Success!

Jade Dragon City.

As a coastal city backed by the Jade Dragon Sect and garrisoned by the Green Flood Dragon Army and the Xiantian Battalion, it naturally attracts island powers from across the East Sea, as well as rogue cultivators, to trade treasures and exchange for what they need.

At the same time, whether traveling from the East Sea into the heart of the Great Xia Dynasty or entering the East Sea from the mainland, Jade Dragon City serves as an excellent place to rest and gather intelligence from both sides.

The East City Treasure Exchange is the place where the most cultivators in all of Jade Dragon City congregate.

Of course, true powerhouses who pilot Dharma Treasures and fly hundreds of thousands of miles in a day have no reason to stop here; those who come are usually Xiantian Lifeforms, with the strongest among them being mere Purple Mansion Cultivators.

"Old Lu, thank you for supporting my business this time!"

A young man with a round face and eyes that seemed to be smiling constantly saw a middle-aged man out of the shop door.

"My squad is stationed in Jade Dragon City this month, so I'll be at the shop. If you find any other good items, the price is negotiable."

Only after the middle-aged man had walked a long distance did the round-faced young man turn back toward the shop.

"Shen Nan." A voice rang out directly in the round-faced young man's ear.

True Essence sound transmission?

Being this cautious—could a big deal be coming?

The round-faced young man, Shen Nan, turned his head and saw a middle-aged man standing in a nearby corner with a youth.

"Uncle Mo Er?" Shen Nan was startled. "Uncle Mo Er, why are you here? Does the Old Patriarch have any instructions?"

"The Xia Clan is gone. Only I managed to escape with the Young Master."

"The Old Patriarch and the Clan Leader are all dead."

The middle-aged Uncle Mo Er's face was pale, but his eyes were fixed intently on Shen Nan.

"What!? The Old Patriarch, and the Xia Clan..." Shen Nan's eyes turned red instantly, tears welling up in his sockets as he stepped before Uncle Mo Er. "Who? Who killed the Old Patriarch and destroyed the Xia Clan? Who!"

"It was the Shang Clan of Shangma Island. That old scoundrel Shang Youde used the excuse of a banquet to invite the Old Patriarch and the Clan Leader, and then..." Seeing that Shen Nan's display of emotion was genuine and not feigned, Uncle Mo Er finally felt his hanging heart settle slightly.

"Shang Clan, Shang Youde!!!" Shen Nan gritted his teeth, each word forced out. Veins bulged on his forehead, and his eyes seemed ready to spit fire.

"Cough, cough, cough..."

Uncle Mo Er, also emotionally agitated, fell into a fit of coughing, with traces of blood appearing between his teeth. Seeing this, Shen Nan hurriedly reached out to support him, injecting a gentle stream of Xiantian True Essence into his body to help stabilize his injuries.

"You are safe once you reach me. No matter how arrogant the Shang Clan is, they wouldn't dare run wild in Jade Dragon City." Shen Nan looked at the youth who had been standing silently, his expression unchanged from the start. "Are you Young Master Jie?"

Xia Jie nodded.

Seeing the once-lively youth from years ago reduced to this state, Shen Nan felt even more distressed.

He was an orphan.

If not for the Old Patriarch of the Xia Clan on Xiama Island, he might have grown up to be nothing more than an ordinary fisherman.

It was the Old Patriarch and the Xia Clan who gave him his Qi Refining cultivation technique and set him on the path of immortality.

After Shen Nan stepped into the Xiantian realm and joined the Xiantian Battalion in Jade Dragon City, it was the Old Patriarch's funding that allowed him to open this 'Sea Treasure Pavilion' in the East City Treasure Exchange.

It could be said that for Shen Nan, the Old Patriarch and the Xia Clan were his only family.

"Young Master Jie, I, Shen Nan, will never let the matter of the Old Patriarch and the Xia Clan go! As long as I have a breath left, I will never let anyone harm you!" Shen Nan said in a deep voice.

Hearing Shen Nan's near-oath, Xia Jie finally showed a flicker of emotion.

"Brother Shen Nan," Xia Jie said, "I want to cultivate. I want to avenge Grandfather and the others."

"Good. I've earned quite a few Origin Stones over the years. If it's not enough, I'll sell this shop to gather the resources you need for cultivation." Shen Nan nodded and asked directly, "Young Master Jie, what do you need me to do?"

"I need one hundred and eight Demon Refining Needles, ten portions of 'Blood Refined Nether Fire', and the heart blood of a Xiantian Great Demon," Xia Jie said softly.

"What?" Upon hearing these items, Shen Nan was shocked. "Young Master Jie, do you mean... do you mean to cultivate the Blood Demon Indestructible Body?"

He had once been taught techniques by the Old Patriarch of the Xia Clan and was no stranger to the manuals collected by the clan.

These Demon Refining Needles, the Blood Refined Nether Fire, and the heart blood of a Great Demon were clearly the essential components for the accelerated method recorded in the Blood Demon Indestructible Body.

At the beginning of cultivating the Blood Demon Indestructible Body, one had to carve demonic patterns onto their body using the heart blood of a Great Demon, then draw the Nether Fire to refine the body daily—it was excruciatingly painful.

The accelerated method required inserting one hundred and eight Demon Refining Needles into the body's major acupuncture points, constantly drawing the Nether Fire to refine the body from within; the pain was a hundred times worse than normal cultivation.

However, the benefit was that as long as one could endure this boundless pain, it would theoretically take only eighty-one days to step into the Xiantian realm.

If one could endure three years of this hellish torture, they could step directly into the Purple Mansion realm. Once mastered, the practitioner would become like a blood shadow, fearless against Dharma Treasures and flying swords; upon encountering an enemy, a single pounce would allow them to devour the opponent's flesh and soul, thereby enhancing their own cultivation.

It was a demonic body-refining technique that was extremely painful, dangerous, and rapid.

Since ancient times, many tribal powers had obtained this technique, but very few could endure the torture to reach the Xiantian Lifeform level, and those who reached the Purple Mansion realm through it were as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns.

"Alright." Shen Nan watched the madness flickering in Xia Jie's eyes for a long moment before nodding.

In any case, one hundred and eight Demon Refining Needles were just the most ordinary, unranked Dharma Treasures, and the Blood Refined Nether Fire and the heart blood of a Great Demon were not particularly precious. He decided to wait until Xia Jie tried it and realized what that pain was truly like before attempting to dissuade him.

"By the way, Brother Shen Nan, you are also in the Xiantian Battalion. Do you know a commander named Zhou Hao?" Seeing that Shen Nan had agreed, the madness in Xia Jie's eyes dissipated slightly.

"Commander Zhou?" Shen Nan was stunned, not understanding why Xia Jie would mention Zhou Hao.

However, it was a good thing to talk about other matters so that Xia Jie wouldn't remain so immersed in hatred.

Shen Nan gestured for the two to enter the shop first, and as they walked, he said:

"The Xiantian Battalion has now been renamed the Jade Dragon Army, and Commander Zhou is the commander of the newly formed Fifth Squad of the Jade Dragon Army. He is a true expert who cultivates the number one God-Devil Body Refining technique, the Chiming Nine Heavens Map."

"That day, during our Jade Dragon Army martial arts competition to select a new commander, Commander Zhou Hao bet that he could destroy a Purple Mansion-stage Vine Wood Puppet. The twelve High-Grade Origin Stones he used for the wager were even things he traded from me..."

Red Dust Immortal Mansion, amidst the ten thousand acres of the Red Lotus Flower Pond.

Whoosh~ whoosh~~ whoosh~~~

Hundreds of black light beams, each as thick as a child's arm, streaked across the sky.

Wherever the black light beams passed, the red lotuses in the pond were invaded by the passing cold energy, instantly turning into lumps of ice.

"Success!"

Watching the hundreds of 'Mystic Yin Extinction Divine Light Beams' fly all the way to the edge of the pond and slam into the red light barrier surging from the Immortal Mansion's array, leaving countless ripples upon it, Zhou Hao raised his eyebrows, a smile finally appearing on his face.

"Monster!"

"Not only does he cultivate so fast, but he even comprehended a trace of the True Meaning of the Dao of Water while still a Xiantian Lifeform. His soul is also so powerful that he can easily unleash hundreds of beams—he really is a monster!"

Lying to the side, Ou Huang was so shaken by the monstrous talent Zhou Hao had displayed one after another that he didn't know what to say; his mind was filled with nothing but the word 'monster'.

To cultivate the Great Five Elements Extinction Divine Light, successfully planting the Cold Sha in the Purple Mansion is only the first step. Without comprehending the corresponding True Meaning of the Dao, even the simplest act of combining Cold Sha energy with Origin Power to condense it into a divine light beam is extremely difficult to achieve.

Yet Zhou Hao... the damn guy actually succeeded in less than a day!

Not only that, but he could also unleash a hundred beams with a casual wave.

One must know that even for a Myriad Phenomena True Person, such a quantity would be about the limit.

"Looking at it now, with his level of monstrous talent, as long as he doesn't die halfway, becoming a Primordial Spirit Earth Immortal will be as easy as child's play."

At this moment, it was as if a small abacus was clicking away incessantly in Ou Huang's heart.

"I must maintain a good relationship with him. Whether I can go out and roam freely in the future will depend on this kid."

Zhou Hao tested the newly practiced divine light beams and was quite satisfied with their power.

Although he had just succeeded and his own Qi refining was only at the initial stage of the Purple Mansion, the combination of Origin Power and Cold Sha, unleashed through secret techniques, allowed each beam to match the power of a Purple Mansion late-stage or even peak-stage Qi refining cultivator wielding a Human-Rank Magical Treasure flying sword.

In particular, the cold energy carried within the Mysterious Yin Cold Sha Light Beam meant that if a peak Purple Mansion Qi refining cultivator were struck without a protective magical treasure, the cold energy would invade their body, causing their strength to plummet, while weaker ones would be frozen to death directly.

"It would be even better if I could nurture the Cold Sha to a higher grade," Zhou Hao thought to himself.

To improve his cultivation in a short time and push his comprehension of the True Meaning of the Dao to the 'Domain of the Dao' would still take some time.

After all, even with the Blue Flower Mist allowing him to enter the 'thoughtless and mindless' state of Dao enlightenment, one must at least have a spark of inspiration before one can comprehend anything!

The 'thoughtless and mindless' state of enlightenment only allows one to infinitely amplify the inspiration in one's heart, enabling one to align infinitely with the operation of the Heavenly Dao.

Without accumulation, without that flash of inspiration after being touched by something in one's heart, just sitting there and trying to comprehend out of thin air—what could one possibly realize?

Aside from the realm of the Dao, if one wants to increase the power of secret techniques, one must put effort into the Cold Sha planted within the Purple Mansion Origin Sea.

The Cold Sha within his body was still just a small seedling, merely a Ninth-Grade Cold Sha, considered the weakest tier of Earth-Level Sha Qi, requiring constant nourishment with Origin Power or some rare items with Yin-Cold attributes.

If he could nurture it to the first grade of the Earth-Level, then relying solely on the 'Mystic Yin Extinction Divine Light Beam' would be enough to dominate among Myriad Phenomena True Persons.

However, while Origin Power nourishment works, the speed is simply too slow; by the time he nurtured it to the first grade of the Earth-Level, he would likely already be a Primordial Spirit Daoist.

Using rare items with Yin-Cold attributes to nurture it would be much faster, but such items are extremely valuable and hard to come by, rarer even than top-tier magical treasures.

"A headache," Zhou Hao muttered, frowning. "I still don't know where to find the remaining Metal, Wood, Fire, and Earth Sha Qi veins. If I want to quickly nurture the Cold Sha now, I have to find more rare items."

"Rare items to nurture Cold Sha?" Ou Huang's two ears twitched. "Will Ten Thousand Year Cold Ice work?"

"It works, it works perfectly!" Zhou Hao's eyes lit up. "Do you have Ten Thousand Year Cold Ice?"

"Follow me."

Ou Huang summoned a red lotus, and together with Zhou Hao, they leaped onto it and flew toward the north side of the flower pond.

"There used to be a piece of Ten Thousand Year Cold Ice in Red Dust. I originally intended to use it as an object for the Water-element array of the Five Elements Array, but later, after I obtained a better Heaven-Rank Rare Treasure, I didn't use it and just tossed it into the flower pond."

Zhou Hao was overjoyed.

It's good that it wasn't used; it would be best if there were more treasures tossed into the flower pond.

I wouldn't mind at all.

"But let's be clear, I can't give it all to you," Ou Huang seemed to struggle a bit. "That is my most satisfying work."

Work??

A bad feeling suddenly arose in Zhou Hao's heart.

Sure enough, when the red lotus flew beneath the floating palace in the north, a giant white cat ice sculpture, over three zhang tall and ten zhang long, appeared prominently in the Red Lotus Flower Pond.

"You can have all those ice shards; added together, it's quite a lot."

Ou Huang raised his small cat paw, pointing to the side of the ice sculpture.

There, dozens of ice chunks of varying sizes were piled up in the flower pond.

If we're talking about being a spendthrift, truly no one compares to you... Zhou Hao was speechless.

Such a large piece of Ten Thousand Year Cold Ice—not to mention using it to nurture Cold Sha, even if it were used to forge a magical treasure, it would be enough to craft an Earth-Rank or even a Heaven-Rank one, right?

And you just let it go to waste, turning it into an ice sculpture!?

I must cultivate quickly!

Once I gain ownership of this Immortal Mansion, I will definitely not let this damn cat make any more statues.

Absolutely not!