Jade Island, Red-Scale Fishery.
Even if he had decided to use the Great Sun Violet Qi to swindle others, it was not something that could be done overnight.
The fishery still needed regular patrols.
Fang Qing sat cross-legged in his cave mansion, silently considering his plans and reviewing his methods for dealing with enemies.
"Firecloud Talismans, Golden Blade Talismans... If the seawater within the Sea-Transforming Pearl were refined into special spirit water or poisonous water... my means of confronting enemies could be strengthened further."
"Besides that, there are the techniques I cultivate myself, my First-Order mid-grade Body Refinement at perfection, and even the spiritual sense secret art of the Demon-Subduing Vajra Pestle."
This spiritual sense secret art had evolved from the Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art. After Fang Qing cultivated his Spiritual Sense, he discovered that it had other marvelous uses.
"Hmm... Of my current combat methods, the one that can still be improved is this divine art. If I can break through to First-Order high-grade Body Refinement, then with the two layered together, I could probably fight Qi Refining Ninth Layer cultivators, or even Qi Refining Great Perfection cultivators!"
"And the Sea-Transforming Pearl has quite a bit of potential left to unearth..."
As he pondered, Fang Qing's expression shifted. He went outside the cave mansion and saw a bright yellow sound-transmission talisman.
He caught it in his hand, listened for a few moments, then summoned the Green Leaf Boat. Turning into a streak of emerald light borne on a clear breeze, he arrived above the fishery.
"Senior Brother Fang..."
Li Yusu, his arm severed, had come to take over the shift. His face held exhaustion he could not conceal.
After all, his grave injuries had not yet healed and his vitality had yet to recover, but he had already come rushing about and wearing himself out.
"Junior Brother Li, how are your injuries recovering? I recently refined several Blood-Qi Great Pills..."
Fang Qing had specifically refined them because a great battle was approaching, and the market for such healing pills was bound to surge.
"Thank you, Senior Brother..."
Li Yusu responded as usual, his heart as dead as ashes, as though he had lost all interest in everything.
"Alas... What a pity about Zha Zhu."
Fang Qing sighed. At last, he saw a faint ripple pass through Li Yusu's eyes.
"The three of us were, after all, immortal seedlings from the same town... Seeing you like this pains me as well..."
That was naturally a lie. Fang Qing wanted to investigate Hua Lian while keeping himself hidden, and this foolish young man happened to be useful.
"Do I still have a future?"
Li Yusu gave a miserable smile. "I have lost an arm. My physical body is incomplete, and the physical-body trial during Foundation Establishment will become even more fraught with setbacks... Master said that in my condition, only a Second-Order Flesh-Regenerating Bone-Replenishing Pill can save me. Such a pill is difficult to obtain. Even if he could produce one, he would not give it to me... Who told me to get Senior Sister Zha Zhu killed?"
"A Second-Order pill?"
Fang Qing was somewhat startled, then said, "No matter what, now that we know the path, there will always be a way... I have some healing pills here. Take them and sell them for me. I can give you a ten-percent commission... Slowly accumulate contribution points and see whether you can exchange them within the sect."
It was wartime now. In order to encourage its disciples, the sect had added many fine items to the contribution list.
Second-Order pills, especially healing pills, were naturally among them.
At these words, a trace of light finally appeared in Li Yusu's eyes. "Thank you, Senior Brother... I have done many wrong things before. I am truly ashamed."
"No need for that. Keep an eye out for methods of refining spirit water and poisonous water. I have use for them as well..."
Seeing Li Yusu agree, Fang Qing gave him a few more instructions.
He could handle such matters himself, but with his daily patrol duties, they would consume far too much time. It was better to outsource them.
Besides... although Red-Scale Fishery was not far from the mountain gate, leaving the formation to conduct trade still carried a certain amount of risk.
Fang Qing chose to let Li Yusu take that risk!
Several months later.
Inside Zeng Shu's Cave Mansion.
Fang Qing, Li Yusu, and several senior brothers and junior brothers guarding the place sat on prayer mats, exchanging cultivation insights and battlefield intelligence.
"This time... the sect and the Zhong Family are waging a great battle in the Kui Ri Sea Region. They say spirit ships fill the clouds and cultivators fall like rain... Under the protection of large battle formations, not many spirit ships have sunk, but small-scale clashes near the battlefield have never ceased. Quite a few fellow disciples have already fallen..."
A young cultivator said with a somewhat pale face, "The Zhong Family has issued recruitment notices on the black market, drawing in a large number of Rogue Cultivators to assault the sect's resource sites, while mixing in several elite squads from their main family... They do not care if Rogue Cultivators die, but every member of those elite squads is in Late Qi Refinement and skilled in combat. They have already breached several spirit herb gardens and fisheries..."
"Alas... In times of great war, we are nothing but ants."
Zeng Shu sighed as well.
"The key is... why did this war begin in the first place?"
Fang Qing was rather curious.
"Only Foundation Establishment cultivators likely know such major sect affairs..." Zeng Shu shook his head with a bitter smile. "The Zhong Family claims publicly that they are avenging their relatives by marriage... But how many years has it been since the Wu Family of White Profound Island was destroyed? Seeking revenge only now is clearly a pretext. Could they have found powerful support? And Heavenly Heart Chain Islands claims to support neither side on the surface, but in truth, they will simply support whichever of our two sides is weaker... Since the Zhong Family dared start this war, could they have received a secret promise from Heavenly Heart Chain Islands? Or perhaps... although the Lesser Vast Sea Cultivation Realm has always been closed off, there are still cultivators from beyond it..."
"This matter... cannot be ignored."
Li Yusu's complexion had improved somewhat. After thinking it over, he said, "During my trips back and forth to the sect, I heard that the Zhong Family has produced an astonishing genius with an ice-type aberrant spirit root... This time, he has made his move and killed many disciples of our sect. Perhaps the Zhong Family believes our sect will certainly suppress their genius, so they decided to strike first?"
"An ice-type aberrant spirit root?"
All the disciples were somewhat shocked upon hearing this.
The human body contained all five elements, but spirit roots came in more than merely five varieties; there were other transformations as well.
For instance, an Ice Spirit Root arose from a mutation of metal and water. Such aberrant-grade aptitude was extraordinarily formidable, far above high-grade aptitude. Though it was not as heaven-defying as heavenly-grade aptitude, which encountered no bottleneck before Core Formation, its cultivation speed was absolutely not slow.
With such a Qilin child in the Zhong Family, if he gained further opportunities, perhaps in a hundred years they would have another Core Formation patriarch!
If the Azure Sea Sect knew of this, it would certainly take action.
The Zhong Family striking first was understandable as well.
"By the way, what is the name of that aberrant-grade Ice Spirit Root cultivator?" Fang Qing asked curiously.
"Zhong Lingxiu... They say his ice-element spells have reached a miraculous, masterful level. He has already killed three True Disciples of our sect at Qi Refining Great Perfection..."
Li Yusu let out a long breath. Perhaps feeling that this was too damaging to their own prestige, he hastily added, "Our sect has also produced quite a few outstanding figures on the battlefield, such as Death-Seeking Sword Cui Zhe, the Wave-Stepping Fairy, Five Dragons Child, and others..."
"Zhong Lingxiu?"
Fang Qing nodded inwardly. He passed over Five Dragons Child, an obviously filler title Li Yusu had only mentioned after glancing at him, but he was rather interested in Cui Zhe. A sword cultivator who had earned himself a title was indeed no simple figure.
But compared with Li Rulong, he would probably be fated to die beneath two or three sword strikes...
The truly formidable one was Zhong Lingxiu!
He was a peerless genius practically destined for Foundation Establishment Perfection, with hopes of Core Formation!
"No matter how formidable he is, he is still only at Qi Refinement... If I made a move, could I kill him? Wait... Why am I thinking about something so dangerous? Even if I really could do it, I would become a thorn in the Zhong Family's eye from then on. Nor would I be able to keep a low profile within the Azure Sea Sect. There would be almost nothing but disadvantages."
After the gathering dispersed, Fang Qing returned to his own cave mansion. Sitting in the half-lotus position, he visualized the Horse-Head Vajra and formed the Wish-Fulfilling Seal.
Crash!
His blood qi circulated through his body. With the assistance of his Spiritual Sense, it illuminated every minute part of him, mending his original tiny flaws, injuries, and ailments one by one as he gradually reached the realm of a Leakless Golden Body.
Finally!
Fang Qing let out a long breath. He sensed the strange power of blood qi condensing within him, circulating through his chakras before ultimately flowing into his sea of consciousness and transforming into a seed syllable.
This seed syllable resembled both dragon and insect, carrying a sense of distortion.
Yet at a single glance, one immediately understood its meaning: Great Vajra Divine Strength!
"This is... My Body Refinement has finally broken through to First-Order high-grade!"
Fang Qing's eyes flickered, his expression exhilarated. "And... this Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art has produced another wonder. It can unleash Great Vajra Divine Strength!"
After testing it slightly, he learned that his foundation was still shallow. He could only use Great Vajra Divine Strength once before needing to continue his arduous cultivation and nourish the seed syllable.
Yet the boost it granted his combat power was anything but trivial.
"When I activate Great Vajra Divine Strength, it can comprehensively bolster my Body Refinement art and grant immense strength on top of that... Saying it can render me immune to attacks from magic artifacts would be somewhat exaggerated, but it is enough to shatter the defenses of high-grade magic artifacts and give my enemies a huge surprise. This is... almost the power of Quasi-Second-Order Body Refinement?"
"Sure enough, the cultivation arts of the Land of Ancient Shu are exquisite, far surpassing those of this realm..."
"Unfortunately, my Horse-Head Vajra Protector Divine Art contains only the first stage, the Fierce Donkey Demon Sequence. Once I complete it, I will likely have to search the Secret Treasury Domain for the cultivation method of the next stage, the Mule-Faced Vajra Prajna Sequence..."
By now, Fang Qing had more or less cultivated this first stage of the technique to major accomplishment. He was not far from perfection.
After that, he would lack the cultivation art and have no road forward.
Still, he was already exceedingly satisfied with this.
The performance of this Body Refinement art alone was not much inferior to the Azure Sea Sect's Blackwater Dharma Body, much less its aid on the spiritual level, which had helped him cultivate Spiritual Sense. He had made an absolute killing.
Just as Fang Qing was pondering, a shrill sound-transmission talisman suddenly flew into his cave mansion.
"This?"
His expression changed drastically. He swept all his possessions into his storage pouch, mounted the Green Leaf Boat, and shot into the sky.
Whoosh!
The cold wind cut to the bone.
Hailstones came crashing down, coating the lake's surface in a layer of solid ice.
Fixing his gaze ahead, he saw more than a dozen white-robed cultivators who had already charged into the formation around Red-Scale Lake!
"Not good, they're cultivators from the Zhong Family!"
Fang Qing recognized them at once. These were direct-line cultivators of the Zhong Family, not the Rogue Cultivator cannon fodder!
"This isn't right..."
While Zeng Shu and the others shouted and engaged in combat, Fang Qing was filled with confusion. "I clearly cast a divination every day. Today should have been minor fortune..."
"Could my divination have been obscured? No... Divination is not omnipotent."
"Or is it that, because I encountered this attack but can escape safely with my strength, it counts as 'minor fortune'?"
Fang Qing immediately understood that he could not completely trust Plum Blossom Divination, or it would simply get him killed!
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