Purple Qilin Armor
After everyone had finished introducing themselves, Xuan Ye spoke.
"This trip to the Ancient Battlefield is fraught with danger. Before we set off, I hope everyone can be honest and state their respective goals. If everyone's goals don't conflict, that's naturally the best. If there are conflicting goals, then we'll probably have to regroup."
Xuan Ye meant that if the five people had no conflict of interest, they could naturally travel together. However, if they sought the same treasure and the quantity of the treasure was limited, conflict would inevitably occur.
Xuan Ye was clearly experienced in team exploration; he acted cautiously, trying to avoid conflict as much as possible.
Xuan Ye continued, "To show my sincerity, I'll speak first. My purpose in going to the underground cave of the Ancient Battlefield is for the Snake-Scale Fruit."
The Snake-Scale Fruit is a spiritual fruit with an outer skin resembling snake scales. When consumed for the first time, it can help cultivators in the Qi Refining Stage break through bottlenecks, but subsequent consumption has no effect.
Xuan Ye went so far as to venture deep into the Ancient Battlefield for the Snake-Scale Fruit, which suggests that he has encountered a bottleneck in his cultivation and may have been stuck at this bottleneck for quite some time.
Xuan Ye continued, "There are quite a few Snake-Scale Fruit in the underground cave. If any fellow Daoist needs them, we can cooperate to retrieve them, and then we can share the Snake-Scale Fruit equally."
The Ancient Battlefield has a network of underground caves with numerous branching passages.
Their team was only temporary; they weren't necessarily going to risk their lives for someone else's purposes. Once they reached the underground cave, they might part ways at any time if their goals diverged.
This is why Song Wen wanted to find a team to travel with. The underground caves have too many branching passages and are dark and without any landmarks. Without someone familiar with the terrain to guide them, it would be easy to get lost in the complex caves with only a simple map obtained from the black market.
The places where Snake-Scale Fruit grow are sure to be guarded by a large number of snake-like Demon Beast, so picking Snake-Scale Fruit is not easy.
Therefore, Xuan Ye hoped that after reaching the underground cave, someone would accompany him to retrieve the Snake-Scale Fruit and share the risks.
Niu Ding said in a deep voice, "I'm only here to retrieve my elder brother's body. According to the survivors who accompanied him, he died not far from the Snake Cave. Xuan Ye, we can travel together then."
Upon hearing this, Xuan Ye's eyes lit up, and he said, "Okay."
Song Wen glanced at Niu Ding with some curiosity. If what the other party said was true, he was indeed someone worth befriending.
To risk his life to retrieve his elder brother's body, he must not be a truly wicked person.
It's unclear how much of his words are true and how much is false. Is he truly after his elder brother's body, or is he after some treasure found on the corpse?
"I've come here for the Sky Cicada Wood."
Song Wen made no attempt to conceal the purpose of his trip. There was no need to hide it; many people already knew that there was Sky Cicada Wood in the underground caves of the Ancient Battlefield.
Xuan Ye picked up the conversation and said.
"The Sky Cicada Wood is deep within the cave, and the danger is considerable. It's probably not easy to obtain."
Song Wen nodded and said, "Thank you for the reminder, fellow Daoist."
At this moment, Lao Chun said.
"My senior sister and I are here to obtain a Forsythia Yellow. My master, who is also my senior sister's father, is poisoned by the Copper Corpse and urgently needs the Forsythia Yellow as an antidote."
The Copper Corpse is a zombie comparable to the Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator.
Upon hearing this, Xuan Ye hesitated. "The location Forsythia Yellow grows is even deeper than that of the Sky Cicada Wood. The danger there is too great. Even if the five of us go together, I'm afraid we won't be able to reach it safely."
Xuan Ye clearly implied a desire to shirk responsibility. He meant that the place Forsythia Yellow is too dangerous, and that the disciples should go there on their own and not try to get others to help.
The Zi Yi, who had remained silent until now, spoke in a cool voice, "If any fellow Daoist is willing to lend a helping hand, regardless of the outcome, I am willing to pay each person 500 Spirit Stone as a reward. If it is successful, I will add another 500 Spirit Stone."
These words drew sidelong glances from the others.
Excluding Lao Chun, there are three people here. If all of them are willing to go, Zi Yi will have to pay 1,500 Spirit Stone. If they successfully obtain the Forsythia Yellow, the total cost will be 3,000 Spirit Stone.
3000 Spirit Stone are enough to buy a Forsythia Yellow plant.
Perhaps sensing their confusion, the Zi Yi explained.
"My father is severely poisoned and urgently needs to take Forsythia Yellow, but there is none available for sale in the market at the moment. Therefore, my fellow disciples and I have no choice but to risk going there."
After listening, all three nodded in agreement.
Song Wen, in particular, was in a similar situation.
He doesn't lack Spirit Stone to buy the Sky Cicada Wood. If he had enough time, he could simply post a task on the black market to buy the Sky Cicada Wood at a high price.
A generous reward will surely attract brave men.
However, time was of the essence, and he had no choice but to risk going.
Zi Yi revealed that she had a large number of Spirit Stone on her, wasn't she afraid that someone might have malicious intentions and kill her on the way? Or did she have something to rely on and not fear the other three? Or perhaps she didn't have enough Spirit Stone at all and was just luring the three to take risks for her.
"Since everyone's goals are different and do not conflict with each other, let's hurry up and set off immediately."
The woman in Zi Yi stared intently at Song Wen, urging him to set off as soon as possible.
Of the group, only Song Wen had a flying boat, so naturally, Song Wen's consent was required to set off.
Song Wen's cultivation level was the lowest among them, and the reason they agreed to Song Wen join their team was because they wanted Song Wen flying boat.
With flying boats, the travel time and the risks of crossing Ancient Battlefield could be greatly reduced.
Having prepared for this trip for many days, Song Wen nodded.
"I'm ready to leave anytime."
Song Wen knew that this trip to the Ancient Battlefield was extremely risky. Not only was the Ancient Battlefield itself fraught with danger, but there were also many bandits who killed and plundered Bandit Cultivator within Ancient Battlefield, and even some members of the team might turn against them at any time.
Therefore, he spent Spirit Stone like water to buy all sorts of life-saving items.
After all, the greatest tragedy for a person is dying before they've spent all their Spirit Stone.
He wore a high-grade magic Law Artifact- level soft armor close to his body. Song Wen spent a full 1,800 Spirit Stone on this rare close-fitting defensive magic Law Artifact, a price that could almost buy two or three offensive magic Law Artifact of the same level.
Song Wen's current Law Power is still weak and not enough to activate this soft armor for a long time, but he can barely manage to activate it for a short time when facing a crisis.
Moreover, this soft armor called 'Purple Qilin Armor' differs from the Ghost Head Shield. The Ghost Head Shield can only exert its defensive power when activated by spiritual energy, while the Purple Qilin Armor possesses a certain degree of defensive power even without the activation of spiritual energy.
In addition, he also purchased five First-Tier Superior-Grade defensive talismans called 'Vajra Talisman'.
With his <Myriad Poisons Primordial Body>, which he had cultivated to the 'proficient' stage, and his powerful physical body from cultivating the <Corpse King Blood Refinement Art>, he was confident that he could An Ran even the full-force attack of Qi Refining Ninth Layer cultivator.
For offensive purposes, he purchased a mid-grade magic Law Artifact, the Soul-Breaking Awl.
The Mother-and-Child Poison Needles were also infected with the deadly poison 'Heaven-Burning Fire'.
After two months of dedicated nurturing, the Black-Bellied Beetle Gu population has grown to over sixty. To feed such a large number of Black-Bellied Beetle Gu, he needs to consume nearly a hundred Spirit Stone every day.
To his disappointment, over the past year, no new mutated individuals of the Beetle Gu have emerged, and no stronger Beetle Gu have been able to evolve.
However, nine Beetle Gu, after more than a year of cultivation, have gradually grown to the strength of the Qi Refining Fifth Layer.