Demonic Cultivator's Storage Bag, Blood Crystals

The hall fell briefly silent. Everyone's hearts were heavy; they had all guessed why Chen Qingmeng had entered seclusion this time.

Without the aid of a Foundation Establishment Pill, cultivators who wished to successfully establish their foundation could only gamble with their lives. There was a ninety percent chance that once Chen Qingmeng entered seclusion this time, he would never come out alive again.

After a while, Fifth Elder Chen Qingwan asked, "You summoned the elders' council as soon as you returned. Did something happen in Peaceful Sun County?"

Chen Nianzhi came back to his senses. The most urgent matter now was to root out the hidden Demonic Cultivators in Peaceful Sun County, and he could not spare thought for anything else. He hurriedly told everyone the full sequence of events.

Fourth Elder Chen Qingyuan had the most explosive temper. He slammed his palm onto the table in fury. "We absolutely cannot remain silent on this matter. Otherwise, the various Immortal Clans and those Demonic Cultivators will think we are weak enough to bully."

The Third Elder had overseen the clan's affairs for many years. Not only was he calm by nature, but his thoughts were also the most organized.

"As long as we make up our minds, ordinary Demonic Cultivators will never be able to evade our door-to-door investigation. But that will require manpower, and we are truly short-handed at present."

"However, matters have their priorities. Anything that is not urgent can be set aside for now."

"This matter is no trifling one. Every cultivator in the clan who is not in closed-door seclusion must be summoned to contribute."

Chen Nianzhi nodded as well and added, "To guard against powerful Demonic Cultivators, the few of us should go too whenever possible."

"Mhm." The Third Elder nodded. "To be safe, the three of you should go together. I will remain here to guard the clan."

The meeting ended swiftly, and the task of investigating the Demonic Cultivators was decided just like that.

This time, the clan had made up its mind to spare no cost in completely rooting out the hidden threat of Demonic Cultivators lurking among the mortals.

That very night, the Third Elder personally summoned the clan cultivators one by one and issued this nonnegotiable assignment.

Meanwhile, Chen Nianzhi sat in his residence, holding the Storage Bag in his hand.

He had obtained this Storage Bag after killing the black-robed Demonic Cultivator. Over the past ten days, he had been taking time to break the restrictions upon it, and today, he had finally erased the Demonic Cultivator's divine sense.

After opening the Storage Bag, Chen Nianzhi inspected its contents.

The Old Devil did not have many possessions. Aside from the Seven-Soul Evil Ghost Banner and the Black Shuttle, two Demon Treasures, there was only a small azure shield.

Both Demon Treasures were exceedingly vicious artifacts. Frequent use would affect a cultivator's state of mind. Chen Nianzhi was not some rigid fool, but unless he faced a life-and-death crisis, he did not dare use them lightly.

The small azure shield, however, was a proper Tier 1 High-grade artifact. It was called the Azure Spirit Shield, and once activated, the shield light it formed was enough to withstand attacks from Late Stage of Qi Refining cultivators.

That day, the black-robed Old Devil had relied on this treasure to weather the Green Leaf Sword's repeated attacks. Had the Scarlet Flame Talisman left behind by Seventh Granduncle not possessed such astounding power, Chen Nianzhi might not have been able to take him down.

After obtaining the shield, Chen Nianzhi immediately refined it, filling the gap in his defensive artifacts.

He discovered that most of the items in the Storage Bag were miscellaneous odds and ends. Apart from those, there were two bottles of pills, thirty Spirit Stones, a damaged map, and more than four hundred Blood Crystals.

Both bottles of pills were Demonic Pills refined from blood baleful materials. Consuming them carried the risk of falling into demonic corruption, so Chen Nianzhi could only destroy them.

The damaged map appeared to be only half of the original. It seemed to point toward the ruins of some cultivator's Cultivation Abode, but it was too incomplete to reveal anything useful.

Thirty Spirit Stones were equivalent to Chen Nianzhi's annual salary, a fairly decent sum. Yet what truly made his blood run cold were the more than four hundred Blood Crystals.

As the foremost of all living things, the Human Race was born between heaven and earth. Even those who had never cultivated would, over the accumulation of days and months, possess a trace of spiritual qi.

Blood Crystals were essence refined from mortal blood. Usually, the blood of ten mortals drained from head to toe could only produce a single Blood Crystal.

To Demonic Cultivators, the spiritual qi contained in one Blood Crystal was roughly equivalent to that in one Low-grade Spirit Stone. Yet it was filled with turbid qi and Sha Qi, so only Demonic Cultivators could make use of it. Cultivators did not dare absorb it at all.

The Blood Crystals piled high in the Storage Bag represented a full four thousand mortals whose blood had been drained dry by Demonic Cultivators, only then allowing these four hundred Blood Crystals to be refined.

"The Demonic Cultivators of this world..."

"They are truly worse than beasts, utterly devoid of conscience!"

Chen Nianzhi stared at the Blood Crystals, his eyes nearly splitting with rage. Even with the temperament of one who had lived two lives, he found it hard to remain calm.

Since childhood, through all he had seen and heard, he had long known that Demonic Cultivators did not engage in production. They were evil and frenzied by nature, fond of burning, killing, pillaging, and committing acts of extermination. But he had never imagined they could go this far.

Most Demonic Cultivators were Human Race themselves. They used the souls of their own kind to refine Demon Treasures, and mortal blood to refine Blood Crystals as sustenance for their own advancement. It was too cruel, too vicious. If they were not slain, the people's fury could never be appeased.

"All Demonic Cultivators under heaven deserve death!"

A flash of killing intent appeared in Chen Nianzhi's eyes, only to quickly recede.

"I am still not strong enough."

"I should first protect the Chen Immortal Clan that gave me life, raised me, and now sways precariously in the wind and rain."

After a long silence, he destroyed the Blood Crystals, Demonic Pills, and the rest one by one, then closed his eyes.

"I was born amid the vastness of heaven and earth, a mayfly and ant as insignificant as dust, struggling to cross the river between morning birth and evening death, unable to see the road ahead."

"Only cultivation can reveal that sliver of opportunity to change one's fate."

"Cultivation... is a long road."

"..."

Early the next morning, Chen Nianzhi set out for Peaceful Sun County with the Fourth Elder, the Fifth Elder, and the Chen Clan cultivators.

This time, aside from those left behind to guard Qingyuan Mountain, nearly every hand Qingyuan Mountain could spare had poured forth from the nest.

From the Chang Generation clan elders down to the Nian Generation juniors who had only just broken through to the Early Stage of Qi Refining, everyone capable of fighting set aside what they had been doing.

Some emerged midway through seclusion. Some put aside Five Elements Essence they had only half refined. Some ended their leave, while others pulled themselves away from tending the Spirit Fields.

Even Chen Changyan, the Chang Generation clan elder responsible for the clan's inheritance and dedicated to teaching the younger generation cultivation, stepped forward to offer the clan one more measure of strength.

Chen Changyan was now one hundred and twelve years old, nearly at the threshold of the one-hundred-and-twenty-year lifespan limit for the Qi Refining realm. His vitality and blood had long been depleted, and he had already reached the point where he should not fight.

The moment Chen Nianzhi saw that he intended to go as well, he could not sit still. He wanted to send him back to care for his health, but the old man immediately barked at him:

"You little brat, don't think that just because you've become an elder, I won't dare scold you."

"Have you forgotten? I was the one who taught you cultivation from childhood onward."

"Now that you've become an elder, you look down on this old man?"

"When it truly comes to a battle of life and death, these old bones of mine have not completely rotted away yet."

After being scolded for no reason, Chen Nianzhi was left speechless.

He knew that old cultivators like this, who had cultivated for a century without dying in conflict, were often people of abundant experience and ruthless methods.

If they truly fought, the strength the other party could unleash in a short time might not necessarily be inferior to his own.

But he only had the strength for a single battle. Once he went all out, no matter the outcome, he would ultimately die from the exhaustion of his vitality and blood.