Although his limited abilities had kept him from wiping out the demonic cultivators and uncovering that mysterious presence, the devil finger wood alone was enough to make Li Ling's expedition a richly rewarding one.
Through this battle, Li Ling became increasingly aware of what made him special.
A spirit body of such a high order was simply beyond the ability of those low-level cultivators to contend with. Used properly, it could sweep through the entire Qi Refining realm.
What surprised Li Ling even more was that he had actually gained some control over the stench produced by that poisonous gas and could even put it to use.
Once I get back, I really need to explore this properly. Perhaps I can combine it with baleful intent refining and finally accomplish my long-cherished ambition of creating my own divine ability!
Aside from the devil finger wood, Li Ling also found a total of eight inferior Spirit Materials on the bodies.
Old You had carried several small bottles, each as thick as a thumb and roughly an inch tall. They were exquisitely made, with liquids or powders of various colors sealed inside.
Presumably, these things had some value as well.
Li Ling gave them a cursory inspection and packed them separately. The jade slips, letters, notes, Spirit Materials, and other items he subsequently found went into another bundle with the rest of the Spirit Materials.
However, he did not take the remaining Thunderbolt Bombs and other items that had performed so splendidly that day.
They were external tools, after all, and inconvenient to carry. Once he acquired more devil finger wood and increased his spiritual sense severalfold, they would become like chicken ribs-too meager to savor, yet a pity to discard.
"Hm? What's this?"
Just then, Li Ling discovered something suspicious in an inner room off the main hall.
It was an ebony statue about a foot tall, depicting a half-human, half-dragon demon cultivator with scales on its face and a majestic expression.
Only after drawing closer did Li Ling sense the spiritual radiance unique to magical artifacts. Unlike the clothing and weapons worn by the dead demonic cultivators, which had already been refined with their blood essence and could no longer be used, this was an unclaimed object.
"A divine statue? Could this be... the Great Lin River God?"
He suddenly realized something.
The statue stood on an offering table, beside a brocade box, an incense burner, lamps, candles, and other objects. When he opened the box, he found precisely the kind of altered Spirit-Communing Incense he had encountered before!
"Even if I didn't find its true form, finding this statue is a gain in itself!"
"I'll take it back and study it."
After hiding these things, Li Ling patrolled the surroundings several more times. Only after confirming that the demonic disciples had either died or fled, and that the few remaining mortal lackeys lacked the courage to open the cellar and release the monsters inside, did he leave with peace of mind.
Over half an hour later, he caught the scent of a large force passing along a stretch of road. Their blood and vitality blazed with fierce yang energy; they were all troops from the Unusual Events Bureau.
They had presumably received word from the local authorities and dispatched men overnight to Jiu Mouth Town to wipe out the remaining enemies.
Li Ling paid them no heed and continued back with his bundles, deliberately choosing desolate mountains and wilderness to avoid startling passersby.
If anyone saw two bundles, one large and one small, floating through the air, they would probably think they had encountered something unclean. The superstitious tales of the mountain villagers would gain fresh material.
Eventually, Li Ling stopped in the barren hills north of the Royal City. With practiced ease, he found a crevice in a nearby hollow and hid the items inside.
He had discovered the spot during his recent wanderings and could use it to store things temporarily.
The devil finger wood, however, Li Ling took straight home. His haul this time was substantial, and he needed to digest and absorb it as soon as possible.
Just under half a month later, Li Ling finished dinner and returned to the rear courtyard with the Ninth Princess.
"Meow, meow."
Two kittens, one white and one tabby, trotted over with their tails held high and circled their feet.
These were pets Li Ling had recently selected himself. At the sight of them, he laughed, released the princess, and scooped them up, one in each arm, to cuddle fondly against his chest.
The Ninth Princess said jealously, "Husband, don't you find them dirty? These two little cats run all over the place all day. Who knows whether they've been catching mice?"
Li Ling laughed. "They're still little. They don't know how to catch mice. Besides, this place is clean and sanitary. There aren't even any mosquitoes, so where would they find mice to catch?"
"If you're really worried about dirt, wipe their paw pads more often. But there's no need to bathe them for now."
As he spoke, he began giving the accompanying maidservants instructions on their care.
The Ninth Princess sighed, took the tabby, and began stroking the kitten.
The tabby did not like her, however, and struggled determinedly to climb back onto the master of the house.
The Ninth Princess cried out, "You little Flower Leopard! You never want to be close to me. Stop that-you're clawing my clothes to pieces!"
Holding the white kitten, whose eyes were narrowed as the kitten purred, Li Ling praised, "Look how well-behaved White Lion is!"
Unable to manage Flower Leopard, the Ninth Princess had no choice but to hand the kitten back to Li Ling. Strangely enough, the moment Flower Leopard entered Li Ling's arms, the kitten settled down, closed those eyes, and began purring again.
Li Ling explained with a smile, "It's because you smell of perfume. I love the scent, but to this cat, it's like walking into a shop full of salted fish. Of course it's overwhelming."
"It just goes to show that all things in this world nurture and restrain one another. Love, hatred, and resentment can never be the same for everyone. One person's honey is another's arsenic. It's perfectly natural for them to dislike you."
The Ninth Princess huffed. "Now you're blaming me? This little rascal is clearly the one making trouble."
Still rather disgruntled, she pressed a delicate finger against Flower Leopard's head. "Little temptress, stealing my husband."
Only after playing with the cats for a while did Li Ling put them down and tell the maids to take them outside and keep them apart from the couple. Otherwise, they would follow them into the bedroom, and if denied entry, scratch at the door for half the night.
It was early summer, and the weather had begun to warm. The couple sat in bamboo chairs in the courtyard, enjoying the cool air and chatting for a while.
The Ninth Princess brought up matters at the sect. "The Old Ancestor sent word that the Cloud-Producing Incense is quite useful and intends to promote its use throughout the sect?"
Li Ling said, "Yes. This time, the incense workshop will have another tribute product."
Delight appeared on the Ninth Princess's face. "Congratulations, husband. You're another step closer to your dream of cultivating and seeking the Dao."
Li Ling said wistfully, "Yes, another step closer..."
By now, he no longer cared very much about finding an avenue into cultivation for himself.
All he needed was a method to transform his physical body and extend his lifespan.
Still, the Skycloud Sect remained the most convenient channel available. If he could obtain an opportunity through it to defy heaven and change his fate, that would naturally be ideal.
The Ninth Princess suggested, "But good as the Cloud-Producing Incense is, it's only useful to Qi Refining disciples. Higher-level cultivators have their own methods and don't depend on this sort of cloud fiend. They probably value the Returning Soul Incense a hundred times more."
"You would do best to focus your efforts on that. According to the Old Ancestor, after powerful cultivators refine this incense with their magical power and light it, they can sense a faint connection even while roaming the nine heavens or passing into mysterious, shadowy realms. If that connection could be strengthened enough to serve as a Dao Marker, its effects would truly be remarkable."
Li Ling nodded. "I understand."
Once they finished discussing this, the two turned to what they had seen and heard recently.
"The official bulletins have repeatedly mentioned unusual movements among the demonic cultivators lately. They really are becoming increasingly rampant. Fortunately, Foundation Establishment cultivators are stationed in the Royal City, and in an emergency, we can summon Senior Lu for help. We don't need to worry too much."
Li Ling pondered her words.
He had a vague feeling that this was the result of his destroying their Jiu Mouth Town base and taking the statue last time.
The demonic cultivators were not actually growing rampant. They were growing anxious.
Whatever they were plotting, anyone would feel anxious with a mysterious, formidable figure watching them from the shadows, ready to launch a surprise attack at any moment.
Once anxious, they would take desperate risks and expose even greater weaknesses.
"By the way, I've had quite a few dealings with people from the Unusual Events Bureau lately, and I seem to recall them mentioning the Great Lin River God. Do you know the legends about the Great Lin River God?"
Remembering something, Li Ling tried asking the Ninth Princess.
The Ninth Princess asked in confusion, "Isn't the Great Lin River God a widely worshipped folk deity? Haven't you heard of it, husband?"
Li Ling said, "My hometown is around Hua River Commandery in the east. Stories about this god circulate there too, but I don't know whether they're the same as those here in the Royal City."
At that, he recounted them to his wife.
Naturally, the popular tales followed the familiar pattern of divine grace as boundless as the sea and divine might as fearsome as a prison.
After listening, the Ninth Princess smiled faintly and told him another version she knew. "When I went to study at the sect as a child, I heard my senior brothers and sisters say that the Great Lin River God was originally an evil flood dragon with extraordinary innate gifts. It was born with a Dao body attuned to the water veins, and through the recognition of the ten-thousand-mile Shimmering River, it became a deity."
Li Ling had already guessed something of the sort from the statue, but he was still rather astonished to hear it. He could not help asking, "That god actually came from a nonhuman creature?"
The Ninth Princess said, "That's right. Folk legends have long since concealed that fact, simply because it has followers in many countries of the Mystic Continent through which the Great Lin River flows, and its worship has endured unbroken for nearly ten thousand years."
"How could those mortals willingly believe that the being they worship and revere is nothing more than such a creature?"
"In the eyes of the immortal masters, however, it was merely a vicious, tyrannical flood dragon. For centuries, it repeatedly devoured people and livestock and capsized boats. After reaching adulthood, it often drew upon the water veins to raise winds and waves, causing endless floods in the surrounding regions. Areas drained of their water essence suffered repeated droughts, and the resulting chain reactions brought famine and plague, with countless casualties at every turn."
"Its actions finally enraged the righteous path. A Nascent Soul expert within the Mystic Continent personally slew it, separating its head, body, tail, and claws and suppressing them in volcanoes on land so it could never rise again."
"Yet although the evil flood dragon died, its soul essence survived. Its lingering will actually merged with the water veins and became a sinister dragon, even more mercurial and difficult to fathom."
"The people on both banks could no longer bear its torments and began offering sacrifices, casting gold, silver, and livestock into the river to pray for peace. Unexpectedly, they really did succeed in appeasing the sinister dragon, and it stopped wreaking havoc along their stretches of the river."
"From then on, incense offerings continued throughout the river basin. Every flood season or severe drought brought grand ceremonies. In some particularly hard-hit regions or years, there was even a barbaric custom of offering young girls to the river, which the courts of the various countries repeatedly banned but could never eradicate."
Hearing this, Li Ling fell silent.
Compared with those folk legends that shrouded everything in divine mystery, the Ninth Princess's version was undoubtedly more plausible and more consistent with a cultivator's logic.
Very likely... this was the truth!
After a while, Li Ling asked, "With the sinister dragon causing such harm, were the immortal masters helpless too? They actually allowed its lingering will to keep making trouble?"
The Ninth Princess said, "There's something you don't know, husband. That evil flood dragon's soul had, in fact, already been scattered. But famous mountains and great rivers have their own veins. Once those awaken spiritually, they're no trifling matter."
"The sinister dragon that exists now is actually the dragon vein of the Great Lin River itself. They can't simply obliterate the spiritual nature of the entire Great Lin River or erase it from the map, can they? Leaving aside whether it could be done, who would be willing to do it?"
Li Ling said, "That's true. Doing that would probably cause an even greater disaster, and heavenly tribulation would immediately follow in retribution."
The Ninth Princess said, "Fortunately, the sinister dragon is ultimately a spirit of nature. As long as its characteristics are understood, it can still be restrained and controlled. That's also why the authorities of the various countries have always turned a blind eye to folk sacrifices. They really do work."
Understanding dawned on Li Ling. "Could those demonic cultivators be appearing so frequently in riverside cities because they want to use its power to cause trouble?"
The Ninth Princess said, "I can't say exactly, but judging by past history, that is indeed the case."
Li Ling thought, Even so, those demonic cultivators seem to want far more than merely borrowing its power. They're also trying to lay their hands on its authority, and they've already begun to gain some control!
The immortal sects that control the Mystic Continent can't possibly be unaware of this, yet they still conceal it from their low-level disciples. Even Qing Si, a descendant of a Core Formation elder, knows nothing about it.
The waters here seem very deep...
After considering it, Li Ling decided not to concern himself with all that for now. His own cultivation mattered more.
Late that night, with all quiet, Li Ling lay on the broad Gilt Purple Sandalwood and Ivory Bed. He glanced at his wife, who had already fallen asleep, thoroughly satisfied, and felt rather tired himself. He sank into a deep sleep.
Not long afterward, the Golden Shuttle Sword shot skyward from the Fragrant Incense Pavilion and departed at tremendous speed. In roughly a quarter of an hour, it reached the barren northern hills over ten li away and fell like a meteor.
In the snap of a finger, the flying sword shot down from more than thirty zhang above the ground. It pierced a huge boulder that had already been hacked to pieces, tearing open another long fissure.
After this period of making incense, consuming incense, and soul tempering, Li Ling had finally absorbed all the gains from his previous expedition. The strength of his divine sense had also broken through the fifty-jin threshold, reaching an entirely new level.
Now, he could finally control a flying sword like a genuine sword cultivator and unleash a measure of its power. He had made considerable progress in forming swords from astral force and baleful intent, and his Dharma manifestation, previously little more than an empty shell, had grown stronger as well.
After practicing for a while, however, Li Ling tossed the flying sword aside and took a small bottle from the crevice, along with two live rabbits he had prepared beforehand.
Actually... Li Ling had originally begun keeping cats recently because he wanted to use them for experiments.
But cats were so adorable. How could he possibly experiment on them?
Better to use bunnies instead.
Using the strength of his divine sense, he unscrewed the cap of the delicate little glass bottle, took out some powder, and scattered it into the air.
In the blink of an eye, the two rabbits grew agitated. Even restrained by Li Ling's power, they became as frenzied as mad demons, biting at each other incessantly until blood streamed from their mouths.
Li Ling watched the entire process impassively. Only when the two rabbits were barely clinging to life did he throw them into a nearby muddy pit.
Several rabbit corpses already lay there, yet strangely, they attracted no flies or insects. Some showed no signs of decay at all, while others were half-rotten but still seemed alive, moving around the bottom of the pit from time to time, their eyes entirely blood-red.