After hearing Zhou Qing's words, the old man in green promptly stopped and chuckled. "That's more like it."
Seeing that Zhou Qing no longer attacked, the old man in green let out a long breath of relief. Then he took out all his treasures and handed them over to Zhou Qing.
When he took out a crystal gourd, the old man in green wore a pained expression. But in the end, he still handed it to Zhou Qing.
Zhou Qing took the treasures and counted them.
Five thousand four hundred top-grade Pure Yang magic treasures and five Xiantian Spirit-Treasures.
That was far too much wealth.
Zhou Qing marveled to himself.
There were actually five Xiantian Spirit-Treasures, and every one of them was of exceptional quality.
The most remarkable was the crystal gourd the old man in green had handed over so reluctantly at the end. It was called the Heavenstar Gourd, and it was the most precious treasure Zhou Qing had encountered so far.
The gourd itself was a high-grade Xiantian Spirit-Treasure. Inside were 108,000 grains of Heavenstar Divine Sand, each one a low-grade Xiantian Spirit-Treasure. Taken as a whole, it counted as an Xiantian Supreme Treasure.
If this treasure were in the Three Realms, even True Gods and Dao Ancestors would fight over it.
"I also want to examine your memories."
After finishing his count of the treasures, Zhou Qing made another request.
Perhaps because he had been deeply affected by Zhou Qing's Heartforce Soul-Bewitching Art, the old man in green hesitated when he heard him, but in the end, he still nodded.
So Zhou Qing began searching the old man in green's soul to examine his memories.
In the time it took to drink a cup of tea, Zhou Qing had browsed through all the old man in green's memories and learned about his life.
The old man in green was named Nangong Hu, and he came from the Great Wilderness Chaosworld.
Zhou Qing had heard of the Great Wilderness Chaosworld. It was one of the chaosworlds ruled by the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom.
In Nangong Hu's memories, the Great Wilderness Chaosworld had a glorious history. Two World Realm experts had emerged from it: one World God and one Chaos Immortal.
The Nangong Clan, to which Nangong Hu belonged, were direct descendants of Feiyu, one of the two World Realm experts born in the Great Wilderness Chaosworld. As the youngest son of the family, Nangong Hu had exceptional talent. In less than three hundred years, he had become a First-Tier Celestial Immortal.
Like Zhou Qing, before he had fully comprehended the Grand Dao of Formations he focused on, he had already grasped a trace of its Primordial Power: Formationforce.
And his luck was incredibly good. While adventuring in the Great Wilderness Chaosworld, he had unexpectedly obtained the legacy of the other World Realm expert from that world-the Chaos Immortal Daoyi.
With Nangong Hu's talent and opportunities, he could easily have become a First-Tier Ancestor Immortal, even if he couldn't reach the World Realm and restore his family's former glory.
However, the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom appeared at precisely that time.
In Nangong Hu's era, the Great Wilderness Chaosworld was going through a gap between generations of talent, with no World Realm experts to succeed those who had come before. Seizing this opportunity, the ruler of the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom invaded and began conquering the Great Wilderness Chaosworld.
During the invasion, the Nangong Clan, one of the most powerful forces in the Great Wilderness Chaosworld, resisted the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom's occupation to the death.
As a result, after the war, the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom settled accounts with the Nangong Clan and nearly wiped them out. Only a few survivors remained, and the Nine Directions Chaos Kingdom imprisoned them in the World Prison.
Nangong Hu was one of them.
No wonder he was so wealthy and had comprehended Primordial Power to the third level.
After seeing Nangong Hu's tumultuous life, Zhou Qing understood.
Then he began examining the memories related to the Chaos Immortal's legacy.
After looking through this part of the memory bubbles, Zhou Qing couldn't help sighing.
As expected, the precious arts all had Lifeblood Oaths to prevent them from leaking.
The arts without Lifeblood Oaths were all common and worthless.
This is...
Just as Zhou Qing thought he would come away empty-handed this time, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Among the many arts in Immortal Daoyi's legacy that were not bound by Lifeblood Oaths, there was one called the Junshan Formation Records.
It had not been created by Immortal Daoyi. It was a formation legacy left behind by a World God expert named Junshan.
This legacy covered a vast range. It contained not only formation techniques, such as setting up and breaking formations, but also clearly dissected the process of advancing Formationforce from the first level to the sixth.
Most importantly, the Junshan Formation Records also contained countless formations.
The Grand Five Elements Thunderlight Formation could be set up by just five ordinary First-Tier Ancestor Immortals. By drawing on chaos power, they could fight top Ancestor Gods or Ancestor Immortals.
The Ten Directions Spirit-Sealing Formation could be set up by just ten ordinary Ancestor Gods. By drawing on chaos power, they could stand against peak Ancestor Gods or Ancestor Immortals.
The Eighteen Fiendgod Formation could be set up by just eighteen ordinary Ancestor Gods. By drawing on chaos power, they could unleash combat strength surpassing that of ordinary peak Ancestor Gods.
Because they could draw on chaos power, these formations were far more powerful than the Nuwa Faction's clan-protecting formations, which relied on the power of the world.
There were also formations designed for special purposes:
Once set up, the Chaos Teleportation Formation allowed rapid travel between two distant chaos stars.
Once set up, the Chaos Spirit-Gathering Formation could draw on chaos power to produce Chaos Spirit Liquid. It was the same kind of formation used in the World Prison.
Once set up by eight Ancestor Gods or Ancestor Immortals, the Eight Gates Space-Locking Formation could seal the space around them and prevent Time and Space Traversal.
After reading this, Zhou Qing was delighted.
Good heavens, he had stumbled across a World Realm formation legacy.
Zhou Qing immediately felt fortunate that he had a knack for Heartforce soul-bewitching.
Without that ability, given Nangong Hu's proud and unruly nature, Zhou Qing would probably have killed him outright.
Then he would have missed out on the Junshan Formation Records, this World Realm formation manual.
In the original story, Ji Ning probably didn't obtain this formation manual for just that reason.
It was just a pity that it wasn't a manual on the Path of Time and Space.
At the thought, Zhou Qing felt deeply regretful.
Since it wasn't a manual on the Path of Time and Space, no matter how profound the Junshan Formation Records were, they would only serve as a reference for him.
After obtaining the Junshan Formation Records, Zhou Qing was even more eager to plunder the Empyrean God and First-Tier Celestial Immortal prisoners.
The thought that these prisoners might be hiding profound legacies like the Junshan Formation Records filled him with excitement.
However, the facts proved that Zhou Qing had been a little too optimistic.
After spending nearly ten years, he had plundered all the remaining six hundred or so Empyrean God and First-Tier Celestial Immortal prisoners in the World Prison.
In the end, he obtained only several million Pure Yang magic treasures and a small number of Xiantian Spirit-Treasures. As for arts, anything even a little precious was bound by a Lifeblood Oath, leaving no chance to stumble upon it.
Zhou Qing was a little disappointed, but soon let it go.
After all, it was already rare for an Empyrean God or First-Tier Celestial Immortal to obtain a World Realm legacy, and one without a Lifeblood Oath, like the Junshan Formation Records, was rarer still.
He had already been lucky beyond measure to obtain one Junshan Formation Records. How could he be so insatiable as to expect more?
Once he had thought it through, Zhou Qing stopped dwelling on it and prepared to plunder the True God and First-Tier True Immortal prisoners instead.
Unlike the prisoners he had dealt with before, the True Gods and First-Tier True Immortals were not opponents he could casually toy with.
Illusions, Dark World suppression, Heartforce...
His many methods were almost useless against these experts, whose power rivaled that of Dao Ancestors in the Three Realms.
And although his protective divine ability was now comparable to a fully mastered Eight-Nine Arcane Art, if he dared to get close to a prisoner at the True God or First-Tier True Immortal level, that being could beat him down.
One careless move, and he might even be suppressed on the spot, then have his clone destroyed.
So, to be safe, Zhou Qing decided to use the method Ji Ning had used in the original story: continuously wear down the prisoners' divine power and Immortal energy with ranged attacks.