Little Crow

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the cave, rosy light curled around Su Yao as he gathered his Qi and returned it to its origin. The light gradually receded.

He slowly opened his eyes.

He thought to himself:

I've finally stabilized my condition. I had a satisfying time killing at White Sand Mountain, but I overtaxed myself badly. With those scattered minor injuries on top of that, I went into seclusion to recuperate and avoid damaging my foundation.

He did not rush out of the cave. Instead, he took out a Storage Bag-the spoils from his slaughter of the White Sand Lu Household.

He had not had time to examine it closely before, and now was a good time to take stock.

He had not had time to take stock before, and now he could count everything carefully.

First were two Spirit Artifacts: a chain of the Blazing Fire path and a shield of the Granary Metal path.

But the Lu Household had refined both Spirit Artifacts for years, so he could not refine them himself anytime soon, unless someone at the Purple Mansion Realm helped him.

Next were several Supreme-Grade Law Artifacts, also known as Ancient Law Artifacts.

In the present age, below the higher grades were Talisman Artifacts, mostly used by Mystery Opening cultivators and Rogue Cultivators at Qi Refinement.

Next came Law Artifacts, divided into upper, middle, and lower grades. Qi Refinement cultivators mostly used lower-grade ones, while middle- and upper-grade ones were used for Foundation Establishment.

There was another category: Supreme-Grade Law Artifacts, also known as Ancient Law Artifacts.

Since the end of the Three Dynasties, when the Five Virtues became part of the Human Dao, the original meaning of the Five Elements had gradually been lost. Yet artifact refinement could not do without spirit materials of the Five Virtues of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, especially mineral deposits of the metal virtue. With their original meaning lost, the Law Artifacts refined from them fell far short of those made before the end of the Three Dynasties.

In the present age, refining a Supreme-Grade Law Artifact was as hard as ascending to heaven, no less difficult than refining certain Spirit Artifacts.

Likewise, the Spirit Artifacts and Spirit Treasures refined for Purple Mansion cultivators after the Three Dynasties were far inferior to those left from ancient times. Only ancient mineral deposits hidden in secret realms, blessed lands, and grotto-heavens could retain their original meaning intact.

This time, he had obtained five Supreme-Grade Law Artifacts from the Lu Household.

The five Supreme-Grade Law Artifacts he had obtained from the Lu Household were: the lantern held by the woman who had died in Lu Shang's place; the ancient seal held by the woman; and the command token used to control the formation by the Lu Household patriarch whom he had slain after entering the formation;

Lu Shang had also carried two: a longsword of the Blazing Fire path and an ancient flute. The latter was a Witchcraft Dao Law Artifact, but it was difficult to use.

Then again, the Lu Household had even parted with the spirit objects needed to keep its Purple Mansion grand formation running, so it was no small feat that it had managed to retain these Ancient Law Artifacts.

There were also around a hundred other intact Law Artifacts. He had not taken any of the Talisman Artifacts or damaged Law Artifacts.

He had also obtained some spirit medicines, mostly for the Foundation Establishment Realm. Though he did not think much of pills, talismans, and the like, he would be staying here for many years to come, and they would surely come in handy when dealing with others.

There were also Cultivation Methods: more than twenty for Foundation Establishment. The best among them were several third- and fourth-grade methods of the fire virtue path, along with a few decent ones of Fu Water and Subterranean Water. But without exception, they could only be cultivated to Foundation Establishment at most.

The highest was a fourth-grade Purple Mansion Cultivation Method, the Blazing Spirit-Nourishing Instruction. It was enough to cultivate to the Purple Mansion Realm and came with two Secret Methods, making it quite good.

Presumably, this was the Cultivation Method the Lu Household's True Person had practiced back then.

He had also stripped White Sand Mountain itself nearly bare, leaving only some things used for Mystery Opening and Qi Refinement.

Looking at these things, Su Yao breathed a sigh of relief. When this branch residence opened its doors in the future, he would need to take on a few disciples to go out and about. With these things, it would be much easier. He had Cultivation Methods, spiritual resources, and pills; now all he lacked were formations. Formations were hard to move, and he had not had enough time anyway, but he still had Liu Yunhe, whose wood virtue was suited to setting up formations.

At that thought, he put everything away one by one, then rose and headed outside.

When he reached the entrance to the cave abode, he did not rush to open the formation. Instead, he first looked outside through the prism.

Caution above all!

It would have been better if he had not looked. The moment he did, his fury shot three feet high.

Outside the cave, Little Red and Little Orange's once-vivid feathers were now covered in ash, and the two birds were using their wings as fans to fan the flames.

Liu Yunhe's once-handsome face was now covered in ash as he roasted meat.

Not far away, a black-clad youth lay leisurely in a hammock while Li Siyi massaged his legs.

Su Yao cursed inwardly:

This damned crow. I haven't even enjoyed that myself, and he's gone and enjoyed it first. If I could beat him, I'd really give him a good lesson.

He was about to speak when the black-clad youth suddenly called out:

"Little Hezi, is the meat ready yet?"

Liu Yunhe hurriedly said:

"True Person, it'll be ready right away, right away."

But the next moment, a wooden stick appeared over his head and rapped him.

The youth spoke again:

"How many times have I told you? Don't call me True Person. Call me sir."

At the sight of Liu Yunhe's sorry state, Li Siyi thought to herself:

Good thing I escaped that calamity. Massaging the True Person's legs is better than ending up covered in soot like Liu Yunhe.

Just then, the wooden stick in the youth's hand appeared above Little Red and Little Orange and rapped each of them once.

"You two need to lose some weight. Look at yourselves. How fat have you gotten? How much have you been stealing behind Little Yaozi's back?"

Little Red and Little Orange looked utterly aggrieved, their eyes weary. It seemed they had endured plenty of such torment lately.

Li Siyi wanted to laugh, but forcibly held it in.

The youth looked over with a wicked grin.

"Little Yizi, has Little Yaozi ever asked you to massage his legs or anything?"

Li Siyi hurriedly shook her head.

"No, no."

But the youth would not let it go.

"Whenever I was teaching that boy, he got distracted quite a bit, hiding in his two Dao children's room to peep..."

Before he could finish, Su Yao finally reached the end of his patience. He opened the cave abode and shouted:

"You damned crow, stop slandering me!"

The people outside the cave fell silent at once.

The youth's figure flashed, and he appeared at the entrance to the cave abode.

Seeing Su Yao, his eyes darted about as he looked him up and down. He smiled and said:

"Good, good. Looks like Little Yaozi hasn't lost any weight."

Su Yao glared fiercely at the youth.

"Little Crow, what did you say?"

The youth was indignant.

"Little Yaozi, I'm half your master. How can you speak to me like that?"

Su Yao snorted coldly.

"Who told you to call me Little Yaozi?"

The youth, displeased, turned the accusation around on him.

"You called me Little Crow first. You don't respect your master or the Dao at all."

With that, he folded his arms and looked at Su Yao with a wicked grin.

"Little Yaozi, have you thought this through?"

Su Yao was about to retort, but when he saw the other man hold up two fingers, he fell silent at once and could only say helplessly:

"Gui Hong, I know I was wrong. I know I was wrong."

This youth was none other than Mystic Crow, who had saved him earlier and battled someone in the Great Void. After all, Su Yao knew that Gui Hong possessed a Lesser Yang Law Treasure and had also witnessed the might of his attack.

That was why, before going into seclusion, he had asked the two of them to keep watch on the sky.

As soon as Su Yao finished speaking, he changed the subject.

"Have things over there been settled?"

Gui Hong nodded.

Su Yao asked again:

"How are things now?"

Gui Hong shook his head.

"It isn't over. I killed two early-stage True Persons, and I also injured a Great True Person. Now we'll see what they have to say."

Su Yao was startled, then said:

"Behind the Langcao Wu Tribe..."

Gui Hong shook his head.

"No one would want anyone left in the Witchcraft Dao, especially the two paths of Earth Witch and Witch Talisman. After all, they are the furthest removed from the Human Dao."

Only then did Su Yao nod. He looked at Gui Hong.

"How much longer are you staying here?"