Seeking Yin-Attribute Treasures to Strengthen the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm!

A few days after the zombie incident in Heming County was resolved.

The Lord Rat then set off from the Northern Mountain Range.

He didn't bring many followers, just twelve Hui Shu demons at the Qi Refining Late Stage, and they split into three groups, sneaking out of the Cloud Sword Mountain Range under the cover of night.

"Boss, where are we going?"

The Rat Second followed behind, carrying a large empty Storage Bag on its back.

Heming County.

"Heming County? Wasn't it already completely wiped out?"

The Lord Rat didn't explain, but gave a wink.

The Rat Second stopped asking questions and silently followed along.

After working with the boss for so many years, he learned one thing: ask fewer questions and do more.

Outside Heming County.

The abandoned cemetery, after being cleared out, was a scene of utter devastation.

The disciples of the Formation Hall have already left, and the Spirit Vein rift has been sealed, but a large number of bone fragments from the shattered zombies and yin Spiritual Qi that has seeped into the soil remain on the ground.

The disciples of White Cloud Temple only cared about killing zombies; naturally, they were unwilling to do the cleanup work afterwards.

But what the Lord Rat wants is precisely this "garbage".

"Receive."

The Lord Rat crouched behind a tombstone and scratched it with its paw.

The twelve Hui Shu demons scattered and began searching through the ruins.

Zombie bones, eerie soil, and lingering crystals of Yin Qi...

These were worthless scraps in the eyes of ordinary cultivators, but the Hui Shu dug them out and stuffed them into their Storage Bag.

"Keep the skeleton intact, don't break it. The Yin Spirit Rat will need it for bone refining."

"There are solidified yin crystals in those clods of soil. Dig deeper, make sure you don't miss a single one."

After digging for a while, the Rat Second pulled out a fist-sized black crystal, from which flowed a cold, eerie light...

"Boss, this stuff is pretty good quality."

The Lord Rat took it and examined it for a moment, its nose twitching.

"Second-tier, low-grade Corpse Yin Crystal. This stuff is quite rare. It seems the cultivators at White Cloud Temple didn't examine it carefully."

"This thing could sell for around a hundred Spirit Stone. But we're not selling it."

"Keep these yin-attribute assets safe; send them to the third brother when you have time."

The Shu Laosan, also known as the Yin Spirit Rat, is the one currently stationed in the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm.

Heming County was just the first stop.

Over the next two months, they visited six different places.

Throughout the entire Ming Province Northern Protectorate, wherever zombies appeared, Lord Rat would lead his men to "clean up" after the disciples of White Cloud Temple had finished their extermination.

The rat demons are extremely secretive. Since they switched to cultivating the Dao of Wind, their Hidden Wind escape technique has become unparalleled!

The clever mice burrowed underground without leaving a trace.

Once they arrived, they devoured everything, then left.

Wherever they went, the rat demons rummaged through the remains and broken bones...

The Rat Second then identifies valuable, negative assets.

The Lord Rat personally selected the highest quality Yin Crystal, Evil Bone, and Dirty Soil.

"This batch of goods is better than the last one."

In a secluded burrow in the wild, after it had been cleared out, the Lord Rat was counting his spoils.

The six Corpse Yin Crystal varied in quality, with the best one approaching mid-grade second rank.

There were about twenty pieces of animal bone fragments tainted with Yin Qi, three jars of purified yin-type spiritual soil, and a few Spirit Stone that had been gnawed by zombies, covered with strange Yin Qi- type patterns.

It wasn't a huge sum, but little by little, it adds up.

"Boss, these evil things... are we really going to send them to that place?"

"The Rat Second asked in a low voice."

"Um."

"But these things are, after all, sinister and evil; if the sect finds out..."

"What does the sect know?" Lord Rat glanced at him. "We cleaned up the battlefield and filth for the sect, and incidentally collected some unwanted scraps."

"That's called making use of waste."

"Since even the ancestor said it couldn't be done, then it can be done!"

The Rat Second was rendered speechless, scratched his head, and said no more.

That's true.

Few people in White Cloud Temple cared about what the Spirit Rat Line did. These broken bones and rotten clods of earth would only pollute the environment if left there, so it was a good thing that the Lord Rat took them away.

As for what to do with it, that's none of anyone else's business.

Every three months, the Lord Rat would arrange a long journey.

He wouldn't go in person; the distance was too far, and the round trip would take too long. The household affairs of the Spirit Rat Line couldn't be left without him.

The two rat demons who went were experienced, not highly cultivated, both at the Qi Refining Late Stage, but they were cautious, clever, and fast at escaping.

These two Hui Shu, carrying the Yin-type spiritual materials they had collected over three months, traveled through underground Dao of Darkness, out of the jurisdiction of the Northern Protectorate, across most of Ming Province, around Huang Province, and finally to Di Prefecture.

The Ten Thousand Poisons Mountain Range, the Soul-Severing Ravine.

Behind that moss-covered stone wall, the entrance to the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm remained completely hidden.

The two Hui Shu carried the supplies inside, handed them over to the third Yin Spirit Rat, and then returned the way they came, the whole journey taking no more than twenty days.

The journey was well-hidden and peaceful.

Inside the Nine Winds Valley Secret Realm.

Compared to six months ago, this dilapidated little secret place has undergone many changes.

The third brother of the Yin Spirit Rat, along with twenty low-level rat demons, had been operating here for quite some time.

In the center of the basin, the original collapsed palace complex has been partially repaired. Although the roofs of several side halls are patched up crookedly, they can at least provide shelter from the wind and rain.

Six caves were dug behind the palace to serve as dwellings for the rat demons.

Over at Gale Gorge, the Hurricane Demon, which were slaughtered by the demons back then, are now sprouting new larvae from the cracks in the rock walls.

The third brother did not kill them all.

Although these Hurricane Demon are evil creatures, their very existence is a resource that can be repeatedly hunted and used as a food source for rat swarms.

Later, a simple expulsion array was set up at the entrance of the canyon to keep the Hurricane Demon deep in the canyon and prevent them from running into the basin to cause trouble.

As for the Lord Rat, the yin-type spiritual materials it sent over were quite good.

The Shu Laosan was a practitioner of the Dao of Yin Spirit.

Yin-attribute resources are scarce, so this batch of resources relieved his immediate crisis. Later, he even found a place with heavy Yin Qi and opened up a new cave.

It is specifically used for refining and storing these negative resources.

He embedded the Corpse Yin Crystal into the cave wall, laid Yin Spirit Soil at the bottom, and arranged the bone fragments in a special way to form a place where Yin energy gathers.

He is Yin Spirit Rat, naturally drawn to Yin Spiritual Qi.

The main attribute of Nine Winds Valley is wind, which is of limited help to his cultivation, but this man-made Yin Qi cave makes up for this shortcoming.

Here, he can both temper his body with the wind-elemental Spiritual Qi in the secret realm and cultivate his natal Cultivation Method in the Yin Qi cave.

One shady spot and one windy spot, taking both into account.

"After a few more years, once I've accumulated more high-quality Yin items, I'll try to cultivate a small Yin Qi energy field at the southern end of the secret realm."

"We'll plant some Yin-Yang spirit medicine like Yin -Yin Nether Grass and You-Yu Orchid to be self-sufficient."

The third son wasn't very ambitious; his ideas were pragmatic.

With each back and forth, the hidden thread of Nine Winds Valley operated more and more smoothly.

The Spirit Rat Line quietly established a second base thousands of miles away, which could also be considered Shi Jian's second foothold.

Nobody knows about this.

Even the Sun and Zhao families were completely unaware of this, after all, one shouldn't put all their eggs in one basket.

While White Cloud Temple is certainly good, it's always wise to plan ahead. This Nine Winds Valley is Shi Jian's backup plan.