A Bountiful Harvest

Bamboo Creek Island, the lakeside cottage.

Zhou Ning's eyes snapped open. He raised his head and took a greedy breath.

"Sure enough, the air in this world is kinder."

The last scene in his mind was of more than a dozen cultivators fighting one another with bloodshot eyes, the aftermath sweeping him up.

Knowing he could not escape death, Zhou Ning had simply saved his talismans.

Recalling his experiences in the Land of Wei over the past few days, Zhou Ning felt only that Golden Core and Purple Mansion cultivators possessed cultivation that reached the heavens, regarded those beneath them as pigs and dogs, and manipulated the cultivators of an entire city into slaughtering one another, utterly devoid of humanity.

Perhaps the moment he entered the city, he had already walked into a death trap.

At the thought of the girl with the wildflower, a hundred emotions welled up in Zhou Ning.

He took out the little red sword and gently brushed it, feeling its warm, smooth surface.

He had used this sword to kill the Devil Cultivator who had harmed her, avenging her in a way.

He could not help recalling the sight of the little flower in the girl's hair falling into a pool of blood.

Zhou Ning murmured to himself, "This sword doesn't have a name yet. From now on, I'll call it the Fallen Red Sword."

Now that things had come to this, the most important thing was to live well and improve his cultivation.

Then Zhou Ning thought of what he had gained on this trip, and his spirits lifted a little.

"Let's take stock first."

He did not take out the Storage Bags directly. If someone swept the area with Divine Sense, wouldn't everything be laid bare?

Zhou Ning first released his Divine Sense to examine the surroundings. Only after confirming that no one was watching did he take out a palm-sized black jade plate, its surface covered in dense, dazzling lines.

It was called the Illusory Light Bewildering Shadow Formation Plate. It could create illusions, conceal traces, prevent probing with Divine Sense, and serve many other purposes.

Zhou Ning had already refined the formation plate. Now he placed it on the ground, pointed a finger at it, and infused it with Spiritual Qi.

The formation plate warmed slightly, and the lines on its surface lit up in an instant, linking together like points of starlight.

Bamboo Creek Island, where Zhou Ning lived, possessed a first-tier Spirit Vein. After drawing in Spiritual Qi, the formation plate trembled gently, and a layer of faint white light spread silently outward, covering the entire little courtyard and house like a thin veil.

He made a few minor adjustments.

Now, viewed from outside, the courtyard looked no different from usual. Even a probe with Divine Sense would reveal only an illusion of Zhou Ning sitting cross-legged in meditation, with no hint that a formation was present.

"This is really quite good."

Zhou Ning instantly felt secure. In the past, without a formation around the courtyard, it had been little different from being out in the open whenever someone released their Divine Sense.

Only then did he let down his guard and bring out everything he had gained on the trip.

Zhou Ning waved a hand, first bringing out several gleaming white Spirit Stones. Looking at them gave him an inexplicable sense of happiness.

Spirit Stones had many uses. They could be absorbed to replenish Spiritual Qi, or used to set up formations. If Zhou Ning's residence had no Spirit Vein, he would need Spirit Stones to maintain the formation plate over the long term.

Puppets, spirit boats, and mechanisms all required Spirit Stones as well.

He had sold a total of 140 jin of eel blood for 28 Spirit Stones.

After buying Cultivation Methods, pills, the formation plate, miscellaneous books, and the like, he had not only spent all 28 stones but also dipped into his previous savings from Chai Dingchun's Storage Bag.

He had originally had only one left, but later his luck had turned, and he had picked one up from a Devil Cultivator who had killed himself.

Just before dying, he had fished in troubled waters and gotten a few more, bringing his current total to four.

A single Spirit Stone was not to be underestimated. In the past, after a year of toil at Cuiwei Lake, Zhou Ning had earned less than a hundred jin of spirit rice, aside from the benefit of using a first-tier Spirit Vein.

One Spirit Stone could be exchanged for over a thousand jin of spirit rice.

A Qi Refining Early Stage cultivator would have to work for at least ten years without eating or drinking to earn a single Spirit Stone.

Besides, after food, clothing, and other expenses, there was normally no spirit rice left to save.

Only someone like Old Jia, who had reached Qi Refining Middle Stage Perfection with no hope of reaching the late stage, and who was better at earning Spirit Stones than the average cultivator, could afford a green-leaf flying Law Artifact.

It was hard!

Zhou Ning then took out the Cultivation Method he had obtained on this trip, the incomplete fifth-grade Cultivation Method, the Xinsi Golden Scripture.

There was He Zhuoran's Flowing Light Concealing Shadow Technique for concealing one's spirit and Qi.

And the equally important alchemy inheritance, the Divine Cauldron Inner Landscape Scripture.

He had barely managed to put together the three essentials for cultivation.

Next came two bottles of Ginseng-Nurturing Pills from the He Household, used to improve cultivation. Each bottle contained five pills, enough to last about a year.

The pills were terribly expensive, so Zhou Ning planned to gather materials and try refining them himself later.

After that, he took out two Storage Bags, one black and one brown, with considerable anticipation.

He opened the first one. It had belonged to the Devil Cultivator he had killed, who had made him waste several talismans, especially the lightning talisman, which was enormously powerful and considered strong even in the Qi Refining stage.

He picked up the Storage Bag and gave it a downward shake. A great pile of things tumbled out with a clatter, some flowing with treasured light, others flickering with bloody light.

At first glance, it contained more than Chai Dingchun's Storage Bag.

Zhou Ning's gaze involuntarily fell on the Spirit Stones. There were twenty-one in all. He was slightly surprised; this devil had been quite wealthy. He had probably done a round of looting after entering the city, and now it had all gone to Zhou Ning.

Several Law Artifacts caught his eye. First were two black bowls, one intact and the other cracked across its surface.

The black bowl had blocked the first Shattering Slaughter Talisman he had used.

Zhou Ning examined them for a moment and noticed a faintly bony quality. His brows drew together. Judging by their shape, they had probably been refined from human skullcaps.

"These Devil Cultivators have utterly lost their consciences and defied all human decency."

He picked up two blood-colored hooks, shaped like sickles and immensely powerful. He remembered them vividly.

Even with a Thick Earth Shield Talisman, Zhou Ning had been unable to block them. He estimated that the Devil Cultivator had been at least at the Qi Refining Middle Stage.

Fortunately, he had his talismans.

Unless he was mistaken, the Devil Cultivator had refined these hooks from his own hands, making them "life-bound Law Artifacts" in a sense.

He gripped the hooks, channeled spiritual power into them, and swung them a few times. A fierce bloody wind rose, but their display was far weaker than it had been in the Devil Cultivator's hands.

That was probably because Zhou Ning's cultivation was low and his Cultivation Method was incompatible.

"They're barely usable, at least. Good for sneak attacks."

Zhou Ning looked at an object beside him, its surface flowing with light. It was palm-sized and grayish white throughout, like both wood and jade, with a plain light flowing over it.

A thought stirred in his mind. A flying boat?

Unable to resist, Zhou Ning channeled spiritual power into it. The plain light rippled gently, and the little boat trembled, then unfolded and grew in midair. In less than two breaths, a plain white spirit boat had taken shape, floating silently in the air.

It was about one zhang long and eight chi wide, more than spacious enough for two people.

He touched it lightly, and the flying boat glided sideways, as light as nothing at all.

"Excellent, excellent!" Zhou Ning was quite excited. He had looked at flying boats in Gazing Immortal Port before, but their prices were far too high, and he could not afford one.

He had originally planned to spend one Spirit Stone after returning to Cuiwei Lake to buy a green-leaf Law Artifact like Old Jia's, keeping it for use in secret.

Now the Devil Cultivator had delivered one straight into his hands.

It had probably been looted from some shop.

He examined it, unable to put it down, and found a line of small characters engraved on the inner wall: "Flowing Plainness Boat, Firmament Treasure Sect, Divine Craft Peak, Shen Huaizhen."

It even has an inscription. It was probably made by a master, he thought happily.

Then he grew cautious. I must never show this to others lightly. Once I become an Alchemist and have an exalted status, owning it won't stand out so much.

Zhou Ning put it away carefully, to be used for escape unless he encountered danger.

He then opened a pile of jade bottles. They were either empty or contained red pills with a heavy stench of blood. They had probably been refined using some Evil Dao technique, and he naturally had no use for them.

Lastly, aside from some robes, there were several blackened Jade Slips. He sent his Divine Sense into them and found that the Cultivation Method was called the Bone Casting Blood Refining Technique. It was actually a third-grade Cultivation Method.

This method did not cultivate an immortal foundation. Instead, it was another kind of Evil Dao cultivation, using Essence Blood, flesh, bone, and living souls to forcibly temper the meridians. It could also condense bones and hammer them repeatedly, refining them into life-bound Law Artifacts.

Those two blood-colored hooks really had been refined from the Devil Cultivator's hands, and their power was considerable.

Moreover, those who cultivated this method had tenacious vitality. As long as their heads were not shattered, most could be saved.

Though Zhou Ning did not cultivate it, he could use it as a reference, so he would not be at a loss the next time he encountered a Devil Cultivator.

That was all there was in the man's Storage Bag.

The Storage Bag itself had quite a lot of space, though, and he could sell it in the Land of Wei later.

He then took out the brown Storage Bag. One look told him it belonged to a righteous-path cultivator.

At the entrance to the Heavenly Craft Studio, Zhou Ning had used a Shattering Slaughter Talisman to threaten the club-wielding Devil Cultivator, who had taken this bag from his waist.

That Devil Cultivator had been tremendously strong, with more than a dozen Storage Bags around his waist, a sight not easily forgotten.

But thinking back on it now, with the Golden Core and Purple Mansion cultivators descending upon the city, he had probably died too.

Zhou Ning emptied everything out in one go and exclaimed in surprise.

"Good heavens, did he loot a formation shop or kill a formation master?"

The ground was covered with little flagpoles, set after set of them, several dozen in all.

The flags bore profound patterns, while the poles were white jade, brown wood, or vermilion.

Several Jade Slips lay scattered to one side. Zhou Ning probed them with his Divine Sense and immediately found them incomparably profound. They were like heavenly books to him; he could not make sense of them at all.

He sighed. "Never mind. I'll put them away for now."

Aside from the formation flags, only eight Spirit Stones remained in the bag. It was all very neat and clean.

The Devil Cultivator had probably picked the worst one to fob him off.

Zhou Ning calculated his wealth. He now had thirty-three Spirit Stones, and he had basically gotten back the stones he had spent earlier.

He could not help feeling delighted.

Then Zhou Ning put everything away and composed himself. Only then did he take out the Xinsi Golden Scripture.