Peach Tree Village

Watching the wolves tear into one another, Lin Xu stood at the edge of the battlefield, coldly observing the bloody fight.

With the enhancement of his grandmaster-rank Bright Lamp Spirit Kindling Art, his illusions were astonishingly powerful, easily trapping the wild wolves in an illusion and making them slaughter one another.

In a direct confrontation, these five gray wolves would have been enough to tear apart the outer disciple he had encountered earlier, but under the manipulation of his illusion, they had become trapped beasts hunting one another.

Lin Xu stood motionless, silently waiting as the gray wolves fell dead one by one, until only the pack leader was left breathing.

"Go," he ordered.

The guard stepped forward with his saber raised and hacked the gravely wounded pack leader to death.

A few fragments of source fire emerged, then slipped into Lin Xu's body in an instant, brightening the flame a little.

Lin Xu glanced over, his eyes lighting up slightly. "There's loot?"

Beside the mangled wolf carcasses, a faintly glowing wolf pelt lay quietly in a pool of blood.

Battles in the Spirit Realm didn't award experience points, but they occasionally yielded loot. He had killed more than a dozen bandits before, and they hadn't dropped so much as a scrap of cloth.

Item: Wolf pelt

Grade: White, common

Type: Material

Effect: Can be used to make low-grade storage pouches or crude protective gear

Description: The hide of a gray-maned wolf. Coarse and tough, sturdy and wear-resistant

Lin Xu bent down and picked up the wolf pelt. It felt rough against his fingertips, yet there wasn't a trace of blood on it.

He casually handed the guard the first piece of loot he had gotten as a drop, and the two continued toward Peach Tree Village.

Perhaps because of the dangers along the way, the Xuanwei Monastery disciples they encountered traveled together in groups of three or five.

With the disciples ahead leading the way, Lin Xu and his companion soon arrived outside Peach Tree Village.

Although it was a village under Xuanwei Monastery's jurisdiction, Peach Tree Village had only earthen walls and fences, with dozens of thatched cottages scattered along muddy paths amid the wild grass.

As they followed the dirt road, mist drifted among the withered grass. The old peach tree at the village entrance stood several dozen feet tall, its gnarled limbs twisting like dragons and serpents. Dark red resin seeped from cracks in its bark and formed fine threads in the mist, looking from afar like a hanging veil of blood.

Lin Xu stopped and looked up. The item panel opened automatically:

Item: Hundred-year peach tree

Grade: Cyan, rare

Type: Spirit wood

Effect: Can produce "peach heart dew" at every full moon. Consuming it can cleanse the marrow, transform the sinews, and slightly increase spiritual perception

Resources: [Peach heart dew · cyan: 25/25] [Spirit peaches · cyan: 0/10]

[Spirit peach wood · cyan: 131] [Hundred-year spirit peach wood · blue: 7]

Description: A three-hundred-year-old peach tree rooted in a branch of a spirit vein. Its trunk contains a faint trace of wood spirit Qi, and its roots reach deep into a spiritual acupoint beneath the earth. On stormy nights, red light often coils around the tips of its branches

"This spirit tree..." Lin Xu drew a breath, his gaze instantly growing fervent.

This hundred-year peach tree could actually produce so many resources!

The blue-quality hundred-year spirit peach wood in particular was a precious material that could be used to craft blue-quality magical artifacts.

He instinctively glanced at the busy village road, suppressed the surge of emotion in his heart, and looked away without betraying a thing.

The ancient peach tree was too conspicuous. Until he understood the situation, he absolutely couldn't act rashly.

A middle-aged Daoist in a blue robe with a hemp rope tied around his waist was in charge of Peach Tree Village's affairs. His attire marked him as an inner disciple at a glance. He was under the peach tree with several villagers, registering names.

Lin Xu walked over and cupped his fists in greeting. "Greetings, senior brother."

He handed over the Demon Subduing Hall's mission token and waited quietly for the other man to finish registering him. "Carry out your orders!"

"Yes!" Lin Xu saluted, then turned and entered the ancestral hall at the center of the village.

"Daoist, please follow me," an elderly man in worn hemp clothing said in a low voice. Lin Xu glanced at him; he was Peach Tree Village's chief.

Past two weathered stone lions, the ancestral hall's rear courtyard served as lodging for the monastery's disciples. Some disciples who had arrived earlier were already arranging their belongings.

"Daoist, this is where you'll be staying. The beds have already been made up," the village chief said respectfully.

Lin Xu glanced around and nodded in satisfaction. The place was a little secluded, but that suited him perfectly.

The room was sparsely furnished, with only two beds and a table. Some dried peach branches were piled in a corner, apparently for padding the beds.

His gaze swept over the dead branches in the corner, and a notice immediately popped up on the panel: [Item: Dead peach branches · cyan].

His eyes flickered. Even these seemingly useless scraps contained spirituality. They appeared to be dead branches from the village's spirit peach tree.

The village looked ordinary, but in truth, signs of the extraordinary were everywhere.

The mission would begin tomorrow, leaving him the rest of today free.

After some thought, he had the guard sit cross-legged at the foot of the bed while he himself sat at its head.

The spirit lamp's flame flared, and his consciousness had already entered the Thought Overclocking state. Like a sharp sword, the candlelight plunged between Liu Jiayao's brows in an instant.

Liu Jiayao shuddered all over, fine beads of sweat seeping from his forehead. His breathing gradually steadied.

A few breaths later, Lin Xu stopped and opened his personal panel again. He saw that the Basic Meditation Method in Liu Jiayao's skill list had risen directly from beginner to expert.

"Sure enough, I was right, and the effect far exceeded my expectations."

Looking at Liu Jiayao meditating quietly, Lin Xu's lips curved with satisfaction.

Often, a cultivation method contained no relevant explanation, yet unexpected effects could be achieved through practical application.

Just now, he had used the spirit lamp's flame to enter Liu Jiayao's sea of consciousness and, using the flame as a guide, poured his own understanding of the Basic Meditation Method into it.

This manner of imparting the Dao had allowed Liu Jiayao's comprehension of the Basic Meditation Method to leap directly across several levels, saving him several years of arduous cultivation.

"If I used this method to cultivate other techniques, perhaps..." Lin Xu's heart surged as he imagined the future, but he soon calmed down again. "No rush. The most important thing for me now is to become a true disciple."

He got up and opened the door. It was nearly noon, and sunlight fell at an angle across the bluestone paving slabs. Disciples in emerald-green Daoist robes moved along the village roads.

Leaving the guard to continue meditating in the room, Lin Xu walked slowly into the village.

Peach Tree Village was not large. A main bluestone road ran from north to south, with some thirty households scattered along either side. Their homes had earthen walls and dark tiled roofs, with wind-dried spirit peach branches hanging beneath the eaves.

The Spirit Realm was different from the real world. The village had none of the bustle of everyday life, with chickens and dogs calling to one another, nor the clamor of children at play. There were only villagers and monastery disciples hurrying along the roads.

Their expressions were blank. The villagers lowered their heads and stepped aside for the monastery disciples of their own accord, yet their eyes held a clear bewilderment. It was as though some invisible rule bound them, silently governing their every move.

There was scarcely any commerce in the village. The only shop was a crude general store in the east, with a faded cloth sign above its doorway bearing the words "Zhao's Shop."

The shop was sparsely furnished, with only a few wooden shelves holding ordinary goods such as coarse salt, flint, oilcloth, and yellow paper. As Lin Xu looked around, he spotted a yellowed, thread-bound book propping up a corner of a shelf.

His interest stirred, and he opened its item panel:

Name: Paper-Cutting Soldier Creation Art

Grade: Blue, fine

Effect: Uses talisman paper as a medium. Imbuing it with spiritual power can transform it into paper figures or armed soldiers

Cost: 1-10 mana per use, 1 sheet of talisman paper

Description: Must be used with talisman paper. Recite the incantation while casting and cut yellow paper into shape. Slightly more powerful when cast at night

Lin Xu's gaze sharpened slightly. The art wasn't particularly profound, but it made up for that in practicality.

He picked up the book and looked at the shopkeeper. "Shopkeeper, how much for this book?"

The shopkeeper was a hunchbacked old man. He answered respectfully, "My lord, fifty magic coins."

Lin Xu kept his expression neutral, though he was overjoyed.