Chapter 54 Retreat
Chapter 54 Retreat
The "Essentials of Zhang Family Alchemy" as well as the alchemy furnace, the Bailing Pill, the three kinds of spiritual herbs, the jade token, and the spiritual stones were most likely not Master Duan Fang's possessions, but were obtained by him from a cultivator of the Zhang family.
The Zhang family cultivator's cultivation level was also in the middle stage of Qi Refining, and he was proficient in alchemy, which was why he was able to prepare the spiritual herbs for refining the Bailing Pill.
It was because Master Duan Fang killed this man that he was seriously injured. He took Wen Huasheng with him and fled from Xingzhou to Yuzhou.
Otherwise, it would be impossible for him, a casual cultivator, to have such a huge fortune.
Taoist Yunyou once lamented in his travel notes, "Any cultivator who possesses hundreds of spirit stones can be considered luxurious and will draw the admiration of other cultivators."
The fact that Master Duan Fang was able to cultivate to the peak of the fifth level of Qi Refining should have been due to the two bottles of Bailing Pills he used up.
However, before he could break through the sixth level of Qi Refining and take the remaining two bottles of pills, he died at the hands of Chen Yuan, and all his treasures went to Chen Yuan.
……
Chen Yuan put down the jade token, picked up the iron shield, and injected magic power into it.
The iron shield suddenly emitted a faint light and grew to two feet in size before stopping.
"Let's just call you Black Iron Shield..."
Chen Yuan gave the iron shield a name, withdrew his magic power, and the black iron shield shrunk to its size of three inches again.
If you want to use the black iron shield to fight against others, you need to use your magic power to refine it. Now is not the time.
There are still fourteen talismans left on the table, including six low-level talismans, five mid-level talismans, and three high-level talismans.
Talisman making, like alchemy, is one of the hundred arts of cultivation.
Talismans are divided into magic talismans, spiritual talismans, and a very special kind of talisman.
Magical talismans are divided into low-level, mid-level, and high-level, each sealing a spell of the corresponding level.
Talismans are also divided into low-level, medium-level, and high-level, sealing spiritual arts of corresponding levels.
Only cultivators in the Foundation Establishment Stage can practice spiritual arts, which are extremely powerful.
The talismans that seal spiritual arts are also extremely precious and very rare.
As for the talisman, Taoist Yunyou was vague about it. He only knew that it was related to magic weapon and he had never seen it in his life, but it was more precious than the talisman.
Chen Yuan sorted these talismans into different categories and put them into his storage bag.
When fighting, he only needs to inject magic power into the talisman to activate it. It is much faster than casting spells by himself and consumes less magic power.
But the higher the level of the talisman, the more mana it consumes and the longer it takes to prepare.
With Chen Yuan's current cultivation level, if he wanted to activate a high-level talisman, it would consume most of his magic power and take more than ten breaths to prepare, which would make it difficult to use in a fight.
……
Chen Yuan sorted out the items on the table, put them back into the storage bag, took out the storage bag that was still being warmed, reached out his hand and touched it, and several items appeared on the table out of thin air.
Compared with Master Duan Fang, Wen Huazhong's wealth was much more modest. He only had a small green sword, a jade bottle, three low-level talismans, ten low-grade spirit stones, and five thousand taels of silver notes.
Chen Yuan picked up the three-inch sword and slowly injected magic power into it.
The small green sword emitted a faint light, and grew to a foot in length, shining with a cold light and looking extremely sharp.
This flying sword is also a mid-grade magic weapon, but its quality is better than the black iron shield. The word "Qingyun" is engraved on the hilt in an ancient style.
Wen Huazhong's cultivation level is only at the second level of Qi Refining and he is unable to control a mid-level magical weapon.
This should be the gift given to Wen Huazhong by Master Duan Fang. Anyway, he has the Hundred Souls Banner in his hand, so he doesn't need any other magical tools.
Chen Yuan withdrew his magic power and the Qingyun Sword shrank back to its size of three inches.
He picked up the jade bottle, opened it, and found that there were only four pills left inside.
Chen Yuan took out one, looked at it carefully, and found that it was the Yunlu Pill recorded in "Zhang Family Alchemy Essentials".
This is also a kind of elixir suitable for cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining, but its medicinal strength is slightly weaker than that of Bailing Pill. It is most suitable for cultivators in the fourth stage of Qi Refining.
For a cultivator like Wen Huazhong who is in the early stage of Qi Refining, taking this pill is a waste.
The appearance of Yunlu Dan further verified Chen Yuan’s guess.
The Zhang family cultivator should only have elixirs suitable for cultivators in the middle stage of Qi Refining.
In order to help Wen Huazhong improve his cultivation and better collect the souls of mortals, Master Duan Fang had no choice but to give him the Yunlu Pill.
Chen Yuan checked the low-level talisman again, and put it into the gray storage bag together with the Qingyun Sword, Yunlu Pill, ten low-grade spirit stones and silver bills.
The space inside the black storage bag is only one foot in size, much smaller than the gray storage bag. Chen Yuan plans to use it as a backup.
But when putting the jade into the gray storage bag, something strange happened.
The jade jewel didn't respond at all. Chen Yuan tried a few more times. The storage bag glowed faintly, but the jade jewel didn't move at all.
Chen Yuan had no choice but to put the jade pendant into a brocade bag and hide it close to his body.
Finally, there was only one Hundred Souls Banner left. All the blood souls on this banner were destroyed, leaving only the living souls of dozens of warriors from the Sanjiang Gang and Fuhu Gang that were absorbed last night.
Chen Yuan picked up the small banner, and a chilling feeling came over him.
He slowly injected his magic power into the small flag, which emitted a black light. Dozens of souls slowly flew out with dull faces and blank eyes.
They have not yet been sacrificed and devoured, so they are not as ferocious and hideous as the blood souls.
The ritual of refining the blood soul requires the living souls to devour each other, and a trace of the ritualist's blood must be added to control the brutal blood soul.
Although Chen Yuan does not reject the use of magic methods, he will not use this kind of magic weapon that can be seen at a glance.
Taoist Yunyou mentioned several times that Qi was a "great country of righteousness" and that if he used the Hundred Souls Banner in front of others, it would definitely attract a bunch of demon-slayers and righteousness-defending people. Perhaps this was the reason why Master Duanfang took Wen Huazhong to hide and collect blood souls, and did not meet other immortal cultivators.
Chen Yuan's eyes swept across and finally stopped at Master Qi and Wei Wuding. He raised the small flag and waved it twice.
Xiao Fan retracted the black light that was lingering around the souls. A dozen souls blinked their eyes and seemed to have regained their intelligence.
They looked around in confusion, and their eyes finally stopped on Chen Yuan.
Master Qi and Wei Wuding looked at Chen Yuan with complicated expressions. They opened their mouths but said nothing.
Chen Yuan said softly:
"Don't worry, Gang Leader Luo will take good care of your family."
A smile appeared on the two of them's faces and they bowed deeply to Chen Yuan. The other souls also bowed to Chen Yuan and their bodies turned into gray streams of light and slowly dissipated.
Chen Yuan looked at the gray light in front of him, his expression changing, and he murmured:
"Is this reincarnation or vanishing into thin air?"
……
The next afternoon, after a night of breathing exercises, Chen Yuan's magic power was restored to normal. He immediately got up and left the house and went to the meeting room of the Fu Hu Gang.
Luo Zhenwu sat in the main seat, his eyes bloodshot, and was giving orders.
After seeing Chen Yuan, he immediately waved away the others and stood up to greet him.
Chen Yuan was a little surprised and said:
"The leader didn't rest all night?"
Luo Zhenwu smiled bitterly and said:
"Several hall masters died on Xiong'er Island, and only a few hall deacons have returned. The gang is short of manpower. Hall Master Hou has been out all night, clearing out the remnants of the Sanjiang Gang and taking over the Sanjiang Gang's assets. He has not returned yet, so I can only take charge in person to stabilize people's hearts... What is the purpose of Hall Master Chen's visit?"
Chen Yuan said:
"I'm here to say goodbye to the gang leader. Please deliver these five thousand taels of silver to Chenjia Village for me."
As he spoke, he stroked his storage bag, and a stack of silver bills appeared out of thin air in his hand, which he handed to Luo Zhenwu.
Luo Zhenwu took the banknote and did not ask why Chen Yuan did not deliver it himself. He said solemnly:
"Don't worry, Master Chen. I will send someone to Leping County right away to hand over these banknotes intact to Old Master Chen."
Chen Yuan clasped his fists and bowed, saying:
"Thank you, Boss. Please take care of them in the future. Chen will be grateful."
Luo Zhenwu quickly stretched out his left hand, supported Chen Yuan, and said:
"Master Chen, you are too kind. This is my responsibility. I will take Old Master Chen to the county city and serve him personally!"
Chen Yuan said:
"That's not necessary. If they move to the county town, they will inevitably be involved in more disputes. Let them live in Chenjia Village. As long as there are no bandits, there is no need to disturb them. There is no such thing as continuous wealth in the world. What will happen to the Chen family in the future depends on their own luck."
Luo Zhenwu sighed and said:
"Master Chen has seen through the mundane world and has a clear mind. It will be no problem for him to become an immortal in the future."
Chen Yuan smiled, said nothing, and turned to walk out of the meeting room.
Behind him, Luo Zhen raised his hand to salute, but put it down again, watching Chen Yuan walk out of the door and gradually disappear.
……
Chen Yuan left the county town and used the art of lightness to enter the Chimang Mountains in less than two hours.
Since it was still daytime, there was a constant stream of people coming and going on Yuanpingxing.
Chen Yuan did not take the highway, but climbed over mountains and crossed ridges, passed through forests and waded through water, all the way to the deep mountains.
The next night, he returned to the cave where Xie Quan hid his treasure and stopped.
Chen Yuan was away for only four days this time, and there was no change at the cave entrance.
He picked off the vines, moved the boulder, entered the cave, and touched the storage bag at his waist, and several cushions appeared out of thin air in front of him.
These were the things he brought out from Chen's house, along with some clothes and shoes, which were placed in a storage bag.
Monks do not eat grains, but ordinary clothes will eventually become old and damaged.
Afterwards, Chen Yuan walked out of the cave, took out the jade pendant, and drew the starlight into his body.
Twenty breaths later, the starlight dissipated, and Chen Yuan's magic power was exhausted. He returned to the cave, blocked the cave entrance with a huge rock, closed his eyes and meditated to recover his magic power.
A few hours later, he opened his eyes again, feeling his spiritual awareness increase by another inch, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Although the physical body is useless to cultivators, spiritual consciousness is extremely important to them.
The wider the coverage of spiritual awareness, the more advantages you can gain in a fight.
The stronger the spiritual consciousness, the more magical instruments can be controlled.
When refining the elixir, the stronger the spiritual consciousness, the higher the probability of successful elixir.
In order to strengthen his spiritual consciousness, Chen Yuan will continue to persevere even if the starlight infusion will consume his magic power.
He touched the storage bag at his waist, took out the jade bottle containing the Yunlu Pill, poured out a pill and swallowed it into his mouth, then closed his eyes, meditated and began to practice.
If Chen Yuan had not met Master Duan Fang, after helping Luo Zhenwu destroy the Sanjiang Gang, he would have left Yuzhou and traveled around Qi State looking for opportunities.
But now, he has the elixir and spirit stone in his hand, so naturally he has to practice hard in seclusion and try his best to improve his cultivation.
After all, according to Taoist Yunyou, the world of immortal cultivation is not peaceful.
It is a world more cruel and more dangerous than the underworld.
(End of this chapter)