Chapter 74: Taoist Xu Xuan

Chapter 74: Taoist Xu Xuan

Chapter 74: Taoist Xu Xuan
Wei Zhong took out four bottles of pills and gave them to everyone, and took the Xuanming Lingcao from Shang Mengchun.

Then he bowed to the four people:

"Everyone, we will meet again in the future. There will be such good things someday. Please contact me again, Brother Lan."

Then it turned into a green rainbow and fled into the distance.

The remaining four also divided the spoils and left.

Wei Zhong flew for dozens of miles, found an uninhabited place to land, and changed back to his original appearance and attire.

Just as he was about to return to the island after using all his strength to perform the breath-concealing and invisibility techniques, he suddenly saw a streak of light passing through the sky.

He was wearing a black robe, a black hat, and a black mask on his face, and his aura did not reveal a single bit.

Wei Zhong always felt that the other person was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't tell who he was.

After looking for a while, another person came from behind, it was Tan Bo.

In the air, Tan Bo looked at the man in black robes who concealed his identity and asked:
"Who are you, Daoist Fellow? Why did you follow Daoist Fellow Song here? Do you want to do something bad to Daoist Fellow Song?"

The black-robed man sneered strangely: "Haha, so what if this is my plan, doesn't it mean that fellow Taoist doesn't have the same plan?"

"Humph, I don't need to do such a despicable thing that takes advantage of others' misfortune."

"Haha, Brother Song who is hiding here wouldn't think so. Don't you think so, Brother Song Zhong?"

"Oh, you're trying to trick me."

Wei Zhong was quite confident in his ability to conceal his breath. How could this black-robed monk discover him?

"Maybe he saw me disappear, so he thought I was hiding here."

Seeing that his speech did not reveal his desired target, the man in black robe flicked his sleeves and a puff of black smoke flew towards Tan Bo, then turned into a black light and flew away.

After dealing with the black smoke, Tan Bo saw that the other party had gone far away, so he groaned and turned away.

Wei Zhong stared at the black light that was going away, thinking:

"I can't sleep with a poisonous snake watching me in the dark."

【Time and space】

Less than an hour had passed since the first spell cast in the secret realm, and at this moment Wei Zhong's cultivation had risen from the late stage of foundation building to the early stage of core formation.

With light steps, Wei Zhong, under the effect of his Dan-forming spiritual power, used the Cloud-Turning Technique to escape at a speed several times faster than when he was building his foundation. He chased after the black-robed man in front of him.

The mysterious man in black robe flew across the Luo River without stopping.

'What happened? Why did I feel uneasy after leaving? Did Tan Bo follow me? Or was it Song Zhong?'

"My spiritual perception has never been wrong. There must be some danger approaching me."

Suddenly he realized something and looked back, only to see a black light approaching. His eyebrows twitched suddenly, indicating that this person was the source of the threat.

"Jiandan monk, how could I possibly offend such a person?"

Then he shouted loudly:

"Wait a minute, Senior. Is there any misunderstanding between us?"

Wei Zhong naturally wouldn't listen to his nagging. He condensed his spiritual power into a big hand and grabbed him directly.

Seeing the Jindan cultivator in front of him attacking him without even a glance, the man in black robe immediately raised the spiritual shield in his hand, then pinched a spiritual talisman, flashed, and instantly escaped a hundred feet away.

'Teleportation charm?'

Wei Zhong slapped away the spiritual shield with one palm, and with a step, he was already a hundred feet away.

The enormous magical power of the Jindan can make the long-distance flying cloud-soaring technique burst out with the effect of teleportation in a short period of time.

With one step, he was already close behind him, and he waved the black magic sword in his hand and slashed at his back.

"Senior, spare your life!"

Seeing that Wei Zhong had caught up with him effortlessly, he immediately uttered a pleading cry, and all the magical weapons on his body exploded without any effort, trying to block the black sword.

But the power of the Jindan stage is not something that the mere foundation building stage can withstand. The black magic sword easily cut off his head, and the rest of his body fell forward powerlessly.

Wei Zhong grabbed the remains of the body, crushed it with one palm, and then took back the storage bag.

The reason why we chased him and didn't use the throwing technique to kill him instantly was just for this little bit of spoils.

He put the storage bag on his waist, grabbed his head again, and lifted up his disguise. The face revealed surprised Wei Zhong a little.

"Mou Yuanfeng?"

The light in the other person's eyes had long since disappeared, leaving only a hint of unwillingness.

Wei Zhong's spiritual power destroyed the head with one palm, erasing the last trace of his existence.

He turned around and set out on the journey back to the island.

Thinking back to this trip to the secret realm and the several times he had explored it in the past, Wei Zhong felt deeply moved.

A thousand-year-old magical medicine made him do such a dangerous thing. This cultivation world is really dangerous. I have to be more cautious of such fellow practitioners in the future.

Also, when this person escaped, he seemed to be in the late foundation building stage.

"Haha, he's really good at hiding. He even pretended to be in the early stage of foundation building. This time in the secret realm, he didn't even show his true cultivation. He's even better at hiding than me."

An almost transparent beam of light flew into Yunxia Island. As the person holding the main chess piece of the Green Water and Green Lotus Formation, Wei Zhong's return to the island did not cause the slightest fluctuation in the formation.

He took a step into the cave and took out the Yuanshuizhu, which was a second-grade top-grade magic weapon.

At this moment, his Jindan cultivation can still be maintained for a while, so he naturally has to take this opportunity to upgrade the Yuanshuizhu to the status of a magic weapon.

Wei Zhong took out various spiritual materials that had been prepared long ago, and a ball of flame emerged from his hand. This was the Dan Fire that all Jindan cultivators possessed.

Unlike ordinary flames, Wei Zhong's Dan fire is not bright yellow, but ink-black.

'It's probably due to the practice.'

Wei Zhong didn't think much about it, he picked up the spiritual materials and began to refine them.

The refining of the natal magic weapon is not complicated, and it can be completed even if Wei Zhong is not proficient in the art of refining.

Wei Zhong extracted the essence of various spiritual materials and put them into the Yuan Shui beads. Then he punched his chest and a mouthful of golden blood spurted out and sprinkled into it.

He raised his right hand and pointed: "Command."

The Danhuo was placed under the Yuanshui bead, and the blazing Dan flames enveloped it.

The Yuan Shui bead immediately absorbed the essence and blood, began to rotate, and continued to collapse inward, gradually shrinking, and finally stopped when it turned into the size of an egg.

Wei Zhong retracted the Dan Fire, held up the Yuan Shui Pearl, and felt the closer connection between it and himself. He realized that his natal magic weapon had been successfully practiced.

Suddenly, he felt weak. The time for the first stage of the Dao of Time had come, and his cultivation had regressed from the early stage of Jindan to the late stage of foundation building.

Before long, the second time magic will become ineffective, and Wei Zhong will return to the middle stage of foundation building.

After storing the Yuan Shui bead in Dantian, what the natal magic weapon needs most at this moment is not to continue absorbing and tempering, but to be nurtured by the cultivator to strengthen the connection between it and the cultivator, so as to ensure that it can be used like an arm to defend against the enemy.

Moreover, if Wei Zhong continued to temper and absorb it, it would be difficult for him to guarantee that his foundation-building body could still bear this thing.

The natal magic weapon was ready, and Wei Zhong took out Mou Yuanfeng's storage bag.

Since the other party was already dead, Wei Zhong didn't have to spend much effort to erase the mark on the storage bag.

After cleaning up the spoils, Wei Zhong took out a gourd, two spiritual herbs, and a jade slip.

The gourd was filled with red spirit wine obtained from the autumn maple forest.

As for the two spiritual herbs, they are more than 500 years old.

After a brief analysis, Wei Zhong realized that these were two auxiliary spiritual herbs for refining the Dust-Reducing Pill, the Dark Eyebrow Grass and the Red Moon Flower.

In this way, the only spiritual herbs Wei Zhong needed to refine the Dust-Reducing Pill were a thousand-year-old Nine-Heart Fruit and more than twenty other spiritual herbs with low age requirements.

After collecting these, Wei Zhong can prepare to refine the Dust-Reducing Pill for himself, but before that he needs to upgrade his alchemy skills to the third level.

Moreover, the proficiency of the third level cannot be too low, after all, it is not easy to collect such a spiritual medicine. Wei Zhong did not want to waste the spiritual objects he had worked so hard to collect.

Once you have reached a high level of proficiency, succeeding in making the elixir in one go is what you should strive for.

With his poor qualifications, Wei Zhong never thought that one Dust-Reducing Pill would be enough to allow him to form a pill. He would probably need three or four.

It is not easy to collect this amount of Dust Reducing Pills.

Although he could exchange contribution points for it with his status as a guest of the Chamber of Commerce, it took time to accumulate contribution points. Moreover, rather than exchanging them for elixirs, Wei Zhong would rather use them to exchange for advanced inheritance.

Even if it is auctioned with spirit stones, it is not easy. Although Luohe Prefecture is rich in resources, there are also many cultivators. There are probably many cultivators in the late foundation building stage who are competing for the Dust-Reducing Pill.

After thinking about it, it is more reliable to make it myself.

Shifting his attention from the spiritual herbs, Wei Zhong looked at the last jade slip.

It records a very interesting secret method, which has no name and seems to be a fragmentary part of some other method.

Its effect is probably to enhance the spiritual perception of the monks, especially when encountering a crisis, it can further amplify it.

When the crisis is close enough, it can also help determine the source of the crisis.

'No wonder Mou Yuanfeng tried so hard to escape when I was chasing him. Maybe this method is working.'

'Not bad, not bad, this method is very suitable for me.'

After collecting the spoils, Wei Zhong began to practice with the jade slip.

Wei Zhong spent several days to successfully master this method, but what surprised Wei Zhong a little was that this method did not have any proficiency levels.

Among the various methods Wei Zhong learned, only the Taoism of Time had this characteristic. However, this method was not marked as a Taoism like the Taoism of Time, but was plain and without any explanation.

"Let's call it spiritual perception."

As Wei Zhong thought so, a new spell [Telepathy] immediately appeared in the spell column on the panel.

After completing the secret technique, Wei Zhong stood up and went to the pool outside the house.

Da Jin sensed Wei Zhong coming, and a big golden head emerged from the water, staring at Wei Zhong with two round eyes.

Wei Zhong touched his big head and took out the black spiritual soil obtained from the secret realm.

From the perspective of spirit-seeking, it is emitting dazzling colorful light.

“This spiritual soil can nurture spiritual herbs like the thousand-year-old Xuanming spiritual grass. Maybe it will also be useful for Dajin’s companion spiritual grass.”

This is why Wei Zhong had to grab a handful of spiritual soil at that critical moment.

Looking at the two strange spiritual herbs in the pond that showed signs of bearing fruit, the spiritual soil in Wei Zhong's hand flew over and landed on their roots.

Then he patted Da Jin's fish head and said, "Advance soon."

As I came out of the cave, I saw a flash of sword in the training room.

After picking it up, Xie Linghua's voice came from it: "Master, Senior Qingze is here."

A moment later, in the same cliff pavilion, Wei Zhong and Qing Ze sat opposite each other. "Fellow Daoist Wei is indeed very skilled. He can refine three 2nd-level realm-breaking pills at once. He is much better than those alchemists who seek fame and reputation," Qing Ze said happily after drinking a glass of spirit wine.

Wei Zhong poured him another glass, knowing that the other party was still unhappy about Zhu Shen's deliberate attack on him.

"No, no, I was just lucky this time. If you bring out another batch of herbs, I can't guarantee that I can succeed in refining them again."

"Haha, Fellow Daoist Wei is too modest. With your alchemy skills, it is not impossible for you to seek a guest position in the Yunji Chamber of Commerce."

Wei Zhong smiled and thought to himself:
"I do have a guest token, but I got it for brewing wine."

After so many years in Luohe Prefecture, Wei Zhong is no longer the casual foundation-building cultivator from Mangyuan Prefecture.

He also knew the value of the guests who gathered in the Chamber of Commerce.

Generally speaking, ordinary second-level skills are not enough to achieve the position of guest official, unless it is a special spiritual object like the second-level Qingluozui refined by Wei Zhong that can bring endless profits to the Chamber of Commerce.

Otherwise, it would not be uncommon for people to refine elixirs such as Heqi Dan by rote and gather in the Chamber of Commerce.

There is no telling how many second-level alchemists are able to refine this kind of elixir. If all of them can get a guest token, then the position of guest would be too cheap.

With Wei Zhong's current alchemy skills, he could indeed try to obtain another guest token, but it would be a bit not worth it.

The reason is that Wei Zhong did not create a breakthrough pill recipe, so he could not get the contribution points from it. Instead, he needed to continuously accept tasks and accumulate them after successfully completing them.

But this would take up a lot of time for Wei Zhong, delaying his cultivation, and the contribution points he earned would not necessarily be more than that of the second-level Qingluo Drunken Recipe.

Some gain outweighs the loss.

In fact, most of the guests who gathered in the Chamber of Commerce earned contributions by taking on various tasks. Sikong Changming, Ling Ziwei and others who were responsible for escorting spiritual objects in the Chamber of Commerce did so in this way.

On the contrary, there are only a few people like Wei Zhong who can reap the benefits of a wine recipe.

"Let's talk about it later. Although I really want to be the guest of Yunji Chamber of Commerce, the other party may not think highly of my crude alchemy skills."

"Haha, Brother Wei is being modest."

"Fellow Daoist Qingze, are you leaving here to prepare for advancement to the late stage of foundation building?" Wei Zhong asked curiously.

The other party nodded and said, "My aptitude is average. I have been stuck in the middle stage of foundation building for who knows how many years. If I hadn't collected the materials needed for the second-level breakthrough pill this time, I don't know when I would have been able to advance."

Wei Zhong raised his glass and said, "Then I wish you, Daoist Brother Qingze, instant success."

"Immediate success!"

······
After drinking with Wei Zhong for a while, Qingze also left happily with the pills.

Wei Zhong was standing on the cliff, looking at the water birds in the river in the distance, thinking silently:

"I don't know if I can reach the late stage of foundation building with my current qualifications."

A heavy water spirit body of 100 jin is roughly equivalent to a low-grade water spirit root. But low-grade is still low-grade after all, and adding two low-grade together cannot make a medium-grade one.

After Wei Zhong gave instructions to Xie Linghua, he left on the green boat.

The trip went to the Luohefu branch of the Yunji Chamber of Commerce.

It is located in the center of Luohe Prefecture, in Yuelan City.

Yuelan City is the most prosperous city in the entire Luohe Prefecture. It is jointly operated by many forces, including local Jindan forces and Yunji Chamber of Commerce from the state capital.

There are all kinds of rare commodities on sale in the store, and occasionally there are elixir-forming resources such as thousand-year-old elixirs and third-level elixirs at auctions.

Moreover, it is located on a third-grade superior spiritual vein, and the quality of its spiritual energy is comparable to the cave in Wei Zhong's hands.

It is a holy place longed for by monks from the local Luohe Prefecture.

If you can occupy a third-level cave in Yuelan City, you won’t have to worry about finding a territory when you cultivate to the stage of Jindan.

As soon as Wei Zhong entered the city, he headed towards Yunji Tower, the tallest and most magnificent building in Yuelan City.

This is the location of the Yunji Chamber of Commerce.

As soon as he entered the shop, Wei Zhong, who had changed his appearance and aura, immediately took out his guest token. When the servants in the hall saw it, they were immediately shocked.

A maid in a white silk dress came out immediately and said, "My fellow Taoist, my name is Yun Luo. I will entertain you this time. Please come with me to the cabinet."

She led Wei Zhong to a private room, where other maids had already prepared tea for them.

"What do you need from the Yunji Chamber of Commerce this time, fellow Daoist?"

Wei Zhong reached out and took out a piece of yellow paper, which recorded most of the items he needed.

Then came the residue at the bottom of the spirit wine pool obtained from the secret realm.

"Also, find someone to help me identify these things and find out what kind of spiritual medicine they are."

Yun Luo took the paper and was shocked when he saw the items displayed on it.

"Thousand-year-old Nine-Heart Fruit, Thousand Spirit Water Stone, third-level water alchemy inheritance, soul-nourishing pills, and Jade Marrow Ganoderma that is more than 500 years old..."

The items on this list alone are worth at least 70,000 to 80,000 low-grade spirit stones.

"I have met a great customer," Yun Luo could hardly hide his inner ecstasy, the corners of his mouth twitched slightly, and he almost laughed out loud.

But his professional ethics over the years helped him keep calm, and then he said softly to Wei Zhong:

“Most of the spiritual objects on your list are extremely rare, so there are quite a few missing.

For example, this thousand-year-old Nine-Heart Fruit has never been sold in stock in our store.

If you want, our Chamber of Commerce will hold an auction in a year, and this thousand-year-old elixir will be auctioned then.

If you are not in a hurry, you can wait a year and buy it at an auction.

But if you are in a hurry, you can also exchange it with your contribution points, so that it will only take a few days to transfer the goods from the state capital."

Wei Zhong shook his head: "Let's talk about other things."

"Thousand Spiritual Water Stones. Our store has three of them. Each one is worth one thousand low-grade Spiritual Stones."

“There are multiple copies of the third-level alchemy inheritance, but the water-based alchemy that Daoist needs is too unconventional, so there is only one copy.

There are also soul nourishing pills left, priced at 8,000 each. In addition, there are a lot of 500-year-old jadeite mushrooms, 2,000 spirit stones each. I wonder how many you need."

Wei Zhong pondered for a moment, then said, "Give me all three Thousand Spirit Water Stones. Bring me the water refining method from the third-level alchemy inheritance, and two excellent fire refining methods for me to compare.

Bring three soul-nourishing pills and ten chalcedony ganoderma.

Please also arrange for the identification of these things as soon as possible."

Wei Zhong pointed to the residue in the jade jar on the table.

"Okay, the goods will be brought to you as soon as possible. But this spiritual object is too damaged, and it may take some time to identify it. Please wait for a while."

Wei Zhong nodded and picked up the spiritual tea on the table.

The woman named Yun Luo took the list, took the jade jar and walked out of the room.

Wei Zhong had just tasted half of the spiritual tea in his hand when the latter came back with something in his hand.

After briefly checking the Soul-Nourishing Pill, Jade-marrow Ganoderma and other scattered spiritual objects, Wei Zhong put them into the cave. He also picked up the three crystal clear Thousand Spirit Water Stones, and muttered in his heart.

It is worthy of being a spiritual object used for spiritual body transformation. It has been made famous in the Yunji Chamber of Commerce. If I hadn’t come at the right time, I’m afraid these three Thousand Spirit Water Stones would never have been mine.

Holding the stone in his hand, Wei Zhong asked, "Can I pre-order this Thousand Spirit Water Stone?"

Yun Luo's expression froze for a moment, then he smiled and shook his head and said, "This item is very popular in our Chamber of Commerce, so we cannot pre-order it. Please forgive me, fellow Taoist."

Wei Zhong was not surprised and put it away.

Then he took the third-level alchemy inheritance and examined it one by one.

Since only part of the inheritance methods were revealed, Wei Zhong finished browsing it quickly.

"I want both this water refining method and this fire refining method."

Wei Zhong pointed to the water refining method on the far left and the fire refining method in the middle and said so.

Hearing that Wei Zhong had chosen two at once, Yun Luo was even more excited. He took out the jade box and packed two inheritance jade slips for Wei Zhong, and then asked:

"The identification of the spiritual object is still in progress, please wait for a moment."

Wei Zhong put away the jade box and nodded.

Yun Luo filled Wei Zhong's teacup and then chatted with Wei Zhong.

Wei Zhong replied perfunctorily without revealing any information about himself.

This time, Wei Zhong drank five cups of spiritual tea before an old Taoist with white beard came into the room.

In one hand he held a jade jar, and in the other he held a piece of paper covered with the names of various spiritual objects.

After handing it to Wei Zhong, he said, "The spiritual object you provided is too incomplete. I can only barely recognize part of it."

Wei Zhong looked at the many spiritual objects recorded on it.

"Golden bamboo, thousand knot flowers, ambergris, green jade fruit..."

There are more than twenty kinds of spiritual objects recorded on the paper.

'It's quite a mix.'

Wei Zhong was in great trouble for a moment. With so many spiritual objects, he was not sure if he could restore the real wine recipe from them.

There is only a slim chance unless your winemaking skills can be improved to the master or grandmaster level.

Or should I go directly to ask the third-level spirit monkey?

Wei Zhong's heart moved.

"That's enough. Thank you, fellow Taoist. How much is the reward for the appraisal?"

The other person shook his head, and his gray beard swayed left and right with the movement of his head.

"I am identifying this item for you out of my own interest, so there is no need to ask for compensation. However, if you want to distinguish the spiritual objects here, you need to deduce the recipe for the spiritual wine."

Wei Zhong nodded generously.

In order to ensure the accuracy of the identification results, Wei Zhong did not process the residue, so it exuded a strong smell of alcohol.

It is reasonable for the other party to guess it.

"Then fellow Daoist, you have some work to do. From what I have seen, the spiritual objects used in this wine are very complicated and it doesn't look like it was made by human cultivators.

Instead, it's a bit like a game about uncivilized monsters and spirits."

Wei Zhong looked surprised. He didn't expect that this person could deduce such a result based on a little residue.

Wei Zhong bowed and said, "I haven't asked for your name yet, may I ask your honorable name?"

The other party wiped his white beard and said:
"My name is Xu Xuan, and I am honored to be the shopkeeper here."

(End of this chapter)