Longzang

Chapter 203, this question is easy.

Upon returning to his home realm, Wei Yuan immediately examined his entire body. Such a forced escape couldn't be without consequences. Generally speaking, damage to one's cultivation level and foundation was common.

Sure enough, the thirty streams of fortune disappeared from his sea of ​​consciousness.

Wei Yuan was still shaken; the Netherworld was indeed incredibly dangerous. After calming himself, Wei Yuan recounted his experiences in the Netherworld to Zhang Sheng. After carefully questioning him, Zhang Sheng asked, "Where are those soil and rocks you dug out? Manifest them and let me see."

On a clearing near Jade Mountain, a pile of earth and stones was emanating a chilling aura. Wei Yuan materialized a small pile, and the temperature within a few feet around it plummeted, as if it were the dead of winter.

“These soils…” Zhang Sheng picked up a small handful and examined them carefully, but couldn’t figure out anything. So he called over Ji Liuli and Sun Yu.

The three discussed it together, and Sun Yu, with his greater knowledge, concluded that the soil was rich in the power of eternal silence, belonging to the category of underworld soil. Some rare spiritual plants could be cultivated in this soil. This soil might be worthless to others, but it was extremely valuable to the Jianmu Hall and the Creation Temple, which specialized in cultivating spiritual plants and medicinal herbs. The Xuanming Hall also had a great need for it.

Although the soil in Wei Yuan's hand was not a physical object, what the spiritual plants needed was the eternal silence power contained within it. This was a type of extremely high-level spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and whether the soil itself had a physical form was not important.

After Sun Yu finished explaining, he asked, "Anything else? I need some to experiment with and see if we can cultivate a few new varieties."

“And there’s more.” Wei Yuan then conjured up a whole bunch more.

Without making a sound, Sun Yu took off his robe and wrapped up the soil, sweeping even the loose bits of dirt that had fallen to the ground into the robe, leaving not a single speck. Only after all the soil was wrapped up and tied tightly did Sun Yu reveal a contented smile.

Seeing Sun Yu's expression, Wei Yuan asked, "Is this soil very expensive?"

“It’s not expensive. If you exchange it at the Hall of Merit, it only costs one or two taels of silver and one qian.” Sun Yu said casually.

Wei Yuan didn't think much of it at first, but when he heard the last unit, he subconsciously did the conversion and realized what was going on. He had just given Sun Yu dozens of catties of soil, which was worth several thousand taels of immortal silver! No wonder his martial uncle had quietly taken off his top-grade magic robe to wrap the soil.

Seeing Sun Yu's satisfied smile, Wei Yuan couldn't bear it any longer and said, "If you want more, Uncle-Master, I have plenty more here."

"No need, no need, this is enough." Sun Yu smiled contentedly, pleased with his modest wealth.

Wei Yuan couldn't very well say that his Dao Foundation still contained several thousand jin of energy, mostly stones, and that the stones contained even more Eternal Silence Power.

However, these Netherworld soil and rocks have no physical form. Although Wei Yuan can materialize them, they cannot stray too far from him, so he cannot exchange them for Immortal Silver with the Primordial Palace.

Even soil is so expensive, the Netherworld is beyond description as a treasure trove. Seeing that there was still plenty of time, Wei Yuan immediately prepared to enter the Netherworld again.

After Ji Liuli and Zhang Sheng gave Wei Yuan some pointers on things to keep in mind during the exploration, Wei Yuan set off again.

Upon entering the Netherworld, Wei Yuan discovered that his environment had completely changed. He was now in the center of a huge basin, surrounded by cliffs hundreds of feet high.

The bottom of the basin was also undulating, but the ground was extremely hard. The small hill where Wei Yuanyuan was originally located had disappeared, and the hole he dug was naturally nowhere to be found.

Wei Yuan looked around again and finally realized that he was standing in the footprints of the alien creature. If Wei Yuan hadn't seen the giant claw stomping down on him, he might have thought it was a natural basin.

Although there were only thin clouds in the sky at the moment, just to be on the safe side, Wei Yuan still calculated the future weather. It was a very simple little spell, and the result was also very simple: no rain, light breeze.

Wei Yuan was taken aback; something about this spell felt off.

However, he chose to believe in the Dream Eater for the time being. It didn't matter if the weather forecast was inaccurate; Wei Yuan had plenty of methods.

Upon re-entering the Netherworld, Wei Yuan hastily learned three new Daoist techniques. The first is the Thick Earth Shield Technique, and the second is the Shadow Concealment Technique. This technique allows Wei Yuan to transform into a wisp of shadow, hiding inside an object and using that object's aura to conceal his own. The third is the Radiant Sunlight Technique. This technique can instantly simulate the radiance of the sun; it's an advanced version of the Flash Technique.

Wei Yuan dared not linger in the center of the basin. Just thinking about the countless shadows that would fly around when the giant claws fell, he knew that this Netherworld was actually quite lively.

Wei Yuan immediately used his Shadow Concealment technique to hide inside a small pebble. The pebble then flew up and headed towards the edge of the basin.

In the dim light, a small pebble flying close to the ground was hardly noticeable, except that it flew rather slowly, only half the speed of Wei Yuan himself. After flying slowly for half a day, the pebble finally reached the edge of the cliff, then flew upwards close to the cliff, and it took quite a while to reach the top of the cliff.

Just as he was about to emerge from the cliff top, a long sword suddenly swept silently past Wei Yuan's head!
Wherever the blade passed, it left a slowly dissipating black trail. This strike was extremely skillful, having already drawn upon the vital energy of heaven and earth; even Feng Tingyu's swordsmanship was no more than this.

If the pebble had risen another head's height, it would have been struck squarely!

Wei Yuan was startled again, concealing his aura as the pebble landed with a soft thud on the cliff edge. "Huh? I clearly felt something coming up, but I just missed. What's this stone?"

A hand reached out, picked up a pebble, and examined it closely.

A pair of pale amber eyes appeared before Wei Yuan, with strange, wavy lines within the pupils. By human standards, the face was exceptionally beautiful, except for a few metallic lines on the cheeks, which added a touch of mystery and eeriness.

She looked at it carefully for a while but couldn't figure it out. Still unwilling to give up, she placed the pebble on the blade and gently sliced ​​it in half.

After the stone was cut open, it was still just an ordinary stone, and Wei Yuan hid to the side.

Another voice sounded from the side: "It's just an ordinary pebble. Something down below probably sensed our presence and used a bit of its aura to taint the pebble before throwing it up to test us. We've been exposed now, and that thing should be hiding. Let's go, let's find another place to ambush. Anyway, with the Celestial Beasts around, there's plenty of prey."

She nodded, casually tossed two pebbles back into the basin, spread three pairs of wings behind her shoulders, and flew away with another figure.

After a dizzying spin, Wei Yuan fell back into the basin.

He cursed inwardly. He had finally managed to fly up, only to be casually tossed back down. Now he had to fly all over again. Hiding inside the pebbles and controlling them with his Dao power was incredibly difficult, much more tiring than flying on his own.

Wei Yuan emerged from the half-pebble, preparing to possess another pebble before flying back up from the same spot. Those two would most likely be setting up an ambush elsewhere, not remaining in the same place.

Just as Wei Yuan was about to move, suddenly all his hair flew up! The pebbles and clods of earth around him also floated into the air!

Suddenly, a huge, dark blue rainbow of light shot out from the center of the basin and rose high into the sky!

Countless earth dragons appeared, rapidly extending towards the edge of the basin. Wherever they passed, streaks of blue light shot into the sky, obliterating anything they touched. Even a Celestial Lord at full power would likely only possess such might!
Seeing an earthen dragon appear in the center of the basin and instantly extend to his feet, Wei Yuan was shocked. He could no longer care about concealing his whereabouts and instantly soared into the sky!
At this moment, Wei Yuan understood perfectly well that the two had already seen through his movements, but pretended not to know and threw him back into the basin. They probably already knew that a rainbow light would erupt in the basin, and intended to use this power of heaven and earth to destroy him.

Although Wei Yuan was flying at full speed, the burst of rainbow light was too fast, and it reached his feet in the blink of an eye. Wei Yuan was so shocked that his primordial spirit was almost boiling; how could he dare to touch even a trace of such power of heaven and earth?
In a moment of desperation, Wei Yuan produced two slender golden cauldrons, which he held under his ribs. He fired them one after the other with a hair's breadth difference, one downward and the other horizontal.

With a deafening roar, Wei Yuan was kicked into the air, instantly soaring over a hundred feet into the sky, before being slapped and sent flying another hundred feet, narrowly avoiding the rainbow light burst.

Before even landing, Wei Yuan sensed something rapidly approaching. His perception was almost supernatural; without hesitation, a long immortal sword appeared in his hand, and he slashed fiercely at the approaching object!
Where the immortal sword fell, there was nothing.

But Wei Yuan had already noticed that the thing vanished just before it was struck, but inevitably left behind a trace of Daoist energy. It was the witch who had thrown him back into the basin.

This witch moved mysteriously, seemingly able to traverse the void, making her virtually impossible to guard against. Wei Yuan had intended to lure her out for a direct confrontation, but she remained unmoved, clearly a highly skilled hunter.

Wei Yuan pondered for a moment, then stopped dwelling on the matter and turned to fly away. A moment later, he dug a hole in a small valley between two hills, quietly set up a mark, then set up a defensive formation. He picked up some small items around him and returned to his own realm.

Not long after Wei Yuan left, two figures appeared at the place where he had set up the mark. One was the witch with three pairs of wings, and the other was a tall and handsome young wizard.

The wizard said, "He probably never imagined we could find the place where he buried the mark, did he? We have that treasure in our hands."

The witch surveyed the surroundings and said, "They've set up an array; they're quite careful. Let's first see what he's stored here, determine his Dao foundation type and Dao techniques he's skilled in, then we'll ambush him here and give him a good beating when he returns!"

"Hmph, if a human dares to enter the Netherworld, he shall never return."

The priestess touched the array left by Wei Yuan, activating it, and then a text appeared before her:
There is a cage containing a number of chickens and rabbits. If the chickens are counted as thirty and the rabbits as their legs, how many chickens and rabbits are there?

The shrine maiden was taken aback at first, then couldn't help but laugh, saying, "They really are all cut from the same cloth, not knowing any other tricks! But this guy is far inferior to his master; even my cat could solve this kind of problem!"

The sorcerer also shook his head, deeply worried about Wei Yuan's intelligence.

The priestess casually wrote down two numbers and input them into the array. Suddenly, a bright white light rose up before her eyes, as if she had seen the midday sun!

Radiant Sunlight Technique!

Both witches possessed keen senses; instantly, their eyes stung, and they could see nothing. Then, a surge of Dao power caused the entire formation to explode, engulfing the two witches and blasting them away like broken dolls!

The entrance left by the formation was not for inputting answers, but for waiting to be triggered to activate an explosion.

(End of this chapter)