Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Chapter 164 Returning to the old place
The Duyun Boat flew at full speed in the air for an hour, at least several hundred miles away, before it slowly slowed down.

Chen Yuan looked around and sent down a light of escape in a dense forest. He put away the Duyun Boat, took out three formation flags, scattered them on the ground, and disappeared without a trace.

This was a low-level formation he obtained when he ambushed a disciple of Zi Yang Sect in the secret realm of Dong Xu Mountain. It only had a simple invisibility effect, but was enough to block the consciousness of Qi Refining cultivators.

After Chen Yuan set up the formation, he sat down cross-legged, closed his eyes and meditated, looking inward at his body, scanning his Dantian meridians inch by inch.

Not long after, he discovered a strange aura lingering in a narrow meridian, and immediately activated his true energy to eliminate it.

After doing this, Chen Yuan felt relieved and began to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth to restore the true energy in his body.

A quarter of an hour later, he opened his eyes, with a gleam of light in them.

The middle-aged scholar and the consumptive man were only in the early stages of foundation building and their strength was mediocre. Chen Yuan did not spend much effort to kill them, and only consumed 20% of his true energy.

But out of caution, he immediately fled far away to avoid encountering people who were attracted by the noise of the fight. Then he found a place to meditate, eliminate the strange energy in his body, and restore all the true energy in his body.

"Li Ju, I'll keep this grudge in mind for now, and I'll settle the score with you later..."

Chen Yuan muttered to himself, his eyes slightly narrowed, murderous intent looming.

Li Ju colluded with the evil cultivators to commit murder for money. This was a life-and-death feud.

But he is a cultivator of Guiyuan Sect. Chen Yuan has no evidence and he is just a casual cultivator, so there is no way he can do anything to him.

If Chen Yuanliang revealed his identity, Guiyuan Sect, which already had a grudge against him, would not embarrass the sect's foundation-building cultivators because of his words.

As for what the consumptive ghost said about setting a trap to lure Li Ju into an ambush, Chen Yuan would not believe it at all.

The demon cultivators are cunning and treacherous, and Chen Yuan will never cooperate with them unless it is absolutely necessary.

This matter can only be put aside for the time being. He will look for an opportunity to take revenge after he completes his sect mission.

Fortunately, Li Ju didn't know his true identity and wouldn't be on guard, so he would have plenty of opportunities to take action in the future.

Chen Yuan sneered, remembered Li Ju deeply in his mind, then took out the storage bags of the middle-aged scholar and the consumptive man and checked them.

As soon as his spiritual sense penetrated into it, a smile appeared on Chen Yuan's face.

The two were indeed Tribulation Cultivators, their wealth was quite substantial, with a total of fifty-four mid-grade spirit stones.

There are also more than a dozen hundred-year-old spiritual herbs, three three-hundred-year-old spiritual herbs, plus the spiritual herbs in Chen Yuan's hands, which are just enough to make a furnace of Qi-combining pills and a furnace of Yuan-increasing pills.

In addition, the two men had three second-level demon pills, some mid-grade spiritual materials and demon beast materials, which were also of great value. Although Chen Yuan could not use them, they could be exchanged for nearly twenty mid-grade spirit stones.

However, the spiritual weapons of the middle-aged scholar and the consumptive ghost were badly damaged in the battle with Chen Yuan, and their value was greatly reduced.

The consumptive ghost's bone sword was burned by the red smoke and its light was dimmed. The skulls on the bone shield were all destroyed, and the bone shield itself had several cracks. It could no longer be used without repair.

The middle-aged scholar had only one mid-grade spiritual weapon on him, which was the folding fan. The demon contained in it had been completely destroyed by Chen Yuan, leaving only the defensive ability of the virtual image of mountains and rivers. If he wanted to restore its power, he had to refine the demon again and fill it in.

Of course Chen Yuan would not do such a thing, so he put it in his storage bag and waited to see if he could sell it in the future in exchange for some spirit stones.

After sorting out these things, Chen Yuan picked up the three jade slips in front of him and looked at them one by one.

The first jade slip belonged to a middle-aged scholar, and it contained a record of a magic technique called "The Confucian and Demonic Sutra of the World". It had a great reputation, but could only be practiced to the middle stage of foundation building, and was extremely crude.

Chen Yuan just glanced at it twice, then put down the jade slip and picked up the second jade slip to read.

The remaining two jade slips were obtained from the consumptive ghost, hoping that they would contain what he wanted.

This jade slip recorded the method of refining the bone shield. Chen Yuan was also not interested in it and picked up the third jade slip instead.

He probed his spiritual sense into it, and finally a smile appeared on his face, but after a moment, he frowned again, and finally shook his head and withdrew his spiritual sense.

The third jade slip recorded the secret blood escape technique performed by the consumptive ghost, which was also what Chen Yuan wanted.

The consumptive ghost was only a cultivator in the early stage of foundation building, but after using this secret technique, his escape speed was comparable to that of a cultivator in the late stage of foundation building, and even faster than Duyunzhou, which made Chen Yuan quite excited.

It just so happens that he can use the power of the stars to restore the loss of essence and blood, thus avoiding the disadvantages of this method to the greatest extent.

However, the blood escape technique recorded in the jade slip disappointed him greatly.

If Chen Yuan performs this technique, he can indeed increase his escape speed, but the fastest he can achieve is the same as when the tuberculosis ghost performed the technique for the second time today, and it cannot be increased any further.

Moreover, once the Blood Escape Technique is performed, at least 30% of the blood and essence will be consumed. If it is performed continuously in a short period of time, the loss of blood and essence will increase further.

This technique has great disadvantages, but the speed of escape is only at the level of a cultivator in the late foundation building stage, so Chen Yuan naturally would not practice it.

He put away the three jade slips, retracted the invisible formation he had set up, drove the Duyun Boat, and fled to the south.

Just like before, Chen Yuan would stop every day to restore his inner essence before continuing on his way. Two days later, a majestic mountain range suddenly appeared in front of him, like a giant dragon, winding from east to west, stretching across the land, stretching endlessly. It was the Chimang Mountains.

The speed of the Duyun Boat slowly decreased, and Chen Yuan looked at the Chimang Mountains in front of him with a complicated look.

He suddenly activated his true energy, and the Duyun Boat changed direction, flying eastward for more than 200 miles, until he came to a pass, and then continued to fly south.

This pass is Yuanping Pass, and at the end of the pass is Leping County, Xin'an County, Yuzhou.

With the speed of Duyunzhou, it only took one hour to cross the Chimang Mountains and arrive in Leping County.

Chen Yuan determined the direction and arrived outside Chenjia Village. He launched the Duyun Boat and landed in a dense forest.

He put away the Duyun Boat, walked out of the dense forest, and looked up. A familiar yet unfamiliar scene came into view.

More than forty years have passed since he left Leping County, and Chenjia Village has become extremely unfamiliar.

The Qingping River still flows quietly into the distance, but the official road, which used to be very flat, has fallen into disrepair and has many potholes and cracks.

The fields along the official road have all been abandoned and overgrown with weeds.

Several thatched houses in Chenjia Village near the official road were dilapidated and collapsed, and the houses that originally existed next to them were burned to ashes.

Chen Yuan walked towards the village with a solemn expression. Everywhere he passed was a scene of desolation.

He came to the Chen family manor, which had been abandoned for a long time. The houses had collapsed and there were traces of fire and smoke. Weeds grew between the bricks and tiles, swaying in the wind.

Chen Yuan's face was solemn. He rode on a beam of light, rose into the air, flew slowly, spread out his spiritual sense, and searched for traces of people in the village.

A quarter of an hour later, he searched the entire Chenjia Village before he made a discovery. He came to the northeast corner of Chenjia Village and landed on the ground.

There is a small courtyard here with a fence made of brambles and two thatched houses inside.

Chen Yuan came to the half-open wooden door, stopped, and said loudly: "Can anyone passing by here ask for a bowl of water to drink?"

After he finished speaking, he waited for a moment, and then an old man in linen clothes walked out of the house and answered loudly, "Here they come..."

The old man had messy gray hair, wrinkles on his face, dark skin, and a pair of straw sandals on his feet. However, his eyes were very bright, and he was tall and strong, and he walked briskly. In just a moment, he arrived in front of the wooden door.

When he saw Chen Yuan, he was startled and bowed, "Sir, I am honored to meet you."

Chen Yuan had a fair complexion and an extraordinary bearing. He was walking in the countryside, wearing a white gown that was spotless and had no luggage on him. It was obvious at first glance that he was not an ordinary person.

Chen Yuan bowed and said, "I am passing by here and I am very thirsty. I would like to ask for a bowl of water. Can you help me, old man?"

The old man was embarrassed when he heard this: "My family is poor and I don't have any clean utensils. I dare not pollute your body..."

Chen Yuan said gently: "It's okay, I'm not a noble, I just need a clay bowl."

Seeing Chen Yuan's kind attitude, the old man raised his hand and said, "Since you don't mind, please come in."

"Thank you, husband."

Chen Yuan followed the old man into the thatched hut. The yellow earth ground was bumpy and there was only a low square table and a rough round stool carved from a tree root in the hut.

The old man said enthusiastically, "My residence is simple, please take a seat, young master."

Chen Yuan lifted his long gown and sat on the round stool. His white gown fell to the ground, but it was not stained with yellow soil.

When the old man saw this, he was surprised, but didn't say much.

He turned around and took out an earthenware bowl from a broken cabinet, then scooped out a small bucket of water from the water jar by the door and poured it into the bowl. He bent over and handed it to Chen Yuan with both hands: "Please, sir."

Chen Yuan took the earthenware bowl, drank it all in one gulp, put the bowl on the square table, and said with a folded hand, "Thank you, old man."

The old man quickly returned the greeting: "You are too polite, sir."

Chen Yuan asked, "I see that you are well-mannered, well-spoken, and skilled in martial arts. Why do you live in this remote village?"

The old man was surprised and said, "Young Master, you have a good eye. I was originally a guard leader in Chenjia Village. I also studied for a few years and just moved here fifteen years ago."

Chen Yuan's eyes narrowed slightly. "Chen Family Manor? Is the owner of the manor Chen Tiezhu, or Chen Daniu?"

The old man was even more surprised: "Sir, do you know Mr. Chen? But I don't work for Mr. Chen, I work for Mr. Chen Rongcai."

"Chen Rongcai?" A trace of disappointment flashed across Chen Yuan's eyes. "I once lived in Leping County for a while, and I heard of the names of the two wealthy men in Chenjia Village. In the past, Chenjia Village was not only very wealthy, but also peaceful and harmonious. Why has it become like this today?"

The old man's pupils shrank when he heard this. He looked Chen Yuan up and down twice before saying, "Young Master, you must not have been to Leping County for a long time. Sixteen years ago, Yuzhou suffered from floods and droughts. The next year, locusts passed through the area, causing a huge drop in the harvest. The people were living in poverty and could not survive. The villagers rose up in rebellion, and the imperial court sent troops to suppress them. The blood flowed like a river, and corpses were everywhere. Chenjia Village was also destroyed at that time."

(End of this chapter)