Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Tang Daozhou's expression relaxed. Ten thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in exchange for Chen Yuan's defeat of Xiong Lie and the preservation of the Hanchi grass and Shuofeng City was indeed a very good deal.

But the question is, can Chen Yuan do it?
Tang Daozhou raised his hand and gently stroked his long beard, his expression solemn, “Fellow Daoist Chen has just arrived in Hanzhou, so you may not know that Xiong Lie has been in human form for hundreds of years, and he has a Nascent Soul cultivator and a human form demon king under his command, and he is brutal and violent.”

"I have been in the infant stage for more than 500 years, and I think I am quite capable. However, after I plucked the Frost Chi Grass, I fought with Xiong Lie and was defeated. I could only rely on the escape technique and returned seriously injured. Do you think you can really defeat Xiong Lie?"

Chen Yuan said calmly: "Chen will not joke about his own life. Since I have said it, I must be somewhat confident."

"If you are worried, you can wait until I defeat Xiong Lie and then give the spiritual herbs to me."

Tang Daozhou paused, gently pinched his beard, and his eyes flashed: "Even if Fellow Daoist Chen really defeated Xiong Lie, this old man can't produce ten thousand-year-old spiritual herbs."

"To be honest, after I formed my infant, I refined all the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs stored in the sect into elixirs in order to improve my cultivation."

"In the past two hundred years, my cultivation has not improved much, but there are only three mature thousand-year-old spiritual herbs in our sect's spiritual medicine garden."

"Including the three thousand-year-old spiritual herbs I accidentally found, there are only six in total. I am willing to give them all to you in exchange for your help in repelling Xiong Lie."

Chen Yuan lowered his head and thought for a moment, then slowly shook his head: "Six thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are not enough for me to take action."

Tang Daozhou's eyes flashed with displeasure, but he had to ask for help, so he could only suppress his displeasure and said with a smile: "I am willing to exchange six thousand-year-old spiritual herbs for your help and join hands with me to repel Xiong Lie. You don't need to take any risks. What do you think?"

Chen Yuan still shook his head: "Chen is used to being alone and is not used to joining forces with others to fight the enemy."

Tang Daozhou was furious. What kind of reason was this? It was too perfunctory!
But he did not show it. Instead, he clasped his fists and bowed, his old face full of sadness. "Fellow Daoist Chen, please join forces with me for the sake of the cultivators and mortals in the city."

"The monsters are ferocious. If Shuofeng City is breached, the thousands of cultivators and hundreds of thousands of mortals in the city will all be dead."

"Fellow Daoist Chen is the only one who can help us right now. Could it be that you have the heart to watch Shuofeng City being breached by the beast tide and turned into a hell on earth?"

Chen Yuan remained calm and said calmly, "Fellow Daoist Tang, you are too kind. I came from another state and am just a casual cultivator. I am not qualified to shoulder such a great responsibility."

"If Fellow Daoist Tang really wants to save the cultivators and mortals in the city, why don't you return the Frost Chi Grass to Xiong Lie?"

"This, this..." Tang Daozhou's face turned pale and blue. He was so focused on asking Chen Yuan for help that he actually forgot about the Hanchi grass.

He smiled bitterly and said, "Well, in addition to these six thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, I will give you another sunflower. This is the main ingredient for refining the Nine Sun Pill and is equivalent to two ordinary thousand-year-old spiritual herbs."

Chen Yuan's eyes gleamed, "Sunflowers only grow in sunny places. It's freezing cold in Hanzhou. It's really not easy for Brother Tang to find sunflowers."

"But even with this sunflower, it's still not enough. Without ten thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, I won't take action."

Even among the thousand-year-old magical herbs, there are differences in quality.

Some thousand-year-old spiritual herbs can only be used to refine Nascent Soul early stage elixirs, such as Qingxuan Xilinghua.

However, some thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are pure in spiritual energy and rich in spirituality, and can be used to refine elixirs for the middle stage of the Nascent Soul.

The sunflower is an extremely rare thousand-year-old spiritual herb. The Nine Yang Pill made with it as the main ingredient can be used by cultivators in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul to improve their cultivation.

Seeing that Chen Yuan refused to budge, Tang Daozhou became furious.

If Xiong Lie had not made preparations in advance and the beast tide came too quickly, he would have already asked his old friends for help. Why would he be begging a casual cultivator from another state?
He took a deep breath and said sincerely, "Daoyou Chen, these spiritual herbs are what I am going to make into pills and improve my cultivation after I break through the bottleneck in the middle stage. I am willing to take them all out and give them to you. I have already spent all my money."

"I also ask you to lend a helping hand for the sake of being a human race. The Guanlan Sect will be grateful to you. I also owe you a favor."

Chen Yuan smiled and said, "Fellow Daoist Tang is willing to use these spiritual herbs to improve his cultivation."

Every time a Nascent Soul cultivator advances a level, the difference becomes enormous.

If a cultivator in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul takes elixirs from the early stage of the Nascent Soul, the effect will be weakened by more than 70%, so very few cultivators in the middle stage of the Nascent Soul will do so.

Tang Daozhou sighed: "Thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are hard to find, so this is the only last resort for me."

Chen Yuan frowned and said, "Seven thousand-year-old spiritual herbs are still a little short. Daoist Tang, do you really have no more elixirs for cultivation?"

Tang Daozhou said solemnly: "This is a matter of great importance to the success or failure of the Hanchi grass and the safety of Shuofeng City. How could this old man not know the importance of this? Every word I say is true and I will never lie."

"After I reached the peak of my initial cultivation, I was determined to break through the bottleneck and never collected any elixirs again. The three thousand-year-old spiritual herbs were all obtained by accident. It was only after I learned about the Frost Chi Grass that I began to prepare for breaking through the bottleneck."

Chen Yuan asked: "Does Brother Tang have an eighth-level demon pill?"

Tang Daozhou breathed a sigh of relief: "Fellow Daoist Chen needs an eighth-level demon pill? That's right, I once told me that you came to Hanzhou to hunt demons on the ice field."

The eighth-level demon pill is just a kind of spiritual material for refining weapons. Compared with the thousand-year-old spiritual herbs, its value is much lower. Chen Yuan nodded: "Yes, as long as Brother Tang takes out a few more eighth-level demon pills, Chen will agree to this matter."

Tang Daozhou looked embarrassed: "The transformed demon king has a strong body, and can control magic weapons and display supernatural powers. He is extremely difficult to deal with."

"In the past three thousand years, our sect has only accumulated three eighth-level demon pills. I am willing to give them all to you, Taoist. I wonder if you are satisfied?"

Chen Yuan finally smiled: "Friend Tang is sincere, so I can't refuse anymore."

"But I have another request. Can Fellow Daoist Tang tell me the news about the transformed demon king?"

Tang Daozhou was delighted: "This is easy to say. Our sect has established Shuofeng City for more than 3,000 years. In order to guard against the beast tide, we have been trying to find out what is going on inside the demon tribe."

"In order to obtain the Frost Chi Grass, I have also ventured into the ice field many times, and I have a deep understanding of the Shapeshifting Demon King. Now I can pass on all the information I have gathered to you, fellow Taoist."

As he spoke, he took out a jade slip from the mustard seed ring, raised his hand and threw it towards Chen Yuan.

Chen Yuan took the jade slip, probed his spiritual sense into it, and examined it carefully. After a quarter of an hour, he withdrew his spiritual sense.

He put away the jade slip, frowned slightly, and asked, "Does Brother Tang know the location of the caves of other transformed demon kings?"

The jade slip recorded the caves of several transformed demon kings, but there was no cave of the Cold Jade Lion, which was Chen Yuan’s target.

"The caves of other transformed demon kings..." Tang Daozhou was stunned. "The information about the demon kings in the jade slips is what our sect has found out over the years. There is nothing else."

Chen Yuan didn't ask any more questions, nor did he ask for the spiritual herbs and magic pills.

Tang Daozhou felt relieved and changed the subject: "Friend Chen, since you insist on fighting Xiong Lie alone, I will tell you about Xiong Lie's methods."

"Xiong Lie's original form is just an ordinary ice bear with mediocre bloodline. I don't know what kind of adventure it was that allowed him to successfully transform."

"But it is precisely because of this that it is extremely difficult for him to break through the bottleneck again. He painstakingly found a plant of Hanchi grass, but he didn't expect that it would be a wedding dress for me."

"Xiong Lie has tremendous strength and has also refined a high-level magic weapon. He is very powerful and few people can match him among the eighth-level demon kings."

"But his bloodline is not as natural as other demon kings after all, his magical powers are not outstanding, and he is not good at escaping."

He paused for a moment, and said with lingering fear: "Daoyou, remember, don't let him get close to you. I was caught off guard and was hit by him. I was seriously injured. I was lucky enough to escape by relying on the escape technique."

Chen Yuan was surprised: "This Xiong Lie can actually refine high-level magic weapons. When did the demon race have a great master of refining weapons?"

Tang Daozhou explained: "Those transformed demon kings only know how to fight, so how could they have the mind to learn the art of refining weapons?"

"Although I don't know the origin of the magic weapon in Xiong Lie's hand, it must have been made by a great weapon refining master from another state who was secretly invited to make it."

Chen Yuan suddenly realized, he remembered the words of Xue Yuanlong, the elder of the Righteousness League. The Righteousness League, the Tianji Sect, and the Zhenhai Sect all had business dealings with the monsters in the Ten Thousand Monsters Sea, and even some medium-sized sects were the same.

However, there are irreconcilable contradictions between the cultivators of Hanzhou and the demon clan.

Every once in a while, a wave of beasts would move south, besiege cities, and slaughter humans.

Both sides fought for every inch of Hanzhou's land. All the sects and families in Hanzhou had a blood feud with the demon clan and would never have any secret dealings with the demon clan, otherwise they would end up being destroyed.

Tang Daozhou added: "The high-level magic weapon in Xiong Lie's hand is a mountain, which seems to be made of a heavy black stone, heavy and hard."

"Xiong Lie specially refined this treasure. The greater the force with which it is thrown, the greater its power and the faster its speed. This can perfectly bring out the advantage of Xiong Lie's immense strength and make up for his weakness of not being good at magical escape techniques."

"But this treasure lacks changes. As long as it is not hit, it will be fine."

"By the way, if you don't have a high-level defensive magic weapon, it's better not to block it head-on, otherwise it will be easily destroyed under this mountain."

Chen Yuan nodded and said calmly: "Thank you for your reminder, if Xiong Lie only has these means, it will not be difficult for me to repel him. Please prepare the spiritual herbs and demon pills."

Tang Daozhou looked at Chen Yuan doubtfully, obviously doubting his confidence.

But he had already entrusted the matter to Chen Yuan, and no matter how much doubt he had in his heart, he would not raise it in person.

He clasped his fists and bowed, his old face full of smiles: "Then I'll leave it to Fellow Daoist Chen. As long as you can save Shuofeng from danger, I will immediately offer you seven thousand-year-old spiritual herbs and three level eight demon pills with both hands!"

After that, he stood up and said goodbye. Chen Yuan smiled and said, "Tang Daoyou, take care."

Tang Daozhou turned and left. Chen Yuan looked at his back as he walked out of the main hall. A hint of sarcasm flashed across his eyes. (End of this chapter)