The Wandering Immortal

Chapter 117 The Spirit Realm's Foundation
In addition to the 283 mermaids, there are also 16 lesser demons of various levels, ranging from level two to level four, inside the cave.

Jiang Yuan summoned them all to the entrance of the cave and made it clear to the lesser demons that he would not force those who wanted to leave to stay, and that he could also lift the restrictions on their souls.

If you want to stay, you must undergo a qualification assessment. You will first work as a menial disciple, and those who excel can be transferred to the outer sect and receive the inheritance of cultivation techniques.

The lesser demons looked at each other, some of them not quite understanding divine thoughts, so they had to ask the other lesser demons to relay them.

A level four sea turtle, possessing considerable intelligence, discerned that Jiang Yuan and Cui Qinghe were not malicious individuals. It boldly revealed that they had been forcibly captured by General Crab and imprisoned here for many years, and genuinely longed to escape.

Without hesitation, Jiang Yuan made the little demons swear that they would never mention the location of this cave to anyone before releasing them from the soul restriction.

The sixteen little demons were extremely grateful and left the cave to seek refuge in the sea.

Jiang Yuan knew the characteristics of monsters; most of them wouldn't lie, and once they made a promise, it was more reliable than the oaths of human demons.

But if you deceive a monster, it will hate you for life, and may even fight to the death.

The reason why the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong, rebelled against the Heavenly Court twice and even tried to wreak havoc in the Heavenly Palace was because he realized he had been deceived and became furious.

Venus just couldn't understand that the most important thing for an official in the Heavenly Court is to learn to compromise and smooth things over, so why be so serious?

After dealing with all the lesser demons, Jiang Yuan asked the mermaid leader whether he wanted to leave or stay.

The merfolk discussed it all night and had already made a decision. Their group was too weak. While they could scare some minor demons with their seductive music, it was useless against a powerful demon like the Crab General. They would find it difficult to survive in the ocean.

The merfolk leader spoke on behalf of his people, "We are willing to stay and obey the orders of the immortals!"

Jiang Yuan didn't mince words, stating upfront that if they didn't leave now, they wouldn't be able to leave so easily once they learned about the many secrets of the cave.

Merfolk are not required to be slaves, but rather, as outer disciples of the Wanghai Tower, they must establish a set of rules with clear rewards and punishments.

Outstanding talents will be rewarded by the sect, and will be provided with abundant cultivation techniques and resources. However, those who are lazy or make mistakes will be punished as well.

Based on the fact that Qinghe could heal the little mermaid and set her free, the mermaid leader concluded that these two were far better than the Crab General's family, and thus agreed to everything.

Li Shouzhong had already drafted the reward and punishment rules for Wanghailou, so Jiang Yuan didn't need to change anything. He let the merfolk leader temporarily assume the responsibility of a disciple of the Hall of Affairs, restrain the behavior of his clansmen, select talented individuals, and recommend them as inner disciples.

Merfolk are aquatic creatures, so living inside the main cave would be inconvenient; they had to be placed in the outer cave.

Qinghe didn't want them to move around under those corridors and pavilions, so she led the merfolk to dig some new dwellings around the corridors, all in accordance with the merfolk's customs, half water and half rooms.

It took six or seven days to tidy up the merfolk's dwelling, which was naturally under the protection of the cave's restrictions. Including the merfolk leader, only three merfolk with level six cultivation knew how to open it; the other merfolk could not enter or leave the cave without permission.

This was for the safety of the cave dwelling, and also for the safety of the merfolk themselves.

Jiang Yuan inquired with the merfolk leader and learned that their race did not inherit any cultivation methods, but simply lived according to their habits. The soft music was an instinct, and could also be regarded as an innate supernatural power.

Jiang Yuan, however, felt that the Merfolk had great potential.

The merfolk leader recommended four outstanding individuals to join the inner sect, including the injured little merfolk, who was said to be the fastest swimmer among them. No wonder she was able to escape over a thousand miles from a level seven demon with only level three demonic power.

One of them possessed a naturally strong, seductive voice, while the other two excelled in underwater combat. All four were female mermaids. Jiang Yuan had long ago discovered that male merfolk did not hold a high position within their clan, which was probably their nature, so he stopped worrying about it.

Jiang Yuan is currently unable to teach them cultivation, and even communication through divine sense is quite difficult, so he asked the flower fairy Qiong Niang to teach them to speak first.

Then he passed on the basic breathing techniques of Taoism to the mermaid leader, telling her that every mermaid could learn them. He said that the demon race, which had gained sentience, should be able to learn these basic techniques quickly, and that it would also be beneficial for lower-level demons to gain sentience.

After arranging for the Merfolk to join them, Jiang Yuan and Qing He explored the secret realm again, heading straight for the tops of the five mountain peaks.

The Spirit Realm is a spirit-gathering array, and the array's core should be located at the top of the five peaks. It can be activated sequentially according to the generating cycle of the five elements.

Two hours later, the Spirit Gathering Array was indeed activated. A beam of light shot straight into the sky from each of the five peaks, and a Yin-Yang Five Elements Bagua array appeared in the sky. Overall, it looked similar to a commonly used array plate.

The sky array appeared for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before slowly disappearing. Jiang Yuan and his companion then arrived at two small islands in the center of the lake and immediately noticed a difference. Cultivating in this area, the spiritual energy was several times richer than in other places.

Of course, this spirit-gathering array only gathers spiritual energy within the spirit realm, and does not absorb spiritual energy from the outside.

But with such a large space, everything can generate spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy within the spiritual realm will never run dry.

After setting up the spirit-gathering array, Qinghe began searching for medicinal herbs within the spirit realm. She also released Miaomiao and the little golden eagle, forbidding them from playing around and instead having them help search for herbs.

Searching the entire area within a radius of two thousand miles is indeed not easy, but the thousand-year-old medicinal herbs will naturally emit golden light and exotic fragrance, making it difficult to miss them.

As for the other herbs, Qinghe would fly low over them on her lotus-shaped flying boat, only harvesting those that were older.

It took a total of seven or eight days to scan the entire Spirit Realm. Some rare species were dug up alive and transplanted into the mustard seed space of the Multi-Treasure Belt, since that was the safest place, where they could wander with Jiang Yuan.

With this batch of herbs, Qinghe can begin refining sixth-order Spirit Stabilizing Pills and Spirit Fusion Pills.

Refining sixth-grade pills was originally an important goal of this trip, and it was necessary to stay away from the Xinluo Cave, because the process of refining sixth-grade pills would be quite significant.

The Spirit Stabilizing Pill is relatively simple. It involves removing the toxicity and some negative effects of the demon core, supplementing it with herbs that strengthen the body's foundation, and then converting the spiritual power contained in the demon core into the pill.

Taking the Spirit-Stabilizing Pill is several times more efficient than directly refining a demon core, and it has virtually no side effects.

The Fusion Pill is even more precious. In addition to absorbing the spiritual power of the demon core, it also has the potential to grant the user the innate supernatural abilities of the demon beast.

Qinghe has four level-seven crab demon cores and one level-seven dragon demon core that she left behind.

I'll probably use a level seven crab demon core to try and advance to a sixth-grade alchemist. Only if I succeed will I consider refining the Spirit Fusion Pill.

The ball of light that the level seven dragon spewed from its mouth was not simply of water attribute, but contained hidden lightning power, which is why it was in the shape of a ball of light.

If Jiang Yuan can integrate the water and thunder innate abilities of the Flood Dragon, his own water and thunder techniques will be greatly enhanced.

As for the Crab General's bubble magic, Jiang Yuan couldn't find any inheritance of the technique when searching his soul. It was probably the Crab General's talent. It was a very rare spatial magic. Twelve arrows and tens of thousands of peach blossoms rushed in and disappeared inexplicably.

However, it's likely that Qinghe will only have the strength to refine the level eight demon core into a spirit fusion pill after she has cultivated to the nascent soul stage.

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(End of this chapter)