Immortal Refiner

Outside Nanfeng City in the Dayu Kingdom, the space above the sky suddenly twisted.

Boom!

Accompanied by a flash of array light, a white-robed old man suddenly appeared, holding a scroll in his hand, with a kind and amiable face.

Dean Chen took a step forward, and the distance under his feet infinitely shortened.

The next moment, his figure appeared outside an extremely deep and vast valley.

Valley of Hundred Flowers!

Dean Chen unfolded the scroll in his hand, releasing the Confucian scholars and disciples inside, quickly making the quiet valley noisy.

"Did we arrive so quickly? I wasn't mentally prepared yet!"

"Hiss, is that valley filled with eerie demonic energy the Valley of Hundred Flowers? It looks quite scary."

"Such a large valley, it's probably difficult to completely eradicate the demonic flowers inside, right?"

"After all, it's outside the territory of Dayu. How could the strong members of the military really put their hearts into sweeping it clean? Unless the demonic flowers threaten Nanfeng City, the military wouldn't bother sweeping it for no reason."

"Alas, this eerie demonic energy looks really unsettling. I've heard that some demonic flowers are incredibly strange, and after devouring a person, they can transform into their appearance and blend in with us."

"No wonder we need to form teams of five to enter the Valley of Hundred Flowers. If one or two incarnations of demonic flowers really infiltrated, who would be able to detect them?"

"."

Li Qing, who had just emerged from the scroll, was also amazed by the towering vastness of this valley, which resembled a natural chasm lying on the earth.

The valley was extremely deep, and wisps of dark demonic mist could still be clearly seen floating in the air, indicating that this Valley of Hundred Flowers was extremely dangerous.

At least for these disciples whose cultivation had not yet reached the Transformation God stage, this assessment was quite difficult, and they could potentially lose their lives.

Confucian scholar Huang Yuan sighed beside him: "I've heard that the Valley of Hundred Flowers used to be extremely suitable for the growth of spiritual herbs, and it once nurtured a large number of precious spiritual flowers. Many rare spiritual beasts from the outside world would also come and go within it."

"Later, after the devastation of the Demon Clan, entire patches of spiritual flowers withered, and those spiritual beasts were also contaminated by the source demonic energy, becoming half-demon beasts with greatly changed temperaments."

"Fortunately, the demonic disaster has now passed, and the Valley of Hundred Flowers has been swept many times, so the dangerous factors inside have been reduced a lot."

Li Qing focused his divine sense on his eyes, and his pupils emitted a faint golden light, his vision piercing through the Valley of Hundred Flowers, seeing the scene inside the valley.

"There is actually a trace of an array inside, but it is hidden very deeply, almost merging with this valley," Li Qing murmured to himself.

Dean Chen waved his hand, and the scroll in his hand unfolded again, spreading out in the sky for hundreds of miles, almost covering half of the sky.

"This scroll will record all your actions in the Valley of Hundred Flowers, and the entire assessment will be based on this as the judging standard. You must perform well."

"In addition, on the back of this scroll are the extra tasks you can take on. Once completed, you can add extra points to the final assessment result, but if you fail, naturally, points will also be deducted. Remember to take them cautiously and don't do things beyond your capabilities."

"Alright, the assessment starts now and will last for ten days. You can start acting now."

This sudden announcement caught many disciples off guard.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, the scene became chaotic again. Some disciples even forgot who their teammates were and kept confirming everywhere.

"What do you think? Should we take on an extra task?"

"I think some tasks aren't that difficult, it's just uprooting a fourth-order demonic flower. As long as we work together, we should be able to complete it easily."

"It's best to focus on completing the assessment first. I don't think we should take on any extra tasks."

"."

The composition of personnel in each team was different, so the choices were also very different. Some teams with strong members directly took on seven or eight extra tasks in one go.

While some teams with unremarkable reputations chose to be very conservative, not taking on any tasks and directly choosing to enter the valley.

In this way, teams set off one by one, heading towards this deep and boundless Valley of Hundred Flowers, and the outside suddenly returned to desolation.

"Alright, the disciples have already entered. It's time for us to decide on our respective responsibilities," Confucian scholar Huang Yuan said.

Hearing this, Li Qing glanced at Dean Chen in the sky. At this moment, Dean Chen was sitting on a cloud, leisurely wielding his brush on the pure white cloud, without any intention of intervening.

Apart from those Confucian scholars who had matters to attend to or were in secluded cultivation, all the Confucian scholars from the entire Taishu Academy had come.

Including Li Qing, there were a total of seventeen Confucian scholars, and these seventeen people were responsible for the daily teaching duties of the entire Taishu Academy.

"Let's follow the usual practice. Half of the people will judge outside, and half of the people will go in to monitor the entire examination hall," Confucian scholar Huang Yuan arranged in an orderly manner.

Li Qing thought for a while. This time, he also planned to use the 《Heaven Stealing Mark》 to refine the Human Seed Bag, so naturally, he couldn't stay outside to judge the examination results of those disciples.

Moreover, this was his first time proctoring, and he didn't know the judging criteria, so he applied for the monitoring duty.

Naturally, the other Confucian scholars had no objections to this and readily agreed.

Confucian scholar Huang Yuan earnestly said to Li Qing: "Confucian scholar Li, there are some things I still need to remind you. As a monitoring Confucian scholar, you must not arbitrarily interfere in the process of the disciples' assessment."

"Unless there are some unexpected dangers, such as a foreign Refining Void stage cultivator breaking into the Valley of Hundred Flowers to deal with the academy's disciples."

"Otherwise, during the assessment, even if these disciples are about to die, you must not take action to save them."

So cruel, Li Qing raised an eyebrow, of course, he readily agreed.

Although it sounds cruel, he had fought his way up from the lower realm, and this level of experience was just child's play.

Just needing to deal with dangers of the same level, without worrying about being threatened by higher-level experts, sounds like such a happy thing.

"I understand!"

After agreeing, Li Qing took a step, and his figure quickly appeared within the Valley of Hundred Flowers.

A faint mist of demonic energy rose, causing Li Qing to feel slightly uncomfortable.

"I wonder if I can still steal the natural Dao patterns of heaven and earth in a place like this."

He murmured softly, then silently activated the "Heaven-Stealing Mark" secret technique, and began to sense the hidden Dao patterns of heaven and earth within this Hundred Flower Valley.

Soon, the complex terrain around him became simplified in his perception, replaced by simple lines.

He operated the secret technique and clearly sensed the naturally occurring Dao patterns within the Hundred Flower Valley.

"Containing vitality, flourishing of all things, a hundred rivers vying to flow... These Dao patterns of heaven and earth are truly extraordinary. If they could be imprinted on the Human Seed Pouch, it would almost directly allow this treasure to take shape and transform into a Profound-grade spiritual treasure without much difficulty."

As he spoke, Li Qing clasped his hands together, pressing down three fingers, leaving only his index and middle fingers upright and tightly joined.

Clap!

To imprint the natural Dao patterns of heaven and earth is by no means a simple task, especially on these extraordinary terrains, where the derived Dao patterns of heaven and earth are even more extraordinary.

This was Li Qing's first time performing the technique, so he was very careful, not daring to directly imprint the natural Dao patterns of the entire Hundred Flower Valley, but instead taking a small area of Dao patterns to imprint himself.

He sacrificed the Human Seed Pouch, using it to carry the Dao patterns of heaven and earth that he extracted.

The originally empty Human Seed Pouch was soon imprinted with the Dao patterns he extracted from this Hundred Flower Valley.

The whole process seemed silent, but the Human Seed Pouch became more and more powerful.

In the sky, Dean Chen, who was painting graffiti on a cloud, couldn't help but look towards Li Qing's location.

"This kid is actually refining treasures at this time, he's really not doing his job properly... Huh, that's not right!"

Soon, Dean Chen stopped his ink splashing movements, his eyes gleaming, and he carefully watched Li Qing's actions.

He said in surprise: "What kind of secret technique is this? It can actually directly pass through the mountain and steal the power of the terrain, without shaking the foundation of the terrain."

The more he watched, the tighter Dean Chen frowned, and even the hand holding the brush trembled slightly.

"If this is the case, wouldn't it be possible to eradicate the original demonic energy of the Hundred Flower Valley without affecting the terrain of the Hundred Flower Valley?"

Thinking of this, Dean Chen couldn't calm down.

The Hundred Flower Valley used to be a sacred place, and it was unknown how many precious spiritual flowers and herbs could be collected every year, attracting many forces to fight fiercely and inextricably.

It was only later that the Demon Clan invaded, completely destroying the foundation of this place, so that this valley could only breed demonic flowers from then on, and those spiritual medicines and flowers that were of great benefit to cultivators no longer grew.

Now the Hundred Flower Valley is only useful to the Joyful Union Demon Sect. They can plant some heretical exotic flowers in the valley, which is very suitable for the current situation of the Hundred Flower Valley.

Therefore, when Dean Chen saw Li Qing so easily stealing the Dao patterns of heaven and earth without affecting the terrain itself, his expression was not right.

If the Hundred Flower Valley could be restored to its former glory, the impact would be extremely far-reaching!

Even the entire Great Yu Kingdom would benefit endlessly!

Dean Chen couldn't sit still. He put away his brush, left the cloud he had painted halfway, and directly teleported to Li Qing's side.

Li Qing, who was concentrating on refining his treasure, hadn't noticed that there was an old man staring at him beside him.

When he was about to move the Human Seed Pouch and steal the natural Dao patterns from the next place in the Hundred Flower Valley, he suddenly found Dean Chen looking at him with a solemn expression.

Li Qing was startled, and he quickly stopped his movements, then gave a dry laugh and said:

"Dean Chen, you are really elusive, I wonder what's the matter?"

Dean Chen asked in a deep voice: "What are you doing?"

Li Qing was confused by these words. Couldn't he see that he was refining a treasure?

"Naturally, I am refining a treasure. This is a treasure I refined in my early years, but I haven't completely refined it yet. Now I want to perfect it here... I think the disciples in the assessment are still on the periphery of the valley, so they shouldn't encounter any danger. Taking advantage of this free time to do some of my own things shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Li Qing thought that Dean Chen had caught him slacking off and wanted him to focus more.

But he misunderstood. Dean Chen continued: "I'm not asking this. What kind of technique are you using? Why can you directly steal the power of the terrain without affecting the foundation of the terrain?"

Hearing this, Li Qing was stunned again.

Soon, he realized that the technique he was using was from the Xuanming Realm, and it was normal for the people of this world to have never seen it.

But even so, it shouldn't have caused this Integration Stage cultivator to react so strongly!

"This is a strange technique I obtained by chance in my early years, and I have only recently thoroughly understood it."

Li Qing's thinking was very keen. Before he could finish his words, he realized something and slowly closed his mouth.

In a short moment, he understood everything.

The reason why the Hundred Flower Valley is still full of demonic energy is precisely because these original demonic energies are completely integrated with the terrain of this place.

If you want to forcibly expel those demonic energies, then you will definitely directly damage the foundation of this place.

In that case, even if the demonic energy is swept away, the Hundred Flower Valley will not be able to restore its former glory, so this is why no strong person has done this.

It's better to let it exist like this and see if it can naturally recover over a long period of time. At that time, the Hundred Flower Valley will become a sacred place and immortal land that produces a large number of spiritual flowers and herbs again.

Dean Chen took a deep breath and then said: "Where did you get this technique? I wonder if you can give it to the academy?"

"What do you want? Just ask. As long as it's not an excessive request, I can promise you."

"For example, for the Xuan Tian Divine Palace that is about to open, I can also ask for a Xuan Iron Token for you, so you can enter it!"

Li Qing already had the Xuan Iron Token, so naturally it couldn't move him.

For a time, the thoughts in Li Qing's mind kept surging.

Hand over the "Heaven-Stealing Mark"? This is inevitable. First of all, this technique is just a means to assist in refining weapons for him, and there is no need to hide it.

Now that this technique has been leaked, the impact is extremely far-reaching. If he still cherishes it, it may cause great trouble.

It's better to take it out and exchange it for something useful to him, that's the right thing to do.

So, what should he exchange this technique for?

He weighed the value of the technique itself, combined with the current situation of this Hundred Flower Valley, and made a certain assessment in his mind.