A Mortal's Journey: Starting as the Young Master of Demonic Cultivation

This Geng Essence is the material Wen Tianren wants to refine into his natal magic weapon. It can greatly enhance the penetrating power and spiritual compatibility of flying needles. He has been searching for it in Tianxing City for a long time.

However, this Geng Essence is a renowned treasure of sharp metal in the cultivation world. Adding a little of it to ordinary magic treasures can greatly increase their power. It is not so easy to find, and most of them are in the hands of Nascent Soul cultivators.

"Thank you so much, Fellow Daoist Zhou. I am extremely grateful. It is indeed Geng Jing. Fellow Daoist, you have truly surprised me. Please accept these spirit stones."

Wen Tianren smiled and accepted the piece of Geng Essence, while handing over a storage bag.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, you are too kind. Your exquisite magic artifacts are highly sought after in my Miaoyin Sect. Over the years, we have been fortunate to have your support for the sect's business. There is no need for you to express your gratitude."

That's what she said. Zhou Yuan smiled and took the storage bag. She probed it with her divine sense and was immediately stunned to find that there were more than 200,000 spirit stones inside.

This truly surprised Zhou Yuan. Although she had traded with Wen Tianren so many times and knew that he was generous, the fact that a single piece of Geng Essence would sell for such a high price was far beyond her expectations.

You should know that she only spent a few hundred thousand spirit stones in total from that minor sect's successor, including the section of Thunder Bamboo and some other things.

However, Wen Tianren wasn't really going to be taken advantage of. After making inquiries in Tianxing City, he learned that this piece of Geng Essence was worth about this much.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao is decisive and straightforward, unlike the other cultivators who come to my Miaoyin Sect. When buying a magic artifact, they seem to have eyes that are glued to my disciples, dawdling for ages and haggling over the price."

At this point, Zhou Yuan's eyes dimmed slightly, and her tone suddenly lowered. The members of the Miaoyin Sect were all beautiful women. Some cultivators who came to the shops to trade would harass their subordinates. It was alright with the low-level cultivators, but when they encountered those with higher cultivation, she, as the sect leader, could only do her best to deal with them and protect her members.

"Fellow Daoist has gone to great lengths for me, so this small reward is well-deserved," Wen Tianren replied with a smile, then casually shifted the conversation to another treasure that Zhou Yuan had mentioned earlier.

"By the way, Fellow Daoist Zhou, you just mentioned that the person also sold a section of Thunder Bamboo. I wonder if he is with you. I have long heard of Thunder Bamboo, one of the three great divine trees in the cultivation world, but I have never had the chance to see it."

Upon hearing that Zhou Yuan had also acquired a section of Thunder Bamboo, Wen Tianren realized that this must be the same Thunder Bamboo that Han Li would later obtain.

As one of the three divine trees in the cultivation world, Thunder Bamboo contains the supreme divine thunder of the cultivation world—the Evil-Repelling Divine Thunder, which is naturally able to restrain demonic and ghostly cultivators.

In this mortal realm, apart from the Heavenly Thunder Bamboo that Zhou Yuan mentioned, Wen Tianren only knew about the small Golden Thunder Bamboo arrow stuck in Xuan Gu Shangren's head.

"Of course, no problem. If you're interested in buying it, I'll save myself the trouble of looking for another buyer."

As Zhou Yuan spoke, she took out a strange box from her person and placed it on the table.

This box is strange because it is neither made of wood nor metal, nor does it seem to be made of jade or similar materials. It is translucent and has a faint bluish tinge on it.

Zhou Yuan placed the box on the table, then softly explained to Wen Tianren:

"This box is made of something called 'Jade Paste.' Although it has 'jade' in its name, it is not actually jade and is not listed among the Five Elements. Only this material can preserve the Thunder Bamboo for a long time without fear of its spiritual energy leaking out."

Then, a flash appeared at Zhou Yuan's fingertip, and a green light the size of a soybean appeared on it.

Then, without hesitation, she gently touched the lid of the box. As soon as the green light touched the azure glow on the box, it made a soft "crackling" sound. Instantly, the glow disappeared completely, and the lid slowly opened on its own.

Inside the box was a short, ordinary piece of withered bamboo, about two inches long and as thick as a little finger, with some noticeably shriveled roots.

It looked even worse than wild bamboo by the roadside. If it weren't for the faint spiritual energy fluctuations inside, Wen Tianren wouldn't have given it a second glance if he had just left it by the roadside.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao also thinks this Thunder Bamboo looks so-so, right? At first, I also felt it was unworthy of the name of the Three Great Divine Trees, and I thought that kid was just flattering me."

Wen Tianren reached out and picked up the section of Thunder Bamboo, holding the half-yellow, half-green withered bamboo between his fingers, while his other fingertip slashed across it fiercely.

With a clear "clang," a thin arc of electricity appeared on the surface of the bamboo the instant the fingertip touched it, immediately bouncing Wen Tianren's finger away.

"It is indeed miraculous, but this Thunder Bamboo is too young to be of any use to me."

Thunder Bamboo is also divided into different grades. The one in front of me is only two sections long, and the lightning arc it emits is just a faint white lightning. It is no more than three thousand years old. Even if it is refined into a magic weapon, it will not have much power. However, the moment I touched the Thunder Bamboo, I added the template of this section of Thunder Bamboo into the system.

"That's true. Fellow Daoist, you don't have any rare materials. I'll just put this section of Thunder Bamboo up for auction at the next Tianxing City auction. Alright, Fellow Daoist Xiao, I won't disturb you and Sister Qingyu any longer." Zhou Yuan put away the section of Thunder Bamboo, turned around and went out towards the Miaoyin Sect's residence.

Watching Zhou Yuan leave, Wen Tianren closed the Beidou Pavilion and returned to his cave on the sacred mountain with Qingyu. He was about to plan something big.

……

Wen Tianren, who was on the fortieth floor of the Holy Mountain, had been keeping a close eye on Han Li's movements on the thirty-ninth floor for the past two weeks, but Han Li had not been seen leaving the house.

On this day, in Han Li's cave on the thirty-ninth floor, a man in a green robe and a burly cultivator in black robes walked out together and headed towards the Tianxing City market on the first floor of the Holy Mountain.

"They're finally gone. Now it's my turn to take action."

Wen Tianren secretly sneaked from the fortieth floor into the entrance of Han Li's cave on the thirty-ninth floor. He threw out three or four golden talismans in front of the array light screen, and the array light screen in front of him cracked open with a large hole.

"Han Li is really cautious. In addition to the formation in the Holy Mountain Cave, he also set up three other formations. Fortunately, I got this Void-Breaking Talisman from a rogue cultivator, which allows me to temporarily open these formations. Otherwise, I would really have to find another opportunity to get close to the little green bottle."

This Void-Breaking Talisman is designed for cultivators trapped in formations. If the formation is not powerful enough, it can temporarily create an opening, allowing the cultivator to escape. However, it does not have the effect of directly breaking the formation. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Wen Tianren wanted.

After entering the cave, Wen Tianren continued to envelop himself with his divine sense, his footsteps were silent, and his aura was completely concealed, without making a sound.

After exploring several times and navigating through the secret chambers within the cave, Wen Tianren couldn't help but sigh, Han Li's success was not without reason. This enormous cave was managed by puppets, and the interior remained exactly as it was, with hardly any furnishings; he truly was an ascetic cultivator.

Finally, Wen Tianren arrived at an extremely hidden secret room. The room was filled with the fragrance of medicinal herbs, and it would be difficult to find the room without careful observation.

Bypassing the outer puppets, Wen Tianren entered the secret chamber. There, besides a pair of blood jade spiders curled up and fast asleep next to the herb garden, their bodies wrapped in silvery-white spider silk.

Next, a variety of medicinal herbs came into view: Jade Marrow Fungus, Heavenly Spirit Fruit, Blood Spirit Grass, Purple Monkey Flower, etc. Each plant was full of vitality and had been used for medicinal purposes for at least several hundred years.

In one corner of the secret room, a tiny hole above continuously emitted wisps of visible white light, all of which gathered into a slender-necked, emerald-green round bottle below the hole. Upon closer inspection, Wen Tianren could clearly see exquisite, dark green leaf-shaped patterns on the bottle's surface, so lifelike that they seemed to be inlaid directly with real leaves.

The white light falling through the hole was very soft and not dazzling at all. The little green bottle surrounded by this white light looked exceptionally mysterious and charming.

Wen Tianren reached out his right hand and grabbed the small green bottle, feeling a cool sensation in his palm.

The moment the little green bottle was touched, a system notification appeared: [Template entry complete].

Just as Wen Tianren was about to pour out the green liquid to examine it, he suddenly felt a sudden pang of heart palpitation, which made him quickly put down the small green bottle in his hand.

"Hmph! I'd better look at something else."

Wen Tianren turned his gaze to the pair of Blood Jade Spiders that were still sleeping on the other side, with some white spider silk distributed around them.

Wen Tianren picked up a section of the spider silk and pulled hard with both hands. The spider silk was still intact and showed no signs of breaking. "As expected of a rare spider silk that can withstand the Azure Ice Flame, it is indeed exceptionally tough. I wonder if it can be used to make a magic weapon. In that case, even without Han Li's Blood Jade Spider, it might be able to lift the Void Heaven Cauldron."

After this thought came to mind, Wen Tianren put the spider silk in his hand into his storage bag, and then entered the templates for all the spiritual herbs that Han Li had planted that he did not have.

After doing all this, Wen Tianren carefully erased all traces of his presence, threw out a few more space-breaking talismans, and left Han Li's cave using the same method he had come in. The entire cave remained as if nothing had happened.