I planted the spiritual roots for my people, and they bestowed upon me a body inscribed with incense

Just as Li Yuan was in a daze, Manager Wang came out with the materials.

"Honored guest, these are the materials you requested, a total of seventy-two spirit stones." After saying this, Wang Quan handed the materials to Li Yuan.

"Li Yuan scanned the area with his divine sense and, finding that it matched, took out seventy-two spirit stones from his storage bag and handed them to Steward Wang."

After taking the materials, Li Yuan left the Linglong Pavilion without lingering. According to the map given to him by the maid, the Dragon Spirit Wood was located in the Blackwater Forest, less than a hundred miles away.

However, before that, Li Yuan still needs to search other places in this market to see if he can find the Dragon Spirit Wood.

For Li Yuan, buying the maid's map was a last resort.

Li Yuan wandered around the market for another afternoon and found a small amount of Dragon Spirit Wood, but this amount was not enough to meet the requirements of the "Thousand Rivers Gathering Meridians Technique".

After lingering in the market for a while, Li Yuan left with the white snake. He now had to make his own way to the Blackwater Forest.

According to the maid, the environment of the Blackwater Forest is not much different from that of Dahengshan Township. However, because most of the independent cultivators have settled here, the resources available to cultivators in the Blackwater Forest have been almost completely depleted.

After traveling for a day, Li Yuan finally arrived at the Blackwater Forest on the second day, following the directions on the map. Once inside the Blackwater Forest, there was only a general direction, so Li Yuan had to make sure that his location was not too far off.

Although there weren't many resources left in the Blackwater Forest, there were still plenty of poisonous insects and ferocious beasts. Li Yuan hadn't been walking for long when he was spotted by a monkey. Fortunately, the white snake was there, which saved Li Yuan a lot of trouble along the way.

He walked and stopped intermittently until the surrounding trees grew taller and taller, at which point Li Yuan realized he had entered the depths of the Blackwater Forest.

The forest does possess a certain spiritual energy, and its growing conditions do indeed meet the requirements for the growth of the Dragon Spirit Wood.

Li Yuan slowly searched the forest for more than two hours before finally finding a Dragon Spirit Tree about the size of a bowl a hundred meters away.

Upon seeing that a Dragon Spirit Tree was indeed growing there, Li Yuan was immediately relieved and prepared to take the Dragon Spirit Tree back with him, completely unaware that a huge object was hanging on a towering tree nearby.

Just as Li Yuangang put the Dragon Spirit Wood back into his Qiankun Bag, the white snake on his shoulder suddenly warned him. Upon seeing this, Li Yuangang quickly dodged and drew his Mo Dao, keeping a close eye on the jet-black leopard that had attacked him.

At the same time, Li Yuan was also panting heavily, his back was already soaked with cold sweat. If it weren't for the white snake's warning, Li Yuan would probably have had his chest pierced by those cold, gleaming claws.

The black panther seemed quite surprised that Li Yuan had managed to dodge its fatal blow.

After a brief standoff between the man and the leopard, the black leopard attacked Li Yuan again. Li Yuan realized that this black leopard was no ordinary wild beast; otherwise, with the white snake's demonic aura, the black leopard would probably have already run far away.

Seeing the black panther attack again, Li Yuan quickly transformed his magic into fingers and unleashed several finger imprints at the panther, while simultaneously dodging the attack.

Just as he dodged to the side, the sharp black claws slammed towards Li Yuan's forehead. Seeing this, Li Yuan quickly activated his internal magic power, forming a magic shield around his body.

Even though the magical shield wasn't broken, Li Yuan was still sent flying by its force and crashed into a tree nearby.

This impact nearly displaced Li Yuan's internal organs. Li Yuan struggled to his feet, realizing that the black panther was incredibly fast and that dodging like this wasn't a solution.

Thinking of this, Li Yuan held his Mo Dao horizontally, simultaneously drawing upon his internal magic power to reinforce the protective shield around him. Li Yuan prepared to take another blow from the black panther and then kill it directly.

Li Yuan felt the impact of that attack just now and realized it wasn't enough to break his defense, which instantly put him at ease.

Black Panther stared intently at Li Yuan, and a hint of surprise appeared in his eyes when he saw that Li Yuan could still stand up.

After circling Li Yuan as if he were food, the black panther charged at Li Yuan again.

This time, Li Yuan directly swung his Mo Dao horizontally towards the black panther, while his magical shield met the panther's claws.

And so, as Black Panther tackled Li Yuan to the ground, Li Yuan also cleaved Black Panther in two at the waist with a single stroke. Perhaps Black Panther himself did not know that he would die so easily.

Li Yuan pushed aside the black leopard's corpse and stood up. The white snake that had been coiled nearby had now crawled onto the black leopard's body.

Li Yuan glanced at the white snake devouring the black panther's meat, a look of helplessness on his face. Seeing the black panther's carcass, and knowing it was a demonic beast, Li Yuan naturally couldn't waste it.

After the white snake took two bites, Li Yuan put the entire black leopard carcass into his Qiankun bag, which filled the previously empty bag completely.

Carrying the Qiankun Bag, Li Yuan swiftly traversed the Blackwater Forest. Having achieved his goal, Li Yuan naturally wouldn't linger in this perilous Blackwater Forest any longer.

Half a day later, Li Yuan returned to Tianyang County. He planned to sell the black leopard's carcass before leaving the market. The thing took up far too much space; his Qiankun bag was already quite cramped.

Li Yuan originally planned to find a random place in the market to sell the black leopard's carcass, but in order to avoid trouble, he returned to Linglong Pavilion where he had purchased materials.

When the maid saw that Li Yuan had returned to Linglong Pavilion after only two days, she assumed that Li Yuan had not found the Dragon Spirit Wood and wanted to ask her for a refund of the spirit stones. She reluctantly went forward to greet Li Yuan before feeling relieved.

Knowing that Li Yuan had come to buy materials, they happily took him to the open space in the backyard.

Seeing this, Li Yuan released the black leopard's corpse from the Qiankun bag, and a black leopard measuring 44 meters in size appeared in the open space, startling the maid.

Finally, the black leopard was valued at a total of eighteen spirit stones. This high price delighted Li Yuan. Later, Li Yuan learned that the black leopard's fur had a slight effect of isolating divine sense.

After carefully putting the spirit stones away, Li Yuan browsed around the shop for a while. He spent twelve spirit stones to buy four Qi-Nourishing Pills to improve his cultivation before getting up and leaving the Linglong Pavilion.

Now, all that's missing for the array flags needed to refine the "Thousand Rivers Gathering Meridians Technique" is the skin of this ink beast. Li Yuan originally thought that two hundred spirit stones could buy three sets of refining materials, but who would have thought that he could buy almost all the materials with just over seventy spirit stones? Li Yuan still underestimated the purchasing power of spirit stones.

However, Li Yuan only purchased the materials needed for the first-level array flags. As for the second-level array flags, with Li Yuan's current strength, it would be difficult for him to gather them all.

As Li Yuan was traveling at night, two cultivators in green robes stood at the foot of Li Family Bamboo Mountain.

One of them had already reached the fourth level of Qi Refining, while the other was even more imposing, having reached the peak of the sixth level of Qi Refining. The two were Xu Qingfeng after his breakthrough and Xu Daoqian, the head of the Xu family.

"Patriarch, this is the newly built residence of the Li family. With the spiritual energy of this mountain, the Li family may truly have a chance to replace my Xu family."

Upon hearing this, Xu Daoqian frowned deeply.

"That kid from the Li family has now been dragged onto the prince's ship. If we make a move now, we might just incur the prince's wrath. Sigh..."

Upon hearing this, Xu Qingfeng slowly said:

"Patriarch, since that's the case, let's stop remaining neutral. The Huaihai Prince's family, which is closest to us, has reportedly pledged allegiance to Prince Ouyang Zhiyuan, and the pills bestowed upon them have already enabled the patriarch of the Prince's family to enter the late stage of Qi Refining."

Upon hearing this, Xu Daoqian slowly said:

"Qingfeng, do you know why I, your ancestor, would rather cultivate demonic arts to help myself break through than align myself with the current royal family?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qingfeng shook his head and then said:

"The gentle breeze is unaware."

Xu Daoqian said slowly:

"Rumors are circulating that the royal family's Foundation Establishment realm ancestor, Ouyang Chengyuan, is already in his twilight years and has no possibility of further advancement in his cultivation. But is that really the case?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Qingfeng's expression changed, and he immediately said:

"Ancestor, since he is not in his twilight years, shouldn't our Xu family align ourselves with him?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Daoqian smiled and shook his head.

"Child, you're thinking too simply."

"The taxes we pay each year are eventually tallied and handed over to the Medicine Sect by the dynasty. Do you think the royal family doesn't know that these people below are embezzling?"

And those princes, who embezzled mines and other resources, ultimately emptied not the imperial treasury, but the Medicine Sect's.

Upon hearing this, Xu Qingfeng immediately spoke:

"Does the patriarch mean that the imperial court deliberately arranged for this to be done?"

Xu Daoqian nodded.

Xu Qingfeng was immediately puzzled upon hearing this.

"Isn't the Ouyang family afraid of being investigated by the Medicine Sect?"

Upon hearing this, Xu Daoqian shook his head.

"Some of these princes in the royal family are not even related to the royal family by blood." "If the Medicine Sect really wants to investigate, they can just find one to take the blame."

"This is not the most dangerous thing. If I'm not mistaken, that old devil in the royal family is probably preparing resources for himself to break through to the Purple Mansion True Person realm."