Confucian and Taoist Cultivation Starting from the Equipment Slot

Upon hearing his junior sister's words, Chen Zhuo sensed the surroundings briefly but did not perceive the large creature she was referring to.

But he did not question it at all.

Instead, they quickly gathered their spoils.

The only useful thing on a reptile's body is a small crystal of varying sizes on its abdomen.

They range in size from as small as a grain of rice to as large as pebbles.

If this core is not removed quickly after a demon dies, it will soon slowly return to the long night under the erosion of darkness.

Chen Zhuo quickly took them out one by one.

It has a thrill similar to opening a blind box, because you never know whether the next crystal will be big or small.

Just as he was picking them up with great enthusiasm, he suddenly sensed a tremendous demonic aura.

This aura is incomparable to that of crawlers or murmurers.

Chen Zhuo subconsciously looked into the distance, where a huge, intangible shadow appeared.

"Is this a dark beast?"

Dark Beasts are an advanced version of the basic Shadow Demon, belonging to the Beast-level Demon category, and are generally the leaders of the Shadow group.

"No wonder we haven't seen any Shadows along the way; it turns out some big guy has recruited them."

He had felt something was wrong before. As the first demon in the Long Night Chronicles, Shadow should be the most basic, but he hadn't seen a single one along the way.

Just as Chen Zhuo was about to give it a try, her junior sister Gu Qing'e suddenly appeared beside her.

She grabbed Chen Zhuo's arm with one hand and tore open a talisman with the other.

As a large "Transfer" appeared in the air, the two figures instantly disappeared from their original positions.

Before Chen Zhuo could react, he was already back at the camp.

"?"

He looked at his junior sister with suspicion. "Isn't it just a beast-level demon? You're already a Sequence Nine: Scholar, what are you afraid of?"

Seemingly understanding the meaning in Chen Zhuo's eyes, Gu Qing'e said in an annoyed tone:

"What do you know? That's a Dark Beast. One alone is one thing, but it's followed by a swarm of shadows, far outnumbering the crawlers!"

"Besides, even with Wen Yu, his literary energy hasn't fully recovered, so it's better for him to come back sooner!"

Fine, Chen Zhuo had no choice but to accept this explanation.

It's a bit of a pity about those demon corpses.

He probably only picked up about two-thirds.

"Junior brother, you can wander around for a bit. I'll go process these materials first. Remember, don't go deep inside like we did before. Just kill the demons on the outside."

Chen Zhuo nodded, "Understood, Senior Sister."

Gu Qing'e slipped a talisman into his arms and then hurriedly left.

Chen Zhuo took it out and saw that it was the "Transfer" that his junior sister had just used.

The two-character inscription was a valuable item. After glancing at it, Chen Zhuo carefully placed it into his bosom.

Another life-saving item.

After Gu Qing'e left, Chen Zhuo took a good look at the current camp.

The camp looks completely different now compared to when they first arrived.

Countless tents sprang up from the ground, dividing the entire camp into different areas.

At the outermost edge of the camp, Chen Zhuo could see a ring of light that enveloped the entire camp.

It looks like some kind of shield.

"This is a semi-permanent defensive array produced in Shengtianfu. It can shield auras and interfere with the perception of demons. It will work as long as it is connected to the cultural vein, and it will go dormant when the cultural vein is disconnected."

A scholar-looking fellow appeared beside him at some point, and what caught Chen Zhuo's attention was that he was accompanied by two maids.

Chen Zhuo looked at him carefully for a few moments. Hmm, he was a stranger; she didn't recognize him.

"May I ask your esteemed surname, sir?"

"Brother, I dare not accept such praise. My name is Wanyan Liang, and I am a tenth-ranked student: a junior scholar." As he spoke, he took out a folding fan and waved it a couple of times.

Chen Zhuo stared at it for a few moments, and thankfully he didn't see any phrases like "a dragon among men" or "one in a million".

"Wanyan?" Chen Zhuo repeated the question. He didn't recall any family with that surname in Qingshan County.

"Brother Wanyan, aren't you a local?"

Chen Zhuo asked a question.

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Liang sighed and tapped his folding fan in his palm.

"This is a long story. I am from Shengtian City in Shengtian Prefecture. I heard that Qingshan County is famous for its Qingshan inkstones, so I thought I would come to purchase some top-quality inkstones."

"Unexpectedly, shortly after arriving here, news came that the long night was approaching. I wanted to hurry back before the long night arrived, but on the way I encountered two demons, a dog and a wolf, blocking my way."

"We had no choice but to stay in Qingshan County temporarily and discuss our return journey after the long night."

Hearing this explanation, Chen Zhuo nodded.

So they were from Shengtian Prefecture. No wonder he hadn't seen them before.

But why is he waving a folding fan around here?

The moment he saw the folding fan, he thought of that guy Xu Yi.

"We've been chatting for a while now, but I still haven't had the pleasure of asking your name, sir?" Wanyan Liang asked Chen Zhuo, fanning himself with a folding fan.

"My name is Chen Zhuo, a native of Qingshan County."

"Oh, so it's Brother Chen," Wanyan Liang's eyes lit up when he heard that Chen Zhuo's surname was Chen.

"Since Brother Chen is a local, do you know where one can obtain genuine Qingshan graphite?"

Authentic Qingshan graphite? Chen Zhuo's expression was strange.

The ink ground from Qingshan inkstone is called Qingshan ink, while Qingshan graphite is made by grinding ordinary graphite in Qingshan inkstone and then solidifying it.

This is a specialty of Qingshan County, specifically used as a gimmick to sell to people from other places.

"This can be bought anywhere."

Upon hearing this, Wanyan Liang shook his head vigorously.

"No, no, no, I'm talking about the kind of ink that you can write on inside a folding fan and make it spin with a flick of the wrist. I saw it from afar once before, but I've tried many kinds of ink and none of them can achieve that effect."

He then sighed, "This is the kind of life that we scholars yearn for."

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhuo immediately understood what was going on.

So this guy wants to learn from Xu Yi!

No wonder they all took out a folding fan.

But putting Xu Yi aside, his folding fan was actually quite nice.

"Okay, then. Just keep walking along this road until you reach the county government compound. Go find a man named Xu Yi. He has everything you want."

After hearing this, Wanyan Liang was overjoyed. "Thank you for your guidance, Brother Chen. Please don't refuse this small gift."

Chen Zhuo glanced at it and saw that it was a demon material. Seeing this, he did not refuse.

It's just demon materials, they're not worth much anyway. I just don't know what kind of demon it is. I can ask my junior sister later.

After Wanyan Liang left, Chen Zhuo surveyed the area again, secretly memorizing the terrain before heading towards the Wenyuan camp.

He walked along the road to the largest tent, which was his master's tent.

"Little Four's here. How was your first demon-slaying experience?"

There was no sign of the eldest senior sister, the second senior brother, or the youngest senior sister in the tent.

"Replying to Master, with Senior Sister Gu taking care of me, everything is fine."

"That's good. I've personally arranged a tent for you. You can stay there for the next few days."

Chen Zhuo nodded, then took out the demon material.

The junior sister isn't here, so asking the master won't change anything.

"Master, could you possibly identify what kind of demonic material this is?"

Song Zhiyuan took the materials, glanced at them, and then said with some doubt:

"Huh, it's actually material produced by the demons of Shengtian Prefecture."