Taoist cultivation begins with being a miner

With a "whoosh," the level six demon soldier directly in front of Lu Yan had his neck slashed by the thin blade. He took a few steps forward and then collapsed to the ground, blood gushing out, his body severed from his head.

"Watch out! He's not a level six demonic soldier; he's hiding his cultivation level." Upon seeing this, the level seven demonic soldier shouted loudly.

But it was too late. Lu Yan used his speed advantage to kill two more level-six demon soldiers, leaving only the last level-seven demon soldier.

"Damn it!" The three bandits were killed instantly, and he had no intention of fighting Lu Yan. He turned around and ran away.

With a "whoosh," a flash of light appeared, and a short knife was already embedded in the body of the last bandit.

The battle is now over.

Lu Yan didn't dare waste time and quickly looted the corpses for spoils. He put weapons and similar items directly into his storage ring, focusing mainly on magic stones.

In the end, they found 153 low-grade magic stones.

Not bad. After spending some time with them, Lu Yan discovered that demons and humans have very different personalities.

For example, when it comes to saving money, cultivators like to store some spirit stones as a precaution, leaving themselves a way out for the future.

But the demons are different. They spend magic stones as much as they want when they have them, and if they don't have them, they go and earn more, just like the black mice.

These hundred-plus magic stones are enough to upgrade my cultivation to level eight magic soldier.

Seeing that no one was around, Lu Yan quickly left.

A moment later, Xuefei also arrived at the scene and stared at the six corpses on the ground for a long time without saying a word.

However, this time she did not continue to follow Lu Yan, but instead searched in another place.

Until the end of the Yin hour (3 to 5 pm), Lu Yan did not encounter another bandit, and the search for the night was completely over.

However, the results were not ideal. Even with Ningyi personally searching, the results were meager, with only a few scattered bandits captured. On the other hand, his side suffered considerable losses.

One level 9 magic soldier died, one level 8 magic soldier died, three level 7 magic soldiers died, and more than a dozen level 6 and level 5 magic soldiers died.

Although the deaths of these demon soldiers were not a crippling blow to Star River Fortress, they were still enough to cause Ningyi considerable pain.

The Crimson Flame Demon was already short-tempered, and this result made Ningyi even more agitated. He led several trusted confidants and once again rushed into the mountains to search.

Lu Yan returned to his residence and began absorbing magic stones to increase his magic power.

As evening approached, an unexpected piece of news plunged the entire Star River Fortress into panic.

Lord Ningyi returned severely injured, missing two of his four arms and covered in wounds.

Of the ten trusted men who accompanied him, only two returned, and both were seriously injured.

It is said that there are also demon generals among the bandits, and they are very cunning. They disguised themselves as demon soldiers and ambushed Ningyi.

Currently, two-thirds of Star River Fortress's high-level combat power has been lost.

With no other option, Ningyi had to temporarily abandon the mines outside the fortress and send all the guards there back to defend Satellite River Fortress.

At this moment, even the most foolish demons understood that this whole thing—what banditry or not—was a conspiracy against the fortress lord, Ningyi. The goal wasn't to plunder the mine's wealth, but to target the entire Star River Fortress.

Even the Demon General Ningyi was ambushed like this, so naturally the other demons felt insecure.

Within a day, the mines ceased production, trade and travel stopped, and the demons inside the fortress began to flee outwards.

Seeing this scene, Lu Yan was also dumbfounded. Thinking back to when he took over this body, he first experienced the chaos of the Holy Heavenly Sect in Wuyou City, and now Xinghe Fortress was besieged by an unknown force. It was just unbelievable.

However, this situation is exactly what Lu Yan wanted. The more chaotic things are, the easier it is for him to cause trouble. He will plunder it thoroughly when the time comes.

Before Lu Yan could even start causing trouble, Demon General Ningyi began gathering the remaining demons.

Lu Yan followed the demons to the mansion of the fortress lord and saw Ning Yi again.

The demons who gathered were quite numerous, and all of them possessed cultivation levels of at least Level 6 Demon Soldiers.

Two of them are level 10 demon soldiers, presumably the two guarding the mine.

There are five level-nine magic soldiers, thirteen level-eight magic soldiers, thirty-five level-seven magic soldiers, and over a hundred level-six magic soldiers.

These are just the demonic cultivators belonging to the guard team or the demonic arena, not counting the scattered demons living in Star River Fortress; there were probably many more before that.

The main character, Ning Yi, was in a truly pitiful state; his right arm was completely gone, and even though his stomach was wrapped in bandages, blood was still seeping out.

Its aura fluctuated in strength, causing the other demons great concern.

"Don't worry, everyone. I have already asked Night Demon City for help. They will send a large number of demon cultivators to deal with these bandits soon. As long as we can hold out for this period, everything will be fine."

"Don't worry about that bandit leader, Demon General. I injured him earlier, so he won't make a move anytime soon. Even if he does, I'll step in to stop him." Seeing that Demon General Qi had arrived, Ningyi began to encourage everyone.

"That's good, that's good." Everyone breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that the demon general among the bandits wouldn't make a move.

"I won't let everyone help for nothing. Any demon who decides to stay can choose three items from the armory."

"Once this matter is resolved, we can go in again and choose seven more items." Finally, Ningyi spoke up about what everyone cared about most.

Apart from a portion of the demons who were Ningyi's trusted confidants, the rest of the demons were hired externally; no demon was willing to risk their life for no benefit.

Although they knew that many demons might take the items and run away, the situation was urgent and they couldn't worry about that anymore.

He had worked hard to get the position of Star River Fortress Lord, and he could get a lot of benefits from the mine every year.

Moreover, if Star River Fortress were to fall from my hands, the higher-ups would not let me off the hook. Rather than that, I might as well defend it to the death. After all, the things in the armory belong to the public, and I had already collected the really good stuff beforehand.

Sure enough, everyone became extremely excited upon hearing this and shouted their loyalty.

Whether it's true or not, the atmosphere was well-created.

At Ningyi's signal, the guards led the demons to the armory.

There are quite a few things in this armory. Most people choose weapons on the first floor, and only a few go up to the second or third floor to choose martial arts manuals and medicinal herbs.

Lu Yan had no interest in the weapons on the first floor; he had plenty of weapons in his storage ring, more than he could use.

Lu Yan went straight to the second floor to make his selection. He had previously seen books related to alchemy and many pill formulas here.

There isn't even a place in Star River Fortress that sells decent pills. If you want to quickly improve your strength, you'll need to improve your pill-refining skills.

In the end, Lu Yan chose a manual of alchemy techniques, a book of alchemy insights, and a book of pill formulas.

The winged demon in charge of registration was taken aback when he saw that Lu Yan had chosen these three items, and then asked Lu Yan in surprise, "Are you an alchemist?"

"No, I just want to learn how to refine pills so I won't have to fight anymore in the future," Lu Yan replied, shaking his head.

"I see. But I advise you not to have too high expectations. Alchemy is not something that we lowly demons can learn," the Winged Demon shook his head and advised.

"Thanks for the reminder." After saying that, Lu Yan picked up his things and left quickly.