Immortality and Cultivation: Starting with Improved Spirit Rice

Chapter 115 The gentlemen of Tongming Mountain have many more things to consider.

Ning Zixu gripped the Wenzhen Xuanjian tightly in his hand. The blue halo on the mirror surface was now locked on a fixed coordinate, no longer scanning randomly as before.

He looked at the rapidly flashing red dot on the mirror, his face revealing barely suppressed excitement.

"It really can."

He muttered to himself, his tone filled with unexpected joy.

"The results were even better than expected. We were able to pinpoint their exact location from hundreds of meters away."

Xue Qing stood beside him, and even his usually composed face couldn't hide the look of surprise.

The most troublesome aspect of the Heavenly Demons lies in their stealth and unpredictable speed. Once they decide to hide, even highly trained high-level cultivators will find it difficult to pinpoint their exact location before they suddenly attack.

Now, a junior disciple who has only been practicing for half a year has created a magical artifact that, from a distance of over a hundred meters, has pinned two Heavenly Demons hidden deep in the Night Demon Mine to the spot, just like shining a searchlight on an insect.

However, Xue Qing was, after all, a true disciple who had experienced life and death several times. This slight surprise only lingered in his mind for a moment before being replaced by decisiveness.

He raised his right hand, and the heavy exoskeleton arm armor emitted a low hum in the miasma, while a bright purple arc of light shone from the magnetic runes on his arm.

"Now that we've found them, let's act immediately before they react."

As Xue Qing gathered strength in his right arm, several members of the Tai'a Sword Sect stood on the left side of the encirclement.

The tall senior brother was gripping his sword hilt tightly, on high alert for any possible ambush. But when he saw with his own eyes that the two Heavenly Demons, whom all the frontline cultivators hated with a passion, were actually pulled out of the mine by that inconspicuous bronze mirror, his expression became complicated.

Demonic beings have always been a major threat to cultivators on the front lines. They are formless and intangible, and conventional spells are of little use to them; almost every encounter with them means inevitable casualties.

And now, they've been pulled out so easily, like mice hiding in a crack in the wall.

"They actually found out!"

The flames in the Green Flame Demon's eye sockets flickered violently.

No longer caring about its seniority, the entire cloud of black mist shot out of the Night Demon Mine, transforming into a dark green afterimage, and rushed madly towards the phosphorescent fissure above the mine tunnel.

"Split up and escape!"

It roared.

Blue Flame Demon followed closely behind, regretting his actions immensely.

However, it was all too late.

Xue Qing's arm, brimming with magnetic spiritual energy, suddenly opened, and a dazzling purple arc of light erupted from between his five fingers.

A massive, almost liquid-like gravitational field converged from all directions, and the two frantically fleeing demons, their black mist-like bodies seemingly locked by countless invisible iron chains, were forcibly fixed in mid-air.

Immediately afterwards, the tall senior brother's sword light drew a dazzling arc, and the two demon-trapping talismans that Chen Heng and Wen Lele simultaneously summoned stuck to the mine wall in the direction they were fleeing.

Sword light and talismans intertwined to form a vast, inescapable net, completely sealing off the two demons' escape routes. They writhed and struggled frantically within the net, emitting silent screams, as large patches of black mist began to peel away from their bodies under the corrosive power of the magic.

Xue Qing gave them no chance to struggle in their death throes.

He took out a dark gold talisman from the Qiankun bag at his waist.

The talisman's texture resembled some kind of warm, antique bronze, its surface covered with densely packed sealing patterns.

As a powerful stream of true spirit was injected, the dark gold talisman burst forth with a dazzling golden light, transforming into a massive net of light in mid-air, which descended upon the two Heavenly Demons, who had already been weakened to the extreme.

The figures of the Green Flame Demon and the Blue Flame Demon shrank rapidly within the golden net, eventually transforming into two wisps of black smoke, which were then completely sealed within the talisman.

Xue Qing raised his hand to retrieve the talisman, and looking at the two struggling black smoke marks on its surface, an uncontrollable joy appeared on his face.

Ordinary demons no longer pose a significant direct threat to a Dao soldier at the ninth level of Qi Refining, fully armed. Especially in a one-on-one battle, he is even confident that he can kill them completely in a short time.

But killing and capturing alive are two completely different things.

The essence of the Heavenly Demon is a purely spiritual life form. Once it is killed, its core divine consciousness structure will completely collapse in a very short time, leaving nothing behind, like a puddle of dew dried by the sun.

To capture them alive, one must weaken them to their limit while controlling the force—not a bit too much to obliterate them completely, nor a bit too little to give them a chance to self-destruct and escape.

The difficulty involved is on a completely different level than killing a celestial demon.

Therefore, the value of a living demon in the cultivation world is extremely high.

The core divine consciousness structure of the Heavenly Demon is excellent material for studying mental runes and formulas. The sealed part of its consciousness can be used to refine defensive magical artifacts that can withstand divine consciousness attacks, and can even be used as an auxiliary material for refining certain elixirs.

Not to mention, in the academic competition and paper publications of the Dao Court, any first-hand experimental data related to the Heavenly Demon is extremely valuable.

Because of its extremely high value and scarcity, a live, intact Sealed Demon has consistently commanded a high price on the market.

A number that would deter the vast majority of low-level cultivators.

Xue Qing held the dark gold talisman and glanced at the relatively large black shadow on it.

"This Green Flame Demon is quite old, and its divine sense structure is very well preserved. If it were to be traded on the market, it could fetch at least ten thousand spirit stones."

He then glanced at the smaller, dark blue trail of smoke beside him.

"This smaller one is much weaker, but it can still fetch four or five thousand, and there's no shortage of suitors."

Xue Qing uttered these two numbers in a calm and steady tone, but to the Tai'a Sword Sect members, they sounded like a muffled thunderclap.

"How many!?"

Wen Lele almost dropped the magic sword from her hand and it fell to the ground.

Tens of thousands of spirit stones!

She instinctively tried to count on her fingers, but even with all ten fingers, she still couldn't figure out what the number meant.

As an inner disciple of the Tai'a Sword Sect, she receives a basic allowance of ten spirit stones per month from the sect. If she is more proactive in accepting bounties, she can earn up to fifty a month. Over a year, even with frugal living, she can save up to six hundred spirit stones.

That's ten thousand spirit stones.

Ten thousand.

How many years?

She tried to figure it out in her mind for a long time, but couldn't.

Those complicated numbers tangled in her mind, turning into the same thought that kept recurring—the men of Tongming Mountain are damn rich!

Beside her, Chen Heng didn't say a word.

Her bright eyes were fixed on the bronze mirror in Ning Zixu's hand.

It is better to teach people how to fish than to teach people how to fish.

Chen Heng understood this principle when he was twelve years old.

At this moment, looking at the two wisps of black smoke struggling weakly on the dark gold talisman, she wasn't thinking about how Xue Qing would distribute the two Heavenly Demons next.

She was thinking that if she could also hang a mirror like that on her belt, wouldn't she be able to hunt down demons and high-priced demonic cultivators in this forbidden area of ​​the Immortal Mountain, and then earn a lot of spirit stones?

Thinking about the spirit stone loan I still owed from my previous major exams.

Think of the Flying Snow Sword that she had been looking at through the crystal cabinet in the magic artifact pavilion of the market for a full six months.

Chen Heng's gaze toward Wen Zhenxuanjian was now burning with fervor.

He had completely forgotten what he had said to Wen Niannian before entering the Immortal Mountain.

There are quite a few people who share the same thoughts as Chen Heng.

As soon as Ning Zixu left after completing his mission at Mount Bulao, several disciples of the Tian'a Sword Sect approached him to inquire about the origin of the bronze mirror in his possession.

Although Ning Zixu was not usually good with words, he was happy to promote Zhao Chengan at this time.

"This magical artifact is called the Wenzhen Xuanjian, and it was developed by a newly promoted inner disciple of our Tongming Mountain."

Ning Zixu twirled the bronze mirror in his hand. "Its effects are not only to detect lurking demons, but also to analyze the bloodline and supernatural powers of strange beasts, and to a certain extent, even the spiritual roots and spells of cultivators."

"If you encounter a new type of alien beast that is not recorded above, you can get an extra reward by collecting and uploading the data."

The sword cultivators who had gathered around immediately brightened up upon hearing this, their eyes gleaming with envy.

As a purely martial arts profession, sword cultivators have extremely limited resources for cultivation. Their main source of income is hunting monsters with companions.

For them, misjudging the attributes and talents of demonic beasts and easily encountering danger is secondary. After all, most sword cultivators are tough, and if they really lose their lives, they can only blame themselves for not being skilled enough.

What they found most unacceptable was that during the battle, it was easy to damage the most precious materials on the monsters.

Sometimes, after several people have worked hard to fight a battle, setting traps and ambushes in advance, consuming a lot of talismans and pills, and even wearing out their personal magical artifacts, they finally manage to wear down the monster, only to find that their most valuable inner core was shredded by sword energy during the battle, making all their efforts in vain.

The feeling of working so hard only to lose everything is worse than killing them.

Faced with the sword cultivators' overly enthusiastic questioning, Ning Zixu was momentarily overwhelmed. "This magic weapon is currently still in the testing phase."

"However, if everything goes smoothly, it should be officially launched at Tongming Mountain soon. Fellow Daoists, please pay more attention to news from Tongming Mountain in the future."

Tongming Mountain, Chaoyin Courtyard.

In the quiet room, Zhao Cheng'an slowly put down the Netherworld Seal in his hand.

Because of the excessive consumption of his spiritual energy, his temples were throbbing violently, and he was experiencing waves of tearing headaches.

He rubbed his temples wearily, got up and left the room, going down to the flower hall. Qingrao, who was wiping the tables and chairs, saw him come out and quickly turned around, bringing over a bowl of ginseng soup that had been warming on the stove.

"Young master, the medicine to nourish your mind has just been brewed. Please have a sip."

Zhao Cheng'an took the porcelain bowl and drank the warm ginseng soup in one gulp.

The slightly sweet medicinal power spread in my abdomen, transforming into a gentle energy that rushed straight to my dantian. The intense headache gradually subsided, and my complexion improved considerably.

Qingrao took the empty bowl, then casually took out a jade slip from her sleeve and presented it with both hands.

"Young Master, this was just delivered today. It's said to be data sent back by Young Master Ning Zixu from the Immortal Mountain."

Zhao Cheng'an accepted the jade slip with some surprise.

"I didn't expect him to get results so quickly."

He pressed the jade slip to his forehead and probed it with his divine sense. The detailed data from Ning Zixu's tests at the Immortal Mountain immediately flowed forth.

It flooded his mind like water.