I run across the massive crater until I come across the only two items left.
The first is a small silver-grey storage ring. It is hot to the touch from the immense qi imprint lock still present on it, and extremely heavy.
Next to it, a small crystalline dagger rests. When I pick it up, it’s almost as light as air and is cool to the touch, like I’m holding glass.
No qi or vibrations come off it. I pull it into my storage and look over both my shoulders.
There is no danger left, but I still feel exposed in such a wide open space. Not a single tree, hill, or rock structure is left untouched.
Overhead, a stream of flying vessels and cultivators on flying swords appears. They’re leaving the Wang Family peak and heading straight toward the Jiang Family peak. It appears these two mid-stage foundation establishment patriarchs have chosen to retaliate quickly and exterminate all of their enemies before they can run too far.
I’ve already accomplished what I wanted. There is no need to stick my neck out any further.
I run in the opposite direction, climbing my way out of this crater and finding a thick portion of the unaffected forest over a kilometer away around the base of the Wang Family peak. Then, I slip away into my hidden realm.
The first thing I see is a mutilated fiery woman passed out in the center of my five element cultivation array.
Blood leaks out in pools all over the floor, and her skin lies limp over plenty of areas with exposed bone.
Her mid stage spirit grade physique is fractured, its flames not fully activated in portions of her body, and her soul is in even worse shape.
The bright yellow serpent wraps tightly around her chest and neck where the worst injuries are, attempting to prolong her life.
Her heartbeat is so weak it’s hardly even pumping blood.
Her natural aura isn’t even strong enough to rival mine at the 5th level of qi refinement.
I walk over and drop a heavenly-grade healing elixir in her mouth, then murmur to the serpent, who is the only one semi-conscious.
“That will heal her body, but I have nothing for her soul or physique. That’s up to you.”
The pill dissolves and spreads through her energy pathways. Small amounts of the medicinal energy leak out of the holes in her neck and chest, but the frantic serpent guides it back in.
I sit a few meters away in a dry spot of the array and watch for a few minutes.
Her heartbeat grows a little stronger, and her breathing becomes less erratic. Most of the open wounds close up, but there is still rampant blood energy in her system. Her soul twists apart, and fractured portions of flames are sacrificed every second to combat this demonic qi.
For the most part, she’s stable. I’ll let her spirit beast handle the rest while I concentrate on what really matters.
I pull out a pile of broken low-grade tier two weapon fragments, a thick piece of red jade, 6 low-quality tier 2 storage rings, the clear crystal dagger, and a high-grade tier 2 storage ring.
The pile of black metal shards is what I examine first. Only the largest chunks are what I could pick up, and some still flicker with the remnants of flaming mountain physiques and blood energy. None can be imprinted; they’re all just raw tier 2 materials.
Next, I look at the chunk of red jade.
It feels like a few thousand blood qi pills have been combined together in a far more pure and stable form.
Neither this nor the metal shards are useful to me, but they do seem valuable… I stow them away and look at the crystal dagger.
I pick it up and send a tiny pulse of qi into it to imprint.
[Ding!][Blood Soul Dagger has bound to the Host!][Passive Ability: Rests dormant until activated. Every time the host kills an enemy, remains of their qi, soul, and physique’s intent can be absorbed into the artifact, adding to its strength until released.][Active Ability: 1 Use, Rechargeable (Cost - All Stored Energy). Once activated, this flying dagger will lock onto any target the host focuses on and aim to kill until all of its energy is used up. This artifact cannot be imprinted again until it is completely exhausted.]
I read all of its information while the clear palm-sized blade trembles.
Jiang Duo’s angry roars about using up 100 years of hard work on this artifact now make far more sense; it stored the strength of everything and everyone this blood demon killed since he found it.
It has no markings or system labels detailing its tier or any sign of enchantments. I even pull out a bronze upgrade card to test, and nothing happens.
It is as unresponsive as when I tap upgrade cards against living plants, or other humans.
This weapon can grow in strength the longer I hold onto it. I watched it stop multiple blades in my golden sword slaughter formation, allowing this blood demon to survive much longer than he should have. It has at least the potential to reach that strength again…
The crystal dagger falls into my palm and slips into its own strange storage space. It feels like its halfway in my sea of consciousness, and half resting on the edge of my souls.
The feeling is similar to when my slaughter formation glows in my arm, ready to be used, but this hidden weapon is set much deeper.
There are no details of this dagger’s origin in any of the system text, but it does not feel the same as lottery items or even the many weapons and artifacts I’ve bought from vendors in this world. It is a strange anomaly, one I have no clues to understand yet.
I glance at the high-grade tier 2 storage ring, but decide not to open first. The imprint lock is still extremely fresh, and I can tell it’s going to be no easy task.
Instead, I pick up the Fu family patriarch’s ring first, as it’s the weakest out of all of them.
I fully concentrate and begin my work on breaking open the seal. It feels like an impenetrable wall at first, reminding me of when I first tried breaking mid and high-grade storage rings back in the servant camps with Xu Hong as an initial-stage qi refiner with no physique.
This low-grade tier two ring has minor flaws in its foundation, and with a constant stream of replenishment from the five element cultivation array below me, I’m able to slowly wear away the cracks in its structure.
Without the original cultivator’s imprint to keep it locked, the ring can only get weaker. Taking a few minute breaks in between each try doesn’t lose me any progress.
Forty minutes later, I’m covered in sweat and breathing heavily, but the contents of the ring enter my consciousness.
It’s filled to the brim with resources.
There are over twenty thousand spirit stones, a few dozen assorted low, mid, and high-grade tier 1 weapons. There are qi gathering pills, qi nourishing pills, healing elixirs, and marrow cleansing pills. The majority are low grade, but a decent amount are mid grade too.
A few hundred blood qi pills are present too, but he doesn’t have any booklets or demonic artifacts.
Deep inside this ring, what stands out to me the most are 5 extremely bright, fist-sized white crystals.
I pull one of them out into my hand, and it feels almost as heavy and powerful as a fully charged azure lightning attack talisman.
White mist flows off of it when it touches the air, even more potent than the waves coming up from the array below me. Though, the crystal only gives off pure qi.
I pull it back into my storage after confirming that this is a foundational crystal, just like the one I saw Meng Ruo present as a gift.
There is only one item left in the storage. It is a thick brown booklet, with the characters for heavy mountain and mortal grade on the front of it.
This must be the patriarch’s copy of the acquired physique everyone in their clan practices.
I immediately turn to the next ring, the Tang Family patriarch’s, and get to work.
Over half an hour later, this one cracks open too, revealing almost an identical haul.
I don’t care much for the spirit stones, or blood qi pills, or the tons of assorted tier 1 talismans, fruits, and common pills, but another heavy mountain physique booklet rests inside next to 6 more foundational crystals.
I flip through this booklet and compare it to the one that was in the Fu patriarch’s possession. Both of them lead up to the perfected stage of the mortal-grade physique, but there are various differing notes and diagrams, making them not exactly the same, but very close.
I spend the next three hours opening up all four of the Jiang Clan’s low grade tier 2 rings.
They’re tougher than the first two, but I’m far more warmed up and get into a solid groove.
It’s like peeling onions one layer of skin at a time; each layer just happens to take my full effort equivalent to a 12th level qi refiner.
Their rings are slightly better than the Fu and Tang Clan’s loot. They’re mostly full to the brim with blood qi pills, over a hundred thousand spirit stones, low to mid-grade pills, assorted element stones of every element from low to high grade, and tons of mid to high-grade weapons. There are a few vials of high-grade qi gathering and qi nourishing pills; one even has a few high-grade marrow cleansing pills. There are few unique looking tier 1 weapons too, far greater quality than the high-grade ones, but not as flawless as my system-enhanced items. They’re what the market would consider perfect grade.
Each one has at least 10 more foundational crystals, adding 48 more to my stash, and four flaming mountain booklets that teach their clan’s physique up to the perfected stage of the mortal grade. These low grade tier 2 rings have over ten times the space that perfect grade tier 1 rings would. I can feel that at least a million spirit stones worth of raw qi could fit inside.
I use up some of the spare spirit stones from these rings to take a break and charge up my tier 2 artifacts: the azure lightning attack talisman, my perception-expanding spirit jade pendant, and my emerald swallow.
After all this time, Lan Xin’s body has fully healed. Her skin looks white and smooth. However, her soul has become extremely weak, and every activation of her physique creates sharp fractures that only injure her more. She can only stay still, and naturally heal.
Almost all of the blood qi that was ravaging her system has been cleared out, but she is not in a good state herself.
I think about the rock bee honey in my storage. It may help somewhat to calm her soul and speed up recovery, but there is only so much left. As I see it now, I’ve done enough; she can recover on her own.
The last ring rests in my hands. I close my eyes and get to work.
Five long hours pass.
The dense qi of this imprint lock is far stronger than all of the others combined. I have to keep my perfected-stage physique activated in full force the entire time and empty my dantian of all of its qi many times over.
Without constant replenishment from the array beneath me, this would have taken me thousands of spirit stones and multiple days, maybe weeks, to manage outside.
When the imprint finally cracks, the high-grade tier 2 jet black longsword hits my senses first. It’s the main item I knew for certain was in here.
A grin forms on my exhausted face, and I look deeper.
Over three hundred thousand spirit stones, 226 foundational crystals, and a large chunk of blood jade similar to the one around Jiang Yu’s neck are what I see next.
There are a few dozen perfect-grade tier 1 weapons, gathering arrays, and a few high-grade talismans.
There is no blood demon physique booklet, but there is a small scroll of papers with a list of names, certain cities circled on a map, and dates when they’re set to be taken over by the Blood Sword Sect.
However, there is a physique booklet in this storage, and it has a design of a dimly glowing volcano on its front.
It’s labeled the flaming mountain physique. When I pull it out and flip through its pages, they’re mostly burned and aged, but a lot of information is still present. My head aches while flipping through the last pages, but from some titles and diagrams I can tell this booklet leads to at least the mid stage of the spirit grade.
Deep in the storage ring, there are only a few more items.
There are two semi-translucent crystals, one red and the other brown, giving off even stronger pressure than the black iron core I remember holding. These are tier 2 element stones, most likely low grade.
The last thing I see is a pile of extremely dense bones. Some are curved and look like parts of tusks, but most are smaller fragments that don’t have any distinct shapes. Each one feels like it has almost the same energy as a foundational crystal stored inside. They have a pale blue tint. They do not feel demonic in nature, and the qi density is stronger than even the 10th level armored lizard corpses still in my storage. My best guess is they’re most likely from a foundation establishment spirit beast.
For a while, I’m completely entranced by the immense wealth I’ve looted today.
I look them over and over in my mind. With all my current tier 2 artifacts, and now even a tier 3 slaughter formation that has two uses remaining, I’m in the best position I’ve ever been in.
Still, a heavenly tier 2 martial root rests in my storage unused beside a brand new minor lottery die.
After completing the quest to kill 5 foundation establishment cultivators, my next assumption was that it would update to late-stage cultivators, or maybe specify spirit beasts next. Instead, a completely different message shows.
[Kill 1 Blood Sword Sect Envoy] now sits below the two other side quests of reaching level 7 and achieving a spirit-grade physique.
Other than the single note on Jiang Duo’s status about securing Lingshi city being his last mission to claim this title, I have no idea what an Envoy is.
With a sigh, I let the quest panel fade away and pull out the new lottery die. After a toss and a few rolls on the floor, it disappears.
A thin jet black vest appears in my storage, almost as light as a cloth shirt.
When I pull it out, it does not give off any qi pressure, but the material has a mental weight to it. It is incredibly smooth, and when I try to stretch it, I cannot see through the material at all. It certainly does not look like any normal material I’ve ever held.
I push a faint pulse of qi inside.
[Ding!][Obsidian Silk Vest has bound to the Host!][Passive Ability: Capable of withstanding attacks from initial-stage foundation establishment cultivators indefinitely. Portions of the body not covered will still be harmed.][Active Ability: 1 Use, Non-Rechargeable. If pierced through, this silk will emit a burst of innate strength to block attacks up to the late stage of foundation establishment. No damage will be reflected on the attacker, and the vest will disintegrate soon after.]
I slip the perfectly fitted vest on below my robes and move around in curiosity.
It covers my heart, internal organs, dantian, and most vital meridians. If all other measures in battle are broken through, this is another added last-resort life-saving treasure.
It cannot be sensed by normal qi refiners, but it has a hidden strength bound inside each strand of silk. A stronger cultivator could easily perceive this is an item of abnormal value with a quick spiritual sense scan.
I practice pulling it in and out of my storage space to be perfectly fitted on my torso beneath my robes within half a second, but after a few tries my concentration wavers when I feel a light popping sensation in my souls.
It isn’t painful; if anything, it actually feels nice, like some kind of internal bottleneck just disappeared and allowed the outer wisps of my souls to expand a little. Even my spiritual senses creep out a few meters for some unknown reason.
My first instinct is that it has something to do with this vest, but I still push my attention out of my mental space and look around.
Lan Xin is still unconscious. Her serpent has fallen into a deep sleep, fatigued after finally ridding both of them of blood qi entirely.
Yet, their souls are in shambles, weaker than some initial-stage stewards that work for me back in my farming plot.
A single wrong move, and they’d shatter apart.
My spiritual senses pick up an abnormality behind me, and I realize what the real reason for this sensation is.
The white egg deep in the metal element portion of this array is starting to hatch.