Chapter 678: Opening the Bag to Collect the Harvest

In Beiyuan City, Chen Mobai and Zhou Shengqing gathered.

The storage bags of the three Core Formation cultivators from Xuanxiao Dao Palace were laid out before them. Zhou Shengqing swept his hand over them, instantly erasing all residual spiritual sense traces. As he hesitated about which one to open first, Chen Mobai immediately offered to handle this 'rough work' himself.

“Then I’ll trouble you, Junior Brother,” Zhou Shengqing said.

Zhou Shengqing had barely finished speaking when Chen Mobai emptied Fang Xuanyang’s storage bag. With a clattering sound, a large pile of spirit stones poured out, instantly forming a small mountain. The two men looked at them; the spirit stones included all grades—low, mid, and high—and were roughly estimated to be worth a million. This situation likely arose because Fang Xuanyang was in charge of the Southern Xuan Sect. Generally, Core Formation cultivators rarely have low-grade spirit stones in their storage bags.

Chen Mobai and Zhou Shengqing merely glanced at the spirit stones before their attention shifted to other items. Soon, they discovered over a dozen sealed bottles of elixirs. The markings on five of these bottles were very familiar to Chen Mobai. Upon closer thought, he immediately recalled them. Weren’t these the Foundation Establishment Pills he had auctioned off at the Southern Xuan Sect under the identity of "Chen Xinglan"? Five pills per bottle, precisely the quantity of Foundation Establishment Pills auctioned at Baose Market each time. It was precisely through this that the Southern Xuan Sect, despite being suppressed by the Divine Wood Sect, was able to maintain its foothold in Yan Nation. Like Beiyuan City, they engaged in real estate to harvest spirit stones from rogue cultivators and various prominent families.

Chen Mobai pulled out a stopper and inspected the quality of the Foundation Establishment Pills. He had to admit they were far superior to those refined by Zeng Woyou. However, this was understandable. After all, Patriarch Jinfeng was known as the foremost alchemist in Dongyi. Besides him, Xuanxiao Dao Palace also had two other Core Formation cultivators skilled in alchemy, no less capable than Yan Shaoyin. Furthermore, the Foundation Establishment Pill was the most proficient formula refined by their sect. It was said that a single furnace could reliably produce nine pills, and sometimes, when the alchemist was in good condition, even a full ten. It was precisely this alchemy prowess that allowed the trade guild established by Xuanxiao Dao Palace to operate freely throughout the Six Realms of the Eastern Domain, even opening branches in the Eastern Lands.

“I heard from Junior Nephew Luo that the Hua family proactively reported their discovery of an Arashi-Liu Stone mine. Why don’t we reward them with a Foundation Establishment Pill?” Zhou Shengqing suggested. Chen Mobai naturally had no objections. With the development of the entire Eastern Barren Plateau, more resources and ore veins would undoubtedly be discovered in the future. Even with many cultivators, the Divine Wood Sect couldn’t cover everything. Many developments would require cooperation with local prominent families to achieve a win-win situation. Granting a Foundation Establishment Pill to the Hua family would set an excellent precedent. In the future, within the territories under the Divine Wood Sect, if any new ore veins are discovered and prominent families cannot monopolize them, their first thought will surely be to report them to the Divine Wood Sect.

“War between our sect and Xuanxiao Dao Palace is imminent. There’s no need to keep these Foundation Establishment Pills. Let’s select suitable true disciples and grant them these pills first,” Zhou Shengqing added. He explained that Xuanxiao Dao Palace, due to its abundance of elixirs, always had the highest number of Foundation Establishment cultivators, reportedly over two hundred. Fortunately, because Foundation Establishment was easy for them, the number of Core Formation cultivators was paradoxically the lowest among the three major sects of Dongyi. Otherwise, Zhou Shengqing truly would not have had the confidence to go to war with Xuanxiao Dao Palace.

“Hmm, once Xie Yuntian and the sect disciples arrive, I’ll have them select suitable individuals,” Chen Mobai replied. At this point, both Chen Mobai and Zhou Shengqing felt that a major war with Xuanxiao Dao Palace was inevitable. Their minds were entirely focused on increasing their sect’s strength as much as possible within a short timeframe.

“Let’s bestow that Heretical Golden Core upon Luo Xue’er for now. Increasing her strength and having one more Core Formation cultivator will give us more flexibility when arranging our battle lines,” Chen Mobai suggested. Zhou Shengqing had no objections to his suggestion, as Luo Xue’er was also considered a disciple of his lineage.

“Junior Brother, you may arrange it!” Zhou Shengqing said.

After reaching a consensus, Chen Mobai wasted no time. He immediately sent a message to his disciple in Beiyuan City, Jiang Zongheng, instructing him to personally travel to Xiao Nation and summon Luo Xue’er. Under the pressure of war, the matter of opening up the Great River could only be put aside for now.

Zhou Shengqing then appraised the other elixirs. All were of excellent quality, with various effects, and all were useful for Core Formation cultivators. Some were even more precious than Foundation Establishment Pills. However, Chen Mobai generally avoided using elixirs from the Tianhe Realm if possible, as he had only recently completed the purification of his spiritual energy. His remaining capacity for neutralizing elixir toxins was reserved for the Golden Crow Sun-Swallowing Pill and the Earth Vein Pill. To maintain the purity of his physical body and spiritual energy, he truly couldn't consume any more.

“Let’s give these to Junior Brother Fu in the future,” Zhou Shengqing said. Since Zhou Shengqing had already formed a Nascent Soul and elixirs were useless to him, and Chen Mobai didn't want them, they could only be given to Fu Zongjue. Fu Zongjue was a pure local, having relied on consuming elixirs throughout his cultivation path. He had basically lost the possibility of forming a Nascent Soul, so he was completely unconcerned about elixir toxins. Fang Xuanyang’s storage bag also contained other miscellaneous items, which neither Core Formation cultivator found appealing. They were set aside, to be dealt with collectively after all three bags were opened.

Good things are saved for last, so the second bag to be opened was Xuan Qi's. The old man truly dropped a lot of items. There were over three thousand high-grade spirit stones alone, which immediately made Zhou Shengqing’s eyes light up.

“Um, Junior Brother, this time I successfully formed a Nascent Soul, and Junior Brother Fu contributed his lifelong accumulation of spirit stones… These… How about…” Zhou Shengqing stammered with some embarrassment.

“Then let’s give them all to Senior Brother Fu,” Chen Mobai replied. Although Chen Mobai was greatly tempted by the more than three thousand sparkling high-grade spirit stones, he nodded in agreement without hesitation after hearing Zhou Shengqing's suggestion.

“That’s too many. How about you take some too, Junior Brother…” Zhou Shengqing pressed. He couldn't advance his cultivation, so spirit stones and elixirs were useless to him. Only artifacts, powerful spells, and talismans could enhance his combat strength. Therefore, he intended for items like spirit stones to be given to Chen Mobai, Fu Zongjue, and other Core Formation cultivators of the sect to enhance their power.

“Then I’ll take five hundred,” Chen Mobai said. He didn't decline. After all, he had lost his stable source of high-grade spirit stones once the spirit stone mine in Feng Nation was depleted. With these five hundred, combined with his previous accumulation, he could cultivate his Pure Yang Dharma Body to the perfected Nine Yang Realm.

Besides spirit stones, Xuan Qi’s storage bag contained numerous books and processed medicinal ingredients. This individual was one of Xuanxiao Dao Palace’s two fourth-rank alchemists. The books contained his insights and experience notes from centuries of alchemy, originally intended to be compiled into a volume in his later years. However, he died at Chen Mobai’s hands before completing it.

“Let the Transmission and Alchemy Departments organize these. They contain the inheritance of fourth-rank alchemy. I hope our sect can cultivate its own fourth-rank alchemist from this in the future,” Zhou Shengqing said. Zhou Shengqing’s eyes also lit up with joy after reading them. After obtaining the Black Crow Alchemy Scripture, the Divine Wood Sect’s alchemy inheritance from first to third rank was largely complete, but the fourth-rank level remained a blank. If they could fully digest Xuan Qi’s centuries of notes, their Divine Wood Sect would have the foundation to become a major sect. Chen Mobai was also very pleased about this, deciding in his heart that once the sect’s cultivators compiled these into a volume in the future, it would be named the 'Xuan Qi Alchemy Scripture'.

After setting aside the medicinal ingredients and gathering the miscellaneous items, it was finally time for the last storage bag. Even with his auspicious blessings, Chen Mobai felt a slight tension at this moment. The first two bags had yielded significant gains, making them even more expectant about the final, most important item. After taking a deep breath, Chen Mobai emptied the contents of the storage bag. He found that, apart from clothes and other sundries, the remaining items could all be seen at a glance: over a hundred spirit stones, a sapphire-blue token, three jade slips, and many halberds! The halberds were treated as miscellaneous items.

Naturally, the jade slips were given to Zhou Shengqing for inspection. Their luck was good; one of the jade slips contained the artifact refining incantation for the Golden Mist Pearl. With this, Zhou Shengqing could complete the consecration of this artifact in the shortest time, allowing it to unleash its true power. This way, he would have more room to maneuver when facing Patriarch Jinfeng. The other two jade slips, on the other hand, recorded two Nascent Soul cultivation techniques, named the 'Heavenly Wind Great Art' and the 'Profound Ocean Control Technique'. Among these, the Heavenly Wind Great Art was likely cultivated by Xuan Shu himself, exclusive to wind spirit root cultivators.

“Could this be the inheritance of the Overturning Sea Sect?!” Chen Mobai vocalized his guess after reading it. After all, during their first encounter, Xuan Shu had revealed that he had entered the ruins of the Overturning Sea Sect and obtained the Golden Mist Pearl. If an artifact was left in the ruins, then an inheritance must also be present.

“Highly possible. The material of these three jade slips is similar,” Zhou Shengqing said. As he spoke, he also examined the sapphire-blue token. It was a very ordinary third-rank artifact, but since Xuan Shu treasured it, it was clearly no common item.

“Could it be the token to open the Overturning Sea Sect ruins?” Chen Mobai offered another guess. Zhou Shengqing nodded, then casually extended his spiritual sense to scan the remaining small pile of spirit stones.

“Oh?” With that scan, an expression of surprise and doubt appeared on his face. Zhou Shengqing waved his hand, and gentle spiritual energy lifted three dull-colored spirit stones from the mix, which seemed to have already been activated and used. After a careful inspection, he put down the three spirit stones with a regretful expression.

“Senior Brother, is there something wrong with these spirit stones?” Chen Mobai, for his part, saw no mystery, and couldn't help but ask.

“These are supreme-grade spirit stones,” Zhou Shengqing replied. Upon hearing Zhou Shengqing’s words, Chen Mobai’s eyes immediately widened. Each supreme-grade spirit stone, if used properly, could create a fourth-tier spiritual vein. Xuan Shu actually had so many? However, he quickly realized that these supreme-grade spirit stones had already been used. He inspected one of them and found that only about one or two percent of its spiritual energy remained.

“This one still has a small half of its spiritual energy. This fellow likely intended to use the pure spiritual energy within supreme-grade spirit stones to break through to the Nascent Soul stage,” Zhou Shengqing said. With his personal experience, he immediately understood the reason. Back then, to form his Nascent Soul, he had annihilated Trembling Mountain Peak to obtain the Earth Mother Stone.

“The combined spiritual energy of these three supreme-grade spirit stones probably doesn’t even amount to half of a complete one. What use could they be then?” Chen Mobai was completely puzzled by this. Such knowledge was a blind spot for him, as finding even a low-grade spirit stone in the Immortal Gate was extremely difficult, let alone a supreme-grade one.

“The spiritual energy content and purity of spirit stones steadily increase with their grade. Supreme-grade spirit stones, forged over hundreds of millions of years, contain arguably the purest and most vast spiritual energy in the entire Tianhe Realm. When used during breakthroughs, they can provide a significant boost,” Zhou Shengqing explained. When cultivators refine the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they only need the attributes required by their cultivation technique. Any other unwanted attributes must be painstakingly purged. This meant that during cultivation, most of the time was spent on preliminary steps, with only a small portion dedicated to the actual refinement and improvement. The spiritual energy within spirit stones, being unassigned to any attribute, did not pose this problem. And the higher the grade of the spirit stone, the purer the spiritual energy it contained, and the easier it was to refine. Therefore, when attempting breakthroughs, cultivators in the Tianhe Realm would generally prepare some high-grade spirit stones. In contrast, the Immortal Gate’s method involved using formations to purify spiritual energy and so on. This was also the core method for spirit stone charging: imbuing spirit stones with formations using spiritual sense micro-engraving techniques to absorb, purify, and store spiritual energy.

“Senior Brother, could I have these used supreme-grade spirit stones?” Thinking of spirit stone charging, Chen Mobai’s eyes brightened, and he spoke to Zhou Shengqing.

“Of course. However, if Junior Brother plans to form a Nascent Soul in the future, it would be better to acquire a true supreme-grade spirit stone. There’s a large spirit stone mine shared among the three major sects of Dongyi. From time to time, supreme-grade spirit stones can be found at the core of its vein. Once the matter with Xuanxiao Dao Palace is resolved, I’ll find a way to see if I can trade for one from Patriarch Baiwu,” Zhou Shengqing replied. He held high hopes for Chen Mobai, wishing for him to truly form a Nascent Soul.

“Then I shall trouble Senior Brother with that,” Chen Mobai said. He would naturally be even more delighted if he could obtain a complete, unused supreme-grade spirit stone.

“These two jade slips can fill the void in our sect’s Nascent Soul cultivation techniques. The remaining items are useless to me, Junior Brother, so keep them,” Zhou Shengqing said. He left all the items found in Xuan Shu’s storage bag to Chen Mobai.

“Coincidentally, Xuan’er’s cultivation technique after Core Formation hasn’t been settled yet. This Profound Ocean Control Technique might be suitable for her to try and comprehend,” Chen Mobai said, nodding with a smile in response. Luo Yixuan’s Black Water Art could only be cultivated to the mid-Core Formation stage. Chen Mobai had been wondering what cultivation technique would be best for her to switch to. The Black Emperor Abyss Scripture of the Longevity Sect couldn't be cultivated. The best remaining option was the Skyfall Art of the Five Elements Sect’s Water Vein, a technique renowned alongside the Longevity Scripture, also capable of forming a Nascent Soul. Now, there was also the option of this Profound Ocean Control Technique.

After the two finished sorting through the contents of the three storage bags, Luo Xue’er, having received the news, also arrived in Beiyuan City.