Chapter 61 Monster Hunting

The Qingfeng Sect's proposal for hosting the cultivation competition venue was submitted a month later.

During this period, several sects also submitted their plans.

The staff of the Cultivation Alliance branch conducted the first round of review, selecting those plans that were not perfunctory and met the rules, and then handed them over to Yuheng.

Yuheng carefully reviewed each document, assessing whether each sect was capable of fulfilling the plan's contents. Then, he awaited the final meeting where the heads of each branch would vote to select the best option.

Upon seeing the Qingfeng faction's proposal, Yuheng was slightly taken aback.

Among those major competition events was a "simulated secret realm trial".

But where are the secret realms in the Cangxuan Realm now? What is the meaning of this "simulation"?

After much deliberation, Yuheng decided to go to the Qingfeng Sect in person to inquire.

He rode his qi to the sky above the Qingfeng Sect and discovered something different.

On the four peaks next to the main peak of the Qingfeng Sect, some building complexes have also appeared, with tall wooden towers on each peak.

In addition, some workers are repairing those buildings or building new ones.

Yuheng glanced at it a few times before landing and, led by a disciple, found Xieku Ridge.

After explaining his purpose, Xie Kuling smiled and said, "The four secondary peaks of the Qingfeng Sect contain ancestral formations that can create the environment needed for the secret realm trial."

The formation would alter the terrain and environment of the secondary peaks. If ordinary people were to enter, they would likely get lost. That is why the ancestors hid the four secondary peaks to prevent ordinary people from entering.

Yuheng frowned slightly: "The most important part of the secret realm trials is those trials themselves, you..."

He paused in his speech.

Trials are mostly designed to make cultivators face demons and monsters, either to kill them or to survive their clutches.

But where will these demons and monsters come from now? Summon them using spatial magic? That's something only evil cultivators would do.

Yuheng's expression was not good.

"Don't worry, Star Lord." Xie Kuling understood. "Trials don't necessarily have to involve facing demons or monsters, as long as it's a trial."

After he finished speaking, he shook his head with a smile and said, "Besides, I don't have that much strength to cultivate spatial magic and summon monster rifts."

Yuheng lowered his eyes, then clasped his hands and bowed slightly to Xie Kuling: "I'm sorry, this concerns the cultivation world, so I have to think about it."

Xie Kuling waved his hand: "I understand."

He paused for a moment, then added, "Actually, the trial was sponsored by Li Chang'an."

To secure the qualification to host the cultivation competition, it would be best to present something that is different from other sects, and what no sect can currently offer is the trial.

After Li Chang'an learned about this, he "sponsored" the trial content.

"I have already specified the trial stages in the plan. You will understand the details once you go to Xuanling Immortal Mountain, Star Lord," Xie Kuling said, clasping his hands in a fist salute.

Yuheng nodded, bid him farewell, and then went to Xuanling Immortal Mountain.

Li Chang'an was busy working in the field with the mushroom spirits and mandrills.

With the presence of the mountain demon, the vegetables in the fields mature much faster. Premium vegetables can be harvested in ten days, and spirit rice and spirit vegetables can be harvested in a month.

This morning he harvested another batch of vegetables and sold them via live stream. Now he's in the field processing the leftover vegetable leaves and bean stalks after the harvest.

Yuheng went straight to the terraced fields to find him.

However, upon seeing the mandrills and fungus spirits using their spiritual power to farm, he suddenly understood what Li Chang'an's "sponsorship" was.

Who says it has to be a demon? A spirit will do too.

"Lord Yuheng," Li Chang'an said with some surprise, "Are you here to see Lord Tianxuan?"

It's been a long time since I've seen Yuheng come to Xuanling Immortal Mountain, so this is quite unusual.

Yuheng nodded. Now that he had an answer, he didn't say anything more about his purpose.

"Yeah, pretty much. After I say hello to you, I'll go check on Tianxuan later."

He glanced around and noticed that the spiritual energy in a field of spiritual rice below was exceptionally rich, which startled him slightly.

"The spiritual energy in that field..."

Li Chang'an followed his gaze and said, "There is high-quality spiritual soil in that field. It was created last time using a demon beast core."

The demon beast pill he mentioned was the one Wu Hui had given him.

"The demon beast pills are very effective. I originally wanted to find some more, but the demon beast rifts have all appeared." Li Chang'an said with some regret.

“No.” Yuheng looked over. “Actually, the monster rift has appeared many times recently.”

Li Chang'an was stunned, and after a moment his eyes widened in surprise.

*

Nighttime in Yushan Forest Park, Ling'an City.

Yuheng and Tianxuan stood in mid-air, looking down at a lake.

A silver-white barrier shrouded the lake. Inside, a figure wielding a wooden sword continuously slayed the demonic beasts crawling out of the blood-red cracks, then collected the fallen demonic beast cores into a storage bag.

Yuheng sighed and rubbed his forehead: "Tianxuan, please help me calculate whether it's good or bad to tell him this news?"

At noon, after he told Li Chang'an about the monster rift, Li Chang'an happily said that he would go hunting that night.

The hunting he was referring to involved finding a monster rift and then attacking only the monsters that crawled out of it, without attacking the rift itself.

This way, there will be a continuous supply of demon beast pills.

It's like grinding monsters in a game.

Moreover, to prevent the spell from harming the surrounding area, Li Chang'an specially invited the sword spirit senior who possessed the power to destroy and create the world to come and set up a barrier.

In this way, whether it's Li Chang'an's sword techniques or the demonic arts of the monsters, they will only disappear when they hit the barrier wall.

And the sword spirit actually agreed. Now, as if testing Li Chang'an's cultivation results, it stood in front of him on its sword, looking at the people inside the barrier.

Hearing Yuheng's words, Tianxuan smiled gently, "That depends on which aspect you look at it from."

If the demon beast pills are to be used by the cultivation alliance, that would be a bad thing for Yuheng.

But for Li Chang'an, this is a good thing.

Yuheng chuckled: "Actually, if we also had the ability to set up such a barrier, we could follow Li Chang'an's example and create opportunities for cultivators to fight against demonic beasts, which wouldn't be a bad thing."

He simply doesn't have that ability.

The reason why the Sword Spirit was able to set up such a barrier is because his cultivation level is far superior to Li Chang'an and the demon beasts. The barrier wall will absorb the damage from those with lower cultivation levels than him.

The demonic beasts that crawl out of the demonic beast rift are now generally at the Golden Core stage or above. If several of them work together, they have a chance to destroy the barrier set up by Yuheng, and then the consequences will be irreversible.

Yuheng dared not gamble.

He sighed softly, then sensed something and looked to the southwest: "There's another monster rift over there. I'll go and finish it off quickly."

"Mm." Tianxuan nodded.

Yuheng returned a few minutes after disappearing.

That night, two monster rifts appeared in Ling'an City. One was used by Li Chang'an to farm monster pills, and the other was quickly dealt with by Yu Heng.

Three hours later, Li Chang'an swung his sword into the monster rift, ending his "sinful" time of farming monster pills.

His spiritual energy was almost exhausted, and a long-lost pain came from his dantian.

The barrier was removed, and the sword spirit flew down on its sword, grabbed the exhausted Li Chang'an by the collar, and placed him on the black sword.

Tianxuan flew over and asked with a smile, "How was it?"

Li Chang'an sat on the black sword, wiping the sweat from his forehead: "Forty demon beast pills in total."

He could have easily killed the monsters that appeared at the beginning with a single move.

However, as their spiritual energy was depleted, it took them quite a while to deal with a single monster, so after three hours they only managed to collect forty.

After Li Chang'an finished speaking, he applied the last bit of spiritual power to the storage bag, and forty demon beast cores flew out, arranging themselves in a circle with five-colored light.

He took out two and handed them to Yuheng: "Star Lord, these two are for you."

Yuheng was taken aback: "Why?"

Li Chang'an smiled and said, "If it weren't for the grand formation that Xingjun set up in Ling'an City, which allowed him to sense the appearance of the crack instantly, I might have spent more time searching. So this is the reward that I should give you."

As soon as he finished speaking, two demon beast pills flew into Yuheng's hand.

"Then we'll take our leave."

After saying that, the sword spirit flew away on its sword.

Looking at the two demon beast pills in his hand, Yuheng chuckled and said, "Tianxuan, I understand now. No matter how you look at it, this is a good thing."

Tianxuan smiled, said nothing, and flew with her qi to catch up with the sword spirit.

*

After returning that night, Li Chang'an buried all thirty-eight demon beast cores in the terraced fields.

Thirty-eight demon beast pills can create 380 square meters of high-quality spiritual soil. Although it is less than one acre, over time, the amount of high-quality spiritual soil will likely increase.

He didn't know why these monster rifts appeared in Ling'an City, but in any case, it was a good thing for him.

Killing demonic beasts exhausts one's spiritual power, and returning to meditate to recover is also beneficial to cultivation.

Therefore, Li Chang'an decided to go hunting every night.

However, monster rifts don't necessarily appear every night, nor do they always appear in deserted wilderness areas; they can occasionally appear in a residential area.

Previously, with the array set up by Yuheng, these monster rifts would be dealt with as soon as they appeared, so no one had ever noticed them.

Now that he has a sword spirit, after setting up a barrier, Li Chang'an can quietly farm monster pills. After the barrier is closed, the sword spirit will restore the damaged surrounding buildings, making it seem like nothing happened.

Half a month later, Li Chang'an invited Yuheng and Tianxuan to fight monsters together.

However, Yuheng had to deal with other monster rifts and couldn't concentrate on grinding, so he simply refused.

Tianxuan did not refuse, and in the end she would give him the demon beast core she had obtained as food expenses during her stay at Xuanling Immortal Mountain.

However, the speed at which monsters crawl out of the monster rift is not fast. Even with Tianxuan joining in, Li Chang'an's harvest of monster pills from a single hunt is not much more, only between sixty and seventy.

But with just 68 seeds, an extra acre of high-quality soil can be obtained in a few days.

Two months passed, and by the end of the year, two hundred acres of inferior soil on the terraced fields had been transformed into high-quality soil.

With high-quality spiritual soil, the ripening and harvesting time for spiritual rice and premium vegetables is shorter.

Meanwhile, by the end of the year, the Cultivation Alliance had completed the voting for the venue of the Cultivation Grand Competition and finally announced the results on Fangcun.

The Qingfeng Sect will host the cultivation competition next year.