Chapter 73 Returning to the Sect

Inside the cave, Ji An finished his cultivation, took out the storage bag he had seized, and emptied out all the odds and ends inside. It was time to open the blind boxes.

When he received the spoils, he only briefly examined the contents.

First, take out the spirit stones; there are nine in total.

Ji An placed the two jade slips on his forehead with anticipation, but later put them down in disappointment.

The spells and insights recorded inside overlapped with those he possessed.

There are three jade bottles containing the essence blood of unknown demonic beasts. Their value is hard to determine; at most, they could be sold for one spirit stone.

A low-grade magic sword of ordinary quality should be made primarily of black iron, and has two types of superimposed magic restrictions: sharpness and acceleration.

Even Ji An, an amateur, could see the roughness of the weapon-refining process. Fortunately, it was well-maintained and should be worth more than ten spirit stones.

He decided to keep it for his own use for the time being to make up for the shortcoming of the Gengjin Technique's attack range being too short.

It's not too late to dispose of the magic sword after we have a stronger magical artifact or a magic technique that can replace it.

Three fist-sized black mineral stones, quite heavy in the hand, and surprisingly warm to the touch.

The surface of the ore is mottled reddish-brown, like rust, or like bloodstains spilled on stone and dried by the wind.

"Hmm, refining materials, I don't recognize them, their value is unknown."

Ji An muttered something to himself and continued counting.

He picked up a small, finger-thick spiritual plant and brought it close to his eyes to examine it closely. There was only one lonely leaf on the stem.

"It's actually a Mysterious Leaf Ginseng! It's a pity that it's only twenty years old and is worth at most a dozen spirit stones."

Xuan Ye Shen is one of the main ingredients in the Foundation Building Pill. It adds a leaf for every twenty years of its medicinal life. It is considered mature when it has nine leaves, at which point the medicinal herb is the size of a carrot.

This thing is very difficult to survive after transplantation, and now it's completely useless.

He swept out and threw away some odds and ends, such as clothes.

"Tsk tsk, if someone were to take the risk of robbing, this cultivator, who was already very poor, could still get sixty or seventy spirit stones by selling all his belongings."

Ji An shook his head. He had harvested so much in just a few breaths, which was indeed tempting. He thought that the harvest from planting five acres of green corn would not be much better than that after half a year of hard work.

However, those who kill will be killed in return. If he wants to make a fortune by robbing, he will eventually fail. He will not kill unless there is something to gain.

No matter what kind of world it is, only by maintaining order can there be greater potential. Therefore, all forces deeply hate the cultivators who have been robbed, and will inevitably hunt them down and issue warrants for their arrest once they are discovered.

Ji An put the items back into his storage bag, a satisfied smile on his face.

From now on, he can be considered a 'second-generation disciple'.

Hunting demons outside and then returning to the market to cultivate, life is tense and exciting.

Two months have passed in the blink of an eye.

The team went out three more times, but the harvest was much less than before. On average, each person only harvested about thirty spirit stones each time.

Compared to others, Ji An gained more.

Arriving in the Hundred Thousand Mountains, where there are many ancient trees, he condensed over a hundred wood element beads and filled the three sealed jade bottles he had prepared.

Concerned about the spiritual fields in the sect, Ji An bid farewell to everyone and went to the Enforcement Hall.

After receiving the 100 contribution points as a reward from the sect, he immediately boarded a flying boat and left.

On the flying boat, he touched the storage bag containing 525 spirit stones, feeling peaceful and content.

The lake was still bustling with activity.

Looking at the peaceful scene within the sect, Ji An finally relaxed completely, the tension that had been gripping him.

He returned to Lingtian and happened to see Huang Feihu applying rain to the field.

The talisman bird landed smoothly. Ji An looked at the rolling green waves of the spirit valley and the slowly withering talisman grass, and smiled with satisfaction:

"Junior brother, you've worked hard. Let's go to Baiweilou for drinks tomorrow."

It's clear that the other party put a lot of effort into it.

"Senior brother, you're finally back! The green corn will be tasseling in a few days. If you hadn't come back, I wouldn't have been able to manage."

Huang Feihu responded that after the green corn tassels, the demand for spiritual rain increases greatly. It is also necessary to use magic to nourish the land and use wood elemental beads to increase the wood element spiritual energy, otherwise a reduction in yield will be inevitable.

Sensing the other party's increasingly harmonious aura, Ji An nodded and said:

"It seems that Junior Brother is very close to breaking through."

Huang Feihu scratched the back of his head and smiled憨厚ly:

"I can already feel the bottleneck starting to loosen, and a breakthrough is just a matter of the next few days."

“Then let’s go to Baiweilou after you break through, and I’ll host a banquet to celebrate with you.”

"Thank you, senior brother," Huang Feihu said, bowing. He felt that his senior brother's demeanor was noticeably different from before.

Previously, the other person was kind and gentle with clear eyes, but now he felt that the other person's face seemed to have become more angular, and his eyes had become more sharp.

He returned the jade tablet that controlled the forbidden magic, then hurriedly bid farewell and left.

Once he had completely disappeared from Ji An's sight, he took out the Wood Element Pearl and activated the spiritual energy within it. Ten thousand wisps of green spiritual smoke disappeared into the green corn plant like swallows returning to their nests.

The branches and leaves of the Linggu tree gently unfurled, rustling softly in the breeze.

He released the Thick Earth Technique and the Minor Spirit Rain Technique in turn. After being illuminated by the earthy yellow spiritual light, a light mist spread out.

When Ji An returned to the bamboo house, the two spirit fruit trees had grown another half a foot taller, but they were clearly not as sprawling as when he left, and the same was true for the Fire Cloud Ginseng that filled the courtyard.

Indeed, this will happen if a fire-elemental spiritual plant lacks the nourishment of fire-elemental spiritual energy for a long time.

With his hands forming hand seals, Ji An cast the Flame Fire Spell, and crimson spiritual light spread throughout the courtyard. The window frames reflected a furnace-like brilliance, and the veins of the Fire Cloud Ginseng leaves quickly turned a brighter red.

Three days later, at the Bishui Market.

In Room No. 1 of the Tianzi section of Baiweilou Restaurant, Wei Songnian raised his wine glass and smiled:

"First of all, congratulations to Junior Brother Huang on breaking through to the late stage of Qi Refining."

Old Huang knew that he would surely weep bitterly once he learned that his grandson had made a breakthrough.

The other person's lifelong wish was to see his grandson achieve success in his lifetime, so that his family could flourish and establish a lineage.

Now it seems that all of this is possible.

To break through to the seventh level of Qi Refining in less than three years, Fei Hu's aptitude, though only mid-grade, is probably not far from high-grade.

"Thank you to my senior brothers. I will learn from them in the future."

"Haha, let's work together and move forward hand in hand."

Ji An and Liang Qiu raised their cups in unison, and the four of them drank it all in one gulp, then filled their own cups.

Wei Songnian raised his glass again:

"Congratulations on your safe return, Junior Brother Ji."

The group shared another drink.

Ji An glanced at everyone and thought to himself that without realizing it, all the friends he had made had entered the late stage of Qi Refining.

After exchanging pleasantries and chatting for a while, everyone began to share their cultivation experiences.

Without teachers or mentors to give them direct instruction, exchanging ideas with each other is the most effective way for them to resolve any questions they have.

Everyone sees things from a different perspective, and the collision of ideas can always lead to different solutions.

Huang Feihu felt he benefited greatly. Since his cultivation level was the lowest, he encountered almost all the problems that his fellow disciples had faced, and he was able to find the answers very easily.

At this moment, he felt even more grateful to his grandfather. If it weren't for his grandfather's help and legacy, how could he be worthy of sitting here today?!

(End of this chapter)