Chapter 271 Longevity Peach Seeds
After the demon cultivator left, Chen Daochang squatted down and reached out to close his cousin's unwilling eyes.
He looked down at the ground, frowning and silent, lost in thought.
A profound silence hung in the air, and an indescribable emotion was brewing within it.
After a long silence, Chen Xingzhou could no longer bear it and spoke:
"Chieftain, what should we do next?"
The demon cultivators left no means to control them, only allowing them to cultivate the Heavenly Demon Transformation Scripture and refine their essence blood.
But he knew that from then on, they could no longer integrate into the human race and could only go down a dark path.
The status of a demon cultivator is slightly better than that of a malevolent cultivator, but they are still universally hated.
The Western Continent has carried out a campaign to eradicate demon cultivators for hundreds of years. The ancestors of the Chen family of Puyun Mountain were originally rogue cultivators. It was because of their merit in killing many demon cultivators that they were able to establish their family here.
It's ironic that the Chen clan's only two Foundation Establishment cultivators have now become demon cultivators!
"ah?"
Chen Daochang said blankly, he hadn't heard the whole thing at all.
"Clan leader, I'd like to ask what the next step is?" Chen Xingzhou repeated.
Chen Daochang instead asked:
"Xingzhou, now that we've both become demon cultivators, what are you planning to do from now on?"
At this moment, his feelings were very complicated, a mixture of emotions.
After refining the essence blood of the demon beast, he actually felt that his late Foundation Establishment stage was starting to loosen!
As a member of a family of cultivators who rose to power by exterminating demon cultivators, he knew very well what demon cultivators were.
Although demon cultivators aim to cultivate into great demons, they can also use the methods of human cultivators, such as manipulating magical artifacts to attack. Moreover, demon cultivators have a longer lifespan.
The reason why demon cultivators were jointly wiped out by cultivators is that their minds are prone to becoming like demon beasts.
If the Heavenly Demon Transformation Scripture truly has very little effect on the mind, then this is not a calamity, but rather an opportunity, a tremendous opportunity!
Why do humans cultivate Taoism? Ultimately, it's because they want to have a longer lifespan and greater power.
If they were not influenced by their demonic instincts, demon cultivators might become the mainstream.
Chen Xingzhou was silent for a moment, then said softly:
"I will listen to the clan leader."
Having spent many years with the clan chief, he knew his habits well and knew that the chief must have other considerations for asking such a question.
Chen Daochang opened his mouth, but ultimately did not reveal his thoughts.
"Let's announce the news of his death tomorrow. You will be in charge of arranging the funerals for all the clansmen."
I selected a group of qualified Qi Refining stage disciples who knew how to be patient and secretly sent half of them away, while the other half were sent to join the Golden Spirit Sect when the opportunity arose.
The family bloodline cannot end in my hands.
Xiong Ba arrived near a secluded cave, looked around for a while, then entered the cave and bowed, saying:
"Lord Qinglong, the matter has been settled."
Of the three Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Chen family, two successfully refined the Fire Ape's essence blood, while the third, due to old age and depleted blood and energy, perished during the refining process.
After saying that, he lowered his head and stood with his hands at his sides, waiting quietly.
A faint smile appeared on Qinglong's lips. "A success rate of over 60% is quite good. It shows that the Chen family bloodline is very suitable for refining the Fire Ape's essence blood. Remember this information."
He selected many Foundation Establishment cultivators to refine the essence blood of demonic beasts, but the average success rate was less than 30%.
"I have already recorded it."
After answering, Xiong Ba cautiously asked again:
"My lord, we have very little of our treasured demon beast blood left. What should we do next?"
In the past few months, they have infiltrated many family territories and coerced more than a hundred Foundation Establishment cultivators to refine the essence blood of demonic beasts.
"We will do nothing for now, and wait until the demon beasts and human forces are both exhausted. Only then will we have a chance to bring the Heavenly Demon Alliance to the forefront."
During this period, you and Black Hawk will be responsible for hunting down promising demonic beasts to extract their essence blood.
"I understand, but are we just going to leave these newly joined cultivators alone?"
"Don't worry about it for now. Once these cultivators realize the wonder of the technique, they will be willing to work for us."
Xiongkou Mountain is located more than 800 li northwest of the Jinling Sect, and there is a first-grade mid-level spiritual vein here.
Within the spiritual vein, there is a small family of cultivators.
This family has only been established for over sixty years, with one Foundation Establishment cultivator, more than eighty Qi Refining cultivators, and over two thousand mortals living in it, making it equivalent to a small town.
At this moment, the town was quiet, and the central square was densely packed with corpses.
All the corpses had blackened foreheads and their faces showed extreme terror.
A middle-aged man dressed in a black robe and with a goatee is performing a ritual on a black banner.
Three demons flew around the square, constantly devouring the souls of mortals.
"Haha, my Soul-Devouring Banner is almost finished."
The man laughed arrogantly, his face extremely ferocious.
The Soul-Devouring Banner is an extremely vicious demonic artifact that extracts the souls of Foundation Establishment cultivators, tormenting them until they become demonic beings.
These demons can also continuously devour the souls of flesh and blood creatures to grow stronger. Theoretically speaking, there is no limit to the growth of this type of demon.
However, demons grow the fastest by devouring human souls. In addition, low-level cultivators and ordinary people are very easy for demons to control, which is the main reason why demons like to target humans.
Soon, all the souls were devoured by the demon.
The man made a magic hand gesture, and the demon head shrank continuously until it was finally sucked into the black banner.
Three hideous demon heads have appeared on the black banner that was originally empty.
"Hehe, let's make things chaotic. Only in this way can I quickly improve my cultivation."
The man put away the black banner and took out a dark, furnace-like object.
His hand seals changed, and the furnace kept growing larger until it was the size of a water vat.
He opened his mouth and swallowed, and a ball of green will-o'-the-wisp flew out and started burning under the furnace.
The man patted the body bag at his waist, and a black zombie burst out.
"Get to work!"
At the man's command, the black zombies continued to grab human corpses and throw them into the furnace.
I don't know what this black furnace is, but it seems to have no effect on the corpses that are thrown into it.
Grayish-white residue kept bubbling up from the bottom hole of the furnace.
About two hours later, the square was empty.
The man made a magic hand gesture, and the emerald green ghost fire flew back into his mouth.
He opened the alchemy furnace, and two crimson pills the size of pigeon eggs flew out.
The man kept shaking his head, "It's too difficult for so many mortals to refine just two Blood Food Pills."
In one batch, dozens of Qi Refining stage cultivators can refine one!
He put the Blood Devouring Pill into a blood-red bag, concealed his presence, and left.
Crimson Flame Peak, living room.
Ji An picked up his wine glass and said in a deep voice:
"It is truly a fortunate thing to have returned safely from Mingfeng Mountain."
Ladies and gentlemen, please drink this cup to the brim.
He witnessed too much death at Mingfeng Mountain and was deeply moved.
This calamity is not over yet, and who knows how many familiar faces we will never see again.
Chu He's ashes have been returned to the Xiaocangshan family. Zhang Yuanshan sent a message asking if he would like to accompany him to the funeral tomorrow.
Because he was under the spell of the Golden Core Demon King's Blood-Transforming Soul-Chasing Curse, Ji An did not agree to go with him.
Liu Yu, Ge Luoying, and Wei Songnian raised their glasses and drank together.
Wei Songnian began by saying:
"We killed a large number of demonic beasts in Mingfeng Mountain, but the price we paid was also heavy. Many families may be ruined."
I've heard that some families' foundation-building lineages have become unsustainable, and they may end up as rogue cultivators without spiritual veins.
At times, fellow humans are more terrifying than monsters.
"The Enforcement Hall has already started to collect statistics on these cases. The sect has promised to protect these families, and they are safe for the next fifty years on the surface."
Wei Songnian shook his head. "Senior Brother Liu, you're right. It's safe on the surface, but what about behind the scenes?"
Human nature is greedy, and the evil deep within will gradually be released.
Liu Yu remained silent, knowing that what the other party said was true.
When cultivators have the strength to protect their own interests, they will behave with great restraint.
If interests cannot be protected, many forces will jump out and bite like hyenas.
Groin said coldly:
"The demonic calamity continues, and any cultivator who is still frantically seizing profits at this time is a complete fool."
Ji An began to speak:
"Senior sister, there are a lot of idiots in this world."
Cultivators do not become noble because they possess greater power; on the contrary, they are more likely to become lawless because of the power they wield.
He changed the subject and asked again:
"Senior brother, what exactly is wrong with the Canglan Secret Realm? Can you tell me now?"
He was very curious about what had happened in the secret realm that had led the sect to issue a gag order.
Liu Yu and Ge Luoying exchanged a glance and said:
"This is a nightmare. Five hundred people from the three sects and the independent cultivators entered the secret realm, but less than a hundred came out alive."
Ji An suddenly opened his eyes wide. How could there be such heavy casualties in the resource secret realm?
He felt his throat go dry, took a swig of wine, and waited for the other person to continue.
"A group of rogue cultivators were infected with Soul Gu. These controlled cultivators entered the forbidden area of the secret realm and lured out four Yuan-stage demonic beasts."
Then came the massacre.
Senior Brother Li Haoran, together with the remaining cultivators, displayed great power and killed two of them, finally stabilizing the situation.
Liu Yu's voice was completely calm, without any inflection.
Wei Songnian felt a chill run through his body as he listened. The entire Western Continent had lost a group of cultivators who were most likely to break through to the Chaoyuan stage.
Ji An frowned and asked:
"How many people from the sect are still alive?"
"There were twelve people, two of whom were senior brothers who died shortly after leaving the secret realm due to their severe injuries."
Ji An remained silent. With a mortality rate of 90%, he wondered how long it would take to accumulate so many mid-to-late Foundation Establishment disciples again.
Wei Song cleared his throat lightly and said:
"We are all alive, and that is the greatest fortune."
"You're right, let's have a drink."
The four raised their glasses again and drank together, then found a lighter topic to chat about, talking about their respective spiritual practices.
Half an hour later, Ji An said:
"Senior brother, you said you made a great gain in the secret realm, what exactly is it?"
"Hurry up and show it to me!"
He had wanted to ask this question for a long time.
Liu Yu smiled and said:
"I knew my junior brother would ask, haha, senior sister, take the things out."
Gloin took out a seed and placed it on the table, saying:
"There were originally two trees, but my great-aunt said to leave one to plant on Ningcui Cliff."
"Junior brother, can you identify what kind of seed it is?"
The seeds are slightly larger than the knuckle of a thumb, have grooves, and have a bluish-green outer shell.
Ji An used his object manipulation technique to grasp the seed in his palm and then extended his divine sense to examine it carefully.
After a moment, he frowned and shook his head:
"It looks like a peach, but I've never seen a peach with this kind of shell before."
"It is indeed a peach seed, the seed of the longevity peach."
My senior sister and I happened to obtain four low-grade second-tier longevity peaches. We handed over two to the sect and gave the other two to our master.
As the name suggests, longevity peaches can increase lifespan.
A second-grade low-level longevity peach should be able to increase one's lifespan by about ten years.
A cultivator can only consume these kinds of spiritual fruits a limited number of times in their lifetime; consuming too many will have no effect.
"It's actually a longevity peach!" Ji An revealed a hint of joy. Such a spiritual fruit would surely be fiercely contested by cultivators nearing the end of their lifespan.
The only drawback is that this spiritual tree produces very few fruits; it's considered good if a tree can bear ten spiritual fruits.
"Unfortunately, we have no use for this kind of spiritual fruit."
Ji An sighed softly. In fact, he hoped to obtain spiritual tree seeds similar to the Heavenly Origin Pear or Dragon Blood Fruit, so that he could consume the spiritual fruits grown from them to improve his cultivation.
In his view, as long as one's cultivation level continues to improve and one can break through to the next realm before one's lifespan ends, there is absolutely no need for things like longevity peaches or longevity pills.
"By the way, has Master's health improved after consuming the Longevity Peach?"
Gloria bit her lip and said slowly:
"My great-aunt refined the peaches into longevity pills, making five pills, but she refused to take them."
"Why?"
Ji An was surprised, for lifespan was what his master lacked most.
"She said that her vital energy had been declining for seven or eight years. Even if she took a longevity pill, it would only slow down the decline and prolong her life."
Ge Luoying's mood became depressed. After so many years of declining health and vitality, her great-aunt's spirit also declined.
Even if he were to live for another ten years or so, it would be impossible to ignite the flame of life and achieve the Chaoyuan period.
Therefore, my great-aunt gave up the possibility of living longer.
She gave a bitter smile and sighed:
“I tried to persuade her, but she is very stubborn now and won’t listen to me at all.”
Liu Yu said:
"I also tried to persuade Master, but the result was the same as my senior sister's."
My master asked me then, 'What's the point of living another ten years? What is there to look forward to in the future?'
I don't know how to answer.
Ji An reached out and scratched his head. "I'll try to persuade Master when the opportunity arises."
He began to ponder how to offer advice in a way that would make the other person feel it was valuable. Suddenly, he raised an eyebrow slightly and said:
"I've thought of a plan, let's try it out in a few days!"
Gloin's eyes suddenly lit up, "What method?!"
A look of surprise flashed in her eyes. After entering the sect, her great-aunt's teachings were second only to her master's, and her care for her even surpassed that of her master.
She hadn't thought much of it before, but now that she sees his hair turning gray and his wrinkles increasing rapidly, she really wants to spend more time with him.
"Let's keep this a secret for now. There's a prerequisite for this method; otherwise, let's not discuss it further."
Ji An did not give an answer; his gaze deepened, and he thought to himself:
Hopefully, it's not too late!
Gloria's eyebrows furrowed slightly, then relaxed:
"After you've tried it, junior brother, please let me know whatever the result is."
"must!"
(End of this chapter)
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