Chapter 410: The Cruelty of the North Plain Family

Jiang Ding's figure appeared on the ground, his divine sense scanning in all directions.

The chaos caused by the swarm of Foundation Establishment cultivators had already subsided; under the siege of the Imperial Guard maids and the Disciples of the Law Enforcement Hall, the resisting Foundation Establishment cultivators were killed, blood and severed limbs littering the street stones. Those willing to surrender who caused no casualties were merely fined.

"Young Master."

Gong Gong Caiyu, Xia Tu, and other maids knelt in salute; their swords were sheathed, and faint traces of blood were visible on their skirts.

"Still needs much tempering."

Jiang Ding said.

Among these demonic cultivators, there were none at the quasi-third stage, and some had not resisted, willingly bowing their heads. Combined with the cooperation of the Law Enforcement Hall disciples, yet even so, it was not done with ease; this was due to a lack of practice.

"Yes!"

Gong Gong Caiyu and the others showed expressions of shame.

Monk Fa Zheng and others looked at these young women with fear.

In the past, they had only heard rumors, but they never expected that in just over ten years, strength had changed so drastically; swarms of demonic cultivators bowing their heads far surpassed them.

Jiang Ding nodded slightly, and his figure vanished.

Demon Palace.

Molten Gold Vines bloomed across the mountains, their ripe fruits shimmering with the light of magma.

Jiang Ding first took out the storage bag of Jin Ta Wang.

Sword intent and divine sense surged into the restrictions, transforming into a brilliant blue-gold sun, radiating rays of light; along the way, soul restrictions and Shen Hun Lao Yin vanished like smoke, revealing the scene within.

"Value of fifty to sixty million low-grade spirit stones; many third-stage heavenly treasures, pills, and spiritual herbs."

Jiang Ding scanned with his divine sense and gave his conclusion.

"Plus a high-grade treasure in the shape of a golden tower, with formidable power, far stronger than the Lady of a Thousand Snakes' high-grade treasure, the Golden Hairpin. This is Jin Ta Wang's Ben Ming Fa; it can only be used at a lower stage. It is best to refine and recycle the materials."

After a moment of thought, he decided the fate of these items.

To this day, he had a fixed process for handling the spoils of Jin Dan cultivators, with high efficiency.

Two jade boxes and a gray thread-bound book were taken out separately.

"'Blood Kin Spirit Refining Secret Art,' a secret art auctioned for over one hundred million low-grade spirit stones."

Jiang Ding took it in hand and flipped through it roughly.

"The prerequisite for casting this spell is to breed a large family with numerous bloodlines, then when a direct-line child is born, take many spiritual root children from collateral branches, sacrifice them in a blood refining pool, and finally refine a primal qi, merging it into the direct-line child's spiritual root to cause it to grow again."

"Many restrictions."

"First, the better the quality of the collateral branch children used as material, the better the effect of the secret art; a large number of two, three, or four spiritual root children can at most refine a two spiritual root direct-line child, and it still requires consuming vast amounts of heavenly treasures."

"If one does not consider the identity of the direct-line child, doing this is actually a huge loss; it is merely transferring aptitude without creating anything new, while generating massive losses."

"The requirement for a Heavenly Spiritual Root child is even more terrifying: not only does it require a large number of two, three, and four spiritual root collateral branch children as a base, but also multiple collateral branch Heavenly Spiritual Root children as main materials, plus vast amounts of heavenly treasures, and a Nascent Soul cultivator must intervene; the specific method is not even on the page."

"Damn it, no wonder the Zhengmo Alliance's twenty-eight families guard against their own more fiercely than against outsiders."

Jiang Ding was shocked.

"After drawing blood for so many years, if it were me, I would want to kill the direct line, wipe them all out clean. No wonder Liu Xueyun, Huang Bao, and others act like bandits, killing people and seizing their foundations at every turn, yet they are still called great magnates in the North Plain, hailed as righteous and loyal; it's all thanks to the contrast."

"Truly, I do not know how much resentment has accumulated among these small and medium families and collateral branch disciples."

Jiang Ding reaffirmed his determination not to upload the relevant knowledge.

Xu Gao Jie, in legal terms, is equivalent to private property of Xu Jia's Soul Transformation; the billions of mortals within are the same, possessing no citizen rights, and there are many Xu family collateral branch members within.

Judging by the conduct of Xu Jia and others, they do not appear to be soft-hearted.

Once uploaded, who knows how many billions of people would die because of it.

Not just the Xu family; many high-rankers within the immortal sects often worry about their descendants' spiritual roots, wondering if they will abuse power in the small realm and do things that violate the bottom line of humanity; it is hard to say.

"Spiritual root, the source of the immortal path."

Jiang Ding murmured to himself: "The many families of the North Plain are already remarkable for artificially enhancing spiritual roots in the postnatal stage; the possibility of no hidden dangers is very small."

"I am quite confident that this evil consequence will manifest when breaking through to Soul Transformation."

"This is draining the pond to catch the fish for the entire cultivation ecosystem."

He calmed his mind.

His gaze fell on the two jade boxes, causing them to open in sequence, revealing two golden pills with different auras.

"Third-stage Minor Breakthrough Pill, allowing a Jin Dan Chu Qi cultivator to break through the bottleneck to Jin Dan Zhong Qi; it will affect potential."

"Third-stage Breakthrough Pill, for Jin Dan Zhong Qi breaking through to Jin Dan Hou Qi."

"For Jin Dan cultivators stuck in bottlenecks for many years, they would exchange any wealth on their person except their Ben Ming Fa for this. Jin Ta Wang was quite wealthy; his methods must not have been weak either. What a pity he is dead."

Jiang Ding sighed.

These things were useless to him, and his close classmates had no use for them either; they could only be sold for money.

"Give it to Zhou Zhou Sanyan?"

"I feel it would be a loss; I owe him a small favor, but giving him a third-stage Breakthrough Pill seems wrong. Even with money, one cannot spend it like this; this is not the normal way of interpersonal relations."

"Forget it; let's see how fate unfolds."

Next, he opened Shang Shang Chengye's storage bag.

"Two hundred and thirty million low-grade spirit stones!"

"So rich!"

Jiang Ding's eyes sparkled.

This was the first time he had encountered such a wealthy Jin Dan cultivator.

Of course, this certainly included payments from the Spirit Treasure Merchant Association, but that was naturally not something he needed to consider.

"There is also a medium-grade Core Formation Pill, which can increase the success rate of forming a core by twenty-five percent. Again, useless to me; I will reserve it for the Imperial Guard maid with the highest military merit; their strength is too weak."

Finally, the Lady of a Thousand Snakes' storage bag yielded items worth forty to fifty million low-grade spirit stones; third-stage items occupied nearly half, along with a severely damaged high-grade Golden Hairpin treasure.

Jiang Ding waved his hand, and an iron cage was released.

The two young girls still slept soundly inside, undisturbed by the thunderous battle outside.

A brilliant blue sword qi flashed, and the iron cage silently shattered into countless fragments, then dissolved into fine powder in midair, scattered by the wind without a sound.

Jiang Ding took a cluster of the deep-blue Soul-Searching Talisman's glow, originating from Shang Shang Chengye.

This collateral branch disciple bore no high-level soul seal and could not resist the Immortal Sect's third-rank supreme Soul-Seeking Rune.

"These two girls come from the Shang clan's collateral branch bloodline, meant to be offered to the main branch."

Jiang Ding paused, then shook his head: "Among the collateral branches, resentment has piled up. The father of these two girls—a Foundation Establishment cultivator—personally delivered them to Shang Shang Chengye, allowed him to perform soul-searching on himself, then took his own life."

"No matter what lies ahead, as long as the daughters can escape the Shang clan's hellhole, even if they become furnace vessels."

(End of Chapter)