Chapter 51: The True Magical Treasure

"Done and dusted!"

With the vast amount of evil qi divided between the Five Thunder Talisman and the Thunder Seed, Gu Zhao and Daoist Yan Song knew that Xu Kongting was already dead.

"Doing good accumulates virtue, eliminating evil accumulates merit; it turns out that slaying demons and monsters truly has benefits!" Daoist Yan Song put away his mask and couldn't help but exclaim.

Having only killed one demon and one ghost, the Thunder Seed had already gathered a massive amount of evil qi. Although its release was slow and required time to digest, Daoist Yan Song did the calculation and realized that the spoils of this battle were worth at least several months of his own arduous cultivation.

Gu Zhao's gains were naturally even greater!

Daoist Yan Song looked at Gu Zhao, speaking with a hint of sourness, "It seems you will surpass this old Daoist very soon."

In terms of pure and thick magic power, Daoist Yan Song did surpass Gu Zhao; after all, the old Daoist had cultivated for over fifty years, with a cultivation level equivalent to over two hundred years. Placed in Xiuyue County, he was a presence capable of standing alone and dominating a region.

Not to mention that having the innate qi activated by the Thunder Seed, after arriving in this world abundant in spiritual energy, his cultivation speed became even faster. His internal breath and true qi grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, and with the assistance of the Thunder Seed, his future was limitless.

But even so, Daoist Yan Song knew he could not compare to Gu Zhao.

Being recognized and empowered by the Five Thunder Talisman indicated that the other party's mind, talent, and aptitude were all top-tier. Furthermore, the effect of the Five Thunder Talisman was far superior to that of the Thunder Seed. As long as he did not dig himself into a corner and upheld the original intention of his Dao heart, his growth speed would only be faster.

Gu Zhao smiled slightly, "I still need Second Uncle to work hard."

Daoist Yan Song: Õ_Õ

"Alright, alright, let's loot the corpse!" Gu Zhao rubbed his hands together and changed the subject.

Bai Ke jumped down from the Embroidered Lady's shoulder and landed beside the dry well under the old locust tree. "So he had been hiding his corpse in the well all along."

Daoist Yan Song, who could read feng shui, said, "The old locust tree belongs to Wood, the ancestral hall's inheritance belongs to Fire, and the underground belongs to Earth and Water. His own corpse occupies the Metal element; thus, the Five Elements are all complete. It is a good place."

Gu Zhao leaned his head down to peek into the well. Seeing that the well mouth was not wide and the bottom was pitch black, he turned his head to look at Bai Ke.

Bai Ke shivered all over, the fur on her tail standing on end. "It looks disgusting inside; I'm not going down!"

Gu Zhao raised one index finger; Bai Ke shook her head.

Gu Zhao raised a middle finger; Bai Ke licked her lips but still shook her head.

Gu Zhao finally raised his ring finger and said in a gloomy tone, "At most three. Otherwise, I'll send the Embroidered Lady down."

"Three five-spiced roast chickens, it's a deal!"

Bai Ke jumped onto the well rim, slightly stretched her limbs, and gathered demonic energy in her eyes. Her eyes emitted a green light, and then she slid along the edge, disappearing from everyone's sight in a flash.

Daoist Yan Song stroked his beard and smiled. Ignoring Bai Ke's fox appearance, if one only listened to her voice, one might have thought she was the tsundere young girl from the neighboring house.

The Embroidered Lady had just looked at the well mouth with slight concern when she saw a white figure dart up, with demonic power condensed behind her, carrying a small bundle.

As soon as she came up, Bai Ke dispersed her demonic power, shook open the small bundle, and spoke with disbelief, "This old ghost actually belonged to the Spirit Law Court!"

"Crash—clatter—"

The bundle hit the ground, scattering several items. Among them, a greenish-blue jade tablet was flicked by Bai Ke with her demonic power and flew into Gu Zhao's hand.

The jade tablet was about half the size of a palm and oval in shape. The quality of the jade was ordinary, but the whole object emitted an ethereal and mysterious aura. However, this aura only clung to the surface of the tablet; as long as one did not hold the tablet, the aura could not be sensed at all.

Gu Zhao flipped through the jade tablet. The front was carved with a crescent moon, with the character "Spirit" above and the character "Law" below. The back featured an incomprehensible pattern, and beneath the pattern was engraved the name of the holder: 【Xu Kongting】

"Isn't the Spirit Law Court a force of the imperial court?" Gu Zhao asked.

Bai Ke stated matter-of-factly, "The Spirit Law Court is naturally a force of the imperial court, but who told you there are no bad people inside the imperial court?"

Daoist Yan Song frowned. "But he should at least not have blatantly massacred a village and exterminated households, right?"

"He must have betrayed the Spirit Law Court." Bai Ke jumped onto the Embroidered Lady's shoulder, licked her paw, and then pointed to a book scattered in the bundle.

The Embroidered Lady stepped forward, picked up the book, brushed off the dust on the surface, and handed it to Gu Zhao with both hands.

Gu Zhao took it and saw five large characters written on the book cover: 【Crimson Evil Corpse Refining Art】

Flipping through a couple of pages casually, Gu Zhao was speechless. "Refining oneself into a Crimson Evil Corpse; what kind of Cultivation Art is this?"

"Seeking immortality, I suppose. Ordinary mages only have a lifespan of a hundred years, but if one refines oneself into a corpse ghost and condenses the soul a bit more, even without deep cultivation, one might not achieve eternal life, but living for several hundred years would be a piece of cake," Bai Ke said.

In this world, lifespan and cultivation level were closely related; the higher the cultivation level, the longer the lifespan.

However, among people with the same cultivation level, lifespans differed. Ghosts and gods had the longest lifespans, followed by spirits and spirit lords, and finally, mages who were ordinary humans.

If a mage did not form a pact with a ghost or a demon, unless their cultivation level exceeded five hundred years, they would still only have a lifespan of a hundred years.

The Embroidered Lady was confused. "Wasn't he from the Spirit Law Court? If he sought immortality, couldn't he just form a pact with a spirit lord?"

Bai Ke flicked her tail and guessed, "Perhaps there was no spirit lord compatible with his soul."

The group chatted casually and continued to look through Xu Kongting's other collections.

Besides the Spirit Law Court identity jade tablet and the "Crimson Evil Corpse Refining Art," there were some scattered gold and silver jewelry, a green jade flute, and a fan made from the green tail feathers of a bird.

"Eh, these two items should be magical treasures, right? Why didn't he use them just now?" The Embroidered Lady could sense the uniqueness of the flute and the feather fan.

"He switched to cultivating the 'Crimson Evil Corpse Refining Art,' so he probably couldn't use them anymore," Daoist Yan Song guessed. "Moreover, his corpse ghost body was already equivalent to a powerful magical treasure."

"This flute can trigger the mind and should be activated by spiritual consciousness," Bai Ke added. "That feather fan should be made from the tail feathers of a bird demon and is most suitable for activation by demonic power. If activated by ghost qi, its power would be somewhat weaker."

The Embroidered Lady nodded in understanding. "I see."

Daoist Yan Song took the flute and the feather fan and couldn't help but be unable to put them down. Compared to these two highly completed magical instruments, the jade ruyi he had crudely made on Qingcheng Mountain was nothing more than a child's toy.

Before this, he had studied the gold and silver bracelets and the large sword Gu Zhao had seized from the Jin Feng Sect's Dharma Protector. These two magical instruments were clearly of the ghost attribute, emitting a chill of coldness.

However, that sword and those bracelets were similar to Bai Ke's Celestial Fox Nail; they were merely forged from special materials, containing demonic power and yin qi, capable of manipulating or empowering spell power, and did not count as magical treasures in the strict sense.

But this flute and feather fan were different.

Daoist Yan Song tried them out. Using his spiritual consciousness, the green jade flute could stir up mental fluctuations in people; inputting magic power, the green feather fan could fan out gusts of wind as sharp as blades.

Probing again with spiritual thought, he could perceive the flow of spiritual energy inside the magical instrument during spellcasting. There must be a special rune structure to automatically cast these two spells.

"These are the true magical treasures!" Daoist Yan Song sighed.