Chapter 277: Resources, Secret Techniques, Secret Methods!

In the Cultivation World, the region of Beiyuan.

Although the heavy snow had long since stopped, the earth remained a vast expanse of white.

The average temperature also remained consistently below minus ten degrees.

Just like in the Central Region, the mortals in the Beiyuan region, except for those huddled in various sects or family manors, had basically all died out.

Fortunately, compared to the Nanhuang and Central Region, the Beiyuan region... at least for this period, seemed to be doing quite well, with relatively few outbreaks of Evil Spirits and descents of Evil God Avatars.

Furthermore, although there were no Immortal Sects, there were three major righteous sects in the Beidi—one temple, one monastery, and one sect—to maintain basic Order.

So, while people everywhere were moving their large and small families to the Nanhuang Qundao.

Although this area of Beidi had heard some news, it was still limited to the extent of sending out branch families and a few disciples to scout ahead.

After all, not everyone could abandon a superior cultivation environment to go to the Nanhuang Qundao to work as a laborer when no great danger was imminent...

When the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape followed the treasure map provided by the Old Monster Demon Heart to find this place.

It could still see a small Market with a First-tier Spirit Vein that was surprisingly still quite popular.

In the Central Region, such small Markets were basically all abandoned.

This reminded the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape of the Ten Thousand Mountains of the past.

Unfortunately... with the Great Calamity approaching, even it was clouded by illusions and could not withstand the temptation of the Evil God!

Fortunately, the Old Ancestor was merciful, and the young beasts of the Ten Thousand Mountains were all properly cared for.

At least the Bloodline of many Demon Beasts would not be severed.

The Demon Beast Emperor White Ape did not go to disturb the peace of that Market.

Its gaze flickered, and it discovered the treasure location through its Divine Sense.

An underground space deep beneath a lake.

Transforming into a streak of white light, it broke directly through the frozen lake surface, and the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape soon found the Array set up by the Old Monster Demon Heart from the bottom of the lake.

Then, he silently activated the Array and had just entered the underground space beneath the lake.

The Demon Beast Emperor White Ape let out an "eh," discovering that he had just triggered a certain Restriction.

Immediately, the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape understood that this treasure site must have been discovered by someone.

It was just that the person's cultivation must have been insufficient, leaving only a Restriction to monitor it without breaking the Seal to enter the underground space.

It was fortunate that it wasn't the Old Monster Demon Heart who came to retrieve it personally.

Otherwise, the other party would have known something was wrong with a single sweep of their Divine Sense over this Restriction.

However, the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape did not care about this at all.

As a Nascent Soul Great Ability, in this Beidi region, unless it ran into an Evil God Avatar, there was truly nothing it could not handle.

Meanwhile, in the small Market outside the lake.

Yunzhong Jie, the pride of the Yunzhong Clan who governed this Market, suddenly felt a stir in his heart; he stood up with a swoosh and looked at the elders and the friends he had invited to assist in the Tea House:

"What a coincidence!"

"The Restriction I left at the bottom of that lake has been triggered!"

"It must be that some Demonic Path villain couldn't resist coming to open that Seal and take the treasure!"

Yunzhong Jie was righteous and awe-inspiring, cupping his hands toward those around him:

"Fellow Daoists, now is the time to slay demons and eliminate evil!"

"Ahem, can you really confirm it's a Demonic Path seal?"

A bearded swordsman stood up, asking one more time just in case.

Several people nearby also nodded in agreement and looked at Yunzhong Jie.

Seeing Yunzhong Jie nod, he took out a Jade Slip to project the anomaly from the bottom of the lake, pointing out that this was a typical Demonic Path Array.

The bearded swordsman and the others, who couldn't understand what the anomaly in the projection was at all and couldn't understand the various professional terms in Yunzhong Jie's mouth, all kept straight faces and nodded from time to time.

In their view, this Yunzhong Jie was a rare First-tier Formation Master, and the young man spoke a lot and with great vigor, so he clearly wouldn't lie.

Thus, these people responded to the call one after another.

Then, the group took various Dharma Artifacts and flew to the shore of the lake.

Yunzhong Jie smiled faintly and even activated the arrangements on the peaks surrounding the lake, forming a Four Symbols Mountain Demon-Subduing Formation.

"Even if the intruder is a Foundation Establishment great cultivator from the Demon Sect, they will find it hard to escape being bound by this Array!"

"Plus, I have also invited a senior brother from the Xuejian Sect who has extremely strong combat power for this trip... This matter will not only succeed, but it will also drag the various sects along to resist the Demon Sect's fury together!"

Yunzhong Jie stared at the lake, feeling somewhat fervent.

He had just turned fifty this year, and relying on his talent for arrays to obtain a large amount of resources, he was now at the Foundation Establishment Early Stage.

It was just that he wanted to go further... if he couldn't obtain a large amount of resources, it would be extremely difficult to rely solely on his own cultivation.

Yunzhong Jie had always believed that he was a person favored by destiny, which was why he had been able to reach this point with average aptitude through one coincidence after another!

He believed that this time, it was another opportunity given to him by the heavens.

He, Yunzhong Jie, would definitely be the future hero of Beidi!

Not long after Yunzhong Jie and the others arrived, they discovered a streak of white light rushing out of the lake.

Yunzhong Jie was surprised by how fast the other party was.

The next instant, his expression changed drastically as he discovered that the great Array he had laid out had dissipated in an instant.

When the bearded swordsman saw the white light, he instinctively drew his Dharma Sword.

After seeing the figure that had suddenly stopped in the sky clearly.

As an Inner Sect Disciple of the Xuejian Sect, the bearded swordsman opened his mouth wide and silently sheathed his Dharma Sword again.

In the air, the Demon Beast Emperor White Ape had already placed the Secret Treasure hidden by the Old Monster Demon Heart into its Storage Spirit Tool.

Just as it was planning to head to the next destination, it discovered that it had been ambushed.

Although that First Tier Array completely disintegrated the moment it touched its Divine Sense.

But an ambush is still an ambush.

It also stirred a trace of anger in the Baiyuan Yaohuang.

He looked down at those human Cultivators whose strength was at most Foundation Establishment.

A cold snort sounded like a thunderclap.

Instantly!

Yunzhong Jie and the others felt their knees go weak, and they all knelt down on the ground together, sweat pouring down like rain.

Their minds were in complete chaos.

They never imagined that a simple ambush on a demon would actually attract a Nascent Soul level monster!

"Come up and tell me properly what is going on."

The Baiyuan Yaohuang waved his hand, sucking all the kneeling Foundation Establishment cultivators into the air to interrogate them.

Under the pressure of his powerful Divine Sense, these people dared not hide anything and shifted all the blame onto Yunzhong Jie.

And so, this prodigy of the Yunzhong family had no choice but to tell the truth from beginning to end.

It looked like it really was just a coincidence.

That Yunzhong Jie had some talent for arrays, and since the Market was nearby, he discovered the Seal site of the Demon Heart Old Monster while surveying the terrain for setting up an array.

Then, Yunzhong Jie guessed that this was a secret chamber left behind by some Demon Sect.

If the Baiyuan Yaohuang had been a little later, the Yunzhong family, not daring to swallow it alone, would have continued to recruit like-minded people and then attempted to break the Seal to unearth the secrets within.

Now, however, anyone who wasn't a fool could see the appearance of the Baiyuan Yaohuang.

After the initial shock, they would realize that this must be the Baiyuan Yaohuang under the command of that unfathomable Old Ancestor from the south!

The Baiyuan Yaohuang glanced at these people.

If it were in the past, even though he had long lived in seclusion in the Ten Thousand Mountains and rarely took action.

Encountering such provocation, whether intentional or not, he would have killed them with a casual strike.

Now that he followed the Old Ancestor, he knew the Old Ancestor was a Baiyuan Yaohuang with a compassionate heart.

After thinking for a moment, he snorted coldly:

"I have already planted a Mark on all of you."

"Go to the Nanhuang Qundao on your own to confess your crimes and accept punishment!"

"Do not harbor any delusions of luck!"

Having said this, the Baiyuan Yaohuang turned and transformed into a streak of white light, leaving the sky above the lake.

Leaving behind only Yunzhong Jie and the others with bitter expressions.

They looked at each other and smiled bitterly.

A few wanted to curse, but opened their mouths only to shake their heads and sigh.

Offending a Yaohuang, and a Yaohuang with a great background at that.

Being able to escape a death sentence... was already a stroke of luck.

What more could they ask for?

These people began to gather again, discussing what route they could take to cross the entire Central Region to get to the Nanhuang Qundao.

"Let's pool our resources and buy tickets to take an Immortal Boat."

"Thanks to that Old Ancestor reclaiming the Mu Zi Yu, taking an Immortal Boat through the Mu Zi Yu to the Nanhuang Qundao is safe and convenient now..."

The group reached an agreement and began to return home to prepare.

No one worried about anyone else running away.

After all, this was an order from a Nascent Soul Realm monster, and he had explicitly stated that he had left a Mark.

For them, whose strongest connections were at most Golden Core, there was no other path to take.

The Baiyuan Yaohuang merely treated this as a trivial matter.

After finishing the search for treasure points in the region he was responsible for, he returned to the Nanhuang Qundao.

The other two Yaohuang also completed their respective tasks only half a day later.

There was no situation that required Su Ping to provide support.

The most serious conflict was merely when East Sea Dragon Lord Aoli arrived at an island and encountered remnants of the Demon Sect on it.

The strongest of those Demon Sect cultivators was only a Golden Core demon.

And it was only at the Golden Core Initial Stage.

Facing the East Sea Dragon Lord, Ao Li burned it to ashes with a single breath of Dragon Breath.

The great array on the island was flattened by a single wave raised by Ao Li.

Afterward, the remnant souls of these Demon Sect members were sucked into the Ten Thousand Soul Banner by Ao Li, kept for the Old Ancestor to interrogate, to see if he could pull out the radish and bring out the mud.

Lao Qingniu, meanwhile, discovered the remains of a Temple that had fallen due to a shattered Dongtian in a desert ruin.

In the remains, he discovered an Evil Spirit-corrupted incense god.

It was an Evil Spirit in the shape of a Bodhisattva, which appeared to be a righteous god worshipped in the Temple.

Only, as it was polluted by Evil Qi and the Dongtian shattered, it had also been corrupted, transforming from a guardian god into an Evil God.

After Lao Qingniu transformed into his Green-faced Bull Demon King state, he easily suppressed it.

He likewise swallowed it into his stomach to Seal it before bringing it back.

Su Ping had no interest in this incense Evil God.

An incense god without an Evil Spirit or even Evil God Remains as a skeleton had too many weaknesses and was too easily backlashed.

After reading its memories, he threw it to his Blood God main body to be devoured and digested.

The Demon Sect cultivators brought by East Sea Dragon Lord Aoli were also tossed to the Blood God main body to be dealt with.

He also learned the reason why they had fled to that island.

It turned out it was because their boss had died in the battle where Su Ping rescued the young Abbot.

Feeling that the situation was dire, they abandoned their strongholds on land and all fled to the island together.

Yet they never expected that even after fleeing to the island, they still could not escape the pursuit of Xueshen Laozu!

The Phantom Dream Giant Snake, meanwhile, ran into a group of Evil Cultivators.

Then those Evil Cultivators were dragged into the Dream Realm, where they confessed every wrong thing they had done in their lives and committed suicide to atone for their sins.

Afterward, after hearing the report from the Demon Emperor White Ape, Su Ping did not care much about those people seeking atonement either.

He only lamented that the Demon Emperor White Ape was the strongest, yet it was the one that hadn't encountered anything of any real significance.

Afterward, Su Ping busied himself with saving those heavenly treasures within the Pot Heaven.

Relying on the help of Abundant Spirit Water, what was an extremely troublesome matter for the Demon Heart Old Freak was, for Su Ping, something easily accomplished.

For some Spirit Objects that were not Spirit Plants, Su Ping also followed the principle of not wasting them and gave them to the Sun Moon Star Chart to absorb.

Afterward, Su Ping continued to cultivate Spirit Herbs, letting the alchemists in the Blood God Secret Realm work at full capacity to refine pills for him.

All to learn the inherited knowledge of the Black Jade Pendant as soon as possible.

Among the refined pills, those that restored Divine Sense accounted for over seventy percent.

Su Ping also turned into a heartless machine for taking pills and refining their medicinal power.

Every day, he spent half a day channeling Greedy Wolf Divine Sense into the Black Jade Pendant.

Finally, after consuming the one hundred and thirty-third Spirit Pill for restoring Divine Sense.

The Black Jade Pendant shook violently, flashing with a multicolored black light.

Su Ping only felt a heaviness in his mind.

The next second, a Greedy Wolf howl rang out.

Su Ping saw hundreds of Black Immortal Scripts contained within the mental space of the Black Jade Pendant imprint themselves into his mind.

They resonated with the Pojun Power within his body.

Then, a path of cultivation belonging to the Big Dipper System boomed open before Su Ping's eyes.

"This is... the Po Jun Cultivation Method that leads directly to the Transformation of Spirit Realm, the Tanlang Refining Method, and the Seven Killings Nourishing Intent Art..."

"Not just Transformation of Spirit, the path beyond Transformation of Spirit is also within these Black Immortal Scripts! It's just that my current cultivation is too low to comprehend the secrets within!"

"Furthermore, cultivation becomes difficult after Transformation of Spirit in this world, and breaking through is even harder; according to the inheritance's hints..."

"Once the South Dipper and Big Dipper are united, and the Great Divine Ability of Life and Death Samsara is obtained, one can reach the peak of the Transformation of Spirit Realm in this world, and upon entering the Upper Realm, immediately break through to Return to Void and become a Human Immortal Body!"

"South Dipper techniques..."

Su Ping was naturally happy to complete the divine arts.

However, the Big Dipper still had traces left behind by the Beidou Qixing Sect.

The South Dipper, however, had long since disappeared, and he didn't even know if its inheritance had been severed in this world along with the destruction of some Dongtian.

Fortunately, it was not impossible to continue breaking through by only cultivating the Big Dipper lineage.

Moreover, through the inheritance, Su Ping knew that if it was gone in this world, it would certainly exist in the Upper Realm.

As long as his foundation grew strong, it wasn't as if there was no hope of completing the techniques.

…………

While Su Ping was taking pills and cultivating, the mysterious Nanhuang Qundao in the eyes of others ushered in a brief period of peace and prosperity.

Neither sea monsters nor Evil Spirits disturbed the sea area where the Nanhuang Qundao was located.

During this time, cultivators kept arriving at the Nanhuang Qundao with their families, and were then assigned to different posts to work.

Some were happy, and some regretted it.

Especially those second-generation heirs who had prominent family backgrounds but insufficient talent.

They were clearly not used to staying on the Nanhuang Qundao.

Yet those who regretted it did not dare to leave the Nanhuang Qundao without permission.

It wasn't that the Nanhuang Qundao wouldn't let people leave.

Xueshen Laozu was not some great villain.

As long as they were not professional talents selected to enter the Blood God Secret Realm.

The Old Ancestor still agreed to let people come and go as they pleased.

It was just that those who could come here now all had families and sects behind them.

Going back just like that would be more than just having their legs broken.

A few sighing cultivators were drinking Spirit Tea in a tavern.

And eating the prepared dishes in a leisurely manner.

"Sigh, for us, this Nanhuang Qundao is only good for satisfying our appetite."

A cultivator with a handlebar mustache said, extending his chopsticks to eat a piece of steamed sea bass.

The young cultivator opposite him nodded repeatedly and also ate a chopstick of garlic baby bok choy.

Originally, due to the invasion of Evil Qi, even cultivators who were not at Foundation Establishment but had some family background would not covet the satisfaction of their appetites by eating ingredients other than Spirit Rice.

After coming to this Nanhuang Qundao, however, it was different.

There were actually Spirit Vegetables, Spirit Fruits, and even Spirit Meat here that hadn't been contaminated by Evil Qi.

Although in terms of quality, they were a bit inferior.

They were still barely qualified to be served on the table to satisfy the cultivators' appetites.

These ingredients were naturally produced on Water Blue Star, and then exported to the Cultivation World through Su Ping, this middleman.

The highest-grade food ingredients on Water Blue Star can only be considered barely passable in the Cultivation World.

Fortunately, they have the advantage of being free of Evil Qi, so those Cultivators who are not short on Spirit Stones are still willing to consume them.

This also provided Su Ping with another stable way to earn Spirit Stones.

And besides the change in food ingredients.

The Cultivators of Nanhuang Qundao also took on manual labor jobs such as helping to refine materials and engraving Array patterns.

These jobs could be exchanged for Spirit Stones, but they could also be exchanged for Spirit Rice and Spirit Qi food ingredients.

In order to prevent the outflow of Spirit Stones as much as possible, the exchange rates were set to be more favorable for Spirit Rice and food ingredients.

Therefore, gradually, in the market.

A trend of using Green Jade Spirit Rice, currently the most popular and highest-volume product, as a general equivalent has quietly formed.

Manager Dongfang keenly realized this point, and after consulting Su Ping.

He had already newly established a Spirit Rice Department next to the City Lord Mansion.

And printed a batch of Spirit Rice Scrolls to replace the circulation of Spirit Rice in the market.

Relying on the prestige of the Old Ancestor and the warehouses filled with Spirit Rice.

They barely managed to get the Spirit Rice Scrolls recognized, allowing them to circulate throughout Nanhuang Qundao.

After Yunzhong Jie and the others arrived at the Floating Port by Immortal Boat, they saw the situation of Spirit Rice Scrolls being used for shopping.

After a slight shock, they were not too surprised, merely regarding this item as something similar to sect contribution points.

It was just that these contribution points were also allowed to be traded openly.

However, a few of the elderly ones keenly realized the extraordinary nature of this item.

And immediately thought of the issue of counterfeiting.

But upon coming into contact with the Spirit Rice Scrolls, their pupils shrank.

They discovered that the anti-counterfeiting technology of these Spirit Rice Scrolls was extremely unusual.

The technology did not seem to relate to any kind of Secret Technique.

But that was not the key; the key was that the material of the paper was quite special.

They pondered over the books they had seen in their lifetimes and could not find the origin of this material.

This was troublesome.

Even a master of forgery would be stumped for lack of materials!

Yunzhong Jie and the others were initially trembling with fear, thinking they were going to serve a sentence or something.

As it turned out, the manager in charge of receiving them merely arranged for them to live and work in a workshop.

Except for having no wages, everything was quite normal.

It even included room and board, three meals a day, with fish and meat at every meal!

This made Yunzhong Jie and the others secretly heave a sigh of relief.

And for the first few days, they worked their hearts out, exceeding their quotas every day.

By the time they calmed down and felt that continuing to work like this didn't seem right.

Su Ping had finished his work and remembered these unlucky fellows.

He remembered that among these people there were quite a few at the Foundation Establishment stage, and one seemed to be a First-tier Formation Master?

That could more or less be considered a talent.

Thus, Su Ping chose to have them undergo his personal inspection and enter the Blood God Secret Realm.

Yet unexpectedly, as Su Ping descended and used the Dream Illusion to take action.

The abnormalities on Yunzhong Jie and the others caught Su Ping's attention!